The Official
Moosylvania Blog

So, you want to develop a website or maybe just update your current one? Of course you want it to be purposeful and engaging, but what happens when you mix good design with smart functionality? You get a website that works and looks good doing it (Yes, you can have both).

In 2012 we saw a huge increase in website design trends, here are some to look for in 2013.

 1.     Responsive Layout – This trend has been a top priority for any brand wanting to make waves in the digital space. The concept behind responsive technology is to design a single site that is programmed to be used on a variety of devices, including laptops, smartphones, tablets and most importantly, anything that is released in the future (That means you Google glass).

2.     Fixed Header Bar – It’s simple: creating a fixed branded bar across the top of your site creates constant brand awareness (What more could you want?).

3.     Large Photo Backgrounds – A number of sites have begun to use this trend. It’s a great way to captivate your consumer the moment they enter your site. Your site looks professional and engaging (Big Bonus!).

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What started as a clever fundraising effort has transformed into an inspired art movement. Project Flutter paired together Friends of Wings children and their families with a Moosylvania designer to create a poster that represented overcoming the life-limiting challenges of childhood illness or the loss of a loved one.

At the Project Flutter kickoff, this Saturday, 20 inspiring posters will be revealed. All proceeds from the posters sold will benefit the Friends of Wings efforts with Wings on Wheels, a new mobile therapy program specializing in grief support and expressive art therapy for children and families facing life-limiting or threatening illnesses. The Wings on Wheels program will visit patients, peers and families of a child in BJC’s pediatric hospice program, Wings, as well as provide community outreach at schools, churches and more.

Moosylvania, a creative advertising agency, was excited to team up with the Friends of Wings organization again. What our designers didn’t expect was to become so passionately involved in each moving story.

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Our industry fuses artistry, strategy and vision with wildly different personalities and clientele. Life in an internet advertising agency forges all of these largely ethereal ingredients with exciting results. I love my job. However, it’s not for everyone and the industry is self-policing. People are regularly ejected from the biz, not because they aren’t talented but because their attitude sucks. So to anyone in school thinking about a career in design or marketing, please heed this advice. At the very least you won’t suck. You may even thrive.

ART DIRECTION: Stefan Sagmeister DESIGNER: Richard The, Joe Shouldice PHOTOGRAPHY: Jens Rehr

1. Have an insatiable desire to do next level work: Mediocre work in school garners you a C. If you’re good with that, you will graduate, but you will not have a long career. I’m sure you’ve heard that art school grades don’t mean anything, and they don’t, but your portfolio does. The reason many who graduate don’t land positions is that they were doing the minimum. They passed. They graduated. They “succeeded”. The minimum does not cut the muster after graduation. There’s nothing wrong with getting C’s. It’s the acceptance of that mediocrity that’s problematic. Anybody that is excelling in this field is driven and self motivated, and to a certain extend, dissatisfied with their work… (more…)

You may know Morgan Spurlock from his reality based documentary films like “Super Size Me” and “Mansome” . He also has a new show on CNN beginning in April called “Inside Man” where he candidly looks at subcultures in the US, and he begins shooting a 3-D, documentary on British pop sensation “One Direction” next week.

Digital Jackpot

But you most likely aren’t aware of how this A-list documentarian bet really big on digital and hit the jackpot.

Morgan’s first “movie” projects were on behalf of a large electronics company, where he served as a tradeshow traveling spokesperson and produced large budget videos and presentations.  “One of the biggest budgets I worked on was a video for CES,” he noted with pride. (more…)

The past several years have seen declines in home entertainment revenues at the major studios, which has been cause for alarm across Hollywood.  But according to several leaders in the industry, while there is still some work to do on their end, the future of home entertainment is looking very bright.

Panelists who shared their opinions during Variety’s Entertainment Matters sessions at CES included Deborah Bothun, US Advisory leader Entertainment Media and Communications, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), David Bishop WW President Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Mike Dun WW President 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Thomas Gewecke President Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, Shawn Strickland CEO Redbox instant by Verizon, Anthony Bay VP Worldwide Video, Amazon.com and Andrew Wallenstein, TV Editor for Variety.

Several factors are spurring greater consumption of content, including:

1)   Improved TV quality and size

2)   650M (and growing) consumer devices that play movies anytime anywhere

3)   Substantial Growth in Ultra Violet, Cloud and Digital Download

4)   Subscription services using sophisticated data to drive more awareness and impulse

The challenge the last few years has been declines at physical retail and trying to replace that impulse experience through alternative media.  Another challenge the industry is working on is to streamline downloading to a three-minute process.

