GI has a new blog

Well the good old blogging days of 2005 are behind us now, we finally upgraded our own blog to fit the modern world. It really IS a big deal because our own stuff is always done last! For anyone visiting this old blogger site, please check us out at our new location... www.goinginteractive.com/blog

Surprising (Maybe?) Social Media Stats

Erik Qualman's Socialnomics blog lists some pretty interesting social media stats.

For instance:

- 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media

- Years to Reach 50 million Users: Radio 38 years, TV 13 years, Internet 4 years, iPod 3 years, Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months... and iPhone apps hit 1 billion in 9 months

- 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices

- The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube

- More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc) are shared on Facebook ... daily

Read the rest here on the Socialnomics blog.

Going Interactive creates RealTalkATL.org

After a little delay and some patience, Going Interactive is proud to announce that the non-profit Future-Foundation Real Talk ATL site is online (and rocken)!

Going Interactive designed and developed the Flash site with the tween audience in mind, keeping it hip, fresh and cool (we'd like to think so at least). The site promotes a healthy lifestyle for young urban teens through the Future Foundations teen abstinence before marriage lesson plan. Going Interactive tried to bring the concept to life with animation, sounds, quizes, real stories, and visuals.

Check out the site at www.realtalkatl.org

More About Future Foundation:
Future Foundation is committed to shaping today’s youth into productive and responsible citizens. We believe that children are the key to our future and to sustainable change. Future Foundation of Atlanta exists because of visionary and founder, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. A Sacramento Kings Forward, Cal basketball star and Trumpet Award recipient, Abdur-Rahim envisioned an agency dedicated to supporting the youth and neighborhood, in which he grew up. The impact of Future Foundation runs deep with eight dynamic programs and three annual events designed to positively influence over 4,000 underserved youth, grades 5 - 12. Nestled in the heart of East Point, Georgia, students have an opportunity to work, play, and relax while building the character necessary to succeed in school and life.

Atlanta / Roswell based Going Interactive works hand-in-hand with each client to develop a unique and creative approach the their project. To find out how you can stand apart from the crowd, contact us today.

Will Anyone Pay for Anything on the Internet?

Here's an interesting little article from Guy Kawaski on Amex's Open forum about how young users of the net pretty much don't pay for little if anything.

Check it out here.

Going Interactive Wins 4 Communicator Awards

We're pleased to announce that we grabbed four 2009 Communicator Awards - Awards of Distinction for:

Wegener Communicaitons - wegener.com

MyBoxercraft Retail - myboxercraft.com

Ron Clark's Great American Teacher's Club - greatamericanteachersclub.com

and last but not least our own site goinginteractive.com

Visit the Communicator Awards site here.

Going Interactive Produces Interactive Flash Slot Machine Kiosk

Going Interactive recently wrapped production of "Triple Play" a customizable interactive "slot machine" themed kiosk system for Consumer Source's Apartment Guide / Rentals.com trade show booth in Las Vegas.

The Flash based piece was installed on three stations at the booth and allowed passers-by to stop and try their luck at winning an iPod touch. As they spun the slot machine they were exposed to promotional Apartment Guide and Rentals.com messaging.

Booth staffers were also able to use an Admin screen to set the time limit on play and set the odds to meet the demand.

To find out how Going Interactive can increase your trade show booth presences through digital media contact us today.

Generous Office Gift Deliveries Ease Pain

We'd like to thank our wonderful Mom for sending the Going Interactive Staff a series of weekly gift basket surprises to ease our suffering as we worked an enormous amount of hours over the past month or so.

We were lucky enough to get huge deliveries of Popcorn, an amazing Fruit Tree, super custom cookies, and today a Candy Basket.

Thanks Mom!

Doug and Jason

New Project Highlight Video - HomeSafetyCouncil.org

Here's a nice little quickie video highlighting our work on the new Home Safety Council website: www.homesafetycouncil.org

new 3Gs iPhone

Going Interactive is excited about some of the upcoming features of the new 3Gs iPhone including video (with editing), better camera, advance TXT, and best of all... copy and paste!
Check out the details and specs.

What's it look like in the GI War Room?

Check it out on the GI Flickr Photo Album.

Fan up!

Hello fellow internet friends - there's been some good success on the recent Facebook page we set up for HSC (www.HomeSafetyCouncil.org). Check it out and Fan up - Home Safety Council Facebook

And while you are on there, Fan up with Going Interactive Faceboook (we feel neglected!)

Home Safety Council - New Site is now Online!

