fishbat Urges Brand Consistency Across All Social Media Platforms

Following an article posted on Business 2 Community, fishbat, an award winning online marketing company, discusses four tips to keep your business’ brand image consistent across all social media platforms.

fishbat, an award-winning online marketing company, discusses four tips to keep help keep a business’ brand image consistent across all social media platforms.

Following a March 24th article posted on Business 2 Community titled “7 Tips For Brand Consistency Across Social Channels,” while different strategies need to be implemented for each social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.), consistency in brand image must remain the same.

Justin Maas, vice president of client relations at fishbat, an award winning online marketing company agrees. “What works for Facebook may not work for Twitter. However, there must to be some sort of brand consistency. Brand consistency is one of the most important aspects of marketing. The brand’s message must be unified and easily identifiable on each platform.”

Maas discusses some tips on how to keep brand image consistent:

1. Get an understanding of the brand’s fans. “Different demographics use different social media platforms,” he explains. “They may also use these networks differently. It’s important to research your target market, and decide on a strategy accordingly.”

2. Decide on the brand’s voice. “A great way to differentiate a brand from others is an original ‘voice.’ For instance, if your brand was a person, how would he or she talk? Add humor into brand language or keep it formal. It all depends on what the brand represents and what its target market is. Keep in mind that the voice will also dictate who will be attracted to the brand, so keeping the target market in mind at this stage is a must,” Maas explains.

3. Update regularly. “One huge mistake brands make is not updating regularly. For example, I have seen brands post every day one week, and then only once the next. That is not a good way to attract a following,” he says.

4. From offline to online. “If a brand is already successful offline, there is no need to change everything. In fact, that can be detrimental as the goal is to keep a consistent brand image. Use the same logos, color scheme, and voice in online marketing that is already being used offline,” Mass concludes.

fishbat is a full-service digital marketing firm and social media agency dedicated to connecting all types of businesses with their target audiences in the most effective and efficient way. Through innovative strategies in social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), branding, web design, reputation management and public relations, fishbat promotes a consistent and professional online voice for all of its clients.

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Posted On: Bohemia, NY March 27, 2014

fishbat Urges Brand Consistency Across All Social Media Platforms

How to Prevent Auto Theft in Car

Did you know that the comprehensive portion of your auto insurance policy covers the theft of your car? Remember though – what the big print giveth, the fine print taketh away. This usually means escape clauses written into a policy that don’t require the company to pay if the auto theft can be blamed, even in part, on the vehicle owner’s negligence.

Assuming that you have spent the few extra dollars to include comprehensive protection and read the policy thoroughly, we will look at other means to stop auto theft.

It may be a few years old, the paint could use a rubbing out and the chrome isn’t all that bright, but it is your car and you don’t want anyone messing with it; let alone stealing it! There are a variety of tools used, to frustrate a thief’s attempts at auto theft, but thieves can be quite inventive and persistent. There are gadgets and measures of a more basic type, from the “Club” to wheel boots.

An automobile is in fact very easy to protect from auto theft, if you know anything about them. A car’s engine needs several things, in order to run: primarily air, fuel, ignition spark and compression. If the engine will not run, it is unlikely that the thief will call a tow truck. He will just move on to easier pickings.

Cutting off the air to an engine is impractical and tough to cover up. There is nothing you can do to affect the compression which is created by internal engine parts. That does leave ignition spark and the fuel. These two are quite enough to stop auto theft, whether you use both or even just one of them.

Whatever method you choose, it must be easily done and not easily observable. Your efforts to protect your car will come to nothing if the thief just undoes it after you leave your car.

Let us first explore the fuel delivery system.

In most vehicles gasoline is moved from the fuel tank (usually in the rear of a car) to the engine, by way of a steel fuel line, that runs the length of the car. A simple valve can be plumbed into this fuel line at any point along its length. If the handle of such a valve were on the inside of the car; let’s say in the driver’s area, hidden by the carpet; the fuel could easily be turned off without anyone noticing.

In a modern fuel-injected automobile, interrupting the flow of gasoline will allow the engine to turn over, but not start; not even a “pop”. Under the carpet is just one location, for a cutoff valve, which can effectively stop auto theft, from inside the trunk or under the hood.

The next method involves cutting off electrical power to the car’s starting or ignition system. A simple, single pole, toggle switch, wired into the low voltage side of the starting or ignition system can prevent auto theft by either not allowing the engine to turn over or if it turns over, not permitting the ignition to be activated. A switch of this type is easily hidden within the driver’s reach, inside of the car’s passenger compartment.

