Adding Video to your Printed Marketing Materials for Free

In this post we will explore in detail how to beef up your printed marketing materials by adding your own custom video and making it easy for your customers to share the video as well.
I am sure some of you reading this right now are imagining small screens, wires and batteries or mini-DVDs glued to the inside of your media kits. Well, that’s not the case, it’s not that complicated and it’s free!

Adding the video to your printed marketing materials is done in 3 easy steps and all 3 tools needed are available freely on the Internet.

Video Distribution

The first step, assuming you already have a video that you would like to distribute to your customers, is to upload your video to the web. There are quite a few websites that will host your video file for free, some of the most popular being Youtube and Vimeo.

If you are tech-savvy or have an IT person who handles your website, you can also upload your videos to your own website hosting server.

Here are instructions on how to upload videos to Youtube
Here are instructions on how to upload videos to Vimeo

By uploading your videos to the web, you make them available and easily accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most video hosting sites as you may already know, have a commenting feature where people can leave comments about your video and you can respond to their comments.

Creating a Link

In this second step we will create a link to the video. Both Youtube and Vimeo automatically create a link for you and you simply copy and paste it. Most video hosting sites will do this for you as well.

After we have uploaded the video and generated a direct link to the video, we are going to make it a link that we can track to see how many times it has been used, shared and who shared it.

There are many free URL shorteners available that give you free tracking tools that provide basic Analytics with information regarding the use of the link you shortened. Here are a few of the most popular ones, I recommend you create a user account so that you can log in and view your results:

I tend to be partial to bit.ly because I like how easy it is to create a shortened url and the way they present the link tracking information.

To create a shortened URL, simply paste the video URL into the big blue text box and click shorten. Easy as that.

The Bit.ly analytic panel gives you different ways to look at what happened to your URL throughout its life:

A visual chart with the amount of daily clicks
Cool feature called Conversations which shows who is talking and sharing the same link on social networks plus a count of how many times it has been shared on various social networks.
QR code and a sidebar to share the link on your social networks right from the bit.ly page (go to settings to authorize this).

Being able to analyze the results of your efforts is a very valuable tool. If you can tell what did well and what went wrong with your marketing, you can use this information to improve your marketing and drive better results on your next campaign.

Code Connection

The final step in adding video to your printed marketing materials is to create the connection between your video and the paper your marketing material is printed on.

Most of you may be familiar with QR codes by now since they have been around for a while. You might see them quite often on catalogs, magazines, postcards and many other direct mail printed materials; not to mention packaging and even in commercial stores like BestBuy use them to show video product demos in the stores.

If you would like to learn more about QR codes, I highly recommend you read my post that contains information about QR codes and a list of Free QR Code readers and generators.

For this specific tutorial we will be using a QR code to direct the user’s mobile smart phone to a video that you uploaded per the instructions in step one. Why use a QR code? Well, how many people do you think would want to type a URL that looks like this – bit.ly/egm7XG – into their smart phone browser? By using a QR code all the user has to do is tap his QR code reader app and scan the code.

Let’s get to it! Creating a QR code is simple. Go to one of the free websites I listed in the blog post about QR Codes. Try them all to see which one you find easier to use and feel free to share with us in the comments below.

For this example I will use the www.BeQRious.com website to generate my QR code:

Simply paste the shortened URL you created in step 2 into the text box labeled “Enter web URL:” and click the Create Code button.

You will see on the right an image of a cellphone with a QR code on the screen. That is the code that was generated by your special and unique URL.

Now, if you are feeling a bit antsy, go ahead and fire up your QR Code reader app on your smart phone and scan the the code right on your computer screen. Make sure it works correctly and directs your smart phone to the video you uploaded in step 1.

If it doesn’t work, go back to step 1 and make sure you used the correct link for the video, in the URL shortener and that you used the correct link generated by the URL shortner, on BeQRious.com (or whatever qr code generator you decided to use).

