Ben Stiller and Stiller Foundation launched a video 2 weeks back about an organization involving Jennifer Aniston and the idea of her being naked. This video preys on the natural behavior on the web (that many people want to see her naked) and give it the old Bait and Switch (because she’s not going to be naked) I’m sure this results in some serious clicks.

Sadly, clicks are not the name of the game when it comes to donor development and brand champions. This video is a great grab for acquisition to a whole bunch of people that probably don’t get asked to help kids in Haiti. (Which is fantastic!) Here’s a breakdown on the video launch.

What he did that was great:

Splash – Using the star power super effectively, Stiller uses his and that of Anistons for fun and with purpose. I applaud Stiller for the brash nature of what he’s doing. The status quo is not getting it done in Haiti so bucking the system is a great start.

A Talkable Video – It’s highly sharable and because of the nature of the video saw exposure on morning talk shows and lots of blog posts. So many nonprofits just communicate facts and forget that they’re crafting a narrative around their brand. Stiller knows this and doesn’t forget.

What could’ve been better:

Nonprofit Youtube Channel – There’s great use of title cards at the end. They show where you can connect to the Stiller Foundation but it would’ve been super hot to allow users to just click the annotations in the video. I’ve written about Annotations inside YouTube videos before (Thanks again for talking about it Weber Shandwick, call me!) and they put a potential donor really close to engagement in your campaigns. Any 501(c)3 can apply for one at google.com/nonprofits

What’s Next? – The question that is always asked. If I do decide to visit the site, the call to action is to support the foundation financially, also a bold move, but it looks like that’s it. There’s connection if I want to click to facebook or twitter (also good) but what about a call to join the email list? Is there an email list?? I couldn’t find one easily. What if in that email was a system of 2-4 auto-responders that explained why Ben felt so strongly to spend his money, effort and energy in this idea. That’s a great story and you’d have me hooked and I’d guess a lot more people too.

Interesting to note:

Impact – With nearly 2 Million followers on Twitter I’d expect a 2 week old video to have more impressions (call me picky). It’s a great video (for reasons mentioned above) but it tells me that the impact for cause related media is not why many of his followers are there. I’d be thinking through how to convert them from observers to participants.

PS. My favorite role of Stiller has to be Tony Perkis in Heavyweights.

This morning I’m heading to Sacramento for the Housing California conference for 2 workshops about the internet and storytelling.

The first one is a redux of a tag team session (with Mark Horvath of InvisiblePeople.tv) on at The National Alliance to End Family Homelessness Conference. (Read Part 1 or Part 2) For this round, the lovely and talented Natalie Profant Komuro will be moderating the session. Here’s the session descriptions from the registration brochure.

The second session is an introduction on story based nonprofit fundraising or storytelling with a result. This is one of my most favorite things to talk about, it dominates my brain. How can an organization catalyze their audiences, increase volunteers and raise donations? Here’s a few ways that we’ll be talking about:

• Involving your constituents in the story
• Creating incredible content
• Working with hungry and talented filmmakers
• Tell the story of your staff as a catalyst to show the humanity of your organization
• Highlighting the bright spots
• Managing “the orchestra”

We’ll cover a lot of info and I’m going to attempt to record it.  We’ll see how that goes.

If you’ll be at the conference, don’t be a stranger.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 10 days, you’ve heard about Inception. Last week I sat in the theater and was blown away by the film but what stuck me the most while watching gorgeous scene after scene was the score. It was alive, it was it’s own character. Track after track of emotions ranging from curiosity to true love – all with an intense undercurrent of maglev train going 90 mph across the Japanese countryside.

I had to talk to an expert about all that I was experiencing, so I looked up Josh Myers. Producer, composer and general brilliant music guy and asked him a little about the process of composing for films.

As a composer, are there any steps you take when you’re starting a project?

That depends entirely on the client and at what stage they bring me onto the project. It rarely happens, but I prefer to be brought on early enough to read the script a few times and take a few weeks to really absorb the story. That way I can create themes and sketches and try to set a musical landscape before seeing a single image. And all that work may very well be thrown out the window in post, but it’s a useful process for me.

What kind of research is involved?

Usually lots of music listening. If the story is set in Greece the director might want music which reflects that. It’s different every time, so I have to do my research. In that case reading about Greek music history and listening to loads of music. And then finding session players that can pull it off authentically.

When do you typically get involved when writing a piece? At picture lock or before?

Totally varies from project to project. I prefer to start scoring after picture lock.

How do you go about crafting a musical pallet to coincide with a visual piece?

It’s just a gut feeling really, and it depends so much on budget. I love using live instruments, but I rarely have the funds to hire an orchestra. So most of the time I’m limited to solo instruments, midi instruments and the instruments I can play myself.

In the recent film, Inception, I found the music just striking in scene after scene – what’s your take?

I loved it. Hans Zimmer is a genius, continually reinventing himself. That last cue of the film is simply mind-blowing. I love it when the guitar comes in. The perfect sound for a perfect ending.

Who are some of your favorite composers and why?

I love Debussy for his textures, Stravinsky for his rhythms, John Williams for his melodies, Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino, and anyone who can introduce something new to these ears.

Josh Myers is currently working on projects for Discovery Channel, Deidox, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ireland-based radio station, and a feature documentary entitled A Highway Called 301.

Here’s a live performance of Hans Zimmer’s Inception (on Guitar is Johnny Marr of The Smiths)

Today launched the 6th film from the creative team of Brent Gudgel and Dave Mahanes. The latest film, Deidox | Alyssa, gives us the glimpse of a girl in Simi Valley, CA walking us through part of her life. The idea of faith takes on a very real component in this short film and is anything but cheesy. The short clocks in at 4:37 was shot on Canon 5D and 7D.

