Link: http://www.zarinmedia.com/xmas/2005
Description: Season's greetings and best wishes from Zarinmedia.com to you.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Thoughts on pitching
Link: http://www.clickz.com/experts/brand/emkt_strat/
Description: An article that makes some interesting observations in relation to business pitches.
My Thoughts: This article got me thinking about my own reactions to the less than ‘best’ practices surrounding the business of our industry.
To take it one step further, I would say, that almost all ‘pitch’ based business situations that I have seen in the past Seven years, have not resulted in the best possible match of supplier/product and client.
Even though a popular expectation from prospects, the expectation of being pitched ideas before they are paid for is very much a flawed one. (clients large or small)
One approach to protecting your business might be to highly qualifying your studio’s business development and sales efforts/resources vs. revenue history with a particular prospective client. However such an approach tends to result in a seemingly aggressive and uninviting business stance towards new business, resulting negatively on your new business acquisition.
Although yearly I save huge amounts of resources in minimizing my companies involvement in such practices, I certainly pay the price through potential loss of business. (I am never sure if it’s a real loss, as it could be argued that such a business one can do without)
Have you run into any other ideas on how to manage the issue? Feel free to email me (address at side of page) with any ideas or thoughts relating to this topic and I’ll post your comments to this blog…
Description: An article that makes some interesting observations in relation to business pitches.
My Thoughts: This article got me thinking about my own reactions to the less than ‘best’ practices surrounding the business of our industry.
To take it one step further, I would say, that almost all ‘pitch’ based business situations that I have seen in the past Seven years, have not resulted in the best possible match of supplier/product and client.
Even though a popular expectation from prospects, the expectation of being pitched ideas before they are paid for is very much a flawed one. (clients large or small)
One approach to protecting your business might be to highly qualifying your studio’s business development and sales efforts/resources vs. revenue history with a particular prospective client. However such an approach tends to result in a seemingly aggressive and uninviting business stance towards new business, resulting negatively on your new business acquisition.
Although yearly I save huge amounts of resources in minimizing my companies involvement in such practices, I certainly pay the price through potential loss of business. (I am never sure if it’s a real loss, as it could be argued that such a business one can do without)
Have you run into any other ideas on how to manage the issue? Feel free to email me (address at side of page) with any ideas or thoughts relating to this topic and I’ll post your comments to this blog…
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Steve's Links
Description: A multitalented associate of mine (Steve Toth) recently brought the following links to my attention. Thanks Steve.
Link 1: http://www.neave.com/
Steve's Thoughts: "he's made some really great stuff including something he calls 'flash earth', which from what I gather is google earth in flash"
Link 2: http://www.magneticn.co.uk/
Steve's Thoughts: "also, the company he works for does some really great stuff... I spent a couple hours checking everything out, its pretty amazing..."
Link 3: http://www.housingmaps.com/
Steve's Thoughts: "the guy combined google maps with craigslist... it shows you the location of every listing, its a pretty neat idea."
Link 4: http://www.itconversations.com/
Steve's Thoughts: "he talks about how when humans have an abundance of choice, it makes them less satisfied with the choices they make. he also talks about 'telecommuting' and how basically when you work freelance every moment is a choice to work... "
link 5: http://www.icompositions.com/
artists/rataplan/
Steve's Thoughts: "lastly here is some of my music, I pieced together an album (numbered 1-14) this past few weeks. I am actually looking for a singer to play some gigs with, if you know anyone don't hesitate to send them the link."
Link 1: http://www.neave.com/
Steve's Thoughts: "he's made some really great stuff including something he calls 'flash earth', which from what I gather is google earth in flash"
Link 2: http://www.magneticn.co.uk/
Steve's Thoughts: "also, the company he works for does some really great stuff... I spent a couple hours checking everything out, its pretty amazing..."
Link 3: http://www.housingmaps.com/
Steve's Thoughts: "the guy combined google maps with craigslist... it shows you the location of every listing, its a pretty neat idea."
