Frame Rate

Before any marketing and advertising project, it’s important to do the research. Find out all that you can about your client and how they do business. Find out all that you can about how they perceive themselves and how they want the public to perceive them. Find out about their short and long-term goals and their overall mission. But most importantly, find out all that you can about your target market.

Yes, it’s important to learn about your client, but it’s more important to learn about your audience. If you put together a great ad, but it doesn’t speak to your audience, then you haven’t accomplished anything. In fact, you might do severe damage to your client’s brand and create a PR nightmare. Consider the online Motrin campaign from last fall that offended so many moms. In the ads, Motrin speaks to the audience from the perspective of a mother — a mother who needs pain relief from carrying her baby in a sling or papoose, or other baby carrier. It sounded good, right? Moms need relief sometimes. However, for moms who actually use and love their baby-carrying devices, the ad completely missed the mark. They found it offensive and insulting and Twitter feeds lit up with posts from moms who have nothing but great things to say about their baby carriers. Motrin may have had a decent idea, but they seem to have fallen way short of connecting with their demographic.

More and more people, businesses, organizations, etc. are using Twitter to communicate with the world. Using a maximum of 140 characters, users answer one simple question, “What are you doing right now?” It’s another form of social networking, but many are now using it in their own marketing efforts. I currently have a Twitter account, and although I’m fairly new to the Twitter-verse, I’m hoping that it can be another way of getting my company’s name out to the public.

Type in “Using Twitter for Marketing and PR” in your search engine and you will find a number of web pages giving out advice on how to use Twitter to market your business. Of course you will also find a number of people who feel that Twitter should be used as a social outlet only, not a selling platform. Just look at the advice from the site HowToUseTwitterForMarketingAndPR.com

Regardless of where you fall in the debate, it’s obvious that some business owners have seen tangible results from utilizing Twitter. A coffee shop owner in Houston, Texas credits Twitter with doubling his clientele. News outlets use Twitter for keeping the public up to speed on the latest headlines. Job sites around the world are now using Twitter to help people find the job they’re looking for.

The bottom line is that social networking is still in its infancy and there are no hard and fast rules for what you can and cannot do with a utility like Twitter. However, social etiquette that we use everyday in our face-to-face conversations should certainly carry over to a portal like Twitter, if you hope to gain a following and expand your network. Consider these Twitter Do’s and Don’ts.

The panelists of Freelance Radio frequently discuss social networking sites on their podcast, and they have some great insights into what you should and shouldn’t do with these tools. Bottom line is that if you want to be listened to, you have to contribute something to the conversation. Don’t simply set up a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, etc. and sit back and wonder why you have no readers. Get out there and write comments on other blogs. Contribute. Become a part of the conversation.

I came across a new commercial campaign for Gold’s Gym that I feel is very successful. I’ve seen a lot of commercials for fitness centers and gyms and most of them focus on the equipment: the amount they have, the quality, the brand names, etc. The spots are usually punched up with a lot of quick cutting, tilted camera angles, and up-tempo music. However, this new campaign for Gold’s Gym focuses not on the gym itself, but on personal goals and personal drive. The campaign succeeds because of two things:

1. Its Simplicity - one shot, one take, with titles overlaid that give the viewer insight into what can be accomplished.
2. Its Focus - each campaign focuses on ordinary people and the ambitions that motivate them.

The title of the campaign is “Strength.” Here’s the idea behind the campaign, straight from the Gold’s Gym website (you can also view all four commercials there):

Whether it’s the strength to be a better parent, the strength to climb the corporate ladder or the strength to just say no to that plate of fettuccini alfredo… we recognize that strength comes in many forms. Our job for over 40 years has been to help people find their own inner strength and achieve their goals. At Gold’s Gym, we know that no matter what your fitness level, when you’re committed, anything is possible.

Here’s one of the commercials, entitled “Reps.”

