B.Rad Callister, one of our Lead Designers at Album, starred in and collaborated on this original stop-motion video titled: Bruises.   We think you’ll agree his creativity is authentic and pure.  He’s too humble to post this and we’re too proud of him to let this one slide.  Nice work, Brad!

The 5-year projections are out and the forecast is clear: traditional marketing continues to dry up, while online marketing just doesn’t let up.  By now, if you haven’t taken social media, video, or search engine optimization (SEO) seriously, you’re already beginning to sink.  Have a look at the latest trends courtesy of Forrester Research:

How much is YouTube’s brand worth?  In late 2006 Google purchased them for $1.65 billion, even though after almost 3 years, they are still not profitable.  Recent estimates place YouTube’s annual expenses between $174 – 470 million (as estimated by RampRate and Credit Suisse).

Many people do not realize that there are hundreds of other video sites with very similar features.  In fact, many of their competitors started several years before YouTube.com even went live.  So why has Google dumped more than $2 billion into a website that they could easily reproduce for a fraction of the cost?  Simple…brand name value.

With smart marketing, impeccable timing, and arguably a lot of luck, YouTube has become THE standard for video sites.  Their brand name has been used so much now that it is synonymous with “video site”.  It’s a phenomena shared by few brands.

Here are a few more examples.  I think you’ll be surprised how many brand names on this list you use to describe these items.  Is YouTube the new Kleenex?

Quite often Californians are referred to by mid-westerners as freaks with no morals. As California goes, so goes the country. This is the tasteful intro our client Posh Party Box was given on a morning news show in Kansas City.  Click to see the video.