M-1 Studios was proud to be a part of the 1st Annual Motown Macdown for Justin’s Vision this December, held at Dino’s Lounge in Ferndale. We put together an opening video segment where we asked all of the participants to give us some more information on what they planned to cook for the big event, while at the same time possibly adding in a little competitive smack talk along the way. Cliff Bell’s, The Rattlesnake Club, Slows To Go, Forest Grill, The Hungry Dudes, and Garden Fresh Gourmet all lent their talents to be a part of what will now be a great annual event to support an important cause in kids’ lives.
Here’s our opening video, as well as the blog entry from Garden Fresh Gourmet that captures a bigger overview of the entire event.
Thanks to everyone who organized and participated in this event, as well as all of the supporters who came out and enjoyed the amazing mac & cheese offerings. We’ll see you there next year!
At M-1 Studios, efficient and effective video productions from script to screen for businesses and organizations is our core competency and passion. In that regard, we’re excited to announce a new organizational partnership, as well as a new employee that will help us carry out this upcoming video production mission.
Jeff Wolka joins us effective November 1st, 2011, as a Video Media Specialist. In this new role, he’ll be working directly with the Michigan Humane Society to create and edit content for all of their media outlets, including Facebook, Youtube, email newsletters and more to come. Jeff will join the Detroit MHS shelter team in carrying out this position.
To keep up with the latest news & updates from the Michigan Humane Society, check out their Facebook page at:
You could walk down the street up to a total stranger, and say to them “A picture is worth…” and they wouldn’t have to even be prompted to finish the saying “…a thousand words”.
But if you went up to that same person on the street and said to them “A video is worth…” you’d probably get a blank stare back (or maybe worse) in response.
Let’s think about the “picture” saying for a minute. To define it means rather than I tell you a story about something, I’m going to draw a picture to describe it. Or rather than I describe something to you, I show you a picture that lets you see what condition a product is in. Or rather than I tell you about how someone feels, I show you a picture of them showing a clearly defined emotion on their face, or through their actions.
I’m sure you’ve even heard jokes rather than having to read something, someone will say why don’t you just “draw me a picture”.
Since a video production is literally a series of moving pictures, its too easy to say a video is “worth a thousand pictures”. Or the often proposed “a video is worth a million words”. Because its more than just words.
A well-produced video can not only just be visually informative, it can take you on a journey to reach a particular destination or conclusion, or make you feel or understand something that you wouldn’t have before you watched it. Video seeks more than just to show or describe, although those are two very basic and important elements. A good video can entertain, inform, prompt you into action– think about how you found a funny video online and emailed it or posted it on your Facebook wall. That video prompted you into action- to share. And we haven’t even touched on all of the audio elements- voiceover, sound effects, dialogue, music- that add to a production.
With the advent of online video and portable video, we have more options than ever to view video productions, be it from an online video-blog to a short comedy film, to the latest clips and previews from our favorite television shows. And numerous articles continue to point out the fact that we’ve probably just scratched the surface of the avenues that we’ll be able to access video as we move forward into the future. And for individuals, videos can hold different meanings and interpretations.
So let’s propose a new saying going forward: “A video is worth…what it means to you (and your customers!)”
When you hear the word “brand”, what image or words pop first into your mind? If you’re like me, when you think of a “brand” you associate that term with a larger company or image that’s probably been reinforced by a specific marketing strategy over the years. Apple, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Pepsi. And the associated images (or taglines) that go along with those. When Apple first reinvented themselves (before the iPod) it was “Think Different”. McDonald’s and “I’m Lovin’ It”. These marketing campaigns help to establish their respective brands and how you feel as a consumer when you think about these brands, and ultimately how you act toward these brands, i.e. purchasing/using their products and services, and telling your friends you had a positive experience as well.
