Fellow SEMA Members,

I am running for a seat on the YEN Select Committee, and would appreciate your vote. Some highlights on why I would be an ideal candidate include:

• I am a life-long enthusiast from a car family. My first car build ended up on the covers of Hot Rod and Mustang & Fords
• Over a dozen years in the industry, having worked 11 consecutive SEMA Shows.
• Media background: I have worked for Petersen, Primedia, Edmunds, and handled PR for the top brands in our industry
• Small business owner: I understand what it takes to run a small business in the current climate, and what it takes to succeed
• The manufacturer’s perspective: my best clients and friends are auto aftermarket manufacturers. I will represent the manufacturer’s point of view on the council
• Social Media Expertise: It’s what we do, every day. I will help bring fresh ideas to the table and would love to help fellow YEN members succeed

After a decade as a proud SEMA member, I’ve decided its time to give something back to the industry and organization that has been so good to me over the years. I’m running for a seat on the SEMA Young Executives Network (YEN) Select Committee. YEN honored me a few months ago with a nice profile piece on the SEMA site and in SEMA News, so most of my background can be found here.

In a nutshell: I started working in the auto industry in high school, working the sales counter at a well-known speed shop in Los Angeles. I honed my writing skills, then made the jump to magazines as a writer and photographer at 18. I went on to work at some of the best automotive media outlets in the country, including Petersen/Primedia, Edmunds.com and more. Eventually I made the leap to automotive PR, where I have run accounts for some of the biggest names in our industry. Eventually I started my own PR and Social Media Marketing firm in 2008 and haven’t looked back. I’m honored to have a fantastic group of clients and we are doing really exciting work pushing the limits of viral marketing and PR for the automotive aftermarket.

So why the YEN Select Committee? Because I’m a pretty young guy considering I’ve worked 11 consecutive SEMA shows, and I feel that our industry is filled with young, eager, forward-thinking entrepreneurs. From business owners and manufacturers to reps, dealers and media personnel, we’re all very fortunate to have a passion for cars and the ability to earn a living talking about what we love. I will help fellow YEN members in any way I can, keeping the committee focused on the needs of fresh new companies and fast-rising young executives. We should be heard, from our ideas on new media marketing to reaching Gen Y and Millennials. I will bring new ideas to the table about how to market the organization to business owners and how to help members move their businesses forward.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I encourage anyone with questions about my goals for the YEN Select Committee or even those looking for advice to email or call me anytime.

Sincerely,

Dan Kahn

President, Kahn Media

Dan@KahnMedia.com

818-881-5246

We’ll start with video work since it demands more specific settings and consumes a lot more space.

Filming:

• Shoot with a tripod whenever possible. This is an effort to reduce the amount of shake and vibrations in our videos. When I’m out filming cars, I always have a tripod with me. For interviews, stationary shots, moving shots, pans, and everything else, these shots look a lot more professional. When the footage is more professional it shows that your company puts a lot of effort and thought into every little detail.

• Shoot everything in the same format. Now with HD cameras especially you are given plenty of options in how the camera will record its footage. Varying formats in the same project not only looks less professional, it also can be entirely incompatible.
  • At Kahn Media everything as of right now is shot in 720p and the majority of footage is at 30fps. Why? Because the majority of our video goes online, and YouTube maxes out at 720p, but this format still looks good on a TV screen.
  • Use a GoPro Hero HD? The setting R2 for 1080i/p is largely unnecessary for most internet-based projects and will just result in a larger file size.
  • If you shoot something with the intent of it being turned into slow-motion footage, keep the 720p and shoot at 60fps. This is double the frame rate so the slowed footage will look much smoother.
    • Normal Footage: 720p/30fps
    • Slow Motion Footage: 720p/60fps (R3 on the GoPro)

• Import the Footage from the Camcorder. It is important that you import footage from the camera instead of dragging files over like a hard drive. Cameras don’t automatically record to an editable file format. The footage needs to be imported into an editing program. Cameras come with software to properly import footage and many other programs are also capable of doing this. I’ve been receiving a growing number of .MTS files lately as well as many other non-compatible formats. We have ways of making MTS files work eventually but it is very time consuming and just delays videos further. The exception to this being GoPros which record into a .MOV file format which is perfect for editing.
  • Import footage – don’t just drag files over (Except for with Gopros)
  • Desired files: Uncompressed .MOV Files

Photography:

• Shoot high-resolution. We don’t need or necessarily want RAW files for event coverage and/or blog posts. However, a high-quality JPEG can go a long way.

