Konami Podium - Born from Fun™

KonamiPodium.com went live this afternoon. It has been an awesome experience working with the Konami Gaming team in Las Vegas. The Podium represents the cutting edge in slot machine cabinets, with all new slim-lines, ergonomic features, upgraded sound system and 360º lighting.

The T - Takes You Places

FORT WORTH, TX (June 4, 2009) –– Concussion High Impact Communications recently unveiled The-T.com, a new user-friendly website designed to make riding The T even easier.

“Concussion worked with us to bring The-T.com up-to-date in regard to functionality and design, enhancing the over-all user experience,” said Richard Maxwell, assistant vice president of marketing for The T.

New functionalities on The-T.com include an interactive system map, commuter alerts and step-by-step directions on how to ride The T.

The interactive system map, powered by Google Maps, allows visitors to view all routes serviced by The T, select their destination, and then view details of the route that will take them where they want to be. Commuter alerts are located on the top of each page and immediately inform visitors of The T’s most current activities. And, for public transportation beginners, the site even offers step-by-step directions on how to ride The T.

The purpose of the new design is to help visitors quickly find the information they need without devoting too much time to searching.

The new website also includes detailed information about each of The T’s services such as carpool, vanpool, bus, mobility-impaired transportation service (MITS), the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), and the new Southwest- to- Northeast rail corridor.

While the new website touts major improvements, The T is looking to add even more functionality to the site in the near future.

The T - Takes You Places

We are very happy to announce the arrival of the new and improved The-T.com. Designing and developing a website for the Fort Worth Transportation Authority has been very rewarding and challenging. Our goal was to make The-T.com as simple to use and understand as possible thereby encouraging an increase in Fort Worth of bus and train ridership which ultimately helps the entire community.

Krause Financial Services

We are pleased to announce our latest site to go live - Krause Financial Services. Krause Financial Services is the only attorney-led financial services firm in the nation that specializes in helping families qualify for Medicaid benefits through the use of a Medicaid Compliant Annuity.

As far as clients go, the team at Krause have been awesome to work for and directly contributed to the design process, allowing Concussion Interactive a lot of leeway in simplifying a complicated subject.

Concussion Interactive | Reel 08 from Concussion Interactive on Vimeo.

2008 was a great year for Concussion Interactive. We worked with many awesome clients… So without further adieu, we present our 08 Show Reel.

District Gold Medal Winner - Thanks a Million Microsite

Concussion High Impact Communications has won thirteen District ADDY Awards to be presented at the American Advertising Federation (AAF) District Ten (which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas) awards presentation in Houston, Texas, on Friday, April 24, announced Allen Wallach, CEO/partner at Concussion.

The litany of awards includes two coveted Gold ADDYs for an email blast and micro site done on behalf of Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino and a Silver ADDY for the website created for Hillwood Residential.

District Silver Medal Winner - Hillwood Residential

Concussion’s award-winning work recognized with District Ten Gold ADDYs will now take the next step in the AAF’s ADDY competition. The email blast and micro site developed for Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino will compete against Gold ADDY winners from 200 member advertising clubs located in 15 districts spanning the nation.

“We don’t deal with your traditional advertising methods,” said Douglas Cox, interactive director at Concussion. “We provide clients with the two-way communication needed to be successful in today’s environment. Whether it’s developing a dynamic website or executing social media methods, we know what we’re doing and we make these technologies work to our client’s advantage. It’s a complete bonus that our efforts achieve Gold.”

Mint.com - the most awesome online app for finance

Finance 2.0: Money Management to Save this Generation
The country’s economy sucks, especially for young people. New sites give unprecedented financial insight and unique ways to save. Their founders promise the resulting changed relationship between people and their financial future will lead to less reliance on credit, lower consumer debt, and ultimately foster a stronger economy.

According to Mint’s founder Aaron Patzer, their sign-ups now total more than a million users. Mint’s success is a great example of identifying a need online and then make it simple to use through great intuitive design.