This is what I’m going to refer to as “Branding 1.0″. Because usually to establish a brand in the consumer’s mind, that meant an extensive advertising campaign, usually launched on television and then followed up by billboard, print, radio and so on. For an example of the reach of these campaigns, imagine if the “Big 3″ car companies all of a sudden decided tomorrow that they weren’t going to run any television ads at all just on CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox. Those four networks alone would be so devastated by the sheer loss of this advertising (automotive is still a very coveted advertising bracket) they’d have to rethink their whole business plan of how to operate going forward.
What’s exciting is now we’re in the era of “Branding 2.0″. It started with websites, and movements like bands being their own record label and authors being their own publishers. For an example of this check out the Time cover article on Stephen King back in 2000 ( http://ti.me/6Ldh9F ), and Time’s Person of the Year as “YOU” in 2006 ( http://ti.me/vK5y ). You’re in charge of shaping your brand, what people think of it and how they use/react to it, as long as they can find you and your stakeout online (an important element). Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails can give away one of his latest songs as an MP3 and receive a lot more downloads than a band that you haven’t heard of before. So the “reach” becomes important as you establish your own brand.
How quaint the Time article from 2006 reads now when you think about the Facebook, Youtube and Twitter popularity explosion that has happened just over the last two years up to this point. Now more than ever, companies have an entirely new set of outlets (Facebook updates, online video segments) to establish their brand without having to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign. And the potential for “reach” becomes greater as word-of-mouth popularity moves from telling your friends in person to telling your friends online. And who’s to say what’s next in the online world that will work toward the development of a brand and a marketing message in a way that we haven’t even thought of yet? Maybe that’s “Branding 3.0″.
But for now, the excitement of “Branding 2.0″ is here. It just all depends on how you develop, market and best fit it for your own “brand”, be it yourself, a company or product, a cause, or a non-profit organization. – by Mike Madigan, M-1 Studios
Whenever we’re talking about a potential video production, one of the strongest concepts that we convey is that with video, you’re not just “telling” someone about your product, business or service (via text online), you’re showing it to them. Whether “showing” that’s through a product demonstration, customer testimonials, or a review of a service process- its the VISUAL elements (along with music, dialogue and voiceover) that help to convey a marketing message in a way that stands out from the crowd.
When I worked in the auto industry (during the brunt of economic downturn), many news articles lamented at the time how the car companies were trying to “one-up” each other on who could offer the biggest rebates for their particular brands. The thought was that there were so many ongoing rebate deals, that soon rebates would become an expected part of the overall car-buying process (you can trace the real beginning back to when GM offered the “Keep America Rolling” campaign and rebates right after Sept. 11, 2001 to spur sales). And for the most part that prediction has come true- when you go to a car dealership looking to purchase a new car, one of the first thoughts you have is what is the rebate that they might be offering this month on this model.
Now we’re seeing what could easily be described as an explosion of “half-off” websites devoted to the art of the deal, aka half-off (or another amount off as a percentage) to try a restaurant, or a service, or tickets to a performance and so on. Just off the top of my head I can name Groupon, LivingSocial, Half Off Depot (Detroit), Fox 2 in Detroit, Hour Detroit Magazine online, and new to the national game Townhog.com, AT&T / yp.com and Google Offers (beta). What is interesting about these B2C website services (and they’re all proving to be very successful so far in terms of achieving the number of sales to get the deal) is that one of their main selling points is bringing in new customers that otherwise might not have stopped by to buy/try your product or service out.
However, none of these sites have much about the particular Company’s product or service besides usually one or two pictures, some text describing the deal and the Company, and maybe a comment board where people can ask more specific questions about the deal. None of these sites employ video as a means of further describing a Company’s product or service. Some of which makes sense since a high-quality video production takes time to produce, and these sites are offering deals on an almost-daily basis. But could this help in terms of learning more about a business, product or service that you don’t know too much about, and could it influence your purchase?
Granted the advertisements touting sales in your local Sunday newspaper aren’t overly interactive either vs. having video content, but we’re talking strictly on an online basis here.