Link 4: http://www.itconversations.com/
Steve's Thoughts: "he talks about how when humans have an abundance of choice, it makes them less satisfied with the choices they make. he also talks about 'telecommuting' and how basically when you work freelance every moment is a choice to work... "
link 5: http://www.icompositions.com/
artists/rataplan/
Steve's Thoughts: "lastly here is some of my music, I pieced together an album (numbered 1-14) this past few weeks. I am actually looking for a singer to play some gigs with, if you know anyone don't hesitate to send them the link."
Friday, July 29, 2005
Color in Motion
Link: http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/
Description: An animated and interactive experience of color communication and color symbolism.
My Thoughts: This easy to digest animated, interactive piece is a great fun primer on the psychology of color.
Description: An animated and interactive experience of color communication and color symbolism.
My Thoughts: This easy to digest animated, interactive piece is a great fun primer on the psychology of color.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Game Research List
Description: I thought that some of the readers of this blog might benefit from a short list of game concepts that I compiled last week when helping a client develop a proposal for a Flash game.
Links:
Multiplayer or might be interesting if we turned it into multiplayer:
fantasticfour game
fridge letters
capoeira fighter 3
gimp roulette (imagine with a crowd of realtime users, betting on the outcome, etc.)
paintball
bowman (very simple and effective, imagine if everyone can shoot eachother while chatting)
ISO:
last dalek
glaktor
laser envy
Adventure / role play
crimson room (good implementation of vector3d in first person)
questfortherest (slow! but like the treatment)
sylvaniah
rocketman
Contagious stuff:
mushroom
elbow twist
Funny:
pee soakamon
antcity
Links:
Multiplayer or might be interesting if we turned it into multiplayer:
fantasticfour game
fridge letters
capoeira fighter 3
gimp roulette (imagine with a crowd of realtime users, betting on the outcome, etc.)
paintball
bowman (very simple and effective, imagine if everyone can shoot eachother while chatting)
ISO:
last dalek
glaktor
laser envy
Adventure / role play
crimson room (good implementation of vector3d in first person)
questfortherest (slow! but like the treatment)
sylvaniah
rocketman
Contagious stuff:
mushroom
elbow twist
Funny:
pee soakamon
antcity
Thursday, April 21, 2005
AirportMonitor Realtime Airtrafic Viewer
Link: http://www4.passur.com/lax.html
Description: AirportMonitor is a dynamic, interactive display of air traffic and flight information in the terminal airspace, deployed at an airport's website.
My Thoughts: What a neat visualizing application for checking plane locations in realtime online. Very well executed as far as java applets go. However with my obvious bias to the richmedia side, I cant help but think what it could turn into if it is re-deployed in Flash with a little more slick design exploration.
Description: AirportMonitor is a dynamic, interactive display of air traffic and flight information in the terminal airspace, deployed at an airport's website.
My Thoughts: What a neat visualizing application for checking plane locations in realtime online. Very well executed as far as java applets go. However with my obvious bias to the richmedia side, I cant help but think what it could turn into if it is re-deployed in Flash with a little more slick design exploration.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Zoubin at FITC2005 Conference
Link: http://www.fitc.ca/Presenters.cfm?p=5730
Description: Now entering their fourth year, FITC combines cutting edge technical speakers with inspirational creative speakers from around the world. Each year, FITC has broadened its programming range to grow with its widening audience and appeal to a larger audience.
My Thoughts: Both my expert panel on "Designing Your Business For Success" and my presentation on "newmedia project management" where received well at the conference. It is nice to see the business and process issues becoming more of a concern in the richmedia production industry.
As always, Shawn and his crew have done a stellar job of organizing one of the North America's most important events in the richmedia production space.
Description: Now entering their fourth year, FITC combines cutting edge technical speakers with inspirational creative speakers from around the world. Each year, FITC has broadened its programming range to grow with its widening audience and appeal to a larger audience.
My Thoughts: Both my expert panel on "Designing Your Business For Success" and my presentation on "newmedia project management" where received well at the conference. It is nice to see the business and process issues becoming more of a concern in the richmedia production industry.
