Ideas, Money & Art

Your Website Is Now a Living Thing

Lee Odden writes, "For many, the creation of a web site is a one time event with minimal updates. Marketing budgets are tight and companies are frugal."

I run across this all of the time. New clients don't yet understand that the way they built their first website back in 1998 is not the way websites are built today. I don't blame clients for still holding this thought, after all, their business is to run their business. Our business is to help their business and to keep abreast of all of the changes in the interactive world. Well, the need for a "living" website is one of those changes.

Beyond the benefits to your SEO efforts, fresh content on your website engages users and increases your conversion rates. Better yet, it gives your company a personality that people can connect with. 3 years ago I never encouraged clients to set up blogs because I knew they would never write anything. Now, a blog is mandatory for IMA's clients and we do the writing. Our client's behavior didn't need to change. We needed to change. In the end everyone benefits.

And today, with the rise of social networks, creating content is a must. You can no longer build a new site and walk away. The day your site goes live is Day One of a long journey. But, if done correctly, it's a long, fun, profitable journey. 

 Create Content or Die (yes, that's a little over the top)

We Won An Award for a Company That Doesn't Exist Anylonger

The following press release was sent to us recently. It claims that Movidmu Productions won an award for Best of Mill Valley (never mind that we haven't been in Mill Valley for a year). Who is Movidmu you ask? That was the name that Rob and I originally bestowed on IMA. We were purely a creative agency back then and it was short for MOVies IDeas and MUsic. Trouble was, nobody could pronounce it. I think it lasted for a month or two (long enough for us to buy business cards-whoops).   

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that we won an award! Whoo-hoo! All we have to do is pay $150 and we get the beautiful crystal trophy pictured below. $150 for credibility? Not too shabby.

I'm not a fan of awards. Whether they be Best of, Tellys (another pay for play favorite of which we've won/payed for 2), Cleos, Tony's, Grammys, Oscars...you name it. It's all pure marketing and has little to do with merit. Which in and of itself is OK but some people really get caught up in "award winning..." which doesn't help much when they go out of business. 

How about we give credit to companies that provide a valuable service to their clients, act ethically and provide a great place for people to work (or work from home). Where's the award for that?

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Movidmu Productions Receives 2009 Best of Mill Valley Award

U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

WASHINGTON D.C., June 8, 2009 -- Movidmu Productions has been selected for the 2009 Best of Mill Valley Award in the Audio-Visual Production Service category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a Washington D.C. based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

CONTACT:
U.S. Commerce Association
Email: PublicRelations@us-ca.org
URL: http://www.us-ca.org

The Latest - Cornerstone Sonoma Website

 

The Cornerstone Sonoma website that IMA produced went live recently. We are very proud of the design and hope it drives a lot of traffic to a truly unique destination in Sonoma County.

Why at this point I choose Small business

Why it's a good idea to sell to lots of little guys instead of one big guys

This is a great post from 37 Signals. Short, sweet and, in my opinion, a concept that a lot of business owners don't want to accept. I have met a lot of people over the last 5 years that want to get into Microsoft or Apple or Nike for the sole purpose of telling other people, "our clients include Microsoft, Apple and Nike". It's an ego requirement for them, not a business requirement. Not that having blue chip clients is a bad thing in and of itself, but most new companies don't have the capacity to operate at the level needed to handle a major client. And if they can pull it off, they are far too revenue dependent on one main cash cow. 

With IMA, I decided to double down on small businesses. It's a great feeling to help a small business because you can see the immediate benefits (their life improves) instead of simply watching a companies stock rise. And if it doesn't rise I'd rather have 20 other clients on the list than 1 or 2. 

How to Make a TV Commercial by IMA

We don't make that many TV commercials anymore. It seems most of our work now is for online video (which is what we originally set out to do in 2004. Plans have a tendency to take longer than we think they will). 

However, making TV spots is fun. I ran across a pre-production clip this week and decided it would make a good post. So, here is a step by step guide to making a TV commercial (sans the boring parts like budgeting).

Step 1. Once we had the concept we always liked to shoot a rough version to shake out the idea and see if it played.

Step 2. Then we would call the storyboard artist and do the boards

Step 3. Once the boards were approved it would be time for the shoot!

 

Step 4. After the shoot it's time to edit and do the sound effects/mix

We don't have any good pics of that :)

Step 5. 8 weeks later, the final product. In this case, a Telly Award winning commercial (which we take very, very seriously. Any award that makes you pay to receive the statue must be legit).

iPhone 3GS for Video Production? Say it Ain't So.

