The Big Idea Magazine recently had a minor write up on a strange new sensation. The article clamed that http://www.popsecretmountain.com was created from fan generated content. This is somewhat hard to believe because of the high quality of this site.
Don’t get me wrong, this site will strike the newcomer as somewhat odd. But the quality of the mini films on this site are done by a talented eye and handled with fine craftsmanship. The artists who put these together obviously know a lot about video compression, frame rate, lighting and special effects. In short, they are miniature commercials with a cult film like appeal.
The hero is, Kaptain Kat, who has a way of growing on you. I hate to admit it but I found myself going back to re-experience this curious site. Pop Secret of course is the crunchy microwave popcorn snack. Up to this point I never realized they had a cat in a pirate costume for a mascot and found this connection somewhat puzzling.
What this site does though is interesting. It has artwork and cut and paste code for myspace users. It wants you to help it grow virally. That is the one smart thing this site does. The rest of it is somewhat entertaining with its Monty Python type animation.
It’s “user content” however must be staged. You will notice that the video clips on this site are not pumped in through YouTube.com like most viral campaigns. These clips are being pulled in through the server that this site is hosted on.
The other thing to take note of is that even though the animation is television quality they have never aired on broadcast. This all goes back to the narrowcast ideology once again. This is smart because it is saving a fortune of money when it comes to building a brand.
This is cult branding at a root level. And as much as I hate to admit – it’s quite brilliant for what it is doing on this subtle level.
More start ups and new brands can learn from what it is trying to convey. This site delivers too in its quality. I doubt very much that it is fan generated.
This type of thinking can refine a brand and encourage sales.
It’s cutting out a lot of middlemen. This avoids union costs, studio time, broadcast fee’s, airtime space, and wasteful advertising dollars.
Films of this quality can be cut on Adobe Premiere, and compressed into a MOV file.
Getting any ideas?
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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty,com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.
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