Wa-la! That’s it. Download the QR code and insert into the design of your marketing materials.

I recommend you download the vector/PDF version of the code (if available) as it is created in vector format and can be enlarged or reduced to just about any size without losing any quality. I personally try to keep it no smaller than 1 inch x 1 inch.

IMPORTANT!!!

Rule #1 : TEST, TEST, TEST.

You must make sure that the code is not too small or too blurry to be read by the cameras on smart phones. You must test the QR code among different phone models and different QR code reader apps to make sure it works appropriately.

The Ultimate Marketing Piece – Eye Popping Media Kits

What Your Marketing Mix Is Missing

When promoting a new product, service, music album, a band, a company, a brand, creating a media kit is essential to a successful marketing and/or branding campaign.

A media kit is an informative resource like no other since it can include so many different types of media, all packaged into one convenient place we like to call Presentation Folders.

Pockets and Slits, Media Kits!

Presentation folders are incredibly versatile because of the fact that they can hold so many types of media with simple pockets and slits made into the paper. Presentation folders can hold marketing materials such as:

Business cards
Brochures
CDs
DVDs
Labels
Letterhead
Magnet cards
Mousepads
Notepads
Postcards
Sell sheets
Stickers

If it is not too bulky and it will help promote your service or product it should go in your media kit presentation folder.

A Customized Presentation

Presentation folders come in many varieties to fit the purpose and can be completely customizable. Here are a few samples of standard “extras” that can help you create the perfect media kit:

Standard Business Card Slits

Horizontal Bus. Card Slits

Vertical or Horizontal

Optional Business Card Slits

Optional Horizontal Slits

Vertical or Horizontal

Horizontal with Four Slits

CD/DVD Slits

Presentation Folder with CD/DVD Slit

Expanded Box Pockets

Presentation Folder with Expanded Box Pockets

Expanded Spine

Presentation Folder with Expanded Spine

Tri-Panel Folders

Tri-Panel Presentation Folder

These are only a few of the most common features found in Presentation folders for Media kits. Customize them with your own ideas to fit that marketing materials and their purposes. Feel free to contact Marsid M&M if you have questions or to request a quote.

For your Design Inspiration, here are some of the best Presentation Folders and Media Kits made by awesome designers:

[Disclaimer: The folders in this post were not printed by mmprint.com, they are used for demonstration and inspirational purposes only]

(click on the image to view the original source)

What kind of Funky Items have you put into your

Folders and Media kits?

Please leave your comments below.

Magical Graphic Design: Houdini

Harry Houdini once said:

“My brain is the key that sets my mind free.”

As designers, the key is to keep the creativity fresh and inspired. Thinking outside of the box and out of the ordinary.

Harry Houdini was a creative innovator. His public acclamation came from showing people what they had never seen before, making that which was thought impossible seem possible. Although, for him it was a daily routine. He said it best:

“My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the every-day commonplaces of my business.”

Yet his inspiration is suggestive of the inspiration that drives a graphic designer to keep designing whether for profit or not: To go beyond the norm and create or build fantasy where none is found.

Here are some fascinating designs inspired by or dedicated to Harry Houdini:

The Great Houdini

Houdini Records

Harry Houdini by Derkert

Houdini by Google

The Handcuff King

Magic by Cruenta

A Kind of Magic by ReptileCynrik

Have any Magical Design Tricks to Share? Please do so in the Comments Below

Easy Photoshop Color Splash Tutorial for Photos and Images

Color Splash Photos with Photoshop

Photoshop Color splash is a method for emphasizing areas or objects inside of black and white photographs, with color. Very popular with wedding pictures and vintage photography, color splashing gives images an extra dimension of beauty: Color can be used creatively to change the perception of the image.

Step 1: Duplicate the Layer

Photoshop has several different ways to duplicate layers. The one in the image is probably the easiest:

Right-click on the layer and click “Duplicate Layer…”. This will make a duplicate layer above the original.

