Zakhill

Blockbuster Season Has Arrived

kyler — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:38:30 +0000

Summer blockbuster season is in full swing with this weekend’s record breaking opening of Iron Man 3. Summertime is the “Olympics” of Film Third Partner Promotions—every studio pulls out their big hits and the clever brand partner tie-ins that help them stand out from the crowd. Studios may have other films throughout the year that attract brands but those are just junior varsity warm-ups for the summertime of swagger. Almost all of the summer films have great promotional partners. Over the course of the summer, we’ll be tracking our favorite tie-ins and like good Olympics broadcasters, providing color commentary on the program execution.

With Iron Man out of the way, we are loving the partner tie-in’s for the Gatsby. Luxury brand Tiffany is capitalizing on their role of providing product and consulting with Oscar winning designer Catherine Martin on the Gatsby. Tiffany is showcasing unique content in their locations and online. http://www.tiffany.com/

On the other side of the spectrum, there are the big ads for Star Trek 2 and esurance. The auto insurance market is highly competitive. esurance is hoping to have the edge by giving away 30,000 tickets to the movie. It’s their funny take on intergalactic travel that has us giggling. http://goo.gl/Kk5eZ

Neptune’s Best P.I. is Back!

kyler — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:22:52 +0000

There was quite a bit of chatter last week when the Veronica Mars movie crept closer to reality. Thanks to the power of the “World Wide Web,” fans of the TV show have spoken not with their Facebook “likes” but with their dollars. Thanks to crowd-funding, Kristin Bell will be back as the best P.I. in Neptune as the studio promised to green-light the film if a certain funding goal was achieved on Kickstarter.

It was a story on NPR during a drive to a client meeting however, that really crystallized the impact of crowd-funding. A Ronald McDonald House in San Diego wanted to “go green” and install solar panels. Using a crowd-funding platform developed by Mosaic, they were able to raise the necessary funds and usher in a new method of green investing. Mosaic created the platform letting individuals speak with their dollars to support and invest in true energy change. The project in San Diego promised a 4.5% return.

Hopefully the crowd-funding success for the Veronica Mars movie will equate to box office success leading to the green-lighting of who knows what other film ideas. And we can only hope that there will be more solar paneled public spaces across California. This is true social media—group conversation to facilitate change and improvement.

http://goo.gl/Avgyd

April Fools! …Not So Much

kyler — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:36:16 +0000

There’s nothing like an April Fools’ Day when your server goes down for a day and your tech guys say “your motherboard blew” on your 15-month old server. That’s no joke and the lack of connection to the outside world certainly had the zakHill office kicking it “old school” this April Fools’ Day. People around the office yelled out things like “what is a fax?” or “what did people do before email?” The responses were “spoke to people on the phone” or “took a 3 martini lunch and closed deals.” That’s when we realized that this April Fools’ Day was a warm-up for the premiere of Mad Men this week. It’s time to dust off our tailored looks (maybe from the Banana Republic Mad Man line), shake, not stir our cocktails and watch the hit television show “old school”—that is without a second screen device. Might be tricky to shut down 2 days in one week but wouldn’t Don Draper want it that way?

http://goo.gl/QpNYS

National Wildlife Federation & The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

kyler — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:38:05 +0000

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It’s Good to be the King

kyler — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:55:19 +0000

Some people are looking forward to Peter Cottontail delivering a basket of chocolate goodies this Sunday. Others, are looking forward to the return of Westeros, Tyrion and the Dothraki. Yes, Game of Thrones returns Easter Sunday and that event is worthy of ham, wine (or mead) and of course a little chocolate chaser after Tyrion appears on screen. Game of Thrones transcends the definition of “television show”. It is a cultural movement and HBO is the wise king rewarding it’s soldiers. Witness the red carpet premiere events in Silicon Valley for the show. The social-sphere was a flutter over the chance to rub elbows with the Baratheon family. Analysts said this move proved the importance of the tech world in the delivery of content. That may be true but the digerati were dazzled by the content–independent of its delivery method. It’s good to be the king.

http://goo.gl/Tt70g

Craving Chocolate?

kyler — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:20:38 +0000

With Easter around the corner, we seem to all be having chocolate cravings. It could be the seemingly endless candy displays in every supermarket check-out aisle or the Pavlovian response of having Spring arrive. For some of us, any chocolate will do. For others, we need a little surprise or something unusual for our chocolate fix. Finally, the US government is going to allow children to be amused and save parents time by combining two child favorites into one. Yes, toy filled chocolate eggs are coming to your Easter basket. Novelty—check. Efficiency—check. Happy children on a particular Sunday morning—check. http://goo.gl/UAeS5

A New Kind of Snacking

chill — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:44:19 +0000

Every day around 3pm, there is a gathering of the team in the kitchen. It’s an impromptu meeting to discuss important issues of the day—fantasy football updates, new TV show critiques, YouTube video sensations. The “meeting” is really our PC way of saying “snack attack”. We keep the office stocked with—what we thought were interesting and extensive–snacking options. After our category research update today, it seems that our snack pantry is lacking. There is so much activity in the $22B snack market. Pepperidge Farms is launching 35 new products, Frito is going after the 47% AND the 1% with flavors that appeal both to the Dollar Store shopper and the Bristol Farms shopper. And the best news of the snack industry—Jack’s Links creating “Meat Romney” and Barack Obameat”—portraits of the candidates made entirely out of their jerky. Suddenly our late afternoon snacking just became more interesting.

Presidential Jerky: http://bit.ly/SiOWe5

Frito’s 47% http://bit.ly/Oml6Gv

Pepperidge Farms http://bit.ly/NNlL2e

Hot Topic & The Big Bang Theory Sweepstakes

chill — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:26:03 +0000

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Skullcandy & Wrath of the Titans

chill — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:20:35 +0000

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NYX Cosmetics & Dark Shadows

chill — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:02:07 +0000

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