Parc Entertainment - A Video Production Company - Birmingham, AL

PoshBirmingham.com is a website that features incentives from the finest retailers and restaurants in the Birmingham area. The website should launch in the next week, but to help raise awareness and drive traffic to the site, we were hired to produce a series of commercials. We created four commercials for Posh Birmingham - two :30 spots, one :15 spot, and one :05 spot. Some spots focus on the retailers, while others focus on the restaurants. The :30 spot posted below is one advertising some of the retailers you can find on PoshBirmingham.com.

You’re a marketer. You might not be in the marketing industry, but make no mistake - you’re a marketer. That means you have a product/service/business/website/hobby/book/movie/etc. that you want to tell people about. And you want those people to jump on the bandwagon. So, what’s the best way to go about it? How do you persuade people to get on board? You have to have passion , and your audience has to feel that excitement. Only then will they be more willing to say “yes” to your offer.

Consider this: You go to the movie theatre one night to catch the opening night of Hollywood’s latest film. It’s outstanding. You exit the theatre completely blown away by what you’ve just seen. Now, what do you do the following day? You tell people about it. But you just don’t tell them. You re-live it. The excitement you felt in the theatre is conveyed in the way you describe the movie to your friends.

Now, translate this to business: When marketing a product or service, you need to communicate that same kind of excitement. However, your energy needs to be focused on your potential client, not on you, your business, or your service. When I go into meetings with a potential client to discuss a video project, I don’t spend time talking about how great our cameras are, how beautiful our images are, or how state-of-the-art our editing system is. When I go into a meeting, I want to learn more about my contact’s business. I want to hear about their goals. I want to show them that I am genuinely excited about their company. I am there because I feel as though our video production services can help them with their marketing efforts.

Your attitude needs to be the same. Be interested in your client. Get excited about their business. Only then will you be able to communicate effectively how your product or service can help. Then, when discussions shift to the price of your product or service, your lead will be more inclined to buy from you, even if your prices are higher than your competitor. Why? Because you have shown a genuine interest in who they are and what they’re all about. The old saying is true, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

A disconnect now exists between advertisers and consumers. People don’t like being interrupted by hard-sell advertising messages. They don’t like the idea of being “talked to.” They would rather be “talked with.” They crave conversation and engagement. The old rules of broadcasting to large audiences are slowly giving away to “small”-casting; that is, carving specific messages for a niche audience. For example, a few years ago I shot a video for a hospital. Rather than create a broad overview commercial for use on television, they specifically targeted those interested in nursing. They launched a microsite for their recruitment campaign and placed several short videos throughout. Each video featured a nurse from a specific area of the hospital talking on camera about his/her discipline. The nurse also spoke about the surrounding community - its social scene and nightlife. The campaign was successful because it spoke directly to a niche group. The videos used terminology the audience could understand. And it didn’t interrupt them with a hard sell. The following video humorously illustrates the current relationship between advertisers and consumers. The challenge for marketers is to adapt to this growing change in the way products and services are advertised.

Knowing how much to spend on advertising is a struggle all businesses deal with - especially during a recession. When economic times are lean, the gut reaction is to jettison all the weight you deem “unnecessary,” batten down the hatches, huddle together with your staff, and pray for daylight. In the long run, however, how will that strategy help your business? Sure, you may weather the storm, but when you come out safe on the other side, you may find that your competitors have taken a huge lead in the marketplace. How come? Because while you were hiding in your office, they were still out there in front of the public, maintaining their visibility.

A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, said, “I think it’s more essential to innovate through a recession, and certainly what we are trying to do at P&G is to continue to bring sustaining and even disruptive new brands and products for our consumers, to make their lives better, to offer them a little more value.”

Professor Andrew J. Razeghi of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University said, “Moments of economic turbulence provide the unique opportunity to start new businesses, launch disruptive new products, and strengthen customer loyalty - often at a discount.” Razeghi has a great presentation entitled, “Innovating Through Recession.” You can read it in its entirety here.

Or consider this statistic from a McGraw Hill study that surveyed over 600 businesses: In the 1981-1982 recession, businesses that cut advertising spending, increased their sales 19%. Businesses that continued to spend on advertising increased their sales 275%.

The key difference between those who continued to spend money on advertising and those who didn’t is visibility. Businesses who continued to advertise were in a better position once the recession ended. They were in the forefront of the customer’s mind when he/she was ready to buy. Make the word “visibility” your motto this year. Get out in front of your customers. Advertise. Market your business. Strive to be the first company people think of when they are ready to buy.

