SEOUL North Korea fired at least one short-range ballistic missile on Monday that landed in the sea off its east coast, the latest in a fast-paced series of missile tests defying world pressure and threats of more sanctions.

The missile was believed to be a Scud-class ballistic missile and flew about 450 km (280 miles), South Korean officials said. North Korea has a large stockpile of the short-range missiles, originally developed by the Soviet Union.

Monday’s launch followed two successful tests of medium- to long-range missiles in as many weeks by the North, which has been conducting such tests at an unprecedented pace in an effort to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting the mainland United States.

North Korea likely showing its determination to push ahead in the face of international pressure to rein in its missile program and « to pressure the (South Korean) government to change its policy on the North », South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said.

It was the third ballistic missile test-launch since South Korea’s liberal President Moon Jae-in took office on May 10 pledging to engage with the reclusive neighbor in dialogue.

Moon says sanctions alone have failed to resolve the growing threat from the North’s advancing nuclear and missile program.

The missile reached an altitude of 120 km (75 miles), Roh said.

« The assessment is there was at least one missile but we are analyzing the number of missiles, » he said.

North Korea, which has conducted dozens of missile tests and tested two nuclear bombs since the beginning of 2016 in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, says the program is necessary to counter U.S. aggression.

The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed about the launch. The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile for six minutes and assessed it did not pose a threat to North America.

The United States has said it was looking at discussing with China a new U.N. Security Council resolution and that Beijing, North Korea’s main diplomatic ally and neighbor, realizes time was limited to rein in its weapons program through negotiations.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, asked what a military conflict with North Korea might look like if diplomacy failed, warned on Sunday it would be « probably the worst kind of fighting in most people’s lifetimes ».

« The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, which is the capital of South Korea, » Mattis told CBS news program « Face the Nation ».

« And in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well, » he said.

TESTING NEW CAPABILITIES

China reiterated that U.N. Security Council resolutions had « clear rules » about North Korean missile activities and it urged Pyongyang not to contravene them.

« The situation on the Korean peninsula is complex and sensitive, and we hope all relevant sides maintain calm and exercise restraint, ease the tense situation as soon as possible and put the issue back onto the correct track of peaceful dialogue, » China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia condemned the launched and also called for restraint, « including towards military activity », from the partners it was working with, the RIA news agency quoted a deputy Russian foreign minister as saying.

Japan lodged a protest against the test missile, which appeared to have landed in its exclusive economic zone.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed action along with other nations to deter Pyongyang’s repeated provocations.

« As we agreed at the recent G7, the issue of North Korea is a top priority for the international community, » Abe told reporters in brief televised remarks. « Working with the United States, we will take specific action to deter North Korea. »

Seoul’s new liberal administration has said Pyongyang’s repeated test launches were dashing hopes for peace.

South Korea’s Moon swiftly called a meeting of the National Security Council, South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

North Korea last test-fired a ballistic missile on May 21 off its east coast and said on Sunday it had tested a new anti-aircraft weapon supervised by leader Kim Jong Un.

It has tested Scud-type, short-range missiles many times in the past, most recently in April, according to U.S. officials. However, experts say it may be trying to test new capabilities that may be fed into its efforts to build an ICBM.

« There are many possibilities … It could have been a test for a different type of engine. Or to verify the credibility of the main engine for ICBM’s first stage rocket, » said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Far Eastern Studies department in Seoul.

Modified versions of the Scud have a range of up to 1,000 km (620 miles).

On Tuesday, the United States will test an existing missile defense system to try to intercept an ICBM, the first such test, officials said last week.

For graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: tmsnrt.rs/2n0gd92

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in WASHINGTON, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, William Mallard in TOKYO and Soyoung Kim and Christine Kim in SEOUL, Denis Pinchuk in MOSCOW; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

Animoto offers SMBs opportunities to explore marketing videos for enhanced customer engagement in social media

Animoto, creator of seamless social media videos announced a partnership with Facebook and the US Small Business Administration (SBA). This visionary alliance will support Animoto’s aim of working with other Small and Mid-sized companies in order to help them communicate with and engage their customers using videos in social media.

According to the Facebook Marketing Partner Program, associated businesses can easily connect and work with a certain group of marketing companies who are known for their expertise and track record. As part of the Small Business Technology Coalition, the small businesses would be able to strategically engage with innovative technology platforms and thought leaders, which would enhance their options to reach their customers better with improved business growth.

