360PR Blog

I’ve walked through Copley Place and the Prudential many times. But, instead of grabbing a bite to eat in the food court last Friday, I speed-walked through the mall to the Hynes Convention Center for the first annual Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East). It was quite a sight…over 60K gamers, many fan boys and girls in full costume, descended on Boston and captured the attention of the Pru “suits” on their lunch break, as well as the local media. Multiple features in Mass High Tech, the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Xconomy.com and others chronicled the success story that was PAX East.

Held for the past four years in Seattle (PAX West), PAX organizers decided to branch out to the East coast and Boston was a natural choice – as a HUGE college town, Boston is filled with gamers! Thousands of attendees and about 70 hardware and software companies, including 360 clients Turbine and Immerz, crammed into the tiny Hynes Convention Center for a sold out show. And I’ve heard that in 2011 the event will be held at the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center – the open space will provide more room for the nerd herd to really spread out next year.

The gamers are gone, for now. But it’s clear that PAX East was a milestone event for Boston, the first gaming event of its size to be held in our backyard. While Massachusetts has long been known as a leader in various technology sectors, in recent years the gaming cluster has really started to shine becoming a key growth area for the state.

According to a 2009 survey by the Mass Tech Leadership Council, the state’s video game makers, which include industry heavyweights Harmonix and Turbine, take in $2 billion in revenue per year.  There are over 70 companies in MA dedicated to games, employing over 1,200 people. There are also multiple local organizations dedicated to fostering the community, including the New England Games SIG (of which I participate as a steering committee member), the Boston Post Mortem, and the MassTLC Games Cluster.

Did you get your game on at PAX? What did you think? We at 360 can’t wait until next year! Check out some photos of the 360 team at PAX on our Facebook page.

The 360PR team at PAX East - Elicia, Stacey, and Amanda

Filed under: Boston, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Media and Press, Video Games by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

Before the sounds of music permeated Austin’s air this year during the annual South By Southwest festival, SXSW Interactive attracted tech junkies from around the world.  One of the many companies represented was Digg.com, a news aggregate site where users submit stories that can be voted up the site by other users by ‘dig’ing them.  Do you dig it?

After the speakers silenced and the dust settled, Digg.com CEO Jay Adelson sat down with NPR this past Sunday to discuss the site’s goal – “the social curation of the world’s content and the conversation around it” – and crowd sourcing, a practice Digg recently implemented with their Dialogg site. In Adelson’s own words, crowd sourcing is:  ”you’ll see them all over the Internet, these little buttons next to articles. You know, you’ll see them on Web sites like The New York Times or, you know, NPR or elsewhere. And if you click that button, you’re basically sending a signal to Digg that you care about that topic. It doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with the content. It’s just a signal.  And we collect it all using crowd wisdom and we put some magic behind that and some algorithms and math and then we bubble up to the surface the stuff that’s interesting.”

The question for PR professionals, then, is this: do we ‘dig’ client news?  Full disclosure is necessary with any form of social media, but the issue lies in that Digg does not currently allow you to leave your name/organization on each individual dig. Then again, maybe us PR pros shouldn’t blur the line and should stay away from the site altogether.  What’s your opinion?

Filed under: Digital PR, Internet, PR Industry by SkyeMcIntyre - 1 Comment →

Do you Flip?  Oprah does!  So does Stephen Colbert.  Though flip video cameras have been around for several years, it seems as if there’s been a surge in their use as of late, and it’s no wonder why. 

Flip cams are an easy, inexpensive way to capture video anywhere, anytime.  They’re small and light, making them easy to carry, and the recording and editing process (the camera comes with its own software, Flipshare,) truly couldn’t be simpler.  An added bonus?  They come in several fun colors and different models, with varying allowable recording times.

The verdict: RT.  Who doesn’t love a gadget that’s both user-friendly and fun?

Do you Flip? We’d love to see your videos!

Filed under: Digital PR by SkyeMcIntyre - 6 Comments →

A good parody is an attention grabber, especially when it’s on YouTube.

That’s one of the lessons I learned first hand at the “how to make a viral video” session at SXSW, where along with 500 other people, I had the good fortune to star in a parody video that since it’s posting only four days ago, has already been viewed over 34,0000 times on YouTube.

So here’s what happened. Spoofing the highly popular  surprised kitten video – as in viewed 21 million times popular – Damian Kulash, the You Tube sensation from the OK GO band, pretended to tickle a room full of people in the SXSW audience. See  surprised SXSW audience. If you like this spoof, check out Damian’s attempt to tickle his pet dog, who doesn’t seem at all surprised. See surprised dog.

The SXSW viral video seminar was led by Jonathan Wells, the creative director at Flux,  Margaret Gould Stewart from YouTube, Jason Wishnow from TedTalks and Damian Kulash from OK GO. They were informed and articulate, and it was one of the  more meaningful and lively discussions at SXSW. I learned that many popular viral videos happen not on purpose like, Charlie bit my finger.  So the question is, how do you create a successful viral video on purpose? Here are 10 secrets I learned from this panel of pros:

1. Don’t be a Debbie Downer. Most videos that go viral spread happiness.

2. Go for a sense of wonder, inspiration and surprise, and create content around the unexpected and the great reveal.

3. Use multiple camera angles and close ups so viewers can develop an emotional connection with those on camera. Watch James Watson on TedTalks to see some awesome camera angles and inspired delivery of content, in turn creating  both an emotional and intellectual connection with the speaker.

