Blog
Fun Way to Kick-Off a Fund Raiser Using Video
I was contact by the Jewish Home for the Aging in Los Angeles (www.jha.org) to help kick-off a campaign for the Jewish holiday of Passover. The idea is to hold a recipe contest for a traditional Passover dish called Maztah Brei, which is a combination of unleavened bread called Matzah, egg and salt.
It was immediately obvious to everyone that we should video tape a few of the residents making their own recipes for this delicious dish. This made sense on so many different levels.
First, it was cute. The residents are wonderful and proud of their home and their cooking. The video also helps to promote healthy – spiritual living in a home for the elderly. Third, it helps to communicate traditions from one generation to the next.
The video starts off how one would expect a Passover video to start, but then the pace changes and we are offered a chance to participate in the wonderful tradition of Passover.
Though both dishes featured in this video are delicious, they do not hold a candle to my own Grandmothers Matzah Brei.
For more information about the content at the Jewish Home for The Aging, please visit www.jha.org.
Matzah Brei Recipe Contest
Uploaded by focuscreative. – Full seasons and entire episodes online.
8 Steps To Produce an Effective Marketing Event
As a Event Producer and marketing professional , it is virtually impossible for me to attend an event, play or any production without looking to do it better or trying to figure out how they did that! It is true I have my own style of producing an event and I have even had people come up to me and tell me they knew it was me at the helm of the event.
Recently I attended an event and I wrote down the following steps to create an engaging event without busting the bank. I cannot emphasize strong enough that your event, meeting, gala or awards show is a presentation and a marketing event. You will deliver a message(s) to your audience one way or the other. A well produced event will make all the difference between accomplishing your desired results or not.
- Use an Event Producer, not just an AV company. A good Event Producer will work with you on the branding and communications strategy of your event.
Awards Show. Great lighting and gobos make a big difference
They will advise you on pacing, agenda and flow to best keep your audience engaged.
- If you have a long list of awards to give out, break it up into smaller lists. If your list is too long, you will lose your audience. They will start to talk with their neighbors and answer their email on their PDAs.
- Sponsor loops – if your event is sponsored, make sure to give them as much screen time as you can. A simple logo loop is sometimes all you need. Play it during the walk-in and perhaps during lunch. Your sponsors will love you.
- Music can make or break a program, it fills the dead air in the room. If properly selected, a good music track will help keep the pace up and add more energy to the room.
- VOICE OF GOD! Yes, the announcer is sometimes called the voice of god (VOG). It is usually live, but can be prerecorded. A powerful VOG adds an element of production value. Combine a VOG with a good music track and supporting graphics and you have raised the production value of your event.
- Sound systems can be expensive, but it make a whole world of difference especially with a very social audience. If the audio is muffled or the speakers are not positioned in the optimal position, your audience may loose interest because they won’t be able to hear well.
- Graphics and PowerPoint. Make sure to not crowd the slides and to give people their moment in the spotlight. If you are honoring people, give them their own slide and try to incorporate their company’s logo. They will love you for the branding and marketing opportunity. And remember keep the slides simple! Less is more.
Press Event - logo was always on one of three screens
- Video and IMAG. IMAG stands for Image Magnification. Simply put it is what we call projecting the speaker onto the big screens. IMAG is not inexpensive when done right. Everything matters, including the camera type, camera operators, a director to switch camera and lighting. If you do not light the stage properly, your speakers may look like they are lost in a sea of ink.
I hope you find these quick tips helpful. Not all are inexpensive to implement, but remember, your event, gala or meeting will make an impact on your brand and company image. It is after all, a presentation.
Having a great team to support you with the messaging and production will make all the difference between achieving your desired results and outcomes. There are a lot of wheels spinning during a live event and having someone who is at the helm driving the program will make a world of difference.
Please share your comments and/or experiences with me. I would love your comments.
All the best,
Robert S. Grossman
Focus Creative Group
Patrick SoonShiong 2010 Business Person of the Year
I had the honor of producing a short video about Dr. Patrick SoonShion, Executive Chairman of Abraxis BioScience for Los Angeles Business Journal Business Hall of Fame event held on March 9, 2010. Dr. Soonshion was honored as the Business Person of the Year for 2010.
The Los Angeles Business Journal contracted Focus Creative to produce this video for their event. Focus Creative wrote the script, voice over, music and editorial. The footage was provided by Abraxis BioScience.
Dr. SoonShiong sets the bar for entrepreneurship and philanthropy. His list of accomplishments is nothing short of astonishing and is an inspiration for us all. Here is the short video used at today’s event to introduce Dr. Patrick SoonShiong.
For more information or to inquire about how we can help you with your next event or video, please give us a call at 818-728-9200.