According to Brad Jefferson, co-founder, and CEO of Animoto, “Today small businesses have an unprecedented opportunity to connect directly with customers and prospects on Facebook and Instagram, and video has proven to be the most effective approach. As the megatrend of video continues to take hold on social media, our partnerships with Facebook and the SBA are very timely. We’re thrilled to help more marketers catch the video wave on social to achieve their business objectives.”

Marketing Video Builder, a recent innovation by Animoto allows marketing and business professionals to create attractive videos for social media. Based on customer requests, Animoto designed its unique features like starter storyboards, drag-and-drop interface, and video styles.

“Animoto’s expertise in leveraging video to help small businesses communicate with their customers more effectively makes them a great addition to the Small Business Technology Coalition,” said Michael Morales. White House Fellow and Senior Advisor to the SBA Administrator, Linda McMahon said, “We are excited to collaborate with Animoto as we seek to help small businesses use technology to grow more effective and competitive.”

Also Read: Data that directly measures users’ intent to engage with the video content

Recommended for you

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

HOLLYWOOD, CA–(Marketwired – May 26, 2017) – nFüsz, Inc. (OTCQB: FUSZ), the Hollywood-based digital technology company, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with CGETC, Inc. (« CGETC »), the international e-commerce provider known in the U.S. as ‘Accessory Geeks’, to be the exclusive provider of in-video, interactive sales and marketing e-commerce solutions. CGETC represents hundreds of U.S. and international brands and is recognized the world over for providing e-commerce solutions to foreign brands seeking to do business in the U.S., and domestic brands seeking to expand their e-commerce capabilities overseas.

« We’ve seen an explosion of brands seeking to expand their sales and marketing efforts internationally and our greatest challenge has been maintaining brand integrity across cultures and languages, » states David Byun, CEO, CGETC. « With Notifi, the interactive video technology developed by nFüsz, our brands can ‘tell their story’ through engaging interactive video messaging that contains an e-commerce ‘call-to-action’ right in the video… it’s incredible! » Rory J. Cutaia, CEO, nFüsz states, « We are so excited to be working with CGTEC, their brands, and their partners to deliver first-of-its-kind in-video interactive e-commerce solutions to manufactures and retailers domestically and internationally. »

About nFüsz, Inc.

nFüsz, Inc. (OTCQB: FUSZ) is a Hollywood-based digital tech company. Our proprietary next generation interactive video technology is the core of our cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products. We offer subscription-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM), sales lead generation, and social engagement software on mobile and desktop platforms for sales-based organizations, consumer brands, and artists seeking greater levels of engagement and higher conversion rates. Our software platform can accommodate any size campaign or sales organization, and is enterprise-class scalable to meet the needs of today’s global organizations. Our service is built around our proprietary ‘Video-First’ Notifi technology, which places interactive video front and center in all customer and prospect communications. We’ve re-invented what a CRM, lead-gen tool should be in today’s video-centric business and social environment. Now watch for our live broadcast interactive video platform that will redefine what ‘engagement’ means in consumer video consumption.

For more information on nFüsz, Inc., visit www.nFusz.com.

About CGETC, Inc.

CGETC, Inc. (www.accessorygeeks.com) is a U.S.-based company headquartered in southern California. We work with businesses worldwide to identify and bring to market the best, most unique, and fun products from all corners of the globe. We also partner with local businesses to hire, train, and inspire workers to support the local community and economy.

For more information on CGETC, Inc., visit www.accessorygeeks.com

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This press release may contain « forward-looking » information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In accordance with the safe harbor provisions of this Act, statements contained herein that look forward in time that include everything other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company’s actual results. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and there are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by the Company, including, but not limited to, plans and objectives of management for future operations or products, the market acceptance or future success of our products, and our future financial performance. The Company cautions that these forward-looking statements are further qualified by other factors including, but not limited to, those set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, and other filings with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (available at http://www.sec.gov). The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

