http://rassak.com Digital Brand Building and Communications Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:07:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://rassak.com/observations/creative-directing-while-walking-along-in-the-mission-in-the-rain/3044/ http://rassak.com/observations/creative-directing-while-walking-along-in-the-mission-in-the-rain/3044/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:16:20 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3044 I was not feeling a piece of work grab me the other day while working with a designer on a project. The work looked sharp -- but there wasn't one main element that called out to me... one thing that just popped off "the page" and made me want to dive in. It was all a bit of a blur. ]]> http://rassak.com/observations/creative-directing-while-walking-along-in-the-mission-in-the-rain/3044/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/why-our-ads-tend-to-have-higher-results-than-are-typical-a-peek-into-the-rassak-process/3034/ http://rassak.com/observations/why-our-ads-tend-to-have-higher-results-than-are-typical-a-peek-into-the-rassak-process/3034/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:39:11 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3034 We're about to wrap a banner ad project for a client. I'm really happy with the work and am looking forward to showing you soon. Meanwhile, here's a peek into an aspect of the Rassak creative process-- it's one reason I believe the banner ads we produce tend to have far higher click-through rates than are typical. ]]> http://rassak.com/observations/why-our-ads-tend-to-have-higher-results-than-are-typical-a-peek-into-the-rassak-process/3034/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/work/rassak-designs-and-builds-new-website-for-nfocus-neuromedical/2983/ http://rassak.com/work/rassak-designs-and-builds-new-website-for-nfocus-neuromedical/2983/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:16:31 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=2983 Palo Alto-based NFOCUS Neuromedical is the creator of LUNA, a breakthrough device to save the lives of brain aneurysm patients.  A brain aneurysm is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain. NFOCUS asked Rassak to redo their website.  The site is a key component of their online brand — and, in fact, their entire brand — and what they had was no longer telling their story effectively.  It was also tricky for them to manage the site and grow it to meet their needs. Working with NFOCUS’ VP for R&D, Sharon Lake, and President, Martin Dieck, we developed a strategy.  It became clear very quickly that a simple, eye-catching site –one that would stand out in the staid medical devices industry–would have a powerful impact in meeting the company goals. With the always-terrific help of Rassak Creative Network member Aaron Adiego, we put together a super-simple, highly communicative WordPress-based site.  The site is now highly flexible.  As NFOCUS’ communications needs change over time, they can easily add content and adjust the communications focus of the site.  See it here. The product photos are absolutely key to this site.  They were taken by San Francisco-based Mark Leet who has incredible equipment for [...]]]> http://rassak.com/work/rassak-designs-and-builds-new-website-for-nfocus-neuromedical/2983/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/news-events/finally-after-six-years-she-says-yes/3079/ http://rassak.com/news-events/finally-after-six-years-she-says-yes/3079/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:35:45 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3079 After trying to recruit her for more than six years, my wife Kristin Wiederholt has finally!!!!!! agreed to join with me in the great Rassak adventure. We're going to try it for a few months and if all goes well (as it seems to be going so far) we'll likely come up with a new name for this thing -- and it won't involve spelling Wiederholt backwards. Kassar backwards is enough of a mouthful as it is.]]> http://rassak.com/news-events/finally-after-six-years-she-says-yes/3079/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/news-events/that-really-is-his-name/3082/ http://rassak.com/news-events/that-really-is-his-name/3082/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:05:15 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=3082 Whenever I used to write about Dylan Thomas here at Rassak I’d always write “Dylan Thomas, that really is his name.” It somehow never got old for me — even after roughly five years of doing it. Well.. sadly I have to stop.]]> http://rassak.com/news-events/that-really-is-his-name/3082/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/work/nothing-says-it-like-a-customer-rassak-delivers-killer-customer-videos-for-salesforces-desk-com/3069/ http://rassak.com/work/nothing-says-it-like-a-customer-rassak-delivers-killer-customer-videos-for-salesforces-desk-com/3069/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:44:10 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=3069 It was very exciting news when our client Assistly was acquired last year by Salesforce. Since then we’ve been helping the company’s awesome head of marketing, Matt Trifiro, in all sorts of ways — strategic and tactical — as he prepared to relaunch Assistly under the new brand: Desk.com. One key project was creating more customer videos for the company — we’d already done a few several months earlier. Desk has fantastic customers with great stories to tell.  And there really is no better way for a company to get new customers than by telling the stories of existing ones. You can check out our work on the homepage of Desk.com.  Short excerpts can be found in the sliding “marquee” at the top of the page.  