Idaho Media Professionals puts on a "must attend event" Copyright & Web 2.0 Issues for Media Professionals

BOISE, IDAHO

On July 10, 2008 at 5:30 pm, Idaho Media Professionals (http://idahomediapro.org/) will host a seminar called "Copyright and Web 2.0 Issues for Media Professionals " at The Cabin Literary Center (www.thecabinidaho.org), 801 S Capitol Blvd
Boise, ID 83702. The speaker, Brad R. Frazer, J.D., M.B.A. of Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley LLP, is an expert on intellectual property and copyright law. If you are a media professional of any kind--artist, photographer, writer, graphics artist, web developer, broadcast professional, video/film professional, media professional or cartoonist, you will benefit from the tips that Brad Frazer will share about copyright and trademarks. Admission for Idaho Media Professionals members is free, admission for non-members is $20 or join Idaho Media Professionals for $35 and get into this event and other events hosted by IMP in 2008 free.

Media professionals routinely use the Internet as a means of both gathering and disseminating information about themselves and their clients. A whole new body of laws and issues has arisen in the last ten years that may expose you and your clients to legal liability for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, breach of contract and others. Learn how to proactively manage these risks on July 10, when Internet and Copyright Law expert Brad Frazer conducts a lively and interactive discussion of copyright law basics (like fair use and copyrighting your work) and web-specific copyright issues like linking, framing, licensing, right-clicking, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Bio of Brad R. Frazer:

Brad Frazer is Of Counsel to Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley, LLP, Idaho’s largest law firm, where his practice areas include Internet law, e-commerce, technology and software licensing, patent counseling, trademarks and domain names, copyright, media law, computer law, trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements, and related transactional work and litigation. Brad is a 1985 cum laude graduate of Brigham Young University (Provo) and a 1988 graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he earned a position on the College’s law review. After law school, he received his Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Utah. He blogs at http://www.internetlawyer.blogspot.com/, and is a frequent speaker and writer on intellectual property and Internet topics.



Idaho Media Professionals is a state-wide organization committed to growing the film, television and new media industry throughout Idaho, developing a professional workforce through education and job opportunities, and advocating for legislative measures that will grow the industry in Idaho.

Idaho Media Professionals (IMP) produces a variety of events annually to foster a networked community of professionals involved in the film, television and interactive industries in Idaho. Designed to be fun yet dynamic, the screenings, mixers and other events generate serious discussions on issues of interest and value to industry professionals. Full members guide the development of the organization and elect the Board of Directors.

Idaho Media Professionals is a non-profit, 501(c6), organization, eligible for grant funds on state and federal levels, as well as from private foundations. Membership dues, sponsorships and other contributions to a 501(c6) are not tax-deductible donations, but are legitimate business expenses.

For more information contact:

Pamela Thompson, PamRecruit@q.com, 208-898-1451

Idaho Media Professionals - Idaho Advertising Execs and the Art of Persuasion

Below is a vidcast of the panel I spoke on in April. Watch and learn about the current state of Idaho advertising and where things are headed.
Idaho Advertising Execs and the Art of Persuasion

May 13th Women Marketing Expert Panel: Focusing your Marketing $$$

"Marketing: First Dollars Cut, Last Dollars That Should Get Cut!" on May 13th
How to get the most of your marketing dollars. In this economy, it's now more important than ever to focus your marketing efforts to have impact. The media keeps changing, are you keeping up with the times? Join us for this great panel of local experts to help you better target your marketing efforts and dollars, translating those into clients and profits!

Join us as we break in the new Visual Arts Collective space in Garden City!

Hear from expert panelists: Rhea Allen--President/CEO of Peppershock Media Productions, Kristy Weyrich--Owner/Designer W Design, Linda Bruns--VP/Director of Client Services & Marketing Strategist, Publicis, Beth Markley--Owner, Markley Communication Services.
For more info & to register go to: http://www.nawboboise.org/05-08_reservation.htm.

I would encourage those who cannot attend the Boise Young Professionals, Lounging Series to listen to the podcast of all the speakers, including, former Governor Cecil Andrus, former US Supreme Court Justice Linda-Couple Trout, CEO of Micron Steve Appleton... and more to come.

