Will Paris’ podcast have character?

neville

I’ve heard this already described as a ‘character blog’:

Podcasting is hot. But it just got hotter. Paris Hilton invites you to join her on "The Paris Hilton Podcast — Countdown to House of Wax," beginning on April 29. Join Paris and friends as she shops, parties, poses and publicizes in the days leading up to the May 6 opening of House of Wax.

I suppose you could argue that it could be a ‘character blog’ in that the site (it’s not a blog) and the podcast center around the actor playing one of the main characters in this horror flick (R rated in the US, but only a 12 in The Netherlands – go figure) that opens in much of Europe towards the end of May.

Yet as the podcast’s protagonist is a real person, ie, Paris (according to the blurb on the site), it can’t be a character. But if the real person is playing the role of the character, maybe it could.

That’s actually a silly and pointless argument. I don’t believe it would be regarded as a ‘character blog’ at all (anyway its the podcast that’s the focus, not the website) as it clearly looks like its the actor and not the character who is the star of the audio show. And everyone will know that.

We’ll find out more about what the podcast’s like when the first MP3 is available sometime today via the RSS feed. (I say the ‘first MP3’ as I imagine this will be the first of others to come. They wouldn’t go to all this effort, and create all that expectation, just for one, surely.)

Whatever it turns out to be, I’m impressed with how Warner Bros is developing this promo vehicle for the film to embrace wide-ranging communication channels. There’s already quite a bit of reporting by mainstream media about the podcast. And lots of buzz in the blogosphere. Adam Curry had a paid commercial on Wednesday’s Daily Source Code (MP3, 15.6Mb), which he says is his first paid ad. He’s hoping to interview Paris tonight (US time) about the podcast.

Pretty good audience targeting, I’d say, especially via the Daily Source Code.

Not only all this, but there’s also the ‘House of Wax Podcatcher,’ a special edition of iPodder, in Windows and Mac flavours:

The House of Wax Podcatcher helps you find, subscribe to and download podcasts onto your portable media player. Using RSS technology, podcasts are audio distributed in the MP3 format and will play back on any portable media player. The House of Wax Podcatcher comes pre-loaded with "The Paris Hilton Podcast."

Some imaginative integrated marketing and communication going on here. It certainly has character.

Incidentally, stay tuned to Adam Curry’s website in the coming days. He’s about to make some announcements re the Podshow offering that he’s been readying for kickoff. Plus he’s developing a new podcasting application called CastBlaster which has just entered a closed beta testing phase.

So what about ‘character blogs’? Well, in spite of the many posts defending them, I will stick to my guns: I believe character blogs are a waste of everyone’s time. Certainly every one I’ve seen so far is exceedingly lame. So I’ll stick with what I said last week: just because you could doesn’t mean you should (there’s a definition of character blogs in that post).

5 thoughts on “Will Paris’ podcast have character?”

  2. Thanks for that comment, Chris. I read your review after I listened to the podcast last night.
    I like the start to your review: ‘Worst. Five minutes. Ever.’
    Actually, I thought it was pretty good! No question it’s about Paris Hilton. Very informal, certainly conversational (where the word ‘like’ is clearly the top ranker in Paris’ vocabulary).
    I’d agree that there is very little about the movie in this podcast. Paris starts out by talking about being in New York to promote the movie in a segment of about a minute and a half. That was it. The rest is then Paris out and about meeting fans. Lots of them screaming and cheering in the background (well, almost foreground).
    But don’t you think all of this is very much in character with Paris? Think about who the target audience is (I don’t know who, but I can make a few guesses: movie fans about her age) as well as how Paris is being presented (and is presenting herself) in a new and interesting way.
    The title of the RSS feed that delivers the podcast is ‘Paris Hilton Podcast #1’, so I’m going to give it a while to see how this campaign develops.
    But based on listening to this one, I’d say Warner Bros have made a pretty good start. Plus Paris – you have to give her some credit for actually doing this. Isn’t this the first movie-related podcast?

  3. Just listened to podcast #2 from last Friday. This one’s 8 minutes long. It’s interesting, listening to it mostly with an ear to its overall production value rather than for specific content.
    It’s Paris talking, what she thinks about this and that, mostly chit-chat. Innocuous stuff, probably the kind of thing Californian girls her age talk about with their friends, whether they’re movie stars or not.
    She ventures some opinions about David Letterman and her interview with him the night before. Not very complimentary: she talks about hating it when the media keep digging about something she doesn’t want to talk about.
    Overall, I like the production. Especially the ‘ka-ching!’ cash register sound interspersed throughout. Subliminal message there, perhaps!

  4. Neville don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Warner Bros. has jumped on the movie marketing car of the Cluetrain. Most studios have been completely ignoring any sort of new technologies, be they RSS, podcasting etc. I just would have liked to have seen the first move into this area have something – anything – to do with a movie and not latch on to the cult of personality that surrounds Ms. Hilton.
    See the problem for me is that I write a regular column on movie marketing efforts and covering the websites is becoming routine: Wallpaper, trailer, production notes and such are all there usually is. Even a natural opportunity for a great site like with the recent Hitchhiker’s Guide was missed.
    Anyway, I love the work you and Shel Holtz do. Your FIR podcasts are the highlights of my week.
    –Chris

Comments are closed.