Actor Genie has been specifically designed for actors, but it can be a powerful tool for anyone working, or interested in the film and television industry. It’s the best way to know what’s casting, who’s casting it and where to find representation.

The app is the brainchild of Hollywood casting director Heidi Levitt, perhaps best known for her work on such films as JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, The Rock, Joy Luck Club, Lakeview Terrace and numerous independent films.

As for zu, though we all considered auditioning for the new Conan movie, we’re just as happy to be on the development side of things.

For a closer look or to download it, check out the Actor Genie Website.

]]> http://www.zu.com/live/2010/02/news-events/news/new-iphoneipod-app-for-actors/feed/ 0 http://www.zu.com/live/2009/12/news-events/news/potashcorp-wins-cica-award-of-excellence/ http://www.zu.com/live/2009/12/news-events/news/potashcorp-wins-cica-award-of-excellence/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:56:28 +0000 Michelle MacDonald http://www.zu.com/live/?p=4035 It’s not a first and we’re positive it won’t be the last. Huge congrats to PotashCorp on cleaning house at the 2009 CICA Corporate Reporting Awards. Taking home five awards including the Overall Award of Excellence was not a first for these guys – they have won CICA awards in the past.

In addition to the Overall Award of Excellence, PotashCorp walked away with the awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting, Excellence in Electronic Disclosure and an Award of Excellence for the mining sector. In addition, they collected the Honourable Mention for Excellence in Sustainable Development Reporting.

We’re proud to be an interactive provider for PotashCorp, working closely with local communications firm, Creative Fire. Go team!

Also, big shout out to TransCanada for taking home the Award of Excellence in the real estate/utilities and pipelines industry category.

The CICAs
The Chartered Accountants of Canada Corporate Reporting Awards  is the only national awards program that recognizes excellence and best practices in corporate reporting. Now in its 58th year, the CRA presents awards for excellence in financial reporting, corporate governance disclosure, electronic disclosure and sustainable development reporting.

November 20, 2009. SaskTel, zu and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are pleased to announce that Rider Priders from around the world are downloading the Rider App at an astonishing pace.  Since the public launch of the Rider App on October 8, 2009, it has been downloaded over 11,000 times in 64 countries and with the excitement of the Riders hosting the Western Final on Sunday downloads are growing every day. SaskTel estimates that over 8,000 unique users have downloaded the Rider App.

The Rider App is an innovative mobile phone application that delivers game scores, statistics and schedule information to members of the Rider Nation wherever they go. The Roughriders were the first team in the Canadian Football League to introduce a dedicated mobile app.

“This is a success story that demonstrates both Saskatchewan innovation and the passion Rider fans feel for their team,” Minister Responsible for SaskTel Don Morgan said. “Congratulations to SaskTel, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and zu for helping Rider fans around the world stay in touch with Saskatchewan’s team.”

“The Rider App is SaskTel’s first mobile application and the response has exceeded our expectations,” SaskTel President and CEO Robert Watson said. “We’re grateful to Rider fans as well as our partners, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and zu, for their contributions to a successful project.”

“The positive reaction to the Rider App demonstrates that Rider fans are everywhere,” Riders President/CEO Jim Hopson said. “This has already been a great football season and now Rider fans around the world can follow our progress quickly and easily.”

“We are excited not only to be bringing fans closer to the local fan favourite, but also to be helping move technology forward in our province,” commented zu CEO Ryan Lejbak. “Mobile is the future of the Internet and we are proud to be working with the Roughriders and SaskTel to lead the CFL in this new technology.”

The Rider App, developed by SaskTel in partnership with Saskatoon-based zu, is a free download for compatible mobile devices. Fans can download the Rider App now.

About SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation (SaskTel) is the leading full service communications provider in Saskatchewan, with $1.138 billion in annual revenue and over 1.3 million customer connections including over 510,000 wireless accesses, 555,000 wireline network accesses, 216,000 internet accesses and 70,000 Max™ (TV) subscribers.  SaskTel offers a wide range of communications products and services including competitive voice, data, internet, entertainment, national security, messaging, cellular, wireless data and directory services. In addition, SaskTel International offers software solutions and project consulting in countries around the world.  In 2008, SaskTel contributed over $610 million to the Saskatchewan economy through dollars spent with Saskatchewan-based suppliers and sponsorships to non-profit organizations.  SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 5,000 employees.

About the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club
Since 1910, no other team has been a part of the provincial fabric as has the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club. With three Grey Cup championships to its credit, the Riders are synonymous with Prairie football and are one of the flagship franchises of the Canadian Football League. The Roughriders continue to provide quality sports entertainment to their fans, and as a community-owned team, excel in reaching out and giving back to those who support the organization.