Going Interactive has been working for months on the new Home Safety Council® website and it's finally live. Within the first couple days the site garnished thousands of page views and there's been a consistent series of user sign-ups that are near the hundreds every single day. By those stats alone, the site is already a huge success.

The Home Safety Council® (HSC) is a national nonprofit organization. Through national programs, partnerships and the support of volunteers, HSC educates people of all ages to be safer in and around their homes.

Overall, Going Interactive worked with Brand Resources Group and Home Safety to create a new user friendly, modern design and well thought out website. GI focused on adding new and innovative social elements such as custom forums separated into specific audience groups, blog elements, Facebook fan page, YouTube Channel, Quiz's, polls, Video player and much more. The site pushes users to sign up for free safety tips which is clearly assisting in the increase of enrollment. GI will continue to keep the site fresh and up-to-date with BRG and HSC with new and improved safety content.

Check out the new site and pass it along - www.homesafetycouncil.org

Scenes from the Front at Going Interactive

Here's a scene from this weekend as we figured out some complicated stuff on a big project!

The Gauntlet Interactive Quiz Game Video Highlight

A quick highlight clip of our Flash game for Ron Clark's Great American Teacher Club site.

"You Pick 'Em" (Weeds that is ;) - Flash Mini Game

Here is a video highlight clip of the "You Pick 'Em" mini flash game Going Interactive produced for the new WeedPro.com website project.



Visit WeedPro.com to play the game.

Great American Teacher's Club Site Highlight Clip

Here is a new video clip highlighting our work for Ron Clark's "Great American Teacher's Club" website. This clip is also under the Work > Web section of our website goinginteractive.com

What happens when you put Flash, Flex and Adobe AIR all together?

Jason Davenport, Doug Davenport, and Randall Potter pile into the Going Interactive agency studio conference room for Printies creation lock-down. Making a huge international AIR, Flex, Flash app is no easy task. Current GI studio hours are from 8am - 9pm, 7 long days a week. Wow!


The Printies app will allow kids to design with easy to use tools and print out their very own fabric plush toy. GI has been working on the custom application for months focusing on design for the target tween girl audience, ease of use & extreme usability, and some serious (serious) coding and development. There's been a whole lot of ink being used during beta testing and getting all the happy Printies to align perfectly on the fabric sheets.


Once the Printies toy hits Target and Toys R Us... there will be millions of art and tool combinations and there's no limit to what you can create!

Average iPhone App: 19.9 Uses, 9.6 Minutes Per Play

Some interesting stats about Apps for the Apple iPhone...
"The study also found that 46% of users play their games/apps five times or more, while 10.2% play 25 times or more."
Read the full article

YouTube launches new ways to engage with brands

YouTube is mixing it up a bit for brands who like to spend money. There's a new mosiac video type of display available now. Read the post

New Google Results "Options" Tab - Serious Search Results

If you a google search for something today you'll notice a new "Show options..." text tab at the top left of your results.

Clicking this you can then Filter your results by Videos, Forums, Reviews. Date and Time, etc.

This is some serious search results refining!

It's now more than ever to keep up video, blogging and content updates for all your web seo marketing efforts.

PS - Click the WONDER WHEEL option too for an interactive flow graph of your search term. Very cool.

Going Interactive Creates "The Gauntlet" - Interactive Quiz System

Going Interactive recently completed work on an ambitious new addition to Ron Clark's Great American Teachers Club website (which we also designed and developed).

The addition is "The Gauntlet" a fully customizable interactive online Quiz creation system for teachers to create their own unique quizzes for students. Member of the GATC can login, create an online "classroom", add students, enter 10 quiz questions and answers and then upload their own face photo to be inserted into the "Knight" character that players take through the Gauntlet as they play.

The teacher then send a unique URL and UN and PW to their students who login and play along to guide their "Knight Teacher" through the Gauntlet. If the student gets a wrong answer they see their teacher eliminated in a humorous fashion. If they get the answer correct they see the teacher dance or shoot hoops or do some other funny "success' move.

Overall this new quiz maker is an awesome addition to a site already rich in educational resources.

We invite you to play a sample "Going Interactive" Quiz by clicking here and entering the UN "GoingInteractive1B" and PW "hZsZ" (no quotes). Have fun!

TV Revs to Decline 21% in 2 Years; Digital 'Transformation' is Only Hope

After six years of hovering between $20 billion and $22 billion, the 2009 TV industry revenue will take a dramatic fall below the $20 billion mark starting this year.

TV industry revenue for 2009 is expected to end at an even $17 billion, a 21.2% drop from 2007’s $21.5 billion. A "digital transformation" is an ideal next path.

