Bill Cammack » Charles Hope http://billcammack.com Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:35:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en-us hourly 1 2006-2008 Bill Cammack http://billcammack.com/feed/rss2?cat=17 DatingGenius@gmail.com (Bill Cammack) DatingGenius@gmail.com (Bill Cammack) posts 1440
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Bill Cammack Bill Cammack DatingGenius@gmail.com No no http://reelsolid.tv/images/Reel_Solid_TV_iTunes_144.jpg Bill Cammack http://billcammack.com 144 144 Hermann, Bill, Sarah, Charles and Grace http://billcammack.com/2009/06/22/hermann-bill-sarah-charles-and-grace/ http://billcammack.com/2009/06/22/hermann-bill-sarah-charles-and-grace/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:33:50 +0000 Bill Cammack
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Hermann Mazard, Bill Cammack, Sarah Cooley, Charles Hope and Grace Piper
blip.tv Summer Party, 2009

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]]> http://billcammack.com/2009/06/22/hermann-bill-sarah-charles-and-grace/feed/ 0 Bill & Charles http://billcammack.com/2009/04/02/bill-charles/ http://billcammack.com/2009/04/02/bill-charles/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:58:27 +0000 Bill Cammack
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Bill Cammack & Charles Hope


Bill & Charles, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Bill Cammack & Charles Hope

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]]> http://billcammack.com/2009/04/02/bill-charles/feed/ 0 How Much Does It Cost To Borrow Your Brand? http://billcammack.com/2008/12/14/how-much-does-it-cost-to-borrow-your-brand/ http://billcammack.com/2008/12/14/how-much-does-it-cost-to-borrow-your-brand/#comments Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:21:47 +0000 Bill Cammack cost borrow your brand bill social media category a 500 kmart gift card endorsement interestingly perceptions occur a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category a 500 kmart gift card fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect endorsement interestingly perceptions occur a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz kmart write a blog post videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips cost borrow your brand bill social media category a 500 kmart gift card fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category a 500 kmart gift card fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category a 500 kmart gift card fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz endorsement interestingly perceptions occur videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips kmart write a blog post cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips endorsement interestingly perceptions occur cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips endorsement interestingly perceptions occur cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips endorsement interestingly perceptions occur cost borrow your brand bill social media category fcp indy mogul ⠜4 minute film school⠝ another interesting aspect a 500 kmart gift card a post questioning steve woolf zadi diaz videos the shirtless apprentice 27 editing tips endorsement interestingly perceptions occur http://billcammack.com/?p=2667

My friend Chris Brogan has inadvertently caused a stir. :D

Chris Brogan & Bill Cammack

From the little I’ve read about the situation, (you can read about it yourself, on Chris’ site) basically, he accepted a $500 gift card from Kmart to write a blog post about Kmart. He was completely transparent that he was writing a sponsored blog post. As part of the deal, he also received the opportunity to give away a second $500 Kmart gift card. Here’s what Chris says he did with the money:

“I realized really quickly that I could do two good things while satisfying the project request: I could give someone else a $500 gift card for the holidays, and I could use my shopping experience to buy toys for the Toys for Tots program. (My kids kept the jackets and my boy kept some pants.)”

This kind of thing was discussed AT LENGTH exactly one year ago, when Cheryl Colan made a post questioning Steve Woolf & Zadi Diaz’s sponsorship & advertising practices with regard to their show Epic-FU in her post “What Up, New Media?”. Cheryl posted a video on that page speaking about her issues if you want the background on that 99-coment-long saga.

The point in both cases was whether bloggers or content creators can GET PAID and talk about products with integrity at the same time.

While I personally don’t see anything wrong with Chris getting paid to blog about something, I see the problems that some people are going to have with the situation.

First of all, people are not going to believe that a company would pay someone to make negative comments about their establishment or product. When was the last time you heard of someone getting PAID to make a post about a product and then they said it was trash? For me, the answer is NEVER. So, off the bat, whether you announce transparently that you received money or not, the perception is that you are now RESTRICTED from making a NEGATIVE post. Obviously, that’s 1/3 of your objectivity that you have to give away in order to get some money. You can now either say “eeh… it was alright” or “yay! it was great!”. This means that the company has effectively BOUGHT your endorsement.

Second, in this particular case, Chris is on the advisory board of the company who got the deal with Kmart. Again, this is going to give the appearance of a restriction against negative comments.

Now, I wasn’t even aware that Chris had a blog called Dadomatic until I started reading about this situation this morning, so I’m not sure whether he shops at Kmart at all, but that brings up a third issue, which is would he have blogged about Kmart at all if he hadn’t been paid for it? Similarly… Now that “the door has been opened”, how many more sponsored posts can the readers of Dadomatic look forward to? What frequency? What’s the going rate?

The fourth issue is probably the one people are discussing the most. AFAIK, Chris has posted, twittered, blogged tons of information about Social Media every single day since I can’t even remember when. He’s positioned himself as one of the go-to people when it comes to companies or individuals getting opinions about what to do as far as Social Media. The question some people have now, (fair or unfair makes no difference, because we have no control over people’s perceptions of what we float out into the echo chamber of Social Media) is that if Chris can be paid to blog about Kmart, how do we know that his other blog suggestions haven’t been “bought” or at least influenced?

