New Lotus Connections video on YouTube
February 19 2007
Check out the latest video from Lotus marketing...
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- 2
Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 2/19/2007 11:55:24 AM
Nathan, Perhaps they were going for a "Pulp Fiction" sort of editing? I agree it is a bit choppy, but it's also really long. Presumably the different scenarios are broken up usually.
Ed, showing someone driving while not watching the road, don't let the DOT find out, they might fine IBM.
But the video doesn't make me want to go see it in the theatre or my local computer store, um I mean IBM shop, er, where do csutomers go to "see things in action" these days? Right enablement days/Lotusphere comes to you.
But hey, the R5 drums never meant much either, but they were a cool video.
- 3
Adeleida http://www.adeleida.co.za | 2/19/2007 1:01:27 PM
The R5 drums were amazing but I'm afraid if you were going for cool, you missed the boat.
The music is a bit, uhm, seventies? The whole video seems a bit dated. Correct me if I'm wrong, but apart from blogging, nothing mentioned there has not been seen before in a Lotus sales pitch. And it is not a very good at keeping one's attention - it drags on quite a bit.
I have never, ever seen blog comments like the ones in the video. And the one blog subject had a glaring spelling mistake in it - this would be fixed within seconds of a popular blog entry actually being posted.
Nathan - to be honest, the video you mention is much cooler, but also drags on a bit after a while.
The "I'm a mom but look, I also am a kick-ass executive job/I'm the CIO but I have a dog and I like to fish while connecting with my sales team/thank goodness for Lotus for making all this possible" type of story is old. I say, when all else fails, bring back the drums and the I Am signs. It is about awakening a passion, an inspiration in your viewers. Those videos did just that, and they are ageless: I still watch them with nostalgia on YouTube.
- 4
Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 2/19/2007 2:05:02 PM
I liked it, and I e-mailed it to my boss. Now... how is Connections being licensed? Anyone got any linkage for that?
I thought about taking an "I AM" sign to the top of Blackcomb, and having someone take a picture of me from the top of Whistler. :-P I'd need need about a 6 foot square sign for it to be visible at that distance, which I decided was just too nerdy even for me.
- 5
Pete McPhedran http://www.corefusion.com | 2/19/2007 5:49:23 PM
I agree, I don't get the point of this video. I don't see how it would motivate anyone to even investigate Lotus software, yet alone buy it. From this video I don't see what
Connections has to do with anything, doesn't Notes/Domino already do all of this? or WebSphere?
Now, I am no great speller, but at 1:01 remaining, "Session" is spelled "Sesison" in the background and that just jumped off the screen for me.
Oh, just read @4's comment, so I'm not the only one...
Regards,
--Pete
- 6
Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 2/19/2007 7:36:52 PM
Wow, you guys are a hard bunch :)
I read the 6 preceding comments then watched the video. I thought I was going to be dissapointed, but I was actually quite pleased. The video seems to do a decent job of creating "curiousity"- so I'm left to ask "so how do I do all that stuff...?" The last minute or so reminded me of a "Groove" type pitch (i.e., business partners, vendors, support, etc., etc.). The only wording left out was secure :)
Could have benefited by having a url at the end so someone could find out more.
- 7
Peter Smith | 2/20/2007 3:36:38 AM
On the plus side, at least this thread actually started out about Lotus marketing, and noone has hijacked a topic to start the Lotus marketing sucks bandwagon :-)
Like others, I think I was expecting an "I AM" / Denis Leary style ad. Of course, at over 2 1/2 minutes it's not an advert for broadcast, but I have to say that I couldn't imagine when I'd sit through the whole thing. Probably work best as an intro to a presentation about Connections where the concepts are fleshed out.
Maybe it doesn't resonate because I don't live in the "we have 30000 people" world - yay SMB brigade.
I am still very excited about Activities server and can't wait to see it in action, I just wouldn't use this film to start a discussion about it.
- 8
Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/20/2007 10:05:14 AM
@8 This isn't an advertisement...it's a promotional video. There is a subtle difference -- this wasn't produced for a TV / mass market audience. So it's not going to be Denis Leary style...
- 9
Stephen Londergan | 2/20/2007 12:27:37 PM
Just echoing Ed's comments -- we didn't create that video piece as a free-standing TV commercial. You'll never need to fast-forward through it in your Tivo :-) The goal is to signal to the market that IBM Connections is coming and that it, well, connects people. How Lotus Connections does that exactly gets addressed elsewhere, like data sheets and LCTY presentations and the like.
- 10
Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 2/20/2007 2:56:32 PM
Ever try to get some kids from NYU film school to make some videos for you? Cheap if not free projects and much better ideas abound I would bet.
They all have to do projects with various purposes. Perhaps get Andy Stanton back from Pixar to write the next ads.
- 11
Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 2/20/2007 3:02:46 PM
@2 yes she's a Lotus employee, a few others like Jeremy Dies and Brendan Crotty in there too.
At 0:26 remaining... I know that blonde.... where do I know her from? Wasn't she one of the staffers at 'sphere helping us out, Ed?
As far as the actual material -- these things never sit quite right with me. That's 164 seconds of video, after which I don't really understand what happened. Lots of people talking about their personal lives in ways that didn't really make sense to me. I see what the author was after in terms of profiles, tag clouds and even blogs, but it didn't click for me.
I think the problem is that there's no actual reveal on how any of these people made CONNECTIONS. I know that seems strange, but go back and watch it and tell me if you see it.
We get a story of these 6 individuals from the start, and on a second viewing, I can glean that they were assembled into a "strategy team." But not HOW they were. We just get some flashes of tag clouds, not any actual evidence of communication.
The second case study has the same issue. These apparently random messages about jogging, sudoku and blogging -- then suddenly "we brainstormed a strategy for warranty sales." Why distract me with the personal life stories first?
The last case does a decent job of not distracting me and telling me an actual story about how things got better, but it's still pinned together with a "imagine a community, including our business partners, our customers and us." That doesn't sound like anything different from emailing lists in the 15 seconds that I hear about it in the video.
Ed, I know you don't have direct involvement in advertising productions, but this is how a marketing video for Connections OUGHT to work: { Link } There's a simple presentation there that connects one idea to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next... and so on. Note how it just flows naturally. Yes, it does it via language, but I'm absolutely certain that a good team could assemble a similar sequence of ideas out of the various piece of Connections, and tie them all back to customer success stories. THAT would be a compelling story. And you guys have done it before, and in less time.