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TED Goes Corporate, Best Buy vs. Steve Garfield, a Saddleback Spat: #BMTPPT 3 [Video]

TED launches a pilot project for corporations to produce their own TED events; Tim gets cranky and disagrees with me on Saddleback’s latest video; we call the best PSA of the 2014 (thus far!); and name your best resource for audio/visual help. (Hint: It might be your local Best Buy, but it’s not mine.)

All that and more is in this week’s episode of Better Marriage Through PowerPoint (BMTPPT), a weekly YouTube show featuring Tim Washer and me.

Check it out:

Show notes:

1. The TEDification of corporate events. TED last summer launched pilot programs to produce corporate TED events with corporations — specifically, State Street Bank, Boston Consulting Group, and Intel. Most recently, State Street hosted TED@StateStreet, when about 350 employees met at Boston’s Revere Hotel, where the stage had been set to look like an actual TED conference. TED plans to extend this new service to more businesses, which can opt in for a minimum investment of a mere $1.5 million.

Content trend: TED’s move into the corporate content market reflects that of a lot of content producers and publications with established audiences and solid content-creation chops, who increasingly are partnering with brands seeking access to those audiences and abilities.

For the brands, it’s a classic “build or buy” issue; for content producers, it’s a trickier question. In this case, is TED diluting its brand by veering too far from its original course? Does it matter?

Related: Success inspires parody, thankfully. Tim brings us the hilarious Onion Talks (my favorite is the Using Social Media To Cover For Lack Of Original Thought) and Vanity Fair’s TED-O-Matic: Nine easy steps to your own audience-flattering TED talk. (“Step 2: State your counter-intuitive premise.”)

2. Comedy gold from Norwegian Association of the Blind, which has a terrible website. But awesome content. Hat tip: Tim Nudd, Adfreak.

Content trend: This spot is hilarious. But more than that, it follows a tried and true comedy formula that other brands can replicate. Tim deconstructs it. I nod along and try to think of something to add.

3. Saddleback Leather spat. I loved Saddleback Bag’s new video, How to Knock Off a Bag. But you already know that, because I wrote 700 words about it. Something about it rankles Tim. Possibly he’s just cranky.

(His characterization, not mine. But I didn’t disagree with him there, did I?)

4. After weeks of terrible video, I get a new camera! (I know, I still need to work on angle. Baby steps, folks. Baby steps.)

It turns out that Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com gives better camera guidance than the guys on the floor at Best Buy. Steve has a book Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business from Wiley and an incredibly useful blog for anyone looking to source video or audio equipment. Oh — and he’s rolling in dough this month, because he earned approximately four bucks from me just for publishing this straightforward post about whether the Logitech C920 works on a Mac. I bought it from Steve’s Amazon affiliate link. Not Best Buy.

Seriously, though, let’s recall the bigger content lesson: If there is any doubt about the value of publishing helpful, how-to information for the people you are trying to reach, consider my experience with Best Buy, and then with Steve.

Like what you see? We’d appreciate it if you subscribed to the Better Marriage Through PowerPoint YouTube channel here.

Filed Under: Annarchy, Business, Media, Social Media, Technology, Video Tagged With: BMTPPT

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gordon Diver says

    January 15, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    Thanks for the insight and laughs 🙂 The video of the week was brilliant and a great example of using humor. Glad to know no “Moose” where injured during the filming.

    Reply
    • Ann Handley says

      January 16, 2014 at 8:03 am

      And we were not mocking the Rhino Community, either. For the record.

      Reply
  2. Doug Kessler says

    January 16, 2014 at 2:50 am

    I represent the Rhino community and, as a species already vilified as ‘wild’, ‘rampaging’ or, yes, ‘horny’ (ha-so-very-ha), we take exception to references that are anything less than respectful of our role in some of the world’s most precious habitats and our relatively awesome position in the food chain (we’re seventh. Not a lot of people know that much less other arrogant but smaller and more vulnerable species who are often surprised to discover the fact – usually at a waterhole at night). You can forget about our sponsorship next podcast.

    (Funny show. Smart people. More please.)

    Reply
    • Ann Handley says

      January 16, 2014 at 8:04 am

      The Rhino Community deserves it own PSA. Please make it, Doug. (“Ha-so-very-ha” = spit-coffee laugh!)

      Reply
  3. Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) says

    January 16, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    Look great Ann! Thanks! Glad I could help.

    Reply
    • Ann Handley says

      January 17, 2014 at 8:06 am

      Thanks, Steve!!

      Reply
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    August 27, 2014 at 4:08 am

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    to save you a lot of work, there is an online tool that creates high quality, google friendly articles
    in seconds, just type in google – laranitas free content source

    Reply

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