While prepping the relaunch of our new fantastic amazing website, we had a chance to sit in on a session with Def Jam rapper BIG K.R.I.T., and San Francisco’s own Grillade at Different Fur Studios, all being shot by our friends at Yours Truly. Since it was such a gorgeous day out in the Mission, we figured we could peel ourselves away from the warm buzz of our computers for a bit…
Can’t wait for hear the results of the sessions of our headphones. I think that’s all we’re allowed to say about it. If you haven’t heard Big K.R.I.T. yet, pay attention. Below is a video for “Hometown Hero” (off his debut album) by the kids at Creative Control:
Maybe it’s the fact that today is the longest day of the year (happy summer, y’all) that made us think of this Vice Cooler-directed Male Bonding video? It’s the perfect weather for bro-ing out with bros, as Male Bonding (and members of SIGNALS and Abe Vigoda) do in this clip.
It’s summertime jams for the most amount of summertime you can get in 24 hours this year. Enjoy.
We are cooking up something pretty awesome with Wallpaper. We can’t say too much about it right now, except it’s gonna blow your face off. Watch out! If you haven’t already, check out all of their awesome blog videos RIGHT NOW.
Here’s one of our favorites, for “Gettin’ Drip”. It’s a magical dream through VHS spectacularness. Chipmunk soul FTW!
In the current online marketing landscape, how can small businesses keep up with big brand online marketing when their internet promotion needs to get customers in the door of their brick-and-mortar location?
French Press Films releases a video today featuring the successes of Green Apple Books, a prominent San Francisco bookstore. Co-owner Pete Mulvihill talks about how their homegrown marketing turned into a successful viral video series, culminating in a BoingBoing-featured video campaign called “Book Vs. Kindle.”
With over 40,000 views, that series is merely a part of Green Apple Books’ irreverent video campaigns, including a “Book of the Month” series that attracted the attention of the American Booksellers Association. Featuring work by bookstore employees, and later French Press Films, the shorts attracted online attention that placed Green Apple as a home-grown leader in organic marketing and advertising online.
The video shows the attitudes and practices that made Green Apple’s small business marketing efforts a success, including clips from their “Book of the Month” series and a guest appearance in the “Kindle” series by Daniel Handler, the author of the Lemony Snicket series.
Mulvihill, in the video, outlines three key parts of Green Apple’s success that are applicable to any small business’ online marketing efforts:
- Show The Character of Your Store: Green Apple chose the “Book of the Month” videos to kick off their online video campaigns because it was unique to the store, and displayed the character of the store and its employees. Even the best “viral” campaigns won’t do much for a store or brand if it’s not true to the character and values of the company behind it.
- Make The Campaign Repeatable, But Not Repetitive: Perhaps the best summary of a good online video campaign, Mulvihill describes the “Book of the Month” videos as “repeatable but not repetitive.” At an ad agency, they’d say these campaigns have “legs,” but in any words, it means make a campaign that’s consistent and episodic, but never, ever, ever boring.
- Make It Short, Sharable and Fun: Mulvihill makes a great point in the middle of the video, that if you want to put something up online, make sure it’s worth watching, and to the point. He mentions other bookstores webcasting author readings, and that even he, as a bookseller, can’t sit through it. If your audience doesn’t want to watch to the end, and send that link off to their friends — you’re plain doing it wrong.
A little about Green Apple Books & Music: Richard Savoy founded Green Apple Books in 1967, logging $3.42 in receipts the day he opened. His stock of used books, comics, and National Geographic magazines attracted a following in the Inner Richmond neighborhood, one that continued to grow over the next 42 years, passing the store over to three dedicated employees, Pete Mulvihill, Kevin Ryan, and Kevin Hunsanger, who have helped the bookstore grow into one of San Francisco’s most celebrated independent businesses.
As usual, we’ve been hard at work on tons of stuff. So much so that we’ve had to get new drives and get ‘em organized. See if you can figure out the common theme. If you guess right, you get a hug from our director AJ!
Go get ‘em, pal!
Here’s a couple of screenshots from our upcoming video about Oakland’s own Facing New York. It’s got it all, exclusive performances, sandwiches, and giggle fits.