I just recently jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in a continued self-marketing effort. You can follow Parc Entertainment on Twitter by clicking here. As businesses start to slow down for the holidays, it’s a perfect time to examine your own identity and marketing efforts. So, I’m staying busy writing blogs, uploading reel samples, and increasing my web presence. I’m also looking into self-distributing one of my short films for through Create Space. It’s always easy to get discouraged during slower months, but there are still plenty of ways to keep busy and generate income. Take a look at the Freelance Switch blog and their recommendations for staying busy in the midst of a downturn.

And my apologies for the look of the blog. My new website should be up and running soon. After which, this blog will be located on the new site. Stay tuned.

Discouragement and anxiety prevail during a slow economy. News headlines proclaim that companies are making additional cutbacks. Hundreds, if not thousands of employees have been laid off. It’s during these tough economic times that your company’s brand and your marketing strategy become increasingly important.

When the economy is bad, one of the first things on the chopping block is marketing. Pulling back marketing efforts, however, only encourages competitors to step up and fill the void that you left behind. Consider a recent article in the Birmingham Business Journal by Lydia Wilbanks, of Wilbanks-Elam Marketing & Public Relations (unfortunately you have to be a paid subscriber to see the full article, but you will at least get her point). She encourages readers to think of their company long-term. Decreasing marketing efforts is a quick fix, but may prove to have lasting effects once the market turns around.

Or consider Staples, who recently has used news of Office Depot closings to ramp up their marketing campaign. Staples blitzed the market with emails re-printing a Dec. 10th article from Boca Raton, FL in which the reporter states that in 2009 Office Depot will close 112 North American stores. Above the article is the headline, “You can always count on Staples.” This is a great example of how one business is filling the gap left by a competitor, who is seen as unstable and temporary.

Remember that your company’s brand is much more than what’s on the letterhead or the brochures. Your brand helps your company establish and develop relationships. It communicates core company values. It encompasses your mission statement and reflects the vision you have for the future of your business. Now is the perfect time to invest in your marketing efforts because, chances are, your competition isn’t.

In these tough economic times, there’s a fine line that businesses walk. They must continue to market themselves or watch as competitors gain a stronger footing. Tough decisions have to be made when income is on the decline. So what should be done? In my experiences many people try to pull all video production work in-house. Most feel that all they need is a decent camera and some editing software, but they neglect to learn the video production basics. The result is a flat, uninteresting piece that fails to convey the message adequately. If you feel that you need to move more production work in-house, allow me to make some suggestions:

1. Make a slow transition. Don’t hand over a consumer grade camera to your intern and say, “Good luck.” Take the time to equip your department with everything it needs to produce a high-quality video.
2. Hire a production company to serve as a consultant. I was recently approached by a potential client who needed to produce some projects in-house. My company was hired to provide training sessions to a company representative so that she could be better prepared to produce her own videos. We will also serve as on-going consultants for future projects.
3. Allow the production company to produce the first piece. This will give you an opportunity to view first-hand how everything works, so that you will feel more secure about handling everything yourself in subsequent projects.
4. Continue to educate yourself. Take the time to learn your gear. Get out and practice. Look at demo reels to get an idea of what others are doing. Read about the production process.

These suggestions will serve as a good starting point, but remember that mastering the production business takes a lot of time and requires great expense. Sometimes, in the long-run, it’s more cost-effective to hire a production company than to invest the time, effort, and money to train your staff and to accumulate everything you will need to make it happen.

When it comes to marketing yourself and your business, the internet offers a wide range of outlets, many of which cost little to no money. Among such outlets are social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I use MySpace to promote my production company, as well as my domain, ParcEntertainment.com. I also maintain a YouTube channel for my demo reel and I post to this blog.

Facebook and MySpace have, in the past, primarily been used on a personal level. However, more and more businesses, individual artists, musicians, and non-profits are using these sites for promotions. LinkedIn is a site geared more for businesses, enabling users to avoid some of the more juvenile content that pervades the other two sites.

Regardless of what social networking site you utilize the most, it’s important to remember to conduct yourself in a professional, courteous manner when posting to these sites. Word of mouth is still the most effective means of gaining new business and you don’t want an off-color, offensive post to jeopardize your reputation. When someone is reading words typed on a screen, it’s easy for that person to misunderstand your original intent, even if it was simply a joke. So what should you do? Crawl under the proverbial cyber rock and abandon the web? I think that decision would be a little too extreme.