Lastly a quick disconnect can be placed in the engine compartment that isolates the battery from the rest of the system and the engine won’t even turn over. If no other deterrent is put in place and the car must be disabled simply swap the coil to distributor cap lead (mostly on older cars) with any other ignition wire, just the cap ends of both. This will look like normal ignition wiring but your car will not start until the wires are put back in their correct places.

Over 3,000 cars are stolen every day; let’s hope that one or several of these little tricks, used together, every time you leave your car, will keep you from being the victim of auto theft.

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How to Prevent Auto Theft in Car

The Famous Group Uses Super Bowl XLVIII To Showcase VIXI Fan Social Entertainment Platform

Company brings new social content sharing platform to giant HD LED in-stadium video boards and displays along outer-stadium walkways.

Integrated production and software development company The Famous Group used the world’s biggest sports spectacle — Super Bowl XLVIII — as a showcase for its new VIXI social entertainment and engagement platform, enabling 83,000 fans in attendance and millions worldwide to share their game day photos and tweets on giant video boards inside and outside the venue before and during the championship contest.

VIXI allowed fans at the game and elsewhere to take photos and send tweets using the #SB48 hashtag and, after a moderation step, have the content displayed on the four 18‘ x 130‘ HD LED video boards inside MetLife Stadium and on pylon boards along outside walkways.

A look at VIXI in action is available at here.

(For a complete overview of work done by The Famous Group at Super Bowl XLVIII, please visit our Super Bowl XLVIII project page or watch a behind-the-scenes video featuring all of the firm’s work.)

The VIXI platform provided the primary content on the boards from the time gates opened at 2:00 pm until kickoff, with curated fan and league-generated photos and tweets displayed on all stadium boards for the entire four-hour pre-game content block. VIXI received plenty of airtime on Fox during the network’s pre-game broadcast and was displayed in-stadium at various points during the game.

This year marked the first time fans at the Super Bowl were woven into the presentation from a social media standpoint and became part of the fabric of the event, having their own images and tweets displayed on the stadium’s huge video boards. Over 41,000 fan-generated photos and tweets were sent to the platform on game day, with another 9,000 received on Media Day earlier in the week.

The Famous Group debuted VIXI last year with installations for a range of pro teams including the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Colorado Avalanche, Indiana Pacers and Toronto Blue Jays. VIXI was also featured in the recent Winter X Games, during concerts by Pink and Selena Gomez at Kansas City’s Sprint Center, and will be part of this year’s NCAA Basketball Final Four in April.

About VIXI

VIXI is a social entertainment platform, currently gaining popularity in sports venues but applicable to any type of social gathering, including concerts, conventions, retail and branded events. It’s a unique blend of design and technology, melding high-style graphics, animations and social engagement to help brands entertain fans in new ways and drive ROI by tapping into new sponsorship integration opportunities.    

After years of providing sports teams with in-venue entertainment and graphics, and an equal amount of time working with brands and ad agencies on social media and digital executions, The Famous Group noticed a need for social media initiatives during game day presentations. Social media was new terrain for teams, who struggled to find the best ways to involve fans and sponsors.

“We used our team of in-house technologists to bridge this gap and bring together our strengths in creating polished, high-energy graphics with our experience in software development to engage and entertain audiences with VIXI,” said Andrew Isaacson, Executive Producer, who heads up the sports and entertainment division for The Famous Group. “Since sports teams have huge in-venue HD boards in their venues and a desire to engage and excite fans, they were the logical first choice for the platform.”

Isaacson said VIXI also builds brands by enabling them to insert themselves in the game day social conversation in a manner that doesn’t turn off fans, providing a great platform for sponsorship integration. Data also plays an important role with VIXI, as information captured through the platform allows teams and sponsors to better communicate with fans throughout the season.

VIXI taps into many social APIs including Twitter and Instagram to pull in hashtagged social content, and can be connected to any form of display, from an in-stadium Jumbotron to a portable mall kiosk. Fan-generated photos and tweets are moderated in real time using the platform’s robust content management system. Once approved, the content is pushed live to the display boards.

VIXI is infinitely customizable on the display side, offering content that can be visualized in many interesting ways beyond the grid, and is optimized to work on-the-fly on any size or type of screen.

