You’d think big firms would have cottoned on to online etiquette in the 21st century.  Here’s a global clothing retailer that may have used a Kiwi designer’s online work without permission on their t-shirts (as covered on TVNZ’s Close-Up show). If that’s the case, shame on you, H&M!

The beauty of the internet is that it is easy to find great work online; and it’s just as easy to get in touch with the owner of the work and collaborate with them with beneficial results for everyone. Not in this case, it would appear.

As the article says: “It has no production values, no nudity and no laughs, and yet a three-minute silent video of a man opening a cardboard box has been watched online by almost half a million YouTube users.”

Unboxing is its name. Youtube videos of men doing nothing but unwrapping new consumer goods from their packaging. Attracting viewers in their tens and hundreds of thousands.

A ‘neuro-marketing’ expert says it taps into some strong primal desires. It’s been described as ‘geek porn’!

It’s cheap, it’s so simple, it taps into everyone’s desires.  It’s powerful PR for the companies whose products are unwrapped.

Yeah, but what’s my point ?! …  Great PR ideas can be done online for next to nothing and to great effect. Feel the power.

Some good thoughts here from Beth Harte on the links and separations between PR and marketing; and where social media fits into the mix; and why the term ’social media marketing’ may be a bit of a tangle of concepts.

A couple of days ago we talked about an authentic and ‘human’ voice in your online communications. Here’s some more info in a knowledgeable and very readable presentation. (Click on the controls at the bottom of the presentation to view it.)

Video is being used more and more as an online communication tool of choice - including how-to instruction guides; vlogs (video blogs); promotional and marketing tools; and real world marketing activity being videoed and the video put online. The good thing is top-end production values are not always necessary. A strong idea well-constructed inexpensively and quickly can be just as successful, if you know how to find and engage your audience.

Here’s a blog piece that explains the concept and shows some useful case studies; another giving some tips on making and marketing online video; another explaining how to find an audience using YouTube; and here’s an article in the NZ Herald charting the rise of ‘webisodes’.

Righto, our first blog post and it’s a great little video that explains … what blogs are and what they’re good for, and consequently why we are going to be spending time here when maybe we should be getting out a bit more.