At Cramer, our greatest reward is found in the successes of our clients. However, we are also pleased when we get a pat on the back from our industry brethren. So we are especially honored that we have been awarded six prestigious recognitions.
Medical Marketing and Media (MM&M) is the health care marketing authority.On October 11, 700 of the industry’s brightest stars gathered in New York City for the sold-out MM&M Awards Dinner and Ceremony. The winners of 23 categories were revealed, and Cramer received the Gold Award for BestCorporate Marketing Campaign. The campaign was created for the launch of the Siemen’s MAMMOMAT digital mammography system. The judges were effusive in their praise and were impressed with how Cramer’s messaging “humanized the brand and got the customer involved.”
BtoB Magazine, the source for B-to-B marketing strategists, selected Cramer as one of the Top 150 Agencies. One of the key criteria to be included on BtoB’s Top 150 Agencies is based on innovative work and expanded service capabilities.
Event Marketer editors named Cramer as one of the Top 100 on its It List for 2011. Event Marketer’s focus is to meet the information needs of strategic brand-side event marketers and agency executives. The It List is the guide to who’s who, what’s what and who does what. Event Marketer editors highlighted some of Cramer’s core competencies such as global event programs, virtual and hybrid events and B-to-B meetings. According to Event Marketer, “Cramer is becoming well-known in the B-to-B space by bringing clients high-tech strategies that move the needle as well as they connect with audiences… like its 3D projection mapping. Virtual events backed by long-term engagement strategies and webcasting are also well-used tools in the agency’s portfolio.” Event Marketer also commended Cramer for “helping reshape and redefine the event industry.”
Cramer employees also added some hardware to our already robust supply. The Telly Awards honor the very best video and film productions and the finest work created for the Internet. Michael Powers was a winner in the category of Best Visual Effects for the SolidWorks show opening video. This is a case of déjà vu for Michael, who won the same award for the same work in 2010. John Dorlean was recognized in the Best Animation category for the 2010 PTC product launch. And Josh Hurley took home a Telly Award for Best Sound Design, which was also for the SolidWorks opening video.
Marketing Technology Explosion Hosted by Cramer
Norwood, Massachusetts will never be confused with Austin, Texas, but on September 15 Cramer hosted North by Norwood (NXNW), a takeoff of the film, interactive and music festival and conferences that take place down south every spring. NXNW was presented in conjunction with our colleagues from the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange as part of their Boston-based FutureM event. We opened our doors to our clients and friends to showcase a potpourri of innovative marketing tech-nologies that help engage audiences face-to-face and online.
A workshop that we called Bump, Pinch, Tweet was wildly popular. Cramer provided each audience member with an iPad for the sessions, led by Derrick Wood, SVP of Creative Services, and Greg Jones, one of Cramer’s social media wizards. All the participants had a hands-on opportunity to learn how to make the most of apps for aggregating and sharing information and other innovations that can be done in the palm of your hand.
Eric Webster, Cramer’s Principal Software Engineer, presented a look at The Future of Web Sites. From mobile phones, tablet PCs, game consoles and even the kitchen fridge, it seems like every device can access the Web. Let’s put it this way: if you think that there are opportunities to engage online now, just wait!
Steve Gogolak, Cramer’s Director of Webcasting and Media, presented the Five Proven Approaches for a Successful Virtual Event. From one-off events to long-term engagements, virtual platforms can truly help you reach customers whenever and wherever they may be. Steve gave examples of how you can extend reach, test program content and strengthen your thought-leadership status.
Creative Director Jamie Tedeschi and Editor Marisa Barone presented Post Production Magic. The bells and whistles that make storytelling come alive were shown, and the mystique of video magic and special effects was unveiled. Sound Designer Brian Iacobucci also demonstrated the tricks of his trade and how music and sound effects enhance any production.
Michael Lorant, the Director of Cramer’s Media Lab, held a course in Video Compression 101 and why it’s important for a great video experience. The basics of video compression were discussed, and that it’s not just about the content of your video—it’s about the way it will be viewed by your customers.
Cramer’s large studio was the scene for an incredible display of 3D Projection Mapping. You can read more about it below, but just know that no one left the studio without saying, “Wow.”