For more information, please visit: www.nFusz.com

New Delhi [India], May 29 (ANI): Video content marketing is the integration of video as a part of content strategy that goes along with other forms like social text posts, banners, posters, photos, blogs, websites, etc.
Statistics show that video content accounts for more than 80 percent of all web traffic, also,four times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it.
Video format not only requires quality content, but also a proper planning of information dissemination. Content planning is as important as content marketing is.
Pankaj Rahul Singh, co- founder at TSD Corp listed some essential steps to create an impactful video content strategy have to be built around the following:
1. Goals and objective – Setting goals and objectives help give direction to the whole content. Be it written, oral or visual, content is meaningless if it is directed to an unstructured format. What a brand is trying to accomplish through presenting such video content, is the primary question to begin with. If the content is formed to create brand awareness or to induce work force or to acquire audience’s attention to its products and services; a systematic goal and objective planning is a must. Not just with the planning, but setting goals and objectives also help a brand measure their performance in contrast with the goals set. For example what is the basis of your decision on the video being a success or a failure? Is it the number of likes or shares or views or something else entirely?
2. Know your audience – One of the major objectives of creating content is to engage the audience by delivering the content that actually matters to them and drives the whole mission forward. The content will have maximum effect only if it fits your audiences’ preference or else, it’ll be a complete waste of money, time and resources. The best way is to take the path of creativity in alignment with the diverse ways to reach the target audience and their needs.
3. Structure your video execution – The video must communicate your mission, around which the whole marketing strategy is built. At times, the video contains the best of elements including impeccable screenplay, cinematography, etc. but fails to create a ‘call to action’. Every video after concluding leaves an impression in the viewer’s mind and this effect should initiate a call to action which sums up the whole purpose of the content creation.
4. Engage community through different media- Engaging the community is one of the primary motives of video content creation. Your target audience is offered too much content in 24 hours of a day, which emphasizes on the necessity to stand out and deliver what the audience seeks while keeping your marketing goals aligned. Since video content already has the audience’s attention as a platform for brand’s communication, delivering the right content that creates interest in the minds of the consumer will be most engaging to the audience. Different video formats have been used in different platforms for better traction. For example, the video content on video streaming websites that run for hours is different than the platforms whose video duration is restricted to six seconds or 15 seconds, then there are 2d videos, 3d ones, whiteboard animation, 360 degree etc. Creating interesting content within the right time frame and in sync with the target audience’s choice will have maximum and most relevant impact.
5. Consistency- If a brand envisions to create an active media engagement for a long period of time, then they must formula tea strategy that targets to create rich content and consistently. It is of utmost importance for brands to maintain and regulate the content elements as well as adapt consistency in producing and presenting the videos for a better and extensive outreach. Consistency helps in keeping the audience’s interest intact and creates anticipation. Viewers wait for the brand’s next project leading to a healthy engagement build up created by certainty and delivery. (ANI)

President Trump celebrated his “home run” of a foreign trip during a speech in Italy to U.S. military troops he called the “warriors of freedom” and “the patriots who keep the fires of liberty burning.”

“You are the protectors of that great American flag,” Trump said at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily. “You’re the metal spine forged out of the fires of American strength.”

“Every single day, you protect the safety and security of the American people — and provide a symbol of hope, freedom and justice for the world,” Trump said. “To our friends and allies, you are the ultimate reassurance — to our enemies, you are the ultimate deterrent.”

The president said he “took a little heat” from proposing to boost the military budget, characterizing the money in guns and ships as an investment in peace.

“What’s the expression? Peace through strength,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a lot of strength, but we’re going to have a lot of peace.”

In addition to thanking the troops, Trump used the last stop of his nine-day jaunt through Europe and the Middle East to recount what he saw as the expedition’s successes, saying: “I think we hit a home run no matter where we are.”

Pippa Garner is a crossover artist with a penchant for satirical inventions and ideas. Tinker Tantrum at Redling Fine Art includes pencil drawings and texts, mixed media assemblages, and video performances from the 1970s to the present that showcase Garner’s ingenuity as an absurdist and bricoleur, exploring a vein of popular science mined by R. Crumb and Al Jaffee to lampoon American consumerism and culture.

Garner has been an absurdist for four decades, satirizing consumerism, marketing, and waste in performance art, videos, sculpture, installations, drawings and magazine editorials and art pages. She came to fame in the early 1980s, in her former identity as Philip Garner, after the publication of her books of madcap inventions, Philip Garner’s Better Living Catalog (1982) and Utopia – or Bust (1984). Her self-effacing humor and quirky utility apparel, including men’s midriff half-suits and umbrellas made from palm fronds, gained a wide audience through appearances on such talk shows as The Tonight Show, Today, and The Merv Griffin Show.

Studying automotive design at Pasadena’s Art Center College in the 1960s, at a moment when car culture was captivating the American imagination, Garner began exploring cars as vehicles for cultural introspection in the 1970s. She modified a Chevrolet for Esquire magazine in 1975 that captured the attention of the San Francisco art collective, Ant Farm, leading to collaborations with Chip Lord in counter-cultural performances and media events.

