That was the first time I had someone confess like that and I had a few emotions.  One, I was incredibly happy that we had the type of relationship that he felt he didn’t need to hold back about his concerns and two, I was kicking myself as I had never really laid out a process for making videos.  I have talked clients through the process and made critical paths, but never a process document.  The first thing I did when I got back to the office as spend the next three days laying out “our” process.  I think it will be helpful to all if we share it with you.

PLANNING

Client contacts PHI with interest in having project produced.

Clint supplies PHI with the following information in order for PHI to understand the project and scope:

Message to be expressed within video

Target Audience details(age, gender, education, knowledge of message)

Locations which footage needs to be acquired

Any collateral material

Format of delivery

Specific people that need to be shot (if known)

PHI supplies Client with a Project Work Order which includes a rough estimate for creative, production and payment terms of video.

Client requests changes to Work Order or signs off and supplies PHI with Purchase Order (if required for invoice payment).

PHI sends deposit invoice to Client.

Client sends PHI payment on invoice.  This payment initiates the start of the Project.

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE

PHI meets with Client to discuss messaging and target.

PHI creates 1 to 3 creative ideas(treatments) to solved the messaging.  We do this by researching, interviewing, and discussing the messaging and the target.  This process is one of science and magic.

PHI and Client meet to discuss the creative solutions and Client picks one they like the most.

PHI then develops the creative into a script or outline depending on the solution and approach to the video.  Scripts are good for educational and some marketing videos.  Outlines are great for marketing videos that require interviewing real people to get statements and testimonials.

PHI presents the script or outline to client for signoff.

PHI adjusts budget to reflect final creative and gets signoff if total amounts have changed.

PREPRODUCTION

Depending on the script or outline PHI may do the following:

Storyboards (pictures illustrating the story)

Animation wire frames

Design elements

Research stock footage

Research and find key on screen interviews

Schedule and book travel.

Survey key locations

Cast for on-screen and off-screen talent

PRODUCTION

PHI hires talent and crew (if necessary)

PHI books equipment

In collaboration with Client moves to Footage Acquisition (shooting, stock)

POST PRODUCTION

PHI loads footage into edit system

PHI logs footage

PHI sends selects to Client or Interviewees for approval (if required)

PHI does a ROUGH CUT:

This is where the story is put together.  Most times it will lack colour correction (colour is off, images are too bright or too dark), mixed audio (meaning it might be louder or softer in places), music, graphics, animation.  It may also have time code (numbers at bottom of the video that indicates the frame you are watching and used for people to give us a reference time in the video).

The Client will normally have multiple times to view and make changes to the rough cut.

PHI will also start sending music files to client for review in needed.

PHI does a FINAL CUT:

All the elements come together (final cut of video, music, mixing of audio, graphics, animation, and the colour correction).

Client signs off on the final cut.

COPYRIGHT

Client makes final payment to PHI in order to receive usage rights.

DUPLICATION/USAGE

PHI delivers final deliverable (DVD’s, Blu Rays, Data Disks and/or web uploads).

EVALUATION OF MESSAGING(if budgeted)

PHI researches the effectiveness of the project messaging.

Scott Westerlaken

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Yes, we all know and love Mad Men. But the version of the ad industry that Mad Men presents is long gone. We no longer smoke in the office, most of us don’t have a bar next to our desk, we aren’t all having sex with our non-existent secretaries and we don’t grab 15% commission of everything that moves. No, we don’t do business like they did in Don Draper’s heyday… unless of course the agency you work for or own is planning to become a “used to was” in the very near future.

The new world of advertising is dominated by those who have never lost sight of the simple premise that their very existence is tied to their ability to be their clients eyes and ears on the street and… have found a way to bring them closer to their customers. You can’t do that by sitting around the boardroom sipping single malt or by rushing home the minute the 5 pm bell rings.

The advent of Direct Marketing and the increasing use of data changed our basic understanding of the business in the eighties. But social media appears to be the biggest shift in how we communicate since Gutenburg invented moveable type printing.

Here are a few stats of interest.

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers

• 96% of them have joined a social network

• 1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year have met via social media

• Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months

• If Facebook would be a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest

• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees

• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?

• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world

• There are over 200,000,000 Blogs.

• 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.

