Just landed in San Francisco and made our way over to the international terminal to wait for our flight to Beijing. Although we have 3 hours to kill, it’s a bit risky to head into the city when it takes around 35 minutes by BART. 4 hours or more would be perfect, 2-3 hours is just too little time.

We just got our visas from the Chinese embassy, so our trip to China is confirmed. This Friday (yes, it was a very close call with the visas) we are flying out for a 9 day trip to Beijing and along the Yangtze river thanks to our friends at TripFilms.com, who set up this travel video assignment for us. We will be shooting videos about our experiences for our sponsor companies Pacific Delight Tours and Victoria Cruises, and try to keep everyone updated on the journey with photos and short clips on this blog.

Our first tip is to always check if a country you are traveling to requires a visa… and how much it is. Our visas to China cost $280 each because we needed them expedited and because we don’t live in a city with a Chinese consulate, so we had to use a Visa service to take care of this for us. It took less than a week for our passports to return with the visas, so everything worked out.

Stay tuned our blog and TripFilms.com as our China adventure begins!

Royal Caribbean International has just taken delivery of the world’s largest cruise ship: “Oasis of the Seas”. The ship is currently sailing to Florida where it will take on it’s first passengers. One of the most interesting things about the launch of this new ship is the extensive online video production that covers all aspects of the ship and includes a regularly updated Captain’s Log. You can watch the videos and find out more details about the ship, including it’s current position on their website www.oasisoftheseas.com.

Watch a clip from our Pasadena Old Town episode on this new promo compilation for TripFilms.com.. it’s the last one in the video

The FTC has recently made it a requirement for bloggers (and not mainsteam news outlets) to disclose if they receive samples, products or free trips during the writing of an article. When it comes to travel writing, does anyone really think that most bloggers can afford to pay for the costs of taking a few trips per month or even per year? Can you afford to take as many trips as a travel writer does on your salary? Would you prefer to read a first hand account of a trip or destination, or one written based on online research and press releases?

Here at Getting Around we have paid for some of our trips, but for our bigger excursions we simply would not be able to create videos and articles without some sort of discounts and expenses covered by our hosts or production partners.

Gadling, a travel blog we highly recommend, recently wrote an article about their position on this issue and we completely agree with them. Check out the full article at Gadling.com.

After hearing about Virgin’s new airline while watching the popular podcast Diggnation, produced by Revision3 (great use of new media to launch the airline BTW), I finally had the opportunity to fly on Virgin America on a trip from Seattle to Los Angeles.

The airline was being promoted as ‘making flying good again’ by providing more services while maintaining a low cost. Of course, this was aimed at the American market which, from personal experince, is pretty bad. So here is an account of my Virgin America experience so far (as I write this article mid flight on my iPhone WordPress app):

Booking a flight online is very simple, the website makes it easy to find the cheapest day to fly and the total cost is added up as you pick your flights (including all fees/taxes), but be aware that prices can change day to day and specials come up all the time. I paid $49 for the outgoing part my trip while the return flight was around $180 (checking in bags is $20 for the first bag, but that is pretty much standard on all domestic flights these days.) Customer service on the phone was also quick to help me out with a credit I had on the account. So far so good.

Wth a boarding pass printed, getting on the plane was quick and painless and we left right on time. The first and most obvious difference is the atmosphere and lighting, it looks and feels very modern and friendly. It’s amazing how much a little colored lighting can help.

Next the seats and entertainment system. The main cabin seats aren’t much bigger than on traditional airlines, but they do feel more comfortable and softer. Each seat has a touch screen entertainment and communication system, allowing you to watch movies, tv and podcasts, play games, chat with fellow passengers, and even order food. Instead of the typical food cart that slowly meanders through the isle, the flight attendents actually bring you your order, which kind of feels like you’re in first class. You can even select if you want cream and sugar in your complimentary coffee straight from the menu. If you have a regular main cabin ticket the tea, coffee, water and soft drinks are free, but snacks, meals and alcoholic beverages are not. Neither are the movies and on demand tv shows… Yes, that’s correct, you have to pay for your in-flight movie and the going price for mainstream films is $8! Do I get to keep the DVD with that?! Why are movies, a typically free offering, so expensive? I have flown on a lot of airlines, including ones with touch screens in each seat, but have never seen an airline charging for the entertainment. There are some free options though, like broadcast TV, podcasts and video games; and as amazing as it is that they offer podcasts, they don’t appear to be updated very often. I guess this system has yet to catch up with RSS.

You can also buy a few items on your flight, like headphones and a skin care kit filled with the Yes To Carrots product line (one of the safer and best quality skin and beauty product lines available. More details at Glamology.com)

Virgin America offers fleet-wide Wifi onboard, which runs $10, as well as power outlets for every seat, so you’ll never run out of juice. I suggest you bring your laptop and DVDs if you want to watch movies, you’ll save money and get to watch the movies you like.

