In 2007 she launched AdBroad, an AdAge Power 150 blog covering her corner of the advertising industry. Then, at SXSW 2009, she coined the term “brand fiction” to describe her unique hybrid of branded entertainment and fan fiction and launched a boutique content agency, Brand Fiction Factory, shortly thereafter.

The idea behind brand fiction is to give brands a life of their own on social media channels, growing the brands’ mythology along with their number of followers.

Her unofficial, Webby award-winning @bettydraper Twitter feed tops out at 31,000 followers, illuminating the inner life of the fictional 1960s housewife in AMC’s Mad Men.

Other Mad Men characters have Twitter profiles as well (some voiced by Ross, some by other fans), creating an ongoing conversation that draws on the show’s plotlines. This develops their personalities while giving new and die-hard fans something to chew on between episodes.

But “Mad Men on Twitter” extends beyond Twitter. Klein Ross and her cohorts even put together a Twepisode titled “Don takes Sally to the Beatles” that imagines how the characters in Mad Men would have experienced the legendary Beatles concert at Shea stadium if Twitter were around in 1965. There’s also a blog, Welcome to the Drapers. (Mad Men’s creator, Matt Weiner, and AMC have given their blessings but declined to officially endorse the project.)

During this year’s StoryWorld Conference in San Francisco, Sparksheet editor Dan Levy caught up with Helen Klein Ross, who explained what brand managers and TV producers stand to gain by bringing some fiction (and fun) to their brands.

It’s the Muppets.

The Jim Henson-created franchise has been in a slump for decades. Their biggest hit was the The Muppet Movie back in 1979. But that was before social media.

The Muppets, released last week in North America, has garnered critical acclaim and fans are pouring into theatres. But perhaps their biggest success has been online: This old-school franchise is the new kung-fu master of branded entertainment.

As Alex Rowland wrote in Sparksheet , branded entertainment works best when users forget they’re watching an ad and when they’re given opportunities to interact with the brand.

Disney chose die-hard Muppet fans Jason Segal and James Bobbin to write and direct the film, and brought in Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie for the soundtrack, ensuring an authentic Muppet experience while delivering quality content that works on multiple channels.

For two years Disney used – you guessed it – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+ to generate buzz online.

They kicked-off the campaign with a decidedly unorthodox but wholly Muppetesque cover of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which went viral, winning two Webbies along the way.

Next, Kermit appeared in *cough* person at the world premier of the latest Pirates of the Carribean installment for the release of The Muppets’ first trailer.

Arguably the campaign’s biggest hit, the series of trailer parodies poked fun at this year’s most anticipated blockbusters. The lighthearted videos capture what so many fans love about the Muppets – their infectious silliness.

As one of the first official brands to join Google+, the Muppets filled the user engagement quota by hosting a Google+ hangout.

As opening weekend approached, the Muppets took a tongue-in-cheek spin on cause marketing with their “Muppets Fan-A-Thon.”

Riffing on the film’s central plot point, Muppet characters urged viewers to “pledge a like” on Facebook. If the page reached the modest goal of a “bazillion” likes, Disney would release advanced screening locations. No, they didn’t reach the bazillion mark, but with 2 million likes, Disney’s not complaining.

Finally, taking aim at haters on Digg and YouTube, the franchise released another viral hit. This time, ill-fated Beaker burns down the set with his rendition of “Dust in the Wind.”

Yes, The Muppets’ aesthetic is 1970s oddball. Yes, their jokes are goofy. But that’s why we love them, and it took a flawlessly executed social media campaign to remind us.

And in case you haven’t had your fill of Muppet-driven branded content, check out our Q&A with Sesame Street’s new media director, Dan Lewis.

A couple of major production companies are linked to the new online channels, including Lionsgate and FremantleMedia (co-producer of The X Factor).

YouTube is also partnering with a number of prominent media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters and Slate to generate original content.

YouTube’s latest foray into original television programming has critics asking a couple of important questions. First, why is the company doing this? Second, will these new channels be a cable TV killer?

“Cable television expanded our viewing possibilities from just a handful of channels to hundreds, and brought us some of the most defining media experiences of the last few decades – think MTV, ESPN and CNN,” YouTube’s global head of content partnerships wrote in a blog post, adding that YouTube hopes to do the same with its upcoming channels.

