Archive for New jersey writer

“Custom Creative Content”: A Web 2.0 Concept that Makes Sense

If the buzz on the web is to believed, Custom Creative Content is the next new thing.

A Company's Vision or Sales Concepts must be transmitted on many different levels.

A Company's Vision or Sales Concepts must be transmitted on many different levels.

But it really isn’t. What it is, really, is a manifesto of a company’s need to shift it’s marketing into “Web 2.0″ mode– a credo of engagement, involvement, and discussion, all spurred by the use of various media methods to create interest in you and what or whom you represent (product, personality, cause, service.)

It includes web presence and interactivity, from blogs and podcasts, to video casts and regular marketing videos, all offered for free as in the form of valuable information that may or may not include your product or primary message. What’s important is what the customer wants to know. In the case of a brand, it may be the brand’s history or culture. In the case of a product, it might be how the product is made. In the case of a service, it might be getting to know the people who provide the service.

All this revolves around a MIX of media, from web based, to directly marketed or presented. A website, YouTube, a blog or a forum, even Twitter and photostreams (and slideshows- remember them?) But also a DVD, a direct (snail) mail, TV Spots, newsletters (web and paper), and viral campaigns.

It’s not enough to simply hire a web specialist, programmer or a video producer. Your consultant must know how all of these activities intersect. They must have been there, and know where next to go. They have to know your story and feel your vision. They have to be able to create content.

We’ve been doing that since we were kids. But we’ve been forward looking just as long. We’re no stranger to video, meetings and presentations, audio, streaming, blogging, orĀ  RSS feeding. We listen. We analyze. We propose. We execute. All the media, all the details. We measure, report, respond, refine and enhance. We grow your page views, enhance your image, get you applause and earn you the response you require.

What is Custom Creative Content? It’s a story, on many different levels.

  • Level One: Concept. What is the plan? Who is the audience, where are they, what turns them on?
  • Level Two: Words. The blueprint to all else that will follow.
  • Level Three: media selection, based on the above.
  • Level Four: Design. Make sure there is a common look and feel to all your content.
  • Level Five: Creatively exploit each medium to its fullest, in light of your strategy. Testimonials? Interviews? Flow animations? Mind Maps?
  • Level Six: Place the messages where they will be found. Web-Centric? Direct? Mass media? Auditorium? Trade Show? Brochure, free DVD, YouTube?
  • Level Seven: Before paying for exposure, maximize your free exposure. Keyword optimization. Forum presence. Street Crews. PR. Speakers Bureaus. Viral Video. Word of Mouth.
  • Level Eight: Track the action. See what works. Modify. Your keywords. Your creative. Your media placement. Your web presence. This is the thing…. you can make changes– even in video– overnight.
  • Level Nine: Build on Your Success. Now, YOU’RE the expert. Be interviewed, appear on other people’s podcasts. Become the go-to-person locally or nationally on your subject.
  • Level Ten: Never stop listening and conversing. All of tis has to be two way, whether you hand type your own responses, use autoresponders, or virtual assistants.

In the advertising business, this used to be called a campaign. But an ad campaign was simple. This is a Hydra. This is Now. And this works.

Moving Back, Moving Forward

To my Clients, Friends, and Colleagues:

Thirty-five years ago, after graduating from Marquette University, I had to make a single decision–return to New Jersey to accept a job on my hometown newspaper, or start a communications business in Milwaukee. I chose the latter.

Many moons, many generations, and many media (slides, video, digital) later, I am choosing to relocate to the Pennsylvania / New Jersey border to be closer to family and to take advantage of a number of documentary opportunities there, while hopefully continuing many of my ongoing client relationships here in the Midwest. That move is effective January 1, 2008.

Our Milwaukee office will remain open to service your needs, be it updating projects, providing masters for duplication, or, should you choose, providing you with whatever production materials you might need. The office will be maintained by my associates Eileen Devine and Joe Miller, with whom I produced this last summer’s Walgreens meeting extravaganza. (I urge you to see the HiDef compilation on our website.) Our phone number (414-271-2170) remains active, and I can be reached at any time on my cell at 414-852-3104. I will return to Milwaukee often.

The world has changed, and as it has changed we’ve learned that core capabilities don’t change– otherwise, they’re not core capabilities. Three years ago, with the help of my partner, Diane Wilson, we remade "Brien Lee Creative Solutions"–a broad-based multimedia and web production company–into "Brien Lee VideoStory," a high-niche creative boutique where we could offer real "creative solutions" that I could guarantee–by writing, directing and producing only turnkey "critical" video projects, for meetings, marketing, fundraising, and the web.

This strategy was successful, and you can see many examples of that success on our website.

But it could not have succeeded without your faith in our approach, our teams, and our promise to deliver a result that moved audiences.

The world has changed, and the Internet makes so much more possible. We have production suppliers who know us and our demanding style in Milwaukee, Chicago and New York. This past summer, nearly all of our HiDef videos for the Walgreens summer meetings were shot in Milwaukee or New York, finished in Chicago, and reviewed and approved via the web.

So, in the future, when something pops up that needs a "Brien Lee-style" solution, I hope you’ll consider, well, Brien Lee (that’s me.) In today’s world, we’re never very far away.

And thank you for so many opportunities to be a part of your story.

Cordially,

Brien Lee

brienlee@videostory.com
www.videostory.com
414-271-2170
414-852-3104

Milwaukee:

Brien Lee
Brien Lee VideoStory
759 N. Milwaukee Street Suite 612
Milwaukee, WI 53202

New Jersey:

Brien Lee
Brien Lee VideoStory
23 Union Square Suite 4A
Phillipsburg, NJ 08865