By Cindy Daly
Don’t you just love the New Year? We all have a clean slate with no broken resolutions or abandoned plans. It’s that magical time of year where we all do our marketing plans and set our objectives and everything is still on track. If you’re like most of us, your resolutions are somewhat off track by spring and seriously off the rails by summer. There are some things we can all do to avoid that.
Once you get buy in on the plans, it’s time to get to work. Don’t put your plans in a drawer and file them away. Keep the objectives and the plan where they can be seen, re-read them often and make sure others do the same. You can review them in your weekly status meeting to check your progress. Try to identify one or two things that can be done each week to get you closer to your goals, and then hold everyone accountable to get them done. Breaking the larger things down into pieces will make them easier to achieve and repeatedly reviewing progress will make it easier to get done.
The first of the year is also a great time to review your processes. Is it easy to get things done in your organization? Take time to go through each process step by step to see what steps can be eliminated or what forms or processes can be done away with altogether to make things less cumbersome. The simpler and cleaner you make things, the easier it will be to keep your team moving forward.
Finally, realize that you may need to adjust objectives or plans based on market conditions. What seemed perfect in January may no longer be the right thing for your company in June. A marketing plan is a working document that should grow and flex with your company. Recognizing that will save you a lot of headaches and keep you from forcing a direction that may no longer be right for your company. Identifying the pieces that need to be revised and making those changes will help you stay on the right track.
But remember, while planning is important, actions will determine success. The best workout plan in the world won’t help you get in shape all by itself. So let us help you plan for marketing success, then actually put that marketing plan into motion. We regularly spend time reviewing clients’ plans and processes, which helps chart their progress. So take advantage of the momentum a new year brings and get your plans rolling for 2011. If you’re not sure where to begin, give us a call. Helping clients with advertising planning and execution is what we do.
Filed under: Marketing on January 16th, 2011 | No Comments »
By Chris Blair
I’ve read with great interest and some skepticism all the hype surrounding digital single lens reflex cameras, commonly called either HDSLRs or DSLRs. I’ve also watched quite a lot of video shot with a variety of these cameras and the results are impressive to say the least. Since our digital still camera is almost a decade old, I thought now was a good time to upgrade to a DSLR for still photography and at the same time test out the HD video capabilities.
After reading a lot of reviews, I settled on ordering a Panasonic GH2, but unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone in the U.S. who would actually sell one. Amazon was taking orders and said they were “back-ordered,” but I read recently that because Panasonic keeps missing release dates, Amazon canceled all orders dating back to September.
B&H Photo published a January availability date, but wouldn’t take orders for them because they have no idea when they’ll actually have any for shipment. This obviously doesn’t bode well for the GH2 despite all the great pre-release reviews from people like Phillip Bloom and others. So I settled on my second choice, the Canon 60D, which is a nice compromise between Canon’s more expensive professional models and it’s much cheaper consumer ones. Why the 60D? Well, for starters it has manual audio capability right out of the box, without the need to install quirky third party firmware, which several other models need to disable the automatic gain control (AGC) during audio recording. The 60D also allows for external monitoring during record, albeit in down-converted SD resolution, which some cameras still don’t provide. Last, it has an articulating LCD screen much like mid-range HD camcorders from Sony and Panasonic, which allows for a lot more freedom when shooting from unusual angles.
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Filed under: Production Techniques on January 12th, 2011 | 5 Comments »
How much will that cost? That’s a question I’m sure every business gets almost daily. With some products, like a television or computer, the answer is relatively easy. Go online, find the model you want, compare specs and prices, and choose your retailer.
But for most things, figuring out the cost is much more difficult. From buying a car to getting a fence installed, the price can vary wildly based on factors too numerous to even think about.
So what does advertising cost? How about getting a video produced? What about having a website designed…or an interactive kiosk created…or…well you get the idea. There are no quick and easy answers, but there are some guidelines you can use for many types of projects.
Let’s look at websites. If you’ve ever gotten estimates for having one designed, the differences in price can be cavernous. I’ve seen website estimates vary by tens of thousands of dollars based on the same specs. How can this be possible? Some of the disparity can be attributed to differences in turnaround time, differences in how the site is programmed and built, the experience level of the designer etc. But more often than not, if there’s a huge difference between the lowest bid and the highest bid, it’s a good bet you’re looking at one severely underbid estimate and another severely overbid one.
Certainly there are many types of websites with varying levels of complexity, not to mention the growing need to build separate mobile versions. But for most sites, you could use the following guidelines to figure a range of what it should cost. Read more »
Filed under: Marketing, Production Techniques, Thoughts & Musings on November 17th, 2010 | No Comments »
By Chris Blair
I ran across an interesting article this morning about the status of 3D in movie theaters and on television. You can read it here.
The gist of the article is that director Christopher Nolan won’t be shooting the next Batman movie (The Dark Knight Rises) in 3D, and that ESPN is questioning it’s foray into 3D with it’s ESPN3D network.
ESPN’s Senior Director of Technology, Johnathan Pannaman, recently told a European business conference that ESPN is “still not sure what makes sense for 3DTV, and we don’t yet see a proven ROI [return on investment].”
All this before Discovery Network has even decided on a name for it’s proposed 3D network, and still hasn’t announced a launch date, only offering “early 2011″ as the proposed launch.
My prediction is if ESPN3d folds, Discovery 3D will follow, all before it ever airs a second of 3D content.
Filed under: Production Techniques, Thoughts & Musings on November 2nd, 2010 | No Comments »
By Chris Blair
We often get calls from clients who think they need a particular type of promotional product or service, be it a new website, an instructional video, a print brochure, a television campaign, or a new logo. But many times after meeting and discussing their needs, it becomes clear the client needs something entirely different.
We’ve even occasionally recommended services that we don’t provide because they better serve the client’s advertising needs. After all, our job is to help clients communicate to their customers…not just take their money for something they think they need.
Unfortunately, not all advertising and marketing companies are that honest with their clients. I’ve seen it time and again during the 25 years I’ve worked in this business. Advertising agencies, TV and radio stations, newspapers and internet companies selling products and services that have little chance of helping their clients promote themselves.
I’ve never understood this mentality. It’s like convincing someone to buy an overpriced, overhyped product that doesn’t actually work as advertised. When the customer gets home and realizes they’ve bought a crappy product, they’re not only angry it doesn’t work right, they also feel like they were duped by the hype! This type of selling virtually guarantees clients won’t come back. Read more »
Filed under: Marketing, Thoughts & Musings on October 29th, 2010 | No Comments »