4. Exclusivity online doesn’t work. Allowing people to embed your video is good common sense.  Science has it that the traffic that drives virality in the first 48 hours is due to embedded video on blogs, not on You Tube.

5. Viral doesn’t always mean having to create original content. You can also curate original content from others and provide a platform to help them gain a larger audience for their content.

6. Create a video people will compulsively want to watch over and over again. One way is to think of the most impossible thing to do. Then do it. That’s the approach taken by  OK GO on their latest video, which took 6 months, 65 takes and 60 engineers to create. But it averages 4-5 views per session.

7. Metadata is the SEO equivalent of making your video go viral. Make sure you tag your video properly once it’s on YouTube so people can find it. It’s also recommended that you connect your YouTube channel with your Facebook account. This way all your YouTube updates will get automatically posted on Facebook.

8. People are compulsive about sharing human experiences. Visceral emotions in video around love, food, sex, and laughter generally get passed around.

9. Viral is in the eye of the beholder. People who come to YouTube from social networks are more interested in what else their friends are watching. The idea is to understand the mindset that people bring with them and build off that in creating your video.

10. Be quirky.YouTube’s top celebs are quirky and lo-fi, but they draw audiences any cable network would envy.

Without a doubt, it’s always fascinating to see smart, unique, and occasionally crazy concepts come to life. Most interesting are those that connect with a brand and really support brand awareness.

I welcome your comments and love to hear what you see working to hook fans with video!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Social Media, Uncategorized by CindyGordon - 1 Comment →

Click on the two videos below for a sneak preview of the SXSW discussion called “Pass it Back! Kid Apps on Grown-Up Devices” featuring PBS Senior Director Sara DeWitt  (the actual discussion is on Monday, March 15 @ 5 PM in Ballrooom C in case you are one of the lucky ones in Austin).

Sara tells 360 that she will be revealing real-time research findings from PBS on what kids are learning by using iPhone apps. From what I’ve seen, most parents have a “do touch” instead of a “do not touch” policy when it comes to iPhones and other grown-up devices, and kids at all ages appear more than ready to embrace the technology. Apparently parents are buying apps to entertain and educate their kids in growing numbers. They also use the apps for distraction purposes, such as long rides in the car or to give their kids something to do while waiting in the doctor’s office (at least it’s their own germs and not someone else’s!)

We look forward to hearing Sara’s research reveal, and you can bank on finding the results here on the 360 blog.

Kid Apps on Grown-up Devices

Check out PBS iPhone Apps for Kids!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Mobile Industry, Parenting, Social Media, Uncategorized by CindyGordon - 1 Comment →

What is Whrrl?  It’s similar to foursquare in that it’s a mobile locator-based app for smart phones which allows the user to ‘check-in’ at various locations and share their whereabouts with friends via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The difference is that with Whrrl, you can upload photos to show where you are and what you’re doing.  If friends are with you, their photo and text uploads can be combined with yours to create what Whrrl refers to as a ‘story.’  I recently came across this post by Ciaran Blumenfeld, the founder of momfluential.com, especially insightful, as I totally agree with her statement about scrapbooking.  I’ve never had the patience for it either, but I love looking back at photographs and events, and Whrrl might just be the perfect solution for a sentimental social media addict like myself.

From a PR perspective, we at 360 have found Whrrl to be a useful tool in monitoring and tracking activity at client events, in particular.

The issue, as with most social networking sites, is how much is too much?  Should you tweet, use foursquare and Whrrl while out on the town for a night with your friends?  Or just enjoy the company and live for the moment?

The verdict: RT.  Whrrl is a service to watch.

Do you whrrl?  Let us know!

Filed under: Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Media by SkyeMcIntyre - No Comments →

In a new series of posts, we’re going to give you our take on the latest technologies, websites, Apps, social networks, etc. that the world is buzzing about.  In other words, should you re-tweet or delete?

 First Up: Chat Roulette.  Chat Roulette is just what its name implies – you log on and either via an AIM-style text exchange, a webcam, or both, converse with other site users around the world.  If you aren’t digging the conversation, just one click and another randomly generated person (note: it’s not necessarily a person, but I’ll explain that later) appears on your screen.

Though Chat Roulette is in its infancy, news of the site is spreading faster than you can hit ‘Next.’  This post from Fast Company describes CR as “YouTube, with even more exhibitionism because everything is live and nothing is being recorded.”  The author of the article, Cliff Kuang, goes on to say “self-published entertainment has officially moved into territory I can barely comprehend.  Parents: One more reason to lock up your daughters.”  I have to agree.  In fact, I’m purposely not linking to the site because I don’t want to encourage you to be subjected to what’s lurking on CR. 

If your curiosity takes over, however, here’s a sampling of what you may encounter:  lots of X-rated activity, scary men in gas masks and people with snorkels sticking their head in fish tanks.  You might even come across Nicole Richie. 

The verdict: due to complete lack of privacy, the site’s one-click access to underage kids, and personal experience, I say delete.

Have you braved the wild wild west that is Chat Roulette?  If so, we’d love to hear about it!

Filed under: Internet, Uncategorized by SkyeMcIntyre - 4 Comments →