SEAN TINER

"Fireworks, surfing and rock & roll? Sounds like just another typical Southern California Fourth of July. Quiksilver's dynamite surfing movie highlights the explosiveness of buzz and the potential for established companies to create waves of awareness for their brand through new media." - Tiner, 2008 post Wishing everyone a Happy Fourth of July!

"There is so much media now with the Internet and people, and so easy and so cheap to start a newspaper or start a magazine, there’s just millions of voices and people want to be heard." -Rupert Murdoch Recently, Kansas State professor Michael Wesch gave a lecture entitled, "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube," at the Library of Congress. Wesh highlighted several viral Youtube videos from the past three years to illustrate the impact of social media on world cultures. The movie conveys how video communication is socially evolving and illuminates the path for where the Internet is possibly going. Wesh is the epitome of how individuals can use Web 2.0 media to advance their careers and establish relationships beyond their physical realm. Two years ago he created and posted the Youtube movie Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us , which describes web communications in five short minutes. Wesh created the video from pure passion and was excited when it received...

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." -Robert Kennedy Last week, John McCain attacked Barack Obama's rock star popularity with two politically charged advertisements. The first implicitly compared Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, while suggesting he will increase taxes and foreign oil dependency. The second used religious references to indirectly suggest Obama is the second coming of Christ and questioned his leadership ability. Both neglected to offer what McCain brings to the table and simply pointed a finger at Obama. Is this the right marketing direction for McCain? Why does he need to criticize the competition in hope of positively promoting his brand? Is Obama, 47, going to point a finger back at McCain, 71, for being too old to lead? McCain was born 1936. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, th...

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." -Bill Gates Two years ago, GMC partnered with Donald Trump's The Apprentice and launched a website inviting the public to create a commercial for the Tahoe. The winning commercial would air during The Apprentice . Sounds like a good idea, right? Engaging potential consumers in your brand? Being one of the first Fortune 100 companies to offer a user generated contest? Well, in theory, yes. In practicality, no. To borrow the words of Donald, "You're Fired!" The marketing plan quickly melted into an inconvenient truth. Some participants highlighted the Yukon's irrational exuberance and environmental strain , which quickly shifted the ploy's gears into reverse. These parodies were created when gas still cost around $3 per gallon and "hybrid" was a word reserved for affluent white-collar hippies. "Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war." -Do...

I don't know how you expect Web 2.0 to react. There's nothing in this whole video closet that'll fit a luxury fashion brand. I can guarantee you. There is Obama Girl, Black Ninja Guy and little kids playing Guitar Hero. Can a luxury brand really be displayed between these Youtube legends? All right. Lets go ahead, take a risk and try something new..... And valá .... Prada's  creative Youtube movie illustrates how luxury brands can create awareness with new target audiences. The innovative movie reinforces the brand's allure and reaches potential consumers. ...But was the film's direction properly sized? A reason Prada's movie has only received 100k views in 6 months  (to date) and not gone viral (over one million views) is due to its abstract creativity. Creating a viral Youtube movie is similar to selling concert tickets. If your goal is to fill all of your seats, offer mainstream appeal that resonates with your target market. The average Youtube viewer i...

Today, Steven Tapia's AC "New Soul" music video surfaced on Youtube. The video features several of Apple's products and adds a fresh slice to user-generated marketing. Instead of creating a new melody for the music video, Tapia combines visual and harmonic elements from Apple's current advertising campaigns. No doubt, more creative slices will soon be cut for AC "New Soul" and Steven Tapia's careers.

(Death Cab for Cutie by Tiner) Inspired by recently seeing Death Cab for Cutie perform at the Santa Barbara Bowl, I enjoyed creating this portrait of the band.

Obama found in public.

Stirring it up, Blendtec's successful viral marketing campaign illustrates how an ordinary company can blend big results. A household consumer product is a challenge to market, especially because it's not a glamorous luxury good or a product that augments a person's beauty. A company can always select a cute animal to be the product's spokesperson. Think of the success of Geico's Gecko or Aflack's Duck. ...Did we know these companies existed before the introduction of these mascots? Using a lovable animal is an excellent strategy to create awareness and knowledge for a company, but does it really highlight the features of a product? Can you actually remember how much on insurance you will save with either of these companies? Then again, a company can always us an attractive person to endorse a product, but what will the audience focus on? ...the product? ...or the model? Thinking outside the blender, Blendtec's Total Blender is serving up a full glass of ma...

If you spend time on Youtube, you may have stumbled upon the "My Sex Dreams" video series. Immediately, you may be thinking . ..Hot girls? Sex? Sweet! or ...How does Youtube allow porn on its website? Well, first of all it's not porn. If you have the patience to sit through a movie (and some have over a million of views), you'll discover that it's two average guys bragging about how good they are at World of Warcraft ( WOW ), a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with over 10 million subscribers. The commentator's swearing and bizarre antics illustrate some of Gen-Y's desire for stimuli and self-gratification. The movie series provides the voice that rests within the average WOW player. But do the series' million views convert to traffic on the promoted website, randyrun.com? ...Not so much. According to www.compete.com , randyrun.com only averaged a little over 1-thousand people last month or approximately a .001 conversion rate...

Welcome to our gym. ...A sampling of our beach workout.

(89.7 KLAS FM (Hollywood, CA) Soul Cole's Radio Free Flow Introduction Movie of Tiner's interview ).

(Excerpt from my thesis: Thinking Beyond Web 2.0: Leveraging the Dynamics of Generation-Y to Build Business ) According to Seth Godin, a best-selling author of business books and a famous marketing consultant, ten years ago the third most popular website on the Internet was Jennicam , a site that allowed voyeurs to watch a young girl frolic in her bedroom ( Permission Marketing, 1999 ). Internet surfers were intrigued by the mystique and realness of watching a young girl share her secrets with the world. ...Sound familiar? ....Remember Lonelygirl15 ? Flash forward approximately 10 years from Jennicam and you are introduced to Youtube.com's Lonelygirl15 aka Jessica Lee Rose, a 19 year-old entrepreneur who used Jennicam 's strategy to garner attention and propel herself to Internet stardom. In fact, Forbes Magazine made her #1 on 2007's " The Web Celeb 25 " list, a ranking of the Internet's most influential people ( Forbes.com ). If we flash forward anoth...