RGB Imaging

Downtown Norfolk Team Bonding Activities

Abby — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:03:48 +0000

What happens when you get a bunch of creatives up early on a Saturday morning, give them a blocked off Norfolk City Street, and let them lose? Shenanigans of course! Or art. Really it could go either way.

Paul is doing his best modeling pose

The RGB Team + Bryan Brough (of Eyecaptures Photography Fame) woke up horribly early on a Saturday and made their way to Downtown Norfolk to see what they could create.

This is Bryan, he is awesome!

Apparently the Universe was on their side, as they found that a run was going on and many of the side streets were blocked off. Never ones to miss an opportunity, they quickly set up shop and got to work…

Not afraid to hang off the side of a building….FOR ART!

Yes, lots and lots of hard work to be found, nobody lying down on the job…

Eric is perhaps a little *too* adventurous…

It is hard work being a photographer

Of course Paul kept getting distracted…

Paul doing chin ups…

So we had to keep him in line

So this happened…

By whatever means necessary

Eventually we did get some fantastic company portraits

Paul, Eric & Abby of RGB

Who says you can’t have fun and create fantastic Commercial Images?

How to Define Quality Content

Paul — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:37:53 +0000

We’re always talking to clients about creating quality visual content, but how do we define and measure quality?

Quality content starts with your customers.

All marketing efforts start with your audience. Who is going to receive your message? What kind of information do they find important regarding your business?

Present your blog post, newsletter, or video in a clear and simple way. Avoid industry specific jargon or buzz words. Your prospects are coming to you because they are not familiar with what you do. They aren’t looking to get an education in what you do, just information about how to solve their problem.

Quality content has a point – Get on with it!

Telling stories, sharing experiences, and giving examples of what your business does is fantastic. But, what kind of action will your customer take after experiencing it? Will they pick up the phone, send you an email, or place an order? Everyone wants to create the next ‘viral’ hit and be entertaining, but will your customers “see” what you want? You want your content to have a connection to your business.

Quality content is found and shared

Spreading your content has never been easier and more difficult. You want to create something that is too good to hold back. The entire purpose of any message is to be spread. What makes an idea spread? It has to be remarkable; it has to be something that people want to innately share, online or off. Great ideas are never kept locked up.

Take Action!

1.      Who is your audience?
2.      Does your content have a point?
3.      Is your message remarkable?

Here’s a piece of video content that we made with Endurance IT. We created a piece that highlights their unique company culture that inspires people both internally and externally. That culture led Endurance IT to be named one of the best places to work by Virginia Business Magazine.

Inspiration in our Community – The Better Block Norfolk Project

Paul — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:19:40 +0000

Over a single weekend I participated in an amazing community event called the Better Block Project.

The concept was to bring as many artists and businesses together as fast as we could with minimal resources to show that amazing things can happen in an overlooked area of Norfolk. The cultural exchange that happened on Friday and Saturday was unprecedented. Empty storefronts came back to life with creative pop up cafes and retail shops. A vacant warehouse was transformed into a music venue and arcade. It was inspirational to see all of my colleagues, friends, and clients enjoying the vibrant celebration of culture and art.

This is what a REAL city scape view looks like. Forget tall buildings, forget waterfront property, forget convention centers. I want a sea of people and businesses working together to have a good time, celebrate life, and take heart in the success of creativity and innovation! Who else is pumped?!

IT’S PAWENT SEASON!

admin — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:22:28 +0000

It’s Pawent Season!
Is it just us, or has every holiday been hijacked by our little munchkins? Christmas, Halloween, Easter: Toys, Candy & Easter Egg Hunts. And what do parents get? 2 Measly days a year for thanks and praise. At RGB Imaging, we just didn’t think a day or two could contain all of the joy & appreciation we have for our parents.

We are declaring May and June PARENT SEASON!

