We just finished building a new online video content manager for Ford dealers. It’s basically a YouTube for Ford, allowing the company and its dealer network to view training and informational videos. It also allows viewers to rate the content of each video – a powerful tool that will drive quality content to the top.

This project was extremely technical – file conversions, hosting issues, permissions, etc. It was a real accomplishment for our Web development and database teams. Our project management team managed the entire process with tools originally built for software development. 

So here’s a project that targets our client’s internal audience and is actually software – and I ask myself, “Are we really an advertising agency?” 

The answer is yes. But the channels are changing as we speak. 

This project actually leverages the dealer sales staff as our media — they will be better informed, more engaged and better able to help customers. A smart media buy for sure.

A few years ago, I had what has, luckily, been my only largely negative experience with an airline. I swore off the company and wrote a complaint letter, but when I received a free trip voucher along with an apology note, the airline quickly regained my business. I got what I was ultimately looking for—acknowledgement of the mistake and some decent customer service.

Unfortunately for United Airlines, a single unaddressed customer complaint turned into a full-blown social media crisis. When Dave Carroll’s numerous phone calls and e-mails to the company yielded no response, he took his grievance to a different outlet where he knew he would be heard—YouTube.

Carroll, who claims the airline broke his $3,500 guitar on a flight last year, joined forces with his band, Sons of Maxwell, and created a music video chronicling his complaint and the lack of customer service. The video grabbed the attention of not only United Airlines, but 2.5 million others, with 20,000 ratings and over 13,000 comments.

With platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, it is now more imperative than ever that companies listen to their customers. As United Airlines has undoubtedly learned, if you won’t listen, customers can find a much bigger audience who will.

A woman sits on the floor of a huge warehouse typing away on her laptop, unaware that camouflaged bad guys are slowly moving toward her from all sides. Just as they’re about to overrun her, they slam into a plywood wall erected just in the nick of time by four unlikely superheroes sausaged into primary-colored unitards.

If it sounds silly, it is. But it’s also a clever ad for the virus and spam protection built into Google Chrome, Google’s new Web browser for Windows. And I saw it and three other engaging, minimalist video ads (Google calls them Chrome Shorts) not on TV, but within a super-slick expandable banner ad.

While I have no doubt that the browser itself is as innovative as Google’s other products, I was more struck by the irony of seeing the company running such a prominent and elaborate display ad.

You may recall that just a couple of years ago Google was still playing catch up in the online display advertising field. Some said that its dominance in search led it to discount the importance of display advertising.

If you run across this ad, you’ll see that they’re clearly not discounting it now. If you don’t feel like waiting until you’re served the banner, you can see the Chrome Shorts on the Google Chrome YouTube channel.

And thanks, Google, for finally validating the work we’ve been doing for the past 10 years.