Drive sales with video as your digital creative!

FX Digital Media recently developed a sales campaign for Big Bee Boats to help drive sales during their July sales event. The campaign included regional cable TV and broadcast TV in central PA plus a targeted digital campaign featureing 15 sec pre-roll ads that reached out to specific markets where Big Bee has seen success beyond central PA. The digital campaign was able to target specific demographics and their internet search activity including behaviors, content and geographic location.

Don't forget social media as an important part of any campaign. Big Bee is promoting their July sales event through social media and using the spots as part of the social media element of the campaign.

Looking to drive sales this summer or headed into the fall, reach out to us and we can show you some options and help drive sales to your business.

Marketing Senior Living with Video & Social Media

As competition increases in the Continuing Care Retirement Community marketplace, video is proving to be one of the best methods of promoting and branding your senior community.  Video presents the opportunity to showcase not only your accommodations and amenities but it allows viewers to experience first hand the quality of people and the quality of care inside the doors at your community.  Almost all initial searches for a retirement community start on the web.  That first impression your community makes is critical to getting that first visit from a prospect.  At FX Digital Media we have created content for clients in this category for years, helping them to showcase not only the community but the residents and the staff.  

In addition, we have also helped our clients in recruiting new employees in this tight job market and also training existing staff.  Let us know how we can help you spread the word about your great senior community.

Using green screen for dramatic effects

The tools and technology at the video creators finger tips makes it possible to add high end effects to any video project or budget.  Features that used to be only available in high end production houses can be called upon in any video or TV spot.  This gives the client the ability to use their imagination and take some chances when it comes to creating their video.  In the sample you see here we used a green screen to create a dramatic effect to promote milk production in PA.

Repurpose your unused video content!

So you just finished that 2 minute web video you've always wanted to create.  You've got it on social media and your website.  Think about repurposing some of that unused content from your video to develop a supporting social media campaign.  Often times videos are created and left to sit there on a website or social page and there is no supporting content to drive viewers to the video.  On any shoot there is always content that goes unused.  It's a simple next step to take some of that unused content and create short 10 to 15 sec videos that can be used on social media or in email campaigns to help drive viewers to your final video and website.  Some of those great sound bites that you didn't get to use or some of those creative shots that just didn't fit into the final piece can be used to peek interest and drive eyeballs to  your final project and key messaging.  So don't let all that content you paid good money for sit on the shelf.  Repurpose it into a social media campaign that drives viewers to your messaging.

Creating a 30 second TV spot

The thought of creating a 30 second TV commercial can be pretty intimidating.  Crafting your message into just 30 seconds is hard to do and then developing the visual component to support that message is equally as hard.  Don't be intimidated by the process, it's not as hard as it appears.  We've been creating TV spots for over 25 years and we are here to help.  Often times the first thought is to bring in an ad agency or marketing consultant to do the job and right away the price goes up.  Over the years we've created dozens of effective TV campaigns for clients by following a few simple rules.  We help craft your message, design the supporting creative and then execute the shoot.  You can sit back and watch as it all comes together.  Best of all, it doesn't have to crush your advertising budget for the year.

Once the spot is finished, we can take you a step further and help with media placement so you get your spot on the air when people will see it.  We can also repurpose the spot to develop social media content to support the TV campaign with a social media or digital campaign.  This will help drive the campaign to more successful results.

Shoot me an email, I'll be happy to share some insights with you and show you plenty of examples and give you an idea as to what it might cost.

Please follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn and feel free to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Next week, we'll take a look at the technology we have at our finger tips when creating video.

Do "canned" marketing videos really work?

I've seen a lot of promotions on social media for packaged or canned videos to help promote or market your organization.  And while some of them are creative, I'm not a believer that anything that is generic can transfer and be effective in marketing you or your organization.  The first risk is that someone else will also use it for their brand.  Second, do you want to align the brand you worked so hard to create with a person doing a funny dance or a montage of random images that your logo appears over?  You've put the time and hard work into building your brand, you want any messaging and especially a video to drive the brand and your image specifically to your marketing goals and objectives.  Many of these videos are a subscription fee, by the end of the contract and the monthly fee you've paid, you probably could have created a very nice video that is unique to your brand.  Avoid the quick and easy solution.  Make your message count with a quality customized video specific to your brand.

Check out our YouTube channel and subscribe and follow FX Digital Media on Facebook for more conversation and insights into video and how you can use it to drive your brand.

Technology Disrupts Video Creative

Over the years I have seen the video industry shift from video tape based recording and large 30 lb. cameras that captured the images.  Today, non-linear editing and high capacity storage have changed everything.  DSLR cameras are the standard in video creative and computer based editing systems and software have consolidated the edit suite from multiple devices performing specific functions to a powerful post-production studio into one box that does it all.

The shift has moved video creative from large video crews with a lot of gear to smaller operations that can deliver high quality HD video in a more timely manner.  The client has benefitted through reduced costs and improved service and quality, the creative team has benefited from having tools and resources at their disposal that once were only available from large, high cost production studios.

There remains one constant in all of this disruption.  The skills of the person operating the camera or editing the video.  Expertise will always determine the final product.  Understanding the technology and getting the most out of it is in the hands on the creative team, and that will never change.

Good, Fast & Cheap!

An advertising client once told me of the old saying in advertising "You can have it good, you can have it fast or you can have it cheap.  You can have any two, but never all three."  Ten or so years ago I would have said yes, this is true, not today.  Highly versatile, affordable and powerful DSLR cameras now make it possible to shoot in any condition, in very high quality and with limited or no lighting.  Todays video productions take less time to set up, smaller crews to execute and all-around fewer or smaller equipment to support the shoot.

There have also been amazing advances in post-production.  Desktop based non-linear editing systems such as Premiere and Final Cut X make editing with powerful capabilities affordable to anyone.  This software puts powerful post-production effects at the editors fingertips so that you can bring a lot of capabilities quickly to any size budget production.

Finally, the ability to provide the client with draft versions and final versions via the web accelerate the approval process.  The client no longer has to sit in the edit suite and supervise the edit.  Drafts can be executed, provided to the client via a YouTube link and approval or changes quickly provided.

Recently, FX Digital Media was awarded a project to shoot and edit 16 videos in 7 days.  The video shooting had to occur all over PA from Philly to Pittsburgh and north and it had to be edited together to show at a large event.  Thanks to our technology and understand of how to execute this type of work we pulled it off with great success and a very happy client.

So now more than every, you can have it fast, good AND cheap... I like to say affordable.  To learn more about how we pulled this feat off and what we can do for you, shoot us an email, happy to share insights, budget information and best practices.

You can also watch the video below for my thoughts.

What are you waiting for? It's time to create that video.

Your competition is out there and effectively telling their story with a short video they posted on their website and social media.  With 80% of all content on the web coming in video form, it's time for you and your organization to take the plunge.  Creating a video is far easier than developing textual content, there is no sitting down and putting pen to paper and figuring out your message.  We draw the message out in a short interview and take it from there.  Your social video gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself to your client before you meet them, helping to build trust and confidence in what you're offering.  In addition, you can answer the most common client questions before you ever sit down for a meeting by addressing those concerns in your video.  Interested in learning more?  Shoot us an email, we'll run you through the process, talk about budget expectations and help make your first video for the web a success.