Our 2010 Reel of Web Design, Film Production, Graphic Design, & Corporate Identity Packages

Posted on March 8th, 2011 at 1:57 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, Suggested, client work by Denny

Blue Ocean Ideas in the News

Posted on February 16th, 2011 at 5:27 am in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, Suggested by brody

In the last week, Bosley Hall (a.k.a, “The Jail” or a.k.a. “The New Home of Blue Ocean Ideas”) was featured in a few news stories around town.

Here are the link to those newspaper and television reports:

Baltimore Sun

WJZ TV

Towson Times

Congratulations to our friends at the Azola Companies for their efforts on the development of this project!

Brand Development as Inertia

Posted on February 8th, 2011 at 1:38 pm in Blog, Suggested, The Weekly Idea, Uncategorized, brand development, thought provoking by brody

Life serves as a metaphor for the rest of life. Especially natural laws.

Take Newton’s First Law of Motion:

An object at rest tends to remain at rest unless an external force is applied to it.

It’s inertia – and it’s everywhere. People won’t act until they are motivated to. There is no way I’m going to buy your widget or service, let alone care about it, until you move me.

The funny thing about using your external force to move people is that you can’t “force” anything.

How does Blue Ocean Ideas help our clients move people? Story. Surprise. Delight. Beauty. Clarity. Risk. Legitimizing (2). Community. Revealing benefits. Substantiating claims. Killing cliche.

It’s hard, but there’s a huge upside. Remember the other side of inertia: once you move something it will stay in motion.

Brody

P.S. Check out the coverage of our new office in The Baltimore Sun.

P.P.S. One of my favorite songs is “You Move Me” [iTunes link] written by Piece Pettis. It’s great marketing advice. Excerpts are below.

But you move me / You give me courage I didn’t know I had / You move me / I can’t go with you / And stay where I am / So you move me on

Oh but you move me / Out of myself and into the fire / You move me / Now I’m burning with love / And with hope and desire / How you move me

Brand Development as Story Telling

Posted on February 1st, 2011 at 5:10 pm in Blog, Suggested, The Weekly Idea, brand development, story by brody

Stories follow a pattern of four elements: the way things ought to be, the way things are, the way things can be, and the way things will be.

Brand development (the high goal of marketing and advertising efforts) has everything to do with this four-chapter ought-is-can-will story-telling code:

• Ought: “You should enjoy flying.”
• Is: “However, airlines make it painful to fly.”
• Can: “Then My Great Organization showed up. People who fly with us experience a better reality.”
• Will: “And one day, flying will be enjoyable for everyone. We work everyday to improve your experience.”

You may fly on different airlines. But my guess is that you have some sort of brand affinity with only one.

Think about your favorite brands. You can probably tell their story in this same way.

Think about what you do. Are you telling your story in this way?

Communicating chapters 1-3 (ought, is, can) can be pretty easy. Identify a problem and a solution. Sure, there’s art and intuition involved in telling those parts of the story well, but it’s pretty straightforward.

The magic in brand development only comes if you write chapter four, “The Way Things Will Be.” If people connect with your chapter four, they will truly believe in you and what you are doing, and they will wave your flag for you. They make emotional investments in who you are such that your success becomes their success.

What great hope are you bringing to your world or your industry? Chapter four is about strategically and creatively allowing people to believe in that hope.

A brand is a promise. If you want to have a brand you have to tell a story.

Brody

P.S. Want to try your hand at writing short four-chapter stories about a brand/organization you love? Leave a comment below.

Join us at the «GO» Conversation

Posted on January 4th, 2011 at 6:36 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, Suggested, story by Denny

You know all those times you’ve said, “I wish I was a fly on the wall for that conversation!”?

That’s what «GO» is all about.

Great thinkers, great do-ers, great teachers, and great leaders getting to discuss their perspectives with each other, all while the rest of us get to listen in. The beauty is that we not only get to hear their ideas, but also the questions that experts ask of each other.

