- Promotion and Web 2.0 -
Initial Logo Designs
Here are some of the initial ideas we went through for our company logo, including the two designs we eventually chose for our Twitter/Youtube page and main logo.
Facebook Promotion
 | Facebook was the obvious starting point for advertising our production company because of how great it is for interactivity with our viewers and fans, and also because of it's ease of use and the ability we have to upload all kinds of mediums to it- photos, videos, music/audio tracks and more. As a group we have started to advertise the page to everybody on our contacts list and will hopefully gain a healthy amount of followers by the end of the year. Right now we have support from 60+ people one of which is actor Simon Fisher-Becker which we hope will be the first of many notable media persons. The content we have uploaded to the page so far - the photos, videos etc, have had good responses and we have had a few people commenting on the page and posting messages to us. The more work we produce, the more content we will put up, so we're hoping to have a lot more interactions taking place on the page as more people get involved. - Jessica Hallett |
Youtube Promotion
As part of the promotion of our company, I created our group a Youtube account and made sure the layout was in keeping with our website, but still had it's own theme to distinguish it (the striped background instead of the patterned one). I also uploaded the teaser video I created to advertise all of our sites onto the front page of our youtube account so that it was the first thing people saw.
Youtube is an incredibly popular (probably the most popular) media text online website and is the basis of where many thousands of production companies and groups advertise their work, so I decided that it was very important that we were active on the site and putting our content out there to the world.
As we produce content we will be uploading videos to the page which we will also cross post to our Facebook and Twitter pages to generate feedback from our fans and supporters.
- Jessica Hallett
Twitter Promotion
After creating our group's Youtube page, I decided to make a Twitter account which we could update on the go as we film or edit work. Twitter is a brilliant site for networking and chatting to people with ease, so it was ideal for our company to use. So far we have started to upload a few photos of us while we're working and snippets of what we're up to. When we gain more followers, our posts will be more in depth and we will start linking to products and other sites belonging to us. Kayleigh will be in control of maintaining the account and updating most regularly. However we have made sure that everybody has access so if they want to post something like a photo out on a shoot, then it's readily available for them to use.
So far we've had a few re-tweets from other people and have cross-posted content onto our various personal Twitter pages as well as the official one. It's begun to generate feedback from those who support and follow us, so we're hoping that the more content we put up, the more interaction we'll get from everybody else.
- Jessica Hallett
T-Shirts
As part of our promotion, we are planning to design and print a load of special 'Rugulent' T-Shirts for us to wear as a company, and for us to sell to our fans and supporters. We have found a great site called 'Street Shirts' whose shirt and printing quality is top notch. Luckily for us, the site does a lot of special deals including shirts as cheap as £2.95 each.
I ordered a tester shirt (design below) for £6 just to see how the company printed it and the shirt was of brilliant quality so as a group we decided that this site was best to use in future.
With my order, I was also sent several vouchers for the site which means our shirts will cost a lot less money when we choose our final design.
- Jessica Hallett
Customised Mugs
Street Shirts also provide the means to design Mugs however you like. So I had a go at seeing what the logo would look like on a standard black mug, and then used the smaller logo to see how that would work on the same type of mug. When bought in bulk, the price of these mugs per piece rapidly drops, so should we gain a large enough audience who would be willing to pay for these mugs, we could be lucky and turn a profit.
- Jessica Hallett
Trailers and Intro Promos
As part of our promotion, I've started to design us some intros and promo shorts using After Effects and Adobe Premiere. These are designed so we can put them up on various social networking site profiles, our Youtube page and on other people's sites to help promote our production company. As we build upon our documentary, more of these will be put up, with a lot more information in them also. As a group we are also planning to make a few trailer and short promos tailored to our documentary idea, not just our production company on it's own.
Below are just a few of the ideas for promos so far...