The platform offers a suite of software applications. VIXI Live was used at Super Bowl XLVIII to display social content on video boards. Also available are VIXI Web, which enables social content to live on after a game or event on social properties such as Facebook (as a tab app on the web or a canvas app for mobile) or a team website, and VIXI Active, which hooks a display wall to a gesture motion device such as Microsoft Kinect and lets users interact with the wall through the motion of their hands and arms.

The Famous Group is uniquely positioned to offer the new platform. The company is well-versed in using digital technology and social media to engage audiences, and has produced numerous award-winning broadcast ads and integrated web projects for ad agencies and brands. The Famous Group is built around a premium model, providing clients with top-tier design, technology and service.

“VIXI was designed to be a premium, dynamic platform that’s fun and engaging for fans,” explained Greg Harvey, Executive Creative Director and Founder, The Famous Group. “But it also serves as a platform for additional revenue for our clients. Teams have interest in new technologies but won’t typically invest unless ROI is built in, including advertising, sponsorships and promotions. VIXI was developed with that in mind.”

For years, the company has created successful digital work that put consumers at the center of promotions by using social media and produced content to personalize digital experiences. “Now we’re able to make that happen in the real world with the VIXI platform, providing marketing and revenue-generating opportunities for brands and real value for the fans,” said Harvey.

VIXI was just one element of The Famous Group’s work at Super Bowl XLVIII. They also created the game brand guide, including speed elements dictating the premium, high-gloss design style used in all official signage. The firm provided all in-stadium graphics including player head shots and prompts, developed a series of :30 “Together We Make Super Bowl” NFL content films produced in real time and displayed on stadium video boards during the game, and used its Stats-In-A-Box statistics system, providing fans with real-time fantasy football stats displayed on MetLife Stadium boards during the game.

The firm was also active on the floor of Media Day earlier in the week, getting viral press coverage for it’s customized Novo 2K POV mini-cam used by players and media on hand.

More than a decade of strong sports experience

In addition handling in-stadium content for the last eight Super Bowls and numerous NHL All-Star Games, The Famous Group has a long track record of creating in-stadium, broadcast and digital work for dozens of NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB teams. Other recent sports work includes Draft Day events with the NFL and Nike, video and in-stadium content for a number of New York area teams (New York Giants, New York Jets, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Brooklyn Nets and New Jersey Devils), pre-game films the Houston Texans, St. Louis Rams and many others.

Credits:

Client: NFL

Campaign: VIXI social entertainment platform at Super Bowl XLVIII

NFL Senior Vice President, Events: Frank Supovitz

NFL Director, Event Presentation: Sammy Choi

Production Company: The Famous Group, Culver City, CA, New York, NY

Executive Creative Director: Greg Harvey

Executive Producer: Andrew Isaacson

Creative Director: Hemu Karadkar

Managing Director: David Kwan

Experiential Producer: Brandon Grabowski

Director of interactive: Michael Marina

Director of Digital Strategy: Sonya Cifuentes-Hiss

Lead Developer: Hayk Berzirganyan

Producers: Sofia Anjum, Annie Chen

Senior Developer: Brandon Fisch

Developers: Anthony Sherritt, Martin Hristoforov

UX Lead: Brittany Faix

UX Designer: Melissa Sweet

Designer: Spencer Dina

The Famous Group is a full-service integrated production and software development company in Culver City, CA and New York, handling all aspects of live action filming and editing, CG/motion graphics, digital development and production for broadcast and the web under one roof. The company provides agencies and brands with experienced in-house resources for discovery (research, analytics, social media monitoring), strategy (planning), execution (live action film and production, information architecture, UX and interface design, technology development, back-end integration and deployment, Facebook and mobile apps, animation, motion graphics, augmented reality, etc.) and performance (content syndication, social media outreach and racking, community development and more) services. It’s software development division is focused on social entertainment platforms for live events and public spaces. The Famous Group was the winner of a 2013 AICP Next Award for their work on AT&T’s “Brackets by Six-Year Olds”, a 2013 NY Emmy in sports graphics for the New York Jets Television Network, a 2012 AICP Award for “Harlem Elvis” on behalf of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, contributed interactive work that won a pair of 2012 OneShow Pencils and a Clio Award for agencies, and won dozens of Addy, Telly, Communicator, ICA, FWA and other awards. For more information, please visit http://www.thefamousgroup.com.

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Posted On: Culver City, CA February 13, 2014

The Famous Group Uses Super Bowl XLVIII To Showcase VIXI Fan Social Entertainment Platform