Eweek’s Clint Boulton points out that adding professionally-produced content could help YouTube increase the amount of time users spend on the popular site; these new channels are expected to generate about 25 hours of unique content a day.

The Daily Mail’s Rob Waugh writes that many advertisers aren’t keen on running ads before user-generated videos. So adding more branded channels is a smart business move.

Let’s keep in mind that Google is shelling out about $100 million for these new channels. As All Things D notes, that’s not that much for Google (considering how much revenue YouTube is expected to generate this year).

Mainstream TV shows and movies are made on million dollar budgets; the latest Transformers movie alone reportedly had a production budget of nearly $200 million. It will probably take more than $100 million to take down cable TV. But for that price, it’s certainly worth a try.

As it turns out, the big earners aren’t just innovative – most of them are young and funny.

Epic endorsements

The weekly anti-cooking show Epic Meal Time started out as an inside joke among friends, but as 25-year-old host Harley Morenstein’s cooking (and eating) adventures began gaining in popularity on YouTube, he quit his job as a substitute teacher and now lives off the income the show generates through advertising.

Believe it or not, those dollars don’t come from product placement (they consume copious amounts of Jack Daniels during each episode). Rather, it’s Netflix, Gamefly, and GoDaddy among others that are earning them the big bucks through referral marketing. Essentially, the cooking team promotes these brands by offering deals on their website and sometimes in the videos themselves. When their fans use the referral codes, they profit.

The college try

Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, both writers for CollegeHumor, have made it big online with their comedy sketch series, Jake and Amir, which airs twice a week on CollegeHumor.com and YouTube.

The three-minute sketches draw an average of 500,000 views per episode. Now CollegeHumor is going to see whether fans are willing to invest in what they continue to get for free. The duo has just put out a 30-minute episode called “Fired” which fans can stream for $3 via CollegeHumor’s site and Facebook.

They can also purchase the DVD for $13. The verdict is still out as to whether this strategy will pay off, though if it does, we should expect to see other popular web series give it the new college try.

6-year-old angst

Since 2006 Lucas Cruikshank has been serving up videos starring the fictional character Fred Figglehorn, a high-pitched 6-year-old with anger management issues. While Cruikshank generates income from YouTube ads, last year saw the premiere of the Nickelodeon-backed film Fred: The Movie, which was widely panned by critics.

His channel remains one of the most popular on YouTube, and he’s even partnered on sketches with an equally successful private channel, The Annoying Orange.

The old-fashioned way

It seems that YouTube viewers can’t get enough of young comedians with a penchant for gross-out humour, as Shane Dawson can certainly attest.

The 23-year-old has not just one but three successful YouTube channels, which, according to TubeMogul, have earned him a combined total of 431,787,450 page views and $315,000 through ads, proving that mouse clicks and income still go hand in hand.

Digital advertising campaigns are like snowflakes: no two are alike.

But buyers of digital video advertising still spend money the way they do on display ads. That’s like paying the same price for a 30-second video spot that you would for a billboard, banner ad, or magazine spread. When it comes to video content, it’s about paying for time – not just space.

Dynamic as they can be, the cold, hard fact is that videos simply take longer to deliver a message than static images or simple animations do. In other words, it takes consumers more (and more valuable) energy to absorb them.

Adherence to impression-based ad models in television was understandable given the rigidity of the delivery platform and the metrics available to buyers. But digital delivery of video ads is enabling a rapid evolution in the diversity of syndication methods and the incentive structures buyers can use to compensate their delivery partners.

One clear outcome of this trend has been the rise of performance-based pricing models.

Online advertising 101

First things first, let’s do a quick rundown of impression-based buying and performance-based buying:

Impression-based video advertising comes largely in the form of pre-roll video and in-banner video. These units are easy for buyers to understand because they keep with the display paradigm of buying on a Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) impressions of the advertisement. These impressions do not require consumer interaction and are typically bought for pennies (sometimes even less) and are governed by broadcast principals such as reach and frequency.

Image by The Inspiration Room via Flickr

Performance-based video advertising is typically priced on a cost-per-user-initiated view (CPV) basis. A CPV is a consumer interaction metric that looks a lot like buying a click on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) basis from Google AdWords. These interactions are typically bought for north of a dime and are governed by principals such as keyword targeting (like search terms) and conversions (the percentage of times a click results in the advertiser’s desired action).

