Trinity Conferencing Center (TCC)

Trinity Video Communications provides interactive audio/visual communications solutions for commercial, educational and government organizations.  From portable systems to complete custom room design, building, and integration, Trinity provides state-of-the-art, easy-to-use audio/visual technology for organizations of every size.

TriVision took over Trinity’s marketing campaign in early 2009 when the company was looking to revitalize its brand and launch its video conferencing center called Trinity Conferencing Center (TCC). This process consisted of different phases including the formation and selection of creative and strategic brand names, taglines, and the design of the TCC corporate logo and brand.  By creating the TCC brand identity, TriVision was then able to apply the same design and blue systematic color scheme within all of the TCC business stationery, website and promotional materials. Also, as part of TCC’s advertisement campaign, TriVision designed and placed ads on magazines, as well as provided TCC’s display ads at the Louisville International Airport. 

In addition to branding and marketing, TriVision provided interior space planning and design services for Trinity’s facilities both in Louisville, Kentucky and Sterling, Virginia. This consisted of on-site consultation visits to come up with concepts for furniture, accessories and wall designs. TriVision also developed schematic drawings to demonstrate a visual perspective rendition of the video conferencing facility.

The development of the TCC website was another phase of the marketing project.  TCCvideo.net is a website dedicated to everything related to video conferencing which includes a virtual tour of the facility and conferencing rooms. TriVision also provides online marketing services for the company including SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which has helped Trinity rank #1 on Google for video conferencing in the Northern Virginia region.

TriVision continues to serve as Trinity’s official marketing agency, by providing monthly services for the firm.  With its corporate headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky and an office in Sterling, Virginia, Trinity Video Communications is rapidly expanding to be a leader in the audio/visual communications industry. To read more about TCC, please visit www.tccvideo.net.

To find out how TriVision can help achieve your marketing goals, please contact a TriVision representative at 1.866.600.5528 or sales@trivision.tv.

The Music House of Afghanistan: ZeerWaBum.com

ZeerWaBum.com, a website showcasing the rich art and music of Afghanistan, was officially launched this January 2010. With the collaboration of TriVision Studios, the initiators of “Zeer wa bum” (meaning “treble and bass”), which include, most notably, renowned Afghan vocalist and musician, Mr. Vaheed Kaacemy, created this portal with the intention to make an online hub with anything and everything related to Afghan music. The aim is to collect this information through content contributed from music professionals, scholars, researchers and writers worldwide.

Zeerwabum.com’s long-term objective is to become an educational databank displaying the following information: the historical background and evolution of Afghan music dating back to ancient times; a comprehensive introduction and biographical notes about Afghan vocalists, musicians, composers, lyricists, instrumentalists, performers, contributors and such; a comparative outlook of Afghan music versus that of its neighboring countries; and other information related to the country’s national heritage music (i.e. folklore, popular and regional music), as well as home-originated music (i.e. native music, religious recitations, and hymn).

TriVision Studios worked with Vaheed Kaacemy to design and develop Zeerwabum.com with the goal to make it the “Afghan Music and Culture Corner.” This comprehensive website not only displays vast information about Afghan music and artists, but also features an array of music tracks, photos and detailed autobiographies that have never been seen, read or heard before on any other internet site. TriVision plans to further enhance the site with music downloads, videos and more photos and information as the site expands. The initiators of Zeerwabum.com and TriVision encourage artists and scholars from around the world to help them enrich the site by continually providing their input and contribution to make it as informative, insightful and educational as possible.

To visit ZeerWaBum online, please go to www.zeerwabum.com.

The Rapid Adoption of Video Conferencing Technology

Video Conferencing is rapidly changing how companies conduct business. Interest in using the technology has never been higher, according to the 2009 communications and collaboration report conducted by Nemertes Research. The research found that video conferencing is one of the only services having survived cuts, as many IT budgets are reduced due to the recession. 

The two key reasons for this rapid growth of use in video conferencing consist of the need to meet the collaboration needs of an increasingly virtual workforce, and the desire to use video to reduce travel or offset reductions in travel budgets. Companies that used to use video conference for temporary solutions are now using the technology on a regular basis. It is estimated that a company generally saves close to $10,000 a month in travel and accommodations expenses, and about 134 man-hours, if an executive uses video conferencing instead of flying from New York to Los Angeles for a meeting.

The Nemertes finding shows a growing interest in all forms of video conferencing technologies, specifically high definition and video systems that combine lighting, furniture, and acoustics to provide participants with the feeling of all being in the same room, thus providing the “next best thing to being there” experience.

Of course one of the reasons for the increased video conferencing trend is declining costs along with improved quality and increased options. High definition video has gone from home theatre to home and office, with room-based HD systems starting at a list price of approximately $5,000 per room.

Overall, the future of video conferencing remains highly optimistic. Studies conducted on organizations that use video conferencing show individuals remain productive, are able to establish and maintain relationships, and are generally happier and have more time to relax due to conveniences accomplished by the technology.  Most of all, efficiency is increased because there are no longer obstacles of time or geographical locations.

