Camels, Agave, Pizza and Digital Media

July 20, 2010 - PRLog -- Is the Middle East part of Africa? Or is it in Asia?  Will the 120-degree (F) desert heat melt my equipment?   What are the odds of that active volcano erupting today?  Do camels bite?  Video producer Tim Ryan pondered these and many other questions while on recent international shoots for New Orleans start-up NakedPizza.  

Ryan is the in-house producer/director for NakedPizza, a New Orleans pizza franchise company expanding worldwide.  He’s tasked with using high-definition video and still photography to document NakedPizza’s rapid domestic and international expansion (over 300 franchise locations already under development in 2010).  In addition, he works closely with NakedPizza’s operations and marketing teams to create documentary, training, corporate communications, PR, and social marketing videos.  Recent productions include the study of an agave harvest in Mexico, in-house training videos for franchise partners, store location scouting in the Middle East, visits to a Probiotic lab in Miami, employee digital biographies, and market research in London.  

According to Forrester Research, the percentage of the top 50 US online retailers that offer videos on their sites rose to 68% in 2009 from 18% in 2008.  As eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin noted in the report “Consumer Packaged Goods Sector Taps into Online Video,” “Creating an online video presence helps marketers facilitate an ongoing dialogue with consumers, boost brand equity, lure prospective customers and solidify support among brand loyalists.” Ryan is excited to be working for a New Orleans-based business that creatively uses video to communicate with stakeholders.  “Everything I capture is or will be used to help NakedPizza tell their story to customers, investors, employees, and franchise partners,” said Ryan from the NakedPizza production studio in New Orleans’ Warehouse District.  

At the core of NakedPizza's business strategy is a rich, digital publishing platform that transcends web, smart phones (mobile), tablet and in-store multi-media.  That publishing platform includes video documenting of issues, stories and people relevant to the company's mission.  According to co-founder and anthropologist Jeff Leach, "because NakedPizza is intersecting the culture on multiple levels ranging from the food industry, plow to plate, evolutionary science and regulatory issues to nutrition, healthcare, design, technology and the reconsideration of many business conventions, storytelling through words and visuals are fundamental.  As such, we keep a camera running - often times two - at virtually all times, capturing the magic and the mundane, stressing our content management system, but never coming up short on content.  We've also armed numerous folks in our network with Flip cameras including the recipient of our LIVNAKED scholarship, currently doing ethnographic research among the Bushman and Sotho people of South Africa.  We're our own media channel - a mini Discovery or National Geographic.  Feel free to scratch 'mini.'"

Ryan started working for NakedPizza in early 2009.  Initially, he produced videos in exchange for pizza.  “I was a loyal customer impressed with their product and mission.  They didn’t have a budget for video production at the time and I was more than happy to do some work in exchange for pizza.” Flash forward to 2010 and Ryan now gets paid in dollars to spend the majority of his time focused on producing, directing, shooting and editing NakedPizza projects.  “It’s great to get paid to do something you love and the variety of work keeps me from getting bored.  I’ve shot video on top of an active volcano in central Mexico one month and stood face-to-face with a snarling camel in Dubai, UAE the next. Today, I’m editing new employee biographies and training videos.  Next week, I’ll start to edit together many hours of footage captured in the UAE and London.”

Samples of Ryan’s work for NakedPizza can be viewed on Vimeo (keyword: Naked Pizza): http://www.vimeo.com/nakedpizza



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About Tim Ryan’s New Digital Media Group, Inc.
New Digital Media Group is a boutique media company focused on digital video production and Internet video marketing. In addition to documenting the world around us, we produce digital videos that entertain and engage; introduce key personnel or organizational missions; bring products or services to life; present customer testimonials; communicate new initiatives; train and motivate employees; or present strategic organizational content for our clients. Visit: www.newdigitalmediagroup.com