The Poetry Of Marketing

Producing a video for your company can be an exciting and potentially stressful experience. There’s more to it than simply assigning a video production company to the task and crossing your fingers.

To get the most from your video production dollars, we’ll take a look at seven top tips for making your corporate video a success.

1. Start with Results. The first step is to work out exactly what you want your video to achieve. Is it to train staff on a new procedure or is to increase interest at trade shows? Design your video concept around the desired result. Often clients get caught up with showing off their company that the main message gets lost.

2. Write a brief. Once you know what you want to achieve, work out what you want to show and explain in your video. Formulate a brief that specifies your objectives, target audience, the countries your video will be viewed in and any required languages. A list of all the shots that you need is also helpful. Will the bulk of the shots be at your premises and do you need your CEO to talk to camera? Video production companies will try to calculate how many days filming are required to work out the cost, so it’s important to know how much needs to be filmed at the outset.

3. Know your image. What sort of image do you want to present to your customers? While watching your corporate video, your customers will be left with an impression of what type of business you are and what to expect when doing business with you. If your television program happens to be radically down-market than your up-market product suggests, then you create cognitive dissonance in your prospects. This will mean that your viewers will be left with an uneasy feeling that something isn’t quite right with your company and will automatically distrust your message. To avoid this, make sure the quality of production reflects the quality of your product/service. This can involve using a professional camera operator with broadcast quality gear to having a graphic artist design maps and titles.

4. Messages. One of the key areas to work out is what communication messages you need to get across. Work out the 4-6 key messages and develop the video around these. If you have too many messages people will tune out. Essentially, make sure you give information that your audience wants to know (not what you think they ought to know).

5. Script. The script provides the backbone to any video project. It’s always worthwhile spending extra time refining the script. As a rule of thumb, it needs to be completed before any filming begins. The best kind of script is short and sharp and revolves around your main messages. The quicker you can get your message across, the better the result. Avoid putting everything into the script, as wall to wall voiceover is quite tiring (and boring) to watch.

6. Assign a contact person. A designated person from your firm will need to be available to work with the video production company. The production house will need script information and approval, help in organising shoots, copies of your logo and other relevant materials and someone to view a draft of the video and then finalise. This person will also need to make sure that the look and feel of the video best represents your company.

7. Get expert advice. A good production company will be able to advise you on the best format for your needs such as the music, the filming, editing style and how the schedule will run. They will also be able to take your brief and come back with a range of suitable suggestions. Don’t stress about the technical issues. That’s the job of your producer.

(c) Marie-Claire Ross 2005. All rights reserved.

Marie-Claire Ross is one of the partners of Digicast. Digicast works with organisations who are not satisfied that their marketing and training materials are helping their business grow. She can be contacted at mc@digicast.com.au. The website is at http://www.digicast.com.au

With the hippest new clothing designers for Autumn 2009 landing from around the fashion world each day on the fashion online website and in the stores, there’s lots of fabulous new handbags to desire. Let fashion store Matches introduce our coolest new designers and our brand new favourite bags and shoes of the season, here is the designer names to know right now. There’s a magnificent buzz all around jewellery creator Alex Monroe’s pieces, not least for the reason that they are the nicest neck wear around but because they are embellished with cute bumble bees and almost singing birds. London’s amazing designer Christopher Kane has yet again designed the most superb piece of the Autumn 2009 season. This time it’s Christopher’s gorilla print tee for guys and girls that has fashion store Matches very excited. Also, designer store Matches have the superb Clements Ribero back, designer clothing store Matches were first in line to snap up their Spring 2009 collection of deliciously soft cardigans with beautifully lush embellishments.

Matches are now stocking the all new and really unique necklaces and bangles by fabulous designer Hannah Martin. Jewels that are a little bit mysterious, a little bit decadent and drastically sexy. Matches bring you direct from an airy loft apartment in New York City- Haute Hippy, the brand explains it all. The finest of both worlds combine for a wonderfully vintage inspired, fabulously made pieces that are glamorous, sexy and extraordinarily cool. And now for the two J males, Julian David and the fashion designer Julien McDonald. With highly soft, feather-light scarves in a host of patterns Julian David is the accessory designer to watch and get prepared to party in Julien MacDonald’s outstanding dresses.

Be completely smitten by the most recent collection to hit the high fashion stores, it is London based label Loha Vete by Max Zubari. These designer items are love-worn t shirts embellished with Zubari’s own personal slogans about life, love and relationships and everything in between. Show your heart on your sleeve and make ordinary clothing a statement. Stay up to date with all the latest Stella McCartney fashion styles.

Be sure to check out the designer store Matches online website for more information about these trendy new fashion forward designers, the most current must haves and the inside scoop about all things fashion and designer on Matches daily blog.

