Frequently Asked Questions
Common and Unique Terminology Explained
Advanced Content
Advanced Content means many things today but its legacy comes from interactivity found in the HD DVD optical disc format. Advanced Content is used to provide interactive menus and "special features" such as additional bonus/extras content and games for HD DVD (one of the early high-definition video formats). Advanced Content also enables network access to download additional content and access to persistent storage which is used for storing bookmarks and other state information.
Some examples of Advanced Content on HD DVD are:
· Interactive features such as picture-in-picture, story boards, actor biographies, GPS, and "Tech specs" on many Universal Studios titles, branded as "U-Control"
· User-defined chapter points, known as "Bookmarks" or "My Scenes" found on many titles from various studios
· On-line shopping for goods and services depicted in the film, such as Evan Almighty from Universal Studios
Curt Doty, as a Universal Creative Executive continued to innovate with Advanced Content on Blu-ray once the format wars were over. Curt pursued Advanced Content with Hollywood Agency Trailer Park, renaming the Menus and Original Content Group “Advanced Content” and migrated their developers, producers and designers into creating interactive experiences for mobile, eBooks and Interactive Television.
Source: Wikipedia
Advisory Group
An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to the board of directors. Unlike the board of directors, the advisory board does not have authority to vote on corporate matters or bear legal fiduciary responsibilities. Many new or small businesses choose to have advisory boards in order to benefit from the knowledge of others, without the expense or formality of the board of directors. An Advisory Group can be a hand selected bespoke group of consultants that are brought together to tackle a specific initiative for a brand.
Source: Wikipedia
Agile Development
Agile software development principles. The Manifesto for Agile Software Development is based on twelve principles:
1. Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.
3. Deliver working software frequently (weeks rather than months)
4. Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
5. Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
6. Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress
8. Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
10. Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
11. Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams
12. Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly
Inspired by this iterative approach with website and mobile app design, the Agile Process has now been adapted into the creative process for branding and marketing.
Source: Wikipedia
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality is less about immersing you into a new world, but more about enhancing your world you inhabit with a digital layer of reality. AR tech is more device-agnostic, where it can be achieved with AR glasses or headsets, and also with the average smartphone. However you view it today, the ultimate dream is to make the device we experience AR through as inconspicuous as possible. We already have AR embedded in many common apps, like Snapchat and Pokémon Go, and it’s also common in workplace training tools.
Source: Metavrse
Branded Content
In marketing, branded content (also known as branded entertainment) is content produced by an advertiser or content whose creation was funded by an advertiser. In contrast to content marketing (in which content is presented first and foremost as a marketing ploy for a brand) and product placement (where advertisers pay to have references to their brands incorporated into outside creative works, such as films and television series), branded content is designed to build awareness for a brand by associating it with content that shares its values. The content does not necessarily need to be a promotion for the brand, although it may still include product placement.
Unlike conventional forms of editorial content, branded content is generally funded entirely by a brand or corporation rather than a studio or a group of solely artistic producers. Examples of branded content have appeared in television, film, online content, video games, events, and other installations. Modern branded marketing strategies are intended primarily to counter market trends, such as the decreasing acceptance of traditional commercials.
Source: Wikipedia
Branding
Branding can mean many things, but from a marketing perspective, it can be defined the following way with multiple applications. Brand, a name, logo, slogan, and/or design scheme associated with a product or service
· Branding (promotional), the distribution of merchandise with a brand name or symbol imprinted
· Brand management, the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand
· Employer branding, the application of brand management to recruitment marketing and internal brand engagement
· Internet branding, brand management on the Internet
· Personal branding, people and their careers marketed as brands
· Co-branding, two companies or brands partnering on a product or service
· Branding Agency, a type of marketing agency, group or a firm which specializes in creating brands and corporate identity
Source: Wikipedia
Broadcast Design
Before there was Motion graphics, there was Broadcast design which are pieces of animation or digital footage which create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in television projects. The term motion graphics distinguishes static graphics from those with a transforming appearance over time, without over-specifying the form. While any form of experimental or abstract animation can be called motion graphics, the term typically more explicitly refers to the commercial application of animation and effects to video, film, TV, and interactive applications. Motion graphics are exceptional way to communicate with viewer, and it can add depth to the story. Also it can give us a message by music and effective copy together, they use it to create the look and feel of a network identity, but also includes ads, television title sequence, explaining a concept, and share a product video that help to communicate their message. Pioneering agencies during the 90’s were Charlex, Aerodrome, Broadway Video, Robert Abel and Associates, Marks & Marks, Pacific Data Images, Pittard Sullivan and R Greenberg and Associates. Some of the notable designers during this time were Jeff Boortz, Bill Dawson, Curt Doty, Lauri Jones, Frances Schifrin, David Hwang, Mark Bohman and Suzanne Kiley.