In essence, as more and more businesses adapt to a more “mobile” lifestyle, video conferencing is rapidly becoming a big part of the way business is conducted within organizations.

Why Brands Should Embrace Technological Change

Whereas technology used to advance incrementally, it now evolves exponentially, causing marketers scrambling to keep up with the rapidly shifting marketplace.
CMOs, Go Beyond Tolerating the Rapid Shifts to Participating in Them
by Avi Dan - courtesy of AdAge.com. Published: January 19, 2010

It took the telephone 45 years to penetrate half the homes in America; radio, less than 20; color TV, 15; computers, 10; cellphones, eight; and the internet, a mere six years. The speed of change is accelerating. Five years ago Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Hulu and the iPhone didn't exist. Today Facebook has 350 million members; Twitter boasts 30 million; and Hulu is the second biggest "channel" in America, having surpassed Time Warner Cable.

Technology now has profound impact on consumer behavior. Take brand loyalty, for example. Smartphones enable consumers to comparison shop on the basis of price at the point of sale. The democratization of information may result in commoditization of brands as consumers make purchase decisions by searching for the lowest-priced product. Technology may also alter the purchase cycle and give rise to powerful third-party influencers, counterbalancing paid media's "management" of the purchase cycle. These are transformational shifts for brands.

Yet while consumers and retailers embrace these innovations, one group seems to be conspicuously lagging behind the rapid technological evolution of the marketplace: marketers. Consider this: Ten years ago, at the beginning of the decade, consumers spent 30 minutes online. Today it's four hours, according to Media Metrix, twice as much time as they watch TV -- and that time spent does not include e-mailing. In this decade broadband expanded from 3% to two-thirds of American homes. Yet marketers barely adjusted their approach. While investment in digital advertising has crept up some, roughly 90% of budgets is still spent on traditional channels like TV.

Change is always difficult, but marketers should be more aware of the new marketplace or run the risk of consumers disengaging, rendering their marketing programs irrelevant. The marketing narrative needs to be rebooted and the architecture of brand building re-engineered.

CMOs must recognize that the speed and scope of change are so overwhelming that they need to dramatically revamp their marketing ecosystem. A good place to start is reviewing the scope of their relationships with their agencies. CMOs must demand that all of their agencies, and not just the digital shop, become technologically savvy. Procurement also needs to evolve its scoring of intellectual-property vendors and consider technical expertise as part of the value proposition. Second, marketers should strive for mutuality and non-partisanship in brand stewardship. Today, it is ensconced with the "traditional" agency, while other disciplines play a supporting role. Of course, if you spend 90% of your budget with traditional agencies, that makes sense, but it also leads to silos and makes integration hard. As the landscape is changing, the digital agency, the PR firm and especially the media agency should play an equal role in brand stewardship. The media agencies in particular can play a unique role in that they are at the intersection of creativity and technology and can best assess how to calibrate them and help marketers through the challenges of a technology-driven marketplace.

CMOs must lead a number of internal changes as well. The first is to recognize that technology isno less a marketing tool than, say, market research, and appoint a "marketing-technology czar" to champion it. That person's responsibility will be to act as a cross-functional facilitator and identify technology that can enhance marketing activity and brand building. Further, as consumers adopt technology at the speed of light, CMOs should act as innovation evangelists, pushing technology into all facets of company operations, to ensure that the company is customer-facing and that brands maintain relevancy. And as all employees and the company culture are significant marketing tools, one of the areas that marketers should have greater involvement in is the human capital of the company, working closely with HR on hiring and firing standards. In the 21st century companies should hire people who are inclined toward technology and accept change as a given. That does not necessarily mean that those people are IT experts, but rather that they are curious, adapt easily and are inclined toward collaboration and social media.

Interestingly, the best technologies reinforce very old-fashioned values of brand building. Zappos, Comcast, JetBlue and Virgin America use Twitter to reinforce their image of delivering exceptional customer service (interestingly, and perhaps, therefore, so effectively, in categories that are not known for it -- retail, cable and airlines). But that is exactly the point of technology and marketing. As new technology replaces the obsolete, a brand can continue and hold its positioning while modifying the technological delivery platform.

The problem CMOs face with mastering technology, and with the internet, is very simple: There is so much going on simultaneously and things change so quickly that no one, absolutely no one, can know everything that's going on. Ten years ago a marketer needed to know maybe 100 things to be effective: some aspects of positioning, some aspects of media, some media research, some pricing, some distribution. Now that number is in the thousands. And whereas technology used to advance incrementally, it now evolves exponentially.

As marketing tasks mushroomed and time became compressed during the recession, CMOs found themselves in a position of having to do more with less. To navigate through the added complexity of the technological eruption, they have to go beyond just tolerating it to become active participants and advocates of the new marketing ecosystem. They ought to embrace the speed of change and view it as brand asset.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Avi Dan is president-CEO of Avidan Strategies, a marketing and agency consulting firm based in New York and Boston. During Mr. Dan's 30-year career he managed flagship consumer brands at Y&R and Berlin Cameron, where he was managing partner, and served on the boards of Saatchi & Saatchi and Euro RSCG. Story courtesy of AdAge.com. Published: January 19, 2010