Despite being hidden away from other rooms in the flat, the bedroom is a vital place to spend quality time relaxing and sleeping. For this reason it is incredibly beneficial to buy first-class furniture & accessories to make your bedroom a more peaceful liveable area.

The most necessary bit of furniture in a bedroom is undeniably the bed itself. Beds come in an abundance of different sizes and forms. For starters, beds can be attained as a single, double, king-size or super king-size.

While size is a vital aspect, the actual style of bed you pick will also make a big difference in how your bed is utilised. If you are restricted by available room, acquire a cabin bed or storage bed as these have well-situated storage drawers underneath.

If you take pleasure in having friends over regularly choose a guest bed that meets your exact needs. A guest bed has a supplementary pull out mattress underneath. You can also get a folding bed for guests, as this bed is small & lightweight, which offers easy manoeuvring.

If you are restricted on available bedroom space for your friends & family, then it is suggested to acquire a sofa bed. Sofa beds look exactly like sofas and can be coordinated to your family room decor, but also convert into a relaxing sleeping option for friends.

To get the most pleasure and resilience out of your bed, you will indeed need to select a mattress. There is a broad range of mattresses to elect from recently, with one of the most fashionable styles around being a Memory Foam mattress. The value of a Memory Foam mattress over other mattresses is that it moulds to the position of your specific body for added comfort & support.

When obtaining a new mattress, check that it’s the precise size as your existing bed. An example, a single bed will only take a single mattress, whilst a double bed uses a double mattress. Find a vast selection home products including; bedroom furniture, duvet covers and office furniture from leading brands online.

To complete your bed off, select a duvet cover that is comparable to your existing décor. Not only do duvet covers come in a large mixture of finishes & colours, but they can very easily be created with green materials. Best of all, duvets are both light & simply to wash down.

Another valuable piece of bedroom furniture you should own is a chest of drawers. A chest of drawers can store a lot of your clothing, and can with no trouble at all be matched with other bedroom furniture you may own.

The bedroom is a place where you can unwind after a hectic day. The room should offer a person complete relaxation. The bed plays a huge part in providing the required relaxation after a good day’s work. But often you find that people are not happy with their sleep, look tired or have back pain in the morning. This is sometimes due to improper posture while sleeping and mostly due to the usage of beds that do not provide proper support to the back. This in turn hampers sleep.

The Bragada mattresses are one of the best in the world today according to many and they aid sleep. These mattresses are approved by the Orthopedic Research Institute and provide very good comfort. The Bragada mattress is famous now through out the world.

If you have bought a mattress recently and feel that you have missed out on an opportunity to buy the Bragada mattress you can always buy the Bragada Memory Foam topper and put it on top of your present mattress. You will be getting all the benefits of a Bragada mattress. The prices are very reasonable and you can buy online as well. There are many websites selling these mattresses.

With the brilliant sunny months close approaching you can find a lot of theatre shows at the spectacular west end Theatreland. The most eagerly anticipated musical show to open is Sister Act, this musical show is directed by the amazing Whoopi Goldberg. The musical is based on the famous movies and features a brand new cast and a whole host of new religious pop songs to sing along to. The show has already premiered to the theatre journalists and had outstanding feedback. The very best coming from The Telegraph and The Evening Standard, both who mentioned how good the musical production had been put together and how excellent the songs were. This production sounds like a huge hit and a show that you must watch.

Another brilliant show to premiere this Summer up in Theatreland is another film adaptation, Priscilla. It has Oz telly soap star Jason Donavan as the leading star and sees Jason Donavan dress up in the campest costumes ever seen on the West End. The songs again are catchy and upbeat. This show is a definite popular hit and a musical that is sure to capture the heart of Londoners and London tourists. If you enjoy London’s West End, then find London theatre tickets at knock down prices online.

From time to time there are certain shows that stand the test of time. One of the most popular musical shows is Phantom of the Opera. This musical draws in the crowds month after month and is one of the most popular musicals in the capital. The musical production has been running for over fifteen years. The theatre production is based upon a French novel and was written by the well known play writer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The production is about a young lady who’s father dies suddenly and sends her an angel from heaven to look after her. The angel falls in love with the woman and things turn ugly with the angel threatening the young girls childhood sweatheart.

Unusually careful minutes announced from the Bank of England not very long ago led straight to the fresh English Pound revival people have witnessed being halted. The surprising assessment through the English Central Bank was unanimous for interest rates to linger on hold and to keep up the existing quantity of quantitative let-up. Conversely, surprisingly, the noteworthy members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) thought Sterling’s brand new inflation in value was not definitely the ‘green shoot of recovery’ legions of people are also predicting and will probably in truth damage business and thus delay the British economic resurgence. Click for more information on current exchange rates.

The above startling comments saw the pound sterling fall a cent against both the Dollar and Euro and also just over a cent and a 1/2 against the Swiss Franc.