This is the same argument Cheryl was making about Steve & Zadi. Since they had sponsors who PAID to put advertisements on their show (via their Next New Networks agreement that was in place at the time) and those advertisements were CLEARLY IDENTIFIED by the show host, how did the viewers know whether other products shown or websites mentioned in Epic-FU were there because S&Z had been paid for that as well.

Unfortunately, in both cases, “I told you up front that this was sponsored” isn’t accepted as “You can trust that every time I’m getting paid to tell you something, I’ll be transparent about it”, and this is the main problem people are going to have.

So how does a blogger or content creator get paid without the perception of being influenced / selling out?

One way would be to mention sponsors without giving opinions about their goods & services. Sarah Austin has five sponsors for her show “Pop17″. Their logos are on her site, she thanks her sponsors during the show and keeps it moving. Her content doesn’t have anything to do with her sponsors, so she’s not in the position of having to endorse any of them. If her show had been about rating airlines or public relations firms, there would be a clear conflict of interest.

Of course, that’s the problem with doing sponsored posts. You’re being paid SPECIFICALLY to talk about goods & services, so to some degree, you’re going to be seen as an agent of that company or at least influenced by them.

Another way would be to make it clear that you were doing a commercial and not a heartfelt, public service announcement post. This is one of the problems with the intimacy of blogging. Since you don’t “know” actors on television, you’re perfectly aware that they’re playing a role that they were paid to play in order to convince you to buy something. Subscribing to and reading someone’s blog, you get to feel that you have a personal relationship to them. That’s why sponsored posts feel like someone taking advantage of that relationship and “sneaking in” an advertisement.

For example… If I show up to the bar and ask Charles what he’s drinking, and he tells me the name and recommends that I buy one, I accept that as a heartfelt, honest endorsement of a brew he’s currently enjoying. I do NOT expect to see Charles receiving payment from a representative of that beer company for steering people towards their product. That would DEFINITELY change my perception as far as what Charles’ motivations are when I ask him for his opinion on something or read his blog posts. My perception would ALSO be altered if he told me ahead of time that he was being paid by McVicar Beer to recommend their product. And I use “recommend” to mean the same thing I said above, which is that companies don’t pay people to trash-talk their products. So talking about the product AT ALL, while being restricted to neutral or positive comments = recommendation or endorsement.

Interestingly enough, these perceptions occur in the opposite direction as well. I drink a lot of Foster’s beer. A LOT of it. :D People who know me know I drink Foster’s any chance I get. :D If I were to drink Foster’s in my videos or have cans in sight or talk about Foster’s, people would assume that they were paying me to do that.

So, the point is, as content creators and bloggers, we’re building our own brands. The question is “How much does it cost to borrow your brand?”. What’s your brand worth to you? What perceptions are you willing to accept? Are you willing to do sponsored posts? Are you willing to have google ads on your site? Are you willing to have pre-roll ads or overlays on your blip.tv videos? Are you willing to get involved with affiliate marketing? Are you willing to sell advertising squares to companies? What kinds of companies? Are you willing to wear companies’ shirts? Show up to companies’ parties? Be in people’s videos?


The Shirtless Apprentice #27


Editing Tips: FCP – Indy Mogul “4 Minute Film School”

Another interesting aspect of this situation is that Chris’ props are based on TRUST whereas mine are based on FACTS. The only thing people need to trust about ME is that I know what I’m doing when it comes to video editing. Nobody’s looking to me as an unbiased source of information. I can sell Foster’s beer or McVicar beer or Burger King or anything else I want all day and all night, at the level of transparency that I see fit, because my reputation’s built on technical skill, not the gathering of information and the formulation of corporate strategies. I put that two-year-old picture of us in the beginning of this post because I felt like it… not because I have ANY disclosure requirements that I require myself to adhere to. That’s a luxury that I have since I’m not viewed in the same “Social Media Thought Leader / Guru” light that Chris is.

So, do I think Chris should have done it? Sure. He was handed control over $1,000 worth of merchandise for GOING SHOPPING and writing a few words about that. Is he going to lose favor in the eyes of some people for this? Certainly. Does this situation mean anything TO ME in regards to Chris’ integrity? Of course not. :D I’ve talked with Chris about WAY MORE IMPORTANT things than getting paid to write a blog post. Still, this has brought up an important question for bloggers and content creators. Are you willing to accept sponsorship or ad dollars from just WHOMEVER decides to offer it to you?

How Much Does It Cost To Borrow *YOUR* Brand?

