Humanize Your Brand!

When marketing their products or services, one of the biggest mistakes many companies make is focusing their catalog or web site collateral on visual depictions of just their offerings.

Including close-up, stand-alone photos of your product is important but, if that is all you rely on, it can also lead to a very dull marketing presence. Introducing the human element into your web site, catalog and advertising material makes your offering much more dynamic and helps draw the buyer in. Potential customers more easily relate to images of the product they're interested in shown in actual use - especially if the person in the image is someone they can relate to.



So how do you know who your buyer will relate to? Well, this is where the phrase "target audience" comes in. Before you can start to build an effective marketing strategy, it is vital that you understand WHO you're trying to reach and what message you're trying to send them. Gender, age group, income...knowing the demographics that make up the majority of your client base will help you put your best foot forward when selecting models for your ad campaigns. You will never be able to avoid alienating some of your client base with your decisions but, let's face it, conversions are your ultimate goal and the best way to do that is to reach those most likely to buy from you.

A poorly thought out ad campaign can be as damaging to your marketing efforts as no ad campaign at all so strategize, strategize, strategize.



About the Author: Jeremy Jones is the Senior Marketing Strategist for 603 Media Group. Primarily tasked with the challenges of keeping our small business running, Jeremy also occasionally branches out into public speaking, blogging, website design and raising his nine-year-old son to not be another one of "those damn kids".

Full-time and a new direction!

Well, it's been a long time coming but 603 Media Group is finally a full-time venture. Scary, exciting, busy, nail-biting...these are all words that have been at the forefront of our minds for the past few weeks. How will the business fare? Can we develop a client base that will not only sustain us but help our business grow? Where will the community events we routinely cover for free fit into our new business model? Questions, questions, questions!

From the moment we filed our tradename paperwork with the State back in 2009, we knew we had a really great idea. Unfortunately, like all "great" ideas, it took time and failure to help morph that original thought process into a linear plan that makes sense. Now, over two and a half years later, we are finally beginning to feel like we know who we are.

The photographic services that we had originally planned on being the bread and butter of our service offerings have been reduced to an ancillary service. Truth is, the mass flooding of the marketplace with inexpensive camera technology and digital imaging software has turned everybody and their sister into a "photographer". We had to recognize that the market just wasn't going to pay the old prices for the services that we perform even though we perform them better than most. This was a tough realization for us to make. To compensate for that loss of potential revenue, we have altered our business model to focus more on marketing, design and social media services - all offerings that companies are still actively seeking and actively budgeting for.

With a new web presence, expanded social media activity thanks to our new Twitter and Google+ accounts, and a growing list of satisfied clients who are utilizing our new expanse of services, we are proudly surging forward in our quest to build this business into something truly special. Our involvement in community events will not dwindle in any way - we remain committed to staying involved in the amazing activities and charity events that happen in this great state.

Thank you to all of our loyal clients, family and friends who have stuck by us over the last couple years - we look forward to being your media services provider for many more years to come!

Front-row seat to a beat-down!!!

On January 27, 2012, 603 Media Group was hired to cover the Combat Zone 40 mixed martial arts event held at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire. What a great event! The crowd was pumped, the fighters were doing what they do best and Rock 101 afternoon DJ, tv host and all-around cool guy, Scorch, handled the master of ceremonies duties.

In my experience covering fight events, it is always a tough call to determine which lens I want to use. So many fight photographers in the amateur scene use a shorter lens that gives a very wide view of the environment with the fighters as more of a foot-note in the scene. I'm not particularly a fan of that approach. Generally, I prefer to use the 70-200mm so that I can get right in close on the fighters and make the viewer really FEEL the brutality of what they're engaging in. When I do choose to use wide-angle, though, I like to go REALLY wide to give a more artistic and exciting look to the captures; this was the approach I brought to Combat Zone 40. Here are some samples of my low-close-and-wide approach:







Fight photography is something that I really love doing and I hope to be able to cover many more events in and around the greater New England area this year!

Looking Back on 2011

2011 was a really good year for 603 Media Group. From portraits to weddings to private parties, sporting events, charity events, corporate product shoots and our own personal photo trips to various parts of New Hampshire and beyond, we met so many wonderful folks and were reminded of why we love doing what we do.

We covered the fantastic efforts of Upper Valley radio personality Chris Garrett's "Tornado Relief 2011". This event saw the community of the Upper Valley join together to fill a truck with food and goods that Chris then personally delivered to Joplin, Missouri residents affected by the worst tornado their area had seen in memory.



Coverage of the annual "Ride For The Fallen" charity motorcycle run is always a highlight for us. Skip and Rhonda Rollins of Newport host this event each year in honor of their son, Spc. Justin A. Rollins, who lost his life in Iraq in 2007.



Every September, we see pro boxing come to the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. We have covered this event for the past two years in recognition of our friends from the Claremont Boxing Club who have had some very successful showings at this event.



The warmer months of each year see the start of all the great classic car meets in New Hampshire. This beauty is a regular with the Car Nutz in Newport:



The installation of New Hampshire sculptor Ernest Montenegro's amazing piece, "Crosswalk", was a real treat for us to cover. With home offices in both Claremont and the Manchester area, it was nice to see both regions represented in one amazing project!



The annual Pumpkin Festival in Keene is always great fun but the day after brings a lot of work that most event-goers don't even consider. This gentleman was one of many volunteers and city workers helping to clean up the mess left by thousands of pumpkins and thousands of people!



Covering and supporting local music has long been an important part of what we do. This region is rich in musical talent and, if you haven't taken the time to catch some of these acts performing, you're missing a great time!





