Part of a series of posts about active artists with the tenacity to take their project to completion.
- Filmmaker Casey Neistat — known now for taking a brand’s ad budget and making an untraditional video for social change — is behind 20th Century Fox’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” so-called promo-turned-doc, “what would you do with $25,000.” Following an impromptu effort to help after the recent typhoon disaster in Southeast Asia, the video-turned-viral does not tout “Walter Mitty” but instead embodies a theme in the film. While $25k from the studio’s Latin America ad agency of record (Ogilvy Argentina) helps for some things, long-term tragedy relief group UNICEF is only a footnote for the viewer to pay it forward. All told, this (slightly) branded content has reached millions of viewers in a short period of time, which may not have happened with a traditional film promo, and maybe the good will gesture will lead to ticket sales for the studio film. Note that Neistat is the same filmmaker known for doing this identical stunt for Nike Fuel Band in a piece called “Make It Count” as well as non-commercial docs like “bike lanes in NYC.”
- Author Seth Godin’s Christmas Eve tip is to say “yes” when you’re offered precisely what you were hoping for,” rather that just hoping for it and saying nothing. (via Abe Schwartz)
- [Updated: 12/27 1:15pm] In what’s now figured out to be a hoax, Band Iron Maiden was approached by Musicmetric, a UK analytics company, that showed them which areas of the world their music was bootlegged on torrents the most. “Rather than send in the lawyers, Maiden sent itself in,” writes Andy Patrizio for IT publication CiteWorld, which now retracted the story. By having their next concerts there, it was a win-win for everyone. Even if the story were true — Musicmetric never reached out to Iron Maiden — it’s a reminder of what we could and should do with data: knowing more your audience. (via Aurich Lawson, Creative Director for Ars Technica; corrections by Techcrunch)
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