And as promised, NXNW was part festival. Many of our award-winning productions were shown in The Cramer FilmFest as well as some fascinating work that our team produced in their spare time. And then we rocked the night away with The Jam Session. Anyone and seemingly everyone could hop on the stage and join our house band for their moment in the rock star spotlight.
The feedback was unanimous…NXNW was a rousing success, and we are pleased that everyonefelt they had learned more techniques to enhance the stories that resonate with customers.Mission Accomplished!
And if you missed NXNW this year, standby: we will be hosting NXNW again in 2012!
Looking for a Big Marketing Splash? Try 3D Projection Mapping
3D projection mapping has been used for major outdoor publicity campaigns and big-splash marketing for everything from the promotion of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depps’ The Tourist to Coca Cola’s celebration of their 125th Anniversary with a magnificent 26 story display on their Atlanta headquarters.
But Cramer’s teams have taken mapping to a new level. Now any screen surface can become a content surface. If you are not familiar with 3D projection mapping, imagine three-dimensional images jumping off a projection screen or a ballroom wall, clear as could be, and right into the lap of your event audience. Accompanied by a musical score, 3D projection mapping is one of the most impactful and powerful video innovations in years. And, oh yes, 3D glasses are not required.
Cramer was recently presented with a challenge by Hexagon, the leading provider of integrated design, measurement and visualization technologies. Hexagon wanted to unveil their new corporate brand, as they brought together three major business units at their global user conference. The goal was to immerse the 3,700 attendees into a spectacular and unforgettable experience. Cramer delivered astounding visuals and an intense audio soundtrack that served as the backdrop for the experience and set the stage for Hexagon’s forward-looking strategic planning meetings.
“Our creative team cracked the code and then reinvented the technique of projection mapping for this event,” said Doug Randall, Associate Creative Director. “The audience was completely taken by surprise when the backdrop came to life and told Hexagon’s complex story. I think this presentation technique will eventually become the standard for all high impact events.”
“3D projection allowed Hexagon to make a high-impact statement of sophistication to their audience,” said TJ Martin, Cramer’s Executive Vice President, Sales. “Hexagon had just acquired Intergraph Software. This customer event was the launch of the Hexagon brand in the U.S. They wanted this event to speak to the advanced technology of Hexagon. The unique 3D projection mapping presentation did that and then some.”
How One Company Got Social
Sage North America is a leading supplier of accounting and business management software. For the first time, the Sage Summit 2011 brought together the entire Sage community, including customers, partners, exhibitors and employees.
With a new and extended event audience, Sage needed to create appeal and build a comprehensive social media presence to engage their attendees. Visitors needed to be encouraged and rewarded for social participation, and Sage called on Cramer to provide the expertise and support to make the eventa success.
Our team spent six months developing a social media presence for Sage Summit. We structured the Sage social media plan to include monitoring, training, account creation, management, messaging, content creation and on-site support. Cramer then utilized Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Plancast, Lanyrd, Google Reader, Google Alerts, Hootsuite and Wiffiti as major components of the event’s social media strategy. The word was out!
The on-site experience of Sage Summit 2011 culminated in almost 1,000 tweets per day during the event, going from 261 followers to over 900. Sage Summit’s Facebook page gathered more than 600 fans (14% of total attendees). YouTube gained over 2,000 channel views with 40 videos uploaded. And Flickr gained 18 sets and almost 1,000 photos. In addition, a Tweetup was arranged by attendees. The social media needle went from flat to rocking in six months, and the experience was reported as overwhelmingly positive by all parties.
Meet Our People
Theo Mitropoulos, Vice-President of Post Production, has been with Cramer for 26 years. He was on board for the launch of CNN in Atlanta. Theo and his wife, Linda, are the proud parents of John, a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music, and Arianna, who is a senior studying Health Sciences at Boston University. We chatted with Theo to discuss the fine art of making video presentations come to life.
Please help us understand a little more about what you do.
Post production at Cramer encompasses editing, audio, animation and our media lab. The technology is ever-changing nowadays; so yes, I run the department, but I have the help of some talented people advising me about those different aspects of the department.
We believe in the workgroup mentality here. We’re all linked technologically through our Avid server, and the creative power this brings us is really unmatched. Assets are shared between the editors, the animators, the sound designers and the media lab, and the result is quality. Everyone works hard to add production value to everything they do. We let our experts do what they do best: the editors cut video, the sound designers finish audio, the animators work their magic and add that “wow” factor to many of our productions and the media lab qc’s the deliverables.