Speakers:
Nichelle Stephens Founder, Keeping Nickels | Michael Ferrari President/ Co-Founder, SmartyPig | Aaron Patzer CEO/Founder, Mint.com | Murali Subbarao Pres/CEO, Billeo Inc | Stessa Cohen Gartner Inc

The founders of Dogster speak about their experiences as a startup...

Start-up Management: OMG I Have to Manage People?
It has been said managing people is the hardest thing to do. It is even more difficult if you are web developer or brand new entrepreneur who now has to build and manage a team. You need help! These experienced founders will guide you through the hairiest of management problems.

Steven Reading and John Vars did a great job outlying a lot of the pitfalls that occur when hiring people for your small startup. In the room there were many employers that had the same experiences when hiring friends and peers… They also spoke about the very ugly issue of staff layoffs and how to do it after having to reduce their team from 18 to 12 recently.

Speakers:
Steven Reading Founder, Dogster Inc | John Vars Dogster Inc

Chow time for Concussion Interactive

One of the things you learn quickly at SXSW is that lunch time is a battle. It is hard to find somewhere to eat where the staff are not totally overloaded or that there is not a line out the door!

Laser Tagging

Monday Keynote: Virginia Heffernan / James Powderly Interview
Open source art evangelist and political activist James Powderly talks about his craft and his mission with Virginia Heffernan, who writes The Medium column for The New York Times Magazine.

The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media. James told in detail about his experiences with Chinese authorities after a failed attempt at tagging ‘Free Tibet’ on Tiananmen Square with the use of laser during the Olympics. James was sent to prison but was later released to return to the U.S.

Speakers:
Virginia Heffernan Columnist , The New York Times | James Powderly Research Dir, FAT Lab

Creating Passionate Users

Change Your World in 50 Minutes: Making Breakthroughs Happen
Gain real-world ideas for markedly improved productivity from an industry expert and passionate speaker who always inspires SXSW audiences.

Kathy is one of the most potent speakers on the SXSW list. Having seen her a number of times it is amazing how great a communicator she is and how she can simply complex issues by looking outside the box.

Speaker:
Kathy Sierra CreatingPassionateUsers

Closed Loop CEO - Lance Loveday

Kick Ass or Suck – Escaping Internet Mediocrity
Most organizations get in their own way when it comes to online, obsessing about things that don’t matter and virtually ignoring things that do. Using examples from the brilliantly sublime to the jaw-droppingly stupid, we’ll discuss and demonstrate simple changes anyone can make to juice their online results.

Speaker:
Lance Loveday Ceo, Closed Loop Marketing

iPhone App Development

Saturday 3/14/09

The Concussion Interactive team arrived early on Saturday morning in Austin. Then it was off to the Austin Convention Center for the badge process. A sea of dorks of course awaited us, laptop bags, Fedora hats, thick rimmed glasses and stove pipe jeans.

Concussion Interactive Team at SXSW

Below are just a few examples of the panels we attended on Saturday:

Emerging Trends of Mobile Technology

“iPhone 2.0, Android, Flash Lite 3.0, Streaming Video, Electronic Wallets, Mobile technology is growing rapidly and becoming an intrinsic part of consumer mentality. Hear the experts discuss the role of mobile in todays lifestyle, discuss emerging technology, and predict national and international trends.”

Augmented Reality, QR Codes, and GPS are being creatively utilized to connect our online world with or offline realities.

Keynote speech by Tony Hsieh from Zappos
We have seen Tony talk on a couple of occasions… This time however, Zappos has moved on to have over a billion in sales… His messages on company culture and treating your customers with extraordinary service, ring as a beacon of hope for companies looking to grow in the current economic crisis we all find ourselves in.

Designing for Irrational Behavior
“The core of sustainability efforts is behavior change, understanding patterns of behavior and developing models for motivating sustainable behavior change. This approach assumes a rational response from the consumer. However, most decisions are irrational. This panel will examine how to motivate people to make sustainable changes by appealing to their emotions instead.”

