Like most of my blog posts, I’ve been kicking this one around in my head for a while, not really sure if it’s worth posting or not. Then I heard about the upcoming Evolution of Foursquare Marketing Social Fresh panel, and thought the post just might be topical enough to publish.

For those of you who don’t know, Foursquare is a location-based social media service that allows users to “check in” at locations using their smart phone of choice. It was started by a couple of guys in New York City who wanted to get to know their city a little better by keeping up with where their friends were hanging out; e,g.,”Hey, I see that Chet just checked in at Clyde’s Pub over on 98th. I didn’t even know there was a pub over there. Nice.”

Right away you can see the marketing potential for restaurants, bars, retail outlets, and other places that have (and want more) foot traffic. When I check in at my local deli/pub Southsiders, all of my Twitter followers and Facebook friends (and Foursquare friends, for that matter) know about it. If they trust my judgment and have never heard of Southsiders, they might be inclined to check it out.

That’s all fine and good for places that get a lot of customers through the door, but at 1060 Creative, we’re a service-based company. Hence, we don’t get a lot of foot traffic. Sure, clients will come by to drop off or pick up stuff, or sit in on an edit, but largely, our door remains closed throughout the day. So how does a company like us market themselves with Foursquare?

Warning: what follows will probably not rock your Marketing World, but maybe it’ll spark an idea. The bottom line is that I don’t have a complete answer, but I can tell you that the use of Foursquare’s “Tips” feature is a way to at least let people know you’re in the area. Basically, Tips work like this: a user can leave a recommendation for visitors to a particular venue (“While you’re at Clyde’s Pub, please…try the veal”). These tips will pop up when a user checks into the venue. Furthermore, and this is important, a user’s phone will also display recommendations for venues that are near his or her current location; e.g., Chet checks in at Clyde’s Pub and a tip pops up, “Since you’re near Tony’s Pizza, try the Wednesday special. Free anchovies!”

To that end, we recently received a couple of inquiries about our services based on tips I posted. They’re pretty simple and generic, really:

• The tip for our current location in Fort Mill states, “Call on 1060 Creative for all your video production, post-production, and motion graphics needs. Visit www.1060creative.com or call 704-332-0111 for more info.” Well, someone checked in at location nearby, and our tip popped up. He called us the next day.
• Our old offices were in the Uptown Charlotte area. When we moved, I left a tip that informed people that we had moved, along with all the pertinent information. That tip also resulted in a phone call when someone checked in at a nearby business. (Note: yes, I know I should mark that location as “closed”, but, um, I have no plans to do so. Do the math. Bonus discussion question: Does that make me a bad Foursquare user?)

I related the above to a friend of mine (Jim Mitchem of Smash Communications) over lunch at a local sushi restaurant. In a more clever approach, he left this tip for the restaurant: “I had my first sushi here. Which reminds me, you should hire me for your next communications campaign.” I don’t think he’s had a nibble on that yet, but it’s out there, and who knows? Right? Hell, I’d call him I ran across that tip. Makes me chuckle…and I like hiring people who make me chuckle.

Anyway…look, I’m well aware that two measly phone calls and a non-sequitur comment made at a sushi joint is neither proof nor an example of the sizzling success that can be had by using Foursquare to market your company. But then again, to paraphrase an old friend, those phone calls were “two more than we’d received the day before”.

Something to think about, anyway.

–Ant.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MI-Connection, a community-owned cable system serving Mooresville, Davidson and Cornelius, NC asked 1060 Creative to do a :30 commercial for their new “Refer-A-Friend” campaign.  The goal was thank current customers for, well, being loyal customers.  And, to add even more customers by giving them bill credits to refer friends to MI-Connection. They wanted an eye-catching spot that would be fun and within their limited budget.  So, 1060 Creative suggested doing a graphic-only spot with retro images (inexpensive to buy), and simple motion graphics.  Doing a spot this way saves a bunch of money on a video shoot, while keeping a professional image for MI-Connection.

The campaign began in April and has been a success for MI-Connection.  The spot is running across all of their networks and has prompted many current customers to participate by visiting the MI-Connection web site and submitting their friends.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I edited this music video for Remedy Drive featuring their new Coldplay-esque single “Rescue”.  In fact I edited this one several weeks ago, but the group’s record label just gave permission to post it last week on Ransom.tv.  Gotta love record labels!  So, now it’s live and 1060 Creative is VERY excited to post it on our site as well.

This one had more of a story than the Skillet “Awake and Alive” video.  It took a solid week to put together NINE cameras’ worth of footage! And I believe I made something special.  It was fun to bump it up a few levels with some lens flares and color correction.  No one will notice, and I guess that’s the point, eh?

Enjoy!

The other night we sat down with Dr. Vincent Voci of the Voci Center to talk about how and why he brought Boston’s St. Anthony’s Festival to the Queen City. Five years later, the festival is still going strong and is showing no signs of slowing down. The festival is this Sunday, May 16, from 1:00PM-5:00PM at Camden Grandview, 209 East Morehead St. in Charlotte.

The ticket price includes unlimited food and wine from the city’s best Italian restaurants. Proceeds from the festival benefit the Nevins Center.

For more information and to buy tickets in advance, go to www.stanthonycharlotte.org. Hope to see you there!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NOTE: For those who might wander in and see this post, we’re seeing some difficulties with Vimeo (the video hosting site) today; for some reason, the video’s not coming up like it should. We’re not sure what’s going on, but we’ll get it fixed as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience! Keep checking back to see the video…

Scott Health & Safety is an international Monroe, NC based fire safety equipment company. You would likely know them best from the “SCOTT” logo on a firefighter’s breathing apparatus. Scott needed a video to address their distributors during the FDIC conference (the world’s largest firefighter training and exhibition) in Indianapolis. We knew they needed to get a lot of information across to the audience, and we didn’t have a lot of time to produce it.

