Note: This is part 2 of Sony vs. Sony
But what is a great idea--which even meshes wonderfully with showing off the products produced by all the sponsoring companies--falls short of capturing its audience.
As I tried to find my way through it, I kept thinking... um, I'm here for the rockets. But they’re hard to find. Despite the calendar/countdown layout, it’s difficult to navigate. And while I have no problem with showing sponsor logos and equipment, I don’t like being pounded over the head with it.
Sony logo. Sony laptop. Sony camera. Sony laptop. Sony logo... yes, we get it's a Sony project. And it's a Sony VIAO (Intel inside!) laptop. We also notice that the videos all zoom in on the Sony logo and professionally-done photography is of SONY something and everything else... is secondary.
We get it’s Sony. Quit telling us we’re stupid.
Stop. I don’t want to be a neg. Let me flip this around and share some thoughts on what might work better to pull the audience in AND entice them with Sony products:
START WITH A COMPELLING IDEA. SOMETHING THE RIGHT AUDIENCE WOULD LOVE TO FOLLOW/PARTICIPATE IN...
Wait, you nailed that one. We’re interested. In fact, we’ll ride right along and gobble up how great Sony VIAO laptops and other equipment are. But we’re here for the rockets. Weave the Sony message into the rocket journey, but make the ROCKET (and the drama of building it) the focus.
SIMPLIFY. SIMPLIFY. SIMPLIFY.
The idea behind that calendar/countdown concept is good, but it’s a really difficult way to navigate. Also, we’re not getting much from having a daily video. Might be more powerful to condense into once- or twice-weekly videos. Particularly if you can wrap each video around a concept or lesson the team has to lean/tackle/solve. We don’t have to follow each step. Just pull us in based on key ROCKETRY concepts.
Hell, we’ll even accept you wrapping the concepts around how the features of a Sony VIAO laptop helped in tackling difficult problems.
Did it’s processing power help crank the math behind the problem faster?
Did its blazing graphics chip make the animation of that difficult concept flow smoother so we better understand how air flows around aerodynamic shapes at subsonic vs. supersonic speeds?
Did the exceptional screen resolution help you catch something that we might otherwise have missed?
Even simpler: Did the battery life help students make it through a particularly long day of learning… ABOUT ROCKETRY?
They might actually be there. But we get bogged down before we get to them.
The deal is, we only have so much time/attention span. Even the smart ones. Don’t make us work for something. Current navigation does. A little extra planning would not only keep our attention, but would let you dish up those products in a way we’d accept hook/line/sinker.
To compare with my comments on yesterday’s Project:Report, I can’t find a single point on the page where I can really follow what’s going on. Project:Report gave me:
- A single video that explained/introduced it all
- A single link to everything I needed to know in detail (the rules)
- Instructional videos on how to go about participation.
Now, I realize this one isn’t a contest… but I want to be able to follow along. Which leads me to my last two comment categories.
TEACH THOSE KIDS ABOUT COMMUNICATING VIA VIDEO (OR, HAVE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS VIDEO HELP TELL THE STORY)
These kids keep telling me how they had a hard day. Or a long day. Or they had to think a lot.
Yawn. Stop. Talking. At. Me. These are the answers moms get when they ask their teens how school was today. I hoped for more 4 videos in. Got truly bored around 8. Gave up at 10.
It’s not that the kids aren’t smart. They clearly are. I mean… ROCKET SCIENCE and all. However, communicating—telling a story of sharing useful information—via video is a different skill. I’ll give you that in the Project:Report, you were working specifically with participants who focused on telling a story via video. It’s a skill, usually learned through trial and error. What’s happened here is you’ve handed non-artists a pencil and paper and asked them to draw you a picture. A little guidance would go a long way.
Provide them with someone who can guide them in telling a story. Help them anchor it around something like a single concept (seem my list from “Give Us Access”, below). Show moments like:
- The instructor/rocket scientist presenting the problem. Challenging the kids.
