Qase Media’s Violetta Lazé takes us to the scene at Style Fashion Week in New York City, giving us an inside look at one of fashion week’s most anticipated about shows. Friday September 7th’s show featured performances from LEAH KATE and CHLOE MAGGS, as well as runway shows from designers: MATTE BRAND, SWEET TALK SWIM, ADRIANA SAHAR, RAUL PENARANDA, HIRUN BANGKOK, ELIE MADI & ROCKY GATHERCOLE.
Innovation and improvements in technology have made mobile devices and screen-oriented products more available and accessible to the masses. That is, having a smart phone or mobile device is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in today’s advanced society. With these improvements in technology, is a generational decline in attention spans, most notably in millennials and demographics P18-34. We live in a data driven society. If people can watch a video to learn about a topic in 30 seconds rather than read an article with the same information in 2 minutes, then the average user will watch the video.
Nielsen claims 64% of marketers expect video to play a dominate role in their future strategies. It’s not difficult to see why. Video is naturally engaging and, in an age of information overload, it’s vital for small businesses to offer content that is easy to digest; if not, consumers will simply move on. Video is effective. If a picture paints 1,000 words then one minute of video is worth 1.8 million, so say Forrester’s researchers. Little wonder then that Axonn Research found seven in ten people view brands in a more positive light after watching engaging video content about those brands.
QASE MEDIA can help you produce videos to reach your marketing goals. Contact us today to get started on your next video production!
There is a common idiom that warns against “throwing good money after bad.” This essentially means that throwing more money at a bad thing (i.e. an investment with bleak profit margins) won’t necessarily make it work. Granted, putting more money towards a broken vehicle may very well solve its issues. However, maybe a better decision for the long-run would be to invest in a whole new vehicle completely.
This same analogy has been used with regards to the current state of marketing in today’s world of innovative technology. “Why should I spend more to advertise on television when nobody watches TV anymore?” – is a common mindset towards increasing a spending budget on any platform. But the truth of the matter is, people are still watching television, just not as much as they used to or in the same way. People are busy and if there’s an option to watch your favorite content when you want, where you want, and how you want to, then why not?
Emerging technologies have given us extensive options for how we would like to watch digital content as opposed to 1985 where if you wanted to watch your favorite show, you best be there at 6PM on Tuesday tuned to channel 9 when it airs or tough luck. This change in consumer preferences has established itself at the cost to the television and media industry, an industry that makes a majority of its revenue from aired commercials and advertised product placements. But when people aren’t watching television as much (or aren’t engaging with the commercials as much due to “distracting” gadgets in the household), companies are scrambling to find different marketing tactics to compensate for the industry-wide decline in viewership ratings that are affecting their ad sales revenue and in turn their total revenue.
The common strategy has been to shift investments across multiple platforms as to reach consumers where they are watching content. That is, instead of spending budgets solely on television, radio, and print ads, companies have distributed such funds to increase market share presence on other platforms such as digital (mobile and tablet devices) as well as set top box platforms such as Roku, Amazon Firestick, etc.
This strategy has proven to work, given that with each additional platform added to the advertising campaign, incremental sales return can be observed, with as much as a 35% ROI vs. advertising campaigns based on a single platform. However, this strategy in 2016 should be modified as to increase the total spending budget while also diversifying across multiple platforms, but not indiscriminately. That is, more should be spent on ad campaigns, but the budget should also be retrofitted to respective platforms (based on overall goal) as to effectively reach the intended target demos.
But why spend more? In order to optimize sales potential of the marketing campaign, advertisers should on average be spending 16% more than their current budget to ensure that their campaigns are seen and engaged with in an already over-saturated market. As a point of reference, not even a $1,500 sponsored ad campaign on Facebook (a digital platform) will get you featured on the right-hand side of featured sponsored ads displayed on the homepage.
People are still watching television. Traditional platforms still reign supreme. Combining traditional with new platforms increases ROI in what is known as the “kicker effect.” There is however a disclaimer: investing in digital platforms can actually diminish ROI through diseconomies of scale. Adding more platforms to the campaign is a good thing. Nonetheless, just adding more exposure (frequency) to the digital ads does not guarantee increased ROI, especially with digital banner ads. Which is why it is important to retrofit each ad campaign and its platforms to the target demos as to ensure that the audience engages with the advertised content and funds aren’t wasted by again, “throwing good money after bad.”