Read the article

The new WeedPro site is online & has plenty of features

Going Interactive worked with the great WeedPro staff to create a unique site from scratch which fits with their new natural and organic services. WeedPro is a Georgia based company who provides a myriad of residential and commercial services.

Going Interactive wanted to make them stand out from the crowd and give them a variety of educational and social features. Some of these include a convenient Send to Friend function, an Add This social networking share tool, the customized WeedPro Blog, a WeedPro Twitter account and a WeedPro YouTube Channel all of which help with organic SEO.

Going Interactive also filmed and animated a number of videos to be featured in the Education section of the WeedPro website.

A short and entertaining Game – "You Pick Em" was also created to keep customers on the site and having fun.

Overall the new WeedPro site is a great example of a site that utilizes a variety of new and relevant interactive features to keep things fresh, educational and entertaining.

Check out the full site – www.weedpro.com – and if you are based in the Metro Atlanta area, give them a call and go organic!

GI Produces Fun Animated Promotional Video

Going Interactive recently wrapped up production on this fun little promo video for "The Connected Life" for Edelman. It features a dude who's trying to hook up some complicated DVRs and cable, etc. But suddenly the Connected Life super person appears to hook it up for him and shows him how cool it can be in his house. In the end he's happy and his family dances with joy. GI wrote, animated and did the voice over.

Check it out:


Or direct YouTube link here.

PowerPoint to Flash Interactive CDs

We've had a number of projects this year where we design and develop a rich PowerPoint presentation and then process it into an interactive and menu driven Flash presentation.

When producing comprehensive Sales Tools for distribution the advantages to this process are numerous. Doing the actual content in PPT enables us to work easier with the Client on edits and revisions. Files are quickly transferred back and forth and review sessions are efficient b/c both parties can view the same exact file while discussing via conference calls. Edits can be made right on the fly. Also the PPT stage enables the Client to internally edit content with their internal team.

After the screen by screen content is complete we then move it into Flash to "hook up" external linking items like Cost-In-Use calculators, Flash video files, PDFs, docs, and external website links. This is where the Flash advantage comes in. Doing this in PPT would produce a painfully clunky and unreliable button linking monster. Not to mention an unnecessarily oversized file.

That leads us to the other Flash advantage of being able to hook up a main Menu Title screen, hidden Forward / Backward buttons, and roll over sub menus. All these give the presenter the option to customize the presentation based on the audience.

The last but not least advantage is budget. Using the PPT on the front end for customized design, content and review sessions saves time and production resources and thus makes the overall project price lower than if it was all being produced in Flash.

The final result is a fully interactive presentation with menus, video content, links and more that can be distributed on CD or on little jump drives. It is the perfect presentation tool and leave behind item for any B2B sales and marketing department.

To find out how Going Interactive can help your company with an interactive sales tool contact us today.

March 09' Web Stats Reveal Twitter Frenzy

Are you using Twitter yet?

Well according to this recent survey, you might be. Twitter the infamous microblogging site experienced double-digit growth last month in March growing 131% to 9.3 million visitors.

Here's the full article.

Feel free to follow us @ Doug Davenport or Jason Davenport and Going Interactive.

GI Produces Fun Promotional Nitrile Glove Video

Going Interactive recently wrapped up production on a promotional video clip for Kimberly-Clark Professional's Kimtech Pure G3 and G5 Sterling Nitrile Gloves.

The piece was created with a green screen video of a real live gloved hand intermixed with motion graphics.

To view the live video click here.

Teaching kids how to Twitter

Interesting idea here coming from the UK - where schools may teach kids how to Twitter, blog, podcast, etc.
Check out the story

Going Interactive Wins Gold AMY & Silver AMY Awards

Last night (3.19.09) Going Interactive brought home two big awards from the AMA AMY ceremony.

MyBoxercraft.com was the overall winner of the Web Transactional category and took Gold.

Ron Clark's - Great American Teachers Club microsite was a runner-up in the Web Microsite category.

GI would like to thank all of the Going Interactive team members who participated in making both of these sites successful as well as the clients for the great opportunities.

Here's some photos of last nights event:

GI's infamous "audience shot from the stage"


Principal's Jason Davenport & Doug Davenport saying "thanks"


The awards

See more photos on the Going Interactive Flickr feed

Don't forget you can also "fan" us on Going Interactive Facebook

iPhone Update

This just in...
Apple just announced that iPhone OS 3.0 software, coming this summer, will deliver 100 new features, including cut, copy and paste; MMS; landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes; stereo Bluetooth; Notes syncing; shake to shuffle; parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps; and a new Voice Memo app. Apple also released an updated SDK, with more than 1,000 new Application Programming Interfaces, to registered developers.

