I love the Panavision or Cinemascope ratio (2.35 to 1) because this is how we see (i.e. your peripheral vision goes to the right and the left NOT up and down, or at least mine doesn’t!) Many multiplex theaters are designed with widescreen as their optimum presentation format, rather than scope. The reason for this has got to be that it is cheaper to build upwards than sideways because land is expensive, but the viewing experience is not a patch on theater designed for scope.

I was delighted to see that Philips have launched the first 21:9 TV and it looks gorgeous. This link includes a wonderful presentation about the new TV. Not only does it have the same aspect ratio of the best movies of the last 60 years, but it also includes an innovative new technology called Ambilight, that creates a background coloration to the TV that aims to create a more immersive viewing expereince.

I’m not sure waht rice this is being sold at. I would guess a couple of thousand dollars. Hopefully other manufacturers will take th elead and the price of a 21:9 will fall dramatically just like the price of 16:9 flat screen TVs has.

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Cinema proportion TV

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Denny Hatch (in Target Marketing) and Hershell Gordon Lewis (in Direct) always write very entertaining columns that always pack a thought provoking punch. There are always several other articles that are worthy of clipping.

So, whatever sort of marketing you are in, I highly recommend subscribing to these distinguished publications.

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Two excellent direct marketing magazines

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The industry seems to be divided on whether popups are a good idea. I suspect this is because they have been misused and abused by some sites. This has lead to the creation of popup blockers.

In our case we decided to use a popup (written using jQuery) but to restrict it (using a cookie) to make sure that it does not reappear for a site visitor for 20 days. In other words, if a new visitor came to billyfire.com today, and then visited every day for the next 20 days, the popup would not reappear until the 20th day.

I believe the value in the popup is to be able to relate specific information that you want a site visitor to focus on. If the visitor is not interested he can easily remove the popup and it won’t reappear (at least, not be 20 days).

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Popup

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1. Keep it short. I suggest going for about 5 minutes. A shorter podcast may encourage people to give it a try. If they have to listed to 30 minutes, they might not be so keen to invest the time. You can always increase the length of the podcast as your audience grows.
2. Focus. Focus on a particular area of interest and talk in depth on that subject.
3. Project your personality through the podcast. It’s not just the information that the listening audience will be interested in – it is your style of presentation and YOU.
4. Include anecdotes. Just like in any form of public speaking, from Jesus to the present day, story telling really livens up any aural presentation and captures the listener’s attention.
5. Don’t read a script. Unless you have a gift for enlivening things written down as a script, it is far better to create a framework and speak from the framework using your own words. Generally I would prefer to hear a few ‘umms,’ ‘likes’ and ‘arghs’ and have a presentation made spontaneously, than a perfectly read but stultifying presentation from a script.
6. Use a good microphone. I am always amazed at how audibly illiterate some people are when they use an inadequate microphone (or worse a microphone ‘built in’ to their computer or MP3 player) to record a podcast. In the worse cases you have to actually strain your ears to hear the words, in the best, background noise and ambient sound can be clearly heard.
7. Get to the subject at hand as quickly as possible. There seems to be a trend towards adding all sorts of unnecessary clutter (such as a theme tune) at the beginning of a podcast. This may be okay for podcasts that you are listening to passively (e.g. on a car journey), but for those listening purposefully at their desks, unnecessary content can be an annoyance.
8. Listen to other people’s podcasts in your subject area. This can be a great eye opener (or ‘ear’ opener!) as to what works and what doesn’t.
9. Consider asking a colleague or subject mater expert to join you and take part in the podcast. The interchange between two people can make more interesting listening than just one presenter.
10. Solicit questions and suggestions from the audience. By incorporating information that listeners have shown an interest in will automatically ensure that the podcasts are relevant to the audience.
11. Publicize the podcast. If no-one downloads the podcast then, however good it is, it will be a waste of time. Make sure that you include a link on your web site. Send existing clients a link and consider issuing a press release. Also, bear in mind that many of your customers may not know what a podcast is. Make sure that you educate them and provide clear instructions as to how they could ‘subscribe’ to the podcast so that they will be assured of getting the next episode.

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Eleven tips for a first podcast

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Technorati Profile

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I am currently checking out Technorati

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The basic premise of all the ads is that the customers are so amazed and blown over by the Sprint offer that they have to use the in-store singer or rental family to express how amazed they are at the incredible offer. To me this is like telling the viewer: “Hey, you are too stupid to see what a great offer we are making to you, so we are going to spell it out really, really slowwwwwwly,” or perhaps, “Hey dopey viewer, we don’t have a very good offer at all but when we show you a few fake customers supposedly getting excited by our offer, you will behave similarly.”

I suppose on the upside I have great recall for these silly and annoying ads – on the downside this recall will remind me to never to do business with Sprint for their marginal, me-too offers.

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Sprint

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Superbowl ads

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