• Shoot with the sun to your back. This is for lighting/exposure purposes of course. You can do a lot with ambient (natural) light if you utilize it properly. This tip can help you eliminate a lot of unwanted shadows and will clean up the look of photos significantly.

• Show as much as you can. Take photos of everything going on. A cool car, a race, a funny story, a cool story, anything relevant.

• Avoid busy backgrounds. Nothing kills a shot quicker than having your competitors’ vehicles in the background. Always try to get your company’s car separate from anything that could make the photo unusable.

For Both:

• Get multiple shots of each car. Get overview shots and specific shots of your product. If possible, get photos that include the vehicle and owner’s info (Ex: A tag at a car show)

• Interview customers. Ask people questions that use your product. Film their reactions (use a microphone if possible). Take some notes, maybe a good write-up or caption could be tied into the photos. People also enjoy feeling like their voice is heard, especially if it’s by the companies that they have given their hard-earned money to.

• Show people having a good time. Get shots of people enjoying events you sponsor, or customers enjoying your products. This can be as valuable, if not more so than a traditional commercial. People like companies that not only have good products but also reinvest in the community and give that community a chance to enjoy themselves (Ex: Muscle car events for the Muscle Car Community). Make a point of showing that you support the community and that people are enjoying events you sponsor.

• Have fun. If you’re having a good time while shooting and experiencing the cars or races it’ll carry over to the footage. Our goal here isn’t just about showing company’s products, we want to show that our clients are into fun. All of our clients have products that are used in fun applications like races. We want people to see footage from events that our clients contribute to and/or participate in. If someone uses a client’s product in the race I will show that person using the product and usually interview him or her as well. It’s better to have more footage and sort through it than coming up short on footage when working on something.

It’s important that you put some effort into the quality of photo and video work for your company. Customers, both current and potential, will notice the quality of this and directly associate it with your product. The cleaner and better shot everything is, the better the company’s image. Follow these steps when possible and have a good time while doing so and it’ll work wonders.

I can’t wait to see what you guys can do.

Thanks,

-Alex Auerbach

The last six months have been really interesting from a crisis PR standpoint. The combination of the public’s insatiable demand for information, the online media world’s never ending quest for clicks, and some unforeseeable circumstances have created some really interesting case studies on how a crisis can unfold and how companies should deal with them in the current new media landscape.

I know this topic has been done to death, but a month later now that the dust has settled, it’s interesting to see how things unfolded. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, the public had been clamoring for more info on the upcoming iPhone 4G, which Apple wouldn’t even acknowledge existed. Then, in late April, the news broke: Gizomodo, a tech blog owned by Gawker Media (which also owns two of our favorite sites, Jalopnik and io9), had possession of a top secret iPhone 4G prototype, dissected it, and they were telling all. Sounds like a hollywood gossip column piece.

As it turns out, an Apple engineer went drinking, forgot the prototype on his stool and an observant (but unscrupulous) passerby picked it up, figured out what it was, called a different tech blog, and when they passed called Gizmodo – who paid for it. They photographed the phone, posted the story, and it got so much buzz is promptly crashed the Gawker comment server. That same night, a lawyer from Apple swung by Giz editor Jason Chen’s house and picked up the phone. Then, the police raided Chen’s home, seized his property, and Apple made rumblings about theft and lawsuits. As it turns out all pretty much settled back down to normal, and Chen ended up scoring huge traffic for his site without anything more than a verbal slap on the wrists. Then the buzz began that Apple leaked the phone on purpose to generate buzz, a silly notion to anyone who has witnessed one of Steve Job’s well-orchestrated summer unveils at Macworld. This is a company that likes to control every minute detail of its message, so leaking a story to a snarky tech blog isn’t its style. Even Gizmodo says so.