Garner explores the ambiguous role of the automobile in American culture with a thoughtful combination of satire and bricolage, which enabled her to cross over from the avant-garde to mass media. For 25 years, Garner had a monthly editorial page in Car and Driver, and her satirical art also appeared in Los Angeles magazine, Rolling Stone, Arts and Architecture and Vogue. Although she has exhibited sporadically in art galleries, she prefers the “broader appeal of magazines,” which reached a wider audience.

In the late 1980s, Garner began another crossover, by transitioning to a different gender. The hyper-masculine, body-building, Vietnam veteran known for leading man good looks and charm made a gender transition decades before Caitlyn Jenner advocated for gender transition. Garner insists, “I was not born in the wrong body like people who are truly androgynous,” adding, “I was just tired of being an over-sexed male in his forties.” Before her transition, she took estrogen injections and people commented that she was “nicer and not as angst [ridden].” After five years of therapy and research while taking estrogen, she underwent sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) in Brussels.

Recalling Oscar Wilde’s famous comment, “One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art,” Garner emphasizes that the gender transition “is part of my work. I look at my body as being an appliance not unrelated to things in my works. This is something I have to work with. I had a playful attitude, which was the same as my books.” Moreover, “mixing characteristics of two genders short-circuits the system. A man can feminize, but can’t cross, because we can’t simulate the experience a woman has from a built-in reproductive system.”

The exhibition takes its title from a series of Tinker Tantrum videos (2013). In one video An In ‘Faux’ Mercial, Garner appears as both Gadget Girl and Gadget Guy, wearing headphones meant to make a personal statement, such as Barbie headphones for convicted pedophiles, bread loaf headphones for the gluten-friendly and “hear no evil” devotional hands.

In another video, Garner demonstrates pedal cars for sporty men and fashion-conscious women and showcases personal utility gadgets, and “more friendly iterations of up-cycled technologies” like the Personal Utility Drone (or PUD) engineered as a “handy household helper” for shopping errands. Her gender performance also extends to playing a leather-clad dominatrix, “Reprimand-a.”

For the video series Onboard Trophy Wife (2013), Garner appears as both a bride and groom in a marriage ceremony, which ends with a wedding pedal car and a protest sign to “legalize self-marriage.”

In Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) philosopher Judith Butler analyzes gender as “improvised performance,” proposing drag to destabilize and poke fun at the notion of a universal or original gender. While artists have performed gender by playing with drag at least since Duchamp, few have been as subversive as Garner in both re-engineering their sexed body and legally changing the sex on their birth certificate post-op, two decades before transgender politics blurred gender binaries.

Garner creates a dialogue on the inefficiency of greed and waste in consumer culture with “The World’s Most Efficient Car” (2007) and “Crowd Shroud” (2017). The former is an old Honda 600 converted into a human-powered, vinyl-floored, decal-tagged “misc.pippa.” The latter, a wheelchair with a two-way mirror and bicycle lights, overturns the logic of privilege behind Victorian carriages that used underpaid human labor to carry aristocrats through crowded streets; Garner re-engineers this signifier of class into a vehicle of independence for a disabled passenger.

The suite of pencil drawings from the 1970s to 2000 with illustrations of various inventions demonstrates the broad range of Garner’s skills as a draftsperson, inventor, and perceptive cultural commentator. These drawings show the influence of Zap Comix, Mad magazine, automotive design training, and a childhood in Illinois when boys learned to become jack-of-all-trades from their fathers by tinkering with do-it-yourself projects.

Garner’s inventions capture the American ethos of ingenuity — although their future may or may not arrive. Although she skewers conventional logic, her madcap inventions lack the accusatory tone that characterizes some political art. Rather, her goofy, light-hearted touch allows her subversive satire to cross over to a broader audience.

Tinker Tantrum continues at Redling Fine Art (6757 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles) through June 3.

Garner will be in conversation with Zachary Drucker today and with Laura Fried on June 3, followed by a performance.

“Any business that needs to communicate emotions or legitimize themselves should be using video,” said Liz Denning, owner of Gamma Blast Studios.

Gamma Blast Studios specializes in visual storytelling and digital marketing with clients such as Nissan, HGTV and the Nashville Predators. Denning also writes the video blog, Vidruptive.com.

Denning said with current technology, any person or company could be its own movie studio and publish content. She said businesses – small and large – are intimidated by the perceived difficulty of creating video content.

She shared her seven-step strategy with the group, noting several steps take place before a recording device is used.

‘);
}else{
document.write( »);
}

“There are a lot of people who start doing video, and they don’t do any sort of planning at all,” Denning said.

She said businesses should create a content plan or strategy before filming and ask basic questions about the intended audience and their desires, as well as the desired end result.

