Archive for July, 2009

Engage

28 July 2009

Training Shoes-

It’s no secret that every once in a while there is a buddy that we have to keep hush-hush, but we still want to share a few things about this particular adventure with you. Recently, a buddy came to us with the task of promoting a certain product with hopes to increase traffic at their various release events across California.  The two main outlets our buddy chose to use during this campaign were Twitter and online blogs/forums which significantly limited our outreach tactics, which made us even more intrigued with this project.  So as usual we held a camp pow-wow, gave a round of high-fives and then broke into teams to get it done.


With a two-week timeline we were able to execute from start to finish a Twitter and blog/forum campaign that received numerous amounts of publicity among our target audiences.  Our “buddy” mentality really took full effect in this project since we shaped the tone of our campaign as friendly resource passing the word to our other friends about a great product being release along with a few awesome freebies — Who doesn’t love to get free stuff?


Our “little birdie” said the events opening weekend had an incredible turn out. They were completely “unprepared for the amount of traffic they received and felt this was a great situation to have!” The following weekend had another significant amount of traffic providing a great end to the campaign. So this story goes to show it isn’t the tools you are given but how you use them that will create success.

Every now and then, The Buddy Group embarks on a journey pushing the walls of technology, digital video and consumer interactivity. While we can’t talk about the specifics of this new adventure (yet), I would like to share what got us in the conversation in the first place.

Since our inception we have been pioneering what interactive video can do today and what it should be doing for storytelling in the future. Over 5 years ago we developed “Pause to Play” and “Zoom and Learn” interactive video tools. Those tools evolved into more than just a cool application, they evolved into the core of several online ad campaigns; virtual tours and ultimately the genesis for one of our most widely recognized interactive video applications- our Interactive Seat Buddy. We also produced a rich media campaign at the end of 2008 which is still talked about in online advertising and widget circles for its ingenuity and creativity.



The progression of those technologies (and knowing the right people) led us to the new opportunity I alluded to above. Our Chief Creative Officer, Bryan Boettger said it best when he said “Our ability to think beyond what is possible today is only surpassed by our team’s unbelievable ability to understand how consumers want to connect to brands and stories tomorrow.”

Buddy Up!

Our Buddies at 24 Hour Fitness have challenged us once again. No, not to a bench press competition (all though I am pretty sure we would win thanks to P90X), this time to a digital challenge around the launch of their new high-end facilities.

In our latest challenge, we were asked to develop an way for new guests to access services, information and maps of their facilities, ensuring a great first experience.

The Buddy Group developed an interactive touch-screen application which, when deployed, worked with each of the 24 Hour Fitness websites, databases, schedules and ultimately provided exactly the experience they were looking for.

As an added plus, we made some new “Buddies” with our new 24 Hour Fitness employees.

Unless you happen to visit these newly launched facilities, you won’t see the interactive experience.

So, we put a quick video together for you to check out.

This month we celebrated July 1st as Happy DTS 7.1 Day! “Give me 7.1 surround sound or give me complete silence”.

http://www.celebratesevenone.com/

Celebrate 7.1 on 7/1! from DTS Digital Entertainment on Vimeo.

DotLot played the producer role and called on some of our finest crew to shoot this production. We had the chance to work with some amazing talent: Fred Willard, Lou Wagner, Richard Horvitz, Robbie Troy, John Pollow along with some talented DTS buddies. This was a quick one day shoot which took plenty of preparation. We all had a great time on-set and off-set!

Even the Agoura Hills Mayor Denis Weber got into the act by proclaiming July 1st to be “DTS 7.1 Day” in honor of their cutting edge 7.1 surround sound audio technology.

Also … signup and be a part of this celebration as DTS is given away Blu-Ray Discs, Playstation 3 and a 7.1 audio system! Go on and have some entertainment!

The Buddy Group is proud to announce another “Buddy” to the family, James Hardie.

James Hardie – America’s #1 Brand of Siding is known for innovative siding products that increase the beauty, value, safety and durability of your home.

In colaboration with our partner, Vertical Marketing Network, The Buddy Group’s Creative and Audience Engagement team are developing plans to take the social and digital landscape by storm with unique promotions, videos and programs geared toward customers, channel partners and the building supply industry at large. Check back form more updates or better yet…follow them

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Buddy The Buddy Group © 2009