At this point, the good news is the world is snapping up iPads like crazy and people are clamoring for the new 4th Gen iPhone. On the other hand, the company’s handling of the situation (denial, then a theft complaint resulting in a raid) makes the normally friendly feeling Apply seem pretty Orwellian. So… less than a week later when Ellen DeGeneres makes a cutesy little farse commercial for her talk show about how hard texting on the iPhone can be (she’s right… especially if you have fat thumbs), you’d think the Cupertino company would just roll with it. Nope… they made a stink with the network and demanded Ellen apologize. You can see the commercial and the apology here:

So… now the company has two killer products, one that’s selling like mad and another coming soon, and Jobs looks like Darth Vader piloting the Death Star. Not good. What could they have done differently? I’m sure the company has a few agencies on 7-figure budgets to tell them, but in my humble opinion they should have done the following:

1. Stick with “no comment” until the phone was confirmed missing

2. Once confirmed, own the mistake, admit it was a prototype phone, thank Gizmodo for finding it and returning it (even before they did so… put the pressure on) then make a statement explaining that every once in a while these things happen, they’re glad reaction has been positive, and thanks to Gizmodo for treating the phone with respect. Other changes are imminent, so this isn’t the final model, but everyone got a sneak peek.

Once the cat is out of the bag, ride the positive PR and buzz and move up the release date. Oh… and don’t put the smack down on the friendly dancing TV host. She makes a living being snarky and poking fun at things… why make the target on your back even bigger?

As it turns out, the video was captured with a rig like the one used by Helivideo; basically a high-def Canon 7D mounted on a radio controlled helicopter. It works for the government with the predator drone, so why not the car industry? See the video below:

Aerial video with a Canon 5D , 7D helivideo.com from Eric AUSTIN on Vimeo.

Having been on shoots with real helicopters, I can attest to the fact that its outrageously expensive and the results are not always predictable. Poor weather, camera shake, and the fact that engine and rotor noise drown out ambient noise are all risks when working with a full-size chopper. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to work with Helivideo soon, it seems like a fantastic option that will revolutionize the promotional video market for the transportation industry.

When the smoke cleared on Sunday, over 60 vehicles had run through the cones and the Hotchkis team gave over 400 rides in three company test vehicles. Formerly conservative, drag-race-only Mopar fans were raving about how much fun they had, and many trekked back to the booth in the Manufacturer’s midway to learn more about suspension systems. We shot about 20 hours of high-def video, so we’ll have several chopped up and posted soon. There was a visible perception shift with the crowd by the end of the weekend. They understood handling for the first time, and they were pumped up about it.

Changing hearts and minds is what PR is all about. I just finished reading What the Dog Saw, by Malcom Gladwell, the author of Tipping Point. The first section of the book focuses on Ron Popeil, the owner of Ronco and the innovator of using late-night infomercials to push products like the Showtime Rotisserie and Food Dehydrator. According to Gladwell’s book, Popeil comes from a long line of pitchmen, who in the ’20s and ’30s would sell their wares on the Jersey Shore boardwalk with live demos. Ron took his live demo to late night TV and made millions.

In the age of social media and short-attention-span theater, human nature remains the same. People want to experience something in order to buy it. Magazine articles are great, but reading a story about something someone else did is a very passive experience. The beauty of events like Mopars at the Strip, any of the GoodGuys Shows with autocross or shootouts like the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge is that they get people to partake in a real-world roller coaster ride. They have a great time, then they tell their friends. The key is tying that experience to a product. Otherwise its just entertainment – which is fine and good, unless you’re trying to make money on the deal. Having a sponsor banner hanging next to the registration booth for an event is good. Giving the participant a ride in a vehicle with your products on it where they can actually feel the difference is great.

Taking a cue from Ron and his rotisserie, we recognize that giving a few hundred people a ride is wonderful, but then sharing that person’s experience with the world is much more powerful. Since TV has become fractionalized by DVR technology and hundreds of channels, spending tens of thousands of dollars on a 2am airtime slot probably isn’t the best choice. Instead, we’re sharing the experience with the world through real-time Facebook and Twitter updates, and video posted to YouTube and the forums. The goal: to help people live in someone’s shoes as they have a thrilling ride for a about two minutes.

