Marketing « IN[FOCUS]

01.07.10

An Easy, Customized Viewing Tray For Your Bride & Groom

Greetings IN[FOCUS] readers!

This is Corbin with Soulbox Productions and I’d like to share an idea for presenting your final product to your clients – Viewing Trays!

We came up with the idea when we had a client coming over to pick up their DVDs. And instead of just handing them over in a bag, we thought it would be fun to create a viewing tray with goodies for them to have while watching their wedding film.

First off, I like to start with a serving tray or basket and fill it with raffia or crinkle shred. You can go as far as incorporating the bride and grooms’ colors from their wedding when selecting a tray/raffia or you can just play it safe and stick with neutral colors.

Next, I like to add a libation: a bottle of wine or champagne or if they’re beer drinkers, a bottle of Chimay would be perfect.

Now for the snacks! For the ladies, a little something sweet: I like to include a decadent chocolate bar, a box of truffles or some fun retro candy. And for the guys, a little something savory: I like to add nuts, crackers or popcorn. When choosing the snacks, I like to try and tailor them to each bride and groom. For example, Ashley and Matt (their tray is pictured above) both graduated from UT at Austin and I thought it would be cute to include some Austinuts to tie into their alma mater. Another example, we had a bride and groom that gave cookies from a local bakery as favors to their guests. So when we were putting their tray together, we stopped by the same bakery and picked up some cookies to add to the mix. The whole idea of this is just to make it fun and personal for your brides and grooms.

Since it would be difficult and expensive to ship the trays once they’re put together, it’s best to present them in person to your couples. Plus, you get to see them again, catch up and give them an extra surprise with their DVDs that they weren’t expecting. But of course, not all of our clients live within a 30-mile radius, so we only do about 7-8 trays a year. On average, our viewing trays cost $40-$50 and typically everything for the trays can be purchased at Target and/or your local grocery store.

We hope you all give this a try and please let us know if you have questions or need any help!

Corb

Posted in Blog, Branding/Packaging, Marketing

(1)

Kristen Turick says:

01/10/2010 at 8:03 am

Awesome post Corbin! I love it!

01.05.10

Wedding Day Mistakes to Avoid

Mistakes to Avoid to Succeed in Wedding Video

Matt Davis with you. As “The Head Coach of Wedding Videography,” I was privileged last month to be joined with Chris Jones of Mason Jar Films, and co-founder of IN[FOCUS] on a conference call with almost 500 videographers providing them free information on some trade secrets and lessons that we have learned over the years. We had such a great response from that.

With the new year approaching, some of us need to ask our selves if what we are doing isn’t working. Some of us need to write down the things that did work for us in 2009 so that we can emulate that success in the coming years. But regardless of whether you are a seasoned veteran or just starting out, I believe we can all appreciate some tips that make such a hectic situation as a wedding day that much easier. Above you’ll find a segment from our webinar “Mistakes to Avoid in Order to Succeed in Wedding Video”. This 10 minute audio clip covers some tips and techniques that you can begin using on your next wedding that will not only make you more profitable, but will save your sanity. Here are some things you’ll learn in the audio.

How To Create Immediate Synergy with a Photographer
Getting the best audio from a wedding (non hardware specific)
Multiple Shooter Communication
Making the edit more simplified and profitable by doing things on the wedding day
A very necessary tip to help you with your post production ideas

Enjoy! Also, for those interested in further help, more details and strategies on how to grow your business, we are now enrolling for a very unique opportunity for event videographers. You can sign up for our 2010 coaching online webinar entitled “Sales & Marketing 101: What Most Videographers Don’t Know About Making Money”. Check it out. First session starts January 27th,2010.

See you in Austin!
Matt Davis, Lifestage

Posted in Blog, Business Planning, Hardware, Marketing, Shooting

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12.17.09

The Pre-Shoot – Make $ During the Week

Thanks to Sonicfire Pro for the background music for the presentation (above).

To reiterate, even though these kids are in the wedding day attire, these pre-shoots are done days, and sometimes weeks before the wedding. It’s not uncommon for LDS (Mormon) couples to see another in dress and tux well before the date .

But for your couples, it may be more likely that you can build a relationship with them using a different kind of pre-shoot, and(e)ngagment shoot or a save the date video.

Regardless, the advantages of (1) choosing the time of day to shoot, (2) shooting during the week, and (3) entering the wedding day with a deeper connection to the couple apply.

Here is the final product from one of the pre-shoots featured in the b-roll above:

Beau + Sarah Preshoot from David Perry on Vimeo.

Posted in Blog, Marketing, Shooting

(2)

David Perry says:

12/17/2009 at 1:42 pm

Special thanks to Chris P. Jones for hanging with the Utah Boyz, sharing a very insightful and practical presentation on editing at our local PVA and putting together the video on Pre-Shoots!
Russ Broadhead says:

12/21/2009 at 6:32 pm

David,

I agree, I love doing pre-shoots! The couple is so much more relaxed on the wedding day and are already warmed up to the camera and the process.

Great job!

Russ

12.01.09

Dinner With Industry Friends – A Fun, Inexpensive Networking Tool

Posted in Blog, Business Planning, Marketing

(1)

Meg Simone says:

01/04/2010 at 10:59 pm

Right on! great reminder of what’s important. Super candid and fun. Thanks for the inspiration to organize one :) Meg

11.27.09

Good Karma, part II: Serving while Setting Boundaries

Promo video for World Hunger Relief.

Shot on Canon 7D, 2 hours of production, 6 hours of post-production.

So we’re talked about how using your video skills to give back is rewarding in and of itself. But like editing weddings, if one gets caught up in a backlog of favors, what could’ve once experienced as a blessing now becomes a nightmare.

So whenever doing something for free, it’s important to clearly communicate what you will provide, what the client must provide, when they can expect the project to be finished, etc. In short, it is still very similar to a business transaction.

When you decide to take on a non-profit (to you) project, be proactive and support a cause or organization whose mission you support. As you grow your business, you will be approached by no shortage of organizations wanting you to do pro-bono work, so it’s helpful to be able to say, “as much as I would love to help you out, my business is already supporting The Human Fund with our services.”

As you begin a service project, communicate the following:

how much time you can give to a project, and how much time you would expect their requests to take. They must know that meeting with them to understand their mission better counts as the time you are giving to the project.
what they need to provide you with before production begins.
how many copies they will get, and where can they go to make copies themselves, or how much additional copies will cost. If you allow them to expect unlimited copies, or getting copies from you exclusively, then they will surely take you up on it, and at the worst possible time!
if you will be providing a web-ready version, communicate that you are not a webmaster and that it will be up to them to insert the video online. Even if you offer to help them insert code into their blog, then chances are they won’t see the difference between that and you being able to program changes into their html. Expect the project to snowball.

One thing for sure – if you wait until you have time to do a service project, it will never occur – it is something for which you must make time – and as long as you stay on top of the project rather and communicate clearly versus taking an “it’s free, so I’ll just work on it in my spare time” attitude, your service project should be successful and rewarding.

I’m interested in your comments about your service projects and how you’ve kept something that’s “free” from taking over your life.

Happy serving!
jones

Posted in Blog, Marketing

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Brian Nix says:

12/09/2009 at 2:14 pm

I shoot the testimonies of children in a new believers “First Step” class. This is a class is the “First Step” toward living their lives as christians and understanding their decision. About once every other month there is a new class, so I have built a template with the graphics and same basic audio in my FCP projects folder and I also have a DVDSP template for the menu and build of the DVD itself. This makes the edit and output very convenient without taking up a ton of time away from revenue generating activities.

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