You know, it always amazes me when I get a call from a perspective client asking me why they should put a Live Web Actor on their site. My response invariably is something like, "well, what made you want to call me?" Their answer? "Well I checked out the samples on your site and they caught my attention." No Kidding!?? I hate to sound preachy, but anything you can do to stand out from the crowd is beneficial, especially when it comes to having a live spokesperson on your site. Look, two people could read the exact same paragraph and walk away with completely different impressions…this is both a boon and a curse to writers everywhere, because readers "hear" the text in their heads differently. Now, bear in mind that I have no scientific evidence to back this up (other than some heated discussions with my wife over something we both just read), but consider what happens when someone speaks to a group or we collectively watch an instructional video…we all HEAR and SEE the same thing. Gee, wouldn’t it be great to have that kind of control over visitors to your website? Live Web Actors can tell your story your way; they can enlighten, entertain and make your visitors do what you want them to do. They can be as funny or serious as you want and it’s a real bargain to get one….which, by the way…you should.

• Tampa, FL, June 19, 2008: Caputo Creative, Inc. (C2) has announced the launch of their new Live Web Actor product. Finally, businesses can have a real spokesperson on their website without a discernable media player. This new technology creates the illusion that the actor is actually standing on the webpage, thanks to the proprietary borderless player Caputo Creative employs. Commonly used for home pages, FAQ’s and lead capture pages, the Live Web Actors allow a company to tell their story, their way with all of the excitement and emphasis that it deserves.

Clients choose their spokesperson directly from Caputo Creative’s website where they can view each actor’s demo. “Given that most people don’t like to read text on websites, having a Live Web Actor allows you to get your message out before you lose a visitor’” said Caputo Creative’s president Lou Caputo. The concept guarantees that every visitor receives the same message and can serve as a powerful call to action, giving the web surfer specific instructions. In effect, the Live Web Actor experience blurs the line between the internet and the familiarity of watching television. Early adopters of this technology have experienced increased visitor retention and conversion since implementing their Live Web Actors with Caputo Creative.

In addition to their Live Web Actor product, Caputo Creative is a full service production company creating videos for broadcast TV, DVD’s and web sites. Experts in direct response marketing, Caputo Creative specializes in infomercials, corporate videos and commercials for any application.

President of Caputo Creative, Lou Caputo is available for interviews to discuss a range of topics related to their current and new specialty services. Interested parties can call Caputo Creative at 727-541-7544 for more information. To see this technology in action, visit www.caputocreative.com for samples and actor’s demos.

by: Kevin Browne

The allure of affordable video email marketing has kept many of us lying awake in our beds just dreaming of what that could do for our profits.

The fact is that PERSONALIZED video emails pull an amazing 800% more click throughs than do plain text emails. That’s an astounding number and one that cannot and should not be overlooked.

Imagine recording yourself in a series of content rich emails, literally describing to your hottest prospects what makes you and your business so much stronger and smarter than any one of your competitors. Think about the psychology of what happens as they hear THEIR NAMES coming from you as you pitch to them and offer them some quality information.

This is powerful human behavioral stuff…and it works.

The goal, however, is NEVER to beat the prospect over the head with a repeated message of “where are you, you haven’t bought yet…” because nothing will harm you worse than that.

On the contrary, you need to PUSH great quality content to them and win them over. You need to add value to their lives with your goods and services and what they will mean to these people.

YOU MUST BECOME A PROBLEM SOLVER.

And you do that by crafting great video emails that are loaded with BENEFITS…not the features of your company.

We all know that at the end of the day people respond to BENEFITS. Not your features…yet so few of us stick to that with everything we use in our marketing toolbox.

The arrival of these great opportunities to harness the power of affordable video email marketing are HERE. And you will be stunned when you discover just what you can do with them

www.caputocreative.com

So your trying to figure out a dynamic way to show your newest product to the world? Well then video is the best and cheapest way to go let me assure you.

Using short pieces of video absent of audio to show your video in action and being used by a consumer. Watch TV at anytime of the day and you can see B Roll being used in the background on TV talk shows, and even TV Retail shows while a host talks over it in the background.

These days the best way to maximize the use of B Roll is to have it shot to be used in several situations:
-Broadcast Television
-Website
-Trade Show booth
-Mobile Devices
The first 3 are givens but the last one is going to be the wave of the future. You can load this video on all your sales teams Blackberry’s or even give it to your customer so they can show it their decision making committee. It will set you apart from the crowd and show how your product works.

Shooting video is pretty straight forward but it is critical to select a company with experience in this process because they have to tell a story with out using words. Some steps to keep in mind include:
-Think it through
-Write it out
-Choose a site that can be shot at different angles but look like different locations
-Shoot it in every reasonable position possible

Also don’t forget that creating B Roll can be used for Public Relations as well since TV stations can run an interview and B Roll in the background. They also appreciate a prepackaged story about your company using a host and some B Roll that they can run when appropriate.

B Roll is a great tool, just keep them up to date and use them whenever possible.

Caputo Creative

by: Marie-Claire Ross

Breaking into the international marketplace can catapult a company into increased profitability and growth more rapidly than when selling to a domestic market.

But how do you market your company successfully to overseas buyers? What can you do to provide the right information to prospective clients that is informative and engaging? How can you stand out from the crowd?