About zu
zu is an interactive agency specializing in web strategy, design and development. They are experts in online Investor Relations, social media and mobile applications. zu offers extensive experience in building complex websites, from concept to launch; a proven track record consisting of award winning and nationally recognized websites; 15 years of experience in the interactive industry; and a team of over 50 skilled in strategy, design, and programming. Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan zu’s client list includes globally-recognized brands such as the Calgary Stampeders, Rogers, Areva, PotashCorp, Cameco and CN Rail.

For media inquiries only, please contact:

Andy Tate, SaskTel Corporate Communications
Phone: (306) 777-4548
Email: andy.tate@sasktel.sk.ca

Albert Jame, Creative Director, zu
Phone: (306) 653-4747
Email: albert.jame@zu.com

The most recent wave of kinetic typography involves fast moving text, rotating camera angles, and an accompanying audio file to help the viewer digest the content. For SaskCanola, we recently launched a Maxtron (Jumbotron) animation using this sort of technique.

Not having the luxury of a voice over with the text presents itself with timing challenges. For high energy, you need quick transitions—and for the legibility, you need to hold the frame a little longer so the audience can actually get the message. In the end, we produced a 15 second typographic animation that airs at the start of each half at Roughrider home games. Welcome to the Jungle by Guns & Roses is the official kick off song played on the PA system, so we included it to give you a better idea of what the final version is like. So at your next Rider game, make sure to pay attention before the kick off, it could just be the best 15 seconds of the game.

twitpitch: Kinetic typography puts the jolt back in video advertising for @zutweets SaskCanola project http://bit.ly/14gw6l

The complete article is available in the online July/August 2009 issue of SaskBusiness magazine.

What’s all the buzz about SMPR?
You could say that the SMPR began as a mere glimmer in the eye of content sharing and voting websites, social media networks, podcasts, and blogs. In layman’s terms, SMPRs are designed to drive news stories to online conversation forums and get the conversation going; they provide readers with the ability to disseminate information and multimedia along with bookmark and sharing tools. They are multimedia press releases that function more like a webpage than a static text document. SMPRs often contain images, video, links, and have distribution through online networks outside the traditional press wire.

Making a case for SMPR
Until recently, our marketing department channeled PR efforts through the traditional media streams of newspapers, magazines and radio—and like most organizations, we’ve garnered positive attention to our business developments by posting news releases on our website. From the outside looking in, there really wasn’t anything lacking in our existing marketing strategy that would give cause to jump on the SMPR bandwagon—except that my marketing DNA would win the battle and have me try anything bright, shiny and trendy.

Baiting the hook
I decided to bait the hook with the recent success and recognition of zuLabs TimmyMe and BucksMe iPhone apps. My involvement with production of the actual Marketwire SMPR was minimal; I crafted a text-based, traditional news release and sent it off to Jay, our Account Executive at Marketwire. I had to package up a few other details in order to build the SMPR, including creation of the following:
• keyword cloud
• video clip
• images
• Technorati tags
After a few emails back and forth, I proofed the document and it was distributed through Marketwire’s traditional and online networks. Access to the online networks is really the strongest benefit the Marketwire SMPR service provides.

Just the numbers
I set up Google Alerts and watched our SMPR take effect: we generated two interviews [including CBC Radio] and 18 online news stories in only a few days. We also observed a 60% increase in TimmyMe downloads during the two weeks following distribution of the SMPR. Collaborating with our resident SEO experts, I initiated some statistical research surrounding the traffic that was generated to our website via the online SMPR during a specific time frame: one month after distribution our unique visitor traffic stats increased 75% compared to our monthly average.

At the finish line
I would have to say that the SMPR is the BMW of news release distribution—it looks sexy and it performs. If you’re anything like me I fuss constantly over brand presentation and lead generation results, and the Marketwire 2.0 SMPR gave me both, loaded with options like: text, audio, video, bookmarking and tagging tools, content voting and sharing portals, keyword-optimized text and images. With one click, the reader can submit the SMPR to Digg, Deli.cio.us, Technorati and other social media content portals. The list of social media aggregation features in the Marketwire SMPR is long and impressive, including a social media newsroom that receives visitor feedback directly from a comment box in your press release.

There are cheaper entry point SMPRs on the market like PRWeb and PitchEngine that package up nicely with all the social media bells and whistles [I will leave the cost analysis discussion for another time], but from a marketer’s perspective, I believe the SMPR has more reach, is more functional and makes it easier for media people, analysts, bloggers and consumers to compile information for the articles they research or want to write. The SMPR facilitates this functionality by breaking down the content into logical sections in a way it can be easily scanned and used.

In my mind, the SMPR is not going to replace or kill the traditional press release any time soon. The SMPR is a tool, not a trend. And it simply improves upon the traditional press release layout, evolving and adapting to the 2.0 revolution. More people are accessing their news and information through web channels, so it only makes sense to meet them there.