Things have changes dramatically in the online video world since we started back in 2004. That was a year before YouTube, before the Flip camera and 5 years before the iPhone 3GS. In those 5 years we saw huge changes in creating video content. We used to create less expensive videos when we started out but our goal was always to do more sophisticated, creative and, therefore, more expensive productions. We reached that goal pretty quickly and enjoyed the creative opportunities that a little bit of budget affords. But what we didn't do very well is anticipate the huge shift in client expectations that came with the rise of YouTube. Soon webcam quality video was OK. Small businesses thought that they could make their own videos with the camcorders they had at home. Larger companies wanted lower budgets and more guerrilla-style productions. Everything changed but IMA. We kept our eye on the bigger budgets and turned up our nose at the YouTube auteurs springing up everywhere around us. When the recession hit, all that was left were the auteurs.

Since day one IMA has always done more than video. We were never just a production company. That never made sense to us. We worked on strategy, websites, SEM, etc. It made more sense to us to help create a whole interactive model than to just focus on one element. In 2008 and 2009 and we saw fewer and fewer video production jobs coming through the door. The video projects we did do were tied to other interactive efforts. The larger budgets were evaporating.

Late this summer we decided to reverse that trend. IMA is now looking at ways to produce more video content at a variety of budget levels. We are still doing large productions, and we always will, but our doors are also open to smaller projects, especially if they are for Video Search Engine Optimization. 

Which brings me to the point of this post. In order to put this new, lower budget concept to a true test, I asked one of our longterm clients if I could create a free video for them. The video would be used for their Video SEO campaign. The client agreed. When I showed up for the shoot he looked at me like I forgot something. There was no crew, no camera, no lights. I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and said, "Let's shoot it". 

The resulting video is below. As I said, we did this for Video SEO only, but it works. The quality isn't great, the sound is pretty bad and the graphics were done quickly. But at the end of the day, this video ranks on the first page organically and it doesn't hurt their brand. And it cost less than a cup of coffee.

TOMS Shoes Inspires

I know most of you have seen this commercial. It's actually a little annoying in my opinion (but that may be because it is an AT&T commercial and my iPhone has terrible cell reception). I digress.

Toms Shoes is a pretty amazing company. Started by "Blake" from the TV spot a few years back, the company gives away a pair of their shoes to someone in the developing world each time a customer in the developed world buys a pair. It's capitalism as charity. Or charity as capitalism. Either way it's impressive. Most companies, IMA included, do very little to give back or share our expertise with those who cannot afford our services. Toms takes the whole thing a step further and folds the philanthropy right into the business plan. I'm impressed and motivated. If any non-profits out there are looking for online video help IMA would like to talk to you. You can contact me directly at jeff@imainteractive.com. I'm looking forward to talking to you.   

What can you do?

Project Frog Video

There has been radio silence on the blog for a little while now. There are some major developments taking place at IMA and we will let the cat out of the bag when the time comes. In the meantime, check out a clip of this video that we did for Project Frog. It was a fun project and the best part was we didn't have to do all of the editing! IMA was hired to just handle the West Coast production.

More from IMA soon!

 

Jeff Conlon is the co-founder and CEO of IMA Interactive, an online agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. IMA Interactive provides website design, online video production and search engine marketing services to a variety of industries both locally and nationally. 

IMA

How to use the downturn to your advantage with paid search

Here is a great article about how to maximize your market share in the current crises. The article leads off with a very simple and direct idea-

"As the world teeters on the brink of financial collapse, the smartest thing you can do is increase your spending in paid search. Now." 

Paid search is one of the smartest investments a company, regardless of size, can make right now. Read the rest of the article to find out why.

How to use the downturn to your advantage with paid search

IMA

Jeff Conlon is the co-founder and CEO of IMA Interactive, an online agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. IMA Interactive provides website design, online video production and search engine marketing services to a variety of industries both locally and nationally. 

Virgin

Last week Rob and I flew to San Diego for a conference. Neither of us had flown Virgin America and we assumed it would be more expensive than Southwest since we had heard about the mood lighting, techno and text messaging. However, when we compared prices to Southwest they were the exact same price, $49 one way. We decided to fly on Branson's wings. 

Southwest is in trouble.

In all fairness to the orange bird, I have only flown Southwest once or twice. My mom worked for United and I grew up flying on passes so paying for a flight was foreign to me until fairly recently. I flew SW to LA. It was like a bus. No frills. And cheap.

But what happens when you get cheap but you also get assigned seating, the Red inflight entertainment network, real headphone jacks, wifi (for which I happily paid $9.99) and great service? I guess what happens is you get some real competition. 

I cannot imagine choosing to fly Southwest over Virgin America ever again. 

Here's another clue that this airline might be a little bit different:

 

Jeff Conlon is the co-founder and CEO of IMA Interactive, an online agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. IMA Interactive provides website design, online video production and search engine marketing services to a variety of industries both locally and nationally. 

IMA