You will find these leaders to be very informative and inspiring. To listen go Drew Allen's blog, he is a BYP member and co-owner of Peppershock Media Productions. Go here to listen to LOUNGING SERIES PODCASTS: http://peppershock.com/drewblog/peppershock-media.html

The BYP Lounge Series is at Lush Lounge, 1st Thursdays, you must be a BYP member to attend, anyone can become a BYP member. www.boiseyp.org

Peppershock has various Podcast sponsorship opportunities available, with the demand on the rise call soon... 208.461.5070, rhea@peppershock.com

The X Files (Profiles of a Generation)

Excerpts from article written by Rhea Allen, to be featured in IQ Idaho

Jason Crawforth, former owner of TreeTop Technology and current Chief Strategy Officer for MobileDataForce, said it best when he called us the Transition Generation. We are adapting to changes quicker than any other generation before us. In a sense, technology has eaten tradition for breakfast.

And the formalities we follow are changing too. Travis Palmer, a financial services representative with Washington Trust Bank, thinks we have become more efficient by just cutting to the chase. ”We are more straight forward, now we don’t say ‘Mr. so and so,’ we call them by their first name,” Travis said. “Now, with our generation, what you see is what you get.”

Ryan DeLuca is a prime example. His company, BodyBuilding.com, is a flat, less hierarchical organization by nature. Generally speaking, most of his employees are younger than 40. Being a flat organization, Bodybuilding.com cultivates the need for immediate feedback and constant communication. “Sometimes the best ideas come from those on the front lines, they know what’s going on,” Ryan said.

As my husband waited for me to finish typing this, with my ever present finger in the air signifying hang on one second before you talk, I realized just how complex our lives have become. He said, “It’s time for you to leave for your Pix Theatre fundraising gala committee meeting, then we’ll pick up our boys from grandma’s, go home, make dinner, clean up, watch our show we Tivo’d and hang out with our boys.” And once they fall asleep, we’ll check our e-mail one last time, read the newspaper online and go to bed at about midnight.

Look for the complete article in the March edition of IQ Idaho.

RSS FEEDS

The RSS symbol is prevalent on most websites. You see it everywhere, but do you know what it is for?

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. When a website has an RSS feed it is said to be "syndicated." Basically it’s a simple tool that allows you to subscribe to live content. It is content on demand.

The reader or aggregator is a way to be continuously updated when a source posts newly updated information that you have subscribed too.

For instance, Google has a feature called iGoogle. It’s a free service that allows you to create your own personalized page. You can access your gMail, check local weather, read the very latest article posted by CNN, get a new recipe for tonight’s dinner or find the quote of the day. The content that gets delivered is entirely up to you, the user. It’s like subscribing to the local newspaper and only having the sections you want to read delivered. There are many services similar to Google’s (Yahoo, MSN, FeedBucket, etc.).
To subscribe to the Peppershock RSS feed via iGoogle, simply go to peppershock.com and click on the RSS icon in the bottom right corner of the page. Once added to your Google Reader (iGoogle) you’ll never miss another Marketing Gem of the Month again!

If you would like assistance in creating an RSS feed for your company website, we can provide this consulting service. Give us a call and we can discuss your needs.... it's a great way to communicate with your clients!

Tips to Developing Effective Online Video Messages, Rich Media

User generated videos can be fun and entertaining, however for business clients the video should be concise, compelling and optimized for web delivery, in other words….professionally produced! Taking advantage of sight and sound on your website can impact your visitors’ experience tremendously. You must make certain the video you are presenting them with is going to capture their attention and keep them from clicking away or worse, closing your website altogether.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, online video is not only effective in educating your potential clients, but it will enhance your brand, keep them engaged and increase your chances of gaining their business. A survey conducted by Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorm showed that brand awareness doubled when using video online.

If you are lost when it comes to using new media, Web 2.0 techniques or using video on your website, that’s okay! That is why professionals are hired to provide this service for you. Working with the Peppershock Production Crew, we can help to alleviate your fear of the newer technologies that are out there. We can help you think about the message you want to deliver online. We will work with you to develop the script that is tailored toward effective online communication. A well thought out plan will make the production run smoothly.

