Panasonic's "Def Perception" marketing blog for the HVX

[David Andrews]

Originally Posted by Jan Crittenden Livingston

Hi,

The purpose of the "blog" is to discuss the camera, its inner workings, P2 and DVCPRO HD, where that is all that is discussed. It is intended as an educational forum in the long run and hopefully it will turn out that way.

An alternative approach would have been simply to create a site and call it it P2/DVCPRO HD Education - or something similar.

Canopus did this with the advent of HDV. They created a separate site called HDV Education. It can be found here:
http://www.canopushdv.com/abouthdv/

I think it did a reasonable job of explaining many aspects of the HDV format and how Canopus products worked with it. I hope that they will do something similar for their P2 editing solution.

[Michael Pappas]

<<<hdforindies.com>>>>


Agree! Mike runs one of the best ""REAL"" blogs out there on filmmaking.

[John Mitchell]

Congratulations Panasonic. A human voice to encourage questions from users.

So far a total of 9 "replies" to 3 articles. Thats ummm ... 3 per article on average. Looks like this thing is a rip roaring success.

Is it just me ... I think this might have got more exposure if they had come clean and posted this blog on the Panasonic website to begin with..

I can't say there's anything wrong with the idea if it's presented in an upfront fashion and placed where it squarely belongs; on the Panasonic website.

[Chris Hurd]

Which Panasonic site, exactly? There's quite a few of them. The blog is clearly labeled "brought to you by Panasonic," it's right at the top where you can't miss it. I don't see what the big deal is.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Pete Bauer

A hand-picked team of moderators is on guard against policy violations around the clock to keep DVinfo's signal to noise ratio sky high. So your comment in this thread justifying the blog because "...someone can ask a question relative to the intent and not be blasted with diogatory [sic] comments about the camera. I know that it doesn't happen as often around here ..." does not sit well. Even softened, that characterization of DVinfo is simply not justified; yes, tough questions are perfectly within bounds but intimidating or rude? No. Very few get by the team for even as much as a few hours. I settled here as a regular member, and eventually became a moderator, precisely because DVinfo is a pleasant and highly informative site. So let's agree: if Panasonic wanted a blog; Panasonic has a blog and it has nothing to do with how DVinfo is run.

Thanks Pete for stating this better than I could have. Our regular, dedicated members know this already, but for someone who tends to peruse a lot of other message boards out there on the web, it's easy to make the mistake of lumping DVinfo in with all the rest. I can forgive Jan for that, as she spends a lot of time putting out fires on other sites; with all that surfing elsewhere on the web, it might be easy to overlook the big difference that we offer here. This isn't your average message board. I'm glad to see that Panasonic thinks enough of us to throw us a link from that blog. Besides the blog format doesn't really compete with what we do here. Ultimately Pete is right: Panasonic has a blog and it has nothing to do with how DVinfo is run.

I don't need to follow the blog because anything new will be talked about on DVinfo almost immediately.

Giddyup!

[Derek Serra]

I'd have to agree with several posters here that this so-called "blog" could do more harm than good in the long run. Users of high-tech equipment are not fools, and the minute they sniff something rotten in the air, they can get really nasty. If the HVX200 is as good as it is being made out to be, then it'll virtually sell itself. If it's not, and the "Blog" turns out to be an attempt to disguise technological shortcomings in the product, I wouldn't want to be in Jan's shoes!

[Dean Harrington]

Jan is one of the best reps in this industry ever! Sooner or later, everyone who follows a particular thread will know from whence the source of information comes and judge how much color is true color.
That's even true for political hacks running blogs fronting for interest groups under the guise of being independent. The defperception site clearly states it's a panasonic site so I have no problem with it. We will all gage out reaction to whatever information comes out of a site by the responses of those we trust. That's the key to a successful blog = trust.

[Luis Caffesse]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Which Panasonic site, exactly? There's quite a few of them. The blog is clearly labeled "brought to you by Panasonic," it's right at the top where you can't miss it. I don't see what the big deal is.

It wasn't always there.
I'm glad to see that now it's clearly marked as a Panasonic site.

I don't have a problem with this form of marketing like others seem to, as long as it's clear that it's coming from Panasonic and not some sort of third party objective source. It doesn't sit too well with me that they made up a guy who (supposedly) is not part of panasonic, but at least the site is clearly marked with "brought to you by Panasonic."

The thing that perplexes me is who is this site aimed at?
It seems like the market of people who would be considering purchasing the HVX are professionals, or would at least like to think of themselves as professionals. I can't seem many video professionals feeling too good about communicating with what boils down to a company mascot. It just seems kind of strange.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Luis Caffesse

It wasn't always there. I'm glad to see that now it's clearly marked as a Panasonic site.

I'm aware of that; in fact that's the reason I've held off posting about it. Only until they "made it official" that it is in fact a Panasonic operated site, did I bother mentioning it here. It's been around for a little while... nice to see it finally go "legit" under an official Panasonic badge.