At the end of the day, video advertisers require only two things from the consumer to do their job effectively: time and attention.

The primary advantage buyers have with performance-based pricing is that they can provide distribution partners with the financial incentive to deliver viewers who opt in to the ad experience and are most likely to be paying attention to the message for the duration of the ad.

The current standard in performance-based pricing, the CPV, allows advertisers to achieve the same goals with less “waste.”

With growing frequency, CPV pricing is being used to purchase audiences for viral videos, as well as branded long-form video content, because consumers’ intentions consistently dovetail with their desired actions.

In short, the viewer’s initial interest in an advertisement translates into engaging with what’s being advertised with growing regularity.

Monetizing attention

CPV pricing is not the last stop on this journey. For one thing, it doesn’t fully capture the duration of consumer attention or the quality of interaction. A consumer who clicks to watch a branded video and then leaves after five seconds is priced like someone who watches an entire six-minute-long branded video with CPV.

As performance pricing continues to evolve over the next several years, here are a few trends that are likely to emerge:

Buying video is going to look like buying search

Video buyers are already looking at video advertising as a hybrid between search and display buying. Most major agencies that have search buyers on staff use them to buy sponsored views on YouTube through AdSense, like any other search buy.

And unlike display buyers who look most intently at metrics like lift in purchase intent and brand awareness, video search buyers look at metrics like conversions and actual purchases as well.

Increasingly, delivery channels for CPV video buys will be judged by these same metrics, which should result in greater diversity of CPV pricing both up and down.

Performance pricing is coming to in-banner and in-stream video

In-banner video networks are being pushed to charge on user-initiated views rather than autoplay views, which can be intrusive, unwelcome and – let’s just say it – annoying for users.

In pre-roll, advertisers are paying CPV rates for pre-rolls that they have the option of skipping (like YouTube’s Cost-Per-Completed Pre-roll product).

Interactivity will become even more important

If you look at videos produced by top YouTube talent you will notice that they’re filled with calls to action and “hotspots” that drive the user to another video.

The reason this is so ubiquitous on YouTube is that producers know these calls to action work. As advertisers become more concerned about hitting specific performance metrics, providing this type of interactivity in any piece of video will become more and more commonplace.

Earned media will earn its place

In much the same way that social media is permeating every other aspect of our online existence, video will follow suit.

In social media, the audience becomes a key distributor of advertising. For social video advertising, the success of a campaign is frequently measured by the number of views that were earned through people watching a video, and then sharing it as advocates.

The future of performance

The bottom line is that performance-based video buying is going to continue to become more complex over the next several years. Armed with new pricing models, metrics, and delivery channels, buyers will continue to find new ways to use video to boost sales.

Expect video to start being used throughout the sales funnel, from ensuring that viewers spend enough time with their ad, to helping close the sale of a product, to helping existing customers remain loyal.

Amid this flurry of complicated and unique advertising opportunities, why not let it snow?

Every brand wants its content to go viral, but in the end it comes down to what Alex calls “the perfect combination of creative genius, market timing an emotionally engaged audience.”

While most people would consider the duel between the Old Spice hunks as the epitome of viral branded content, what truly makes a video (branded or not) go viral is the emotional response it evokes from an audience, whether it’s laughs, tears or anything in between.

Helping brands find this much sought-after sweet spot is the aptly-named Lucky Branded Entertainment, a New York-based creative agency and film production company that creates entertaining web content for brands.

As a reference tool, Lucky created The Viral Collection – a curated compilation of the web’s most popular viral branded videos. According to the site, TVC is a free resource “for marketers, creative directors and social media experts,” featuring more than 700 videos and counting.

Below are some of our favorites from the collection:

To promote the 2012 Focus, Ford tapped spokespuppet Doug to star alongside “Ford Marketing Specialist” John (comedic actor John Ross Bowie) in a series of YouTube adverts highlighting the newly redesigned Focus. 

Every time I see Starburst candies, and by see I mean forage through a pack for the yellows and pinks, I think of this commercial. Five years later, this spot still strikes a chord. 