Something to consider in the script writing process is to create each segment as a “standalone” segment. This allows your visitors to skip or replay what they desire; giving them control of the content they want to take in. That is what on-demand rich media is all about…. allowing the viewer to have control. Our goal is to make sure we capture your viewer so they do not have reason to navigate away from your website right away. We want them to stay and browse and learn more about you so they feel they are making an educated decision about buying from you. Another aspect to consider is before we set up a taping, think about how we can shoot the media so you can redistribute it in multiple venues to increase the value of the content, as well as return on investment. We can also create video web banner advertisements, :30 second commercials for TV or video pre-roll promotions that play prior to an online news story. Voice over can be recycled for use in radio ads, podcasts, email broadcasts or more.

Once a well planned script is created the next step would be to outline and create the storyboard. It can be very elaborate or as simple as just illustrating a few things that might need further explanation, including flash animations to further illustrate a point or reinforce your core message. Additional elements to incorporate in a storyboard are dynamic links for relevant resources and information gathering forms. When your project requires Flash development, 2D & 3D animation, Flash, special effects and video composition, we design sophisticated graphic imagery that supports the message of your presentation.

Quality pre-production creative is an essential component of a successful rich media web presentation and if prepared in advance can reduce your overall cost since the design elements are already established. In the pre-production phase we can also help to arrange the on-camera talent if you would prefer a pro to deliver your message or if you’d like to be on-camera yourself; we can work with you on your delivery. We have a teleprompter if you feel better about reading the script instead of memorizing it or recording it off the cuff. We assist in making all the arrangements necessary prior to production and post-production.

For video production, we can capture new content in a studio setting, or if the taping is a single headshot we can accomplish this virtually anywhere that is quiet enough. We have portable lights and a portable greenscreen or we have a 25 foot greenscreen and lighting grid set up in our studio in Nampa, Idaho. We also have white and black backgrounds. The greenscreen is used when you want to key in a different background to match your website color schemes or whatever background you desire.

If you happen to have video footage from previous projects that is fitting to the content we are now creating, there are a few things to consider before you decide to use it. Because online video real estate is typically pretty small, you want to make sure the footage you have has “close-up” shots of the subject matter so your viewers can see what it is. Also because there are so many different formats of video, standard-definition versus high-definition or high quality versus low quality footage, something to keep in mind is the quality and aspect ratios may not be consistent. Video formats that we can edit if needed include; Beta SP, DVCAM, miniDV, DVD, and DV. Video formats that can be edited but may be lower quality include; VHS, AVI (some compressions), Quicktime (some compressions), MPEG, MPEG4, and WMV.

Embedding your presentation on your own website is a great idea so users do not click away from your website in order to view your presentation. It also eliminates the worry about your user having pop-up blockers on. If you need a website we can create one for you, if you already have one, we will work with your webmaster to ensure the best playback as possible. Integrating Flash video with your current website will take some time on both our part and your webmaster’s part but will be well worth the collaboration so the presentation will be most optimal for web video display.

Producing something that looks good and is optimized for web delivery is one thing, but measuring your presentation’s impact and performance is just as important. Depending on if we are producing your website or if you can access measurement analytics with your current webmaster you will want to see how the video is impacting your ROI. Measurement data will help us assess the appeal of various presentations, and types of interactions with your program content so you can continue to create better, increasingly effective programs moving forward. For example, what was the average drop-off point? How many viewers asked a question or filled out their contact info or a poll? So, what might be the appropriate metrics to consider and measure for B-to-B video presentations? What kind of data can or should be generated to reinforce communications and lead generation objectives? We can help to decipher the answers to these questions and help you find ways to determine your ROI. There are so many different program formats, lengths, and distribution mechanisms; it's hard to categorize on-demand rich media, but, one thing is very clear -- "engagement" is the new media mantra. We want to keep your viewers engaged!
To discuss your project with us, give us a call at (208)461-5070,. Visit our website at www.peppershock.com.