As always, Shawn and his crew have done a stellar job of organizing one of the North America's most important events in the richmedia production space.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Audio support for blog posts
Description: Here is an experiment in the implementation of audio in a professional subject blog as an exercise to boost its marketing mileage.
My Thoughts: About a week or so ago, I started thinking along the track of how other types of media can compliment the use of a blog.
It all started with me thinking that the continued explosion of the blogsphere means shorter attention span for the readers of this blog as time goes on! Although there are some great blog search tools, and aggregators out there to help you navigate through the clutter, I was wondering if alternate forms of media can make the actual blog easier to consume, or at least make it easier for the user to determine if they’d like to read your content. Therefore increasing its consumption rate?
My next challenge was the easy production of the content in a consistent manor. Sure, we can all sit there with a microphone and record a paragraph, but how many takes would it take to cut out those terrible um’s and uh’s? Not to practical if I plan to have an audio support file for every post!
Therefore I decided to quickly and easily apply a standard ‘text to speech’ program to create audio entries to compliment the postings of the blog. The computer voice provided a very consistent tone to all the entries, while being very quick and easy for me to update along with each blog entry. I also created a simple flash based .mp3 reader to embed in my standard, free, Blogger account to make the publishing process as painless as possible. (note: If youre interested, I can part with this system for a small fee!)
The marketing angle behind all this is, if my blog is easier to digest, then it will be read more, and go a long way to promote my for-hire thinking.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this experiment and my approach to its implementation, so please free to send me [ zmv@zarinmedia.com ]
a quick email giving me your feedback.
My Thoughts: About a week or so ago, I started thinking along the track of how other types of media can compliment the use of a blog.
It all started with me thinking that the continued explosion of the blogsphere means shorter attention span for the readers of this blog as time goes on! Although there are some great blog search tools, and aggregators out there to help you navigate through the clutter, I was wondering if alternate forms of media can make the actual blog easier to consume, or at least make it easier for the user to determine if they’d like to read your content. Therefore increasing its consumption rate?
My next challenge was the easy production of the content in a consistent manor. Sure, we can all sit there with a microphone and record a paragraph, but how many takes would it take to cut out those terrible um’s and uh’s? Not to practical if I plan to have an audio support file for every post!
Therefore I decided to quickly and easily apply a standard ‘text to speech’ program to create audio entries to compliment the postings of the blog. The computer voice provided a very consistent tone to all the entries, while being very quick and easy for me to update along with each blog entry. I also created a simple flash based .mp3 reader to embed in my standard, free, Blogger account to make the publishing process as painless as possible. (note: If youre interested, I can part with this system for a small fee!)
The marketing angle behind all this is, if my blog is easier to digest, then it will be read more, and go a long way to promote my for-hire thinking.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this experiment and my approach to its implementation, so please free to send me [ zmv@zarinmedia.com ]
a quick email giving me your feedback.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Flash BOSS
Link: http://www.boss.com/
Description: A good example of a sleek, flash based fashion product site
My Thoughts: This very sleek flash based product site for high polished brand Hugo Boss uses elegantly minimal graphic design sensibilities coupled with richmedia exploration features making this a great exercise of branding communication.
Thanks to Dragan Djordjevic of multiidea.com for sending me the this link.
Description: A good example of a sleek, flash based fashion product site
My Thoughts: This very sleek flash based product site for high polished brand Hugo Boss uses elegantly minimal graphic design sensibilities coupled with richmedia exploration features making this a great exercise of branding communication.
Thanks to Dragan Djordjevic of multiidea.com for sending me the this link.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Nike speed genealogy
Link: http://www.nike.com/speed/genealogy/
Description: Visually go through the Nike family tree. Innovative data presentation within the retail/product based context.
My Thoughts: Nike (their agency) has always been particularly good at using Flash based richmedia for their marketing benefit. Just have a look for yourself!
Description: Visually go through the Nike family tree. Innovative data presentation within the retail/product based context.
My Thoughts: Nike (their agency) has always been particularly good at using Flash based richmedia for their marketing benefit. Just have a look for yourself!