This is another triumph for the creative team at Chronicle Project. What struck me the most throughout the film is the sound. Josh Myers (Cinecue, Burn the Stereo) has done an incredible job to capture the tone and further story tempo throughout this short.

A portion of the proceeds benefits the Extreme Mobility Camps www.xmocamps.org

Portnoy Media, along with the brilliance from The Out:Think Group, had the fortunate pleasure of working with this team to create a new film page. In the coming weeks we’ll be launching a few other changes on the site as well, for now Check out Deidox | Alyssa.

This past fall I was invited to the campus of Pepperdine University to talk with students in the PR/Marketing major and those involved in the local PRSSA chapter abut what life after college looks like. After several visits I was struck with a notion.

What if I walked with a class through some real world experiences while still enrolled in school?

Not exactly an internship, something with more of a safety net. A bit of a group think with direct input from a professor as well as a real world coach. The more college students I talk with or have worked with experience a wake up call when they hit the workplace. That seemed like an issue, so I did some thinking and found that there were some resources at my fingertips.

So I pitched an idea to my contact at Pepperdine (Dr. Emily Kinsky) and it looked like this:

The Project

Engage 10,000 college students to move from awareness to volunteers to advocates. Using all forms of PR (new and traditional media tools) to aid in the current campaigns created by URM and it’s partners – The class would work to catalyze the masses to being the solution to homelessness in Los Angeles.

Portnoy Media Group and Union Rescue Mission would work with the team to navigate the waters of Los Angeles non-profit PR and would formulate a feasible, real world plan with the chapter and then put it into action.

How Pepperdine wins:
Hands on creativity and implementation on a real world scenario. It’s a great resume piece for the students and provides instant feedback on success or failure. The students gain access to a client that is involved in every form of media production (print, film, broadcast, radio, web). URM and PMG could also give feedback on the process and the presentation from each team.

How URM wins:
Additional creative minds thinking about the plight of homelessness in Los Angeles. The result would be a microcosm of how URM engages college students and would then have solutions for maximum involvement.

How Portnoy Media Group Wins:
Additional minds creating content/ideas to aid with a current client.
I’d be looking for new ideas to accessibility and with all that brain power helping PMG aid URM in their endeavors of fundraising, awareness, volunteerism and advocacy.
An easy way to work along side and interact with students to identify good intern candidates.

The Final
The final presentations were several weeks ago and URM’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Jacqui Groseth, was on site for the final. All three pitches showed some similarities on how best to reach the students on their campus. Each team had identified a low cost/no cost option that would have maximum effectiveness for talking to college students throughout the Los Angeles area. I couldn’t have been happier with the way the project turned out and look forward to similar collaborations in the future. Big thanks to Dr. Kinsky for her risk taking!

Are you a school looking for a guest lecture? Contact Dan here

Click to check out Union Rescue Mission

Click to check out Pepperdine’s School of Communication

Portnoy Media Group is proud to join Radar LA and What Gives!? for this production.

Last week the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit (D.I.C.E.)

Check out this video from Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell. He predicts that we’re moving into a world of game development which will emerge from the popular “Facebook Games” era. Check out the video.

Whether this change continues to become all that Professor Schell suggests, it’s wild to think about the implications for marketing and yet another change to the commerce landscape. I found the video to be challenging and informative at how pervasive gamer culture has influenced so many facets of today’s living and also why I’m not accepting Farmville, or Mafia Wars invites on facebook.

Lots of activity this week around Mark Horvath.

For example:
Mark will be hosting a daily TV show at SXSW’s Non Profit Lounge (The Beacon: Lounge with a Conscience)
A lot more details coming very soon on this

He was recorded this week for a story coming up soon that’s launching on the radio (it rhymes with Crashional Public Radio)

SXSW launched his podcast that gives some incite on his Core Conversation “A Conversation About Social Change Through Social Media”
Check out his 3 minutes synopsis here

A little background:
This is the first of what will be at least 2 collaborations of Portnoy Media with Invisible People. Mark recorded about 4 takes on what his talk would be like and sent them our way. I immediately got on the horn with Chris Wygal at Audio Concepts (They produce The Drop Podcast) and mapped out what we needed and welcoming any additional ideas from Chris. This is clearly when having a reliable team is crucial. Since working with Chris for 6 years on audio projects we were able to stitch together a great take that really gives a sense of what Marks session will be like at SXSW ’10.

Are you going to be at SXSW? We should meet up, shoot me an email or say hello on Twitter

Yesterday, I sent out a quick message on Twitter

The response was pretty massive so here’s all the specifics on what I’d be looking for in an intern.

A great Intern for Portnoy Media Group would be/enjoy:

Things a Portnoy Media Group Intern would never do:
Give me attitude
Be required to get coffee

Some of the tasks that would be given:
Running some errands
Attending meetings
Creative layouts

Helpful extras but not required:
A knowledge of design
Familiar with web/blog posting and FTP
Participation in social media networks like facebook and twitter

The internship is unpaid and would be about 10 hours per week. If a qualified applicant could count this as school credit, I’m happy to fill out any paperwork.

If this sounds like you or someone you know, I’d love to talk with them – Please send me an email to dan@portnoymediagroup.com and have it contain qualifications/resume, possible start date and why they should be the intern for the spring.

Thanks for your help!

This is brilliant and is a great example of how the web moves. Alexis Ohanian explains more in 3 minutes than seminars I’ve been to (but not taught, thankfully).