Helmet Cam 2.0

I’ve pitched bloggers, media blasted podcasters and hunted down reporters like big game. Now Justin.tv comes along. What’s a PR pro to do?

First a little background. Last week Justin.tv opened its platform to the public. What began as one guy with a camera attached to the side of his baseball cap has turned into a media darling and Web 2.0 sensation that gives each of us the opportunity to start our own “lifecast.”

According to the site “[Co-founders] Justin and Emmett were driving around late at night in Boston trying to figure out what to do about their previous startup (Kiko Calendar) after Google Calendar dried up the early adopter market. Justin realized that their conversation might be interesting for other young entrepreneurs, then thought that perhaps you can create really compelling content by just live broadcasting the lives of ordinary people, then thought… why don’t I wear a camera on my head 24/7.”

The concept of using the Internet to create an instant audience for one’s personal life is nothing new. Blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and the rest are each examples of tools that offered mass audiences the opportunity to personalize and popularize their lives. But the concept of Justin.tv took this basic premise to another level. Justin Kan voluntary offered to broadcast his every day activities and was savvy enough to realize that advertisers are only too eager to A) reach new and innovative audiences and B) grab consumers on a personal level. Justin.tv accomplished both of those things. No lie, but Justin.tv actually gained sponsors like Bawls energy drink and ZipCar. Every time Justin stepped into a mall or offered his opinion on his favorite food, it became commercialized whether intended or not. Fast Company has some interesting thoughts on this as well.

Kan, however, has more idealistic hopes for the company, telling the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Broadcasting something live from a remote site has always been the sole domain of large media corporations with access to satellite trucks,” says Kan. “What we want to do is put it in the hands of the people. Imagine what you could do if you had the ability to broadcast live video from anywhere, anytime. It changes the way news is gathered. It makes a whole new kind of travel show possible. It allows the broadcast of sports that aren’t large enough for ESPN. And I don’t think we’ve even predicted 10 percent of the possible uses yet.”

Enter the PR crowd. What are the possibilities that Kan mentions? Can we really turn ourselves into walking, talking media placements? The ability to broadcast a single event from unlimited points of view certainly presents options and benefits that a traditional media hit never could. With Justin.tv, we can eliminate the need to secure broadcast crews and instead choose to broadcast whatever we want, whenever we want, getting our clients messages out to a tech-savvy, highly influential audience.

Now, these are obviously the gold rush thoughts that cycle through every PR professional’s mind when a new technology is introduced. As always, the PR practitioners who take the time to understand the nuances behind each platform will be the ones who maximize its potential. And certainly there will be a glut of competition as marketers from all fields race to get their clients to the front of the line. But the clock is certainly ticking for Justin.tv’s first viral sensation to emerge. Just remember to smile for the camera.