Commercial time

An Internet ad

A couple of weeks ago I was asked about the possibility of a short film/advertisement for Immortal.  The person doing the asking was the same person who happens to be running the Indie Book Event and the reason she was asking is that I will be at the I+B+E in a few weeks.

The idea of doing a short internet spot has occurred to me in the past, but the problem has always been A: I don’t own a camera, B: If I did I wouldn’t know how to edit something properly, C: How the Christ do you advertise a BOOK, anyway?  I mean, reading is a distinctly separate entertainment experience, and nobody watches a video expecting to read a lot of text.  More to the point, I’ve yet to see an advertisement for a book that really worked.

I figured the best I could hope for was to drive interested people toward the info page and hope they read about Immortal there.

As for the rest of it, I know some creative people, and many of them own cameras.

So here’s my first thirty second spot.  Let me know what you think of it, and if you like it, please share it.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/26304362]

(Note: the video is also on Youtube, but we had issues with which thumbnail image was being displayed.  However, if you’d like to share it from Youtube instead of Vimeo, you can find it here.)

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No Comments

  1. WotV on July 11, 2011 at 10:04 am

    Um. Nope. Tells NOTHING about the book. You have to at least hint about the plot. I have ideas, but not the equipment…

  2. genedoucette on July 11, 2011 at 10:08 am

    Of course it doesn’t. It’s 30 seconds long. The goal is to drive traffic here. Someone who finds that funny will find the book funny too.

  3. Donna on July 11, 2011 at 11:31 am

    Well, you are more likely to anger cat people than to have people think it is funny. I think you are very funny. I do not like cats, primarily because I am allergic to them. And I do not think the spot is funny. So … back to the drawing board? Or video board?

    Or just go with text? “You start with smoke signals and grunts.”

    “And end up with cell phones and texting.”

    “It’s still gibberish.”

    Then do The Immortal cover or something.

    • genedoucette on July 11, 2011 at 11:34 am

      My take on it is, the people who think it’s funny will also think the book is funny. And I think cat people have senses of humor.

  4. J.W. Bettencourt on July 11, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    I thought it was funny, terrible advertising, but funny.
    I am of the school of thought which says a commercial should always tell you something about the product, if it doesn’t, it is a bad commercial that, even if remembered, won’t stick the -product- in your mind.
    You could swap out immortal for any other book or, quite frankly, anything and this commercial wouldn’t change.

    Now, that said, could it still drive traffic?
    Probably, some.
    Just not as much as if you were able to get the viewer genuinely interested in the book.
    A good number may very likely go “Hehe.” and move on without actually investigating the book itself. Despite the fact that if they read the book they would find it funny, there is nothing in the commercial to let them know the -book- is funny.

    Just my two heavily critical cents.
    I’m not sure exactly how book trailers are supposed to work either although I’ll let you know if I have any ideas.

    • genedoucette on July 11, 2011 at 1:07 pm

      I know what you mean. And you may be right. But now imagine this as the first of three commercials, with the third giving information about the book. Would that make more sense?

      The way I look at the internet, you have to deliver things in small packages and assume that 90% of the people will stop at the small package. But another 10% will drill down for more.

      Or look at it another way. I could either make something weird and modestly clever, that’s short and self-contained, and that could go viral, or a straight-up book trailer that will be MUCH more difficult to make, will be a good deal longer, and will have a far worse chance of going viral.

  5. Reid on July 15, 2011 at 10:51 am

    Heh heh heh. Well played.

    • genedoucette on July 15, 2011 at 11:12 am

      Glad you liked. Now if only it would just go viral…

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