I always find these last weeks of the year daunting, reflective and (when I’m lucky) inspirational.¬† The photo below, taken at MoU”s Holiday Party.¬† To see more of these, start here and just go forward in the photostream.

Looking back to 1 year ago, it amazes and humbles me at the progress we’ve made and the degree to which we’ve begun fulfilling our dreams.¬† 18 months ago we were some guys in a garage, a year ago there were 9 of us in a cold barn.¬† Now we’re at 34 and have begun to cement a reputation as a hardened group of virtual world leaders committed to evolving this from a singular phenomenon to a category.¬† An industry.

The first quarter of 2008 will include some very exciting announcements from Millions of Us, and ones that we believe will be profound for the direction of the industry.¬† These will range from new platforms entering the market to the launch of our products business. But now, instead of boring you with my pronouncements of the future, I’d like to invite you all to join me in the year-end exercise we’ve been doing here at MoU.

This is the email I sent everyone yesterday:

In these last days of 2007, I’d like to join me in a simple and powerful exercise.

Please think about where you’d like yourself and the company to be 1 year from today. Be ambitious and realistic.

List your comments for both yourself and the company as simple bullet points. I’ll asemble and distribute the company wide comments. The personal ones we’ll discuss use to set personal growth goals.

Happy holidays!

Please feel free to leave your own version of this in the comments.

And on this 7^th day, after a cross-country tour and killin it at the El Rey Theatre in LA, Cary Brothers is not resting, but still enthusiastically posting on the Gaia Online entertainment forum. Today, he’s in the forum chatting with fellow Gaians as a video collage of his life on the road plays in the Gaia Cinema. The video gives viewers a brief glimpse of this indie rocker’s life on tour, in concert, and behind closed doors. MoU’s very own Biz Dev Director, Jeff Freedman, conducted part of Cary’s interview in the video (rock on Jeff!). I sheepishly called it a “rockumentary” before, but now, feeling a bit more brazen with my cornyness, I will stand by my original description. It’s a rockumentary and it’s great.

Cary in the forum:

User: “Even if I didn’t like your music I would still support you solely based on the fact that you’re toughing it out trying to do the independent thing, which I imagine is a lot more complicated and tricky than most people understand/appreciate.

I’m generally not a huge fan of the sort of alternativey rock sound or whatever they call it these days, but listening to your sample I actually liked it. A lot of people pursuing a similar style to yours come off as a little on the contrived side, but I get a more sincere feel with your music. Still isn’t exactly my style of choice, but that’s more a matter of my taste, so this is my way of saying that I like your music even though it’s not exactly my style. ”

Cary: “thanks for the support. it’s a tough road doing it indie, but it’s more than worth it at the end of the day. i love the fact that so many people on gaia have been honest about not listening to my kind of music but still digging it. that was the point of all this - to throw the music out there and hope people give it a chance no matter what their music tastes are. i couldn’t ask for anything more.”

User: “Wowwww… so your sound is like… ear candy. (Which sounds a little icky, but I hope you’ll take it the way it’s intended.)

So out of curiosity, what was it like being involved in Garden State? It’s probably one of the craziest movies I’ve ever seen (Rocky Horror being the exception), though the craziness distracted me from the soundtrack. And who are some of your favorite musicians?

Thank you for taking the time to get involved here, whether or not you find time to answer all of our questions- honestly, I would never have expected half the posts you’ve found the time to make. Thanks so much! (And welcome to Gaia!)”

Cary: “garden state was such a crazy experience. i got involved when it was just this tiny independent film, and no one really believed that zach (who they saw as just a tv actor) would be such an amazing director. then it sold at a film festival, and the next thing i knew the soundtrack had sold a million copies and won a grammy. it worked because zach basically made a mix tape of his favorite songs - there was no one telling him what to do. he just followed his instincts, and it worked. i’m so proud to be a part of something that successful mostly because it was so organic how it all came together.

a pleasure to be your ear candy… um, that sounded weird”

Also available today are two new virtual items Cary’s giving away. Gaians can grab the virtual cd of Cary’s latest album “Who You Are” in the cinema and a Cary Bros. t-shirt (designed with subtle irony for Gaians wanting to show off their hipster fashion-savvy) in the forum.

This campaign has been an absolute joy to work on. Bluhammock’s laid-back, chillaxed attitude combined with Cary’s uber-cool approach and style has made my job a Producer’s dream. I’d like to thank them for embarking on this experiment with us, which by all measures, has proved to be successful.

Special thanks to David Wei and Joe Hyrkin at Gaia Online for executing this campaign fast and furiously.

Final thought - hope this campaign will serve as an example of how simple it can be for artists to connect to their audience. Being talented and having a great personality is important, but investing the time to directly engage fans and have them understand “Who You Are” as an artist is a big step in the right direction.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of where all this fun with the web really started. 60 years. wow.