Join us on Tuesday, 1/11/11, for an inspiring conversation with:
- Bill Ferguson, Maryland State Senator
- Mike Metzger, President of the Clapham Institute
- Thurman Williams, Pastor of New Song Community Church
(More about the Intraviewers)

For more information visit www.GOconversation.org or follow us on Facebook & Twitter.

Merry Christmas from Blue Ocean Ideas

Posted on December 23rd, 2010 at 3:50 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, Suggested, client work by Denny

Weekly Idea: All Marketing Is Brand Building

Posted on August 3rd, 2010 at 2:38 pm in Blog, Suggested, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas, thought provoking by brody

This quote drives what Blue Ocean Ideas does for clients:

“The art of marketing is largely brand building. If not a brand, it will be viewed as a commodity.” – Philip Kotler, Kellogg Graduate School of Management

We counsel clients to not spend another dollar on advertising or marketing until that money becomes an investment that builds their brand. Everything you do matters when you are building your brand.

Brand development means telling the truth about who you are, faster. It’s about telling your story and making a promise, and then living it out.

Story. How are you saving the world (or your customer’s world, at least)? What do you do better than everyone else?

Promise. What do you deliver on over and over again? What is your customers’ unique experience?

Your brand is communicated in all sorts of ways: logos and identity packages, events, advertising, websites, email, etc. The most significant way your brand is communicated is through the direct interaction between your customer and your staff. Can your staff tell your story?

Do you have a story to tell?

Brody

P.S. The holy grail of advertising is word-of-mouth. When your story is told well, other people will start telling it too.

The principle of “shareableness” is the core of social media marketing. This Friday, we will show you the meaning behind Web 2.0, social media, mobile devices, in-bound marketing. Once you have the vocabulary down, you’ll be able to strategize about how social media is relevant to your brand. Join us for Social Media 101 & 102.

How To Make Great “Amateur” Videos

Posted on August 2nd, 2010 at 9:03 pm in Blog, Suggested, how to, technology by brody

If you have the budget for it, there is no more compelling medium than film. Use it. Pay for it. The combination of carefully crafted messages, with moving images, and enticing music is the most persuasive art form.

But even if you can’t hire a production crew and an editing team, you can still make great videos to communicate your message online. Be sure to read our first article on the role of “amateur” video production. Here’s how to shoot your video and get it online:

Step 1: Buy a great cheap video camera
A Flip video camera or an iPhone 4 is all you need. In each case, you really only need to hit one button for both “record” and “stop.”

Step 2: Plan what you are going to say
But don’t plan too hard. Remember, you’re shooting this, not an expensive film crew. Yes, you want to know where you’re going with it, but you also have the opportunity to screw up over and over. The point of planning things out is that you don’t want to spend much if any time editing your footage. Do it enough until you can get your message across all in one take!

Step 3: Frame you shot
A couple quick tips to make your video look better instantly:

• Don’t put your subject in the middle of the shot. Follow the rule of thirds.
• “Break the plane.” This means, don’t shoot from your eye level. Get your camera’s lens to an angle that might not be common.
• Add “interestingness” to your shots by shooting in a location where the background is more than just a blank wall. If there is a landmark that will be in the shot, don’t have your speaker right beside it. Instead, have the speaker near the camera, with the landmark, sign, or other item several yards behind you. This technique will also a) preserve your audio quality, and b) let you get more of the background item in the frame.

Step 4: Test your audio
If you can’t hear your speaker, your video will be nearly worthless. Shoot a 3-second test video and play it back. Make sure the speaker’s voice is clearly heard above the noise of your surroundings.

Step 5: Shoot it
Don’t move. Don’t zoom. Stand still. Anchor your shoulders to your body or lean against a steady object. Or use a tripod of some sort. If you do have to pan or turn, do so slowly. It should feel like your movements are awkwardly slow.