Links to full versions can be found just below the marque — or you can watch a couple of them right here, straight from the Desk.com YouTube channel. Many thanks to the amazing Graham Hancock of the Rassak Creative Net for serving as editor extraordinaire on these. If you want to know more about Desk, here are some great stories that came out at launch: Wall Street Journal:  Salesforce.com Launches New Social, Mobile Platform New York Times: Salesforce [...]]]> http://rassak.com/work/nothing-says-it-like-a-customer-rassak-delivers-killer-customer-videos-for-salesforces-desk-com/3069/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/work/rassak-delivers-launch-strategy-and-creative-assets-for-tumtiki-com/3058/ http://rassak.com/work/rassak-delivers-launch-strategy-and-creative-assets-for-tumtiki-com/3058/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:27:13 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=3058 When Frontier Communications (NASDAQ : FTR), the United States’ largest rural phone company — and fourth largest carrier overall — wanted to brand and launch the online video service TumTiki.com, they called on Rassak. TumTiki is the largest online library of professionally (as in Hollywood) produced movies and TV shows on the web.  Due to deals with Hulu and Amazon — and a bunch of other cool providers — you can find pretty much anything you would want to watch at TumTiki. Working with Eric Del Sesto in California, David Asch and Melinda White in Connecticut, and a  host of other talented Frontier-ites across the US — we put together a strong launch strategy, and a host of multimedia (digital, video, social and even offline) creative assets to support the launch. Here’s a page from the strategy document that drove many aspects of the launch — from user experience to promotion and even product innovations. Assets we developed included: Imagery to appear on homepage and throughout the site A homepage video to explain TumTiki service.  Thank you to Rassak Creative Network video rockstar Graham Hancock for his mad skills in the edit suite.  On the site, the “learn more” arrow above points to [...]]]> http://rassak.com/work/rassak-delivers-launch-strategy-and-creative-assets-for-tumtiki-com/3058/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/work/rassak-creates-web-and-mobile-versions-of-creativity-org-for-childrens-creativity-museum/2942/ http://rassak.com/work/rassak-creates-web-and-mobile-versions-of-creativity-org-for-childrens-creativity-museum/2942/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:14:49 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=2942 We just finished a web and mobile website for what used to be called Zeum — the supercool kids museum in San Francisco. They’re now the Children’s Creativity Museum and secured the fantastic web address of creativity.org. Wired ’s “Geek Dad” column just gave CCM the #1 spot on their Top 1o Geeky Places in San Francisco list, saying: “The Children’s Creativity Museum has the stated aim to “nurture the 3 Cs of 21st-century skills – Creativity, Collaboration and Communication” – and it does this wonderfully.” The new website works on multiple levels. First of all it looks sharp — if we say so ourselves.  Rassak’s Barak Kassar handled the creative direction — which took into account not just look and feel but also the museum’s strategic communications goals.  Rassak Creative Network members Alex Eben Meyer did the drawings and Simon Bucktrout handled the overall web design.  Aaron Adiego turned the art into a working WordPress site.  Dylan Thomas ran point on the project from start to finish. It was great to work with the museum’s Executive Director, Audrey Yamamoto, and Cathy Barragan and Joy Wong Daniels on the overall site — as well as all the other staffers we worked with on making sure the site worked for their own [...]]]> http://rassak.com/work/rassak-creates-web-and-mobile-versions-of-creativity-org-for-childrens-creativity-museum/2942/feed/ 0 http://rassak.com/observations/smart-social-media-begins-at-home-the-power-of-friends-and-asking-for-help/2696/ http://rassak.com/observations/smart-social-media-begins-at-home-the-power-of-friends-and-asking-for-help/2696/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:10:35 +0000 barakkassar http://rassak.com/?p=2696 With their permission, I am going to share two highly effective emails sent out by two Rassak clients. These weren't mass-emails, mind you. They were just the opposite -- sent just to a relative handful of close people. The first came from Matt Trifiro, SVP Marketing at  Assistly. Assislty makes an awesome SaaS customer service tool. ]]> http://rassak.com/observations/smart-social-media-begins-at-home-the-power-of-friends-and-asking-for-help/2696/feed/ 1 http://rassak.com/work/rassak-delivers-rapid-prototype-for-new-social-education-web-platform/2745/ http://rassak.com/work/rassak-delivers-rapid-prototype-for-new-social-education-web-platform/2745/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:21:50 +0000 teamrassak http://rassak.com/?p=2745 When former US Marine and Harvard MBA Gunnar Counselman was preparing to launch Fidelis – a powerful education and degree program for ex-servicemen and women to re-enter civilian life —  he turned to Rassak to help plan out the experience and user flow. The project consisted of a working “wireframe” of key parts of the site — with pages much like the one you see above. This not only served as a functional template when Fidelis’ web team would eventually build out the site — but it helped Gunnar raise money and recruit key partners quickly without having to do a full costly, and time-consuming site build. Thanks Gunnar for your kind words on team Rassak. And  check Gunnar out with a great TEDx talk called “Moving Beyond the Diploma”]]> http://rassak.com/work/rassak-delivers-rapid-prototype-for-new-social-education-web-platform/2745/feed/ 0