Archimedia Studios

Our Top 2011 Pick – Worst Marketing Blunder

Booty-Shaping Shoes …Really Now???
You can firm up your butt just by strapping on a pair of shoes and walking around? No sweating? No grunting? No exertion? Sound too good to be true? According to the FTC, it is. The agency announced in September that Reebok had agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve charges that it deceptively advertised toning shoes and apparel. In a statement, Reebok said it was standing behind its shoes and agreed to the settlement only to avoid a protracted legal battle. While Skechers, another big “toning” shoe marketer, escaped that round, SEC filings indicate that it’s bracing for its own multimillion-dollar settlement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecj7m_KFo_A

Our 2011 Top Picks – Video Advertising Campaigns

This creative campaign surely will be topping many “top” lists. With over 62 million views, who could forget Little Darth, the endearing kid in the Vader mask attempting to use The Force on his dog, a peanut-butter sandwich and, more successfully, a Passat. Volkswagen gave this the ultimate paid placement in the Super Bowl but launched it the previous week on the web, where it garnered 14 million views before the game. With 600 placements, the video is on pace to become one of the most-watched viral ads of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

Was it Photoshopped? We may know soon.

Can you enhance my look just a tiny bit? Can you shed off my love handles, make my thighs look leaner, make my eyes pop, clear all those wrinkles, and perk up my boobs. These are the most common requests when we do a  celebrity or model photo-shoot.

The photographs of celebrities and models in fashion advertisements and magazines are routinely buffed with a helping of digital polish. The retouching can be slight — colors brightened, a stray hair put in place, a pimple healed. Or it can be drastic — shedding 10 or 20 pounds, adding a few inches in height and erasing all wrinkles and blemishes, done using Adobe’s Photoshop software, the photo retoucher’s magic wand.

Well, soon you may be able to tell what was altered on these photographs, thanks to Hany Farid, a professor of computer science and a digital forensics expert at Dartmouth. Dr. Farid and Eric Kee, a Ph.D. student in computer science at Dartmouth, are proposing a software tool for measuring how much fashion and beauty photos have been altered, a 1-to-5 scale that distinguishes the infinitesimal from the fantastic. Sort of like Photoshop CSI.

Their work is intended as a technological step to address concerns about the prevalence of highly idealized and digitally edited images in advertising and fashion magazines. Such images, research suggests, contribute to eating disorders and anxiety about body types, especially among young women.

The Dartmouth research could be “hugely important” as a tool for objectively measuring the degree to which photos have been altered.

The tool isn’t trying to demonize Photoshop or prevent creative people from using it. But if a person’s image is drastically altered, there should be a reminder that what you’re seeing is about as true as what you saw in ‘Avatar,’ the science-fiction movie with computer-generated actors and visual effects.

If/when this software tool materializes, the following may be 5 great uses for the new Photoshop detection tool.
1. Online dating sites. The guy looks way too hot. Let’s see if he’s had a little help with the airbrushing wand.
2. Beauty ads. How well does that mascara or cellulite cream really work, and how much of it is retouched? Now we’ll know if the desired effect is unattainable. (On the other hand, the jig is up if you’ve gotten rid of red eye. And red pimple. And crows feet. And muffin top.)
3. Retail websites. Do those jeans make that model’s butt look great, or was that the job of a crafty photo editor?
4. Celebrity photos. We may never know which stars have had plastic surgery, but if we know how much their cover photos were airbrushed that’s a start. And then we can stop comparing ourselves to unrealistic images.
5. Facebook. You just KNEW that one girl you went to high school with had been enhancing her album full of glamour shots. Now you finally have proof.

Source: New Yoirk Times.

The beauty of Christmas Candle photography!

With only a few weeks left till Christmas, many decorate their homes with LED Lights and candles. Grab your camera and seize these wonderful photo opportunities!  Candle photography makes for some of the most beautiful, romantic, and isomorphic  compositions!

Here a some of our examples!

Will 20 Billion Video views convince you?

Not convinced about the importance of video marketing yet? Anyone who works with us knows the value we place on the use of video in the marketing and branding of signed and unsigned artists and bands. While it’s a given, the importance of the social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter in an artists overall marketing plan, it is our  conviction, proven with metrics,  that video is one of the  strongest marketing channels for an artist to;

  • Promote an upcoming tour, album or single release
  • Develop more personal and interactive relationships with your fan-base that goes far beyond 140 characters or the 10% of the time Facebook may be showing your newsfeed to a fan.
  • Broaden an artists / band demographic especially for  artists who may not be able to tour cross country or for that matter out of state.
  • Increase music and merchandize sales revenue. (Ultimate Objective)

Still need more convincing?  Check out these statistics from October, 2011

Youtube –  20 Billion Video views with 424 minutes per viewer average. Source comScore

I think it would be very safe to say that we humans are very visual beings, so doesn’t it make sense to play into that strength?  To be successful at video marketing involves careful strategy and tactics that extend beyond getting your friend to hold a video camera and doing some iMovie editing.

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