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Resort Video Production

Since our inception, one of our great passions has been resort video production.   While my friends usually think we’re going off on vacation, creating breathtaking resort marketing materials can be a tireless job.  It is, however, one that we love.  The passion we have for this unique medium has certainly been evident in the success we have enjoyed with our clients.

What are the secrets to resort video production?  I would love to give you a quick list, but the answer is a bit complex.  In order to be successful at producing resort videos, digital marketing collateral or in-room videos, your materials must do much more than simply show you what the resort looks like.  To create a true success, they must effectively communicate what it FEELS like.

As with any campaign, we must make an emotional connection with consumers.  For resorts, or tourism marketing, we have to communicate the feeling of being there.  Whether it is the calm and tranquil relaxation you experience from sitting on a secluded beach in Hawaii, or the rush of adrenaline you get from rushing down the snow-covered slopes in Colorado, we always find a way to bring the audience to your resort through breathtaking visuals, music, and voiceover or actors.  For a production to be successful, this is simply a necessity.

All too often, our clients have turned to us after their previous efforts have underperformed.  Usually, they are a bit puzzled as to whey their new video is not converting effectively.  In every single case, our team has not just changed the visuals, we have completely changed the approach.  By working closely with the resort’s marketing team, we try to dig down as to why people love the resort.  What makes them return?  What excites them about coming to your little piece of paradise?  Once we have the answer to those questions, we create videos and a campaign that can dramatically increase conversions.

For our clients, the great news is that technology has dramatically reduced the costs of resort video production.  Today, we use Canon’s newest cinema technology, that allows us to capture feature-film quality visuals at a lower cost, and with a smaller crew, than ever before.  In addition, we have drones that allow us to sweep over the ocean or treetops and fly onto your property with incredible grace and beauty.  It allows you, and your guests, a unique experience that they have never seen before, at a fraction of the cost of traditional aerials.

As president of the Random Agency, I have been fortunate to produce and direct at resorts all over the world.  I’ve been to all 50 states, and 14 different countries.  Whether it is for a new campaign, a commercial, or a television show like ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, my friends always say the same thing:  “It must be tough!”  Truth be told, we do work long hours, travel great distances, and work tirelessly to maximize our time in paradise.  At the end of the day, however, working at a beautiful resort sure does beat sitting in a cubicle.

Let your audience take flight to your resort.

About the Author

Randy Pryor is the president of The Random Agency in Orlando, Florida.  For over 20 years, he has produced commercials, television shows, in-room programing, and sales DVDs for some of the biggest names in the tourism industry.  If you have any questions, please contact him at Randy@GoRandom.com or at 888-Go-Random.

For the past twenty years, I have been involved with Tourism Marketing.  From my first job at a major resort, to creating campaigns for the biggest tourism company on earth, I have enjoyed every minute.  Today, I’ll try to whittle down two decades of experience into the 5 Secrets of Tourism Marketing.

Give your audience the experience of being a guest.

1. Tourism Marketing Must be Integrated.  If you’re involved with resort marketing, the days of just running television commercials, or just having a website are long gone.  Today, campaigns must be fully integrated, with print, TV, a great website with video, remarketing, and display advertising.  You must reach the people who are searching for a great vacation, and you need to increase awareness of your brand to those who will take a vacation six months from now.
2. You Should Use Direct Response.  Direct response marketing gives you immediate feedback, and an immediate return on your investment.  In less than one week, your campaign can become self-funding, and your advertising expense suddenly becomes a profit center.  One caveat – you must find an agency with significant direct response experience, and more importantly, a great record of success.  The industry track record is just 5%, but some agencies, like Random, have a success rate of over 90%.  Choose your agency carefully… it is the most important decision you will make.
3. Social Media is Paramount.  Tourism destinations serve as an escape to guests.  Your team has created incredible accommodations, service, and experiences for your guests, but millions of people may stumble across your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram pages.  Your social media team must have a clear voice, and personality to convey what it means to be a guest at your destination.  Are you exclusive?  A family resort?  Perfect for active, adventure-seekers, or an ideal escape for those who just want to relax on a deserted beach?  Your agency, and your social media team, must work closely to create that voice, and help build your brand to a new audience.
4. Show them, Don’t tell them.  When you’re looking for the ultimate vacation, do you want to read a lot of lengthy text and look at a few pictures, or would you rather take flight over the incredibly landscaped gardens, soar over the sparkling pool, and fly across the white sand beaches and crystal blue sea?  With new camera technology, drones, and great crews, we can create incredible videos at just a fraction of what it would have cost you a few years ago.  Work with an agency that specializes in creating the experience of being at your resort, and you will be amazed at the differences in your conversions.
5. Create a Relationship with Your Guests.  Every guest that visits your resort is likely to tell a few friends of their experience.  Make sure that those stories are great ones.  Your relationship begins with your commercials, your print ads, and your social media team.  It continues with your call center representatives, your front desk staff, the restaurant service, pool attendants and housekeeping.  Once they leave to fly home, make sure that relationship continues.  Keep in touch through email, direct mail, and social media.  Send special offers, key updates on your resort, or simple photos at that perfect time of year.  By keeping that relationship going, you will keep your guests returning year after year.

