Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

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Explaining the Explainer (animation for marketing)

October 1, 2012 By Aaron Strout 2 Comments

Guest post by friend and digital smarty, Susanne Schantz, Co-Founder of Small Island Studio

You may have noticed a small explosion in the number of animated videos on the web lately. They are everywhere now, especially the (sort of) ubiquitous one-minute ‘Explainer Video’. Why are animated videos so compelling, and so Zeitgeist right now? What makes an animation better than regular video at conveying a complicated idea and making it memorable?

The example that springs immediately to mind comes from the fantastic TED speech given in 2006 by Sir Ken Robinson called “Schools Kill Creativity.” It was an epic speech. First of all it’s important to note that Ken is one of life’s gifted speakers, with a gentle, Monty-Pythonesque style of talking that pulls you into the topic, using humour, a depth of knowledge and his incredibly sharp intellect to make you listen with more attention than you naturally would.

So watching that speech was compelling. I became a bit of a disciple of the topic after viewing it, and would demand friends, family, colleagues all watch it as well. Then one day, while searching it out on Google for the umpteenth time to show to yet another person, I saw that there was a new speech by Sir Ken in the results, created by “RSA Animate.”

So of course I looked. And suddenly, what had been an interesting topic became unbelievably compelling.

The RSA (Great Britain’s ‘Royal Society of Arts’) had created an animation of a Sir Ken speech, in a style known as “progressive illustration.”

Adding visuals to words is hardly a new idea; currently it’s huge in the modern digital space (just look at the explosion of Infographics). But in this case, adding motion and graphics to what was already a great speech (good writing still matters) perfectly demonstrates the power that animation can have in a business context.

The “Explainer” video business has been born on the back of this idea. There are dozens of companies that have sprung up (our own, Small Island Studio, among them) to provide companies with one-minute long videos to explain complex ideas and concepts in a simple, easy to consume and memorable format.

Explainer Videos have become popular for a bunch of reasons; their short, web-friendly format makes them easy to use across all types of mediums (and they work well on mobile), and the flexibility of animation means it can tackle a wide variety of topics without the limitations of live action.

And what’s in store for this space is even more compelling from a marketer’s point of view. Adding interactive elements, which compel the watcher to get involved with the video, will increase retention substantially. Gamification, the process of adding game design elements and game thinking/mechanics, will create a competitive environment among viewers, giving them a sense of ownership over the content that will be hard to match.

Brimming with Pride

April 29, 2011 By Aaron Strout Leave a Comment

A couple of notes before I get to my point here…
1) Don’t worry, this blog isn’t intentionally going video even though I’ve done more video posts recently than normal. That’s just the way the cards got dealt.
2) I am not an informercial kind of guy. Any of you that have ever read me or follow my Twitter feed know that. But I will warn you up front that this video is all about my company.

But with that said, when I first saw this video at our internal creative summit on Tuesday, I was blown away. First of all, the office you see here is our San Francisco office. And all the people you see are my colleagues. The reason I felt such strong feelings about this video is I think it does a great job demonstrating what we do. I also love the fact that WE DID IT! Well, not me but some of the folks on our creative team. So before I bore you to tears by waxing too poetic, I want to share it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sij93-iK9vg]

 

Let me know what you think in the comments. Maybe I’m too close to this.

Powered Video: Zombies Be Damned!

March 13, 2010 By Aaron Strout 2 Comments

To celebrate South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) and help spread the word about what the new iteration of my company, Powered, does, our creative team put together a tongue in cheek video to provide some color.

http://www.powered.com/shared/_Powered/Videos/player.swf

Let me reiterate that this is done with a heavy undercurrent of snark. All feedback welcome so let us know what you think!

Hey SXSW. Got .tv?

March 12, 2010 By Aaron Strout 2 Comments

With a nod to dystopian classic, Animal farm, you may have heard the quote “all [clients] are equal, but some [clients] are more equal than others. To that end, our newest client, VeriSign (the company best known for doling out “dot com” or “dot net” domain names), happens to fall into the “more equal” category. So it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that they chose to kick off an exciting project at the event that has been dubbed by outsiders as “geek spring break” aka SXSW Interactive.

ImontvWhich project you ask? Well, let’s just say it involves creating awareness around the .tv domains — considered less valuable in the past — to meet the growing need of video creators (like my colleague, Joe Jaffe) to showcase their stuff. Seriously, this is a perfect way whether your an individual or a company to showcase your commitment to video. Rather than hunting and pecking, customers/fans searching for video content can simply replace the “dot com” or “dot net” at the end of your URL and immediately see all of your video content in a single view.

To help generate excitement and education around this new initiative, the Powered and VeriSign teams have created some fun activities over the next few days to help you get started if you’re new to video or get seen if you’re already a video maven:

  • southby.tv: First of all, you’ll want to check out southby.tv. Whether or not you’re at SXSW, it’s a great place to get a look at some of the cool stuff happening in Austin — shot by the real people who are in the thick of things. As we say on the site,southby.tv is a “living diary” showcasing video content from the insiders at the festival. Which brings us to point #2 — if you’re at the event and have your video camera or phone in hand, your content can be part of the southby.tv line-up. Just hit the site, follow the submission instructions and your clips may be chosen by our curation crew.
  • You can be the Next .tv Star: We’re not just giving you a chance to have your SXSW clips appear on our site; we’re giving you a chance to hit the weblebrity big leagues (eww, yes, I ready said weblebrity.) All over the event, we’ll be shooting audition videos for anyone who wants a chance to win a cool prize package and a shot at being a correspondent for an upcoming Best of .tv web show. The prize includes an all expense paid trip to San Francisco where you’ll spend the day backstage at Revision3 and get a private video production coaching session from Diggnation producer Dave Prager, one of the guys behind one of the web’s most widely watched video series. And of course, you could become a Best of .tv correspondent…
  • Read on for more details about how you can audition in Austin over the next few days. Or visit southby.tv to submit an audition directly (and to learn all the rules and legal stuff, of course.)
  • The .tv Street Team: We’ll have a team roaming the event, shooting audition videos for anyone who wants a shot at being the next .tv star and handing out must-have swag. Be on the lookout and make sure you say howdy (or whatever it is they really say in Texas…)
  • The Bigg Digg Shindigg: .tv is sponsoring Saturday night’s Live Diggnation event (7pm at Stubbs BBQ). We’ll have a big ol’ tent where we’ll be shooting auditions for the next .tv star and doing some other fun stuff, so be sure to check it out. If you can’t be there, you can also watch the fun when the Diggnation episode hits iTunes.
  • Special Offers: And finally, to coincide with .tv’s SXSW presence, we will have special offers for anyone looking for an excuse to get going with video. Check out the offers page on southby.tv for your shot at freebies and more.
Special thanks to my friend and colleague, Greg Verdino, who let me — willingly or unwillingly — “borrow” some of his images and bullets for this post. You can read his more eloquent post on this topic here.
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