Monday, March 07, 2005
product driven online flash game portal
Link: http://www.postopia.com/
Description: A branded games portal for Post cereals
My Thoughts: Here is an example of what an online games portal can do for a company that primarily markets to youth. Coupled with licensed well known cartoon characters, I admire the surefooted marketing direction they've obviously committed to in relation to game based branding. (read: nice budget..)
Description: A branded games portal for Post cereals
My Thoughts: Here is an example of what an online games portal can do for a company that primarily markets to youth. Coupled with licensed well known cartoon characters, I admire the surefooted marketing direction they've obviously committed to in relation to game based branding. (read: nice budget..)
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Viral: Flash error page
Link: http://www.lookitsme.co.uk/asdfadsf
Description: Here's an interesting twist on the standard text based 404 error that the server provides when it cant find the page. The animated character goes through an elaborate sequence to tell you to go away!
My Thoughts: How's this for unorthodox use of richmedia? I bet there was some form viral marketing thought behind this. If so, its cool to see a strongly viral piece that doesn't need a 'send to friend' button to justify the fact that its viral!
As you can see from: http://www.moock.org/asdfa flash error messages are not new, however I think the example at LookItsMe.co.uk is a particularly well executed one.
Description: Here's an interesting twist on the standard text based 404 error that the server provides when it cant find the page. The animated character goes through an elaborate sequence to tell you to go away!
My Thoughts: How's this for unorthodox use of richmedia? I bet there was some form viral marketing thought behind this. If so, its cool to see a strongly viral piece that doesn't need a 'send to friend' button to justify the fact that its viral!
As you can see from: http://www.moock.org/asdfa flash error messages are not new, however I think the example at LookItsMe.co.uk is a particularly well executed one.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Article: viral perspective
Link: http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2005/02/18/
virals_popularity_may_undo_viral_effect/index.php?rss1
Description: A couple of references to the popularity of viral marketing outdoing itself.
My Thoughts: Interesting concept, however its such a broad general term that seems to apply to many things these days. Wish these type of articles were more specific and provided illustrative links/examples.
virals_popularity_may_undo_viral_effect/index.php?rss1
Description: A couple of references to the popularity of viral marketing outdoing itself.
My Thoughts: Interesting concept, however its such a broad general term that seems to apply to many things these days. Wish these type of articles were more specific and provided illustrative links/examples.
Friday, February 25, 2005
learning: Interactive body
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/
humanbody/body/interactives/3djigsaw_02/
Description: A Flash based, interactive module learning piece.
My Thoughts: Although not as refined as could be both in terms of design and functionality, this piece is still goes a long way towards getting ideas flowing in the right direction.
humanbody/body/interactives/3djigsaw_02/
Description: A Flash based, interactive module learning piece.
My Thoughts: Although not as refined as could be both in terms of design and functionality, this piece is still goes a long way towards getting ideas flowing in the right direction.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Viral: Drawing with text
Link: http://storyabout.net/typedrawing/
Description: This rendering system allows users to draw using text, and then save their creations in a database.
My Thoughts: Seems to be a personal creative project, however I think that the system is quite effective and some of the ideas developed can be used as inspiration for creating Flash based interactive promotional campaigns for a the right client? I am thinking B2C, I am thinking a product or service where the marriage of image and text makes great sense in re-enforcing brand message? Do you have such a client? Lets talk...
Monday, February 21, 2005
Order Pizza while gaming
Link: http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/
Description: Next time your playing the game Everquest and get hungry, you can apparently order a Pizza through their Pizza Hut promotion.
My Thoughts: Although it doesn't sound like the Pizza promotion is integrated in the game, it still caught my attention as an odd mix. If you consider games in the richmedia family, this could be richmedia marketing in a round about way? I'd be interested in seeing some stats and numbers around how effective this promotion ends up being.
Description: Next time your playing the game Everquest and get hungry, you can apparently order a Pizza through their Pizza Hut promotion.