If these stats don’t make you stop and think, you should quit your ad job and get a job driving a cab.

The results are in and they are clearly telling us that we can no longer move client product and services based on gut instinct, clever burn lines or TV Spots and Print Ads that are all about our perception of features and benefits. Consumers are much too smart to buy that stuff… and they have the tools at their disposal to get even smarter.

That is not to say TV spots don’t have a place in an overall plan. But the recognition that TV viewing is fragmented and consumers are consuming more time than ever online is a prerequisite for success in today’s marketplace.

Imagine, a meeting between David Ogilvy and Mark Zuckerberg and the discussion that would result.  I think you might be surprised to hear Ogilvy say “Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.” That statement I think would make Zuckerberg’s head move like a Bobble Head toy in the rear window of Ogilvy’s Mercedes. Was Ogilvy ahead of his time or were we just not hearing the things that Zuckerberg and others appear to know intuitively?

On that note let’s sum up. If you want to influence consumers you must be part of the conversation they are having. Your challenge is to heighten you listening skills so you understand “the mores of society” and given an opportunity finding something of moment to say. And by that I don’t mean “While Quantities Last”

So whadda ya think…. is social media the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Al Graham is a veteran of the advertising wars who once smoked like Mad Men’s Don Draper. He is also a veteran of many social conflict wars and has been actively involved in protesting dumps, airports, expressways and urban sprawl.

The saying goes, “If you aren’t online in 2010 you don’t exist.”

Everyday consumers search the web for information on companies and a variety of products. Ranging from trying to find a cheap flight to figuring out where the closest flower shop is. Consumers are relying on the web to be the one place where they can find whatever they want – whenever they want. If a consumer searches your organization’s name, products, brand or services and your company doesn’t show up; to that consumer – you don’t exist.

There are millions upon millions of people who use Social Networking sites on a daily basis. Recently, Social Networking has surpassed pornography as being the most popular activity on the web. Ranging from Facebook to Twitter – your organization cannot afford to miss such an opportunity to be relevant.

The Power of Branding

Like an onion the web has many, many different layers. Your branding strategy should be similar. You need to take advantage of the various layers the web has to offer your company in strengthening its brand. While a consistent brand is most important – A continuous branding strategy is equally essential.

The web allows you to utilize not only your website for branding, but now has many other platforms that can help strengthen your brand. With a solid branding strategy you can utilize twitter, blogging, Facebook, tumblr and many other tools to make your brand not only relevant but also powerful.

The Power of Customer Feedback

A lot of companies are afraid to hear what customers are saying about them, but that’s not how you should do business. This is where you should set yourself apart from those companies and take the time to show your customers that you care.

Within seconds of searching social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook you can track what people are saying about your company in real-time. This is an opportunity for companies who are looking for ways to improve their customer service or even fix some problems that you hadn’t noticed before.

Picture this, someone is on Twitter and they tweet how bad they’re craving  pizza. Then a few minutes later Pizza Hut sends them a message saying:

“Hey, I saw your tweet about how you were craving pizza! Message me your e-mail and I’ll send you a 25% off coupon”

Not only would this person be blown away by the fact that Pizza Hut went above and beyond to serve them. They will most definitely pass this story along to their friends, followers and colleagues to let them know about this service.

The Power of Traffic

Recently Facebook surpassed Google’s incredible ability to drive traffic to key websites. This shows us the power of Social Networking and the influence it has over web traffic. You can no longer only rely on Search Engine Optimization for traffic – And you definitely can’t put all of your eggs in the Adwords basket. Instead you must work with these methods and Social Media to drive traffic to your website.

The Power of Returns

A lot of people question whether or not you can find a legitimate return on investment from all of this social media stuff. Well, to put it simply; you can. Depending on the industry you are in, you can track the influence the web has had on your business in a variety of ways.

Using web promotions and coupons you can easily track what sales came directly from your online efforts. If originally your sales were increasing monthly by 5% and then suddenly you started to implement this strategy and sales shot up by 50% – It’s pretty obvious where the jump came from.

Promotions are not the only way to track how effective your social media efforts are. Using innovative software, you can track how often people are mentioning you compared to the days you spent without a solid online presence. Or the increase in web traffic you generate after beginning to use a social media platform.

