http://rassak.com Digital Brand Building and Communications Thu, 17 May 2012 22:18:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://rassak.com/observations/its-youtube-tuesday-again-3-product-videos-3-critiques/3374/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-youtube-tuesday-again-3-product-videos-3-critiques http://rassak.com/observations/its-youtube-tuesday-again-3-product-videos-3-critiques/3374/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 19:59:09 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3374 1. Sleepwalk With Me Just because your product is itself content (as in a movie) doesn’t mean you can’t use smart content to promote it. And by smart content, I mean something more than a standard trailer. After all, trailers aren’t typically the kind of thing that get buzz and get shared around the web. Comic Mike Birbiglia has a film coming out this summer in the US called Sleepwalk With Me. It’s already played at SXSW and Sundance. What I love about the video below is 1) it’s much more than a trailer and 2) it plays perfectly to an existing fanbase. Birbiglia is a bit of a darling of the public radio crowd … and he’s leveraging this absolutely perfectly. If you’re fan of Terry Gross/Fresh Air you’ll most certainly enjoy. And damn… did this thing get buzz. Check out this Google search.   2. AVG Tiger vs. Toothpick This is pretty damn awesome on several levels. 1) AVG is a tech company and tech companies (sorry dear clients) tend to shy away from risky marketing like this. Ironic because they tend to take so many other types of risks. 2) There is a great, clever concept behind this. [...]]]> http://rassak.com/observations/its-youtube-tuesday-again-3-product-videos-3-critiques/3374/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/step-off-the-digital-world-for-a-moment-visit-our-red-couch-and-read-a-paper-book/3363/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=step-off-the-digital-world-for-a-moment-visit-our-red-couch-and-read-a-paper-book http://rassak.com/observations/step-off-the-digital-world-for-a-moment-visit-our-red-couch-and-read-a-paper-book/3363/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 14:58:42 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=3363 Just ping us at redcouch@rassak.com and let us know you’re heading over. It’s pretty peaceful here. Oh… and for every book you leave a short review on in the comment section below, we’ll donate $1.00 to Worldreader.org so they can bring books (the e-book variety) to kids in the developing world.           ]]> http://rassak.com/observations/step-off-the-digital-world-for-a-moment-visit-our-red-couch-and-read-a-paper-book/3363/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/youtube-tuesday-3-product-videos-3-marcomms-critiques-nokia-lumia-900-obama-2012-sort-of-and-the-canadian-paralympic-committee/3322/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=youtube-tuesday-3-product-videos-3-marcomms-critiques-nokia-lumia-900-obama-2012-sort-of-and-the-canadian-paralympic-committee http://rassak.com/observations/youtube-tuesday-3-product-videos-3-marcomms-critiques-nokia-lumia-900-obama-2012-sort-of-and-the-canadian-paralympic-committee/3322/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 03:00:35 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3322 1. Nokia Lumia 900 … A Funny (But Really Bad) Idea I love this idea (in theory) … the idea that over the last few years all Apple and Google have been doing is messing around with silly, bad smartphones and now — with the Nokia Lumia 900 — the “the Beta Test is Over.” It is a funny, attention-grabbing idea, for sure.  But whose going to believe it?  This is just way too bold )(and therefore non-resonant) a statement to make. Even if you believe Nokia really knows what it’s doing in the smartphone arena (and many don’t) it’s a big stretch to say Apple and Google don’t. Using humor could have made a lot of sense for them — but I’d have suggested leaning much more toward the self-deprecating variety. BTW… in a very beta (even alpha) move, Nokia launched the Lumia on Easter Sunday in the U.S. Most AT&T stores and resellers were closed! I guess they weren’t counting on the “show people standing in line for the awesome new device” PR strategy. On the bright side the phone did well on Amazon – which never closes. The video is part of a larger campaign … including this microsite. [...]]]> http://rassak.com/observations/youtube-tuesday-3-product-videos-3-marcomms-critiques-nokia-lumia-900-obama-2012-sort-of-and-the-canadian-paralympic-committee/3322/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/youtube-tuesday-weekly-product-video-critique/3286/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=youtube-tuesday-weekly-product-video-critique http://rassak.com/observations/youtube-tuesday-weekly-product-video-critique/3286/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 14:38:50 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3286 1. Old Spice Another in the brilliant line of Old Spice videos. Never forget the power of surprise. Nor the power of keeping things to 15 seconds. Weird often does very well on the web. And there is loads of weird in this video (like this guy’s’ three arms) — and yet it hits the right marcomms notes. Chiefly it makes people like the brand. Before you say, “oh these people can do this because they’ve already had success,”  I’d say their first video in what became this incredible series was pretty risky stuff too. And it worked. So, also never forget the pppppppahpower of taking a smart risk.   2. A Car Wrapping Company in Florida First off, the service being advertised in this video is not my thing at all (sorry.. I’m not really a car person.) And I also personally like more polish and greater production values. But this video is a decent example of a simple, creative use of web video to promote a product or service that even a small business can do. Granted, it could have been four or five times as effective if it was four or five times shorter …but still a cool [...]]]