“In our world, content is a business asset. The reason you’re creating content for your business is to get more business. It’s not just because it’s fluffy and nice. There’s an end goal and measurement around that,” she said.

Denning said the plans should have clear targets and calls to action from consumers.

“It’s surprising to me that a lot of people create content, and then they don’t tell people what they want them to do with it,” she said.

Entertainment was also a main talking point for Denning, who said the content should capture the audience.

“You have to entertain or give something to people that’s interesting to them so they continue to watch. It’s not that you have to be the latest viral video entertainer. You don’t; but there has to be some likeability there. You have to entertain people a little bit, and it has to be culturally relevant,” she said.

For more information, follow Denning on Twitter @GammaLiz.

The Business Boost is the chamber’s bi-monthly series of informative and interactive small business education sessions led by some of the area’s top professionals.

The next session will take place July 28 and feature Tim Shaver with Sandler Sales Institute. Shaver will discuss time management for professionals. To register for the event, visit mjchamber.org and click on chamber events.

Fans have been very outspoken over the seeming lack of interest DC Entertainment has shown in marketing the upcoming Gal Gadot led Wonder Woman, but that’s trivial in comparison to the recent blunders over at rival Marvel Studios. Proving that there is such a thing as bad publicity, a newly released teaser poster from Spider-Man: Homecoming has come under fire by fans and critics alike with insinuations that the graphic artwork looks amateurish and unworthy of a film expected to be a major blockbuster. Adding to that marketing failure, a new Spider-Man: Homecoming video teaser also has its share of failures, giving Marvel fans even more cringeworthy moments.

Spider-Man: Homecoming Takes A Common Poster Theme And Runs It Into The Ground

Marvel Studios released a new teaser poster for Spider-Man: Homecoming and, as The Verge shares, the image, while familiar in theme, looks more like a draft of concept art than something intended to inspire interest in the film. The poster in question assembles a variety of images from various Spider-Man: Homecoming teasers to showcase the various characters and story arcs in the upcoming Marvel Studios film.

The concept is not a new one. It has been seen in posters for a number of theatrical releases, particularly those that feature an ensemble cast. Most notably, this type of collage has been used in teaser posters for films in the Star Wars franchise.

I love the new Spider-Man trailer but what the hell is this poster? Did someone win a competition on Reddit? pic.twitter.com/Z4kLxIOKz8

— Leon Hurley (@LeonHurley) May 24, 2017

Yet, as veteran comic book illustrator and artwork designer Tommy Lee Edwards suggests, the poster for Spider-Man: Homecoming comes off looking unprofessional and seems more like a rough draft than something intended for public consumption.

“In a way…that Spider-Man poster almost looks like, ‘Here’s a bunch of references I got from the movie. Let’s put it all together and see how it looks.’ From there, you might be inspired to do a real poster,” says Edwards. “Instead, they just stopped at that point. It just looks like it’s not even finished.”

Tommy Lee adds that a collection of elements from any given film can be assembled together in a single poster and come off looking professional and enticing, so the flaw isn’t with that concept. Instead, he suggests the artists at Marvel Studios might have taken more time in adding a little finesse to the Spider-Man: Homecoming poster.

A New Spider-Man: Homecoming Trailer Doesn’t Get Everything Wrong

The Hollywood Reporter recently shared the third trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming, a video teaser which seems to be pushing the “friendly, neighborhood” aspect of Spider-Man just a little too hard. Each scene pushes that concept either blatantly, as when Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark tells Peter Parker outright to stick to being the “friendly, neighborhood” superhero or when Peter is seen struggling with villains bigger than himself.

Even Tom Holland’s character is frustrated with that label and with the rest of The Avengers treating him as the resident kid, even though that’s just what he is in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

While Marvel Studios isn’t forcing yet another Spider-Man origins down our throats, the studio is giving fans a similar Peter Parker. Still wet behind the ears and still trying to understand his place as a young superhero, Homecoming delivers a story of Peter Parker trying desperately to fit in and failing at it.

That said, Spider-Man: Homecoming does deliver an action-packed teaser with its third trailer and reveals more about that suit gifted to Peter Parker by father figure Tony Stark.

Speaking of that father/son dynamic, the Spider-Man: Homecoming does deliver some humor, even in the two and a half minute teaser. The most memorable moment of levity comes when Tony reaches past Peter to open the car door and poor Peter misinterprets the move as a hug and reciprocates. Awkward, but funny.

Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theaters on July 7.

[Featured Image by Marvel Studios]