Branding…What is it Good For?

We talk a lot about branding. The IMPORTANCE of branding. We spend a lot of money on branding. But do we need to?

What if we know what we do well. Charge a fair price for it. And get it into the hands of the people who want to buy what we have to sell.

I know, easier said than done. But sometimes I think may people spend time and money trying to establish a brand, when they should be creating a relationship with their target market.

Yes, a recognizable logo is important to remind your customers that you are there when they need you, but do we spend thousands of dollars on consultants and panels and testing of our brand? Or do we just do the work…

MediaPost just posted an article – We Are All Frauds: The Way We Advertise Does Not Work – […]

2019-02-25T16:50:53+00:00February 25th, 2019|Categories: Advertising, Business, Marketing|

Ads on Apps – on a small screen near you!

So, I started (or rather restarted) playing a Facebook game a few weeks ago. And the biggest thing I have noticed (besides the much improved speed of computers and Internet connections these days) is the in-app advertising. Because this particular app is tied to your Facebook login, it seems to know what you are thinking and targets ads pretty specifically.

If you want more energy or some extra money – you can sit through an ad or two or three. Now, I play the game with the sound turned off, so I am only seeing the ad, but I get the point and find that I DO occasionally click for more information.

In-app video ad spending has increased dramatically in the past year. According to an article in MediaPost –  “the ad format saw more than 200% growth from the fourth quarter 2017 […]

2019-02-21T17:41:19+00:00February 21st, 2019|Categories: Advertising, Announcements, Business, Marketing|

Big $$ for US Video Ad Spending

Big money is being spent on placing ads with more money being spent online. While TV buy still has the lion’s share, the digital landscape is increasing every year.

This article from eMarketer.com has 8 very interesting charts to help you wrap your head around the trends.

The targeted nature of online advertising has VALUE to the advertiser. Don’t short-change the talent who are part of the process creating the content for these ads. Especially if you want to be able to go to that talent down the road. If they don’t earn living wages for their talent, they will not stay in business.

When discussing a fair rate, always consider eyeballs and shelf-life. How long will this ad run? Where will this ad be seen? Be realistic about it. There is a big difference in a fair rate between a spot with a limited […]

2018-03-11T21:24:51+00:00March 11th, 2018|Categories: Advertising, Business, Marketing, Negotiating|

Video Marketing is Da Bomb…

Here’s a stat for you – Including video in a landing page can increase conversion by 80%.

This comes from EyeView – a video marketing technology company – and is just one little tidbit in a list of 27 Video Stats for 2017 compiled by Invisia.

Here’s another from that list – 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. This tidbit came from an article by Animoto published a couple of years ago, so it could be more…

Here is an example of just that – a video about a product that I narrated recently – so you don’t have to read about it. This was a fun VO to do (a rare directed session!) and I think it turned out great!

2018-02-06T06:48:02+00:00July 11th, 2017|Categories: Marketing|

The Irony of ISDN’s Inevitable Demise

cdqprimatwThe ISDN world is contracting because of changing technology. Eventually, there will be no more ISDN. In some parts of the US, there already is no more ISDN. But it isn’t dead yet.

I have researched most of the other professional options available and have signed up and paid for some other technology that allows me to connect to studios with them doing the recording – much like what happens when I use my ISDN lines. Source-Connect, ipDTL and ConnectionOpen is what I have now. (Click here for the list I created of most of the options.)

There are others that require additional hardware codecs similar to ISDN and are in fact made by the companies who provide ISDN codecs. But, at the moment, none of the companies that I work with have ever mentioned that they will be switching to those […]

2018-02-06T06:48:02+00:00December 3rd, 2016|Categories: Business, Marketing, Technology|

Getting Ready to Do a Video Campaign?

CalendarThe latest MediaPost “Video Insider” arrived in my In Box today with an interesting article about when to send out a video campaign for maximum exposure.

Of course, a whole LOT of things affect when you should launch a campaign, including what you are promoting and how much money you have to promote it.

They cited a couple of case studies that did very well by avoiding the big seasonal crushes like Thanksgiving and Christmas. BarkBox and KFC. But they also pointed out that you need to keep in mind that there are other “big” holidays that clutter the advertising landscape, like Valentines’ Day, Super Bowl, Mother’s Day, etc.

The also suggest – if you don’t have deep pockets – saving up and doing a big splash!

Read the whole article here >>>

And if you want to see what holidays are coming […]

2018-02-06T06:48:03+00:00June 1st, 2016|Categories: Advertising, Business, Marketing|Tags: , , |

You’ll be hearing from me…sometime…I promise!

CRMThe quest for a workable Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software continues. I don’t know about you, but I am having a heck of time finding one that is simple and integrates easily with my workflow.

Remember FilemakerPro? I used that for a while back in the day. Spent hours creating custom forms and fields to manage my free lance producing / writing / talent business. It was complicated and pretty much stand alone. But then I took a full-time job and the free lance gigs were sidelined for about 9 years. When I got back into the free lance side of things, the world had changed and new easier (?) and free CRM options were dangled in front of me.

I tried Outlook Business Contacts for a while, but during a software update, the functionality disappeared, so I muddled along sorting email into folders […]

2018-02-06T06:48:03+00:00May 8th, 2016|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|Tags: , , , , |

I’ll take mine with a side of Convenience, please…

42nd Street MenuOne of the things I’ve learned over the years is that when I make something easier for my clients it usually pays off.

Convenience is defined as something that saves or simplifies work – or adds to one’s ease or comfort. 

I make it as convenient as possible to do business with me. My website has demos up front and center on the home page of my website. I have contact information on each page. There are links to more demos and hopefully enough information about who I am and what I do to help them take a chance on my voiceover work. After that, it is up to me to provide value.

We love convenience. Savvy business people have always known that people will pay a […]

2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00April 8th, 2016|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: , , |

Do You Have a Digital Media Production Tribe?

MCA-I logoMany years ago when ITVA changed their name to MCA-I – people just didn’t know what to do. The new name was hard to say for one thing. And the change happened at a time when technology was evolving and the business climate was changing. It created sort of a perfect storm that sent the association into turmoil. Something not unique to MCA-I – many associations have been feeling the effects.

While MCA-I is still alive (www.mca-i.org), and remains strong in scattered chapters around the US, it is in regrowth mode.

The name MCA-I is still a mouthful to this day. Back then we tried to find a way to make it easier to say – so a few of us dubbed ourselves the “McEye” Tribe. That was the phonetic pronunciation. While it never really caught on, it worked […]

Facebook as another top distribution channel for video ads

FacebookPage_videoJust ran across an article discussing how to use Facebook as another area of distribution and why you should consider it. Apparently YouTube is still the king, but Facebook is gaining ground.

The folks at ReelSEO make the case for advertisers to use multiple sources with YouTube first and Facebook second. What strikes me is how complicated it is for advertisers to find any common way of analyzing the results. The technology is changing so fast that each new iteration brings new tracking metrics and ways of paying for your ads – clicks, time spent watching, what constitutes a view so that you know what you are going to be charged, etc. This article has links to explanations of current methods.

But the bulk of the article is on how to maximize the effectiveness of your video ads for Facebook.

Their first […]

2018-02-06T06:48:04+00:00February 4th, 2016|Categories: Advertising, Announcements, Business, Marketing, Technology|Tags: |
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