I just wrote about our Know Your Meme series and how the show has worked as a spin-off. It took a long time for the branch off to happen.
Another obvious branch that we have been thinking about for a long time is “Rocketboom Tech”. The Rocketboom news is filled with tech-related stories and a large portion of our audience is tech minded.
When we were speaking with Intel about some of their objectives and some of our objectives, we realized that we had a lot in common and decided to launch Rocketboom Tech, with their help.
We set this up in a way where our objective at Rocketboom is met with the extra resources and support to get the show up and running, and both of our objectives are met through a collaboration to get people aware of and interested in new technologies while also learning ourselves from the experience. Intel is creating a massive amount of media already (Intel pressroom is www.intel.com/pressroom and Intel YouTube is www.youtube.com/channelintel ) so understanding the Rocketboom process is just one of many branches they can add to their growing tree of knowledge.
In terms of the content, we have invited a member of the Intel team to join our creative team, to help come up with ideas for stories to cover. Intel processors and the impact of its vast research and investments are helping bring new technologies to people all over the world, but people inside the company also love using new technologies too. And like Rocketboom, Intel is fascinated in how people are using technologies in interesting or peculiar ways, rather than just “speed and feeds” of technologies.
We are certainly not just going to talk about intel stuff. On the contrary, we’re focusing resources and brain power on finding interesting stories about innovation and how people are using technology in interesting ways. The best story idea each week wins and becomes a segment. In fact, nevertheless, Rocketboom remains in complete control of the editorial and decides what we will do for each episode.
The entire production process is experimental, and we hope the results help Rocektboom and Intel learn from each other while creating segments that are interesting, useful, insightful and inspiring to anyone who enjoys using tech in their daily lives.
With Ellie at the helm of this project, I have no doubt we’ll be in good shape here. Ellie has been at Rocketboom for over three years now and she’s seen it all. She is also starring in our Know Your Meme series, which is currently our most talked about production. With regards to the comments and feedback we have received on the first several episodes of Rocketboom Tech, everything is going even better than hoped.
Here are a few extra points about the relationship between Rocketboom & Intel which I think are noteworthy:
#1
Intel is not interested in simply sponsoring or running advertisements on Rocketboom. They are exploring new media themselves and with every relationship, appear to be keeping fresh and on top of the pulse of what is going on. With us in particular, they wanted to get to the bottom of how we tick, it seems, so they they can use the experience, storytelling and production insights to improve their own online media creation and bring more meaning to news and future product releases. As you may know we are always interested in exposing our workflows & methods with the hope that we help others to embrace the media.
#2
Rocketboom, Intel and Sony Pictures were all involved in the deal, which means there were also three sets of lawyers involved so you can imagine what it might of taken to get a project like this off the ground. Yet amazingly, everyone was willing to just say ok and it all just happened. Just like that. This was an unprecedented experience that shows how some of the biggest of bureaucracies can rise to the occasion to create something that is contemporary and progressive. This is a good example of smart risk-taking.
#3
We are not just getting a cash deal here, we are learning a great deal from intel as well. They also have a *huge* audience already, spread out all over the world and they are sending people our way, too. When they post our videos on their Intel pages, or twitter about us, there is an important impact we see from it. You usually expect this exposure to be a one way thing but in this case, its a reciprocal coevolution. I think this is a good example of smart collaboration.
*update: Thanks to Liz at Newteevee and Andy at Beet.TV for posting about this!
Rocketboom Tech episodes on Rocketboom: http://www.rocketboom.com/category/tech/
Rocketboom Tech on Twitter (new) is http://www.twitter.com/RocketboomTech
Intel consumer blog Inside Scoop is http://scoop.intel.com
Intel on Twitter is http://www.twitter.com/intel