The most common promotional approach is to provide brochures. While brochures do play an important role, they can be uninspiring and ill equipped to convey a real feeling for what an organisation does and how they operate.

Furthermore, when brochures are translated into other languages it is commonly agreed that even the best translations are cumbersome and not reflective of how that particular language is used. This often means that international prospects feel less inclined to read brochures in depth.

So how do you show prospective clients how your product is made? What can you do to highlight your product range and its associated benefits?

A proven promotional method is corporate video production. The combination of moving vision with sound, allows complex messages to be communicated in a far superior way to that of any written information.

Research has found that video can be up to four times more effective than a printed brochure. Given that 80% of the information we recall is visual, it is understandable why audiovisual materials are so successful in getting messages across to viewers.

The best investment companies can make is by providing prospective clients with their corporate video on a VHS tape or a menu driven DVD disk or CDROM disk (which is like the menu option on a movie DVD).

CDROMs are particularly flexible as they can include video, brochures, documents and website links. They can even be produced as CD business cards which is perfect for travellers who wish to reduce the amount of marketing materials they need to carry.

Corporate videos can be downloaded from websites, which not only saves money in distribution costs, but provides 24 hour worldwide access.

A further advantage of corporate video is that it allows for voiceovers to be translated into a variety of languages. As visual cues are used in conjunction with the voiceover, the language sounds natural and appealing.

The winner of the 2002 Regional Exporter of the Year Awards, the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, strongly agrees with the use of corporate video production to boost export sales.

John Williams, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory’s marketing manager, says “We are very proud of our Factory and our picturesque location. It makes a lot of sense to show our best attributes to their advantage and the way to do that is through a corporate video.”

“We’ve found corporate video to be extremely flexible. I can travel overseas and show a DVD quality video to potential clients on my notebook computer”.

“We had a short promotional video created that was slotted into our Powerpoint presentation which we presented to a large Japanese dairy importer. It really gave us the competitive edge and helped us win a large multi-million dollar contract”.

Justin Howden, an International Marketing specialist from Marketing and Investment Partners, also advocates using corporate videos when marketing overseas.

“For companies that are undertaking trade marketing, corporate video is critical. It is vital to get trade onside when marketing overseas and corporate video is irreplaceable when trying to get distributors involved,” he says.

“A successful corporate video is created by finding out what are the most important pieces of information that your target market wants to know. You need to unearth what 20% of information will give you an 80% kick in marketing terms. Once you’ve done this, you then need to focus on these important points in the promotional video”.

Corporate video production is a powerful, convenient and cost effective way for overseas buyers to see what you have to offer. It is an innovative method that can encompass video, brochures, documents and website/email links into one small CD business card.

By using a combination of the right promotional tools and a creative approach, the time-consuming and often difficult road to breaking into the global marketplace, can be made much easier.

Caputo Creative

www.caputocreative.com

by: Jennie Williams

Branding is no longer simply about visual appeal or the cherry in the apple pie example. Unfortunately, many graphic design firms who position themselves as advertising agencies believe that branding your corporate identity is all about developing great looking visual solutions.

However, there is much much more to branding than just looking good. Particularly in this web 2.0 era, where a powerful web presence has become a vital ingredient of your branding strategy, developing the right media mix holds the key to building a powerful brand equity.

In other words, a right media mix would mean:

• Creative design solutions (the design, color, and content of your ads, marketing collateral and website enhance your brand equity, attract customers, and generate sales)
•
• Web development (every product/service worth its name has a web presence these days, some have truly interactive, animated sites encouraging customer involvement).

• Viral marketing (vitally important in today’s age of social networking, tagging, podcasting, blogs, forums, wikis and what have you)

• Television commercial production, print media advertising (traditional media cannot be overlooked)

• Strategic films (have become necessary elements of roadshows, exhibitions and other promotional campaigns)

• Corporate video production (a very important tool for branding your corporate identity)

• Direct marketing (marketing collaterals need to be just as effective and resonant with the overall branding scheme as the communicate directly with the customer)

• Outdoor advertising (hoardings, roadshows, participations in business fairs, exhibitions, etc)

There are some interactive advertising agencies that have recognized the need of the hour – developing creative design solutions that employ user-centric investigation and involve critical and systematic thinking. User-centric means understanding of needs and priorities of end user; the clients’ customers, their channel partners, users, and brand communities.

So if you want to register your brand as one that is synonymous with customer loyalty, you must develop a complete package, keeping the customer as the prime objective and organizing product stories around the way they prefer to learn about, compare, select and confirm purchases, connecting brands and their experiences.

Caputo Creative

www.caputocreative.com

Caputo Creative Inc. (C2) announced the launch of a guest training studio and product lab. Recognizing the need for well-trained guests to present products, C2 created a guest-training program that closely replicates the experience of being on live national television selling a product.

The studio features robotic cameras, grid lighting, wireless microphones and IFB’s, plus on-set program and preview monitors to train potential guests how to work the cameras effectively.

In addition to the studio training, C2 in conjunction with affiliate, The Product Pad, has developed a program designed to take products through every step of the television retailing process, from buyer’s presentations to QA and legal meetings.

Once a product is accepted, C2 not only trains on-air guests, but develops the entire television retailing presentation including, guest selection and training, presentation development and scripting, prop design and creation, wardrobe and makeup consulting and on-site management.Gene Silverman,