So what does this mean for you, our loyal customers and parents? Well, first of all you have a fabulous reason to get your children to clean up after themselves and do their chores. It also means your friendly neighborhood portrait photographers (that’s us, by the way) are having special sessions just for you, and we are donating a portion of the proceeds to Wounded Wear (http://woundedwear.org/).

All May long, we will be hosting special first come, first serve $75 Mother & Child Mini Studio Session with special Parent Season packages, and then it is Dad’s turn in June!

These iconic images will be cherished and appreciated by your child in the years to come. So give us a call, celebrate Parent Season with the perfect gift to your spouse or yourself. You deserve it! And from all of us at RGB, thank you for being awesome!

Google Business Photos – 80/20 Burger Bar – Norfolk, VA

admin — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:48:59 +0000

80/20 Burger Bar is one of the newest spots to open up in Ghent.

All of their burgers are made with locally sourced ingredients. It’s one of the freshest tasting burgers that you can get. They even make the burger buns in house everyday. Editing these photos made me both hungry and thirsty.

Great atmosphere and wonderful food. Definitely worth checking out!

SEE the Virtual Tour

Google Business Photos – Tidewater Gold and Diamond – Chesapeake, VA

admin — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:45:52 +0000

Tidewater Gold and Diamond is a different kind of jewelry store. It’s a small business that has a passion for finding the perfect piece for their customers. The interior feels like a quaint beach house with calming colors and an amazing variety in their cases. If you don’t see what you want, they can order it for you, and have it the next day.

See the Virtual Tour

Google Business Photos – Norge Dental Center in Williamsburg, VA

admin — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:17:04 +0000

The Norge Dental Center is one of the most beautiful offices I’ve ever been inside. It reminds me more of a spa than a dentist’s office. We were really excited to have the opportunity to work with the Norge Dental team in showing off their wonderful space.

See the Virtual Tour

Bartholomew Cooke Shoots for The New Yorker

admin — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:29:29 +0000

The New Yorker commissioned Bartholomew Cooke this photograph to accompany an article about the US hand sanitizing industry.

Source: M.A.P, image source: Jak & Jil

Better Images for your Businesses

eric — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:52:43 +0000

We were in the process of writing an article very similiar to this, driven by recent a client conversation. As business owners, we should be asking the questions of “why?”

Original article posted by Gabrielle at Eposure.com http://eposure.com/blog/better-images-for-businesses

There is growing recognition that better visual experiences attract more customers, and commercial photography has a big role to play in many businesses.

In this post, we look at some of the frequently asked questions about how businesses can get smarter in their approach to their commercial photography.

What are marketing images?

Marketing images are commercial photographs; the photographic images that businesses use on their websites and on their advertising and marketing material, including, banner ads, brochures, catalogues, apps, company reports and press and poster advertisements.

What does a marketing image consultancy do?

Eposure work with ambitious businesses that want to make sure that every single one of the assets they create is working as hard as possible to meet the company’s commercial goals.

These are businesses who recognise that the photographic images they produce and buy are a valuable business asset.

Specifically, we make sure that the images that a business is using in their business, and for its promotion, are working hard and effectively to back up the company’s brand values, is maximizing the customer experience, and is effectively helping that company sell more of its products or services.

Why is this important?

Images are a huge component of many businesses assets. If you just consider online images, a recent data collected by HTTP Archive showed that the average web page size is 1.28 MB, and around 61.5% of that data is comprised from images – and a substantial percentage of this will be photographic images.

Making sure that photographs have a clear purpose within the design and build of any content, either within digital or traditional print-based formats, such as catalogues, can have a significant impact on a businesses performance.

Aren’t businesses doing this already?

Some are of course. But many more aren’t.

We’ve worked with many businesses who rely on using photography in their business, and a typical marketing production processes includes leaving the photographs to the end – well down the pecking order. Surprising, seeing that these images are often the products that these companies are actually selling

It’s very common for websites and catalogues to be designed with little thought for how the images will be best presented, and spaces just left for the images to be added at a later date.

