As part of an agreement between the HSBC Celebration of Light and Strutta, yours truly was the official videographer for the event. Every year, the best fireworks teams in the world compete for bragging rights in what is the world’s biggest offshore fireworks competition.

I have already shot the first two evenings of action, and I look forward to doing en even better job with the remaining two nights. We’ve created a game on Strutta where folks can cast their votes for their favourite, and I uploaded both the Team Canada and USA performances to Vimeo, so that y’all can watch them in higher quality. (See the embedded versions of both below)

Quick technical note: The original footage was shot in high definition, then reduced to 960 x 540, as they will ultimately be mastered to DVD (720 x 480).

What is the marketing lesson here?

How this deal came about is quite simple, and no money changed hands. I asked if they had a “social media sponsor” ( and after the pregnant pause on the other end of the line, I tried “videographer” instead) and when they said they didn’t, we set about coming up with a mutually beneficial agreement. Now, I can reap the benefits of the cross promotion, and land a lot more eyeballs on our site by hosting the highlight videos. All because I asked. These days, there are a number of events, happenings and causes that could benefit from your knowledge in the use of social media and the web. Positioning yourself as the official source of promotions and “media” sponsorship can be very good for your own promotion, and possibly even lead to consulting work in the field.

I have to confess, I borrowed this idea from my friend Rebecca Bollwitt, aka Miss 604, who has been the de facto “social media sponsor” and liveblogger of a number of popular Vancouver events, tech related and otherwise. To say that this strategy has been good for promoting her would be something of an understatement, to be sure. Now that she and her husband have launched their own consultancy, Sixty4Media, that promotion will be paying dividends.

But that concludes today’s lesson; now let’s watch some fireworks! If you want to vote on your faves, you may do so in the Strutta game: HSBC Celebration of Light 2008.

Team Canada - August 23 2008 from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

Team USA - August 26, 2008 from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

*image of Team Canada fireworks by the incomparable Rob Masefield. View his whole (breathtaking!) photo set here, and if you want a tutorial on shooting fireworks with a DSLR camera, Rob offers one here.

Wow.

Long time without a post, eh? I apologize for my lack of publishing here of late, both of photos and blog posts. Ideas aren’t hard to come by, but time is a rare luxury these days. Not that I’m complaining; the things that have me busy all come with exciting challenges and fun that I wouldn’t want to miss out on.

Here’s a very short list of what’s been occupying me, as a means of buying myself even more time until after the dust settles (in some cases, literally).

We are closer and closer each day to the launch of Strutta, the startup that I serve as Director of Community Relations for. When I started this exciting new gig, I promised to share my experiences with community-building in posts here; a promise I intend to keep. So far though, I have yet to build a community of users beyond the list of folks waiting for a beta invites- you can sign up on home page…plug, plug I’ve certainly done my share of blogging, but it’s been on the Strutta blog of late, sprinkled with the occasional Jaiku micro-blog update. We’re at the stage where we are putting the finishing touches on the “user experience” of our site, and solidifying all our plans for launch. I’ve got a few “newfangled” as well as some old fashioned plans of how to reach out to the community when it’s time, and I’ll be sure to share all of those soon. We’re also knee-deep in plans for tomorrow night’s Launch Party Vancouver 3 (Facebook Event page), an extremely popular local tech event organized by Maura Rodgers, our VP of Marketing and my leader/compatriot in our two-person marketing department.

“But what about when you get home, Jord! Surely you have time to type out a few blog posts here and there in the evenings after work?” In truth, sometimes I do, but I’m a often just a little too knackered. My wife and I have just recently moved into our new condo, and I still have a few unfinished renovation projects on the go, some of which I’m too exhausted to complete until the weekends roll around. Again, I’m not complaining; having our own home to re-paint, re-floor and move into is our blessing and not our curse.

More to come soon. I’ll bang out posts when I can, but you’ll likely get more action by following the Strutta blog while it’s still “crunch time” for me. One of these days I should publish a newsletter too- It must be close to a calendar year since the last one, and I still get a steady trickle of new subscribers each week. Ta for now!