Crayon Did Well

The package that Crayon put together for Panasonic included six really different bloggers with six different perspectives. It was a chance to play with Panasonic gear, to talk with Panasonic officials, and to spend time with the rest of the event as contrast. For instance, I went over to Sony to see what they were doing, to contrast it with what I learned at the Panasonic booth. (I’m sure there’s a bit of difference between me having access to Panasonic and not having access to Sony, but I tried to stay objective.)

Joseph Jaffe and Greg Verdino from Crayon did a great job managing the experience, and keeping everyone educated on both sides. Panasonic CMO Bob Greenberg deserves lots of credit for giving this a shot. I’m going to ask him to come speak at New Marketing Summit in 2009 to tell us more about what he was doing and why.

The Gear

We got three different pieces of equipment. The dSLR camera was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. Of the three, I loved this the most. I felt it took great pictures, had lots of features (the one I liked and used the most was it’s IA feature, “Intelligent Automatic.” It also was a neat jump-step between a point and shoot camera and a full scale dSLR. After using the Nikon D60 for a great duration, I feel this camera makes an interesting “in between” play for people who want more than a point and shoot, but don’t necessarily want to go pro-am. I really really really like this camera. I’m looking forward to using it more, and I’m investing in more glass for it at some point. (The camera types call their lenses glass, I’m told. What do I know?)

They gave me also the Panasonic SDR-SW20S Waterproof Camcorder. This is a “family” camcorder. The coolest part is probably that you can use it underwater, like swimming pool underwater.

It’s meant for a family. It’s compact, easy to use, really indestructible, and hey, you can swim around with it.

As a videoblogger, this might not be the rig for you. The pull out display screen doesn’t turn around far enough for a videoblogger to use it. The buttons aren’t exactly intuitive. I kept wanting to push the screen when prompted, instead of using the pad to the side. I think it’s a good rig, but not an amazing rig.

The last piece might be really good for you. Why? Because I’m going to give this one to you, someone in my community. It was the most expensive rig of the three they gave us. It’s the most advanced. It’s a powerful camcorder. Check out the Panasonic HDC-SD100 . I can’t review it because I never took it out of the box. Instead, check out this review by Steve Garfield.

Watch This Space

I’m going to figure out how to give the HDC-SD100 camcorder away to you. Let me get back to you on it. This is something where Panasonic went out of their way to promote their Living In HD platform, which supports their beliefs that technology should benefit a human’s interests. It was a great project, where Crayon did a great job running a blogger relations campaign. I feel really good about the project.

So, let me figure how to get you into a giveaway where I can send you the HD camcorder? Fair?

Thanks again to Panasonic and to Crayon for this opportunity.

The press event was mobbed with people anxious to cover the news. I saw two guys from Engadget, and of course Steve Garfield was there, and all kinds of mainstream press, too. I was a bit claustrophobic, so I hid out way in the back with all the big cameras and machinery.

What excited me was this: I live-tweeted the press conference while the folks around me wrote their notes into paper note pads for stories they’d write later. Here were a few of the tweets:

Panasonic announces new hd camcorder with 70x optical zoom. #ces09 #lihd. 9megapixel, by the way.

Panasonic releasing 3 new BluRay players plus integration to Vieracast. Also new portable BluRay player w/Vieracast. #ces09 #lihd

Amazon video just announced deep integration with Panasonic on their Vieracast platform. 40000 titles. 1 click buy on demand. #ces09 #lihd

There was lots of news from the event. I’m sure it was covered very well by people like Engadget. What I liked, however, was that we, the bloggers, had the scoop on the mainstream press by who knows how long, and further (and this is the super cool part to me), I really loved that I had conversation coming back to me almost immediately about what I was posting. Example:

okhumane- @chrisbrogan I personally have a Lumix and LOVE it. Highly recommend. And we take pics of all our shelter animals with a Lumix!

catttaylor- @chrisbrogan keep up the updates. Bought my DH a Panasonic plasma TV for our anniversary. Camcorder would be nice.

mindofchester- @chrisbrogan James Cameron always wanted to do 3d and was willing to wait till the technology was perfect. Panasonic must be to something.

So, not only had we scooped them, but we already had conversations started, too. That, friends, is astounding and potent. I spoke later in the night to Panasonic CMO Bob Greenberg, and was really into the overall experience of “the conversation” and what that meant to the company. At a little dinner, he talked about what bringing bloggers into the story meant for him. (I’ll cover that in another post.)

My question is this: how have (or how can) you use social media tools in real time to capture the stories around us, in whatever form you want? Have you used video to catch something faster than other people? Have you snapped something with your cameraphone that was meaningful to you or a community, but wasn’t big enough for the evening news?

Journalists: do you see how live-tweeting a press conference might get the story into some kind of live action play faster that way?

What’s your take all the way around?

Oh, and thanks to Crayon for setting this up. So far, so fun.

Complete side note: look at the picture. That’s the “press kit” we got from Panasonic. As part of their commitment to green improvements, it’s just a card with a URL to download digital copies of the kit (and there were HUNDREDS of people crammed in that room- saving paper). But what’s really REALLY cool is that the card has flower seeds in it, and if you plant the card in the ground and water it, it’ll grow wildflowers. Nice touch.