Tuesday, December 1, 2009
by Jason Gramke | Comments: 1
PowerPoint: the bane of every agency creative department. You can hear a collective sigh float through the building after it’s mentioned. It’s a function we most often associate with the duty of an admin. Such a harsh caste system we perpetuate.
I used to be the same way early in my career. I was too good to work on a PowerPoint presentation. That was until I understood the power of the opportunity and stopped thinking about the tool. I recognized that the people asking for these presentations were CEOs of global corporations and they were talking to people who were vital to the success of their company. I identified that as the right place to be and began focusing on the opportunity.
As proven by Mark Fenske with his infomercial for Never Compromise putters, the product doesn’t have to suck. And that’s the approach we’ve been taking with our clients’ PowerPoint projects. They don’t have to suck and the presentations we put together for our clients are good and compelling.
The short of it is this: we’re in business to make our clients’ business better any way we can. If it’s by doing ads, we’re happy to make them ads. If it’s by making a PowerPoint presentations, we’re equally as happy to make that too.
Friday, May 15, 2009
by Jason Gramke | Comments: 0
Mark Cuban has done well with taking risks, and we all know; without great risk, great reward will rarely follow. His new model of new-release movies sounds reminiscent of the phenomenon that happened with the US release of Battlestar Galactica. Long story short—it was first released in the UK and was leaked Online in the US several months before the scheduled domestic debut. It blazed across P2P servers like a California wildfire, which began speculation that there wouldn’t be a US debut. When it finally debuted in the US it received more viewership than any past episode and all the following episodes to date. So, perhaps Mark is on to something. We’ll see.
Friday, May 15, 2009
by Jason Gramke | Comments: 0
Kids under 12 can’t remember a time when computers weren’t part of their lives. Michael Pond, senior media analyst, Nielsen Online, says “Today’s youth don’t know - or don’t remember - a time when they weren’t going online, so their adoption of online video has been seamless… the ‘at home’ data show how kids and teens are driving usage… ” The upside to online media is the interactivity that TV doesn’t provide. Children can engage with toys and TV programming that interest them. Today, teens are using the Internet like their parents used TV when they were young, focusing on music videos, movie trailers and user-generated content. While adults make up a larger audience online, exceeding children by ten times and teens by seven times, in contrast both children and teens consume much more content. Regardless of age, YouTube is the most frequented online property. Beyond that, hot spots for children are DisneyChannel, Nick, Disney and Cartoon Network while teens hang out at Myspace, Google Video, Apple and Facebook.
*Nielson Online, VideoCensus, June 2008
Friday, May 15, 2009
by Jason Gramke | Comments: 0
Efforts seemingly continue to move toward removing cars that burn gas from the roadways. GM is in a few different games and has recently begun to put a lot of effort into their electric car technology. They announced at the Plug-In 2008 conference that they are partnering with 30 domestic utility companies to solve the usability problems of keeping the cars powered.
Other areas GM is interested in are cellulosic ethanol, technology that is being developed by a local company, ICM. And they’re investing inhydrogen fuel cell vehicles. So, the efforts of developing technology to remove gas-burning vehicles from society is good thinking but the increase in electric cars doesn’t necessarily equate to a reduction in our dependence on oil or a reduction in pollution.
A plant that burns natural gas generates the electricity that I consume.