Produced by the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund, “Dear 16 Year Old Me” is a heart-wrenching cautionary PSA about the dangers of melanoma. (I highly suggest watching with tissues handy.)

A look at how Google Chrome can help capture and preserve life’s most precious moments. (I’d keep the tissues around for this one, too.) 

What happened when tea giant Tetley took to the supermarket with a band of butlers to promote its “Infusions” line of beverages. Note to self: change supermarkets.

Evian’s grown-up rendition of one of the web’s earliest viral hits, the dancing Oogachaka baby. 

The online world has been abuzz in the last couple of weeks with videos that bridge the gap between branded entertainment and viral sensations. The latest viral videos share a common quality: they’re seriously funny.

Smartwater teams up with the lovable Jennifer Aniston in a video that pokes fun at the very concept of viral videos. A clever combination of irony and humour – not to mention puppies, babies, and a little sex appeal – has propelled the video to more than 8 million views on YouTube, making it the number one viral video of last week.

Aniston isn’t the only celebrity making people laugh in branded style. Sony Ericksson enlists the comedic flair of Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Conchords, The Daily Show) to promote its new mobile device, Xperia Play.

Whether Schaal watches herself on YouTube or delivers some devilish humour, the series of videos upholds its comedic value while demonstrating the product’s innovative features.

Switching gears from celebrity endorsers to, well, an orange puppet hero named Doug, Ford takes an informal approach in its latest video, attempting to create funny online content with a joke-spewing Don Juan of a puppet. Though the video was created by the writers and directors behind The Office, Borat, and The Simpsons, it misses the mark when it comes to actually promoting the 2012 Ford Focus.

Finally, Air New Zealand combines the best of the human and puppet worlds, presenting a collaboration between their mascot, Rico, and rapper Snoop Dogg in the airline’s latest online endeavour. The trending video doesn’t focus too much on Air New Zealand itself – though a few of the extras do sport an “I heart New Zealand” shirt. Still, the numbers speak for themselves: In less than a week, the video has attracted almost 250,000 hits.

Are these videos funny? Absolutely. Will their content effectively engage viewers? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, fans will continue to search for the best new online videos. And as long as we’re laughing with them, not at them (ahem, Rebecca Black), then embracing humour is often a winning strategy for brands. But then again, who isn’t glad it’s Friday?

Top Stories

AdAge remembers Elizabeth Taylor and her legacy as a leading pitch lady.

Copyright concerns halt Google’s plans for a universal digital library.

First-day figures for Firefox 4 top 7 million downloads.

RIM prepares to launch its PlayBook tablet.

Groupon goes mobile with Groupon Now.

Google launches new magazine, Think Quarterly, for its UK partners and advertisers.

Hedge Fund bets $40 million that Twitter can predict the stock market.

Beijing bans outdoor luxury ads amid a widening wealth gap.

Views from around the web

Google’s Crisis Response described as ‘social media to the rescue’ in the wake of Japan’s devastating earthquake.

Has Adidas produced the best 3-D digital out of home projection?

Brand Channel talks interactive marketing as Coca-Cola teams up with Maroon 5 for its live music event.

Can Gap compete with group buying sites like Groupon by inviting shoppers to negotiate prices?

This week in social media

Twitter celebrates its fifth birthday with some high-profile friends:

Xbox promotes Kinect for Xbox 360 – the technology that brings games to life without a controller – with a spot-on parody featuring Kylie Minogue:

The new photo and video sharing social network, Color, excites early adopters across mobile platforms:

Branded entertainment

The Possibility Shop is produced by Disney and sponsored by Clorox

Typically, branded entertainment takes the form of a serialized or episodic Web show that receives some or all of its financing through a brand investment. Branded entertainment can certainly “go viral” if the content is high quality and the brand provides enough financing to help promote it. But branded entertainment is usually designed to secure audience through paid syndication, licensing arrangements or revenue share deals.

Some recent examples of branded entertainment are The Possibility Shop, a kids show produced by Disney and sponsored by Clorox, and Dirty Talk starring comedian Mike Rowe and branded by Motorola. Both of these efforts work to incorporate the brand into the story.

These videos are very unlikely to go viral. They may have provided value for the viewer by informing or entertaining them but they don’t elicit the emotional connection that compels people to rewatch the videos or pass them on to friends and followers.

