Our fourth winner of the Z-Kudos Award is an extraordinary high school senior in Harrisonburg, Virginia who has created an excellent video with a complete marketing plan. Josh is the Vice President of Where To Get Engaged, Inc., a social networking site focused on engagements and weddings. He says his site is designed to give vendors and manufacturers not only a place to show their products, but a way (through the power of video) to get customers acquainted with both the products and the atmosphere of the store. The first business Josh has virally marketed on the site is the Blue Ridge franchise of Panera Bread located throughout Virginia. The promotional video Josh wrote, shot and edited for Panera, beautifully illustrates my belief in taking creative filmmaking and tying it to a product.For developing what could be the model for a whole new production business, I’ve awarded Josh $500 worth of Zacuto products.
Josh’s success story could be the plot of a movie itself. When he was in eighth grade, Josh joined a club at school called the Technology Student Association, where he entered a website designing competition. Though Josh and his fellow group members had never designed a website before, their site won first place at the regional, state and national levels of the contest. Josh eventually designed the site for Christopher William Jewelers, and started a partnership with the owner. Using Christopher’s skills as a business owner in the jewelry industry for over thirty years, and Josh’s skills as an upcoming entrepreneur with social networking, they combined to create WhereToGetEngaged.com. Josh did a lot of photography for the company before shooting commercials with his first camera, a Canon XHA1.
“You see so many national companies that are on television with local commercials that usually are pretty average,” Josh says, “You don’t really get to see what this business offers to the consumer unless you actually go to the store and see it. So what we’re trying to do is make these videos personal, so you feel like you’re in the store and you know the people before you get there. Most local commercials lack the personality of the business they’re advertising, and the characteristics that make it unique. If you were planning a wedding, you could use the space at Panera to really think about and plan the event. That’s what we’re trying to bring out.”
Panera Bread is the first major brand onboardwith Josh’s viral marketing plan. I’ve been following his work for a while on Vimeo, and am very pleased to see him take advantage of the marketing possibilities offered by viral videos. Josh says he appreciates the in-depth feedback I’ve given his work, and says it has helped him get where he wants to be. For his Z-Kudos Award, Josh plans to get our Z-Grips in order to upgrade his DOF kit so he can mount it on his shoulder. Though he eventually plans to make his own films, he says that the commercial work has gotten him swamped for now, though he’s guaranteed to have a pretty sweet demo reel by the end of it. His future plans for the company include a webisodic series inspired by Zacuto’s “FilmFellas.”
“FilmFellas is an absolutely brilliant idea,” Josh says, “We were thinking of bringing in probably three or four jewelry business owners and putting them in a roundtable, sort of like what you guys did. These industry leaders would have stores that are competing against each other, and we would take a common subject like engagements and have them talk about it. I think it would make for some great discussions, especially since these guys have probably seen hundreds or thousands of engagements come through their store.” Josh, I am so proud of you, you are doing exactly what we’ve been telling all of these filmmakers to do. Tie it to a product. The FilmFellas type show for Jewelers is going to be a huge success. People are clamoring for information about buying a ring. It has to be the best kept secret since the beginning of time. Look at what you are doing at 17, I can’t even imagine where you will be in a few years but a job at Zacuto is available if you want it, doing exactly this!!!
Check out the video at http://vimeo.com/4265284.
For more info on Where To Get Engaged, Inc., visit http://www.wheretogetengaged.com/
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