As you become more familiar with Photoshop you will find that keyboard shortcuts make certain actions faster to do than going through the menus and right clicking. With some practice it becomes a reflex such as typing; you know what keys to press without even thinking about it.

Duplicate Layer Keyboard Shortcut: CTRL + J (PC) or Command +J (Mac)

Step 2: Desaturate the New Layer

Desaturation is a different process in comparison to converting an image to grayscale or a black and white yet renders the same visual effect. Desaturation occurs by pushing the CMYK values of the image towards their respective grey tone.

Photoshop automates this function for us using the Desaturate Adjustment

The two easiest ways to Desaturate a layer are as follows:

*Make sure you have the new layer selected in the Layers palette.

Click: Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.

Desaturate Layer Keyboard Shortcut:

Press Shift + CTRL + U (PC)
OR Shift + Command + U (Mac)

At this point you should see a black and white photo like this:

Step 3: Adding Color with the History Brush

The History Brush Tool can be used to restore color and other attributes to an image from an earlier state in its history.

Once we desaturate the image, the original color becomes part of that image’s history. By using the History Brush Tool we can then selectively restore parts of the desaturated image to its original color version. In short, we are erasing the desaturation back to color except only where we want the color to appear.

Select the History Brush Tool by clicking on it in the tools palette.

*Make sure your new desaturated layer is selected in the layers palette.

History Brush Tool Keyboard Shortcut: Press the letter Y (Mac or PC)

Begin by setting the brush size to 200px and 0% Hardness.
This gives us a large brush size to work with and the 0% hardness creates a faded finish around the edges of the brush so that we do not end up with a hard edge:

Now you can begin coloring in the parts that you would like to have color. Adjust your brush size accordingly to get into those tight spaces and remember that you can zoom in to make sure you add nice clean details to your image.

Brush Size Keyboard Shortcut:

Increase Size = [ (Mac or PC)
Decrease Size = ] (Mac or PC)

Take a look at the Color Splash I did in Photoshop for this tutorial, it took me less than 10 minutes:

Experimenting with the history brush and different brush shapes for that matter can result in some unique and/or abstract photo manipulations.

Show us your skills! Tell us about your color splash project below..

Refreshing and Tasty Design Inspiration

Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother’s womb.
Jean Arp

When in need of inspiration I always turn to nature. Curves, colors, shades, reflections, beauty; You name it, she’s got it.

Here’s a healthy dose of inspiration:

Quick Fun Fruit Facts:

Avocados are commonly used as vegetables. Botanically they are fruits.
Very few fruits contain fat: avocados, olives and nuts are the only ones with significant amounts.
Cranberries, Concord Grapes and Blueberries are the only major fruits native to North America.
Strawberries, bananas, grapes, apples and oranges are Americans favorite fruits in that order (2008).
The Red Delicious is the most widely grown variety of apple in the world.
There are 3,236 people in the U.S. listed on whitepages.com with the last name ‘Orange’
(Mark Morton, ‘Gastronomica’, Fall 2010)
Grapes are about 80 percent water.

Is there something in nature that you find inspirational to your design?

Colorful Collection of Poster Designs for Inspiration

When promoting a band, a new product, service or simply to convey information, a full color poster will STAND OUT like capital letters in any text message.

Posters are designed to be hung on walls and many other large flat surfaces. Their large format allow for both text and images to promote events, use as an informational guide and can even be educational.

Posters can be printed on many different substrates. To name a few: vinyl for durability, art canvas to give it an “artsy” finish or even acetate for more creative works. Posters can even be mounted on different materials or framed. Foamcore and Gatorboard are frequently used and allow for the poster to stand on its own or be displayed on an easel.

Here is a collection of beautiful and colorful posters that will hopefully strike a spark in your brain and ignite a creative fire that will make your next poster design STAND OUT beyond it’s size…

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