We’re excited to announce the launch of the Gilt.com series, “Unracked,” which Moped produced alongside Hudsun Media. Join host Stefani Greenfield for eight exclusive interviews with industry insiders, including supermodel Molly Sims, hit-show Gossip Girl stylist Eric Daman, and inventor of the wrap-dress Diane von Furstenburg.  Check it out on www.Gilt.com/Unracked.

On the heels of that, be sure to watch our latest video for Stuart Weitzman, which we produced alongside Studio XL.

Studio XL also joined us in the development and launch of the brand look, voice and website for the Jackson Gabriel Silver Foundation. Our first phase of work resulted in a new logo, colors, slogan, and website production for JGSF.  Be sure to check out December’s Mileage Report Update article to get involved in our Action for Jackson donation effort this month.

We’ve also spent some time with Brooklyn’s American Cancer Society to produce a photo shoot that will result in the 2011 ACS Gala Save-the-Date and Invitation.

And we would like to welcome Hoff Productions as a new client.  We’re excited to be producing a series of program demos for their Development team.

It’s November and we have a lot to be thankful for this season. However, most of the time, being thankful doesn’t seem to be that money-generating.

This month we received a wonderful followup from Concern Worldwide and Twestival 2010 for our work from earlier this year.

We had been fortunate to have been approached as a partner in a worldwide social media effort that is an impressive and telling case for how social media can be a far-reaching, highly-impactful and wonderfully inspiring tool for social change. (See Social Media Strategies for Success – Multimedia Marketing: Great Results for Social Good)

It also helped raise over $400,000 for education.

Clearly the efforts were well worth it, and the media portion we provided helped raise awareness, galvanize support, and resulted in donations from 175 cities.

But that’s not where it ends.

This follow up piece that has come out is powerful. In a candid and frank manner, the message about the impact of every dollar is conveyed, and inherently creates more support from anyone who was involved in the 2010 efforts. Watch this update titled Twestival 2010 in Liberia.

To top it off, Twestival Founder, Amanda Rose, sent a personal message to us that did nothing short of guarantee we would be involved again in 2011.

We immediately responded with a “Thanks,” (of course), and “What can we do for next year?” So what’s the lesson?

There’s no shortage of conversation around how donor relations is strengthened by personal and thoughtful recognition for donors. Brands that recognize their consumers in an immediate way create fans for life. And when media content speaks to an audience member directly, there’s no stopping them from rallying their friends around that content. There’s so reason to dive deep into these theories; rather, this is more of a case in point.

To be clear, people who get involved in causes like to be recognized as part of the reason for the results. In this case, a simple and really smart way of saying thanks got instant buy-in for next year, which propels forward the mission of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for all the local non-profits that Twestival 2011 plans to feature. How’s that for something to be thankful for?

Do you ever create direct messages to speak to your audience?  Do you speak candidly about results?  How are you sharing?  Let us know what works and doesn’t work; we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Music has long since been associated with spreading positive messages, and last year at this time, we were working on mtvU’s 2009 Woodie Awards, where artists like John Legend, Alicia Keys and Wyclef Jean were celebrated for doing good around the world.  We edited the Good Woodie awards package; check out the winner!

Apparently November has a lot of do-good musicians being put in the spotlight because jumping back into 2008, we were working alongside Vinnie Potestivo to produce a series of podcasts featuring Paramore, the Goo Goo Dolls, Rob Thomas, Suzzanne Vega and others – all in an effort to fund raise for the artists’ charities of choice by auctioning off photos they had taken from the road on the Nikon D60 camera. Great example of leverage content, celebrity clout and product power to increase awareness about a cause. Check a few of them out.

Moped is where it’s at: the 2010 Business for Social Responsibility Conference (BSR) alongside Fenton, where we are collaborating to create a combination of interactive communication tools via Fenton’s on-site Share cameras for daily updates (YouTube search: Share BSR), on-site edits of session talks, and footage gathering for a highlight reel and sales tool. Make sure you visit BSR in person or online to see what incredible progress is being made in good business citizenry, sustainability and beyond.

Global Philanthropy Group was hosting a women’s mentoring event with Tory Burch and we were there to capture it all.

We helped Edelman PR announce a major CEO transition through a video Q&A and direct staff messaging.

Sterling Publishing has an exciting new author and book series to introduce in a biography piece we produced.