Source: Wikipedia
Communication Platform
As part of the positioning for a brand, there needs to be a communications matrix that speaks to the various constituents, targets and personas. A Communications Platform achieves this and ultimately can lead to taglines and advertising messaging, which is all part of marketing.
Content Hubs
Content Hubs were part of a digital PR strategy where communication from a brand was presented in blog form, either press releases, original articles, and eventually branded content. The decision to house this content on a corporate or branded site came from creating a destination for the brand based on the stickiness of its content. This strategy has evolved to include all social channels that amplify the brand message, creating a Digital Ecosystem.
Corporate Identity
A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public (such as customers and investors as well as employees). The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks, but it can also include things like product design, advertising, public relations etc. Corporate identity is a primary goal of the corporate communications, in order to maintain and build the identity to accord with and facilitate the corporate business objectives.
In general, this amounts to a corporate title, logo (logotype and/or icon/mark) and supporting devices commonly assembled within a set of corporate guidelines, or brand styleguide. These guidelines govern how the identity is applied and usually include approved color palettes, typefaces, fonts, and others.
Source: Wikipedia
Creative Platform
Companion to the Communication Platform (The Words), the Creative Platform (the Design) can be manifested in a unique position or presentation that goes beyond the logo guidelines. What is the environment that the brand lives in? How does it move? What is the backdrop of the brand as it moves across media?
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)
It's essentially a type of organization that operates on the blockchain. It's made up of a network of people who are all working together to achieve a common goal. The key difference between a DAO and a traditional organization is that there is no centralized power structure. Instead, the network of people is responsible for making decisions and taking actions on behalf of the organization.
Source: you.com
Degen
Shorthand for Degenerate. Degen trading or Degen mode is when a trader does trading without due diligence and research, aping into signals and FOMO into pumps. A Degen Trader does not know about metrics like FDV or TVL nor do they care. They will buy because the asset logo looks cute, or because the slogan is memeable, or because some twit-famous anime girl on the internet says she's looking into crypto and the first two shill comments gets more likes than others. Essentially, a degen trader buys into an asset not because they see value, rather they do so with the belief that others will join in after them and speculate on the price swings.
Design Thinking
A design process that involves 5 phases that feed into one another:
· Discover: where you learn about your users;
· Define: where you identify problems and user needs;
· Ideate: where you generate design ideas to solve the problems;
· Prototype: where you create mock-ups, rapid prototypes, animated simulations and, eventually, the final product; and
· Test: where you test your designs with users to improve them.
Digital Ecosystem
A Digital Ecosystem amplifies Multi-channel storytelling is done through a strategic effort to harness all the digital channels of a brand, including mobile. Through marketing, digital marketing, social and video. Each platform, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc. all have unique audiences and unique presentations of content and advertising.
eBooks
Multi-touch eBooks were pioneered by Apple and perfected with their proprietary software, iBA. One of the first major eBooks to occupy their store was Rolling Stones 50, reimagined by Hollywood Agency Bemis Balkind, under the leadership of Aubrey Balkind and Curt Doty. Designers Lisa Wiscombe and Weston Doty pioneered and innovated the format. This type of interactive experience, inclusive of audio and video, paved the way for movie marketing eBooks, of which Universal’s Les Miserables was the first, also produced by Curt Doty and his team at Bemis Balkind.
eGaming
Also known as Esports (eSports) is a form of sport competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although organized competitions have long been a part of video game culture, these were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when participation by professional gamers and spectatorship in these events through live streaming saw a large surge in popularity. By the 2010s, esports was a significant factor in the video game industry, with many game developers actively designing and providing funding for tournaments and other events.
Source: Wikipedia
Interactive Content
Otherwise known as Interactive media, harnesses user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video, audio, and video games. Interactive media is a method of communication popularized by the Touch movement inspired by Apples mobile devices, the iPhone and iPad. Interactive Content is also associated with Advanced Content.
Source: Wikipedia
Live Action Production
Also known as Video production, it is the process of producing video content. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with images recorded digitally instead of on film stock. There are three stages of video production: pre-production, production (also known as principal photography), and post-production. Pre-production involves all of the planning aspects of the video production process before filming begins. This includes scriptwriting, scheduling, logistics, and other administrative duties. Production is the phase of video production which captures the video content (moving images / videography) and involves filming the subject(s) of the video. Post-production is the action of selectively combining those video clips through video editing into a finished product, a trailer or branded content, that tells a story or communicates a message in either a live event setting (live production), or after an event has occurred (post-production).
Source: Wikipedia
Marketing
Marketing is profitably using the results of studying short term and long term needs of those who can pay for a one-time, or in most cases, a steady flow of service or product placement. In 2017, The New York Times described it as "the art of telling stories so enthralling that people lose track of their wallets.
