Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/256240
26 Post • February 2014 www.postmagazine.com SOCIAL PROMPTER Feuer says that when a unique social media-related business opportunity appeared on the horizon, MindSmack decided to pur- sue it. "Social Prompter came out of a client who was looking to do a live Tweet-up at one of their events," he recalls. "They asked me about it, and we said we could probably do it for them. Next thing you know, we are doing a live Twitter event. A few months later, we were using a proprietary system that we built so that users could use a hashtag to tag photos, post them to social media, and push them instantly as live content to screens at their event. Out of that, a company was born, and then we decided to grow it a little more, because we saw a need with other clients, and for ourselves actually, because we throw parties every six to eight weeks. We wanted to be able to have photos taken live at events and push them right up onto screens and online instantly. There wasn't a real good solution out there without paying through the nose, so we had programmers from our Web team develop one. That is part of the luxury of having a great staff of people who are really dedicated — if you see a need, you don't mind spending the time to come up with a solution that is elegant. And so, out of all that, Social Prompter was born." Social Prompter (www.socialprompter. com) expanded on this basic concept to service live events for MindSmack clients, like the Grammys after party, the Coachella Music Festival, Google launch parties, the Miss Universe pageant, and others. Essentially, the company sets up red-carpet style photo shoots with touchscreen kiosks and back- drops at the events, lets party-goers take photos, and instantly pushes those photos to projection screens throughout the venue where the event takes place. "We also immediately apply the client's logo on the photo, so wherever the photo appears, the client's brand also appears," Feuer adds. "And then we have sharing kiosks set up so that right after guests take their photos on the way out of the booth area, they simply enter their email address and we send them links to share out to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. Clients also get a post-event metrics report so they can understand the reach and exposure that their event received." The idea is off to such a promising start for the company that Feuer says MindSmack is now involved in launching an entirely differ- ent social media venture called Smacktive. com (www.smacktive.com) — a social media site for people to find local friends who share interests. Such a site does not, per se, have anything to do with post production, but to work, it relies on proprietary algorithms that the company's software developers were able to build. And that is a major part of Feuer's argu- ment: as a post-based company, MindSmack was uniquely qualified to organize such enterprises, and then handle the technical aspects associated with them that launching social media endeavors require. "When we started with Social Prompter, we knew we could obviously set up an AV system, projectors, and cameras efficiently," he says. "That was easy to do. If we had not already had the post house, we would not have had an infrastructure in place already to try these things. We had Web designers and programmers. And more importantly, we already had clients who trusted us. So it just seemed like a good foundation to try and start a whole other cottage industry for ourselves." MOCEAN Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based mOcean (www.mocean.tv), which started out as a movie trailer shop and eventually evolved into an entertainment creative agency, recog- nized the growth of social media by formally integrating it into its marketing services divi- sion. In fact, in the last year, the company brought in Tadji Akhavan to serve as its first- ever social strategy director — a position that encompasses social media, public rela- tions, external and internal communications, and marketing and branding work for clients who may or may not be have projects involved with production or post work at one of the company's facilities. mOcean's social media campaign for Need Brands spans Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, among other platforms. Social media