Therefore, one hypothesis we can make is that people who respond to these deals may not be responding based on the product or service or learning more about the Company and what’s being offered, but because they’re getting a deal that they didn’t have before, or wasn’t offered before. Which of course makes sense- as a society, we love deals, coupons, getting a good rate on our auto insurance, all these things! And we feel good when we get the sense that we’re saving money on something (think of the logic how itunes is 0.99 cents a song, not $1.00 even though its a penny).
And it’s worth noting that there’s been many local companies that have had great success stories with their online offerings, generating new business and new customers stopping by that hadn’t before.
But I’m just wondering, does this mean that we’ll turn into an “online society” that waits for the next big “deal” for something vs. supporting the businesses and products that we really want and enjoy? And in supporting and enjoying these products and services, we’re rewarded as customers with deals and special sales vs. trying to pull in new customers that might not be as loyal to what’s being offered/sold.
At some point with the explosion of all these sites, there’s only so many deals to businesses that can be offered before the game of supply and demand kicks in. Will parts of the service industry turn into the auto industry, where the “deal” is always expected? And if there isn’t a deal, there won’t be a purchase? And how will that affect these companies moving forward?
Maybe a somewhat big leap of logic, but interesting to think about as these service-based websites develop and grow.
I tried so hard to not open this up with some tired cliché.
When life hands you lemons…
No use crying over spilled milk…
It’s a Christmas miracle!
So we’re going to pretend I’m actually good at introductory material. Moving on-
We’re excited and proud to now be working with Blumz by JRDesigns of Detroit and Ferndale.
During our first shoot for their December Social Media videos, one of the model christmas trees they’d just decorated for use in the videos accidentally fell over:
…and blew up into a million pieces:
We capitalized on the moment and shot this video of Jerome Raska, one of the owners, improvising instead:
Sometimes you just gotta play the cards you’re dealt! quit while you’re ahead, eh?
Most businesses, where it’s appropriate, want “edgy” in their marketing and advertising, if for no other reason than to separate themselves from the pack- which is fine.
But some advertisers push edgy to the point where the only two parties they’re impressing are themselves and/or their client. Edgy can easily slip over into plain old self-indulgence.
Ahem:
These are ridiculous and pretentious. They’re extremely well done visual art, which I must acknowledge, but they are ultimately forgettable and, IMHO, don’t sell gum. I don’t want to be locked in a cold post-industrial cage with giant robots cramming me full of flavor.
If, however, you infect people’s brains with an unforgettable message and tune, you will reap dividends for generations. Ahem:
Go ahead, push the envelope, but don’t forget who the envelope is addressed to.
They all won Channel WDIV 4′s 2010 4 The Best contest!
For those of you who are unfamiliar, the 4 The Best contest is the biggest consumer-based voting contest in the region. Winning it is a huge honor, because it requires thousands and thousands of votes (to give you some idea, there were 239,649 votes for the whole contest across categories).
It’d be easy for me to say that it’s because of the video marketing they do that they won, but then I’d have to wipe the used-car salesman slime off myself.
In all seriousness, though, it wasn’t just because of video that these guys are high-profile. It’s their overall attitude towards marketing, and they take multiple, greatapproaches to marketing themselves. Video is a component in their overall strategy, and we are oh-so-proud of our clients.
I’m about go bananas. So few times do I ever see an example of Do-It-Yourself video done right that when I do see it I got all hot and bothered.
Apologies, Preston.
First, some context. I’m obviously biased here, as making professional video every day is how I pay my bills. It would seem natural for me to feel the knife of despair twist in my heart whenever somebody advocates doing “Flip cam style” video for their own marketing purposes because I’m somehow missing out on an opportunity to sell my own services. There may be a grain of truth to that, but honestly, the knife twists in me because so few people know what to do with a camera in their hand. Most other people end up damaging themselves and their business reputation by having BAD video (a.k.a. D.I.Y. video) versus no video at all. Also, “Flip cam style” video usually becomes “my head talking and talking and talking” with very few interesting shots or editing going on, which is almost always the kiss-of-death when it comes to online video. Snoozefest 2010, coming to a laptop near you.