This creates the potential for real disconnect with the synergy of the overall message. Don’t forget, the consumer consumes the full page together – and forms their overall opinion almost immediately.

The siloed approach to images and other content, disrupts the efficiency that companies are trying to achieve through UX with their websites, or brochure design for their catalogues – in creating a seamless journey to point of purchase, within the shortest amount of time possible.

What do consumers think?

There is very little research into consumers’ attitudes to photographic images. So little in fact, that we are in the process of conducting our own survey to get some answers to this very question.

Whilst the number of people who have completed our survey is relatively small, (150 after two days of publication, but still growing at the time of writing) we’re getting some clear trends emerging even at this early stage.

Once we have a larger respondents pool we will be publishing the results in detail, but the most interesting finding we’ve had so far is that 79% of our respondents had decided not to buy something online, because the image wasn’t good enough.

Can any business really afford to risk this, in a world where online shopping, and therefore competition online is intensifying?

Is there any science to this?

Eye tracking studies are another way to measure the interaction between customers and images.

Some well-known examples from Norman Neilson Group showed how respondents ignored images that gave them no relevant information, but engaged clearly with images that were well thought out and put together.

This example from an article in the New York Times shows results from eye tracking research for Amazon.

Each images is virtually the same, in the sense that it is not giving the view any meaningful information about the product. Interestingly this can create a bigger reliance on price as a differentiator by viewers, because it is one piece of information that the viewer can easily find on the page.

By contrast, this site sees images working much harder. Of course it depends on what a business is trying to do with its images, but in this example, they are clearly having a marked effect on the engagement of the visitor and the amount of time that they are spending on a page.

Eposure conduct our own eye tracking studies, using state-of-the-art equipment, for clients on request, and can take the standard format one step further, by incorporating qualitative questioning to help get clearer understanding of viewers opinions about the images on your websites & marketing collateral.

What are the effects that better images will have on my business?

All businesses are different and have different goals, but a considered image strategy is one that isn’t designed to be judged on the aesthetics of the images. Instead we create strategies that are designed to alter the way customers interact with businesses in a whole range of different ways, some of which we mention here:

Better understanding of the company’s brand values
Higher engagement with brand
Increased return visits
Increased likelihood to purchase online or via direct channels
Improved visual experience
Better value images – useable in a wider range of ways across the full business marketing channels, including social media
Increased sales, ROI & lifetime value

Can they be measured?

Yes. There are many metrics that can be used to understand the effect that images have on your business. Not all of these need to be used. We work with businesses on an individual basis to understand the goals of that business, and the most appropriate metrics to use – as well, of course as the budgets available:

Eye tracking studies
Google analytics
A/B testing
Qualitative research
Quantative research
In-house sales data

How long will it take to see the benefits?

It depends very much on what you are trying to achieve with your new image strategy. Greater engagement, or time spent on page can be seen within a few weeks of implementation.

Reliable measurements of ROI can be seen in 3 to 6 months, and of course, lifetime value is a longer term metric again.

References

New York Times article from Norman Neilson Group

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/study-shows-people-ignore-generic-photos-online/?src=me&ref=technology

Consider Video’s Role for Your Company

eric — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:35:53 +0000

You probably watched at least one video online in the past week, and there is a good chance it was related to your work. Yes, YouTube mania has reached far beyond the comic antics of humans or the easiest way to enjoy your favorite musicians.

Actually, more video is now uploaded to YouTube, the most commonly used vehicle for getting video distributed online, in 60 days than the three major U.S. networks produced in 60 years.

Nearly every consumer and business decision-maker is taking video seriously so it makes sense for B-to-C and B-to-B oriented businesses to consider how they should be using video online to support their brand and engage their target markets.

According to Forbes in October 2010, 65 percent of U.S. executives surveyed visit a vendor website after viewing a work-related online video.

Distribution of video crosses many channels but it always ends up online where the largest population of your potential customers visit daily.

