To give back to the web-development community, we are proud to sponsor Flash and the City. The brainchild of our web-dev leader Elad Elrom, this four-day, out-of-the-box conference will bring the Flash community from around the world together in New York City and redefine the way we share and marry artistic creativity with technological ingenuity.

To get an inside scoop on Flash and the City, we probed Elad with some questions:

1.  How did you come up with the idea of a Flash and the City conference?
Over the last few years I noticed that there haven’t been any large conferences in New York City. I have spoken to numerous people, from community leaders to Adobe’s evangelists. For the last couple of years, Adobe MAX has been in California, and there has been a real void for many professionals in New York City who would like to have a conference that allows them to be part of the Flash community. Additionally, I have noticed that in general many of the conferences are geared toward learning but do not have enough networking events. Flash and the City’s goal is to redefine the way we think about conferences as well as to unite A-list speakers with professionals in New York and other attendees from around the world.

2.  What are you most excited to hear next week?
Announcements during the keynote from our sponsors such as Litl and Adobe. Also some of the presentations that will be shown for the very first time during the conference.

I am excited about the venue as well. Instead of using a traditional hotel, we will be hosting the conference in an artist’s theater called 3LD (3-Legged Dog). 3LD is a technology center located in downtown Manhattan and is a thriving catalyst in the New York art scene. By hosting the conference in 3LD we will be supporting the artists.

3.  What are the top three things you want FATC attendees to leave with?
Networking
Attendees will have access to the City Track. The City Track is a completely new conference format, and the extracurricular activities will include a New York cruise and dinner, the rock/grunge band 22nd Century, and tours around New York City. I believe networking is one of the most important aspects of a conference; so networking with peers from the Flash community can only help our attendees’ careers.

Knowledge
Flash and the City is similar to other conferences in that attendees will get great value in terms of learning. They will receive two tracks for three days, and they can register for a workshop being held the day before the conference. In fact, attendees will have a chance to hear presentations from 50 speakers. These speakers are mind-blowing presenters that have made significant impacts on technology.

Inspiration
Attending the conference will gain attendees some insight of what’s being developed, what’s hot, what the trends are as well as the technologies that are worth learning.

4.  What is the new noise/buzz you hope will be created by the Flash community during FATC?
I think that now more than ever the Flash community needs to be united and show that Flash isn’t dead at all, and in reality we are creating exciting and amazing applications on many devices. FATC will show just that and allow the Flash community to have fun talking about technology and seeing what everyone is up to these days.

5.  How can people follow the conference?
Website: FlashAndTheCity.com
Blog: Blog.FlashAndTheCity.com
Twitter Account:  @flashandthecity
Twitter Hashtag:  #FATC

Highlights from the conference will also be posted here on the Sigma blog.  Stay tuned!

Recently comScore reported that in April 09, U.S. Internet users viewed 16.8 billion online videos.  Nearly 152 million folks watched an average of 111 videos, and an average online viewer watched 6.4 hours of video.  The age of online video viewers trends slightly younger, however, viewership by Generation X and older boomers are at no small scale.

That’s a lot of folks watching videos online.  And every minute there’s around 20 hours of new videos being uploaded to YouTube.  However, videos that generate millions of views overnight are few and far between—especially those uploaded to support a marketing agenda (e.g., commercials or promotional videos created by companies to promote their brands).

Here are some basic, yet essential, guidelines for online video success that we use to provide results for our clients.

1. Take a Long-Term Perspective:  While it is true that some online videos became an overnight sensation (e.g., Susan Boyle), the reality for most is that building an audience takes time—weeks, months and perhaps even years.  Keep in mind that unlike running a TV commercial where your ad/message disappears after your schedule runs out, online video has a potential to be active for years, accumulating viewers all along the way.  Therefore, creating content that has long-term relevance is key, which brings us to our second point.
2. Content is King:  Don’t just put a TV ad online (unless you have an incredible, one-of-kind commercial).  Create a short, entertaining message through a good story (e.g., humor, heartfelt tales, did you know, can you believe this, etc.).  People love to be surprised and everyone enjoys a good laugh.  Just as laughter works, so do tears, joy, compassion and a poignant moment.  The key is offering the viewer some quick entertainment that will engage them to respond, further investigate and/or share with their network.
3. Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan:  Just like you would with a TV commercial, incorporate a strategic plan behind your online video. Don’t just count on people stumbling onto it.  Remember that your new video has a shelf life of 48 hours before it’s moved from the Daily Most Viewed list to the Weekly Most Viewed list on most video sharing sites, so it’s important to share and spread the video quickly.  Some basic tactics that should be included into the online video launch include sharing and posting on social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace), reaching out to bloggers and sending out email invites to your circle of contacts.
4. Engage with Your Viewers: Some of the most successful videos are those that are able to solicit comments and start discussions with their viewers.  According to Tim Street, creator of French Maid TV, in order to get your video to a higher plane, “It needs to interact with the viewer, and allow the viewer to interact with the characters or the creators.” Comments are a great way to hear feedback and receive ideas for future initiatives.  Keep in mind that comments may not always be positive, but they present the opportunity to connect with your audience one-on-one.  Therefore, make sure to properly monitor the social web sphere across all chatters on your video and brand.

