Today, the number of iPad apps in Apple’s iStore is nearing 100,000 unique offerings. As a result of this growing industry, more and more of our clients want to show off their mobile chops—to illustrate their new app, to give tutorials on software use on the go, or to display their work on mobile devices. In fact, one of our clients recently tasked us with recording a demo of one of their app solutions for iPad.

Shooting an iPad presents a number of issues, including harsh shadows, rough resolution and annoying flickers on the screen. Our in-house production team developed a series of techniques to address these challenges and create a crisp, clean image for the client’s video.

As more and more businesses move their platforms to mobile devices, creating videos to illustrate mobile capabilities will certainly become more prevalent, and mixing the two media will continue to change the way we produce digital marketing material.



VP of Content Production Tom Jagger and Producer William Wroblewski working with our client on set.

Sometimes our work gives us an opportunity to showcase the creativity of others. This project is an example of that.

We recently produced an event video for Autodesk highlighting more than eighty artists from around the world who have created beautiful pieces of art using Autodesk SketchBook Pro software. The event, held at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco, brought together professional and hobby artists who are driving their creative work using this digital paint and drawing software. In conversations with a variety of people, from Jay Schuster, art director at Pixar Studios to Goro Fujita, visual development artist at  PDI/Dreamworks, we told the story of how SketchBook Pro allows users at all levels to dig into its digital artistic toolbox to create some stunning fine art.

While we work every day to provide the most creative and captivating digital media for our clients, we certainly appreciate the opportunity to shine some light on other artists doing amazing work themselves.

We are pleased to announce that we have just received the Award of Excellence in the Web Video category of the 2011 Videographer Awards.  The award is given to agencies for projects that are deemed written, produced, shot and edited in an exceptional manner. Our submission was a Customer Evidence video for Microsoft and NVIDIA that profiled Hanweck Associates, LLC, a Wall Street firm that leverages HPC and GPGPU computing for risk management in the financial industry.

See our complete list of awards here.

To learn more about the project, read the case study (.pdf).

You can also watch the final video here:

Click to watch the video.

Viewstream Does 3D

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As 3D enjoys a popular resurgence in the entertainment world, we see an opportunity to do some innovative, creative marketing that pops out! Viewstream just wrapped on a stereoscopic video shoot at a studio here in San Francisco. The final video will be one part of an integrated campaign for a $10B software company.

You can find more photos from the shoot here.

(Photo Credit: D. Alan Brown Photography)

Customer Evidence is one of the most powerful and flexible tools in your sales and marketing toolbelt. It can do more than tell and implementation story; it can outline forces behind new product innovations, show prospects a world where their problems are solved, and reinforce peer opinion. With this kind of adaptability, customer evidence can be effective at every stage in the sales cycle.

Viewstream CEO John Assalian recently published an article in Corp! Magazine outlining how Customer Evidence can move prospects down your sales funnel with impressive ROI. In the article, he also provides tips and tricks to help marketers plan and execute Customer Evidence that works.

Read Customer Evidence: Telling Your Customers’ Stories So They Can Tell Yours

Learn more about Viewstream’s Customer Evidence work

Mobile Content

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With the increased popularity of smartphones and tablets, technology marketers need to deliver their content beyond the web and onto mobile platforms. Market shares of users on mobile devices vary widely among market segment, so it is important to avoid developing for mobile for mobile’s sake. As a marketer, focus on developing mobile content for audience segments that align to your products and services. And don’t forget to leverage your current offerings and content appropriate for mobile platforms.

Viewstream’s mobile services leverages digital marketing content across mobile platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Droid, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and more. Leveraging our expertise in creating content and bringing it together with our strong development capabilities enables us to continue our tradition of expert professional services for technology marketing. Mobile will continue to grow, and Viewstream is building the next generation apps and content as we move forward through another amazing stage of computing.

One recent example of our work was an Autodesk screencast, “Autodesk Design Suite Premium” developed for the Apple iPad device. If you have an iPad, click here and load the iPad version to see how well these assets deliver using mobile technology. Or, if you are on a desktop, click here to see the desktop PC version.

If you are interested in formatting interactive and rich media assets for mobile, or have an idea for an app you would like to have developed, give us a call. We’d be happy to help!