My Thoughts: Although it doesn't sound like the Pizza promotion is integrated in the game, it still caught my attention as an odd mix. If you consider games in the richmedia family, this could be richmedia marketing in a round about way? I'd be interested in seeing some stats and numbers around how effective this promotion ends up being.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Macromedia Q3 FY2005 report
Link: http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/
ir/macr/web_pres/earnings/q305/
Description: Macromedia's Fiscal Year 2005 results presentation provides a great snapshot of Macromedia's business.
My Thoughts: The biggest surprise for me was that Rob Burgess is no longer CEO, and is moving aside to let Stephen Elop to step in as new CEO.
For me its very interesting to see that Macromedia's efforts of competing with US (the actual content developers) seems to be working well for them, as they seem to be have sustained growth in these new areas.
Not sure how much of this presentation is fluff and candy, but it would lead us to believe that Macromedia Flex is destined to be a substantial product and not yet another failed venture (central anyone?)
For me this presentation provides an excellent high level perspective into Macromedia's health, revenue split, various distinct business areas, anticipated growth areas, among other things. I feel that the presentation is especially relevant for a company like Zarinmedia in trying to position ourselves in the technology media landscape in relation to the giants.
ir/macr/web_pres/earnings/q305/
Description: Macromedia's Fiscal Year 2005 results presentation provides a great snapshot of Macromedia's business.
My Thoughts: The biggest surprise for me was that Rob Burgess is no longer CEO, and is moving aside to let Stephen Elop to step in as new CEO.
For me its very interesting to see that Macromedia's efforts of competing with US (the actual content developers) seems to be working well for them, as they seem to be have sustained growth in these new areas.
Not sure how much of this presentation is fluff and candy, but it would lead us to believe that Macromedia Flex is destined to be a substantial product and not yet another failed venture (central anyone?)
For me this presentation provides an excellent high level perspective into Macromedia's health, revenue split, various distinct business areas, anticipated growth areas, among other things. I feel that the presentation is especially relevant for a company like Zarinmedia in trying to position ourselves in the technology media landscape in relation to the giants.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Richmedia marketing messaging alongside traditional text content
Link: http://www.vimation.com/
Description: Please notice this company's visual service offering, it is not your typical Flash intro, but a much more relevant marketing displayed alongside the site contents.
My thoughts: Although I would have appreciated more control over the media playback, here is an interesting and unique delivery of a visual sales demo ALONGSIDE the site's business content. You can either sit back and absorb their high level sales clip, or read about the details at anytime. (sort of like skimming a book while the TV is on).
Extra notes: more of my thoughts on relevance of this piece at Meetup.com's messageboard:
http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/34/
boards/view/viewthread?thread=1247919
Description: Please notice this company's visual service offering, it is not your typical Flash intro, but a much more relevant marketing displayed alongside the site contents.
My thoughts: Although I would have appreciated more control over the media playback, here is an interesting and unique delivery of a visual sales demo ALONGSIDE the site's business content. You can either sit back and absorb their high level sales clip, or read about the details at anytime. (sort of like skimming a book while the TV is on).
Extra notes: more of my thoughts on relevance of this piece at Meetup.com's messageboard:
http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/34/
boards/view/viewthread?thread=1247919
Friday, February 18, 2005
Sales support: Flash 3d, surgical medical media, rich data visualization
Description: Here is part of a sales support email I sent to a knowledge strategy based consultancy, as part of my business development efforts.
It was a followup email with links that we talked about durring the meeting.
It was a followup email with links that we talked about durring the meeting.
link: http://www.edheads.org/activities/
knee/swf/surgery.htm
comments: this is the virtual knee surgery learning media piece. I think it
really works well for the topic, while being friendly yet professional! The fact
that the main virtual surgery is illustration and animation based, actually goes
a long way of presenting a very sensitive topic in a compelling
way...
link: http://www.segway.com/downloads/
flash/model.zip
comments: this is an old example of 3d rendering of a product driven by
interactive user experience ..
link: http://www.stxship.co.kr/
stx_multi/stx_main.htm
comments: have not explored this site fully.. but since part of our
conversations where flythrus etc... here is another interactive 3d environment
in that realm ..
link: http://www.skyscraper.org/
timeformations/animation.html
comments: yet another spatial, and interactive visual system in 3d...
