“Nevada has gold, silver, and wild horses.”

Ray Field, Executive Director

Wild Horse Foundation

From our offices here in South Reno we can look out the windows up to the scraggy peaks of the Virginia Range where wild horses forage in the sage and grass. We hike and ride bikes among the Virginia Range Mustangs, we drive up after work to catch the sunset over the Sierra Nevada as they graze the flanks and meadows.

We even use them in our branding materials; of course, we have to give them colored mohawks and other various treatments. But that is just the way we roll! :~)

Nevada is home to more than half of the wild horses in the United States, and for the most part they exist in harmony with the land and people, as integral to our identity as the Sage, Bighorn Sheep, and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout that we hold as official icons. The state derives identity from the western ethos the wild horses represent, and we as a company derive inspiration from their intelligence and tenacity.

YouTube, MySpace, Blip.tv, Crackle, Sclipo and Viddler

So when the Nevada Department of Agriculture announced plans to monitor the largest contiguous herd in the United States with the notion that more than half needed to be removed from the land, we decided to go out and take a closer look.

Thankfully Willis Lamm, a wild horse supporter and owner of Least Resistance Training Concepts; country singer and president of the Let ‘em Run Foundation, Lacy J. Dalton; and Craig Downer, Wildlife Ecologist and expert on the Virginia Range Wild Horses from the University of Nevada, were more than happy to show us around. We would have also liked to have spoken with representatives from the Nevada Department of Agriculture, but they were either unable or unwilling (see comment below).

What we found were a few bands of healthy and happy looking horses ranging peacefully across the low hills above the Carson Valley, southeast of our offices in Reno. The main thrust of the NDA Wild Horse Position Statement is that the range can support about 500 to 600 wild horses, according to an estimate in a study by the Natural Resource Conservation Service in 2001. But that estimate appears only to pertain to the 85,000 acres of rangeland in the study plot. The herd actually roams on more than 200,000 total acres of rangeland. According to the NRCS projections, there is more than enough rangeland to support the 1000 to 1200 Wild Horses known to exist in that area.

Most visitors see the Wild Horses when driving to and from the Virginia City area, but much of the range is publicly accessible by 4×4, ATV, foot and bicycle. Other states like New Mexico and Maryland are actively promoting their wild horse herds and get many thousands of visitors as a result.

From Mammoth Lakes, CA to Yellow Stone National Park wildlife and humans have been butting heads in the West for much of the last century. In Nevada, encroachment on habitat and conflicts with humans are a constant and growing problem. There is no doubt that the Virginia Range Mustangs need to be actively managed to survive; but the volunteer groups, and local adoption can be a benefit to the community rather than a drain on tax dollars. Since wild horses are so closely tied to the existence and history of humans in the west and the unique identity of Northern Nevada that we owe it to ourselves to find a palatable way past this crisis that benefits our land, our horses and the Nevada brand.

For more information or to get involved visit:

• NVWildHorses.com
  
• Wild Horse Mentors
  
• Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association
  
• Let ‘em Run
  
• Save Nevada’s Wild Horses Diigo Group

-Mike

A few weeks back (Video, Video, Video) we spoke about the growing importance of video content on the web. One of the downsides of video though has been the time lock it puts on us. Sometimes it is far easier to read that four minutes of text and follow the pertinent links provided than it is to watch a video and then go and search for more information on topics brought up in the video.

Fear not! For finally, after over a decade of failed attempts, the hyperlinking technology we now take for granted in text is taking off as well in video. Think of a video for a Convention and Visitor Authority with pop-up links at key points which can send the viewer directly to a website to purchase tickets, view schedules or find more info about a particular attraction. Perhaps one for a ski resort with links to other videos about the ski patrol, or to a trail map, Flickr photoset, ticketing info, the food menus, pro shops and any other important or even just interesting bit of information.

Websites like Asterpix, Overlay.tv, QGIA and VideoCLix.tv are providing, or beginning to provide, simple web based services where you can upload footage or link to existing footage online and then create the the hyperlinks to other websites, enter details about items found in the video or any number of options, depending on the site’s formatting.

Similar results can be created with a custom look using Adobe Flash (though it is not the most efficient option for the job) or Riva Producer and other products are in development or even redevelopment in the case of software which was abandoned before the broadband and YouTube explosions.

There is a bit of a downside as the currently favored online video distribution sites (YouTube, Yahoo Video, MySpace…) can not handle hypervideo. The files therefore must be hosted through other means which does make it harder to get the content visible outside of the website it is hosted on. Possibilities could lie in distributing just the basic video in the attempt to garner interest in the actual hyperlinked video on the original site. Regardless of the difficulties, this is currently in it’s infancy and has the potential to change the way we browse and shop the web.

Twelve Horses plans to be on the forefront of this burgeoning technology. Added to our expanding video content creation abilities to write, produce, shoot, edit and distribute video content we are perfectly placed to take advantage of hypervideo and other techniques. Give us a call, and we can help you with your video needs.