Viral videos

On the other hand, viral videos are usually one-off video clips that have been designed for repeated viewing and sharing. These videos rarely establish a narrative and can be as short as 15 seconds long. Viral videos are sometimes launched with the assistance of a brand, but they are more likely to be produced by an amateur or by a studio for TV and repurposed for the Web.

A relatively early example is “Lazy Sunday” (no longer available on YouTube), a mock music video often credited as YouTube’s first true viral hit. In this case, the video was a Saturday Night Live skit that had been uploaded illegally to YouTube. But if you look at the top 100 most viewed videos on YouTube (and filter out the music videos), the vast majority of the all-time biggest viral hits are produced by amateurs (early examples include “The Evolution of Dance” and “Chocolate Rain”. In other words, budget often had very little to do with the video’s ultimate success.

Again, the reason these videos have gone viral is that they have made someone laugh, cry or squint in disbelief. They get shared because viewers want to pass on these emotions with someone else they care about.

When branded entertainment goes viral

Viral videos and branded entertainment sometimes overlap, as was the case with T-Mobile’s “Welcome Back” campaign, a branded take on the flash mob meme perfected by “amateur” content creators like Improv Everywhere.

A more recent example is “The Force”, a Volkswagen Superbowl ad starring a pint-size Darth Vader. The ad demonstrates that an emotionally resonant video combined with some major media dollars can generate 25 million online video views in a week.

Yes, this aired during the biggest television event in America, but the same agency, Deutsch LA, produced another Superbowl ad for the Volkswagen Beetle that has yet to generate 500,000 views on YouTube.

Why viral videos are not a content strategy

The lesson is that viral success is hard to predict and even harder to replicate. Even in the case of Improv Everywhere, some of their videos do better than others and none are guaranteed to go viral.

In fact, the more videos they produce, the more likely the market will become saturated with the concept, diminishing our emotional response. Part of what makes a video go viral in the first place is that the user feels like they have discovered something new and that by sharing the video with friends they are sharing that discovery.

Viral videos depend upon the perfect combination of creative genius, market timing and an emotionally engaged audience.In other words, you have to get lucky. Betting on a video going viral is a great way to set up your campaign for disappointment.

Branded entertainment is all about brands and content creators working together to tell a brand’s story in a compelling, organic way. Great branded content can achieve this goal and create value for brand and consumer whether it goes viral or not.

Yes, social media helps our patients feel safer and better informed. Social media allows us to break down the perceptions and barriers that may exist and aids us in delivering our services directly to the user.

We have had viewers from all around the world view our videos and even schedule procedures based on our in-depth information. With our YouTube page, we feature videos from our Emery King Medical Video Library, which chronicle a number of various medical procedures done at our hospitals and tell the stories behind them in a  “fun but informative” way.

Who is your primary audience for this content: the wider medical community or patients of the hospital?

Our primary audience is both patients and medical practitioners. People are empowered to go online and research for themselves in today’s society. We want to provide the most accurate and trustworthy information possible so our patients and future patients can make informed decisions about their healthcare.

Medical practitioners use it as a teaching tool for other medical practitioners. Emery King does a wonderful job of describing and translating the video so that any and everybody can understand and enjoy the video.

You also use these new channels to reach out to hospital staff with handwashing videos and the like. How has the DMC’s staff responded? And how have you made an effort to get a variety of stakeholders (from orderlies to doctors) involved?

Our internal staff’s response to our YouTube videos has been great so far. We haven’t had a great deal of resistance from any group of people. The Handwashing Dance video went over very well. Employees loved to do it and were happy to see themselves, their fellow co-workers and even their bosses in a fun video.

Some of our recent videos include a wide variety of hospital staff, including the “Monday Morning Hustle,” which features the accounting department and their weekly exercise routine, and “Behind Sinai-Grace Today,” which was a special behind-the-scenes look at a weekly internal video broadcast that one of our hospitals puts together.

We’ve just started an “introduction class” that’s open to all employees to learn about the basics of social media. Our hope is that our employees will take a liking to our social media efforts and as a result become positive ambassadors for the great medical work being done here at the DMC.

Privacy is obviously a huge concern with hospitals. Have you had any pushback from administrators, doctors or patients on privacy grounds? How do you find a balance between transparency and privacy?