It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. Marketers can direct their product to other businesses (B2B marketing) or directly to consumers (B2C marketing). Regardless of who is being marketed to, several factors apply, including the perspective the marketers will use. Known as market orientations, they determine how marketers will approach the planning stage of marketing.
The marketing mix, which outlines the specifics of the product and how it will be sold, is affected by the environment surrounding the product, the results of marketing research and the characteristics of the product's target market. Once these factors are determined, marketers must then decide what methods will be used to promote the product.
Source: Wikipedia
Metaverse
The metaverse is a place unlocked by XR technologies and driven by decentralized web3 tooling. Certainly, without virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and Web3, what has come to be known as “the metaverse” couldn’t exist. Each of these elements play an important role in the construction and function of the metaverse, while the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Facebook’s (Meta) version of the Metaverse has been defined by VR and Zuckerbergs limited and personal interpretation has misrepresented the true potential of XR technologies.
Mission
In branding, part of the Vision, Mission and Position of a brand. The Mission is what’s wrong with the world and how you intend to fix it.
Mixed Reality (MR)
Mixed Reality is just what it sounds like – it’s any technology that mixes elements of different XR tech together. In other words, it provides the ability to mash the real world together with imaginary places, layering the virtual overtop your living reality. Virtual try-on software, like that available at Nike’s FinishLine.com or the IKEA app, is a good example; it takes the virtual exploration of a real-world facsimile – in this case, let’s say a couch – and overlays it onto your real-life living room, to get a better idea of how it might look there if you decided to buy it.
Source: Metavrse
Network Branding
The profession of Broadcast Design evolved into Network Branding, elevating the discipline. The organizing principles around defining the brand of a Network, a cable or broadcast channel, mirrored the process of traditional branding. International Branding agency Pittard Sullivan pioneered this methodology and exported it all over the world, popularizing the process.
Optical See-Through Displays (OST)
Optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs) allow overlay of computer-generated images on reality, provide real-time interactivity, and enable 3D registration
Pivot Process
The Curt Doty Company is dedicated to helping businesses re-position for growth. We do this through consulting, branding and marketing. Our proprietary PIVOT PROCESS is a highly collaborative and consensus building approach to tackling growth initiatives.
Position
In branding, part of the Vision, Mission and Position of a brand. The Position is exactly who you are serving, what you are serving up and how you serve it.
Product Development
User Experience Design has evolved into Product Design. We focus on the entire process of developing a product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, function, and marketing. It’s a story that begins before the device is even in the user’s hands.
Promos
Promo or promos may refer to: Promo (media), a form of commercial advertising used to promote television or radio programs.
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) is a process that lets engineers quickly test and iterate their control strategies. Consequently, mathematical models are automatically imported with software tools. RCP solutions can be used with different real-time solutions in hardware and software.
RCP benefits: RCP decreases development time by allowing corrections to be made early in the product process. By giving engineering a look at the product early in the design process, mistakes can be corrected and changes can be made while they are still inexpensive. Most commonly done with mobile app development.
Source: Wikipedia
Referral Partners
The referral partner is any individual, usually a professional consultant, existing customer, or sales professional, who can refer new customers.
Responsive Design
Having its roots in Responsive Web Design (RWD) which was an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. Responsive layouts automatically adjust and adapt to any device screen size, whether it is a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone. With the rise of video consumption on mobile devices, Mobile First now implies that video content strategies should not focus on traditional broadcast distribution but rather social amplification through mobile and consider the various display formats for these dominant and emerging platforms.
Source: Wikipedia
Social Calendar
A Social Calendar is a strategic document, or spreadsheet that outlines content strategies and social media plans over time, monthly, or by the year.
Startup Accelerator
Our Startup Accelerator is an advisory group that works with growth-stage companies on everything from strategy, product development, branding and building senior teams. Whatever stage you are in, start-up stage, seed or early stage, growth stage, or late stage, branding is many times overlooked. Branding is more than a logo and one of the many challenges for startups is branding. When and how to do it. As defining your brand defines your product offering, it is imperative that branding, and all it entails, is not an afterthought, but a strategic initiative that builds consensus within your executive team and is a building block to a coherent plan and rollout. We have advised startups and growth stage companies in the media, consumer, and B2B services industries.
Strategy
Strategic planning involves an analysis of the company's strategic initial situation prior to the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented competitive position that contributes to the company's goals and marketing objectives. There can be many strategies, branding strategy, marketing strategy, online strategy, social strategy, product strategy, and go-to-market strategy.
Sweet Spot of Innovation
In the context of Advanced, or interactive content, a Venn diagram shows DESIGN, CONTENT and TECH, with the intersection, the sweet spot, of all three, representing a point of innovation. This can be achieved when all 3 aspects are working coherently together.
