Thursday, November 24, 2011

niagara entrepreneur of the year award nomination

Fourgrounds Media is proud and honoured to announce that FG President Adrian Thiessen, and Vice-President Kristen Nater have been nominated for a 2011 Niagara Entrepreneur of the Year award. The nominations were announced Wednesday morning at an event that featured keynote speaker Anthony Lacavera, Chairman and CEO of WIND Mobile. Adrian and Kristen, who have been working hard to catapult their business from start-up to established, join 43 other local entrepreneurs who have also been recognized with a nomination for their efforts in the Niagara business community. The prestigious business awards will be handed out February 24, 2012 at a gala celebration at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls.

Click HERE for more information on the awards.

Congrats guys!

-L.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

five reasons to use video in your marketing

Came across this post and thought I would share it... you can never be too content with your current marketing mix!

-L.


Five Advantages of Using Video in Your Marketing Campaign

Statistics provided by YouTube reveal that 67% of internet usage is based on video, and 70% of online users are interested only in watching videos. Online video production is one of the best avenues to drive huge traffic to your website, and video enables you to convey your message in a more effective way than text alone.

Online video production offers numerous benefits to businesses looking to increase their brand recognition and gain a competitive edge. Let's have a look at some of these benefits:

1. Wide Audience: YouTube states that over 25 hours of video are viewed every minute by millions of people. Being a part of these statistics can help increase your brand awareness - assuming you have something people are interested in watching.

2. Video Sharing: If people like your video, they will be more likely to share it with their friends through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The creates an opportunity for a large amount of brand exposure with little effort and spending on your part.

3. More Appealing: There is a famous adage, "Seeing is believing". When people see a product's benefits in action, they tend to believe it faster than if they were to read about them alone.

4. More Interesting: Most people will be more willing to watch a three minute video on your website explaining who you are and what you do, than spend the same amount of time reading text. In addition to longer browsing durations on your site, incorporating video also increases your site's SEO.

5. Client Feedback: By sharing your video on public sites like YouTube and Facebook, you allow for customer interactions and comments to be left. This will help you adapt your offerings according to customer preferences and result in a better customer service experience.

Video marketing is a powerful way of gaining online visibility and building the reputation of your business. Anyone with a business should contemplate adding this increasingly popular medium to their marketing mix!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

MMA television pilot

Working alongside a renowned and respected mixed martial arts trainer who is leading the show, Fourgrounds is excited to be brought on as the exclusive producer of the pilot, responsible for everything from on location filming to postproduction. We are also happy to have morro images inc. onboard as our exclusive Visual FX and 3D animations partner for the project.

The pilot, which features four amazing hosts including sporting and broadcasting pros and a Playboy cover girl, was shot by our crew in studio, as well as at industrial facilities and hot spots around Niagara. The show will include interviews with some of the best fighters in the business, "behind the scenes" looks, as well as news and information about the sport and industry of MMA worldwide. This pilot, which is confident will be turned into a regular feature on Canadian networks, is answering the call of the large base of mixed martial arts fans in Ontario, where the sport was recently legalized.

When the show is picked up for its first season, shooting will continue to take place around Southern Ontario, but will also feature segments with fighters shot around the world. One such highlight included in the pilot follows fighters all the way to Sydney, Australia to take a look at "a day in the life", as well as how they prep and train for fights.

Stay tuned for more updates on the show as they happen!

-L.

Friday, April 29, 2011

OVATION AWARD

Our Halton PSA's won yet another award!

The clever, Fourgrounds produced and written campaign was the winner of the IABC/Toronto OVATION Award for Multimedia/Digital Content Excellence!

Every year The Toronto Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) gets together to recognize excellence in communications at the OVATION Awards Gala. Professional communicators from across the Greater Toronto Area come together to celebrate the best the communications industry has to offer and acknowledge the exceptional achievements of their colleagues and peers. This year, IABC/Toronto received a record-breaking number of entries to the program.

The Halton Region wanted us to really take some creative risks with this campaign and obviously it paid off. The two commercials which were produced in association with Aexian Studios in Fonthill, ON played with storytelling and conventional narrative tools to bring life to a message of green continuousness and healthy living. Since their production in 2008, the commercials have been aired as Preroll videos on the web, in Silver City Movie theatres, on social media platforms and on broadcast television.

Fourgrounds is proud to be part of a Groundbreaking PSA campaign in Ontario, and these unique spots are just another example of how we don't just capture reality... we create it.

One of the Halton Region PSAs can be found on our portfolio page.

See the complete list of winners here.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Testing Inverted RED Jib Rig





Picking up where our own Rick Fast left off on Twitter. Here are some more pics of our test build for an inverted RED rig on our small jib for an upcoming series of shoots this coming spring. Kudos to our Rick Fast and camera extraordinaire Mike Krasnay for building a sweet inverted jib rig. This should create some pretty amazing low angles and provide some nice led highlights via the integrated LED ring. Nice guys!!!

k on tech

Thursday, March 3, 2011

this march "like" us on facebook and win!


Here at Fourgrounds, we like to spice things up once in a while, so we decided that this March we were going to give away a commercial. Yup, a full HD commercial production. From start to finish. Totally free. And all you have to do to enter is "like" us on Facebook (click HERE).
We will be picking a winner April 1st... Good luck!


-L.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Machines Thinking Like Humans...no really.

Well... not quite, but at least our elected officials up on parliament hill are actually rewarding those in our Canadian scientific community who are, as a well spoken man once put it, doing something "truly revolutionary" when it comes to innovation and advancement in technology. To make a long story short, a Toronto professor Hinton from the U. of T. was recently awarded $1M to further his research in studying how neural networks (collections of brain cells) work together to learn based on their interactions with one another. Practical applications? Creating software algorithms that mimic these biological processes allowing programmers and engineers to create advanced artificial intelligence programs used in things like complex simulations and automation. So, Matrix anyone...?


KN on technology

Federal Government Appeals Federal Courts Decision on Mobile Ownership Laws

Today, Industry Minster Tony Clement announced the Federal Government will appeal last years Federal Court decision to deny the governments '09 overruling allowing mobile newcomer WIND Mobile into the Canadian mobile market. The government says this is being done in efforts to support much needed market competition and consumer choice in Canada's consumer mobile industry. Minister Clement would not give specifics on the governments stance on foreign ownership.

KN - on technology

Monday, January 17, 2011

halton region campaign nabs another award

Congratulations go out yet again to The Regional Municipality of Halton for winning another award for "Nick & Joules on Air Quality & Climate Change". It was the winner in the Environmental Communication category of the 2010 Strategic Video Awards presented by McMurray, a marketing communications firm based out of the U.S. We couldn't be more pleased with the recognition and success this campaign has received!

You can read about the awards here and view a list of winners here.


Check out a few other winning videos we loved:

Grand Winner: Nationwide Insurace - "Nationwide - The Musical"

Motivalional: Peel District School Board - "Reveal the Smile"

Viral Video: Southwest Airlines - "Southwest Shows Air New Zealand Some LUV"



-L.