Archive for the ‘Broadman & Holman’ Category

A couple of weeks ago I posted about HolmanTV, a videoblog being produced mainly to promote a new student Bible being published by Broadman & Holman Publishing Group, a division of LifeWay. Earlier this week I connected with Steve Nesmith, Director of E-Business for B&H. He kindly agreed to an e-mail interview. Check it out.

What is HolmanTV?
HolmanTV is a videoblog, also called a vlog, produced by B&H Publishing Group in Nashville. It’s about a twenty-something guy named Holman who is stuck in his first job out of college. Holman wants to be a musician, and videoblogs from a camera in his office cubicle. We don’t try to hide the fact that it is a fictional vlog, but we don’t emphasize that fact either. It’s just meant to be fun entertainment for a young adult audience. We created it to build buzz around the new Holman Student Bible.

Who’s idea was it to use videoblogging to promote a new Bible?
Technically I presented the idea to B&H but I have to give credit to Tim Jordan, B&H Bible Marketing Manager, for getting on board immediately with the idea.

Is it working?
I think it is. A LifeWay retail store manager recently told us about a customer who walked in talking about HolmanTV and connecting it to the new student Bible. From the beginning this was designed to be a slow-burn campaign, that is, a low budget grass-roots effort that would slowly build buzz over a long period of time.

Every now and then we get kind of an “artsy” episode like episode 9 (4th of July). Do you find yourself walking a fine line between just doing something that feels cool and doing something that really develops the storyline?
I’m impressed that you liked episode 9. Honestly a lot of those decisions are made by our in-house vid editor David Woodard. We trust David’s judgement about how to craft an episode in the editing suite. Believe it or not, episode 9 was two different episodes that David decided to combine into one, and ya couldn’t even tell could ya!

Do you actually know where the storyline is headed?
The one thing we all agreed on is that this thing would act,look and feel grass-roots, like a real vlog. Most vloggers out there don’t have a script or tight storyline and neither do we. We all want Holman to find his big break and meet some cool people in the process, and that is probably where the storyline will go, with more meetups and interviews.

Does MWS know that Holman has a man-crush on him?
Yeah, we kinda over sold Holman’s infatuation with Smitty didn’t we.

Seriously, is MWS aware of the HolmanTV project?
One of the HolmanTV producers Eric has a friendship with Smitty’s son, and Eric has communicated our intentions to have Holman one day meet the big kahuna. So the answer is, I hope so.

I can see a ton of cross-promotional opportunities popping up out of this thing (Rocketown Records?). Any plans for stuff like that?
That was our idea from the beginning. And that’s why we believe HolmanTV is destined to be around for a long time. Most marketing campaigns last about
3 months. This one is completely different, much more innovative in my opinion.

Can I have a cameo on HolmanTV?
HolmanTV is a low budget vlog desperate for content and ideas. What do you think? Of course!