Businesses today struggle with how to deliver marketing that gets results in a changing market landscape. To begin to solve this challenge, we must ask, “How is the customer landscape changing?” The most evident answer is found within the vast proliferation of channels available to marketers.

In the last ten years, different kinds of marketing channels have waxed and waned in effectiveness and prominence—from search, to social, to mobile marketing. New conversations and opportunities connected to these channels are continuously developing, adding to an already large base. With this immense expansion, precise targeting of niche market segments, more than ever, is now possible.

Demand generation, content development, direct-mail management, CRM, marketing automation, and tracking and analytics can all be crucial components of a well-targeted marketing campaign. These are all unique and valuable channels that can generate results—but being successful is not about just knowing the channels, it is about knowing your customer. The crucial need to know your customer is a key attribute that many marketing agencies cannot deliver. The media may change, but the expertise and market knowledge required to reach your customer remains.

Does your agency have the necessary experience and expertise to know your customers? Many agencies can do creative and production (though not every), but only a few can really connect with and understand your business and your customer.

Viewstream is the leading national marketing agency focused exclusively on serving technology companies that deliver complex solutions for technical computing, life sciences and design engineering. We are experts in translating complex computer industry products and developing positioning and messaging into digestible marketing content with effective education and calls-to-action.

Viewstream’s domain expertise in technology market segments help your organization fill any gaps in skill, while keeping overhead costs low, to produce content that is pinpointed to the buyers and users of your product offering.

To aid your understanding of the proliferation of marketing channels and how it has changed B2B marketing, Viewstream has created, “Viewstream Viewpoints,” an on-going series of free, consultative papers designed to address issues in technology marketing from the perspective of a technology-focused digital marketing agency. Inside these free guides you’ll find strategic advice, market research, best practices, and real-world examples of marketing that can address your challenges.

Check out the Viewstream Viewpoints here:

Understanding The Cloud On The Horizon
Over the past few years, Cloud Computing has evolved into a major game changer in IT. Its power to offload hardware, software, and system management needs has forced a revision of the enterprise, as new business and work models are constructed to best take advantage of new technologies. In this Viewpoint, learn how Cloud Computing is changing the IT and business landscapes, and what that means for those marketing its offerings.

Content Mapping Framework
Content is a critical component to any marketing strategy. But bad or misdirected content can quickly derail prospects as they move through the sales cycle. The Viewstream Content Mapping Framework (CMF) shows you how to provide good, appropriately targeted content that gets results. With in-depth information on how CMF works, this Viewpoint will help you make sure your content is king!

Customer Evidence Rules
Prospects at every stage of the sales cycle are looking for tangible examples of your solution in action, and peer validation of its effectiveness. That is why Customer Evidence is such a dynamic, powerful tool for marketers looking to raise awareness, retain prospects, and shorten time to sale. In this Viewpoint, you will learn the ins and outs of making Customer Evidence a key component to your content marketing strategy.

The Beauty Of Customer Evidence

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Customer Evidence is any marketing or communication asset that uses a customer story as evidence of your product’s value in the marketplace. By having the customer themselves testify to the value of your product, you are creating a persuasive form of marketing content that far trumps anything your company can possibly claim about yourself. Let’s face it: claims we make about our own company are trusted less, especially in B2B marketing, compared to what someone else says about your product. By having your customer tell your story, you are demonstrating value & credibility, and delivering a consultative story that documents how a customer was able to solve a problem with your product.

The best customer evidence assets tell an interesting story about the customer. Viewstream’s story-based approach starts with the customer. We look at who the customer is, what motivates them, why they get up in the morning to do what they do. In doing their work, they are faced with a variety of challenges in their business. We uncover the reasons why the customer reached out to your solution. We then tell the customer’s story in a way that illustrates how your product or solution has been the best way for them to reach their goals.

In terms of content mapping, customer evidence can be used at any stage of the sales cycle. In early stages, customer evidence can help prospects imagine a world where there problems are solved, and how a new solution has benefited them. At the mid to later stages of the sales cycle, where comparative content is critical, customer evidence serves to reinforce peer opinion, as well as provide answers to implementation concerns.

Typically, customer evidence takes the form of a case study, video testimonial or micro-documentary. Reach out to us if you are interested in finding out more about using Customer Evidence for your marketing programs.

Here are a few recent Customer Evidence projects that Viewstream created:

Intel
Blackboard
Autodesk