Well, that’s pretty much all for now. I would definitely recommend taking a flight on Virgin America if you have a chance.

The Naturhotel, located near Innsbruck, is one of the most eco-friendly hotels we’ve ever seen. Everything from the construction to the use of natural sunlight makes this hotel an eco-traveler’s destination. Check out their website for more details: http://www.waldklause.at

A few weeks ago I came across a web show called Critics, where two experienced film professionals discuss and critique videos found on Vimeo.com. The show is beautifully shot, the banter witty and the videos well curated. Immediately I wanted to see more episodes and see what else this company was producing. It turns out they also produce a show called FilmFellas, which is probably one of the most authentic and entertaining talk shows about indie film and video production I have ever seen. I was a bit surprised to find out that the company behind these shows is not a television network, but a camera accessory brand! And it is just as entertaining and informative as anything I would expect to see on TV or Hulu.

So why are companies creating this type of content? And how does this help their business? The answer lies in another question: How important is it to get targeted visitors returning to your website week after week?

How important is it to get targeted visitors returning to your website week after week?

If your answer is: very important, then you’ve got a few options: spend your budget on online ads about your products/services/website or spend your budget on content. Now, pretend you are a consumer of your product/service. What would you prefer? A barrage of ads about a company and it’s supposedly fantastic products (alongside ads from other companies saying how great their products are), or an entertaining and compelling tv show, movie or documentary?

This is the question that Steve Weiss and Jens Bogehegn posed to themselves when they were considering new marketing options for their company: Zacuto, a camera rental house and accessory manufacturer. They decided to try something new and produce their own web shows; but instead of talking about their products or pitching their services, they created shows that were compelling to their target audience: filmmakers, photographers and video producers. “We do not promote our products at all on our shows.  We don’t even mention our name Zacuto.  That’s a big no no.” says Steve, who believes that if they start promoting their own products in the shows, they will loose credibility.

So how does it help? Well, the shows do have a ‘Zacuto Production’ tag in the credits, but more importantly they are located on the Zacuto website. So, if you’re watching the show, you’re already on the company’s site and that much closer to exploring their products. Or, if the show happens to be on Vimeo or another video sharing site, there’s a link to the show page on Zacuto.com where you can catch more episodes. If you like what you see you’ll keep coming back to their website and probably sign up to be informed when new episodes are released.

The most important elements of the success of FilmFellas and Critics is the quality of the production and relevance of the content. “…we talk about things that people in the indie film scene talk about everyday.  I hear this from viewers all of the time, and many learn from our interesting guests.” and Steve’s right, as a filmmaker myself, that is exactly what drew me to the shows. They are authentic, entertaining and even inspiring.

Producing great shows is one thing, but even Lost and 24 need some promotion and so now we’re back to creating ads. For Zacuto it means putting select ads in American Cinematographer and HDvideoPro, working with social networking and relying heavily on word-of-mouth. “Actually we sometimes direct people to our shows over actually sending them to see our product line.” and that makes sense, would you click on an ad for a show about your industry or for a lens thingamajig? Now you are advertising great content and indirectly your great products/service to an audience that is already pre-qualified to have a strong interest.

It’s the future.  Get with it.

When I asked Steve if he had any advice for companies thinking about branded content, he said it best: “Do it.  There are many many ways this can help you.  Brand recognition, top of mind for when [customers] are ready to buy, educate customers, entertain customers, compete with TV for eyeballs (if you run television commercials you are trying to direct eyeballs to your website, if you have your own programming on your site, they are already at the place where you want to them to buy products)  Which makes more sense. How else can you get someone to come to your website week after week.  If you think it’s because your company is so great and bla, bla, bla, you are kidding yourself.  Compelling webisodic content or entertaining content will do it.  It’s the future.  Get with it.”

Steve and the Zacuto team aren’t the only ones who have caught on to this, recently IKEA released a comedic web series called “Easy to Assemble“, and other brands are considering this approach as well. Personally, I’m with Steve, it IS the future and the sooner brands realize this, the more they will stand out from the crowded online marketing landscape.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to examine the costs and developments in branded web content. Stay tuned… to our RSS feed, Twitter and of course you can contact me at Postcard Films.

Related:

• Getting Around: European Delivery, a web travel series
• Digital cinema new wave: HD capable DSLRs – part 1

Our cat Sashimi is now the official model for Postcard Films, here she is posing for the video podcast ad. She signed a very lucrative agreement without even running it by her agent

The latest “Best of TripFilms” features the best hiking videos on the site. A clip from our “Fryman Canyon” video was included in the compilation and you can see our full episode after the jump…