Ross

Ross Simonds

Ross Simmonds, is the Co-Founder of Altego Marketing Solutions an Interactive Marketing & Experience Design firm that helps small/medium sized businesses implement profitable marketing strategies using the web and branding

If you’re interested in discussing how you can improve your companies online presence contact PHI or Ross at Ross@ReachDontPreach.com.

There have been many different approaches to increase your presence on the web but we now pretty much settle on two common approaches to increasing website traffic and the both stem from increasing your Search Engine Positioning. The two Search Engine Marketing (SEM) models are Organic or Organic with a price – Pay-Per-Click (PPC) also know as Keyword Search.

ORGANIC

Organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing a website by modifying it’s design, technology, content, or structure in an effort to make that site rank higher with a particular search keyword and category. This is a multi-step process that includes identifying keywords for your site, optimizing the individual pages for the search engines, and building the external profile to your site to link to.

We emphasize, organic SEO takes time and maintenance. Rich Media content will drive faster results as the king of search engines, Google loves rich media content. The time to build up a site’s internal and external profile and find other sites to link to help’s building the site’s external profile.

The typical steps to launch an optimizing site with an organic SEO:

• Business Assessment
• Keyword “Brainstorming”
• Keyword Analysis
• Keyword Selection
• Matching Search Terms to Content (internal profile)
• SEO Copywriting or revising of site content (internal profile)
• Crawlability and Site Navigation (internal profile)
• Optimizing Web Pages (internal profile)
• Link Building (external profile)
• Submitting (external profile)
• Management

The advantage is it is free, also a disadvantage as a business owner does not usually have the staff or knowledge to support the optimization, so free is a relative word, maybe free once the site is optimized but will still need to be maintained.

The disadvantage is it takes more time than PPC and there is no guarantees your website will move up in the search engine ranking, and if it does how do you keep it there.

PPC

So we come to another option, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), a performance based optimization. It is fundamentally quite different than organic optimization. It starts out the same (with keyword analysis) but involves spending money for eye balls, paying for your position on a search engine (Google and Bing). You only pay for each click (if only was such a small word) and the beauty of it is your account is automatically subtracted.  There also bidding wars for certain terms that are highly searched.

PPC offers one thing that everybody likes; instant recognition. The downside to PPC is that it costs money and that cost is directly proportional to the amount of traffic you see coming to your site. This is an easy way to increase traffic but not necessarily a qualified or quantified way to gauge traffic.

Here are the steps that a typical PPC campaign includes:

• Business Assessment
• Keyword Selection
• Developing a Budget
• Develop Landing Pages
• Develop Ad Copy and Headlines
• Establish Keyword Bids
• Management

We know the advantages, instant recognition, easy to monitor, can be very effective if you are selling a product with a high profit margin.  The obvious disadvantage is the costs, monitoring and managing is critical, and in the long run is not as cost effective as organic.

Content Media’s “ORGANIC” marketing

The Organic option, a blend between Organic and PPC. We believe that a well constructed, technology based website will deliver the best organic solution.  The website needs lots of rich media elements not only to increase your SEO but also to engage your visitor, consumer or business.  The PPC part of the solution keeps you top of mind, gives you brand position in a category and for the most part keeps you honest with search results.

The typical steps to launch an organic/PPC blend campaign are:

• Business Assessment
• Website Marketing Assessment
• Keyword “Brainstorming”
• Keyword Analysis
• Keyword Selection
• Matching Search Terms to Content (internal profile)
• SEO Copywriting or revising of site content (internal profile)
• Crawlability and Site Navigation (internal profile)
• Creative development and implementation of Rich Media
• Optimizing Web Pages (internal profile)
• Link Building (external profile)
• Submitting (external profile)
• Developing a Budget
• Develop Landing Pages
• Develop Creative Words
• Establish Keyword Bids
• Overall Management
• Develop/Implement Social Marketing Channels

Tony Sasso

Tony Sasso is a recognized Brand/Direct Marketer with over 25 years of marketing experience and has spent the last 10 years learning about the internet and continues too.  Content Media is PHI’s affiliate media company in Toronto.  Content Media builds solutions that deliver results on the internet.

You can reach Tony through PHI or at tonysasso@bell.net or by phone at 416-671-4436.