Pinto Productions

On December 4th and 5th, 2010, my family made a visit to Disneyland that we will never forget. Partly because we made a video of it and sent it all over creation. If you haven’t seen it yet, or if you’d like to see it again, here it is:

As it says in the credits, we were very much inspired by Matt Harding’s Where the Hell Is Matt video series, as well as Ellen DeGeneres’ non-stop dancing goodness. Much to our surprise, the video was QUITE the hit among our family and friends. So much so, it was shared on Facebook over 1,000 times! No, really, it was. Here’s the proof:

What was downright mind-blowing to us was that the video was shared by friends of friends, and even some of their friends’ friends I think. I’d search for “Dancing Around Disneyland” on Facebook and it would turn up on the walls of people across the US and in countries like Costa Rica and Italy. It was posted in different languages (OK, just Korean, but still) and, for the most part, all of the comments were overwhelmingly positive (a rarity for the Internet, right?).

At the suggestion of quite a few people, we submitted it to Disney, Flip Video, Ellen DeGeneres, and even Vampire Weekend, the band who sings the catchy little tune that just so happened to accompany the new Honda Civic commercial (I think we inspired them, even though their commercial allegedly started a few days before we published our video on YouTube). Quite a few people have said that whenever they hear the commercial, they immediately think, “That’s the Dancing Around Disneyland song!” and not the other way around. So there.

Flip Video was definitely the most supportive. They featured us on their Facebook page and Tweeted us (twice). We’re still waiting for our commercial deal though. We’re starting to think it might not happen though. Vampire Weekend’s band manager responded with a thumbs up and an account of his childhood visit to Disneyland. It was better than no response, or the dreaded, “Stop using our song,” but we were a little disappointed that they didn’t get behind it and use it to their advantage (at our expense). We’re still waiting on Disney and Ellen to call. Any day now, we can feel it…

As of this posting (1/6/2011), the video has had over 4,500 views. Not bad! OK, so it’s not 2 million. But it also has nothing to do with Justin Bieber. Hmm… maybe we should have chosen a Justin Bieber song? Dang it!

A few people have pointed out that YouTube’s count seems awfully low considering the number of times it was shared on Facebook, and the number of times these same individuals have said to have played the video themselves. It’s a good point. I know we’ve watched it at least 10,000 times myself (we’re a very narcissistic family). I suppose it’s possible that YouTube incorrectly counts the number of views via Facebook, whether unintentional or intentional, considering that Google owns YouTube, and Google and Facebook are sort of at war over the privacy and ownership of their respective “data.” Who knows?

Anyway, the best part of the whole experience was reading all of the great comments. People said it brightened their day, or that their kids asked to watch “the Disneyland video” over 10 times. Rad.

We’ve also received quite a few requests for a sequel. We’re thinking about a group flash mob version some time this summer. We’ll take Disneyland by storm! If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll definitely keep you in the loop as we start to organize it. Who knows, maybe THAT will get the attention of Disney or Ellen. Gotta dream big, right?

P.S. Just for kicks, we registered the domain www.DancingAroundDisneyland.com, which currently takes you straight to the YouTube video. What’s next? We’re not sure. Maybe a Facebook page?

Update: Done.

Here’s the updated version of the very popular Social Media Revolution movie that I blogged about a year ago. I think what rocked my world the hardest was how much the stats have changed in less than a year. I can’t vouch for all of the information, but it certainly lines up with what I’ve been reading, doing, and personally experiencing.

PLEASE take a few minutes to watch this if you haven’t already seen it (or watch it again and see what you may have missed the first time). Social Media is NOT a myth. Social Media is here to stay. And Social Media is changing everything we know about communications and marketing/advertising.

After shooting some great video footage up in Lake Tahoe with my friends Jodi and Jason Womack, we came to the conclusion that I should offer a “package deal” of some sort so I can start doing more video work, which I enjoy. So here it is:

Ten HD Web Videos for $995

That’s it. Less than 100 bucks a video. A few people have already told me that’s too cheap. We’ll see. I think it’s a pretty good deal, considering what you get.

So, what kind of videos could you record? I’m glad you asked. You could do a 1-2 minute introduction for your company’s web site or blog:

You could also do some FAQs, sales letters, product demonstrations (for Amazon.com), customer testimonials, book reviews, quick tips… just about anything! The key is to be natural, transparent, and genuine. Just be yourself.

In less than a day we can plan, shoot, edit, and upload the 10 videos to YouTube (in HD), and you can start adding them to your company web site, email marketing campaigns, Facebook business page, Twitter, etc.

So why would you want 10 “pretty good” videos versus one amazing video? Personally, I think there’s more benefit in having several shorter pieces rather than one longer, high-end video, especially if your videos are providing little nuggets of value as opposed to boasting about why you or your company is so great.

Interested in learning more? Drop me a line or give me a call at (818) 398-9406 and let’s discuss how easily you could get videos like these, even if you HATE being in front of the camera. (Trust me, most people do. You just can’t tell in these videos. Mostly because I make silly remarks just before hitting the record button.)

Here are a few more examples from the same location, featuring Jason’s wife, Jodi Womack. Although Jodi is much less experienced than Jason in public speaking, you’d never know based on her performance in these videos (and a little bit of editing):