The beauty of the web marketing gladiatorial arena is that it is just that – a no-quarter-asked-for, no-quarter-given roughhouse realm in which being a bit bloody barking bonkers is an undoubted advantage, certainly in the never-ending race for accrued views. After all, it is only in the online era that an eminently respectable airline such as Air New Zealand would elect to whack its PR chips on a cranky, degenerate puppet. And then wrap that campaign up by murdering the puppet.

Rico is the name of the now-deceased puppet; a kind of cranky slacker cat type-thing, the fuzzy fruit of a liaison between Air New Zealand and the Jim Henson Company. Since his 2010 debut, Rico has starred in a string of high-flying videos, featuring alongside the big-name likes of Snoop Dogg and Lindsay Lohan, chalking up an enviable YouTube following amongst viewers with likely only minimal interest in southern hemisphere-based aeronautics.     

However Rico has now been brought crashing down to earth by his creators, the glorified sock puppet having been mercilessly offed as part of a new advertising campaign which invites the public to riddle out ‘Who Murdered Rico?’.

A collaboration between Air NZ and Cluedo board game-makers Hasbro, the new online marketing effort – housed at the website 'Bye Bye Rico' – has thus far failed to match the popularity of some earlier Air NZ clips (indeed, the flagship clip has chalked up the merest sub-fraction of the two million-plus views of the firm’s ad starring wrinkled exercise loon Richard Simmons).         

However! With a colourful suspect list (not a reference to race) including Snoop and Simmons, plus some other not-so famous folks, the next videos in the series should hopefully take interest levels to new heights (new heights: because it’s for an airline, see?). Till then, here’s one of Rico’s past hits.     

If you want to be kept up-to-date with the web marketing latest then be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.   

Television Production in Britain has taken a refreshingly altruistic tone of late, with Sky’s new show ‘Britain’s Great Tree-house Challenge’ using its woodsman skills for the benefit of the most deserving children in Britain. The show accomplished the gargantuan task of building a fully-functional tree-house, complete with wheel-chair lift and suspended walk-way, at The Children’s Trust Charity site in Tadworth.

The impressive structure was built over the course of five days, and the site was one of three which was selected after the filmmakers were informed of the huge positive impact they could make on the lives of the children receiving care there.

Jan Vance, play therapist at The Children’s Trust, said: “We could never have dreamed that such an amazing structure could be created here. The tree-house will enrich the lives of the children in countless ways for many years to come.”

The Children’s Trust Charity works with children who have multiple disabilities and complex health needs, and helps to improve the quality of life for hundreds of children and their families nation-wide. The Great Tree-house Challenge, presented by architectural designer Charlie Luxton, will be broadcast on Sky 1 on Tuesday, December 13 at 8pm.

If you would like to see more of the family-members, care-workers and children themselves then be sure to check out these video productions which were made by Spectrecom Films.

Do you run a charity? Find out how video production can spread awareness of your cause today.

Filmmaking legend and man of letters, Gilbert Adair, has died, age 66. Gilbert was a unique part of the psyche of our film industry, and there will undoubtedly be a distinct void where once this aberrant character flourished. He was everything from a novelist to screenwriter to translator and pasticheur. With final works being a series of detective story spoofs, satirical variants on Agatha Christie.

Gilbert Adair's publications would take up an entire shelf: 12 novels, extensive further essays and mountains of critical studies, including a translation of François Truffaut's letters. Though this legacy remains poignant, one can’t help but get the sense that this classical figure did not sit comfortably in today’s modern world of tweeting and i-laziness.

In another age, he might have been a conventional academic with a range of interests, but in the 20th and 21st centuries he was able to distil his brilliance and scholarly flair to the glorious new medium of cinema. Rest in peace Gilbert Adair, your legacy remains firmly intact.

Taking a break from the Christmas web video onslaught that is covering the Internet the same old holiday themed routines let’s have a look back at some of the best viral moments from the past year.

We have talked about the web video phenomenon or meme that is ‘supercuts’ before, and handily someone called Zapatou, who does actually have previous in this department, has created a supercut of 200 of the best viral moments from 2011.

It seems rather strange to get nostalgic over something so fleeting as viral videos but this energetically edited video production is highly watchable and works almost like an advert for YouTube.

Do you think viral video could help advertise you business or brand? As part of a well rounded marketing strategy it can be incredibly useful in raising awareness and improving your social media numbers. 

If you want to find out more about viral video and the potential it has for creating another dimension to your video marketing strategy why not get in touch. 

Filmmaking is verging on the creative in Hollywood for a change; as French director Michel Hazanavicius puts it under the telescope for his silent feature-length movie ‘The Artist’. The film is a period drama set on the eve of the birth of the talkies within the Hollywood film studios.

“When I first told people about my idea for this movie, they just laughed at me," says Michel Hazanavicius. "Friends, actors, producers – they all laughed. They'd say, 'OK, OK, but what do you really want to do?'"

The Artist focuses on George Valentin, a swashbuckling, thin-moustached Hollywood silent movie star modelled on Douglas Fairbanks, whose career plummets with the advent of the talkies. The film production has proved a calling card for Hazanavicius in Hollywood. "Now I'm getting sent scripts for period movies as though that is what they think I do" But among the offers he's received, there lies a particular gem from the head of fiction at HBO. "He said he liked The Artist and would be really glad if I had an idea for a serial. From the people who made The Sopranos, which to me is at the level of Dostoevsky, that is so flattering."

“I don't care about my reputation. People thought of me as a pasticheur, but I'm also co-author of a documentary about genocide in Rwanda. I'm not this Neanderthal guy who just makes a good show – although that is difficult enough. I only have one obsession – not to be boring."

The Artist will be by the beginning of 2012, and if you want to bring your movie idea to life in a creative way then check out our studio rates.