Learn More at Apple

(yeah!)

Facebook- Not Google

Interesting bit of information about Facebook giving more referrals than Google on some sites.
Here's a great quote from the article... "Soon [SEO/SEM spend] will start to follow the eyeballs and transition from Google to social media".

GI Vimeo Channel

We've always enjoyed watching creative videos on Vimeo, so we finally created our own Going Interactive Vimeo Channel to share with others. Check it out.


MyBoxercraft: 4 of 5 Behind the Scenes Photo Shoot from Going Interactive on Vimeo.

Shooting the Gauntlet

Here's some scenes from our recent video green screen shoot for elements of Ron Clark's "Gauntlet" interactive game for teachers currently in development here.

Going Interactive is up for 2 more AMY Awards

Going Interactive is proud to announce that we're up for 2 more AMY Awards this year.

GI has been selected as a winner for the category "Web & Interactive: Web Campaign/Microsite" with their Ron Clark (famous educator) marketing site "Great American Teachers Club Advance Membership Promo".

GI is also a winner in the category of "Web & Interactive: Transactional Web Site" for our work on Myboxercraft.com for BoxerCraft.

Getting Your Brand Into Online Communities

I found this interesting article about some big brands and how they are using online communities to get conversations of "real" people started. Check it out here.
- Jason

Printies Design Studio Empowers Kids to Create Own One-of-a-Kind Stuffed Toys

Going Interactive just finished the online Demo version of the Printies application for the American International Toy Fair in New York City (February 15-18 2009).

The Printies online design studio at MyPrinties.com will offer kids an online experience that is simple, intuitive and entertaining. MyPrinties.com will offer children thousands of professional art assets and design tools like coloring, painting, and resizing effects. There, children will be able to start with a blank canvas or select from quick start templates that allow them to customize professional designs. Kids can customize everything from a Printies’ hair to its toes and can even add scanned photos and other images for truly limitless customization.

The Printies line will make its debut this Fall with three themed activity kits: Printies™ Pet Design Studio, Printies™ Ocean Design Studio, and Printies™ Jungle Design Studio.

Check out this New York TV coverage of Toy Fair

Going Interactive Wins Gold Addy & Bronze Addy

Going Interactive won an amazing Gold Addy Award at Saturday's big event in Atlanta for UPS "The International Paperless Adventure" online game!

Going Interactive also took home a Bronze Addy Award for the MyBoxercraft.com consumer based online retail site!

GI wants to thank the their fantastic clients and all those GI team members who were involved in the strategy, design, development and creation of these 2 Addy Award winning sites.

Glove Video Shooting at Going Interactive

Here's a quick pick from a green screen shoot at the studio yesterday. The subject was that pretty white glove for an animated video project.

Producing Ron Clark's GATC National Webcast

Last night Atlanta based "Super Educator" Ron Clark has his first national webcast on his Going Interactive produced new website for teachers, The Great American Teachers Club.

It was pretty exciting to see Ron get on the camera and answer site Member's questions in real time. Members got answers to questions ranging from motivating students to Ron's favorite snack foods to using music and lyrics to teach difficult subjects.

Video Shooting at Going Interactive

Going Interactive just wrapped a video shoot session for MyBoxercraft.com. Here's a few photos from the model - product session.

New Going Interactive 2008 Showreel

Going Interactive has just uploaded the 2008 Showreel. Check it out on our portfolio site GoingInteractive.com - GI Facebook (and become a FAN), or GI YouTube channel (and subscribe).

The Showreel contains snippets of selected work form 2008. It includes projects like Ron Clark's - Great American Teachers Club, XvsY Game, Guess What I Am? Game, Kudzu.com's MyBusinessMVP, Atlanta Financial Center, Real Talk ATL, Willow Glynn Resort, Hospitalogic, Peachtree TV, Land of a Thousand Hills, and MyBoxercraft.

Of course there's much more to learn about and see so if you're interested in getting ahead in 2009, visit us at Going Interactive (see some old Showreels) or email us.

25 Years of Mac - Original Demo 1984

Oh how different our company would be if this had not happened.

Thank You Steve!

Twitter is fast!

Here's an interesting article about just how fast Twitter is. At this point, it's beating the news to the "news" stories. Read the full article.

MLK Day - Feed the Hungry

Members of Going Interactive volunteered their time yesterday to help set up for the big Atlanta MLK Hosea Feed the Hungry event at Turner Field on Saturday. The event is set to help clothe and feed the hungry and homeless around Atlanta. The volunteers had to cover a pretty large portion of a turner field level with carpet.