On Wednesday April 20th, Qase Media Founder & Executive Producer Ani Akpan presented Qase Media to a panel of successful entrepreneurs and a Jack Daniels™ Brand Ambassadors for a shot at the $5,000 grand prize. The event took place at Avenue Nightclub in the Chelsea District of Manhattan, New York.
If you’re one who can manage to keep up with the influx of technological gadgets flooding our markets today, then chances are you’ve probably heard of hover boards. For the 80’s and 90’s kids who are thinking of the cool gravitating skateboard that Marty Mcfly of Back To The Future stunted around in, I’m sorry but technology isn’t quite there yet. What I am talking about are the handle bar-free segways that have taken the internet by storm, with everyone from celebrities to 2 year olds stepping on for a ride. After the tech toy gained popularity, low-quality imitators began making faulty renditions of the device, selling them at lower prices than the original “hover boards.” Soon, explosions were occurring left and right inside households, near children and pets, and soon hover boards made its way onto the list of motorized vehicles banned for use in public. How about now? Are hover boards still trending? Are they still in high-demand? What I will tell you is that anyone with a sound sense of financial responsibility would rather just use their legs, save money, and avoid a run-in with the authorities. But what about drones? Will the drone frenzy die down in a few months? Evidence suggests otherwise.
Let’s be clear about “drones.” Prior to 2014, anyone who heard the term “drone” probably thought of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) prevalent in military air defense tactics. The term simply refers to any aerial vehicle that takes flight without requiring a pilot to be on board. The correct term for the devices prosumers and industry professionals are head over heels for is ‘quadcopter’.
So what’s the craze? These quadcopters allow for revolutionary aerial imaging that was not possible within the same realm just a few years ago. That is, with less than $2,000 any old Jack or Sally can purchase a quadcopter, hook it up to their iPad, and capture stunning 4K Ultra HD video and photos with significantly less financial investment, time, and expertise than ever before. Before that, highly sophisticated aerial cinema camera rigs ranging anywhere from $10,000 upwards were required. Before that, actual cinema cameras were mounted onto helicopters and flown to capture the desired shot. Anyone without a Hollywood or big budget production was limited to simply purchasing aerial stock footage online.
For many production companies and freelancers whose differentiation strategy was on par with the low cost approach, this was a god send. For companies who for years were differentiated by their mastery of and capability to provide aerial imaging services long before the introduction of quadcopters, the emergence of these (relatively) low-cost drones is nothing short of a nightmare. Why? Because now that client who would’ve went to them for aerial imaging services just has to call up their uncle Joe who knows a guy who knows a guy who has a drone that can do it for much less or even worse, for free.
However, there are still considerable setbacks with these high-quality aerial video cameras that have now become an industry standard. The first is safety. While the drones are relatively safe, it doesn’t mean that technology doesn’t have glitches and can’t fail. Just imagine if the iPad shuts off or if the battery suddenly gives out. Now you’re down a couple thousand dollars. Also, there’s nothing stopping an infatuated 15 year old from going to Best Buy or B&H Photo and dropping a couple of daddy’s benjamins to land himself a brand new “works right out of the box” quadcopter. Next thing you know, the drone is in pieces after crashing into someone’s 12th floor apartment window. Point is, there is huge liability in these drones. With liability comes the law.
Up until recently, there were no exact laws regulating drone usage because drones simply did not exist in this manner in years prior. However, the FAA now requires anyone who purchases a drone to register the aircraft so that there is less of an anarchic structure of operation satirized quite brilliantly by this South Park episode. Other concerns included loss of privacy, public disturbance and general safety. So are drones here to stay? Or are they just another short-lived technological trend? With the NFL pushing for it’s use during games and hundreds of industry professionals and companies using the technology as a lucrative feature, it looks like the 4-winged mechanisms are here to stay. If you’re not convinced, then check out this Drone Racing League picking up steam as a professional hobby as well as this mega-sized quadcopter capable of flying humans on the inside (first steps to flying cars?)
Either way the emergence of quadcopters are just one example of the many ways in which technological innovations are rapidly changing the nature and boundaries of the media/film/television production industry. With advanced software, better cameras, and access to online resources, more is simply being made with less.