Related articles:

What lessons and best practices are out there for marketers in this economy?  We’ve gathered few AdAge articles that provide great fuel for thoughts:

1. Philp Geier’s 10 Principles for Bad Times that Work in Good Times – Adapt, Motivate, Focus Efforts, Stay True To Your Vision, Communicate, Innovate, Seize New Opportunities, Integrate Marketing, Retain Credibility and Inspire Customers are 10 principles we should harness right now.
2. Study:  Cutting Spending Hurts Brands Long Term – Based on TNS Media Intelligence data that revealed  brands that cut spending in downturns lost shares to private labels.
3. Don’t Damage Your Brand for Short-Term Gains in a Recession – Reminds us that marketing is a long-term proposition and brands that change strategies to cope with short-term problems can bring on irreplaceable damage.

SIGMA IN THE NEWS

Last week, our humble ad agency in Northern NJ was featured on CNN and this week on ABC.  What’s all the buzz about?  It’s Creativity Saves Jobs and Inspires Empolyees as explained by Shannon Morris (President, Sigma).

NEW MARKETING & ADVERTISING DATA

1. IAB reports Internet advertising grew 10% last year, outpacing TV. Search advertising dominated with 45% of total online advertising market share, followed by display ads, classified and rich media/digital video.
2. Jay Sears from ContextWeb points out at SES-NY that only 5% of consumer’s time is spent searching.  Therefore if you only use search to reach your online audience, you are missing 95% of opportunities.
3. A recent study by McPheters & Company found that in a half hour period, magazines deliver more than twice the number of ad impressions as TV and more than 6 times those delivered online.
4. Borrell Associates reported that last year, local TV station sites surpassed newspapers in 22 of 80 markets in terms of unique visitors.

WEEKLY TIPS

Mashable’s 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence offers the right way to create a profile, how to show different content to Fans and non-Fans and much more to maximize your presence on Facebook.

AROUND TWITTERVILLE

1. During the past year, Twitter has grown 1,200% in members.  It seems everyone’s joining the Twitter bandwagon, but is Twitter right for you?  Here is a great article on the Top 10 Reasons Your Company Probably Shouldn’t Tweet (if you have any one of them on your list).
2. The first Twitter scavenger hunt (hosted by HostelBookers.com) is taking place around Europe this week.   Join the hunt or follow the journey.

INTRODUCTION TO…

This week, we introduce just one site – SingleFunction.  This website showcases a variety of sites that have one purpose and one function.  Go check it out.  I found a lot of neat single function websites.

VIDEO SNACKING

The Brilliance of Shepherds by Samsungis the video pick of the week. Additional viral video ad campaigns are posted here and please keep in mind that ‘viral is a result, not a goal/strategy‘.

To receive up-to-date Fuel for Thought tweets, follow us @FuelForThought and/or subscribe to our RSS feed.

http://www.sigmagroup.com/ftp/jschorn/preview/soundscape/The result seemed quite flexible and easy to implement. So I thought perhaps other Flash developers might find it useful. Here’s how it works.

I came up to two AS3 classes: SoundCell and Soundscape.  A SoundCell is a circular representation of a sound in space.  As you move closer to the center of the sound from any direction, it becomes louder.  Move to the left of the sound, and it pans to your right.  Move to the right, and it pans to your left.  Move past the radius of the sound and it shuts off.  The SoundCell also has a graphical representation that you can turn on or off so you can position cells. The Soundscape is an object that holds various SoundCells. It includes methods for adding cells, playing cells, and destroying them. Cells can overlap each other—creating some really nice blended sound effects.

Using the classes is easy and below is the step-by-step guide.

1.  Import the Soundscape class.

• import com.sigma.sound.Soundscape;

2.  Create a new instance of the Soundscape class and add it to the display list.

• var mySoundscape:Soundscape = new Soundscape();
• addChild(mySoundscape);

3.  Add the cells you want using the addSoundCell() method. This method takes 6 parameters (filePath:String, xCoordinate:Number, yCoordinate:Number, radius:Number, visible:Boolean, color:Number).

• mySoundscape.addSoundCell(”audio/city.mp3″, 450, 200, 500, true, 0×990000);

4.  When you’ve added all of your SoundCells, then call the start() method to initiate the Soundscape, and the Soundscape takes care of the rest.

• mySoundscape.start();

5.  When you are done with your Soundscape you can destroy it with a call to the destroyCells() method.

• mySoundscape.destroyCells();

I’ve posted the source here.  Feel free to use it and modify it to your heart’s content!

I recently took an online course with John Grden of the Papervision Core Team, and added a whole bunch of optimization strategies to my bag of tricks. The class was offered at the Rich Media Institute.   John is an awesome teacher, and I highly recommend the class if it comes up again. It’s a lot to follow online, but the modules are available for 30 days after the class.  Here are a few helpful strategies that I picked up from John’s course:

1. STAGE QUALITY. Set it to Low or even Medium if possible. High will kill the processor.
2. MIPMAPPING. Keep your texture width and height divisible by 2 (such as 128/256). Avoid odd numbers or decimals and smoothing comes for free.
3. VIEWPORTS. Keep them as small as possible. And do not apply filters to Viewports.
4. BITMAPS vs. MOVIEASSETMATERIALS. Use bitmaps if possible. MovieAssetMaterials, even if they are not animated, cost more.
5. TIMER. Try using a timer for your render loop. It can save you precious processing power. But it won’t play well with timeline animations on your textures.
6. ANIMATION. Set the animation Boolean on MovieAssetMaterials to False when the animation has ended.  Keep animated material as small as possible.  Non-animated materials may be bigger.

John also included a highly useful FramesRipper class in the source code for the course, which I’ve already found useful for a project. It basically takes a movie clip and turns the frames into bitmaps that are stored in an array. The class includes methods for playing the ripped frames just like you would a timeline. If you have a MovieClip with lots of filter tweens or other elements that are taxing the processor, this class works like a charm. The FramesRipper class alone is well worth the price of admission.