[Sergio Perez]

The sign saying "Brought to you by Panasonic" wasn't always there, like Luis said. The site is active for a long time, like Chris said, and that sign wasn't there. That's why I said something about user feedback making Panasonic "come clean". If you see the Bloger's info, he never says he is from Panasonic, just that he mght have some "inside info"because he "knows some sources from the inside". But its time to put this to rest, i believe. The HVX still sounds like the best of the low end pro HD cameras on Paper, and Panasonic has to know that its the real life results the camera achieves that will make the success of this camera. User feedback in sites like DVinfo.net will eventually help the sales of the camera- not fake blogs.

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Which Panasonic site, exactly? There's quite a few of them. The blog is clearly labeled "brought to you by Panasonic," it's right at the top where you can't miss it. I don't see what the big deal is.

Chris - to be fair I did say "posted on the Panasonic website to begin with" in other words from inception.

As to which website I would have thought the appropriate product website/s. And the only point I was trying to make was that presented in a straightforward fashion on a Panasonic site they would have got more traffic (and less criticism).

[Peter Ferling]

Originally Posted by Sergio Perez

...That's why I said something about user feedback making Panasonic "come clean". If you see the Bloger's info, he never says he is from Panasonic, just that he mght have some "inside info"because he "knows some sources from the inside".

Sergio, Agree. Honesty is your best bet, and product should sell itself.

Personally, I think a blog's use in today's corporate world is a dangerous thing. With the likes of email and public postings being regarded as legal fodder, a slip of the tongue (er, smack of a few wrong keys) can set a company up for trouble.

Maybe I'm paranoid -or because I work in corporate communications in the heavily regulated medical device field. Regardless, we had consultants come in and train us on the do's and dont's of public communication. "Be careful what you say in your email, or post on a public site." A blog is certainly no different.

[Steven White]

I have no problem with specs, brochures, advertisements, and now blogs... all of which can be grossly misinterpreted... all of which are marketing. Often there is a lot of marketing leading up to a product release, and then very little support or commentary afterwards. The nice thing about a blog is the frequency of updates.

David Newman of Cineform runs a blog (http://cineform.blogspot.com/) that I like to peruse regularly. His statements are typically well-informed and professional, not to mention backed up by evidence. He also plays with toys I can only dream of. Of course it's centered around Cineform's products... but that's the point.

All methods aside, I think the most valuable marketing a product can get is unsolicited praise from actual users. That's where DVinfo comes in.

-Steve

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by John Mitchell

Chris - to be fair I did say "posted... to begin with" in other words from inception.

My apologies John for not catching that the first time around.

Jan,

First I'd like to say that my hat is off to you for being so active in this forum. I can't believe how many manufacturers can't grasp the concept of the amount of buying decisions that are made from a forum like this on an hourly basis.

On to your comments for Panasonic's fake blog:

Originally Posted by Jan Crittenden Livingston

The purpose of the "blog" is to discuss the camera, its inner workings, P2 and DVCPRO HD, where that is all that is discussed. It is intended as an educational forum in the long run and hopefully it will turn out that way.

Why be deceitful then by making up a person?
Why not just post what you just wrote here at the top of the page?
Why did you choose a blog instead of a forum?

Originally Posted by Jan Crittenden Livingston

We chose a voice because I didn't want it to be me, heck, I am already too "popular" and that is a handicap for me. That was not and is not my ever my intention. I am hoping that Tosh can funnel questions to me that I can answer, and to others in the organization that others might better answer, thereby serving the community and getting the right answers to folks.

Then why not hire a real person who knows the product (and other HDV products) like the back of their hand?
Pay them $40 to $50k per year and/or give them a % on units sold directly through the site as an incentive. Even if your net profit was only $200 per unit (which I think is VERY conservative), your site would only have to sell 200 to 250 units PER YEAR... Internationally to break even. The world is flat you know - A quick glance down the "Locations" from the members in this thread alone can quickly illustrate that... Cape Town, South Africa to Tokyo, Japan to Houston, Texas. You would be directly over the person you choose to represent your product(s) and meet on an "as needed basis" or for a fixed amount of time by day. You could also hop on the web anytime to see how it's going and see if your help is needed. Plus, if your person was good (and product proves to be good), you could begin capturing the HDV market while it's in its beginning stages.

Originally Posted by Jan Crittenden Livingston

I am hoping that it does work.

Easy enough to tell. Ask Chris if you can do a poll in this forum to see how many people from this forum are going (and continue to go back to) to your blog after they read about here. Personally, I went once - was on it for about 2 minutes - and left... and have not returned. Everybody in this forum is too intelligent for a concept like TOSH, might as well have called it HAL, HAL 9000.

You can take a look at my profile, as well as some of my other post and see that I'm a member of your target audience. And will be buying another camera, which actually at this point will probably be a DVX100B, but I may wait a little bit longer to see if my money would be better spent on a HVX.

Like I said at the beginning - I applaud you for being so active in this forum. It's for that reason that I just took 30 minutes of my 24 hour day(18, after six hours of sleep) to give you a few suggestions.

But hey what do I know, I'm just a college grad with a degree in Advertising, with an additional Area of Emphasis in Marketing and a minor in Graphic Design... who's discovered the wonderful world of DV!