With that in mind, one of our other clients – Spectre Performance – is sponsoring a wild event called the Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge. It’s the rebirth of an old Ferrari Club event called the Virginia City Hillclimb. They’re closing a mountain road in southwest Nevada and letting supercars run the road for time. It’s scary, dangerous, and very very cool. So far we’ve signed up several major car builders, supercar owners, a few superstar drivers and most of the major media outlets to cover the event. Only a few dozen will participate, but hopefully thousands can experience it. To illustrate, we put together a little video featuring footage the Spectre crew shot in 2002 when company owner Amir Rosenbaum set the record (which still stands):

Anyway, those are just some random thoughts on why experience is making a comeback. Stay tuned for some vids from Vegas.

-Dan

Our friends at Spectre Performance have a serious addiction to speed. We’ve followed Amir and his crew to Bonneville and were part of a 340 mph world record land speed run, have witnessed several of the Spectre muscle cars on the race track – but now the team from Ontario are taking the speed addiction to a new level.

About a decade ago, Amir was involved in a crazy full-throttle racing event held on a closed mountain road in the middle of the Nevada desert called the Virginia City Hill Climb. It was officially timed and held by the Ferrari club. In fact, he set the record (which still stands) in a Ferrari F40. Since Spectre is focused on spreading the word about its high-performance intake systems and proving its street cred, Amir decided to bring the event back for 2010.

Jimi Day and the FM3 crew (the same group that runs the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge) is running the logistics, and we’re helping with promotion and PR. Should be an incredible event – including a media vs forum shootout with representatives from most of the major magazines and forums/blogs. We also have received entries from some of the top tuners and supercar shops in the country, so it will be an incredible event. Stay tuned for updates, but in the meantime you can check out the Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge website for more info.

First and foremost: I know there are companies out there that develop and make money with those cutesy little social networking games like Farmville. Strictly speaking, I’m not a fan. I don’t care how many pigs you bought or chickens you traded, and don’t really want it cluttering up my news feed. However, there are a few companies out there doing an excellent job using Facebook to help further their business. They key here is that they don’t push a specific product or try to tell you anything – they use Facebook the way it was originally intended when it was a social tool developed by a few Harvard students – as a fun, entertaining branding tool. The best corporate Facebook pages I’ve seen weren’t even profiles, they were fan pages.

A company with an active fan page that gets updated regularly, has an energetic fan base that posts and replies to content daily and grows constantly is a powerful thing. Again – not to sell X number of widgets through SALE SALE SALE! type tactics, but by developing a relationship with an audience so they look forward to and enjoy your content – and by extension, your brand. We do that through on-the-scene video clips, guessing games, behind-the-scenes photos and more. Comp Cams does an excellent job with their fan page, and I have to give a big tip o’ the hat to Chris Douglas and his crew for the work they do – if you haven’t seen it, log into Facebook and search Comp Cams, it’s worth it.

Now for my rant – having recently been inundated with a few hundred resumes before hiring a few new staffers, let me float this out into the ether: to all of you under the age of 30 hoping to one day gain work in the real world: over-sharing on the internet is not a good idea. I have friends, family and even some business associates that insist on sharing totally inappropriate stuff on Facebook on a regular basis. No, I don’t care when you’re eating chicken. I don’t want to hear your racist political statements, and I don’t want to see a picture of you hammered in the bathroom. Please keep in mind this content lives forever on the web and can one day bite you in the ass. A status update is not a note passed in homeroom, it can’t be thrown away. Same goes for your business fan page: have fun, make it entertaining, but be weary – it will live forever.

To wrap things up, I’ve got a link to a fantastic story about how to best utilize Facebook for business written by Ayelet Noff at at TheNextWeb.com. From tips on increasing exposure to making the most of your content, her story – 10 Steps to Create The Ultimate Facebook Fan Page for your Brand – is a great read. Enjoy.

Until Next Time,

Dan

First and foremost, welcome to the new Kahn Media website. While the last CSS based site was fine, it didnt’ really convey the look and feel of our work the way I wanted it to. As most of you blog-savvy folks have already figured out, the new site is based on Wordpress software, with lots of custom HTML tweaking thrown in for good measure. If nothing else it’s easier to navigate.

Other big news – we made several new hires in the past few weeks, and our team of hardcore social media geeks and gearheads continues to grow.

Last but not least, we’ve signed up several new clients, including one of the most well respected wheel brands in the world. Look for an update on that one shortly in the news section. In the meantime, I’ve got lots of social media stories to share so standby!

Thanks, and sorry for the long wait!

Dan