> http://rassak.com/observations/youtube-tuesday-weekly-product-video-critique/3286/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/when-i-read-this-yesterday-i-thought-wow-this-so-describes-our-work-at-rassak/3297/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-i-read-this-yesterday-i-thought-wow-this-so-describes-our-work-at-rassak http://rassak.com/observations/when-i-read-this-yesterday-i-thought-wow-this-so-describes-our-work-at-rassak/3297/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:08:17 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3297 Well, it certainly describes what we strive to do with our clients. And it really can work — especially when we tuck in well with senior leaders at a client  and we are clicking/jiving well together. Then we can perform the role of the fantastic fox in this parable. I just just came across this… so I’ll have to get working on a nicer looking version of the scan and photoshop hackjob below. If your eyes are, well, old like mine, click the image to make it a bit easier to read.  This from the book  “Art Direction Explained, At Last!”  ]]> http://rassak.com/observations/when-i-read-this-yesterday-i-thought-wow-this-so-describes-our-work-at-rassak/3297/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/which-of-these-two-headlines-are-you-seeing/3257/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=which-of-these-two-headlines-are-you-seeing http://rassak.com/observations/which-of-these-two-headlines-are-you-seeing/3257/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:28:01 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3257 Depending on the roll of a virtual dice that a computer on the internet just cast, this blogpost has one of the two following headlines: "This Headline is a Trial Balloon" or "Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3" Welcome to one of the cooler (and really powerful) areas of digital communication: real-world testing.]]> http://rassak.com/observations/which-of-these-two-headlines-are-you-seeing/3257/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/guilt-marketing/3251/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=guilt-marketing http://rassak.com/observations/guilt-marketing/3251/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:49:46 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3251 I felt guilty twice today when I rejected marketers appeals to me. Both appeals used guilt. But they came off really differently. At roughly 10 AM I got a phone call from a pediatric medical organization — seeking a donation. I could be (very) wrong… but I had the distinct impression that they had done some “tone-of-voice” testing and had settled on just the perfect way to say  the name of the disease and describe how it impacts kids. It really got to me — too much, in fact. I was busy. I felt intruded on. And I got off the phone. At least right now I don’t feel like hearing from them again. Sad, because they really do deserve money. Later in the morning I unsubscribed from an email list. Below is the confirmation page giving me a chance to change my mind. Note the language: “please tell me what you didn’t like” … like by actually leaving I must disappoint the cute little puppy. Since I’d already embraced my inner cold-hard-man for the morning I didn’t resubscribe. But I didn’t mind this at all… this kind-of tongue-in-cheek guilt tactic. I can still see being really engaged with them.    ]]> http://rassak.com/observations/guilt-marketing/3251/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/work/rassak-creates-worldreader-org-2-0-delivers-social-fundraising-experience/3178/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rassak-creates-worldreader-org-2-0-delivers-social-fundraising-experience http://rassak.com/work/rassak-creates-worldreader-org-2-0-delivers-social-fundraising-experience/3178/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:05:04 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3178 We’ve been helping Worldreader.org with their digital presence since, well, before they were officially Worldreader. It’s been a fantastic experience to watch (and play a part in) their rapid growth.  We ‘ve just finished up Worldreader’s new website. It’s an ongoing project… and more features and functionality will be added over time.  But check it out at Worldreader.org.   The site gives the growing Worldreader team much greater publishing and communications flexibility and power as it’s built on the easy-to-use WordPress content management platform. It also offers up incredible fundraising functionality.  Not just traditional fundraising such as empowering people to donate or purchase gifts through the site  – but the increasingly popular social fundraising in which anybody can run a fundraiser on behalf of the organization. And the organization can rally their community of supporters to fundraise. This is done through an integration with Stayclassy.org.  It took some serious “experience design” to get the two sites working together as one.  StayClassy’s tech team and customer lead Shanna Stuhmer were truly fantastic.  They took our specs into their product design meetings and literally changed their product to meet our needs — knowing that other .orgs are going to have the same [...]]]> http://rassak.com/work/rassak-creates-worldreader-org-2-0-delivers-social-fundraising-experience/3178/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/welcome/why-we-offer-digital-brand-building-and-communications/1105/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-we-offer-digital-brand-building-and-communications http://rassak.com/welcome/why-we-offer-digital-brand-building-and-communications/1105/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:00:19 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=1105 Each year Rassak gets intimately involved with a handful of big and small organizations to help them get the most out of digital media and technology to build their brands and create a vibrant community of supporters around them.]]> http://rassak.com/welcome/why-we-offer-digital-brand-building-and-communications/1105/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/news-events/nice-rassak-designed-creativity-org-is-official-webby-honoree/3242/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nice-rassak-designed-creativity-org-is-official-webby-honoree http://rassak.com/news-events/nice-rassak-designed-creativity-org-is-official-webby-honoree/3242/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:05:39 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=3242 Nice! Creativity.org, the website we designed and built for San Francisco's Children's Creativity Museum, has been named an Official Honoree for the 16th Annual Webby Awards.]]> http://rassak.com/news-events/nice-rassak-designed-creativity-org-is-official-webby-honoree/3242/feed/ 0