Hi Matt, You are spot on when it comes to the importance of relevant information. Last year I specifically worked with the AREA Team on this issue. We had a challenge that unless you are a top revenue product you disappear on .com and there was no one place that was really good to send people for more detailed information. We decided to create a section on AREA where we could do that - a richer product home so to speak. One that could be fuelled not only by us but by the community too. We still need to tie the Social Media aspect into it and are working on things like social sign on. But yes ultimately it would be great if we can continue to refine and expand on this aspect of the site. And yes you can access it from the homepage :)
http://www.the-area.com/products/view/softimage Maurice Patel Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:26 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: In case you missed it.. I agree. I don't know about anybody else, but I could care less about demo reels. The only time I see them is when I'm at a user group or waiting for a product demonstration to begin, and since there are no more user groups and product demos are basically web downloads, where do I see demos today? Mostly as screen savers at siggraph when the demo guy is taking a lunch break. I don't hang around those booths because I visit booths to talk to people and ask questions. Demo reels are important for students and people new to the industry as a whole, but I think they're irrelevant for people who have been in the industry a while because they become jaded like me from having seen it all before. We need something more that currently isn't being delivered. As a more experienced and mature demographic, what I want is information. I want to see benefit in black and white. I want to determine if I can truly work smarter, not harder, compared to what I'm doing now. I think this aspect of Softimage marketing has been absent for the past 10 years. The exception being the debut of ICE with v7.0. Prior to that the last time I saw something informative that made me pay attention was the animation mixer and perhaps GATOR. However, even in those cases the demos weren't very informative, they were more eye candy pieces. What I seek is a short synopsis like a movie trailer (length) that is information driven. If it catches my interest, let me watch something more in-depth to get the answers to my questions. These don't have to be high-tech demonstrations, just clearly *informative and comprehensive* relative to what's being marketed. Stay way from glossy buzz words and trendy catch phrases. Focus more on the information's value to educate the target audience. I used to demo Softimage in my locale when Softimage didn't have the budget to send somebody out from Montreal. I am information driven, and was always told by attendees that they felt my demos were the most helpful to make decisions. I don't know if sales improved or not as I didn't have access to that information, but the feedback I received from all demos were pretty consistent. I think people are starved for facts as they don't want to have to wade through all the BS to get the info they seek, and in many cases, some people are making decisions to expand a company or switch a pipeline and aren't fully informed themselves what they are looking for because perhaps they're striving for something a bit outside of their comfort zone or level of experience. Informative demos help them, and a good informative demo will entice a customer to follow up. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam Cuttriss Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 2:50 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: In case you missed it.. Stop thinking of advertising/ demonstration/ documentation and education as isolated entities. in doing so you can make the money you spend massively more productive. look at the success of stephen blairs blog: http://xsisupport.com/ ( Its criminally insane you fired him by the way ) its a go to site for anyone using ice. With a little work something like that could be dressed up as a showcase of softimage work and a technical reference of production techniques. An inspiration to students, and something to pique the curiosity of professionals using other softwares. _sam
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