Related Article:

Grab the Market While the Competition Makes Cuts

Any entrepreneur will tell you that adaptation is an integral part of a successful business. Companies have to study the marketplace. They have to watch and listen, and be willing to evolve as technologies, trends, opinions, and public tastes change.

2010 marks Parc Entertainment’s seventh year in business, and during that time we have been able to work with a variety of clients on some great projects. To date, we have branded ourselves as a video production and post-production facility. But we realize that today’s media is more integrated than it was just a few years ago. Video is now a big part of a company’s web presence. Clients that come to us for video production services often ask about web design and development. And web designers are often asked about video production. They each go hand-in-hand.

As marketing content becomes increasingly connected, we realize that clients need compelling and visually stunning content. They need a production facility that can engage, inspire, and entertain an audience. That’s where we come in. In an effort to give our clients what they are looking for, Parc Entertainment will soon be Red Fox Media. In addition to our video production and post-production services, we now offer full website design, development, and SEO for our clients. By February 1, 2010 we hope to launch our new identity and we encourage you to send us an email, call, or stop by our offices so we can discuss how our production services can benefit your business.

To see some of the website projects we have already completed, you can click on any of the following links:

Southern Fastening Systems

Industrial Health Council

Shelby Academy

On this blog I have often talked about the importance of good visuals to drive your story. When done properly, an ad or marketing video can convey all necessary information simply through the visuals. Take Google for example. They recently launched a series of short videos to introduce people to their browser, Chrome. The ads are remarkable and they get their point across without any narration or any spokesperson going down through a checklist of benefits. They use a series of attention-grabbing visuals that gradually shift throughout the course of each video, changing your perspective of the scene. They leverage the limitations of two-dimensional space to create some pretty cool optical illusions. And each effect used in the video is practical - no CGI. What do you think?

Many of the videos we produce end up on a website. It’s a growing trend. More and more companies are integrating video into their online presence. Soon, internet users will expect to see videos on the sites they visit. In the September 4 issue of the Birmingham Business Journal, Haley Aaron writes about the popularity of online videos and the impact they have on today’s consumer. Below are some highlights from the article.

When local law firm Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris wants to share information about their company and cases they are working on, the company doesn’t just post a press release or add a link to their Web site.

Instead, the firm uses Web video to tell its story. It created short films that give a brief introduction to its lawyers, as well as information about high-profile personal injury lawsuits the company represents.

“We want people to be able to come on to our Web site and not just look at who we say we are, but really get a much better feel not only for the firm and the work we do, but also for the individual partners,” said Melanie McCraney, director of communications at Cory Watson.

Internet video is a relatively new medium, but Americans are spending more time watching it. According to a survey compiled by comScore, a Virginia-based research company, Americans watched a total of 16.8 billion Web videos in April, from Web sites and video sharing sites such as YouTube. The average viewer spent 6.4 hours watching videos online during the month.

While consumers look to web video for entertainment and education, businesses are discovering the advantages of using it to market themselves…

Even more importantly, the nature of Web video may allow businesses to reach a more engaged audience since viewers can watch at their convenience…

Companies interested in producing web video should consider their tone and message carefully before producing and uploading videos… While free distribution through YouTube and Facebook cuts costs, it’s important that businesses don’t place cost over quality when filming and producing Web video.

A well-executed video can have an incredibly positive impact on your brand and shouldn’t be the last thing you think of when planning your marketing strategy.

Video is an artistic medium, meaning that the final product is always influenced by a certain interpretation and aesthetic approach. Give four directors the same subject and tell them to create a promotional video on that subject, and invariably you will receive four very different videos.

This means that a budget for any one video can run from one extreme to the other. The final cost always depends on several factors. That’s why it’s very difficult to nail down an accurate bid, simply based on the question, “How much do you charge for a commercial?” Video production is something different from an item you find on the grocery store shelf. Every commercial or promotional video can’t always be packaged and priced with a nice, neat little label. Businesses are different. People are different. Therefore, directors that strive to give clients unique content that speaks directly to their audience will want to sit down with you for a creative consultation.