All agree there has to be much more emphasis on digital merchandising across the digital delivery footprint to help drive title purchases to get consumer ownership back up to 30% of purchases vs. 20%.

The key to success is anticipating consumer behavior, especially around digital, and making the content suit the medium. It’s no longer one size fits all.

Ultra Violet, the industry standard to purchase in one place, store in the cloud and view across devices, saw significant growth in 2012. It now has 9M accounts and is forecast to almost triple in size in 2013.  A big recruitment tool for opening an Ultra Violet account has been an incentive to transfer 10 existing owned titles over for free.

Fox’s segmentation and planning panel study of 6,000 households monitors how consumers media habits change over time. Change in the past has been very slow.  But right now people’s media habits are on the move in a very big way.  The advanced tech savvy audience makes up 25% of the population, but now account for 50% of all media consumption.

95M people buy DVDs in the recession era, but 38M people are digital only, ripe for a digital purchase.  Digital only purchasers right now skew Male, Sci-Fi, Underworld.  Never before has there been such defined audiences by medium for movie content.

Amazon, Netflix and Red Box are driving significant business with subscription and on-demand services via gaming units, web portals and through partnerships with carriers.  They use sophisticated algorithms to build and maintain relationships with consumers, creating an infrastructure to learn about about their customers and products in order to optimize titles and usability to conversion.

TV seasons are a significant driver for suggestive selling.  Subscription customers will watch a single season in a week, then pay on-demand for additional seasons and purchase cross-sold similar properties after viewing a few seasons.

Helping consumers find feature film content in similar ways is driving more ownership. Digital services converting DVD collections into the Ultra Violet cloud is one of the fastest ways to identify an audience, show value and cross merchandise.

Nothing digital has yet replaced the serendipity of the physical retail store, the most critical source of discovery for ownership.  Online social discovery is important and needs more emphasis on options that compare your collection to mine.  When entertainment consumers see relevant suggestions it sells more product.

Digital Books are doing very well.  They have an advantage in that their digital file size is small.  Video content file sizes are huge. Platforms to quickly download video content in three minutes will make digital downloads more of an impulse item like books.

Lastly, all agreed upgrades in the content to suit the medium will drive more value and engagement. For example, watching content on tablets needs to be interactive.  Total Recall and MIB 3 both had touch screen apps to find out more about the actors, where each scene was shot, etc.–all while watching the actual film. E-books already have similar experiences.

The industry leaders all concurred that 2013 is the beginning of a new renaissance for home entertainment, with more opportunities than at any time in history. But to get back to the future of home entertainment, a greater price value relationship must be offered.

What do you think the future holds for the home entertainment industry? Let us know with a comment.

Audi stole this year’s CES show in presentation, style and experience.

At the entrance of a sleekly designed, white-lit space garage was a Formula One Audi world champ racer, sporting wondrous technology, surrounded by the international press and a giant mob of gawkers. But this was a mere distraction from the hidden lair that housed a new technology that will change the world: a James Bond-esque autopilot driving experience in a very realistic simulator.

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CES 2013 – Las Vegas, Tuesday January 8, 2013

Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook are not at CES, so the question has been who will take center stage and be the big game changer at the massive global event.

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As a designer at a digital marketing agency, I love what I do. But sometimes I find myself stuck and unmotivated. Here are some tips and tricks that give me the boost I need when things get stale.

1. Reward Yourself
As designers, we often have a long list of things that need to be done by the end of our day. Some are small. Some are, quite frankly, scary. My advice here is to make a list and make sure every time you scratch something off, you give yourself a reward. It could be candy or maybe a funny cat video on YouTube. Reward yourself. (I know I will be after I finish writing this.) (more…)

Thanksgiving is behind us and our holiday plans have been made, so it is now time to start thinking about the New Year. Take some time to reflect on the past year and craft resolutions for a more successful 2013. (more…)

Did you tune into Apple’s big announcement Wednesday? If you missed it, they revealed the long-awaited iPhone 5, among other things. Were you impressed with the news? Here at Moose, we have some Apple fans and Android fans that were hotly debating the features as they were released, so of course that’s the perfect reason to share their views via blog post. Check out the pros and cons as told by two web developers on the Moose team below. (more…)