There is some overlap between these areas in post; for instance, some of the software in the animation department is now in the edit suites, so the editors are now doing some of the animation work in the suite. They’ve really embraced this approach and they like doing it, and in some situations it helps the workflow. For the most part, however, we’ve maintained that workgroup mentality, and I feel that has been a strength at Cramer because, like I said, that approach lets people play to their strengths.
What has stood out this year for post production?
This year we got involved in a relatively new technology called projection mapping. We created a show opener where the animation was projected onto a dimensional surface, a dimensional screen, and it worked with that dimensionality visually. The result is a really immersive experience for the viewer where things really come alive. A lot of time and effort was spent by the animation department on R&D, and it paid off in brilliant execution. Our sound guys also did an amazing job with the sound design, making the project sing, if you will.
We’ve also started to get involved with gesture-based technology where people can interact with a virtual environment or play a virtual musical instrument using hand and body movements. This technology requires our programmers and animators to collaborate in a creative and entertaining way, and there’s a huge potential here. It’s very cool.
Because of the new technologies, what has changed in the way you approach your job?
Because there are so many ways, from a technical standpoint, to approach a project, I think editors have to anticipate more and in many cases, really guide clients through the process. Also, there are so many file formats now, editors really have to understand the best way to get content into the system to work with it, then the best way to export it for deliverables, all while maintaining quality.
What are some future advances that we should be looking forward to?
Everyone’s talking about the “cloud” these days, and I think that could eventually be another game-changer in production and post production. Someday, Cramer will develop our own cloud server, enabling better collaboration between our in-house staff and the editors, shooters and graphics people in the field. It’s actually a very interesting model that will be a wonderful complement to our event work.
And you think that Cramer is on top of it?
Oh, absolutely. We’ve been watching this stuff and are working very hard to expand our process from acquisition to archiving. Technology is constantly evolving, and you have to know the best time to make changes that best fit your needs. We don’t just chase technology for the sake of being the first but rather when it makes sense professionally—when both the creative and business objectives are aligned. With the guidance of our technical and engineering staff, I think we’re very good at that.
What do you think Cramer does that sets it so apart from competitors, in regards to the post-production process?
As far as post, we have very talented people and a great process for distributed workflow. But what I think really sets us apart is our ability to collaborate with our event staff, programmers, developers and project managers because we’re all here on the Cramer campus. The added complexity of a huge 80 foot screen or the sequencing of 92 videos for a virtual event requires communication between craftspeople, and at Cramer that’s as simple as walking down the hall.
Where Great Ideas Are Born
Cramer has the resources and brainpower to deal with any digital marketing solution. We realize that ideas are the lifeblood of Cramer and our lifeline to you. So where are our great ideas born? While conference rooms abound, our teams carved out a special space that invites creativity.
The incubator for our ideas is the Innovation Lounge. You can’t miss it…pass the receptionist’s desk and viola…there it is, a bright and fresh area where our creativity is hatched. We gather there to brainstorm, collaborate and share ideas. The Innovation Lounge is open and centrally located in order to connect all our disciplines and encourage everyone’s expertise in the creative process.
The ambience belies this inviting spirit. Cramer partners with CORT Event Furniture to build out networking spaces, so naturally we turned to CORT to supply the contemporary, all-white, comfortably soft furnishings. The Innovation Lounge walls have been converted into one giant whiteboard through an application of IdeaPaint. When one of our staff has an inspiring thought, they can take marker in hand and share his or her ideas on the walls of the Innovation Lounge.
As Creative Director Jamie Tedeschi stated, “The Innovation Lounge has become the hub of Cramer. It brings out the best of our creative thoughts and truly places a premium on the creative process. Our ideas are the foundation of the services we can supply to our clients, and the Innovation Lounge is where it all begins.”
Cramer’s Holiday Card Workshop Now Open
Cramer has lined up its creative team of elves to design your upcoming company holiday card. They have their paints and brushes at the ready. Our elves have been watching carefully all year so they know exactly how to customize your message ‘specially for you. If you want to learn more contact Courtney Kovalsky at 781-278-2460. November 22 is our cutoff date for our elves to get to work, so please call early.