And we’ve wrapped up on AAPIP’s animation for their 20th Anniversary & Summit: Building Democratic Philanthropy, which was seen on the very same screen you’ve watched Steve Jobs introduce Apple’s shiny new toys.  Our work helped to galvanize support for a direction in philanthropy that builds upon community resources.  Watch the animation here.

First off, let’s consider the word moving.

What are your vehicles? It doesn’t have to be just one, and frankly, probably shouldn’t be. Unless you’re a particularly famous movie star, you probably don’t have a jet engine sitting in front of your home. It takes a car or public transport to get to the airport, at which point you take an Air Tran, moving sidewalk and hopefully something larger than a puddle jumper to get to your destination. Your message doesn’t get where it’s going by just sitting on your website, playing at a meeting without introduction, or printing on fliers. Your content probably also won’t do well if you are throwing it all in one place and hoping people rifle through it. The right combination of vehicles will get you to your destination on time and not incredibly exhausted from wasted time or lack of momentum.

Going somewhere? After all the effort dealing with security, let’s hope so. A message has to be taking the audience from one place to the next. It should be teaching, driving a point forward, and/or transitioning into the next portion of content effectively. If at the end of the message, you’ve gone from point A to point B, and nobody is asleep, then you’ve moved forward. You get to Pass Go!  But remember, you don’t benefit from going zero to 60 in 3 seconds flat.  Every message needs a beginning, middle and end if you want the end to actually mean anything.

Moving me to what? That depends on what the story is, and yes, sometimes it will be moving your audience to tears, laughter, or fury. Sometimes it’s moving them to talk about you with other people, or retweet or Like your comment.  Sometimes it’s getting them to donate money, purchase something, or make a pledge. At the end of your message, make sure you’re asking people to go beyond your message. The point B you bring them to through your story should invite them to visit a point C, D, E… and the journey isn’t over.

So, what’s the meaning of moving? In Webster’s terms, bringing up emotions or strong feelings. You want your message to resonate, whether it’s that you are the right organization or company to partner with, you are the right organization to donate to, or you are the right brand to connect with. You never hear people recounting a story because it didn’t have an impact on them. Crafting that message to move people is a critical step.

When you find the right avenues, the right direction, the right destination and the right drivers, your moving message will definitely matter more. So what are you waiting for? Move it!!

Have you see moving messages lately? Tell us what you liked or didn’t like!

Last year at this time, we were in the thick of two pretty notable projects. Early in the month we were shooting the 25-minute character development tape, with which Hud:Sun Media was able to sell the now Bravo show, Pregnant in Heels, set to premiere in the coming months. In creating this ‘pilot’ with Executive Producers Michael Rourke and Gerette Allegra, we were able to work through the strengths of the concept, the voice of the characters and the several storylines, each having so many possibilities. As with any ‘pitch,’ the time spent honing this story was where opportunities and holes were discovered, and eventually honed to high-heeled perfection!

From heels straight into Halloween, we went straight to work with the MTV360 team to get MTV’s inaugural Ulalume Halloween Festival show on the air, including performances with Kid Cudi and Dead by Sunrise, as well as the hour-long MTV special. Paramore’s headlining performance was off the charts, and the Twilight Saga: New Moon integration offered behind the scenes and first-looks that were to die for!

We are picking up speed this month and catching up with 8 of your favorite designers and style icons in New York and Los Angeles for a new web series we’re producing with Hud:Sun Media.  Stay tuned for that.

We crewed up a Discovery Studios shoot in Brooklyn for a development tape, as well as a Best Buy shoot in Minnesota for Edelman PR.

Make sure you watch the 2nd of five Stuart Weitzman pieces of video art we produced with Rick and Margaret Biedel of Studio XL. This one has attitude! Remember, each month a new one will premiere on the Stuart Weitzman website. And look for the stores to become retrofitted with flat-screens so this playful glamour can dazzle you up close and personal.

And our latest new collaboration has been with Fenton, a leading public interest and advocacy firm. We’re animating for Asian Americans Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, talking corporate social responsibility, and working with No Peace Without Justice to deliver an urgent plea to ban female genital mutilation in all parts of the world. Stay tuned as this particularly moving message becomes a vehicle for a critical international conversation.

Last month we looked at how multimedia can be placed in enough places to ensure your message is getting out there.

But let’s back up – before you start putting up any ol’ piece of Flip cam footage, or paying for a highly polished multimedia annual report, let’s ask Why? What’s the point? What is this accomplishing? You’ll want to have an answer whether you’re the one putting in the execution effort, or explaining why you want to allocate funds towards it.