We follow HIPPA guidelines in regards to patient information. If we decide to follow a patient, doctor, or administrator’s story, we always make sure to get their full permission (through use of a publicity release form).

The DMC’s ER wait time tab on Facebook allows patrons to check ER wait times for each of the DMC’s facilities. What sort of effects have you seen it have on the ER?

Our ER volumes have definitely gone up since the multimedia launch of our ER wait time campaign. We of course don’t want a huge number of people getting injured and rushing into our ER, but since this is sadly the case we wanted to offer patients a way to check the wait time in our emergency rooms to reassure them that they won’t be waiting an ultra-long time in our hospitals.

We have a “29 Minute Guarantee” that we always try to stick to in getting people seen by a doctor as soon as possible. People have slowly been telling us that they appreciate the fact that we’re informing them about their wait times instead of finding out about it at the last minute once they’ve already arrived.

What kinds of results do you anticipate from these projects? How do you measure return on engagement?

Since social media is still relatively new for us, we don’t have a set standard on how to measure its effectiveness just yet. We always have a “call to action” on our various accounts and pages that leads viewers to our main DMC phone number or website.

We monitor and track our social media sites and can determine if viewers click directly to our website and even use it as a referral to see one of the DMC specialists.

An example of this would be when we covered a live surgery via Twitter. Our social media team was inside the operating room during a minimally invasive Birmingham hip replacement surgery and with permission from the patient, we covered the step-by-step procedure in real time, in an effort to educate potential patients and the medical community.

Two weeks later, we found out that someone who needed the same surgery saw our live coverage on Twitter and called DMC to make an appointment to get the surgery done.

Sesame Street is an old and beloved brand and new media are, well, new. How did you find your voice on these still-emerging platforms? And how do you make sure it’s consistent within the larger brand?

Moving to newer mediums is nothing new at Sesame Workshop. We’re more than just a TV show – and have been from the start. Books, LPs (!), magazines, home video, etc. are all part of Sesame’s rich history in media. Maintaining a consistent voice across media is a hallmark of the institution.

The show is targeted at toddlers, most of whom haven’t gotten around to setting up their Facebook or Twitter accounts just yet! So who are you trying to reach and why?

That’s the subject of my @BrandsConf talk, but the short answer is parents, both present and future. We know from research that children learn better when an adult is present. In fact, a lot of our content is written for two audiences – the children, of course, but also the parents. That’s why we have celebrities on the show; it’s not as if the children know who these visitors to Sesame Street are.

Grover made a splash on YouTube recently with his parody of those viral Old Spice ads. Sesame Street characters have also spoofed Mad Men and other grown-up pop culture stuff in recent years. Why is it important for you to engage adults and how big a role does nostalgia play in the popularity of the brand among older demographics?

Sesame Street has spoofed grown-up pop culture stuff for our entire history; it’s just that we don’t remember the parent-directed features of Sesame content that we consumed as children, because it was invisible to us.

And engaging adults is fundamental to our success. I watched the “Smell Like a Monster” spoof with my three-year-old on my lap, both of us enjoying it (albeit for different reasons), and two months later, we’re still able to carry on a brief conversation about it. It’s pretty amazing.

How much room do you have to improvise in your engagements with online followers and friends? Your tweets seem very polished, almost as though they were written by Sesame Street writers (especially when you’re tweeting in character as Elmo or another member of the Muppet cast).

The characters tweet for themselves – I just help them with the keyboard.

In all seriousness, a show writer authors the character tweets, with rare exception. I’ve improvised a few times, on rare occasion making a tiny edit to add some temporal context that couldn’t have been written beforehand. And there are a few tweets I’ve written entirely myself (e.g. a couple Count von Count ones because I like to make math jokes).

@BrandsConf is all about exploring the human voices behind brands on social media. Do you ever find it difficult to separate your personal and professional identities? Or is this point moot given that you’re often tweeting from the perspective of a furry monster?

It’s funny; I don’t think humanizing a brand is, necessarily, the same as putting an actual human personality behind it. Maybe we’re an exception, but look at it this way: Elmo is definitely “humanized,” to any meaningful definition of the word. But he’s not a human –  he’s a monster, or, if you want to be a spoilsport, a puppet.