After a round or two of meetings we came up with 3 areas in which to focus the video – Innovation, Technology, and Distribution.  The video served the purpose of rolling out a couple of new products, providing an update of a couple of recently introduced products, and solidifying the relationship between Scott and their distribution partners. Further, instead of making one long video (which would be difficult to keep “lively” for the audience), we decided to break it up into 3 separate videos , each separated by a live presenter.

1060 completed the project – a grand total of over 20 finished minutes of video, including shooting in both St. Louis and Monroe – in a little over a week! Scott was very happy with the end result, and 1060 Creative gained a new client.

The video above is the short piece produced to introduce the live presentation as well as a small part of one of the sections (featuring a product demo).

Share on Facebook ]]> http://www.1060creative.com/?feed=rss2&p=401 0 http://www.1060creative.com/?p=365 http://www.1060creative.com/?p=365#comments Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:48:00 +0000 Peter http://www.1060creative.com/?p=365

The 1060 Creative / Hand Held Studio team have moved across the state line!  As of April 1, 2010 we have shed our Central Avenue digs and headed South to Ft. Mill, SC (technically, we’re closer to Pineville).  We have almost double the space at a cheaper price, so we decided to sign a 3-year lease with the owner, and fellow creative, Todd Holben of Photographics. Todd really has a stunning portfolio – if you need someone to shoot people, a landscape, your wedding, or a product, then please give Todd a call (He even makes his own frames).

This space was a perfect combination of office and warehouse space, which on our search, we found a lot of one or the other.  We found either a huge space that was divided into many cubicles, or just a huge space.  While the warehouse space is not a finished studio, it still provides a good amount of space for a product shot, for example.

Finally, be on the lookout for our Grand Opening party in the Summer.  All our clients and friends are welcome!

1060 Creative and Hand Held Studio
3581 Andrew L. Tucker Rd., Suite 120
Ft. Mill, SC  29715

Here’s an update on the post about the video that 1060 Creative edited for the band Skillet. We hinted that the band was going to use this video as the official video for the song “Awake and Alive” from the Billboard Top 10 album “Awake”.

Well, it’s official. The video was released today at www.Ransom.tv. Check it out! As of April 28th, there are over 42,000 views!  It’s good to be noticed.

The short answer? Yes, yes it is.

I’ve read and heard several studies about how people best remember things. The stats will differ from study to study, but more or less, it breaks down like the following. People will remember:

• 10% of what they read
• 20% of what they hear
• 50% of what they see and hear

Makes sense, right? And in and of itself, it’s a pretty good justification for using video to communicate your message. But I’ll go you one step further: I think people will remember well over 60% of what they’re told. A simple video can make people aware of your product or service. Add the right spokesperson, someone people can identify with, and your audience will connect with what you’re offering; e.g., the current Ford Motor Company TV and YouTube spots with Mike Rowe, part of a very effective ad campaign for Ford.

Then there’s the matter of delivery. Broadcast, while effective at hitting large numbers of people, is at best a shotgun approach. A video placed on your website is far more effective at addressing your target market; after all, the visitor is already at your site for a reason. Your visitor is indeed ready to hear what you have to say. A 2002 study by Dynamic Logic claims that targeted ads (e.g., ads served up on a website) are more effective that untargeted or RON (“run on network”) ads. In addition, the web is a very cost-effective method of delivering a video. You can invite your audience to view your video at any place, and any time, for no additional cost beyond your web hosting account.

Video, on the surface, may seem like an expensive venture. When properly executed and employed, however, it can be an extremely powerful method of delivering your message to the right people at the right time.

1060 Creative's demo reel running at the CBS Studio at EpiCentre

For those who have been to uptown Charlotte’s EpiCentre, you may have seen the CBS Radio studio next to BlackFinn American Saloon. Many of the local CBS-owned stations use this small studio for remote broadcasts on special occasions (holidays, concert events, that kind of thing).

Well, CBS saw fit to install a couple of flat screen TVs there in the studio, and decided to call on 1060 Creative to create a 30-minute video to highlight the Charlotte CBS Radio lineup.  The idea? Passers-by can now get an idea of what is available in the Charlotte radio market no matter what their taste in radio listening. CBS’s logic in calling 1060? We have been the post-production house of choice for numerous TV spots, so calling us was, to them, the natural thing to do. In fact, the video itself features many of these spots.

The cool thing? CBS was kind enough to let us embed our entire 90-second demo reel in the video.

Normally we’d include a link to the video here, but rather, we suggest you head on down to BlackFinn for a pint and see it live there at the CBS studio. When the video hits the point of our demo reel (you’ll know it when you see it), lift your pint glass and think of us. Make sure you tell your server why you’re there. And oh, make sure you listen to a CBS Radio station on the ride over.

I’ve learned a bit about customers being a 6-year entrepeneur…”Customer is king” “If we don’t take care of our customer someone else will” and my favorite for present business, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world they might tell 6 friends – if you make customers unhappy on the internet they could tell 6,000 friends”.

We at 1060 Creative work hard to make our customers not only happy, but happy enough to spread the word around – which is why I want to spread the word about the Junior League of Charlotte’s JLC Wearhouse.  The Wearhouse is similar to various used clothiers around Charlotte, but what sets this apart are the super ladies working there.  Every time I shop there they greet me with a smile, a laugh, a joke….EVERY TIME!  They genuinely want to be there.

On my latest visit they had a plateful of cookies laid out for customers.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked.

“No occasion.  Just because we appreciate you.”

So, be aware that there are great stores out there with great people working in them.  It’s not all nasty customer service.  I lift my gently used hat off them!