The name of the recipe for today’s success story is Music Distribution via a Virtual World! Ingredients include Millions of Us, bluhammock music, Gaia Online, musician Cary Brothers, and tech-savvy music fans of today’s generation.

Today, Millions of Us, bluhammock music, and Gaia Online have teamed up to do something brand-spankin’ new! (Mini-disclaimer - These days, I can’t assume anything worth doing hasn’t already been done, so when I say “new” I mean new to us.) We launched indie musician Cary Brothers into Gaia Online! Cary Brothers himself began posting live in Gaia’s music forum today at 11 am PST. The response has been overwhelming! Gaians everywhere are going crazy for his music, the cool virtual guitar he’s giving away, and the opportunity to message back and forth with the musician himself.

What makes this campaign unique (and successful) in my opinion is the artist’s direct and candid interactions with the online community. Several months ago when we connected with bluhammock music we knew we had the recipe for a successful campaign when Cary himself (with bluhammock’s blessing) was more than excited to spend several days engaging directly with the Gaia community. Cary wanted to be represented accurately so instead of having his publicist or some other marketing “genius” post on his behalf, we created an account for him and said “Go and engage your fans!” Today, he did just that and the response speaks for itself. We’ve already generated almost 100 pages of posts and counting.

Here’s an example of one of Cary’s most recent posts.

User asks: “So, what’s it like having your face(s) animated and placed on a digital-representation body? And how do you like your waffles? What’s the most exciting thing you’ve come across here on Gaia Online?”

Cary’s response: “it’s crazy. i’ve never had an avatar before. in real life my head is twice as big, though ; ) as for waffles, i’m pretty plain jane - just gimme syrup and butter and i’m good to go… i used to make waffles when i was a little kid and watch “mr. roger’s neighborhood”… strange admission… hmmm…

i haven’t been able to get around gaia much because i’ve been on tour (until tomorrow), but the people seem pretty cool, so that’s a start… looking forward to seeing what’s out there…”

In addition to Cary’s forum participation, we are selling two of his albums including “Who You Are” and an exclusive live set made available only through Gaia Online. And, on December 20th, Cary Brothers will be in the Gaia Cinema showing a video of him on the road, what I’d like to call a rockumentary? Okay, that was really corny.

Lastly, I’d like to mention how awesome my job is. You know you’re working on something totally weird and cutting-edge when you can help a rock star say, “Yeah, I’ve got a pretty big following in New York, LA, and Gaia… “

Questions:

Contact - Eliana Sur

eliana(at)millionsofus(dot)com

Adweek’s Mike Shields did a nice roundup of industry sentiment in the wake of Mark Zuckerberg’s Beacon mea culpa. In line with several other new media pundits, Reuben is pretty sympathetic to Facebook’s growing pains.
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The Times’ Louise Story quoted our CEO Reuben Steiger in writing about the new Coke “CC Metro” campaign in There.com.
(more…)

What would you ask Maria Sharipova? One question pops into mind - what’s the secret to your deadly backhand?! Now, hold that thought and play our quest.

Today, Millions of Us and InterActive Corp. Search & Media (IAC) are launching the Zwinky Field Reporter Quest Sponsored by Nike. This quest offers players with a unique opportunity to volley one-liners with the hottest sports celebrities around!

Based on the Nike Field Reporter contest which ran just this past month, Nike, IAC (creators of Zwinktopia), and yours truly, Millions of Us have created a quest and contest in the virtual world of Zwinktopia.

The quest in a nutshell:

1.) Enter Zwinktopia and make a cutie or hottie avatar.
2.) Join the Zwinky Field Reporter Quest Sponsored by Nike. Prove you are sports celebrity savvy by answering some tough questions and solving clues to find the locations of Maria Sharipova, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Abby Wambach, and Serena Williams. You may have heard of them.
3.) Escort them in your sweet stretch hummer to the press conference.
4.) Pick up some hot Nike gear, a trophy to display on your profile page, and bragging rights to all your friends.
5.) Upon quest completion, enter to become the first ever Zwinky Field Reporter Sponsored by Nike.

IAC’s virtual world Zwinktopia currently boasts over 10 million users with an average usage time of over an hour per user. Zwinky users are young, hip, and clearly engaged with the community. We couldn’t be more excited to be launching into this new platform and with a cutting-edge, world-class brand like Nike no less! This marks the third virtual world Millions of Us has created branded experiences for (after Second Life and Gaia Online) and we suspect this will be a big hit with the Zwinky crowd.

Special thanks to Mike Primiani and Bill Maslyn (IAC) for their phenomenal work in executing this quest.

See you at the virtual press conference. I’ll be rollin in my stretch hummer limo!

Questions?

Contact: Eliana Sur

eliana(at)millionsofus(dot)com

Windows Media

Reuben’s a proud father. Here’s a link to the full story.