About the author:

Randy Pryor is the president of Random, a leading tourism marketing and resort advertising agency in Orlando, Florida.  He has been creating tourism advertising for over twenty years for some of the largest resorts in the world.  Please contact him at Randy@GoRandom.com with any questions.

Let your audience take flight over your resort.

The words Direct Response Marketing can instantly create apprehension from most marketing executives and business owners.  It is easily the most difficult form of advertising to master, but the one with the greatest potential rewards.  If done correctly, it can transform your entire company.  As president of The Random Agency, I have had the pleasure of generating tens of millions of dollars for our clients through direct response.  Our products have ranged in price from $19.95 to over $30,000, in a huge variety of categories.  From tourism marketing to kitchen gadgets, there are few businesses that could not benefit from DR.  Today, I’d like to share five reasons why every business should use direct response advertising.

1. Direct Response Advertising can be incredibly effective.  Direct response marketing can be one of the only ways a tiny company can grow to millions of dollars in sales in a few short months.  Through DRTV, we establish an MER, or media efficiency ratio.  Simply put, the MER is gross sales divided by media costs.  Generally, if that ratio is over 1.75, your campaign is successful and can use profits to expand rapidly.  If the MER is high enough, your business can easily qualify for media funding, which allows your company to expand advertising at an even faster pace, and create a major presence in the marketplace.
2. Direct Response Marketing provides immediate results.  If you’ve ever spent millions of dollars in brand advertising, you know that results of that campaign are gauged in months or even years.  With direct response television, we know in days.  By appealing directly to consumers, we receive immediate feedback, and can quickly gauge response.  While our test periods are usually 1-2 weeks, and drag orders can continue for months, we know immediately if we have a hit.
3. Picking a Direct Response Agency is easy.  Actually, we should say that picking a direct response agency should be easy.  You can ultimately narrow down direct response agencies by one simple question:  “What is your success rate in direct response?”  Why is this so important?  The industry average is between 5-10%, while The Random Agency’s success rate is over 90%.  As I mentioned, direct response is one of the most difficult forms of marketing to master, and only a few agencies do it well.  Do your homework, and your chance of success is over 1000% greater.
4. Direct Response advertising is much less expensive.  Did you know that DRTV rates are sold at a fraction of the cost of normal advertising rates?  Television stations sell this time at special rates, provided there is a specific call to action to consumers.  All you need to have is phone number or a website address, and let us handle the rest.
5. Direct Response advertising pays for itself.  Most companies have an annual advertising expense budget.  With direct response, those advertising dollars can instantly be returned in revenue.  Our typical media test ranges between $10,000 and $15,000.  If you have a positive return, you expand the campaign.  Suddenly, your advertising isn’t an expense… it’s a profit center.

If you’re ready to get started on a potential direct response campaign, do your homework!  Selecting the right agency to help you is the most important decision you will make.  If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me directly here.   We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors!

The Story of Emotions in Advertising

A great story always elicits emotions.  As you watch a great film or television show, or read a great book, you may feel happiness, or sadness, you may be inspired, or you may feel your heart break.  Great stories may make you laugh, may make you cry, and some will make you do both… at the same time.

These emotions may catch you off guard.  After all, you probably went to see the film, or picked up the book, as entertainment.  But truly great stories go far beyond entertainment.  They pull you in to their world.  They envelope you.  Some, perhaps, may even change you, and your outlook on life, forever.

