SearchEngineWatch.com is reporting that Google is sponsoring a contest with a grand prize of $25,000 of cable television advertising. Contestants create a 30 second or 60 second spot and upload it to the YouTube channel “TV for all contest.” You can even make the ad for free using SpotMixer.com. The deadline for submission is October 5, 2009. Viewers will vote, and 3 winners will be announced October 30, 2009.
This appears to be a good way for Google to call attention to the TV ad service it now offers through its AdWords program. A MediaPost article reports that Google has teamed with SpotMixer to allow advertisers to create video ads to be displayed on the Google Content Network. SpotMixer’s platform automatically converts an advertiser’s existing AdWords text ad into a tailored video ad within the advertiser’s AdWords account. Earlier this year, SpotMixer launched a self-serve video ad creation service for Google AdWords customers to produce and distribute cable TV ads via Google TV Ads.
Lawyers who have been tempted to dip their toes into the TV advertising pool now have a way of giving it a try on a limited budget. But the chance of a lawyer ad winning the $25,000 grand prize? I’m pretty skeptical about that.
Tagged as:
Attorney advertising,
Google TV ads,
Spotmixer,
TV ads
I read the book Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe a few months ago, and I heartily recommend it. The full title of the book is Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. Howe is a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and he gave some great examples of companies posting projects or problems on the Internet, with a reasonable monetary award being paid to the person who comes up with the best solution. Thousands of people from all over the world enter some of these competitions. Large corporations have started using Crowdsourcing to find solutions that formerly eluded them altogether, or which would have cost them much more than the “award” ultimately paid to the winner of the Crowdsourcing contest.
I have just taken the Crowdsourcing plunge. I mentioned in a previous post that I’m working with others to create a blatantly pro-consumer news site: ConsumerNews.com. About 36 hours ago I posted a request for a logo on crowdSpring.com, a popular Crowdsourcing site that has lots of creative people such as web designers and graphics pros. The results so far have been impressive. The site lets me rate the submissions and provide comments or suggestions to the creative folks. It also lets members of the public vote on which design they like the best. At the end of a 4-7 day period (you pick the number of days), you choose the design you like best. It’s not unusual for a project to receive more than 80 proposed designs.
If you have the time, head over to crowdSPRING.com and vote on which logo you like best for ConsumerNews.com. You may even decide you would like to try a little Crowdsourcing with your next project.
Tagged as:
ConsumerNews.com,
Crowdsourcing,
crowdSPRING.com
by Michael J. Evans on April 29, 2009
in Technology
Twitter was originally created as a way to keep in touch with friends by answering the question, “What are you doing?” Posts have to be 140 characters or less. According to a January ABA Journal article, many blogging lawyers are now posting on Twitter as well.
Now comes an ABA Journal article reporting that Seattle personal injury lawyer Bill Marler will donate $25,000 to charity if he obtains 25,000 additional Twitter followers by the end of the month. Apparently, Marler was insprired by Ashton Kutcher’s agreement to donate 10,000 malaia nets if he won a race with CNN to sign up one million Twitter followers. Marler, who represents victims of food-borne illnesses, said his followers include “foodie-type people,” government health workers, journalists and other lawyers. He says doesn’t view the service as a way of generating clients, but he does see it as a way of communicating with government and media representatives interested in food-safety issues.
Marler says he’s a little surprised that the post hasn’t generated more followers. Somehow, I’m not surprised that people aren’t falling all over themselves to sign up to follow the tweets of a health food lawyer.
Tagged as:
Twitter
What can we do together? Since 1999 I've been using the Internet, websites, blogs, online video, Twitter and other social media to help thousands of injured people find great lawyers. We've organized national networks of lawyers in over forty states to take on Pfizer, Bayer, Yamaha and other multinational corporations. We've put consumers on a level playing field, and had fun doing it. If you're a great lawyer looking for more clients, contact me and let's see what we can do together.
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