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Friday links: August 8, 2014

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 Rolling.Stones.Spain_-640x360 Mick Jagger talking about Monty Python: “Still a bunch of wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth and make a load of money. I mean, the best one died years ago.” I love it.
 Ebola_Americans-03809-2087 The dedication of our front line health care workers just cannot be underestimated. Whether it’s an infectious disease epidemic like Ebola or a natural disaster, they put themselves in harm’s way to care for others.
 churchill A correspondent to Winston Churchill wrote, “OMG” in a 1917 letter. Here are other “modern” phrases that have been around for a while. Next we’ll find Egyptian hieroglyphs that say LOL.
 6c368822 Great speech by Bill Gates at Addis Ababa University. My favorite quote: “Usually, people assume that realism and optimism describe two different schools of thought. I disagree. I believe my optimism about the future of Africa is extremely realistic.”

 

 

 

 

What I Do: Event communications

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You might know this about me: I value collaboration.

In many instances, I think we get better results when we collaborate.

My iTunes U course is a great example. For most of the chapters, I recruited experts to serve as guest speakers. They recorded themselves answering questions I had sent them in advance. Then I took the raw footage and created mini-lectures ranging in length from 2-10 minutes. Their participation makes the course even more effective by offering a variety of perspectives.

The course includes a chapter on event communications. That chapter is primarily a case study using the first Building Healthy Academic Communities conference held at Ohio State in 2013. The next conference will be at UC Irvine in 2015.

At the time of the conference, Kathryn Kelley was Chief Advancement Officer for the College of Nursing and led the strategic planning and implementation for the event communications. (She is now the program manager for the Ohio Manufacturing Institute.)

Here is the case study video on event communications. It’s about 10 minutes long, but well worth the time.

 

 

Lagniappe: Two soccer promo videos

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My family is a soccer family. With World Cup coming up, we’re getting the fever.

As a communicator, I’ve seen two video promos that really impress me.

There’s this one that promotes the World Cup.

It portrays the fans and the fan experience as integral to the game. The video starts quietly with the anticipation of fans arriving. Then alternates players with American flags, waving throngs and the rousing “I believe” cheer. The fast cutaways add to the frenzy.

I’m excited for this World Cup even though Team USA has a tough group to beat to make it to the finals. Does this video pump you up?

I also like this video because at the 47th second, my son is in the lower left of the screen! Here’s the screenshot:

i-believe-soccer

The second soccer promo I want to share was used by NBC last summer to promote its Premier League broadcasts.

This video is hilarious. It’s gotten more than 6.5 million views. My son does a great Ted Lasso impersonation.

It was a fun way for NBC to promote its Premier League broadcasts to the U.S., but I wonder if it has “not your father’s Oldsmobile” syndrome.

In the 1980s, GM launched a well-known campaign tagline: “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” The company was trying to change the perception of its cars and reach a broader audience. However, some experts believe that campaign alienated its core buyer demographic and contributed to the demise of the Oldsmobile.

With the Ted Lasso video, is NBC insulting its target audience — Americans?

While you mull that over, I’m going to go watch that video for the 357th time. It really is funny.