Why has video become such a trend for online use? Let’s consider websites since that is where businesses are starting to use video for not just training, but for marketing. Video is more interactive and engaging when included on a website over text and still images. Technology and bandwidth costs are coming down dramatically allowing small businesses to create videos that look very polished and professional without the massive TV commercial budget.

According to an Ad-Ology study, “2011 Small Business Marketing Forecast,” in 2011, 45 percent of small businesses were growing their budget for online video, up from 2012 by 17 percent.

One important mistake businesses make though is cutting corners on equipment and expecting someone in the company who has a flip camera to make a high-quality video for the website. It is important to match the equipment with the crew that fits your needs. We often get pulled into production after someone in-house has created a video. Nothing can be more frustrating than having the boss ask why the video is so dark or there is background sound overriding his voice and not knowing how to improve the quality. Choice of equipment involves more than the camera itself.

Poor audio, unstabilized footage and not formatting the output correctly are just a few of the factors people often face when making a video.

The business team often struggles with having a clear understanding of the purpose for the video they want to see on their website. An unclear purpose leads to unclear or mismatched messages, an improper story board or script and the wrong composition and ultimately a poor message.

Creating quality video for your website should be managed by someone in the company who has some media or marketing experience, as well as the time and authority to handle all of the facets of production. Here are a few of the “to dos” in producing business videos:

* Be sure to plan adequately for the production site. The contextual background is extremely important. Anything that is distracting in the background will detract from the message being delivered. When filming in a busy environment the presenter may not be able to focus either. Background and ambient noises also need to be eliminated.

* Who should businesses use for “talent”? Businesses and brands have always had spokespeople. Even before broadcast media, a business needs to have a “face” or “champion” or “brand evangelist.” These folks are comfortable speaking about the business and can portray the personality and character of the brand. You can use the business owner sometimes because they are the most passionate. I would also suggest that a small business use the same spokesperson over and over because it brings continuity to the message. One of the best modern spokespeople in branding isn’t even a person. Think about the Geico Gecko.

* Don’t expect one video to communicate too many messages. In a competitive marketplace, attention is vital. If you want people to pay attention to your videos, you have to get your key messages in immediately in a combination of visuals and words. According to a Visible Measures study, 20 percent of online video viewers click away from a video in the first 10 seconds or less. By 30 seconds into an online video up to 33 percent of viewers have moved on; at 1 minute 44 percent have left (regardless of the clip’s length) and almost 60 percent have abandoned by the 2-minute mark.

Yet, most videos average five minutes. Keeping them short and frequently changing your videos on the website while communicating that a new one is coming, will help build your relationship for your viewers to return to the site.

Video causes people to click play and take action. Anytime people are taking action on a site, it increases the relevancy and increases overall SEO efforts.

For certain activities, people are turning to YouTube to search for products in use or how to solve a particular problem or educate themselves. These videos are high ranking in search terms, and if you can attach your brand to that information, then you can increase the relevancy of your brand.

Trends in video use are also looking favorable for other online initiatives such as ads. The amount of advertisers using display ads on YouTube increased 10-fold in the last year. In February 2011, there were 3.8 million video ads, which averages about 30.2 ads per viewer and reached 42 percent of the total U.S. population.

Technology will continue to expand how video is used online. According to Advanced Internet Video, (3D and HD) will increase 23-fold between 2009 and 2014. Video will continue to grow in popularity as Internet-enabled devices become even more widespread. The use of video as a research tool for buying decisions is becoming more common. Showing people exactly how someone can use your product or service is going to be more important than a more traditional “promo” piece touting benefits and features.

At RGB Imaging, we have found that one of the most valuable ways we can support our clients is by keeping up with the technology we will need to meet their marketing needs. We know, for example, that live video space is still untapped by even the largest brands. Distributing video and photo content in real time is going to separate those businesses that are relevant from those that are not.

Eric Wickham is owner of RGB Imaging, which recently moved to a new studio and corporate offices in Virginia Beach. He can be reached at 491-7676.