The point of blogging and commenting is to give potential contacts and clients the opportunity to learn about you on a more personal level — your likes, dislikes, your insights. You will simply have to come to terms with the fact that there are some overly sensitive people in the world. No matter what you publish online, someone somewhere will be offended.

However, you must also use restraint when posting comments to another person’s website, blog, Facebook page, etc. If you don’t really know the person very well, don’t assume that they’ll understand your sarcastic joke if you decide to post it underneath a picture in their album. They may be offended. Reserve such jokes for people you know really well; people whom you know will not get their feelings hurt. But also remember that these comments are public. Any rude comments, bad language, or off-color remarks reflect on you, despite your intent. Perception is reality.

I’m currently working on a video project containing a lot of still images. It’s important to know how to prep stills for use in your NLE timeline so that they come out looking their best. First, I always like to use TIFFs rather than JPEGs, because the TIFFs are less compressed and provide better quality.

Second, I look for images that are oriented horizontally, not vertically. A vertical image won’t fill up the entire screen and you’ll be forced to look at empty space on either side of the picture. An image that’s oriented horizontally will be much easier to work with in a 4:3 or 16:9 viewing area. Granted, I have worked with vertical images before and I’ve been able to work around the problem of empty space on either side. One way of doing this is enlarging the image, focusing on the most important part of the image. Bear in mind that you will lose some of the picture by doing this. You can also bring your image into Photoshop and use the pen tool to extract the portion of the image you want to see. You can then import that extracted portion into your editing system (I use Premiere Pro). Doing this enables you to create some nice composite shots, where the extracted portion of the image sits in front of a nice background.

Third, I always look at the dpi of each image. For print work you should always work with images at 300 dpi or greater. However, a still frame of video is 72 dpi - much lower resolution. So, what dpi setting works best when bringing still images into your video project? There’s no hard and fast rule here, but I like to work with stills that are at least 150 dpi. This gives me enough resolution to work with, in case I need to enlarge the image on screen, but it’s not so big that it chokes up the processor when rendering effects.

Fourth, it’s always good to add a little gaussian blur to your images. When you first import still images, they can look very sharp - too sharp, in fact. You might see slight flickering on the screen, and hard edges all around. I slight gaussian blur will soften the entire image, making it appear more natural.

Fifth, I like to use what’s now referred to as the “Ken Burns Effect” where the images move across the screen ever so slightly. This prevents your video from having a static, slide show look.

Last, I always like to create composites with the images (this is for the more advanced users and takes considerable more time to set up). I start with a nice textured background and apply two or three different images on top. By extracting portions of an image (see number 2 above) or softening the edges of an image with an image matte key, you can utilize a few different pictures in one frame and create a nice, layered look.

Here’s an example of a spot I created using this layered, composited look. It incorporates the use of stills and video.

For the 11th time in its 110 year history, Pepsi has updated its logo. The soft drink company, according to the article in Advertising Age, hired a top ad firm to develop the new look. The agency spent five months, and Pepsi spent just over $1 million to arrive at the new logo. My question is, “Why?” Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s VP of portfolio brands is pleased with the new creative direction, but I feel that the logo is a waste of money and a step backward. Pepsi may have spent $1 million to arrive at the logo, but now that have to spend millions more to change out all advertisements, cans, bottles, vending machines, promotional items, etc. What about you? Do you like the logo? Is it better than what they had before? Was it a wise use of the money?

I found this YouTube page while surfing around the internet tonight. It’s called Penny Pranks and is a series of short films about a man who goes around NYC trying to pay for everything in pennies. At the end of each spot you realize that it’s an ad for an OfficeMax back-to-school sale. This is an example of viral video at its best. Any business can follow this example to get their message out there, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money doing it. The Duct Tape Marketing Blog has an interview on their podcast with Bob Thacker, the senior vice president for marketing & advertising at OfficeMax. He’s the brains behind the Penny Pranks campaign. Take a look.