” … Since debuting with the Jacka’s “Fuck Everybody” in 2008, he has quickly produced more than 100 hip-hop flicks. But despite his prolific output, Razor’s productions don’t skimp on quality: He takes pride in avoiding hip-hop clichés like filling the screen with a messy mass of the artist’s associates, and has started to make moves toward splicing in social commentary (see: the Jacka and Freeway’s “They Don’t Know,” which cuts to images of child war victims during the chorus) … ”
We’ve linked a couple of our favorite Razor productions below the cut, including “Trafficking,” by Tha Jacka, with French Press Films collaborator Jesse Dana as Director of Photography. Congratulations again, and we’re looking forward to more videos from Tha Razor in the near future.
Regardless of your politics on California’s Proposition 16, this article posted at Huffington Post yesterday is impressive for the sheer audacity of it’s claim: that with social media, opponents of the proposition can beat PG&E’s $30 million dollar lobbying with a $30 video campaign.
From the article:
“We decided to take one millionth the budget of PG&E’s expensive, drab, one-way mass-media distortion campaign, and create a cheap, hopefully humorous, person-to-person social media conversation, offering a real-person discussion that no corporation can fake. To kick it off, we borrowed a video camera, rented a microphone for $5 and headed to the streets to film, joke, fight and cry with people from all walks of life about their values, and how Prop 16 would affect what matters to them.”
There are is a central truth to this campaign about viral marketing in this article: the best viral campaigns call viewers to contribute, not just watch. Like Lady Gaga videos, Stephen Colbert’s green screen challenge, commercial parodies and tributes, the real online phenomenons inspire people to participate.
Although this campaign is more directly asking for contributions (going on the street and sticking a mic in people’s faces), it’s on the right start with a call for responses and conversation instead of donations or volunteers — once that conversation starts, momentum won’t be far away for the project. Additionally, although viral success stories aren’t hard to find, it’s interesting to see a campaign with such a specific metric, trying to defeat a traditional ad campaign via an internet-only push with exactly one millionth the budget of their opponent.
The question is, can these tactics inspire a larger conversation online, and engage their audience? The campaign is releasing nine videos leading up to the June 8 election, using serial releases and staggered buzz to their advantage. But what they need to do is get viewers to either contribute, argue, respond or forward — and luckily for them, money can’t buy you virality.
Follow the “”One Million Strong Against Prop 16 with One Millionth the Budget of PG&E” campaign, which launched yesterday, on their blog and YouTube page, and watch the first video after the cut.
LA band Signals has released an adorable, yet slightly disconcerting, video featuring members of Hole and Abe Vigoda, and a swarm of lick-friendly puppies.
Directed by ex-Bay Area underground staple (and recent Los Angelo) Vice Cooler, the video builds on Cooler’s success with his videos for his electro-hip hop project the Hawnay Troof.
Perhaps the most creative use of peanut butter in a music video you’ll see all year.
As per usual, when the blog is quiet, it means that things are busy here at French Press Films.
We’ve been hard at work with clients Sungevity, as well as an exciting new project with SF’s Green Apple Books. Above, Sungevity President and Co-Founder Danny Kennedy shows us around their new digs, and yes, their sales floor.
Here, Green Apple’s co-owner Pete Mulvihill tells us about their Book vs. Kindle campaign from awhile back, their Book of the Month videos (that we produced with them) and how an independent store can triumph over the chains with the power of viral and word-of-mouth promotion. Stay tuned, kids!
In a bizarre bit of “viral promotion,” Baskin-Robbins has introduced a Facebook game featuring Jersey Shore “star” Pauly D. Likening their new soft-serve blends to Pauly D’s hot DJ mixes, you can drop in pre-selected beats and make a “remix.”
It’s nothing special, as far as online advertising goes, but we have to wonder when watching Pauly’s intensely stoic performances in the Flash game, is that the best Baskin-Robbins could get from Pauly? He’s clearly working off cue cards, and his expression is as motionless as his Aquanetted hair helmet. Evidently, acting like a douchey DJ in real life is easy, but faking it proves difficult for Mr. D.
I highly recommend playing with the game to watch Pauly’s various scripted responses. Additionally, if you post a “mix” to your wall, you get a coupon for a free music download with the purchase of a “31 Below.” One can only hope it’s for a terrible trance/house track that the Jersey Shore-ites dance to.