Behold, somebody who got it right. I dare you to just watch a few seconds.
This may not be the most exciting web video ever, but let’s go through what Preston, the guy in the video above, did right here.
(1) Big title text for the first few seconds. Not only does Preston know how to use spell-check, any video thumbnail that gets grabbed from the beginning of this video will be exactly what the title of the video is. Shut my mouth! Coherence!
(2) By the first 20 seconds he hooks you in with the setup/problem with “…we frequently fall into the trap of…” He doesn’t spend time messing around. If you were remotely interested in this topic before you clicked “Play,” he’s now got you hooked for the next minute at the 20-second mark. He gets right to point. Hallelujah!
(3) Its 1 minute and 22 seconds. Not 2 minutes. Not 5 minutes of rambling generalities. Short and sweet.
(4) A big one: The background is very dark, but he himself is very brightly and evenly lit. This is probably my favorite thing about this video. Do you see how Preston “pops” out of the background? Looking at something that is aesthetic, which is heavily influenced by lighting, makes our subconscious more accepting of whatever we’re watching.
(5) The close-up. The text is huge. Preston held the camera up close to make his head large relative to the frame. That is knowing how to use small embedded web players in our tiny-video world.
(6) Music. Always helps fill the boring void behind a spoken monologue.
(7) Finally, the biggest: Preston isn’t an amateur. Whether he practiced this particular monologue or not I don’t know, but he obviously knows what he’s talking about because the video isn’t littered with awkward pauses and “Um”s. He’s not a natural, but he’s natural with us- the audience. He’s not putting on some forced personality and he’s not trying to impress us. So many times people want to try to show how smart or funny they are or feel like that have to become a “personality” and it all comes off as fake. Or sometimes people are just themselves and suck at it and lack objectivity or honesty about evaluating themselves. Kiss of death, y’all, but not here.
———
I tried to outline the above reasons without talking about Preston’s content. Full disclosure: I co-run a small business, so this whole leadership/management thing was of interest to me personally. It may not be to you. He uses a lot of buzzwords. His content will go over the heads of the wrong audience, but there are structural and other things Preston did in this short video that make it good independent of its content. It warms my heart to see video-literacy in Do-It-Yourself action.
Twitter, once thought of as a source for individual announcements and communication between friends (and the occasional online celebrity), is an ever-expanding resource that is being widely adopted for marketing purposes for companies, musicians, organizations.
There’s been many successful stories about how well-established businesses (Comcast, Starbucks) utilize Twitter as a resource to reach out to their customers directly and respond to their inquiries and comments.
However, when thinking about your business, there’s a right away and a wrong way to approach Twitter and how you use it- and we’ll mention a great resource at the end of this post to navigate your way through the Twitter universe effectively.
One of the biggest questions that Twitter repeatedly gets asked is “Will video tweets at some point be available?” And their answer up to this point has been a resounding no. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still get the word out there about your new video link in 140 characters or less, by embedding a link to your video within a tweet.
The problem is that Youtube links can be fairly long, and when every character counts in that magic number of 140, you don’t want to be wasting any that you could be using to convey an additional part of your marketing message.
Here’s a sample Youtube link that we’d like to post as a Twitter update:
That link right there alone is 57 characters. But if we use the website http://bit.ly (basically a URL shortener) and copy that link into there, we get returned a much smaller link that will still lead someone from our tweet to the video we’ve uploaded:
http://bit.ly/auDRbx
20 characters, a savings of 37 characters that we can use to our full advantage when composing our tweet!
For learning more about Twitter and what it could mean for your business or organization, check out Corey Perlman’s eBootCamp at http://www.facebook.com/ebootcamp and eBootCamp University sessions at http://www.ebootcampuniversity.com/
