Next Generation Content Event, Trailer Park, Hollywood 2-4-10

Posted By Barry Goch on February 09, 2010 12:00 am | Permalink
Last Thursday, I attended an event called Next Generation Content in the offices of Trailer Park, across from the Mann’s Chinese Theater in the Heart of Hollywood. The event was geared toward new media marketing executives, and was an opportunity for the speakers to demonstrate how their agencies are answering the challenge of marketing in this new media environment. How all this relates to Post Production will become clear as we proceed.

The first speaker was Nathan Martin, CEO of DeepLocal. He promoted the idea of Gutter Tech – looking at rules and conventions in a fresh, questioning way, abandoning assumptions and finding solutions with an innovative and low-tech approach. He also brought focus to one of the overarching themes of the day: Speed. In his specific case, because his agency is small, the speed that ideas become reality due to the swiftness in their decision making process and execution.

The next speaker was co-host Rick Eiserman, CEO of Trailer Park. A key point in his presentation was changing the way teams are built to work on projects. No longer are the lines of responsibility so clearly drawn around ones title. He builds hybrid teams of multi-talented individuals to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the creative process. He also encourages continual professional growth – expanding one’s toolset. Like Martin, he emphasized the need for speed – working at the speed of thought.

Sha Hwang, Design Technologist for Stamen, presented some very thought provoking images. He found that people have a hard time understanding the mass of data that we’re exposed to daily and he found a way to visualize complex data sets to create organic expression of technology. Look at cabspotting.org to see how taxicabs’ GPS position data was transformed into the beating heart of a city.

After a short break, co-host Jessica Greenwood, Deputy Editor, Contagious Magazine, took the floor. She stated, “everything was advertising”. Every impression makes a difference, but also not to be too caught up in technology for its own sake. Rather, see the utility in the technology and make use of it for all its worth.

She went on to breakdown the successful new marketing strategies behind http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/ and Gatorade Replay and finished with the incredible story of how a brand ripped itself off, Love Jozi/Luv Jozi:

http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/?p=238

The final speaker was Susan Bonds, President, CEO, and Founder of 42 Entertainment. She was hired by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to produce a viral campaign to create buzz for an upcoming album release. She detailed an amazing plan of action that started with a code formed by different colored letters on a tour t-shirt spelling out a command which led the fans down the rabbit hole, following her trail of clues which included: planting flash drives in the men’s bathroom at concert venues with unreleased songs from the upcoming album, planting an image in the spectrograph of the song that corresponded to images on websites her team developed. What does this mean for Post Production professionals? For me, it means that creativity is still king. That the new marketplace for creative content requires some Gutter Tech, new approaches to create buzz in an oversaturated media mélange. Speed to market is crucial. Technological innovations like AJA’s KiPro will speed up the process from acquisition to distribution. Video is clearly the medium of today. There’s never been so much content created in one type of technology in the history of our planet. It’s a huge opportunity for those who get it. It’s a time of change and challenge in Post. Those who adapt will survive and thrive.