When we create advertising campaigns, our goal is the same.  We don’t just want to “sell” something to the audience.  We want to engage them.  We want to tell a great story.  It may be the story of a product, of a company, or of a charity or a cause, but we create stories that touch our audiences.  Why?  Because our most effective campaigns, and our most effective infomercials, tell a story that creates an emotional response in the audience.

In a society of instant gratification, it could be tempting to scream… to deliver your product features and your price, and be done with it.  What do you suffer?  Sales, and long-term engagement with your brand.  To have a truly successful campaign, you must tell a story that resonates with your target audience.

Having created many extremely successful campaigns over the years, my belief in this theory has only strengthened.  We’ve told great stories, for great products with great success.  While it may sound silly to tell a great story about a George Foreman Grill, we did…. and the campaign was a huge success.  We told the story of not just the product, but what the product could do, what it could mean, and how it could change the lives of those watching.  Millions of people watched the story, responded to the story, and created success for our clients.

We’ve done the same for many other products.  From cooking appliances to timeshares, we create stories that elicit emotions, generate a response, and create sales.  Ultimately, that always elicits another emotion for our clients:  happiness.

I’ve been creating commercials for nearly twenty years now, and producing infomercials for over a decade.  We are pitched many products each week, which we try to evaluate as quickly as possible.  At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves “Do we think this will work?”

It’s a tough question.  Direct response is one of the most complex and interesting mediums around.  You make an instant impression.  You get instant results.  Campaigns generally either work, or they don’t.  When you ask yourself “Do I think this will work?” there is a lot riding on the answer.

The reality?  No one knows with certainty until we test.  Oh, you’ll hear people say “It’ll never sell!” or perhaps they’ll say “It’s a sure thing!”  In both cases, they’re wrong.  Unless they have shot the campaign, purchased the media, and tested it, they simply do not know with 100% certainty.

So what do we rely on?  Experience.  Industry knowledge.  Awareness of the marketplace.  Research.  And, oh, a bit of intuition.  You have to rely on data, but you’re foolish to ignore your gut.

At the end of the day, we have to decide if we think it will work.  If we do, we dive in and do as much benchmarking, industry research and competitive analysis as possible.  We jump back into our data, and our gut, with more facts… and, if we still feel strongly, we’re jumping in with both feet.  After all, if we think this will work, and we think we’re the right team to make it work, we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure we’re right.

That’s usually the reaction when someone sees a brilliant invention that solves an everyday common problem. The fact is, countless people have become millionaires by simply coming up with solutions to things that annoy us. Of course, coming up with an idea isn’t enough… you have to share that idea with the world.

Infomercials and direct response commercials are certainly an ideal way to share big ideas with the world. As our company has evolved, we have also helped our clients spread the word on optimized websites, social media, and innovative word-of-mouth campaigns. The results are pretty astounding, and people have been able to live their dreams, all because they had an idea and acted on that idea.

So sit down, write a list of things that annoy you, then come up with some solutions. If you have a great idea, give us a call, we just may be able to help that dream come to life.

When I was in college, a professor once asked me to name two commercials that were currently on the air – one that was effective and one that was ineffective. I chose Chevy’s then-new “Like a Rock Campaign” and Isuzu’s “Joe Isuzu” campaign.

“Like a Rock” was brilliant. It used a familiar song, and conveyed a very strong branding message for their trucks. The message, the masculine voice over, and the visuals all conveyed one clear message – Chevy was tough, dependable, solid… Chevy was like a rock.

“Joe Isuzu” was very creative and captured immediate attention. It positioned Joe as a pathological liar who made outrageous claims about Isuzu cars. “It has more seats than the Astrodome”, “I just used my Isuzu truck to carry a 2,000 pound cheeseburger.” They were attention-grabbing, they were funny, and they had people talking around the water cooler.

At the time, both campaigns were new. During that class, I had no idea how sales were tracking for either company, but my beliefs were solid. “Like a Rock” effectively conveyed the brand and its promise. It sold Chevy as a tough, dependable, working-class brand. “Joe Isuzu” made outrageous claims which could in no way be justified. “Joe Isuzu” was certainly more creative, but it was also infinitely less effective. Rather than building the brand’s integrity, it degraded it. It made its own features, its own attributes, and its own promises a punch line.