- Jessica Hallett
Posters and Leaflets
One of the most simple and easy ways to promote our company and documentary is through posters. I created this initial poster idea after thinking about a more quirky and funny way to start getting people interested in our documentary and work. The term 'sex sells' I feel to be an over-used one. Weirdness and comedy sells much more in my opinion, and it's certainly true for our documentary as there will not be anything related to sex within it. I aimed for it to be especially eye catching and intriguing. I wanted to also create a bit of interaction between the people viewing the poster and the poster itself. Just so it's a bit different to the average poster you see slapped up on a wall or noticeboard. The 'I have now' tags at the bottom will be cut in a way so that people can rip them off when they view the poster. On the back of the tags, I plan to write our website address so the more curious people who take one might be tempted to log on and find out what it's all about. The photo is of a lovely dog called Olly, whom I happened to catch at an awkward yet amusing moment! As we progress with our work, more poster designs will start to appear in different forms. - Jessica Hallett |  |
Business Cards
As part of our promotion, I thought it would be a good idea for us to have business cards. These will make us look professional and more established as a production company. It would also be useful to give our cards out to potential interviewees so that they have our contact details. Another bonus is that anyone interested in working with us or following our work can know where to find us online.
I originally attempted to make my own business cards in Photoshop; however it would be more cost-effective to get them printed in bulk by professionals, rather than spending a fortune on printing them ourselves. I also feel it would be more professional to use an external company.
I found a website called http://www.beanprint.com/ they are a UK based company that allow you to design and order business cards, posters and leaflets.
The site allows you to either use a template or create your own. I decided to try both.
I first tried out the one of the templates; I chose a template with a camera lens, as I thought this would be appropriate for Rugulent. (This design was a single-sided design). I think this is very simple design, perhaps too simple. Because of this, it lacks professionalism. However, as it is just a template, I will just try again and experiment until I get the best possible business card. This time I decided to try out making my own design through the site. |  |
This time I tried out a double-sided card, I prefer this
one, as although it is fairly simple, it is a sleek and professional looking design.
The logo on the front is big enough to be seen and the back of the card has our
contact email and website details.
 | I made another version of the back of the business card, this time I included the social networking icons, this will indicate that we are active on those sites. At the moment I shall leave them as icons, rather than links. This is because our social networking sites are accessible through our website anyway; I was also concerned that if I put the links in text on the back of the card, people wouldn’t read it due to too much text. Because of this, I believe we should look into creating two types of business cards. The first card (without icons) would be for potential working customers and interviewees (plus any people involved with the filming process) and a social networking card (with icons) would be given out at events to people who are interested in finding out more. |
After showing the designs to the group, it was pointed out
that there wasn’t enough information on the back of the cards. Because of this,
I went back to the website and designed another version. I took away the social
networking icons as they weren’t really serving a purpose. The new version has
the links to our yolasite, twitter, YouTube and our email address; I also added
our QR code, this links directly to our website so this brings the business
cards to a more interactive level.
A big factor in choosing where to order our business cards
from is price. Beanprint’s prices are £12.99 (free delivery) for 100 cards, and
this is for a basic business card (same price for 1 + 2 sided). You can also
choose what texture the card would have; I would quite like the cards to be
glossy, as I think that would make our logo look awesome. However having this
texture brings the price up to £16.99 (for 100 cards) for now though, we shall
be sticking with Beanprint as their site is easy to use and in the grand scheme
of things, £16.99 is a small price to pay when it is split between six.
Before we order any cards, I have ordered a paper and card sample set (for free) this is so I can look at and test the quality and appearance of the cards before we spend any money.
-Kayleigh-Jayne Towgood
Q.R Codes
QR codes are quickly becoming a popular form of advertisement.
QR codes can be scanned on most smartphones, and they can
contain anything from links, to messages to directing someone straight to a
website. To make sure we keep up with the times, I have created two
QR codes for Rugulent to use and display. |  |
The first code I created was made via www.beanprint.com, I made this one a basic QR code. When you scan the code it comes up with a list of: - our email address, our Vimeo account, our YouTube account, our Yola site, our twitter username and our Facebook page. As it is just a standard list, (originally made as a tester) it probably wouldn't be used as a main form of promotion, it would perhaps be used on leaflets or flyers or the end of emails sent to potential interviewees for example.
The second QR code I made was via http://www.qrstuff.com/ this was a good website to use as I could link our website directly to the QR code; this means that when somebody scans the code with their smartphone, it would take them directly to our site. Another function on this site was the ability to change the colour of the code; this was good as we could choose a colour that correlates with our logo (blue.)
- Kayleigh-Jayne Towgood
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