The QR Code Invasion

Building a Bridge with Barcodes – The QR Code Invasion
“QR Codes have made a tremendous impact on mobile internet around the world but have yet to break-out in North America. In Japan, users are utilizing 2D barcodes to place hyperlinks throughout the physical world on everything from bookmarks to tombstones.”

6th Street at SXSW

After an early start and a very busy day the Concussion Interactive decided to hit 6th street to have dinner and a few…

Comfy kick back at SXSW...

A good time was had by all but it made for a painful Sunday morning for some of the team.

Time to have a few....

Sunday 3/15/09

Sunday morning arrived way to fast… With sore heads and nausea the team headed back to the Austin Convention Center for another day packed full of panels:

Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities
This talk gets to the heart of how people interact and exchange information in online communities: through social capital, or as Cory Doctorow calls it, Whuffie. The key to growing customers in online communities is through growing your social capital.

Accessible Flash and Flex Applications
Developers are increasingly interested in delivering accessible applications that use Flash-based technologies but are uncertain as to what is possible and how to develop and test their applications.

Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight

Stephen Baker / Nate Silver Interview
Fivethirtyeight.com was one of the biggest winners in the 2008 November election, successfully predicting the Obama landslide. Veteran BusinessWeek columnist Stephen Baker talks with Nate Silver, the man who’s statistical analysis powered the site.

Jetblue on Twitter

Twitter for Marketers: Is It Still Social Media?
Is social media only about connecting people? Can it connect companies with potential customers? Hear from some of the top companies using Twitter to connect with customers why they’ve turned to Twitter and other social media tools for marketing and branding purposes.

2009 Fort Worth Addys Winners

After it was all said and done, Concussion walked away from the 2008 ADDY Gala with 63 ADDYs – the most presented – including 21 gold, 21 silver and 21 bronze awards. Concussion also won a highly coveted Best of Show Award in the broadcast category for Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino.

The second-highest number of awards, 36 ADDYs, went to GCG and Algo+Rhythm, formerly Rassai merged with Square One (out of Dallas), was awarded 34 ADDYs. Balcom Agency received 23 ADDYs and Best of Show for a patient education game created for pharmaceutical company Alcon.

The economic melee didn’t hamper the spirit of Tarrant County’s creatives. The American Advertising Federation-Fort Worth received almost 750 entries this year, surpassing entries for other clubs such as Austin, Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

According to Mike Roundtree, president of AAF-FW, “The volume and quality of work entered this year is absolutely worthy of a national stage. And, some will get that chance as their winning entries move on to the district and national ADDY competitions.

“You will undoubtedly see some these agencies winning again as they move on and compete with competitors across the nation.”

2009 Fort Worth Addy Awards - Concussion Interactive Team

The 2008 Fort Worth Addy Awards gala held at the Ashton Depot was a very enjoyable evening. Thanks go to all of our fellow Concussionites who put on an outstanding event. The Concussion Interactive team had a banner evening taking home 15 Addys in total:

Gold Addy Awards
Hillwood Residential – Hillwood Residential Website x 2
Hillwood Residential – Heritage Community Website
Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino – Thanks A Million Microsite
Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino – Thanks A Million Email Blast

Silver Addy Awards
Hillwood Residential – Heritage Community Website
North Texas Clean Air Coalition – Work for Clean Air Website
AAF Fort Worth – 2007 Call For Entries Website
Plaza Medical – Bariatric Surgery Website
TCU – Get With The Program

Bronze Addy Awards
Plaza Medical – Bariatric Surgery Website
Plaza Medical - Joint Surgery Website x 2
Trajan Construction – Trajan Construction Website
Child Study Center – Child Study Center Website

Overall, on the top winning Fort Worth advertising agencies standing, it looks like Concussion Advertising followed by Algorhythm (formerly Rassai and Square One out of Dallas) and then Balcom Agency. Concussion won 21 gold Addy Awards so it was definitely an awesome evening for everyone at Concussion.

Fort Worth Addys Ice Bar

2009 Fort Worth Addys Embargo after party

Go Fort Worth!