Tag Archives: Razorfish

I tend to email myself blog ideas, but occasionally they get pushed aside in the shuffle… doomed to a sad existence inside my inbox. But all is not lost! I cleaned out my email last night and found a gem.

Razorfish is a marketing giant, and I got to visit their Chicago offices early this summer (for this video). That’s why this Ad Week article last month caught my eye.

Video highlights innovation

Razorfish leaders have created a whole room dedicated to video and digital technology, helping them create demonstrations for clients. It looks pretty cool, but I like their promo video even better.

I know, me liking a video about video!? Shocker.

Anyway, the video is nice. It’s pretty flashy storytelling, but look at the subject matter… it’s flashy so the style is a good fit.

Promotion minus the sales-pitch

I just love the whole idea of a creating a video to promote things a company is doing that bring value to clients. This video is certainly about Razorfish, but it doesn’t feel that way because it’s so focused on showing how their innovations can help clients.

That’s how you do it folks. Focus on the audience. Lesson learned courtesy a marketing bigwig.

–Tony Gnau

Packed house for yesterday’s American Marketing Association-Chicago Chapter seminar on social media. Adam Lilly from Goose Island Beer Company talked about their social strategy and Nader Ali-Hassan from Razorfish talk about social’s future and how to measure its impact.

One of the big takeaways I hope everyone got was the importance of storytelling. Adam talked a lot about what the Goose is doing to tell its story and how it’s building a following using social media.

He also talked about how the company gets everyone involved. Marketing works with all departments to find stories that might interest their followers. They also use those people in the videos. Gone are the days of a single company spokesperson. If an employee has an interesting story… they’re in!

This is how you serve an audience. Focus on content that they will be interested in and feature real people.

–Tony Gnau

Social media isn’t going anywhere, and video is going to continue to play an increasingly important role.

That’s the cliff notes on a conversation I recently had with Nader Ali-Hassan, Associate Director of Social Media at Razorfish.

Nader and I chatted about social media and video after wrapping up an interview. T60 produces videos for the American Marketing Association-Chicago Chapter to preview upcoming events. Nader is going to be a guest speaker along with Adam Lilly from Goose Island Beer Company.

Anyway, Nader is a big believer in social media video. A written post is good, but add video and now you have something really “shareable.”

He also talked with me a little about length. To sum up, shorter is better. Again, it’s all about posting things that people will be willing to share. Start producing videos over 2-minutes long, and your shareability factor starts to drop.

Both Nader and Adam have lots of good ideas and advice regarding marketing and social media. I encourage you to check out the AMA-Chicago event (sign-up here) which is open to members and non-members alike.

–Tony Gnau