Marketing Roadmaps

Sundance

I’m Backstage at Sundance

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In case any of you were wondering where I’ve been for the last week, and warning, where I am likely to be much of next week as well, I’m Backstage at Sundance.

Well not literally of course. I’m covering general news and monitoring the blogosphere for interesting Sundance tidbits for the HP blog, all from GetGood Strategic Marketing world headquarters in Hudson, Mass. But as we all know, there’s only so much time to blog in any given week, so for the next little while, most of my writing will be over there, not here. And of course there’s lots of great Sundance blogging from the folks on the ground at the festival — film reviews, press conference reports, celebrity sightings. Be sure to check it out.

A few things I definitely want to note for my marketing and PR readers. I posted yesterday at Backstage about how Sundance is really embracing social media. In the last two weeks, they announced deals with iTunes and YouTube. Starting Monday, folks will be able to purchase short films from this year’s festival on iTunes. And on YouTube, there’s going to be a Sundance Channel section with all sorts of Sundance content — festival coverage of course, but also clips from programming and so on. Not to mention the festival screenings being held in Second Life. More details and links in my post over at Backstage at Sundance.

HP is trying something new with the Backstage blog this year: "En Español." Many of the general posts as well as posts of interest to the Hispanic audience will be translated into Spanish. From HP Hispanic Marketing Manager Kathleen Haley’s post today:

… we will have the most exciting entries about the festival, as well as specific entries that are relevant to the Hispanic market and our Hispanic readers — whether that be a celebrity sighting, a great movie (Padre Nuestro or Summer Rain directed by Antonio Banderas) or a big event. Keep coming back to see the latest on HP and Sundance en Español!

Finally, regular readers know how strongly I feel about donating to charity, early and often. Friday at Sundance, actor Kevin Bacon announced a new charitable initiative that plays off the well known game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Together with Network for Good, Bacon has created  sixdegrees.org, a charitable community in which celebrities and regular folks alike share their favorite charity. When you donate to someone’s charity through sixdegrees.org, you can display a “badge” from the person whose charity you supported on your Web site or blog. Linking us all together by doing good.

You can read more about sixdegrees.org and Network for Good at the Diva Marketing blog and my Backstage post (updated).

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HP Snapshot Diaries Contest

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More client news.

As part of its Sundance activities, HP is holding a photo contest called Snapshot Diaries. Entrants submit 6-10 related photos with captions that tell a story. The winning entry will be turned into a short movie by film director Matt Pope like this one.

Grand prize is a trip for two to Sundance 2008 (airfare, hotel and event tickets), and there are three great runner up prizes of HP gear.

Contest begins today January 15, 2007 and ends January 28 2007. You can find all the details and rules at HP’s Sundance site, www.hp.com/go/sundance.  

From January 20 to February 20 on the Sundance Channel, you’ll also be able to see Snapshot Diaries from eight Sundance Film Festival attendees — actors, filmmakers, volunteers, agents, publicists — who will document a day in their life at the Festival using an HP digital camera to create "snapshots."

I’m doing blogger outreach for the contest, focusing on parents and film aficionados. Spread the word 🙂

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Sundance, New Communications Forum and BlogHer

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Whew. The holidays are over, so we can get back to work. And sanity. I still have some thoughts to share on the "Microsoft Vista-Edelman-bloggers get PCs" brouhaha of last week, but haven’t had time to pull it all together the way I’d like as a commentary, so stay tuned for that.

However, I realized this morning that I have a bit of blog housekeeping to do. A few events that I am involved with are approaching, some faster than others, and I haven’t said much about them. Until today.

First, the Sundance Film Festival is coming up later this month, and once again I am helping HP with the Backstage at Sundance blog. The blog is just getting restarted with previews of the Festival and should be in full swing by the time Sundance starts on January 18th. 

In March, I am speaking at two conferences. First, on March 8th, I’ll be leading a session on Viral Marketing at the New Communications Forum in Las Vegas (March 7-9 at the Venetian). We still need case studies, good and bad, for the discussion, so if you are planning to attend, and have a project to share, there is plenty of room for one or two people to join us in the hot seats. Just email or call me.

Then at the end of March, I am doing a couple of things at BlogHer Business in New York City. On Thursday March 22, I’ll be doing a blog case study interview with small business blogger Shirley Frazier and on Friday March 23, I’ll be part of a session on blogger relations. And there is a whole lot more going on at the conference, so I urge you to check it out before early bird registration ends this month.

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HP Auction Results and Thanks

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The HP Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity ended last night. Top portraits in the Auction:

  1. The Police (by Kevin Mazur), winning bid $1025
  2. Jessica Biel, $640.16
  3. The Beastie Boys, $505
  4. Terrence Howard and Lucy Liu, both at $455
  5. Kevin Smith, $405

HP is matching the winning bids on each portrait, up to $1000 each.

A huge thank you to all the fan site, forum and list owners who helped spread the word to their fellow fans. In particular, we are extremely grateful to Jessica Biel and www.jessebiel.com for including the auction in two emails to her fans.

And my personal thanks to blog pals, old and new, for mentioning the auction:

NOTE: June 3, 2007 — Comments and Trackbacks closed on this post due to comment spam.

Browster Promo, HP Auction, Presidential Potshot

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From blog pal Elisa Camahort (Worker Bees), news of a Valentine’s Day contest from her client Browster. Originally conceived of as a local contest for a V-Day dinner at a chic San Francisco restaurant, the company realized that dinner at a restaurant eliminated anyone not in the Bay Area. So it added three iPods as prizes. Well done! Check it out!

Three days left in the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Lots of people are checking it out, but the bidding is slow. Please take a look — if someone you know is in the market for an HP Photosmart printer, you might be able to get it at a good price, and help out a deserving charity. Plus you get a neat signed WireImage photo of a celebrity that you can keep or give as a gift or re-auction for that matter. Some of the celebs: Aaron Eckhart, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, William H. Macy, Al Gore and Terrence Howard.

Finally, tip of the hat to BL Ochman for the Dick Cheney Quail Hunt game. Nuff said.