We won't revisit every single photo shoot we did in 2011 here (the blog would be wayyy too long!), but suffice it to say that it's been a fun year and we're looking forward to even more great stuff in 2012! Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/603media !

Backstage Pass is a hit at the Currier Museum of Art!

Yesterday, I decided to surprise my partner in crime with a trip over to the Currier Museum of Art. See, the Currier is having a special exhibition this Autumn that showcases never-before-seen photos of pretty much every legend of rock and roll since Carl Perkins. Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, REM, Arethra Franklin, Kris Kristofferson, The Byrds...the list goes on and on!

As photographers, we always love to look upon the work that inspires us. Jesse, in particular, is a really great concert photographer so I knew she would enjoy this display. I was right.

Featuring over 175 photos - most of them poster-sized -, this exhibit features out-takes from staged photo shoots, previously unused tour photos and many candid moments. Take for example a powerful photo of Kurt Cobain sitting against a tub sobbing his heart out over who knows what. Or David Bowie eating lunch in a diner in England. Or Iggy Pop seated in a chair under a framed painting of Jesus - who Iggy eerily resembles in the photo.

Several pictures of Debbie Harry (think Blondie) adorn the walls and reflect her relationships with various rockers over the years. Grace Jones looks out from one photo as powerful as ever while Courtney Love applies her make-up over a rundown bathroom's sink in another photo. In yet another display, a young James Brown shows off his trademark split in one photo while, in another photo, a slightly older Brown plays a grand piano in a large room singing an obviously soulful tune.

I won't even try to describe every great photo in this blog - there's just too many and my words won't do them justice. If you have some time to kill and you find yourself in the Manchester area between now and January 15, 2012, be sure to stop in to the Currier and take in this magnificent photographic journey through rock and roll history!



http://www.currier.org/nowonview.aspx

For 603 Media Group,
Jeremy Jones
jeremy@603mediagroup.com

Wonderful day for photos and fun!

Sunday was a great day for 603 Media Group. Not great as in "We just won the lottery!" or "We just had a photo on the cover of National Geographic!" No, it was great because it was one of those days when it seems like you are really just living life the way it's supposed to be lived.

We started off the day with a senior photo shoot in Bellows Falls, Vermont. The subject was a very lovely young lady named Tori and we accompanied her and her wonderful mom, Mary, to the local drinking water reservoir where Tori thought the lake and foliage might make for a nice backdrop for her photos. Boy, was she right! The water was as calm as glass, the colors were just right and she worked with Jesse as if she had a lifetime of professional modeling behind her! After the lake portion of the shoot, we decided to bring Tori and her mom into downtown Bellows Falls for some more "urban" shots (if Bellows Falls could ever be called urban!). The results, as seen below, were just fantastic and we ended the shoot knowing that we had yet another happy client in the books.



On the way home from Vermont, we decided to stop into Keene, New Hampshire and see what was going on in my old stomping grounds. Turns out, it was the day after the annual Pumpkin Festival and the downtown area was a jumble of people, cars, litter and smashed pumpkins. What fun! (Well, from a photographer's point of view, anyways!) Despite it being a Sunday, several workers were busy cleaning up the streets to restore the downtown area to the quaint and lovely little town that Keene is known for being.



When we left Keene, I surprised Jesse by taking her through the village of Roxbury and up onto the top of Otter Brook Dam. The sun was low in the sky and the colors of the leaves were simply beautiful. While I puttered around getting some nice landscape shots, Jesse found a place to rest and take a breather from all the bustle of the day's activities:



The combination of the clouds, low sun and Autumn colors made for some perfect shooting and I think I got a keeper or two from the day. What do you think?





On the way home, as we headed across Route 101 towards Manchester, we rounded the western edge of Dublin Lake and, looking back, realized we had been handed an amazing stroke of luck with the sun literally just about to sink below the hills. I whipped the car into a private beach on the eastern edge of the lake, got out the tripod and barely had time to catch the last rays of the setting sun. Simply amazing luck and an impressive light show from the heavens!!!



All in all, it was a great day! Did I say that, already? ;o)

Juline and Matt

Jesse and I had an awesome engagement photo session today with a great young couple who hired us to shoot their wedding next year.  It is so much fun doing shoots with people who are fun, lively and clearly in love!

Since they are not from the area, they asked us to choose a location for the shoot and their only request was that it be outside.  I remembered a really scenic walking bridge I discovered by accident on the New Boston rail trail and thought that would be a perfect setting for their photos.  This is a photo that I took there earlier this year:

We are always a little nervous about outdoor shoots because you just never know how the weather is going to treat you but, wow, did the weather really come through for us today!  We shot in the late afternoon so the sun was at a perfect place in the sky to allow us to avoid the harsh lighting of noon-time.  The leaves were perfectly lit, the sky was clear and the mosquitoes gave us a break until nearly the end of the shoot.

Like many couples newly engaged, Juline and Matt had little experience doing couple photos in front of a lens.  With a little direction, though, they were able to loosen right up and really get into the spirit!  They were very playful, not afraid to show their affection for each other and were very clear with us that they wanted the photos to be more fun than formal.  To make their point, they even brought their Patriots jerseys for a few photos!

All in all, it was a great day and we look forward to shooting this wonderful couple's wedding next year!

Juline says she is in love with Matt and that she WILL get him to the altar even if she has to drag him kicking and screaming!  We believe it!!!

Tomorrow, we're off to Portsmouth to do a profile of local upscale gift shops for Gift Shop Magazine.  Looking forward to that one!!!

For 603 Media Group,
Jeremy Jones
jeremy@603mediagroup.com