You can humanize something in many ways.

At the moment of writing, @SesameStreet has 278, 244 followers on Twitter, but is only following one account – the Sesame Workshop. Is it fair to say that you currently use Twitter as a broadcast channel rather than a two-way communication platform?

Definitely, and by design. We’re not a service provider like, say, an airline or cable company, so we don’t have to use Twitter as a conduit for customer service. And it’s not really manageable to have Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Oscar et al replying to people on Twitter all day (although it would be fun to try for a day or two).

I definitely monitor all replies sent to us, though, and we look for other ways for people to interact with our characters. For example, we did a fan-driven interview of Elmo timed around the launch of the 41st season of Sesame Street; that went up on YouTube at the end of September.

There’s been much debate over whether the Internet is ultimately making people smarter or stupider (see Shirky, Clay vs. Carr, Nicholas). Given that Sesame Street is fundamentally an educational program, what do you think? Do you see these new tools and platforms – from YouTube, to the iPad – as beneficial to children or distracting?

I’m a big Clay Shirky fan and a firm believer that we should, as individuals, find a better way to use our cognitive surplus (or, some of it) than the things we typically do. (For what it’s worth, I find Carr interesting as well.) The reason why, though, goes back to something Sesame Workshop’s founder, Joan Ganz Cooney, observed almost half a century ago: It’s not if children learn from media, it’s what they learn.

Learning happens whether we like it or not. But the medium isn’t the problem; the content is. My kids love the iPod Touch and play games which are generally educational and built for their age bracket. They’re playing, they’re learning, and they like it. It’s a great combination.

A child’s cognitive surplus – that downtime outside of school or the similar – isn’t going to be applied to writing Wikipedia. It’s going to be best applied playing in a way where productive learning is the intended byproduct.

How has Sesame Street used these new media and technologies to educate children beyond the TV show?

We have a few iPhone applications, a fantastic child-oriented website at SesameStreet.org, an eBook store, a YouTube channel, a Wii and DS game coming out, a robust home video collection, and more. We want to reach children through media; we will be wherever they are.

What are you hoping to get out of the conference? What are you most looking forward to hearing and talking about?

I’m approaching it with an open mind. The best stuff to learn is the stuff you never would have expected to.

@BrandsConf takes place on Thursday, December 2nd in New York City. As official media partner, Sparksheet will bring you original content around the event’s theme, the humanization of brands, and in-depth interviews with conference presenters. Our readers are entitled to a 30% discount on registration by using the promo code “sparksheet” – http://brands2010.140conf.com/register

Social Media played a big role in the debate, as consumers shared their war stories on Twitter and YouTube. Key players jumped on the opt-out day train, with Loopt and Foursquare offering iPods and badges to those who requested a pat down in lieu of a an AIT scan.

Amidst growing hysteria, critics like Politico’s Micheal Kinsley called for some perspective. Meanwhile, the TSA continues to defend its position in light of recent terror attacks, but promises to address the growing oeuvre of stories of less-than-pleasant pat-down experiences.

Airlines + Travel Marketing

Despite a poll suggesting 61% of Americans are opposed to the new AIT scanner technology and pat-down procedure,  U.S. airports reported few holiday travel hold-ups.

Jamaica makes 100,000 fast Facebook friends, thanks to social media marketing.

In a surprising turn of events, PhoCusWright’s Online Travel Review reported offline travel bookings surpassing online bookings in 2010.

Media + Magazines

Amazon’s new plan to dismantle Brick-and-Mortar competitors? Hit them in the aisles.

iPad or Android? The platform debate for the publishing community.

The Last Newspaper, now on display at The New Museum.

Branded Content + Entertainment

NetFlix takes aim at their competition with a new streaming-only solution.

Tim Burton crowd-sources some creepy tales in the weeks leading up to his upcoming Toronto showing.

Online ad network RadiumOne introduces Like-vertising – a new approach to targeted-advertising.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines plans the first inflight gay wedding.

Launching an airline in fast-growing Brazil.

The Top 10 Social Travel Networks broken down.

Media + Magazines

Five lessons from Longshot, a magazine made in 48 hours.

What’s wrong with American journalism, according to Jay Rosen.

YouTube pitches Hollywood on Pay-Per-View.

