In March we welcomed Rodrick Feggins as the newest member of our video production department. An accomplished motion graphics professional from San Antonio, Texas, Rodrick brings knowledge and skill in 3-D graphics, compositing and motion graphics that bolsters and expands RSA’s capabilities and quality of work.

Another addition to our team includes the Canon 5D mkII HDSLR camera, recently used in two pieces for the South Dakota Lottery and the Downtown Association. Videos shot with the Canon have the cinematic look and feel of Hollywood, and the camera’s depth of field draws the viewer’s attention to the most important images in the production.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On the creative side, we produced outstanding television commercials such as the Black Hills Stock Show’s “2011 Generic“. As you’ll see, this graphics-intensive piece captures the depth and excitement of the Stock Show.

RSA’s production team recently traveled to Gillette to produce a commercial for Casey Peterson and Associates’ new Gillette office called “Trust.” In this commercial, you’ll meet the Gillette staff and hear some of the most common reasons CPA’s clients trust them to help with their businesses and personal finances. You’ll notice here, as well, that when shot with the Canon 5D, the images bring a simple beauty to the commercial not usually seen in local television.

As our video production department takes on new and exciting projects, we invite you to stop by and meet Rodrick or see some of their outstanding work. And maybe while you’re here, you can quiz us on how we can help grow your business with a new video and our other creative services. From television and radio commercials to training and long-form videos to simple web videos, we have the experience and the team to take your current messaging to the next level.

- Jack

Inside RSA Video Production is a post from: RSA Blog

Analytics? Bounce rate?

What language are they speaking?

I have to admit, I thought I might need a passport and a pocket dictionary on my first day at RSA. That day I attended several meetings with the search engine marketing team, and most of the words buzzing around me sounded like a foreign language.

I’m the first to admit, I’m a search engine marketing (SEM) newbie.

I applied for the interactive marketing specialist job at RSA because writing skill was included in the job description. That sounded ideal, since I love writing and studied journalism in college. Little did I know the job encompassed so much more, and I’d be grasping to understand parts of it.

I’ll let you in on a few of the secrets I’ve learned.

Luckily for me, I’ve discovered that writing is an integral part of what an SEM specialist does. The main goal is helping clients’ websites appear higher in search results when people look for them on Google or Bing.

We help clients improve in search results by writing and distributing press releases and articles that link back to their websites. Making sure the article contains pertinent keywords that people search for doesn’t hurt, either.

However, writing skill is certainly not the only skill require for success.

A significant part of SEM involves analyzing statistics to measure our efforts and recommend a course of action. This process is also known as analytics. After a few days of hearing the term described — and referencing my pocket dictionary — analytics started to click in my completely non-analytic brain.

Analytics measures everything from the number of visits to a website to its top traffic sources. We can tell clients with 99 percent certainty whether someone from Australia visited their site, or if most folks came from right here in South Dakota.

We can even tell clients how long – down to the exact second — a visitor stayed on a website. This is also known in the industry as the bounce rate.

Interestingly, the SEM team can tell when a person decided to leave a client’s website because they’d either found what they were looking for, or left for another reason. Maybe the site’s music was annoying or too many ads popped up. Though we can seldom tell the exact reason a person departed, we can hypothesize – and help a client fix the issue. We’ll do all we can to ensure site visitors find what they are looking for.

Before starting at RSA, I was unaware that so much information could be gleaned about website traffic — and that SEM jargon is indeed its own language. Although I’m still learning the ins and outs of SEM — and still have my RSA passport handy — everything sounds more like English now. I also know that the knowledge I’m gaining is invaluable to our clients.

It’s vital to be able to show them how their efforts are paying off. So much more work and analysis goes into the how than most would ever realize. But hard work leads to great rewards when we type a keyword into Google and see that a client is ranked No. 1.

–

Photo courtesy of Danard Vincente

Confessions of an SEM newbie is a post from: RSA Blog

Alert: Shameless self-promotion ahead!

In addition to web development, video production, print design,  SEO, and all the other creative services we offer at RSA, we also have a stellar event management team that spends much of the summer running across the Midwest to spearhead the Wyoming State Fair, Central States Fair, and South Dakota State Fair.

This year our newest RSA team member, Scott Bruce, pitched in to help our event management team with the wide range of duties we handle at the South Dakota State Fair in Huron. After providing transportation, helping with a political campaign video shoot, and serving as all-around good-spirited gopher, Scott was handsomely rewarded with this photo opp:

Scott with the lovely Martina McBride

The well-heeled Martina McBride hit the main stage as Saturday night’s headliner, where she played to a packed crowd.  A lot of sweat and hard work went into all of this year’s fairs, but our event management team pulled through with flying colors. Now they’re sitting down for a well-deserved breather before getting started on next year’s events…great job guys!

RSA rocks the SD State Fair is a post from: RSA Blog

Bidding on a beauty.

On Saturday we headed west for my first Murdo in May classic car auction at Pioneer Auto. After a quick trip to Murdo, I was really getting excited and wondered how such a small town in rural South Dakota can attract so many car enthusiasts.

I lost count of the number of people attending, but there must have been several hundred car lovers enjoying the day.

There was plenty of shopping at the Swap Meet/Auction, and the Murdo Lions club did a great job keeping hungry people satisfied with hamburgers and hot dogs all weekend.

Things really kicked off Friday with the parade, awards for best cars and free live music. People from all across the country attended, and I was lucky to meet people from as close as South Dakota and as far as Washington.

Ian and Pioneer Auto's Dave Jr. at Murdo in May.

Going once…going twice…

Saturday morning the McPherson Auction team opened bidding to a record number of attendees at the classic car auction. Some of my favorites included a 1936 Dodge Street Rod Coupe and a 1955 Pontiac Star Fire convertible – unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take either one home.

The whole weekend was a great experience and I loved seeing all of the classic cars.  I can’t wait to make the trip next year – you could say I’m sold!

Murdo in May classic car auction is a post from: RSA Blog