All the best,
Robert S. Grossman
Founder and Chief Message Architect, Focus Creative Group
The State of Digital Signage
Last week, I attend the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas to get an idea where the industry is headed and look for new opportunities. I’ve been working with digital signage for a few years now in dentistry, banking and now moving into retail. There were very few exhibitors who were demonstrating any new and exciting, but I did glean one very important fact to me – Content is King!
I walked around thinking to myself, what about content? What about the audience experience? What about helping me drive more business and more sales?
Digital Signage is going through some of the same growing pains video production is going through. The hardware is cheap, the software is cheap. There are so many companies offering solutions that the price is being driven down dramatically and the cost of screens are dropping too.
Of course it is better for the end user if the cost is cheap right? Well, I think so, except you have people calling themselves digital signage experts, video production experts, content creation experts, but they don’t have a strong sense for branding, marketing, messaging and motivating an audience to take action.
And are they really experts? Some are and many are not. So beware.
I said Content is King right? Well, this is not completely actuate. What makes good content for your digital signage audience is nothing more than relevancy. What is relevant to them when they are watching the media on your screen. In other words, expecting someone to think about plumbers while they are filling their gas tank up in not relevant to the guy buying the gas. Sure, you might get lucky and they just might be looking for a plumber at that very moment. But then they have to get a pen and paper or enter the number into their phone. Chances are with the thousands of marketing messages bombarding us every single day, the changes this person will remember you from that one touch is very slim.
I think you get it. It is a shot in the dark.
So what is on the mind of someone pumping gas besides the price of gas? Who knows, but if there is a convenience store attached to the gas station, then maybe a few short videos about what they can buy in the store. Maybe reminding them that the store sells great coffee, or fresh donuts, or milk, or sandwiches might get them to walk into the store and buy something. There are obvious brands who sell product in these stores who might want to take advantage of the brand impression.
But here is the problem. Many of the models around digital signage involve installing the system for free and then sell advertising. The business owner gets paid per ad played or some variation of that. Now you know why your favorite restaurant has installed those annoying screens selling all kinds of stuff which has nothing to do with the meal you are sitting down to enjoy.
By the way, this same rule applies to presentations, videos, meetings and social media. The more targeted your message to what the audience really cares about, the more effective your communication will be at achieving your desired results.
I would love you hear your thoughts and comments about this. Please also share some of your experiences and stories with me.
Sincerely,
Robert Grossman
Focus Creative Group
Why Are We Now Offering Workshops On Social Media
Robert S. Grossman
Many of you know me as a video and event producer, well, this is what I have been doing since 1993. Some of you have asked me if I am still producing video and events since I started promoting our social media workshops.
Just to be perfectly clear…the answer is YES! We are still producing award-winning videos and events.
So, you maybe wondering why we are offering social media workshops and services (if you weren’t you are now)?
The answer is very simple.
Besides from being fun and very exciting one our mission has always been to create and deliver high impact and influential media which drives results and business activity.
In our world, its all about the presentation, communication and getting results for you. My personal role has always been that of “producer” – in other words, I work on your team to make stuff happen for you hopefully reducing the stress along the way and dramatically increasing increasing your success.
Social media is a new and exciting marketing and branding platform with so many possibilities. The same strategies and processes used to create wining videos and live events are employed in social media campaigns. We may not be building a large stage in a hotel ballroom, but we are creating a marketing project with influential media to engage your target audience and drive the results you need.
I also have been using social media for my own business and quite successfully. My peers and colleagues encouraged me to offer workshops, consulting and implementation and after careful consideration, we launched our social media offerings last August.
Video is proving to be the next great frontier in social media and unfortunately, a lot of what I have seen is really poor quality. There is a time for home-grown video – for example in blog posts, but I would say more often than not, the video you show, even on social media sites represents your brand or your promise to your clients. So take care when posting videos and make sure they communicate exactly what you want them too.
The same rule applies, you will always communicate some kind of message so you better make sure it is the one you want to communicate.
We have become a casual society and our casualness has influenced our idea of what constitutes a good quality presentation. Okay, so I use to work for IBM back in the day when every morning I would sing my little jingle, “Blue, Gray, Blue, Gray, What Shall I Wear Today?” and casual Friday was once a month and you had to wear a button down collard shirt, slacks and dress shoes. But we never slacked on the professional quality of our presentation and brand of IBM. There is a lesson for us all – quality does matter and image matters.
So my advice to you is to think about your brand and how you are presenting yourself, even when using social media.
And to get back on track – yes, we are now offering social media consulting and solutions in addition to our event and video production solutions. We have added digital signage, web broadcasting and soon video publishing.
After all, it is all about the presentation, creating media (and meetings) which impact your audience and drives business activity in the right direction!
Please share your comments here and feel free to ask questions.
Keep the conversation going.
Sincerely,
Robert S. Grossman
“Chief Message Architect”, Founder & CEO
Focus Creative Group
