Karen Rubin's Ramblings

I have been thinking about not blogging, but video blogging. Honestly, I hate writing and I love talking, so video just seems to be a better medium for me. 

A couple of weeks ago, I gave it a shot. I've been scared to put them out there because it's hard to try something new! I think these are a little on the long side, but you tell me, should I keep trying on the video blog front? 

A friend introduced me to Ill Doctrine and I find his work completely inspiring and completely intimidating. He is SO GOOD! Then I was watching his best of videos, and I got inspired by this one. 

My Little Hater tells me that I don't actually have interesting things to say. That the content I create is great for my parents and friends, but that it isn't actually relevant to the great folks I meet in my professional life.

 Then he continues by telling me it's not actually worth it to even create content for my family and friends. It's time consuming, and I see/talk to the important folks regularly, so why both blogging which is so impersonal by comparison? 

Then he comes back and reminds me that what I have to say, isn't that interesting, because I say so damn much of it - WHO CAN LISTEN THAT MUCH! So I shouldn't overwhelm them all with all my blah blah blahing about every single detail of my life.

This week, I am going to beat my little hater by posting TWICE! Ha! Take that!

What about you? What does your little hater say?  

Remarkable content is simply content that is worth remarking on. One store in New York is certainly being remarked about, with a window display that includes women taking your clothes off.  

I have to say, they have succeeded in making remarkable content. Taking your clothes off is certainly one way to go about it, but it's not the only way. There isn't a formula for remarkable content, but being unique and a little big controversial is a good place to start. 

Brian Halliagn (HubSpot's CEO) recently said that remarkable content is  "kind of like pornography. You know it when you see it." It looks like the folks at XOXO took this to heart, but to be clear it doesn't have to be pornography!

 Side Note: This video was sent to me by a former co-worker. This store is about half a block from my old office in NYC. I haven't wanted to go back this much in awhile!

The staff at the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR knows what to do when it comes to dancing and to promoting breast cancer awareness. Medline Industries recently came out with a new style of latex-free gloves in pink, and said they would donate a portion of the proceeds to fund mammograms, to help spread awareness. The doctors, nurses, patients, cafeteria crew, janitors, technicians and business folk at St. Vincent took it one step further and created this video to help spread the word. 

 The video has been out for about 2 weeks and has over 1.7 million views on YouTube. Think about giving the folks at your company the opportunity to do something fun for a good cause and who knows what can happen. 

It's true there are things the White House can do that you can't. (Lunching a nuclear weapon, borrowing any painting from the national gallery and demand appearances from the Russian ambassador, to name a few.) But if they can launch unedited, on the fly videos of their people, why shouldn't you be able to?

@RickBurnes brought these videos to my attention and I love them. They are high ranking (well they seem high ranking to me, but it's not like it's the Chief of Staff)  folks from the White House talking about what's going on, sharing information about the President's trip to China, the people they are seeing and what the vibe is. 

 I have said it before and I will say it again, video doesn't have to be hard! It doesn't have to take hours in the editing room! It just takes a video camera (talk to the nearest new mom or dad) and someone who can talk without tripping over themselves. Try it out, you'll be surprised how easy it is. After all, just because the White House can do it, doesn't mean it has to be hard.  

 Seeing as that most everyone enjoys a good inappropriate ad as much as I do, here is the latest from Budweiser. 

 AdAge had nothing good to say about the ad, but it did make me laugh and jokes have been flying around between the 20-somethings here about "liking it in the can." What do you think, did Bud hit their target audience, or is it just a tasteless ad? 

The schedule looks fantastic, and I am very excited to see a ton of HubSpot.tv alumni including, C.C. Chapman, Marta Kagan, Chris Penn.

Mike and I are also heading up two conversations. The first is on Sunday at 11:15AM with Steve Garfield. We are going to be going over the equipment you need to know about if you are interested in video podcasting and it should be a very exciting discussion. 

The second conversation is on Sunday at 1:30PM and we will be talking about how you can use video podcasting for B2B marketing. I can't wait to hear everyones ideas on this one since there are so many different directions you can go in!

 If you haven't signed up and are interested in learning more, it's time to get going! Hope to see you there.   

This Friday is HubSpot.tv's 52nd episode! As expected, we will celebrate our "birthday" in the only was we know how...by throwing a party! Come join us for free beer from Harpoon, burgers from B Good, funky pan-Asian food from Meyers and Chang and of course a rockin* good time! Come on down to join us. 

In honor of our birthday, here are 5 little known facts about HubSpot.tv.  

1. Last summer I wrote a proposal for HubSpot.tv that Mike has still never read. 

2. Friday will actually be the 53rd episode. The first episode of HubSpot.tv was lost in a recording accident. It was watched by about 13 viewers, half of who were related to me. 

3. The first couple of episodes were not in front of a live studio audience. I didn't think it would work to have all those people watching us!

4. We shoot every episode with 2 separate cameras, a webcam for the live streaming and a higher quality camcorder for the iTunes podcast. 

5. We have only had one near death accident on the set when one of the lights exploded and shot hot glass all over Mike. 

An of course, a highlight reel!

(*The aforementioned rockin good time may or may not include a TV show, significant high five-ing, the debut of the HubSpot band, ping pong, a tiger, campaign showers, foosball and a general sense of merriment.)

The other day a friend sent me a new Sprite ad that had been banned in Germany. I watched it and it was so over the top, it even made me feel a little uncomfortable! However, my laughter intrigued my colleagues and the end result was a group viewing which sparked the discussion of if it could possibly be real, and if so "what was Sprite thinking!?!?"

As it turns out, it wasn't real. It was not created by Sprite but instead by an MTV director who wanted to see what would happen and called it a "social experiment."  

The thing is, what I expect happened is that a lot of people who saw it really questioned Sprite as a brand. It brings two questions to mind, first what should Sprite do? Second, in an age of unlimited content creators, how can brands protect themselves?

 Here is the ad in case you missed it. Please beware it is NOT SAFE FOR WORK or CHILDREN!