-Earl

With the proliferation of online video there is no question that it has become a preferred method for communicating a message. How many of you would prefer to spend 4 minutes watching a video as opposed to 4 minutes of reading straight text? {Except for this of course! ;~)}

We recognize the importance of it and are actively blending video into various social and interactive marketing campaigns for our clients; for example, websites, landing pages, mobile devices, and social networks like YouTube and Facebook.

This content can also be extended to sales teams to help illustrate a particular product, service, or the unique value of the company they represent. It can be used at a tradeshow, powerpoint presentaion, or live on your iPod for that perfect moment when it can compliment a particular point you are about to make.

It might even be something that serves to personalize your brand and communicate something a little deeper, as this video shows.

Well, now there is another way. Google recently announced they are beginning testing for video ads on search results pages. For now it is no more expensive than the usual CPC you would make. This marks a new means of delivering targeted, measurable messages in a rich format, and it is something you should consider as part of your SEM campaigns.

Let ‘em see it!

tags: video branding search engine online marketing

Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, and less than 30 minutes from the nearest ski resort means quite a few of us here at Twelve Horses like to ski and snowboard. In fact, two of Twelve Horses founders, David LaPlante and Martin Gastanaga, were professional ski racers back in the day before they got a wild hair and decided to start a web design and development company.

Obviously, their passions have an influence on the office culture, as well as the type of clients we have. As an indication, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Mountain Sports International, and Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place are just a few clients we have that are involved in promoting snow sports.

It is the latter client, along with a merry band of high altitude hucksters and several other sponsors, that somehow managed to convince the city of Reno to:

The video speaks for itself. You can also watch more on this YouTube channel. Can you say, Cool!?

Also, here are some awesome Ski Base Jump photos of Shane McConkey doing his thing courtesy of the RSCVA.

I just had to share this Modest Mouse music video that features the son of David LaPlante, CEO of Twelve Horses. Today, it appeared on the front page of MySpaceTV.com.

The director of the video is Justin Francis, a native of Reno, Nevada who moved to New York to pursue his MFA degree at NYU’s prestigious Graduate Film Program. He has already built an impressive portfolio of work featuring artists such as 50 Cent, Eminem, Alicia Keys, Weezer, and of course, Modest Mouse.

Along with his partner in The Saline Project, Justin was nominated for “Director Of the Year” in 2005 by the Music Video Production Association, and also received a nomination for “Best Hip Hop Video” at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards.

For you Reno folks, see if you can figure out where the actual locations are featured in the video and then let us know in the comment section. If you need more clues, check out David’s Flickr photos from the shoot.

Modest Mouse - Little Motel

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tags: reno nevada myspacetv.com justin francis

We learned a few things from our first video podcast:

• A lack of good lighting can make you look jaundice
• Changing the podcast feed from audio to video will annoy your existing audience
• Even with a nice shotgun mic, there is a trick to good audio
• No matter how close you sit to each other, in video it looks like you are farther apart

Here are some of the changes we are making:

• The current podcast feed will be for audio only
• The video feed will be http://feeds.feedburner.com/HorsePowerVideo
• We will mix audio using a mixing board and record directly into a laptop. The camcorder will also record directly to the computer
• We are going to setup a better set for recording that will help with the background, lighting and audio

Technorati Tags: Horse Power, Marketing, MP3, Podcast, Twelve Horses, Video

Robert and I have talked about changing the Horse Power Podcast from audio to video. Currently, we record the podcast on an Edirol 4-channel portable recorder with an internal hard drive. It mixes up to four mics into one track. Yesterday, I went out and bought a Sony DCR-SR80 hard drive based video camera (I say “I,” but Twelve Horses paid for it). We also purchased a directional shotgun mic for it for better sound quality.

The camera is pretty sweet. Every time you hit record, it creates a separate MPEG-2 file on the hard drive. When you connect it to your computer, it shows up like an external hard drive. You can simply drag the clips you want from the camera to the computer. It’s very similar to shooting video on most digital still camera. Last night, I shot a 43 second clip of my kids, dragged it to my desktop, and then uploaded it directly to YouTube. What could be easier?

We are recorded a podcast today with Laurian Dixon who spoke last night at the local AIGA event. For this episode, we are going to use both the Edirol and the video camera. If the video turns out good enough, we’ll use that. Otherwise, it will be our last audio only podcast. On Tuesday, I’m going to Salt Lake City to meet with our team. I will be handing off the Edirol to Steve Spencer, President of Twelve Horses, who will use it for a new community event he’s created down there called the Utah Tech Spotlight.

I also want to use the video camera to create videos of community events we frequent. I think it will be awesome to draw attention to how much really goes on in this town from a social networking standpoint.

Technorati Tags: Sony, AIGA, Video Podcast, Laurian Dixon, EDIROL, Horse Power, YouTube, Podcast