Every picture tells a story and a picture is worth a thousand words.
The concept was first adopted 73,000 years ago by early Homo Sapiens who used red ochre to draw a crisscross pattern of lines on a rock flake discovered inside South Africa's Blombos Cave.
It is worth noting the drawing closely resembles a hashtag.
We respond to visual stimulation to this day, swiping and scrolling to gather information on everything from what college to attend, which lawnmower to buy, and who to date and marry.
Social media posts featuring photos of people get more views than posts that don't. Videos (as short as five seconds) get more views than posts with photos, and posting a steady stream of content on a regular basis is the best way to build an audience of followers online.
For anyone who's been so busy running their business that they don't have time to think about building an online presence or needs some crisp, beautiful new photography to show off their stuff and tell their story, there is Visual Cake Detroit, Llc.
Visual Cake Detroit designs visual content for businesses that want to amp up their online presence. Visual Cake Detroit is co-owned by Grosse Pointers Eric Novak and Maurice Hogan, friends who met in high school (Eric graduated from South and Maurice graduated from North) and have been working together to find a way to put their creative energy and talents to use in service to our community.
Why Visual Cake? It's a play on the term eye candy.
"Vertical video content is taking over," explains Eric Novak. "People get a dopamine rush from scrolling on their phones, which have a vertical orientation. Anybody with a business to promote needs to reach people who are scrolling through social media. Vertical content looks best on a cell phone.
"You have three seconds to get someone's attention. You have seven seconds to hold it. If you get someone to engage with your video for 15 seconds, that is a success."
The end result? Viewers will click through to the company website.
Novak and Hogan formed the consultancy (its precursor was 31 & Up Media) in 2020 to help Grosse Pointe businesses broaden their online marketing reach.
The pair brings listening skills and state-of-the-art equipment to every project, including high-quality cameras, microphones, lights, backdrops, drones, and cutting-edge editing software. Plus, the secret ingredient in every Visual Cake recipe is a massive dose of creativity.
The result? Scroll-stopping photographs and videos that are actually fun to watch.
"We give our clients a way to tell their own story, in their own words, and see it appear exactly as they want it to," Eric explains.
Each project begins with a listening tour. Eric and Maurice meet with new clients to learn what they are currently doing to reach their customers. They take an inventory of the current website and social media presence, including photos and videos.
That's when Eric and Maurice bring their collective creative expertise to the project. They are long-time musicians (their band is ), and Maurice is a wedding photographer with experience (and lots of patience) in telling visual stories.
A shot list is planned and submitted to the client for review to ensure they are confident their message will be conveyed. The goal is to plan a visit by Eric and Maurice to take photos and record video footage of the owner and their team at work. This can include the owner discussing their vision and reason for establishing their business, perhaps, or what they believe sets their business apart from the competition. The photoshoot also involves taking photos and shooting videos of the team doing their work.
It's all flexible and may be changed at any time during the process, depending on the client's needs.
The end result?
Dramatic images that engage, entertain, and inform.
The videos and photographs tell the story of the business and the team that brings that business to life. "We record images showing people doing things you may be used to seeing done in a typical way, the same way you've always seen them, and we flip them," Eric explains. "We create a new, fresh look that will appeal to viewers and catch their attention on social media."
The end result is a video edited to look good in either a landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical) orientation. Eric notes that this is important because a landscape orientation is used for Google search engine optimization, so it works in tandem with ranking and keywords.
In other words, when it comes to social media, more is better.
"If someone searches for your business on Google, it is more likely to turn up first if you have a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok because Google ranks them all together," Eric explains.
Once the client has reviewed and signed off on the visuals, the photos and video are ready to post to the client's website for a fresh look. But the story doesn't end there.
Eric and Maurice then draft a customized plan for each client designed to achieve maximum impact, with boosted posts to all social media channels. "Once we have produced fresh new video footage, it's time to consider how you can use it to your best advantage," Eric explains.
Advertising on social media is effective and more economical than paid ads in traditional media such as radio spots or billboards, and it has the added benefit of making your investment work extra hard for you, he points out. Every business needs a video on YouTube right now, for example, because YouTube is directly connected to search engine optimization (Google owns YouTube), and every word is a keyword now.
"Instead of investing in a video that runs for a few seconds on your website, we can use it in a variety of ways, put together a schedule of boosted posts on all social media platforms, and the result is that beautiful fresh new video is transformed into a key building block of your entire social media realm," Eric says.
Zeppelin Cleaning Services of St. Clair Shores has broadened its reach on social media thanks to Visual Cake. "We've had a very positive response to the video they produced," reports Chris Cooper, President and CEO of Zeppelin, which is based in St. Clair Shores.
The firm has been in business since 2007, providing residential carpeting, air duct cleaning, and commercial and janitorial services. "We realized we needed to pivot into electronic marketing, and Visual Cake was a natural choice," Chris explains since they produced a video of Chris's band (#Insecure) that generated positive interest online.
Zeppelin went a step further and is now investing in boosted posts on Facebook and Instagram. "It has been an inexpensive way to broaden our marketing outreach to new clients online," Chris reports.
St. Paul Catholic School turned to Visual Cake to produce two videos for its annual St. Paul Auction, and the results were beautiful, according to St. Paul Auction Coordinator Rachel Jacques.
"Visual Cake listened to our ideas and really delivered. They brought our theme to life. They were incredibly organized, prepared, and specific about what shots we needed to capture, which made it easier for our team to stay on track," she reports.
"Technically, everyone needs this kind of service," says Eric. He invites Grosse Pointers to check out the videos on their website (www.visualcakedetroit.com) and give them a call.
"We will make sure you look good and sound good and tell your story the way you want it to be told."
"People get a dopamine rush from scrolling on their phones, which have a vertical orientation. Anybody with a business to promote needs to reach people who are scrolling through social media."
"You have three seconds to get someone's attention. You have seven seconds to hold it."
"Social media posts featuring photos of people get more views than posts that don't."