~Bill

Social Media Category: billcammack.com/category/social-media
Subscribe to SM!: feeds.feedburner.com/BillCammackSocialMedia
 

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]]> http://billcammack.com/2008/12/14/how-much-does-it-cost-to-borrow-your-brand/feed/ 26 Bre Pettis’ “History Hacker” http://billcammack.com/2008/10/02/bre-pettis-history-hacker-2/ http://billcammack.com/2008/10/02/bre-pettis-history-hacker-2/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:58:38 +0000 Bill Cammack mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called watching great shots and lines and setups grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons watch history hacker called history hacker watched history hacker history hacker aetn history channel called grace piper bre pettis videoblogger meetup watching great shots and lines and setups http://billcammack.com/?p=1984

I mentioned back on September 5th that my friend, Bre Pettis was going to have the premiere of the pilot television series episode he did, called “History Hacker” on The History Channel.


Photo by Francisco Daum
Bill Cammack, Charles Hope, Grace Piper @ Bre Pettis
Videoblogger meetup, Art Bar, May 2007


Rudy Jahchan, Bill Cammack & Bre Pettis,
starring in “Epic Pose-Coordination FAIL!”

The premiere was on the 26th, and Bre had a “viewing party” in Brooklyn.
(Check out Bre’s posts about the show & party on brepettis.com/blog)

Bre Pettis: History Hacker Premiere Viewing Party

I can’t think of a better way to kick off my new Television category than with a friend’s show! :D

Basically, Bre likes to hack things. This means he takes things apart, sees how they work and makes OTHER things out of them or makes them have different functions than they originally had. Think of the television show MacGyver, except with time, resources, research and no villains chasing you while you’re trying to create stuff.

He’s been doing podcasts (shows on the internet) on this topic for a long time. They’re normally short, because people that watch video on the net have a short attention span. This means he’s had to condense the loooooong amount of time it takes him to do what he does into a few minutes. This kind of show translates well into a 30-minute or hour-long program (actually 44 minutes plus commercials), because there’s so much that ends up on the cutting-room floor that you actually COULD make long programs from what Bre does.

I know this because I’ve spent an hour MYSELF, just trying to get my lines down for a 7-minute video collaboration. :/


The Lab – Episode 06: “Hostin’ Ain’t Easy!”

Now, the thing about internet video shows is you have NO BUDGET. This means you have to get your point across with the least amount of production, because you can’t afford to hire people that will make your show look right. Well, in this case, they pulled out ALL the stops. “History Hacker” is really VISUALLY entertaining. They used either a greenscreen or more likely a white cyc to create Bre’s virtual environment:


The Shirtless Apprentice #21: Cyclorama 101

I was honestly SURPRISED at what I was watching, hahaha. I really wasn’t prepared for the polish that they put on Bre’s pilot. The show is easily watchable by people that aren’t even INTERESTED in what Bre’s talking about or doing. At the same time that it’s about hacking things, it’s a history lesson, there are animations, there’s compositing, great writing, multiple locations in multiple cities… I CERTAINLY wasn’t ready to see MIT’s “Infinite Corridor”, which I had to pass through a zillion times, going to class. I had assumed it was shot in Brooklyn, in one location, in the same style that Bre’s web shows are normally done. I was amazed and entertained.

‘Matter of fact, Bre’s show reminded me of a show I used to edit for AETN / History Channel called “Guts & Bolts”. It had the same mix of talking about mechanical technology and simultaneously giving history lessons. You don’t think about how IMPERATIVE it is for aircraft carrier catapults to work nearly 100% of the time until someone explains that if it’s only 99% reliable, one out of every 100 times you launch a multi-million dollar plane, it falls in the water. :D

Anyway, the show was great! :D I have it on DVR and am in the process of watching it again. I actually had to stop watching it, because there are just too many GREAT shots and lines and setups. For me, it’s overload, because I’m used to experiencing my friends’ shows 3 minutes at a time… NOT 44+commercials! :D

Bre Pettis: History Hacker Premiere Viewing Party

The layperson’s going to enjoy it. The techie’s going to enjoy it. The hacker’s going to enjoy it. Anyone interested in inventions or history’s going to enjoy it. I definitely recommend setting your DVR up to record it (assuming they’re showing reruns) or making time to sit down and check it out! :D

Bre Pettis - History Hacker

And if you DON’T watch “History Hacker”, this is what happens to you! :D


Photo by Rob Boudon

Karin: I KNOW you watched “History Hacker”, RIGHT?
Noneck: Yeah, Yeah… I got the torrent. I’ll watch it when I get home!
Bre: hehehe
Bill: Yeah. That’s what I’M talkin’ ’bout! :D

Bill Cammack | Television

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]]> http://billcammack.com/2008/10/02/bre-pettis-history-hacker-2/feed/ 0 Dan, Charles, Anastasia, Grace & Elena http://billcammack.com/2008/07/18/dan-charles-anastasia-grace-elena/ http://billcammack.com/2008/07/18/dan-charles-anastasia-grace-elena/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:56:01 +0000 Bill Cammack charles anastasia elena originally uploaded anastasia uglova charles hope grace amp cammack dan patterson flickr caption font size flickr frame text align http://billcammack.com/2008/07/18/dan-charles-anastasia-grace-elena/



Dan, Charles, Anastasia, Grace & Elena, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Dan Patterson, Charles Hope, Anastasia Uglova, Grace Piper & Elena Melendy

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