So, I chose “Like a Rock” as the most effective, and “Joe Isuzu” as the least. “Like a Rock” ran for twelve years, and was immensely successful. Today , it is seen as one of the most effective campaigns in history. “Joe” was off the air within two years, ultimately underperforming expectations, and some would say degrading their brand value in America. By 2008, they ceased all sales of passenger cars in the US.

As the president of the Random Agency, I always keep Joe Isuzu in the back of my mind. Our campaigns are among the most creative around, but they always, always, deliver our clients’ message and brand in an effective manner. There’s no point in grabbing attention if the message you are delivering is flawed.

Our friends often wonder why in the world we enjoy doing infomercials. It’s a legitimate question. After all, the industry does have a bit of a used-car salesman image, which is sometimes well deserved. The reason, we enjoy it, however, is that it can be the ultimate example of the American Dream… all wrapped up in thirty minutes or less.

Where else can someone come up with a great idea, put it in front of millions of people and potentially create millions of dollars in sales in a few months? Couple this with the relatively low cost of launching an infomercial, the immediate sales feedback, and the addition of interactive and social media strategies, and you have the recipe for success.

So what’s not to like? If you look at the industry success rate, only 1 in 10 infomercial products will actually succeed. That’s just 10%, which we thought was a bit ridiculous. You have to remember, however, that those numbers include products launched by amateurs, and unscrupulous companies and producers, who will jump at the chance to produce any infomercial for any product. At the Random Agency, we approach things from a completely different perspective, and select our products very, very carefully. The result? A 90% success rate.

With that type of record, which is unmatched in the industry, you can see why companies like Disney, the George Foreman Grill, Marie Osmond, the Juiceman, and many others have turned to the Random Agency. We have a unique approach, a tireless dedication to our clients, tremendous instincts, and the results to prove it.

In the end, we stand by, ready to help. Whether it’s an inventor with a new product or a Fortune 100 company seeking to quickly and effectively expand sales, we know exactly what we’re doing, and we can help you capture success.

We are fortunate to live in a nation where anyone can achieve success simply be coming up with a new idea. When my friends ask me why we enjoy doing infomercials, I simply reply that we love helping people live out their American Dream. What could be better than that?

When I was 22, I was hired to write, direct and produce international Christmas Specials for Disney.  The project was a huge success and led to future work in the Emmy-Award winning shows Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Secrets of the Animal Kingdom.  I’ve produced and directed for ABC, NBC, ESPN, the NBA, and Paramount Pictures.  Along the way, we built a team, and made numerous campaigns, commercials and themed attractions for Disney, NASA, and the CNN Experience in New York City.  We also made a short film, which was acquired by Dreamworks and Imagine Entertainment.

The name of the company became Random Motion Pictures.  Why Random?  Well, what other company combined television, films, commercials, themed attractions, and marketing expertise?  It was a Random collection of talent, but when brought together, it brought immense success for our clients.

Our ability to attract and influence consumers was not lost on large corporations.  Before long, we were asked to jump into the world of infomercials and direct response.  Our projects have included the George Foreman Grill, GEM Keep it Cool with Marie Osmond, the George Foreman Roaster, the Juiceman, and our latest success, Disney Vacation Club.

As our infomercial and commercial department grew, and became more successful, our clients requested our help in media buying, call center management, and fulfillment operations.  We grew our team, and exceeded our clients’ expectations.  Not only is it easier for our clients, it has allowed us to substantially increase profitability and the ROI for our clients.

What does the future hold?  There are no limits.  We are expanding our interactive team, growing our experiential video department, and have a few other tricks up our sleeves.  We are dedicated to the success of each and every one of our clients, and look forward to exceeding all of their expectations along the way.

Now, after nearly a decade, it is clear that the name Random Motion Pictures does not quite capture exactly what we do.  We are, by any measure, one of the most integrated full-service agencies on the planet.  Our team can handle nearly every element of a campaign, and we have valuable partners to assist in any function we do not incorporate in-house.  And so, here at the start of 2013, Random Motion Pictures officially becomes the Random Agency.

Welcome.  How can we help you?