link: http://www.zarinmedia.com/condosearch
comments: This is an RIA that is not in the samples on our site... its
essentially rethinks the standard 'real estate search' paradigm and creates a
more emersive end user experience with it! (you know, they all have drop downs,
and after a few pages, tables and tables of data you have to go thru.. etc..)
link: http://www.zarinmedia.com/super
comments: you might have seen this simple little RIA, however its a great
example of taking a boring subject such a personal finance and turning it into a
branded useful toy.. hits a few points..
link: http://f150.fordvehicles.com/
trucks/f150/index.asp
comments: check out the 360 view.. and some of the other interactive product
presentation techniques... again all in flash.. meaning that youre not brokering
to various types of technology and you can build on the framework for future use
... (ie.. throw video in there to extend message, etc..)
link: http://www.teamone-usa.com/
comments: some fluffy eye candy.. (with not much 3d interactivity) to show that youre 3d will be as good as your rendering and your models... etc... Flash will just be
the authoring tool..anyways.. I run into TONS of flash based 3Dish representation systems on a regular basis.. etc...let me know if you need more links
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Realtime charting data visualization
Link: http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
Description: Here is a java applet based real-time chart processing program that allows you to visually search a large set of statistics based on history of names. Simply type in your name and see when it was the most popular!
My thoughts: Although rich media components in Java can be quite clunky, this is a great iteration of the concept. Essentially its a living graph that responds to your interest and re-arranges itself in real-time in response to your intentions. More of a functional information rendering tool than a marketing exercise, however I'd like to point out the branding opportunities in deploying such a tool, as well as the fact that this exact same framework can translate very well to a variety of industries that have data visualization needs.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Study: Video Key Opportunity for Online Advertisers
Link: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3481806
Description: Here are some recent stats on effectiveness of the continuing trend in video advertising
My thoughts: Not sure how much of these numbers are trend, and how much will stand the test of time, however the fact that video is getting this sort of response and buzz, makes it an important tool we can use in our online marketing mix.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Marketing centric simple online calculator
Link: http://tide.com/tidecoldwater/
energysavingscalculator.jhtml
Description: This branded, easy to use, Flash calculator will show consumers how much they can potentially save with Tide's new product
My thoughts: I think this is a very clever marketing/branding touch point disguised as a functional calculator to try and "show" or "prove" the advantages of Tide's new detergent technology.
Edited by zarinmedia on Feb 5, 2005 @ 1:58 PM
energysavingscalculator.jhtml
Description: This branded, easy to use, Flash calculator will show consumers how much they can potentially save with Tide's new product
My thoughts: I think this is a very clever marketing/branding touch point disguised as a functional calculator to try and "show" or "prove" the advantages of Tide's new detergent technology.
Edited by zarinmedia on Feb 5, 2005 @ 1:58 PM
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Interactive video advertising online
Link: http://www.unitedvirtualities.com/demo/
shoshmosis_friends/expandable_banner/
Description: rolling over various regions of a "friends" clip will present user with the item they are wearing or using, click will give option to drive lead to e-commerce
My thoughts: Here's another interesting implementation of video entertainment content, delivered thru flash, in an ecommerce friendly context. People have been talking about this sort of thing in "interactive television" since 1998 but this is the first time I've seen a decently produced version of it for online marketing/consumption.
However I often wonder if these expanding banners in any form are not too intrusive to the user experience to begin with? I guess we'll have to wait and see if they go the way of the popup ad or not.
shoshmosis_friends/expandable_banner/
Description: rolling over various regions of a "friends" clip will present user with the item they are wearing or using, click will give option to drive lead to e-commerce
My thoughts: Here's another interesting implementation of video entertainment content, delivered thru flash, in an ecommerce friendly context. People have been talking about this sort of thing in "interactive television" since 1998 but this is the first time I've seen a decently produced version of it for online marketing/consumption.
However I often wonder if these expanding banners in any form are not too intrusive to the user experience to begin with? I guess we'll have to wait and see if they go the way of the popup ad or not.
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