Bringing home some hardware

Allow me to heap a helping of humblebrag onto your plate. I've been really fortunate to work in an environment where creativity juices flow like craft beer into a hipster's stein. When that's the case, you are able to do some really great work. And when you do great work, your peers take notice.

The 35th Annual Telly Awards honors the finest film and video productions, web commercials, videos and films, and outstanding cable programming. I've been credited with two Silver Tellys (the highest honor) and two bronzes over the past two years. Well now I can add a few more to that list. 

The Head and the Heart received a 2014 Silver Telly Award for capturing the beauty of balance in marketing communications. Our two lead organs, a stuffed heart and a bespectacled brain, help tell the story of how analytical minds and passionate elements come together. 

The Gift Exchange took home a Bronze Telly in the animation category. In an earlier post, I described the rigors of performing stop-motion on the ground, shot from above. It was nice to see judges recognize the beauty and hard work that goes into this special art form.

Award season isn't over yet, so these might catch the eye of a few more judges. Until then, I'll just be sitting here, sipping some beer and cleaning my non-prescription lenses. 

A recent April Fools note for brands

One of my video musings from the M/C/C blog celebrating the beauty of April Fools' Day. Enjoy!

"Loosen that necktie, Mr. CEO. Let your hair down, chief marketing officer. April Fools’ Day is upon us, and your target audience just got extra casual. How casual? Mentally, they’re flip-flopped on a Mexican beach while James William Buffett serenades them about frozen beverages. Consumers have trained their minds not to believe anything you say this day. Does that mean you should go all scorched earth on your industry peers? Not quite, but you can have a little bit of fun.

April 1 is the day you can do something different. [Unless you’re Geico, then it’s just another day.] Over those 24 hours, feel free to cut the brand that binds and surprise your audience with something refreshing. Something amusing. Something foolish. Something…well, surprise me."

Everything I know about B2B...

...I wrote here at Business2Community.com. All right, that's not all I know, but it's a nice window into my B2B thought process.

"B2B video doesn’t have to be so stale. There’s a nice comfort zone between informing and entertaining where B2B videos should live. That’s where your next video project should land: informative and engaging."

One of my favorite B2B projects might be this one for Trilogy Circuits:

Trilogy was a PCB manufacturing company with a story to tell. It could manufacture circuit boards for any electronic on the planet. The video helped sell that notion, and it became a featured part of their new website redesign. Pretty cool stuff from a client in a traditionally conservative market.