Branded Content + Entertainment

Behind the Arcade Fire’s interactive video experiment.

Mad Men stars shill for real brands, blurring the show’s boundaries.

The advertising jingle makes a comeback.

Wallpaper* lets readers play art director for a day.

BBC News launches a new customizable website.

Slate goes long-form to engage “smart” readers, writers and advertisers.

Airlines + Travel Marketing

Kuwait Airways takes Iraqi Airways to court in the last battle of the first Gulf War.

Cathay Pacific has big plans for inflight WiFi and iPad connectivity.

Cranky Flier serves up a tasty visualization of what airlines spend on food.

Branded Content + Entertainment

YouTube wants to take over your television set.

Pepsi-sponsored nutrition blog gets canned.

Old Spice’s viral video marathon takes the social web by storm.

Anyone who has bonded with a favourite TV show or obsessively re-watched a viral clip on YouTube knows the power and potential of video. But few airlines have fully engaged with the medium. That’s because video production is expensive, time consuming, and potentially risky. Here are a handful of airlines that have boldly launched their own YouTube channels with varying degrees of success:

Delta Air Lines:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DeltaAirLines
Joined: May 11, 2006
Subscribers: 2,005
Channel Views: 87,705
Videos: 47

Delta plays it safe, but with style. Along with the obligatory flight safety videos (in English, Hindi, Japanese and Spanish) viewers are treated to an unguided tour of the Miami Sky Lounge, a crash course on how to use Delta’s check-in kiosk, and 25 intimate and in-depth city guides hosted by Delta employees. Hats off to Delta’s sound team for spicing up the clips with surprisingly good ambient music.

United Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/uniteditstimetofly
Joined: July 29, 2008
Subscribers: 385
Channel Views: 86,033
Videos: 7

No airline today needs a first-class YouTube presence more than United Airlines. Last month, musician Dave Carroll posted a video to the site in which he tunefully accused the company’s baggage handlers of breaking his $3,500 guitar. “United Breaks Guitars” quickly went viral, garnering more than 5 million views and heaps of media coverage.

So far United Airlines has failed to respond in kind and its YouTube channel is littered with comments from angry musicians vowing to boycott the airline. We know we’re not the only ones waiting to hear an equally tuneful apology performed by musically-inclined United employees. Until then, we’ll have to settle for a time-lapse video of a United 747’s construction.

Qantas Airways

http://www.youtube.com/user/Qantas
Joined: February 14, 2006
Subscribers: 886
Channel Views: 42,856
Videos: 54

Aside from a few television ads and some historical footage, the Aussie airline’s YouTube channel is all soccer all the time. Fans can feast on interviews and post-game roundups with members of the Qantas Socceroos, the company’s world-class squad.

Virgin Atlantic Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsVirginAtlantic
Joined: October 16, 2008
Subscribers: 354
Channel Views: 18,118
Videos: 38

Welcome to the family channel. Virgin groupies can watch Holly Branson, daughter of Virgin founder Richard Branson, talk about the airline’s charity work or follow Sir Richard himself on an eight-day trip around the world. By spotlighting the Bransons, Virgin succeeds at being both personal and promotional at the same time.

Southwest Airlines

www.youtube.com/user/NutsAboutSouthwest
Joined: June 06, 2007
Subscribers: 662
Channel Views: 31,332
Videos: 129

And the Aviation Oscar for outstanding performance on YouTube goes to… 38-year-old Southwest Airlines. The Dallas-based company takes social media engagement seriously, and its YouTube channel is no exception. We’re big fans of the “My Old Man in Maintenance” series, which stars the airline’s emerging media maven, Christi Day. In each episode, the affable Day interviews her father, a longtime Southwest maintenance man, about hydraulic systems, aircraft flaps and other esoteric airplane parts.

We also recommend joining the roughly 53,000 people who have witnessed Southwest’s rapping flight attendant. And if that’s not enough, check out the audacious “Twitcom,” in which Southwest staff members act out a script written by the airline’s loyal Twitter followers:

Plus, a self-professed airplane geek shows off his collection of Southwest Airlines (@southwestair) cocktail napkins and Virgin Atlantic (@VirginAtlantic) earns passenger props for its Guns n’ Roses playlist.

Favourite Airline Tweets: Week of July 20