I always try to meet with a potential client face to face to gather information for a particular video project. In that initial consultation, I like to find out the following:

• Basic information on the company; history, products, services
• Main selling points that make this company different from their competitors
• Values the company holds
• Perceptions about the company (both internally and externally)
• Marketing goals that the company has for themselves (more specifically, what do they want this video to achieve?)
• Information on current customers (why do they buy from this company?)
• Their target market
• Problems that this marketing effort will help solve
• The reasons why they contacted me
• The role they want me to play in this project
• Ideas they have for a video (both in terms of content and aesthetics)

These items are incredibly important to me as I move into any video production, because it helps in developing a concept and a script that will be most effective to the client. I want the client to know that what interests me most is helping them gain greater public exposure and increased profitability.

Business owners, freelancers, marketing personnel, public relations officers will at one time or another have to deal with projects and/or products that simply aren’t working right. And clients who have given their time, trust, and money, will be looking to these individuals to correct the situation. They aren’t interested in excuses. They’re interested in solutions. In a previous post I gave out some advice on how to respond to a client’s concerns. Number one on that list was “Respond Promptly,” but in this post I’d like to add one more point to that list - “Be proactive.”

Case in point: I recently signed up with iContact.com to distribute my monthly e-newsletter. A few days ago, I tried to access the site to work on my newsletters, but the site was down. It wasn’t long before an email popped up in my inbox from the CEO of iContact. The company had taken the time to write their customers and explain to everyone what was happening. That email was followed up with others that detailed what went wrong and how their team was correcting the situation. They also used their Twitter account to post real-time updates.

I was thoroughly impressed with the way iContact handled the situation. I’m certain that a potentially disastrous PR scenario was quickly diffused because they took a proactive approach and kept everyone well informed.

If you are responsible for client relations, regardless of your industry, maintaining open and ongoing lines of communication between your company and your clients will reflect positively on your brand.

Keith Krininger (left) received an extreme retail makeover

I was browsing through a back-issue of the Birmingham Business Journal and came across the following article by Lauren Cooper about a local business owner who saw his sales improve from a complete store makeover, including logo design, displays, advertising, and marketing. Many people like using the economy as an excuse to slash marketing and advertising budgets, but this particular case study demonstrates the value of good, solid marketing efforts.

Local businessman Keith Krininger said last week was a whirlwind at a few of his local Bedzzz Express stores.

With a film crew documenting every moment, representatives from mattress component manufacturer Leggett & Platt Inc. conducted an “Extreme Retail Makeover” of four of his eight stores – modeled after the television show Extreme Home Makeover.

Krininger was chosen from hundreds of mattress retailers across the country to be the Fortune 500 company’s test case in proving the industry can profit from touting the health benefits of sleep, said Mark Quinn, Leggett & Platt’s executive vice president of bedding sales and marketing .

Four of Krininger’s stores underwent a visual, marketing and process makeover, including logos, displays and advertising, to improve traffic and profitability.

And one week after its implementation, Krininger said he can tell a difference.

“Customers are responding to it,” he said. “Right off the bat, we’re selling the sheets (now offered), which I was skeptical about that.”

Sales of bed frames have noticeably changed as well, he said.

“We used to have just one, but now we have three choices and – amazing enough – if you give (the customer) the choice they’ll say ‘I don’t want the cheaper one, I want the one in the middle or the higher.”

And one of the most important shifts was in his 31 employees and sales associates, he said. The experience was exciting and invigorating for them and has expanded their thinking to new levels, he said.

Leggett & Platt’s Quinn said a lot of the credit goes to Krininger, who agreed to have his business totally up-ended.

“He’s been in business for 15 years and has been successful,” said Quinn. “But it’s a different time. If you are not willing to expand your comfort zone now, then you’re not going to do it.”

The makeover at Bedzzz Express is a great example of bringing new life to an old business plan, said Betsy Holloway, associate professor of marketing at Samford University’s Brock School of Business.

By differentiating himself and educating customers on the benefits of sleep, he’ll have a competitive advantage relative to other bedding retailers, she said.

“Before it was just the product, but now it’s the presentation, product promotion and personnel to articulate the benefit,” said Holloway. “He’s offering more value, which allows him to charge higher prices and create a higher volume. Sounds like a recipe for success.”

Krininger said his next step will be to implement the makeover in his remaining Bedzzz Express stores and to offer it to his nine licensed Bedzzz Express’ outside of Birmingham.

With that done and the national recognition within the industry he’ll get from the makeover, he’ll be able to concentrate on growing his license business beyond the state’s borders, he said.

Leggett & Platt’s Quinn said the video from the Extreme Retail Makeover will be shown at a large industry conference this spring, a Web site will be dedicated to the makeover and certain components will be offered to others in the industry.