Trailers
A trailer (also known as a preview or coming attraction) is a commercial advertisement for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, the result of creative and technical work. The term "trailer" dates back to the distribution of movies on reels of film. The reels were always distributed un-rewound (the theater about to show the film first had to rewind it, as early experience showed the danger of expecting an incoming film to have been rewound). Therefore, the end of the movie was the most accessible part, to which previews were spliced, "trailing" the film.
Movie trailers have now become popular on DVDs and Blu-ray discs, as well as on the Internet and mobile devices. Of some 10 billion videos watched online annually, film trailers rank third, after news and user-created video. The trailer format has also been adopted as a promotional tool for television shows, video games, books, and theatrical events/concerts. It is a unique art form.
Source: Wikipedia
User Experience
User experience design (UXD, UED, or XD) is the process of supporting user behavior through usability, usefulness, and desirability provided in the interaction with a product. User experience design encompasses traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users. Experience design (XD) is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, omnichannel journeys, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions. Experience design is not driven by a single design discipline. Instead, it requires a cross-discipline perspective that considers multiple aspects of the brand/ business/ environment/ experience from product, packaging, and retail environment to the clothing and attitude of employees. Experience design seeks to develop the experience of a product, service, or event. CX is Customer Experience and is often associated with User Journeys. UX is the building block for website and mobile app design.
Source: Wikipedia
VR
Virtual Reality describes technology designed to make you feel fully immersed in a digital space. Often achieved through devices like VR headsets and haptics, the ultimate goal is to make a user feel as if they’ve fully crossed over into a digital realm. We’ve been trying to make virtual worlds for decades, going back as far as the sixties. Nintendo’s Virtual Boy is a more recent (and disastrous) example. But to get an idea of what the VR wave of today – largely started by Oculus – looks like, picture the movie Ready Player One, or real-life software like Beat Saber or Facebook Spaces.
Source: Metavrse
Vision
In branding, part of the Vision, Mission and Position of a brand. It is an aspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future. It is intended to serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future courses of action. A vision statement is sometimes called a picture of your company in the future, but it’s so much more than that, it provides the framework for all your strategic planning. In short, What the world will look like after you’ve finished changing it. It is important that your identity design reflects your vision, mission and position.
Video See-Through (VST)
A see-through display or transparent display is an electronic display that allows the user to see what is shown on the screen while still being able to see through it.
Source: Wikipedia
Web3
The World Wide Web has changed a lot over the years. In its infancy – Web 1.0, roughly 1991 to 2004 – the Web was a wild frontier, where there were few content creators actively making web experiences, and much of the Internet was crafted from simple HTML. Websites existed together, but usually in a vacuum – that is to say, there was very little compatibility between web pages, besides hyperlinks.
Web 2.0 came about as the web became more social and participatory, and websites began to become more interconnected, and widgets allowed services to embed inside other websites. This is the era where social media giants like Facebook and Twitter emerged, and people were able to build their own virtual communities. Still, those communities were built within platforms owned by big corporations, or grew to become corporate entities as a matter of necessity.
That’s essentially where the web has been until recently, with each major generation of web evolution including a massive broadening out of “what the experience is, and where it lives.” Much like how smartphones set the world on fire in the late 2000s, the introduction of XR and other technologies is transforming how we live, work, and play in the 2020s, launching the World Wide Web into its third iteration – Web 3.0 or simply Web3.
Source: Metavrse
Website Design
Website Design has evolved. Having its roots in Responsive Web Design (RWD) which was an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. Responsive layouts automatically adjust and adapt to any device screen size, whether it is a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone. We use best practices in User Experience Design. With the rise of video consumption on mobile devices, Mobile First now implies that video content strategies should not focus on traditional broadcast distribution but rather a user experience of social amplification through mobile and consider the various display formats for these dominant and emerging platforms.
Source: Wikipedia
Whiteboarding
Whiteboarding when used in the context of computing, is the placement of shared files on an on-screen shared notebook or whiteboard. Videoconferencing and data conferencing software often lets documents as on a physical whiteboard.
Whiteboarding sessions — both in-office and virtual — provide teams with a collaborative, creative environment for brainstorming new ideas and solving problems. Without a defined structure in place, however, these sessions can quickly unravel and get off track. You must have a moderator and a note taker. These planning sessions can help guide content strategies, workflows, websites, operational supply chains, mobile concepts, UX and system architecture.
XR
XR is an acronym for “eXtended Reality,” an umbrella term for a whole group of technologies, designed around immersive ways users can interact with digital content. And by ‘immersive,’ we mean the space in which your interaction with the net takes place. In the early days of the Internet, it was the age of monitors – stationary screens you sat in front of to explore the web. As smartphones became abundant, suddenly the web could follow us, but it was still a two dimensional experience. XR aims to bring the third dimension to the web, and that three-dimensional web to – or more accurately, around – you. What we’re surfing with today could barely be distinguished from science fiction even just a few decades ago.
Source: Metavrse