On this day UK retail figures and additionally publically available financial records can supply other clues on the shape of the British economy and additionally might well begin continued unpredictability in the money markets. For that reason, make absolutely sure you are in close communication with your currency account manager so that they could keep you educated of market changes.

Reports made known very recently by the Office of National Statistics or ONS for short, demonstrated that unemployment in the United Kingdom had risen to just over two point two million the utmost amount ever since November 2006 Despite the surprising increase the figure was not as feeble as some had suspected still, with the national unemployment level still just over 0.07 it was seen as bad for the pound sterling. This on top of the wary remarks by the MPC just went to escalate British Stirling’s difficulties. David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, stated: “These jobless figures are slightly better than feared, but the overall situation remains grim… It is much too early to talk about the end of recession”

The concern now is that the above info may worsen as college and university graduates enter the career market at the most awful potential occasion which is likely to leave more strain on the UK pound. So, if you scheduled an upcoming currency transfer natter to a devoted currency broker who might often be able to clarify every one of the available options presented to you including fixing your money exchange rates for a period of time in the future for just a tiny deposit on a forward contract wonderful to help you budget.

The idea of this section is for you to start to build useful links from your site. Do this for two reasons:-

1.To act as a resource to your visitors 2.You may be given a reciprocal link, which should increase your traffic.

Right, now begin to consider a few ideas that you could put on a web page that would enhance the reading experience.

LOCATION

Where are the main locations of the novel?

Think about this for a minute. Is it LA? Is it Paris? Is it Africa?

Now pull up your favourite search engine (I use www.google.com all the time - it’s my favourite). Now put into the search engine the location of your book. You’ll be given, hopefully, thousands of websites to choose from. Look at a few of the links. Do any seem appealing or eye-catching? If they do, add them to the links section of your website or even profile a link on the home page. You’ve started to broaden your books appeal already.

Example

You’ve written a hard-hitting police drama set in San Francisco. So, following my advice, you put the words `San Francisco’ into your search engine.

What do you get?

Well, in less than a second I’ve found 2 million links!!!

The first link I looked at was a map of the city. Wouldn’t that be great to add as a link? People can then follow the action in your book.

Then I found the official city website. That’s a must have!

I trawl through a few more links then I find a site that has a series of web cams set up. Wow!

There you have it. Within a minute or so you’ve found three useful links for your website. Visitors to your site don’t just get a feel for the book but they get a feel for the location too.

Clever, eh?

And don’t forget to send an email to each of these sites to invite them to pop over to your site too!

Check out my link page on my St Brodag’s Isle website:-

http://www.stbrodag.com/stblink.html

I’ve focussed on other island sites. Click on the links. Have a look at the type of links I’ve put on there. I haven’t had any complaints from anyone yet.

GENRE

Let’s think for a minute about the genre of your book.

Is it a thriller? Is it science fiction? Is it humorous? Is it literary?

Who is your favourite author?

Repeat a series of searches such as the one you did for location. Find another three or four links.

This might also highlight a series of organisations to join or online communities who share your interest. Get involved. Take part in the discussions on message boards and in newsgroups.

Try:-

www.delphi.com

www.egroups.com

www.topica.com

These sites host various communities. Find one your interested in.

Right. So you have built yourself a comprehensive links listing. That’s a good start. Remember to ask everyone if they’ll be willing to display a reciprocal link. It can never harm you to ask.

Kitchen canister sets add pizzazz to your décor as well as provide a smart way to organize and store foodstuffs. Where can you find the best selection of shapes, sizes, colors and materials for these kitchen storage essentials? Read below to get a list of online retailers that sell kitchen canister sets suitable for any décor - and budget.

For high-end kitchen canister sets you’d be proud to place in the snazziest kitchen, take a look at Horchow’s (www.Horchow.com). With an impressive selection of classy designs, Horchow’s kitchen canister sets raise the bar in terms of quality and good taste. From their ceramic French country Provencal set that lists for $390 to their pewter and glass see-through canisters at $265, this is the site to shop for the finest in kitchen canister sets.

Sincerely Yours (www.SincerelyYours.com) sells kitchen canister sets more in the mid-price range. This site offers a nice selection of quality sets such as their $60 Jane Keltner-designed set that comes finished in black with the words in gold-lettered French. And while you’re there, be sure and check out the hand-painted Italian marble set offered at $178.

Stainless steel kitchen canister sets by Calphalon, All-Clad, and Polder top the list at www.Cooking.com in practical designs at mid-price ranges. This old-favorite cooking site also offers many other kitchen canister sets in tried-and-true brands such as Fiestaware, Pfaltzgraff, and Oggi. You’ll also find offerings by cooking diva Nigella Lawson.

