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John Hodgeman Wins Over Correspondents' Crowd: The White House Correspondents' Association Dinner may suffer from an annual inability to not offend some party with its divisive M.C.s, but that doesn't seem to be the case at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner. Host John Hodgeman—of Apple commercial and Daily Show fame—won over the audience at Friday's event by skirting an actual roast and opting to label Barack Obama the country's first geek president. Obama seemed to please the crowd with his own speech, and come Monday morning, nobody was licking wounded egos on cable news. [Wired]

Fests Like Sundance Still Boosting the Economy: Festival-town locals might bemoan the congestion and hullabaloo associated with their annual events, but they sure do benefit from them. Despite an 11 percent drop in attendance this year, a study by a group at the University of Utah calculated that the Sundance Film Festival brought in $92.1 million to the state this year. The numbers broke down to $34,579,698 on accommodations, $14,976,306 on food, $4,693,682 on transportation, and $4,015,870 on "discretionary items"—which we'll assume includes booze. [NYT] MORE >>

White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner, Barack Obama, John Hodgeman, Sundance, Apple, iPhone, Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson, Kate Moss

EVENT INTELLIGENCE 04.07.08 1:50 PM

Building Buzz With Videos: Richard Branson's Daredevil Stunt

A shot from a YouTube video of Branson's jump
Photo: Courtesy of TODDEITM

This story is part of our series on building event buzz with online videos.

Virgin America, the Stateside branch of the British-owned airline, has made YouTube a central part of several marketing efforts. While the company was working to convince the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve its airline application, the brand launched a series of widely viewed Web videos showing off its new planes’ sleek design and high-tech entertainment features. When Virgin premiered an onboard safety video starring quirky cartoon characters, the company slapped it on YouTube, and the safety announcement—so often ignored by frequent travelers—has now been viewed by hundreds of thousands online. And when the airline held a “Victoria’s Secret in-flight supermodel pajama party,” there was, needless to say, significant online interest. MORE >>

Building Buzz With Online Videos, YouTube, Virgin America, Richard Branson

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