Comments on: “What Will The TV Spot Look Like?”

By: Don

Don — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t just read the news, control the news …
Don’t just follow the story, write the story …
Don’t just hope you’ll get the complete story, get the complete story …

Where all the news means ALL the news: Newsvine.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think Don’s up to something here.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I dunno, I think while Don’s suggestion is really cool for someone who already know what Newsvine is, if I went and told my mother-in-law that, she still would have no clue what I was talking about.

I’ll think on this one and come up with my own contribution after a little mind-tumbling. Good game though.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You might be right Joshua, but on the other hand, your mil (notice no f there, so don’t get mad at me *wink*) won’t use it anyway. She isn’t the target audience, is she? But I might be wrong … wouldn’t be the first time :-)

By: Joshua

Joshua — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think she is precisely the target audience. Someone who uses the web to check news, is interested in news and might contribute something every now in then.

I don’t think she’d ever turn out to be a huge contributer, but she’d certainly use the site I think.

But that raises a good question for Mike, what exactly is the target audience. I guess before you try to make a TV ad you should at least know who you’re trying to hook. Everyone, people who’d just read, people who’d be heavy contributers, etc…

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, Josh is right. Obviously, different audience segments are meant to do different things around Newsvine, but really, you should be able to come up with a spot that explains things pretty reasonably to someone’s grandmother. I think the people who really want to “get” Newsvine (techies, early adopters, newshounds, etc.) have very little trouble getting it. The bigger challenge is just the everyday person who may get their news at CNN.com, MSNBC.com, or Yahoo News. It’s much tougher to pitch the casual passerby.

By: Sean S

Sean S — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

FIRST IDEA:

Open on an exterior shot of a house door. It’s morning, there’s dew on the ground, and birds chirping.

THUD!

A newspaper hits the door and falls to the ground atop the “welcome” mat. Alternate shots show it’s just a typical newspaper, and before any additional details are revealed—

THUD!

Another newspaper; this time, though, it’s got more pictures.

THUD!

Another! This one has moving video(!) on its pages and—

THUD!

An entertainment magazine, last night’s baseball game program and a laptop (with sound)!

THUD-THUD-THUD, THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD, THUD

All kinds of news, multimedia, audio, video, and even people start flying in (from nowhere) hitting the house, door, and bushes …

Which we now see in a wider angle, effectively covered in the stuff; the onslaught seemingly over. We hear the door knob turn, and everything/body goes silent.

Back in closer we see the door crack open and from inside at least three or four vine branches emerge … and quickly gather all the news, media and junk, and pull it inside!

Cut to flash shots of the Newsvine.com site itself with voice-over narration — something like:

“News just got a whole lot smarter. Have you? … Newsvine.com. Get smarter here.”

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heh, I like that one. Perhaps here’s another twist it could take:

A newspaper hits against a door, followed by another, and another, and magazines and so on until there is a massive pile in front of the door. Then, it opens and a guy looks at the massive pile of newspapers that are before him.

Then the voice over says “There’s a better way to get all the news… Newsvine.com Get smarter here.”

By: Calichef

Calichef — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Those would actually be great commercials, both of them, perhaps even as one of those two-parters that are so popular lately. That first one would make a great super bowl-type commercial. It’s highly memorable. Kind of reminds me of “Cat Herding.” I doubt that Newsvine is ready to commit a few million to one thirty second ad, though. But someday, maybe.

By: Aaron Jones

Aaron Jones — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How about this:

Scene: Suburban neighborhood, nicely cut green grass, square hedges seperating the yard, with little houses.

Men start coming from their front door and walking down the driveway to get their papers. As they pick them up and say hello to one another, they look across the street.

The camera shows the center gentleman at an angle and begins to zoom out over a pile of papers that fill another neighbors yard, let’s call him Bob (the pile might equal the size of a single story house).

A camera cuts to the house with the papers and we hear the sound of a door opening, (camera cuts back to the other side of the street) as all of the men stretch their heads to see Bob.

The the camera then shows the pile, and Bob sticks his head out and waves with a goofy wave and there is a freeze frame.

Now a 50% opacity overlay screen, and the words: “Get all the news. Get smarter here. Newsvine.com”

By: Shaun

Shaun — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t have time to flesh this out.. but what about putting a real person “inside” a news story?

The real person would be like a reporter but just observing and commenting. The point being you are involved with the story not just reading about it.

As for the other ideas, reading newspapers is a boring premise.. it just is. Newsvine is more about interactivity and feeding the monkey.

By: Sean S

Sean S — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

My second idea didn’t go through, but basically we see the same content as being delivered — this time in their respective environments.

Open with a newspaper on a stand getting yanked offscreen by a vine. Cut to a magazine on a rack; same thing. Cut to a news reporter covering a story, mic in hand — YANKED!

This would be fun. Imagine even some high profile opiners or celebs being yanked off screen by some CG vine!

Anyway, concept is that Newsvine (the vine) grabs all the content for you, organizes it, and displays it.

By: Sean S

Sean S — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I like that idea Shaun. It really emphasizes the participation part — which is what really makes Newsvine unique.

By: El

El — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Before you try to make a TV ad you should at least have a “picture” of the spot in your mind.
Just go to a stock photography site and start looking for “visual” ideas.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sean S – your first idea is ace! Humor goes a long way in advertising – people will remember it. Out of everything on this page, your idea will remain with me for the rest of the day because it made me chuckle. I think it expresses not just the idea of NEWS – but news inside the realm of the world wide web.