For those on a budget, the kitchen canister sets found at Brylane Home (www.BrylaneHome.com) can’t be beat. This Web site features an attractive four-piece set in stainless steel for only $29.99. Large oval windows allow you to see when flour, sugar, coffee, and tea need to be refilled so you won’t be caught off-guard right in the middle of making something.

Kitchen canister sets add perk and personality to any kitchen and with all these choices, you’re sure to find one that fits the bill perfectly. After you’ve browsed and shopped and seen as many as you have time for, you may very well find the most difficult thing about kitchen canister sets lies in deciding upon which of the many to select!

© 2004, John Calder http://www.TheEzine.net

Let’s face it, getting one-way, non-reciprocal links in to your site is the way to go these days, at least as far as SEO purposes go. Reciprocal links can send you traffic, and may count for something in the search engine ranking algorithms, but not nearly as much as they used to. To help you in the search results, you have to get the inbound links, preferably a text link with relevant text, from a site related to yours. Here are a few tips on getting those all-important inbounds.

It’s doubtful, for new sites in particular, that you’ll get another webmaster to link to you just for the asking. Many won’t even exchange links with low PR sites anymore, so your polite email request for a one-way link to your new PR 0 site may well be met with laughter.

But there are other ways to get the links you need. For example, you can post on relevant forums and newsgroups that themselves have some decent ranking. Remember though, that unless you’re selling to other marketers, there are a lot more forums than just marketing related ones. In fact, it’s much better, if you sell ski equipment for example, to post on ski vacation forums, local forums centered around various ski resorts, and so on. These are more on-topic to your site, and will carry more clout than a link from a marketing site.

You can also submit articles to the various article directories. Other webmasters typically have the right to use these articles on their sites, provided they leave your resource box intact. Again, these need to be relevant to the theme of your site for best results. It makes no sense to write about your favorite pet when you’re promoting the before-mentioned ski equipment site.

Finally, don’t overlook the use of RSS. With this technology, you are able to syndicate your content to other sites, through the use of a blog as one example. If other webmasters add your syndicated feed to their sites, you will get inbound links, most likely from sites that are relevant to yours.

For all of those MP3 music owners, the future of car audio is finally here for you. Gone are the days where you had to burn your MP3s onto a CD for playback in your car audio system. Sony recently released the MEX-1GP CD receiver, a CD receiver that also features a built-in 1 GB flash memory unit. So now your car audio CD receiver behaves in the same manner as your iPod or other type of MP3 player. The 1 GB flash memory unit can store up to 500 of your favorite songs, giving you plenty of playback time for your music. This little device will make even the longest of trips in your car smoother and more enjoyable, since you will not have to worry about changing CDs any longer.

Aside from playing MP3s, this CD receiver also plays CDs (as the name implies) along with burned CD-Rs and CD-RWs so that those who wish to play their old CDs can still take advantage of this nifty product. However, the real attraction to this new car audio head unit is the MP3 playability. The flash memory unit is located in the detachable faceplate. Here resides the USB port which allows you to connect the faceplate to your PC (similar to your iPod or other MP3 player). Once your faceplate is connected to your CD, you simply drag and drop the MP3 files onto the flash memory unit of the faceplate. Unfortunately the faceplate is only compatible with Windows operating systems, so all of you Mac owners will have to go to your buddy’s house to copy the MP3s to and from the Sony MEX-1GP.

The new receiver is also aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well. It is finished in a high-gloss black color and features a 13-segment LCD display for simple navigation of track and title information. The screen displays album, artist and track name when playing your MP3 music files. Users can shuffle or repeat tracks, albums or personalized groups through controls on the faceplate or with the supplied remote control. The MEX-1GP unit has a built-in 208-watt power amplifier and a three-band equalizer enabling clear, rich sound. The selectable rear/subwoofer preamp outputs, controls the frequency and output level of an external amplifier.

After installing this receiver and experiencing it for a little over a week, I must say that I am quite impressed with this product. For one, the sound quality when playing MP3s through this unit is nothing less than phenomenal. If you didn’t know any better, you would think that you were playing a CD with the crisp and clear playback quality of this head unit. While traveling on a three hour road trip (three hours each way, six hours total) I was able to listen to one selection of songs on the way up and an entirely different selection of songs on the way back, all without the hassle of changing CDs and enduring a pause in play. I’m just a little surprised it took so long for a product like this to hit the market, especially with the increasing popularity of portable MP3 devices such as the iPod over the last several years. While it may have taken awhile for a product like this to hit the market, I’m sure Sony will have plenty of competitors very soon, which will benefit car audio enthusiasts like myself.

Dwayne Wright is an automotive enthusiast with over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry. If you decide to upgrade your car audio system with a Sony MEX-1GP car audio receiver, visit his site at www.customautosearch.com to find a professional car audio installer in your area to install your new receiver.