- A clip of when the problem went really wrong for NASA. How about ON a laptop screen? (Most of the shots in the current videos show the kids with their laptops on their desks… but not a combo of the kids working at their laptops AND the screens themselves, letting the viewer know how useful the laptops were.
- Kids reacting as they see the NASA rocket explode, go off course, or close-ups of the find vibration or nose wobble, or red-hot overheating or whatever the real issue is.
- Confessions: The kids taking a moment to say how they feel about tackling this problem… i.e. “I’m worried, because this could cause the whole thing to fail.” or “I think this is a tacklable issue; however, we’re going to have to learn some math/physics/atmospheric science in one day if we’re gonna stay on schedule.” Wow… did I just set up… conflict? Drama? [Really, I was surprised at that one.]
- Shots of the problem as it appears on web sites or in books or instructor drawings as the kids research it. Great opportunity to scan across a Sony (Intel Inside!) logo as they use their laptops for this purpose.
- The kids working out problems on paper or whiteboard… OR GATHERED THEIR LAPTOP SCREENS, where software is serving as the amazing tool that it is.
- The kids making a big ‘ole mess… pulling together the pieces/materials/models they need to solve the problem. Be sure to include faces of disappointment/failure and moment of triumph.
- Heck. that might make a great music montage. I wonder where Sony could get some music for this? Or… if they could demonstrate the fact that it was playing on a SONY laptop, MP3 player, or even stereo system. How about a link where we could download the song?
- The kids presenting the solution to their instructor/rocket scientist and his reaction as they did so. i.e. “Great job.” or “Nice, but did you think of this…?” or “That leads directly to tomorrow’s challenge…”
- End-of-day confessions (clearly exhausted kids): i.e. “Wow, that was a lot of work… but now I understand why this is important.” and “I just need some sleep, ‘cause who knows what we’ll have to solve tomorrow?” and “IT’S SO COOL WE COULD DO THAT MATH ON THE SONY (INTEL INSIDE!) LAPTOP… THAT SAVED US A TON OF GRIEF!
Something like this could be edited together into a 5-minute piece each week, resulting in a 50-minute collection over the 10 weeks leading to launch. It would better invite/engage... and would be a whole to those who came to the program mid-way or even after it was over (which gives it legs leading to the next effort.)
The point here: Though this requires a professional to help them video-blog, your audience will be much more drawn in by the story/drama of it all. Which will also make us appreciate the product placement/blatant ads along the way. We tolerate ads on TV for a reason… we love the story. It’s told well… even reality shows are assembled/edited by professionals.
Same thing in social media, where we’re more likely to quickly tune out if that formula’s not up-to-par.
And, if you better hold our interest in a single clip, image, or resource, we're more likely to share it widely across our networks. More traffic like that brings more people to your efforts, which exposes Sony products even further.
GIVE US ACCESS! I SHOULD FEEL LIKE I CAN BUILD MY OWN ROCKET USING SONY (INTEL INSIDE!) EQUIPMENT AFTER FOLLOWING ALONG.
This one nagged me a lot. I SO wanted to access that manual/binder they were referencing. It was huge. What’s inside there? (This will pull your audience in…)
PDF it! Hell, SELL IT.
Or, use social media to its full effect, and point us to the lessons themselves!
You could even go so far as to partner with model rocketry clubs and/or teachers across the country... which would give this campaign an incredible reach! Give them a chance to be at the launch/meet the kids! Visit NASA! (Or even win free or discounted Sony gear...)
Just some ideas. But I think they’d help us appreciate both this effort and Sony products all the more, while inspiring us (and the kids) to want to pursue math/science… and possibly be Sony engineers one day.
Note: This is part 2 of Sony vs. Sony
Public relations geek, consultant, writer, speaker, social media explorer, surfer (the ocean kind), paraglider... maybe even some kind of artist.