About Storylines 2.0™

Ever hear the term "less can be more"?

I sure have ... and I think I know today, more than ever before, what was meant by these original words of wisdom.

Nothing could be more true with online Internet content these days. Web site publishers have crowded their home pages with so much information that it is almost impossible to concentrate and find what you're looking or. Perhaps that's one of the primary reasons the Google search page became so popular. It was (and still is) simple, straight forward, and to the point. It is not obnoxious like so many of its competitors' main customer interaction pages have become.

And that's probably a good reason why Google AdWords have done so well, while other forms of online advertising continue to struggle. Who wants to hear a bunch of uninvited sounds, flashing lights, twirling icons, or hopping frogs other than those too stoned to know the difference ... and I doubt they buy that much over the Internet anyway.

AdWords are simply unobtrusive, and go straight to the point. You're either interested or you're not. No fancy Madison Avenue types who think they can place subliminal pictures of popcorn behind your fantasy football page and cause you to run immediately to the kitchen ... or drop everything and head out to the local grocery store or movie theater. That sort of thing has always been hogwash in my opinion, and I've been involved with the advertising industry for almost 30 years now.

So what's my point? Well, here's the dilemma. Never has there been a communications medium even come close to bringing forward the consistent numbers now presented by the leading Internet web sites. Eyeballs are everywhere. Eyeballs eager to learn ... eyeballs eager to share information ...eyeballs eager to purchase goods and services. Eyeballs ready to reach out to others ... eyeballs ready to be entertained.

So Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo decide to form an oligopoly and fix prices for all this available information, and the price is FREE. Tell me that hasn't thrown the federal regulators, legislators, and fair trade enforcement folks for a complete loop.

Advertisers will pay the bills. We'll simply move advertising rates up by producing noisier, more obnoxious, more obtrusive productions. We'll scroll them along the bottom of videos ... no one will notice the difference. We'll pop them up out of nowhere. People will love the shock value. We'll improve the graphics in the banners at the top of the page. We'll use sound. We'll use animation. We'll use live video and still video. We can throw in some more fonts, and more colors that you can count. How about dancing animals. Yeah, that's perfect ... people love animals!

So what do we do? We here at Imageline don't like to point out serious industry problems without making a few suggestions for possible improvements or solutions along the way. They might not be perfect either, but at least we're willing to admit the problem ... not ram it down someone's throat. Or try to mislead Wall Street and our little old lady investors in Omaha along the way.

We've introduced what we call "Storylines 2.0", short 30-second to 3-minute "edutorials" or "infomercials" if you will. They are professionally produced, classy, and to the point. We are using them to educate our targeted audience as to the dangers of Internet "Piracy", "Public Domain" and "Fair Use" abuse. We've treated these stories as online Public Service Announcements, or PSAs as they are called. Very low key, light hearted in tone and dialect, a touch of humor here and there, and to the point. We give people easy directions to learn more, but only if they choose to do so.We don't ram anything down anyone's throat.

We have also decided to test this more subtle approach for our own business and product announcements for the various new products and services we are making available this fall from our new web site (www.imageline2.com). We see nothing wrong with making money online as long as it is done so honestly, with integrity, and with some degree of class.

We may just have something here. We've been communications and graphics technology pioneers before ... many times throughout our history.
We invented electronic graphic arts content (clipart illustrations, design templates, digital logos/symbols, and animations) for the IBM PC environment "way back when". Others who have seen our new Storylines are asking us to help them out as well. We're experimenting with a wide variety of new techniques as we speak. Voice-overs, video, photography, illustrations, animation. We have been helping people get their important messages across with class, effectiveness, and elegance for over 25 years now. No reason to stop now.

Thank you so much for listening to the origins of "Storylines 2.0". It is our hope that you have learned something that you either want to do or don't want to do along the way.

Please let us hear from you if you have any suggestions or critiques.

George P. Riddick, III
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.

griddick@imageline2.com