Archive for Shara

Zlango Wishes You a Merry Text-mas

Zlango holiday packWe recently had the pleasure of working with Zlango, a funky mobile app that turns boring text messages into a whole lotta fun. They have a bunch of different skins and icon sets to choose from…including Walking Dead zombies and urban b-boys.

Well Zlango is getting into the holiday spirit with a new pack full of holly jolly Christmas icons to send to friends and loved ones. Talk about spreading holiday cheer! And whether you’ve been naughty or nice…maybe if you send enough messages, you’ll get a little surprise under the mistletoe this year.

As Zlango put it:

The greetings have traditional, funny and sexy icons for the naughty and the nice, so you don’t have to guess what to text your friends! Or get creative and make your greetings with all the great Xmas icons!

Check out the Christmas pack video we made for them:

Talk about…jingle all the way!

And in case you missed the original video we did for them, you can check it out here:

Ho ho ho! Merry text-mas to you and yours!

Facts About Online Video

Last year, I posted a video about social media that captivated me from the second I pressed “play.” I still really love that video.

Today, I came across a video with similar powerful statistics and figures about online video. While the other video may have blown me away with imagery, this video definitely spoke to me because it’s relevant to what we do here at RapidFire. We believe in the power of online videos. And we’re constantly explaining how incorporating video into a Web site increases the probability of appearing on the first page of Google search results. And this video? Yeah…backs that claim right up by stating:

If optimized correctly, Web sites with video are 53 times more likely to appear on the 1st page of Google search results.

Take a look for yourself. This video basically maps out the stats we’re always quoting to our clients:

Compelling, right?

The stats I was most impressed by?
These:

  • Video is 5.33 times more effective than text at keeping folks on a page and engaged
  • If a picture is worth a thousand words, this video calculates that one minute of video = 1,800,000 words!
  • In 2013, 90% of internet traffic will be online video (Cisco)

I’ll stop there. Check it out for yourself. And thanks to the folks at YouOn for making a video that totally makes the case.

Meet Pete, the Penguin Who Brings Contapps to Life

We really love working with startups that have new and exciting ideas. And so…when the folks over at Contapps approached us about creating a video for them, we jumped at the chance.

In their own words, Contapps:

…are developing applications and widgets designed to enrich and enhance your android contacts experience by boosting the ‘native’ interface with a new and improved platform.

Their free Android app basically pumps up your address book and connects each contact with their own social media feeds and your interactions with them.

Their mascot is…Pete. And the RapidFire video we created is a great introduction to Contapps…to Pete…and to all his friends.

Check out the Contapps video and let us know what you think:

How RapidFire Video Brought the Armadillo to Life

We were recently approached by TypeMock to help bring their beloved Armadillo to life. Armadillo is an adaptive bug prevention system that they describe like this:

Armadillo works by dynamically learning your code and how you check it, creating validation scenarios. These scenarios are continuously verified as you modify your code. If a software bug is detected, Armadillo pinpoints the bug so you can debug and fix it without running the whole application.

Because they already had such an interesting product name and logo, we had the pleasure of adapting them to create the main character, Alex. He eats bugs for breakfast!

Check out the video and let us know what you think…

 

Talking home and garden with Hometalk

We just completed another really great, fully animated, cartoon clip. While we pride ourselves on our signature RapidFire Video style videos with fast-changing images and kinetic text, we do have requests for these cartoon clips. And we LOVE working on them.

Our most recent project was for a new website called Hometalk.com. It’s a social network for people who care about their homes and gardens. Folks can sign up to read what folks in their town or region are saying, browse pictures, and ask or answer questions about home and garden projects. Hometalk is the place to find information about projects ranging from staining a deck to building outdoor mosaics to removing hardwater stains, or redesigning a kitchen and more.

Check out the short video about Charlie and his kitchen…

This one just wouldn’t have been the same using images and kinetic text, eh? We were still able to show how the site looks and tell a great story…we’re happy to have such great options to offer our clients.

If you liked this one, check out the rest of our portfolio too!

Bizzabo marketing video buzz

Someone recently sent me info about a company called Bizzabo. It’s an app for smartphones that helps people attending large industry conferences and events to find actual business opportunities while they’re there. Sounded complicated so I went to check it out.

Click to enlarge.

I was happy to see they had a video displayed prominently on their homepage and was even happier once I clicked. It’s a very cute animated video that describes the actual problem…business folks being overwhelmed with all the paperwork and headaches of attending a conference. And then…in comes Bizzabo to save the day and make networking easier.

A very simple video that clearly states the problem and how they can help. The animations and music don’t distract from the message and…by the end…you just want to know more. It’s totally the kind of video that informs and intrigues without bogging the viewer down with too much jargon.

That’s what a good marketing video should do!

Good job, guys!

Seen a marketing video that you love? Or hate? Send it my way and maybe we’ll review it here!

New CanAnybody video explains how help really is…just around the corner

We love helping others. And we love when other people help each other too. We recently completed a project for a Web site called CanAnybody, where folks can sign up to find or offer different kinds of services.

What we really loved about this one was that it covered so many different kinds of services…from catering to math to painting to music…and everything in between. So our challenge was to creatively illustrate as MUCH as we could in a short period of time…without boring the viewer. You’ll see in the video that we have several different sequences of images depicting services and each sequence is different. There’s the round sequence with the drums and the party platter…the hand sequence with the baby and the turtle…and so on…

Check it out…and let us know what you think!