Online video has “reinvented the world of moving image,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards, during Monday night’s Webby Film & Video Awards presentation at New World Stages in New York City. This is the eleventh year of The International Academy of Arts and Sciences Webby Awards, but the first for film & video, which signals the arrival of the new medium.
Awards were given in a number of categories, but there wasn’t one for video advertising. However, some of the winning videos were ad related, most notably “The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments,” by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, which won the Best Viral Award.
The geyser-like spewing of Diet Coke from cans containing Mentos candies was filmed by the pair in their hometown of Buckfield, ME after six months of research. The idea had been suggested by a friend. The first video was posted at Revver.com on May 31, 2006 and it was an instant success, receiving over five million hits in two months. The video was so popular that Revver sold advertising with it, to Microsoft and other major advertisers. The video was also posted at Grobe’s and Voltz’s site, www.eepybird.com.
Grobe and Voltz appear in the video, so it was shot by a friend, Mike Miclon.
After the first video played, “Mentos called right away,” Grobe said, with Coke calling last August. “The second video was sponsored by Diet Coke and Mentos, they provided materials and paid the production costs,” Grobe said.
The second video featured a chain reaction or domino effect. “One bottle triggers the next one and 250 bottles were used,” Voltz said.
The second video also featured a tag at the end, which was an ad for Diet Coke that promoted Poetry in Motion, a video contest that called for videos of “ordinary objects doing extraordinary things, which doubled traffic at Coke.com,” according to Grobe.
Mike Donnelly, The Coca-Cola Company’s director of interactive media, said Grobe and Voltz judged the contest and their video was “an inspiration for entries.” A winner was chosen last week. Donnelly also said Coke relaunched its strategy of interactive media last July to focus on consumer generated media, which is why the company reached out to Grobe and Voltz. “The timing was perfect,” he said.
The Best Actor Award at the Webbys was Ninja, star of Ask A Ninja, a series of comedy webisodes created by Los Angeles improvisational comedians Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine. When asked who the actor playing Ninja is, Nichols wouldn’t say. When asked if it was Sarine, he remained silent, but he was willing to discuss the advertising. The episodes, which play at www.askaninja.com, feature five second pre-rolls and fifteen second ads that run near the end. The series started in November, 2005 and advertising started last August. Nichols and Sarine signed a deal in January with Federated Media Publishing/Sausalito, Calif. the company that sells advertising for blogs and other websites. Ask.com bought a three month sponsorship and started running ads on May 18, Nichols said.
There’s lots of online video advertising now, but the advertising successes of these videographers suggests that independent video producers can support their work and even profit from it. Grobe and Voltz started with a revenue share from Revver and are on to bigger and better things, including a new series of videos they wouldn’t discuss at the show. Nichols and Sarine received a huge payout from Federated and a generous revenue share. There was plenty of jubilation on Monday night as the videographers and the rest of the winners celebrated their achievements.
Kamala Harris Receives Chairman’s Prize At NAACP Image Awards
Former Vice President Kamala Harris stepped on the NAACP Image Awards stage Saturday night with a sobering message, calling the civil rights organization a pillar of the Black community and urging people to stay resilient and hold onto their faith during the tenure of President Donald Trump.
"While we have no illusions about what we are up against in this chapter in our American story, this chapter will be written not simply by whoever occupies the oval office nor by the wealthiest among us," Harris said after receiving the NAACP's Chairman's Award. "The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people."
The 56th annual Image Awards was held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in the Los Angeles area.
Harris, defeated by Trump in last year's presidential election, was the first woman and the first person of color to serve as vice president. She had previously been a U.S. senator from California and the state's attorney general.
In her first major public appearance since leaving office, Harris did not reference her election loss or Trump's actions since entering the Oval Office, although Trump mocked her earlier in the day at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Harris spoke about eternal vigilance, the price of liberty, staying alert, seeking the truth and America's future.
"Some see the flames on our horizons, the rising waters in our cities, the shadows gathering over our democracy and ask 'What do we do now?'" Harris said. "But we know exactly what to do, because we have done it before. And we will do it again. We use our power. We organize, mobilize. We educate. We advocate. Our power has never come from having an easy path."
Other winners of the Chairman's prize have included former... Read More