Step 6: Get the video onto your computer
On a Mac, open a program that is already on your computer called Image Capture. This will be able to take videos off of any device you have plugged into your machine. If you’re using a Flip Camera to shoot, don’t use the built-in Flip video software. Don’t even install it. Use the Image Capture program to download your video to anywhere you want to on your computer. If you have a PC, use a similar process (or just borrow someone’s Mac – it’s a LOT easier).

Step 7: “Trim” your video
Get rid of the awkward silence at the beginning and end of your best take. Use a program like iMovie to do this very simply.

Step 8: Add a title slide to the beginning and/or end of your video
This gives a very professional touch and can communicate essential information like the spellings of names, links of websites, and calls to action.

(Note: steps 7 & 8 are a little more advanced for this particular post. If you need help, most 15 year olds are better at those things than most adults. Ask them.)

Step 9: Upload your video to YouTube
Why YouTube? Because it can play anywhere, it keeps track of your play stats (views counts, where the video is being viewed, and other cool things), and has commenting features. When you upload your video, be sure to title it and tag is very well. Your title should be a clear description of what the video is. Your tags should be the items in your video, including speaker, topics discussed, location, and purpose of the video. Your description should be a summary of the message in the video.

Include all these details so your video can be easily found when someone is searching for it. Also, once your video is embedded on your website, your site’s SEO will improve based on the content in the Title, Tag, and Description fields in your video.

Step 10: Embed your video on your site
YouTube will provide you with the code needed to get the player to show on your site. Simply copy and paste that code to the proper place in your content management system and you’ll be ready to go!

If your website doesn’t have a content management system, or you’re not able to embed YouTube videos on your site, you’ll need to fix this. Contact us and we can help you sort out what that might mean for you and your organization.

Again, this process is NO substitute for real film production. However, if you want to get some video content on your website, this is the cheap and easy way to do it.

Here’s an example:

Our Latest Film Project: Steve Bailey for Baltimore County State’s Attorney

Posted on July 27th, 2010 at 2:48 pm in Blog, Suggested, client work by brody

This film will serve as keystone content for Steve Bailey’s campaign.

After working with Steve on his campaign’s message and delivery strategy, the goals for this film were simple. First, create a script that was both short and meaningful. The message gets to the core of who Steve is, why he is running, and what he will do if elected. Second, and maybe most importantly, create an aesthetic that positions Steve as an average guy who is trustworthy and has the skill set for the job.

Really, we wanted people to watch this video and feel comfortable voting for Steve for whatever position he would be running for.

Now, the fun part is going to be getting as many people to see it as possible.

Weekly Idea: The Strategic Role of Humility

Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 3:13 pm in Blog, Suggested, The Weekly Idea, creativity/imagination, ideas by brody

A few weeks ago we talked about the strategic role of hope. Hope is the foundation of all change; only when we hope for a certain outcome will we attempt to achieve it.

Another undervalued strategic virtue is humility.

Humility is a matter of common sense. There are more things that we don’t know than we do know. There are more things that we can’t do than we can do.

Humility generates ability. The person who knows everything cannot generate new ideas. There can never be something new to the person who knows it all already.

So how is humility strategic? It’s a necessary condition for creativity. The best creators have a foundation of humility.

The act of creating something is an intentional process. When each piece is added to a new creation, you’re always forced to answer the question “Why?”.

Why create this? Why use it? Why put it there? Why do it in that way?

This is true in art, organizations, products, teams, marketing, shuttle launches, film production, education, government, and all other human endeavors.

Humility allows us to ask questions that we wouldn’t otherwise ask. Humility lets us question our assumptions. Humility enables us to be wrong.

When we’re allowed to be wrong we are no longer paralyzed by fear. We can attempt to create.

And when we strike gold, humility will let us share it with the world.

What do you think? You can leave a comment below.

Brody

P.S. We’re working on our first political campaign.