MyBoxercraft - Catalog Photo Shoot Videos on YouTube

We've completed a series of 5 Behind the Scenes videos for MyBoxercraft.com. GI followed the crew and models around as they shot photos for their upcoming catalog.

GI got it all on tape and created them a customized new YouTube Channel. Check out the MyBoxercraft Channel with the 5 current videos. More videos will be coming next month, so subscribe and stay tuned!

For creative video and utilizing SEM tactics, email Going Interactive today.

Here's a preview of one of the videos currently on YouTube.

Apple changes it's iTunes Managed Rights

Some pretty good news for iTunes lovers.

Under its "iTunes Plus" program, Apple said all music would be sold without digital rights management (DRM) — that is, iTunes music buyers won't suffer track playability limited only to iPod/iTunes products, and will be able to share and listen to their tracks as they please.

There's some price differentiation of course, but we think it's worth it!

Getting Ready for ToyFair 2009

Going Interactive is once again working with Technosource to produce a great new creative toy product called Printies. It will make it's first appearance at this years ToyFair in NYC. More to come this Spring / Summer.

GI Wins 2 More Addys

Going Interactive has won 2 more Addys!

The award winning projects are the UPS Paperless Adventure online game and the MyBoxercraft.com online-retail based website.

GI is happy to hear the good news and will find out more details at the big event sponsored by the Atlanta Ad Club. A special awards presentation will be in February at Opera.

Uers Expect Companies to Have Social-Media Presence

An overwhelming majority (93 percent) of online Americans say companies should have a social-media presence, and 85 percent believe these companies also should be interacting with consumers through social media, according to an article found on MarketingVox.

Other interesting findings:

• Men are twice as likely than women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media (33 percent vs. 17 percent).
• One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe that companies should actively market to them via social networks.
• The wealthiest households (household income of $75K+) also believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media.
• Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households ( those with three or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

Going Interactive understands the current trends in social media and online marketing. Contact us today to see how we can help your business succeed.
* Screen taken from www.GreatAmericanTeachersClub.com (created by Going Interactive)

Online Fun, Flannel, Ron, and Adobe Site of the Day

Recent News from GI:

What do flannel boxers, a fun family guessing board game, Atlanta's own star educator Ron Clark, and Adobe Site of the Day have in common?

They all have new hot new websites produced by local interactive and creative agency Going Interactive.

Guess What I Am! is a hilarious new twist on a classic guessing game that is available at toy retailers nationwide. The new Flash website features complete interactive content including Flash video and an animated interactive version of the physical game. If you're a parent of young children you'll definitely want to check this new game out at guesswhatiamgame.com or at your local toy retailer.

MyBoxercraft.com is home to Atlanta based Boxercraft's new retail focused website. The site offers full online shopping of 100s of quality Boxercraft items from hoodies, to capris to those good old flannel boxers. It also contains social marketing elements like a Frappr map where Boxercraft fans can add their photo and location and a Boxercraft Flickr photo group. GI created all user paths and designs to meet the needs of the target audience.

GreatAmeicanTeachersClub.com is home to famous Atlanta educator Ron Clark's new promotional site for the upcoming "Great American Teachers Club". This high bandwidth site features full motion green screen video of Ron and Ron Clark Academy Co-Founder Kim Bearden (carrying a chainsaw no less!) talking up the benefits to teachers of joining the club. For those users who sign up get to see a special video of Ron dancing and showing off his famous crazy socks. The full site will be launching early 2009 and have tons of great teacher resources.

Going Interactive wins Adobe's Site of the Day for their viral online marketing game - The International Paperless Adventure. GI took the brand new UPS service online in a fun and interesting way. The UPS service offers customers the ability to ship internationally without all the hassle of paperwork. The game takes users through a variety of locations and includes unique destination endings, sounds, music and more. Check it out at http://paperlessgame.ups.com.

Going Interactive was brought on to develop online strategy and design and produce these sites from ground up.

Learn more, visit the Going Interactive official site address is www.goinginteractive.com.

A Merry Time for All - GI Holiday Party 2008

Thanks to Veni Vidi Vici for a wonderful Holiday Diner last night. Here's the GI staff and significant others enjoying the desert and coffee.

Going Interactive Facebook Fan Page

We've got a new Facebook Fan page.

It's got some great Staffer Parody photos on it right now.

Click on over and become a Fan.

Holiday Video Ads with Humor

Here's one I wish we had done!

A little long but pretty funny.

Happy Thanksgiving from GI

Hello.
We at Going Interactive have a lot to be thankful for. We hope you do too.
Happy Thanksgiving from Going Interactive