It creates a personal a connection. People connect to people. And we as people are made up of stories – amazing stories that, through a combination of written word, pictures, audio and video, can create personal connections that people remember and trust (i.e. buy from). The difference between you sending out a PDF and sending out a PDF with a video link is that people see who you are, connect to multiple ‘feelings’ about you, and may know nearly instantly if they are interested in more.

It increases credibility. So you can’t all be in the room for a meeting or event. But you can still deliver a message from everyone. And in many ways, it’s like having them in the room.  Depending on the agenda, this can give you authority and a reference point you might not have otherwise.

It communicates faster. You know this one, right? A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video contains a thousand pictures. Set the stage for a serious and somber conversation, or a youthful and energetic one, by what you show. Through the right combination of multimedia elements, we as audiences can be given an axis point for the conversation at hand.

It communicates better. We’ve all sat through those awkwardly long speeches, failed jokes, or less than ideal acoustics for the microphone that’s being used.  Pre-produced media equals fail-proof delivery, whether it’s being used as the main format for an event, or as a short-form segue-way into different parts of a meeting. We can all benefit from a little editing.

It adds information. Think through all the extras you learned through the old VH1 pop-up videos! There are many ways you can ‘add information,’ whether it’s detailed text on-screen, the use of retro-looking graphics or modern-looking animation to communicate genre and energy, the use of black and white to convey the style of a silent film, or the use of song lyrics to communicate emotion. Imagine trying to perform all those elements yourself – awkward, right?

It amplifies energy and emotion. This really builds off the last one. But add the word ‘control’ as well. If you’re asking people to communicate a very emotionally charged message to a live audience, it can sometimes put unfair pressure on them that backfires on stage (nervousness, rambling, etc.). Think about how you can help their performance by pre-producing these elements so they remain within the framework you’ve decided on, as well as added the energy and emotion you are looking for.

It’s flat out more fun and interesting. All in all, stories are more impactful when they are told the right way. And it’s fun to put them together and watch the magic happen. When you think through why you’re producing your multimedia elements, make sure you’re finding the actual benefits in all of this – which will ensure you’re spending money and energy the best way possible.

Any other ideas? Totally disagree with this article? Please comment!

Last September, Nike was busy building buzz and community around its Nike Plus Human Race event, which was set for October 23^rd and 24^th.  We collaborated with mtvU to tell the stories of student ambassadors at Ohio State and USC, whose efforts rallied hundreds of students to get them ‘up and running.’  The school logging the most miles won $50,000 and earned bragging rights over their sworn rival.

So how were multimedia tools put into play for this initiative? A series of promotional spots and short feature videos were distributed across television and web, including Nike and mtvU sites.  It was also picked up across social media outlets and blogs, which created real conversations around the initiative and drove viewers to the Nike Plus Human Race microsite where anyone could create their own teams, upload videos, blog and collectively compete worldwide.  In the meantime, all the content featured Nike’s suggested way to measure miles, which was a device they sold to fit into a running shoe.  The efforts led to runners logging over 802,000 miles around the world.

This effort to galvanize people across the planet, from the ground up, succeeded in part through the use of ongoing and interactive multimedia that allowed audiences to become active participants throughout the build-up of this event, as well as during the event itself, no matter where they were.  Yes, it was backed by a Nike budget, but it was a particularly smart strategy that pushed content out and brought people in, which can be applied across any well-thought out campaign.

Thoughts on this campaign?  Please share your comments!!

Recently we’ve collaborated with Studio XL to post-produce a series of 5 video spots for Stuart Weitzman’s new Winter line.  Check them out as they roll out on Stuart Weitzman’s homepage each month – Watch the first one now! These conceptual pieces drive home the playful glamour in this season’s line up.

We’re also about to launch new content we produced for Moms Made Easy after shooting interviews with moms, kids and Founder and CEO Monica Taylor.  You want cool products for you and your kids that will make life easier?  You’ll like these products for sure!  Stay tuned on that front.

The adorable Jackson Gabriel himself.

And thanks to John Pellitteri over at Grassi CPAs for thinking of Moped when he introduced us to Alex Silver of the Jackson Gabriel Silver Foundation (JGSF).  In October of 2007, Alex and Jamie Silver’s incredible son, Jackson, was born with Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB, which is an inherited connective tissue disease causing blisters in the skin.  The Silvers are founding JGSF to help their son and other children facing this life-threatening skin disease via the support of researchers who are working to find a cure for EB.  Stay tuned as Moped works to establish the foundation’s media presence, tell their story, and help them work towards the cure for EB.