I must sincerely apologize to the readers of this blog. For over 11 months I had not updated a single entry on this blog dating back at the end of September 2007. During that time I was trying not to jinx myself because I was preparing for a life altering experience working abroad in China. For all of October and November I studied the Chinese market, I learned about Chinese history and I desperately was trying to figure out the Chinese language, the culture and all of the do’s and don’ts in China.
Because the 2008 Olympics are hosted in China, Nike saw an opportunity to capitalize on an initiative to increase Chinese youth awareness in sports. Nike wantsto be the catalyst for a new generation of Chinese by using television, the web and offline events to rally China’s competitive athletic spirit.
On December 13, 2007, I was flown to Shanghai, China to work on a 6 month project addressing this Nike ambition. I was recruited by W+K (Wieden+Kennedy) to help develop an online strategy and to produce video for the first stage of an ongoing national Nike+China campaign. The campaign was centered around NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and 400 boys from all over China. It was a 6 part reality television series, where 24 out of the 400 boys were selected to go to America to train with US coaches and Kobe. Out of the 24 boys 16 were selected to go to Beijing to play in a championship game.
This groundbreaking national campaign aired all over China on CCTV (China Central Television). The project was an enormous undertaking and when the dust settled I had done the following: I helped to port Kobe’s likeness and the campaigns branding to an established video game. I helped to design and provide strategy for the Kobe website. I had edited 90+ videos out of the 200+ total videos hosted on all the Nike Branded properties. Most importantly I drafted the original strategy blueprint to a Nike branded basketball social network, titled the Ballers Network.
Ok back to my apology… I wanted my audience to be aware that I spent a sum of 8 months in China and China has a habit of blocking websites like Wikipedia, Youtube, Wordpress and Godaddy. As a result I could not access this blog which is hosted on my Godaddy server. Though I was devastated for the first few months I found it to be a minuscule price to pay for a life altering experience. I mean how many people can actually say they helped craft an online/offline social network for Nike? Again how many westerners can say they worked on an initiative to spark a national sports movement in China using both traditional and grassroots media?
On Monday July 1st, I was sending a clip to my good buddy Zadi to show her the madness over at the 5th Avenue Mac Store in Manhattan, and she wrote back… “that’s insane! Hey — if you’d like, we can probably feature a part of it on jetset this monday.”
I was flattered by the offer because I did not expect to be featured in the show. Jetset happens to be one of the few shows that I check out regularly. For those of you who do not know, Jetset is a show created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf. They conduct interviews and showcase whats hip and cool on both online and offline. For me I watch to see coverage of the newest online applications and to see what is interesting on the web. They also touch on the music scene and there are some very funny skits throughout the 5 min episodes. Oh did I mention that Zadi is a real hottie, (oh and yeah Steve is a dashing young devil as well). But Jetset is so much more because they are an “Internet and pop culture show for young adults featuring cool, weird, fun, geeky, underground, true-to-life, curious, quirky things and people found online and off.” I also wanted to mention that Jetset has accumulated rave reviews from the online community by winning Vloggie and a Webby awards and they just have a growing number of fans world wide.
I highly recommend the Jetset Show and hope you will watch the clip below and go to the following links to support the Jetset movement: website, youtube, mix.jetset
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
French Maid TV just posted a video clip on Youtube yesterday (6/26/07) and it was downloaded or viewed over 700,000+ times in less than 2 days. The clip titled “Sexy French Maid TV - How To Share Photos” is a 6:20 minute “provocammercial.” What I find utterly remarkable is how it was presented and how it craftily worked in a smart sales pitch for a new company called Tubes.
For those of you not familiar with French Maid TV, its a series of viral video “How To’s,” taught by sexy French maids. Its the type of entertainment that you pass along to friends and they to their friends’ friends. The video clips are reminiscent of Benny Hill skits minus the Benny and the lil old man. Tim Street the mastermind behind French Maid inspires the hell out of me; as a new media producer, I admire what he has done with his brand and his marketing tactics.
This particular clip was brilliant because the title “How To Share Photos” cleverly showed you how the photo feature of Tubes worked then went on to briefly mention how it was a personal sharing network “that lets you instantly and simply share photos, music, video and documents with everyone you know.”
There have been numerous advertising and marketing agencies that jump on the Youtube or Myspace bandwagon and believe that they are “in the know” with the online media space. They need to take notes because Tim and his team are leading the way and changing the rules of the game. I say give the man a Wikipedia slot already. Oh yeah… don’t tell anyone this, but its the first time that an online “vidommercial” has actually convinced me to buy into its product… damn did I mention that its a PC product. It looks like a great lil filesharing app. Too bad because, there will be tons of mac users who would be interested in this product.
I’ve posted the clip on my blog so you can see for yourself.
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
Bendrix | bendrix | 
August 22, 2008 10:25 am | 
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