Creating Flash Advertising: From Concept to Tracking - Microsites, Video Ads and More (Hands-On Guide Series) [Paperback]

Jason Fincanon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2007

Create awe-inspiring, mind-blowing Flash ads and microsites that engage consumers and demonstrate their worth to clients. The Hands-On Guide to Creating Flash Advertising delivers the nuts and bolts of the development process from initial design conception to ad completion. You'll learn the best practices for:

* Mastering the myriad of ad specs, deadlines, quality and version control issues
* Creating ads that balance campaign goals with design constraints
* Preparing and building ads with team and QC standards
* Using forms and data in ads without file bloat
* File optimization techniques for swf files
* 3rd party rich media technologies that transcend the 30k banner
* Trafficking and tracking ads for impressions, interactions, clicks, and conversions
* Using ActionScript to save development time and implement team standards

Published projects developed with the practices and AS code presented in the book are available on the companion website http://www.flashadbook.com

Editorial Reviews

Review

From working within the constraints of antiquated site specs, to navigating the stringent quality control process while keeping your wits about you. From optimizing your code for re-usability to taking full advantage of version control, Jason has covered it all. -- Randy Bradshaw, principal, Click Here, Inc.

Jason is always pushing to find out more about what can be accomplished technically, taking the time to investigate the latest and greatest capabilities of Flash and integrating those capabilities into processes . a must-read for anyone wanting to get the most out of their own interactive ads. -- Harley Jebens, senior information architect, Tribal DDB Dallas

Jason has proven his depth of knowledge in the arena of rich media and online marketing . beyond that, his passionate enthusiasm for the work inspires us to look for new and useful ways to create online advertising. -- Chris Long, senior multimedia developer, Click Here, Inc.

About the Author

A senior interactive developer with Branded News Worldwide, one of the nation's largest interactive advertising agencies, Jason is a computer animation graduate from The Art Institute of Dallas. He has used Flash, Flex and ActionScript over the past 11 years building interactive/online advertising and advergaming. Clients whose projects I have worked on include names such as Patrón Tequila, GameStop, Hyundai, Fruit of the Loom, National Pork Board, Travelocity, Florida Department of Citrus and Nokia. Outside of work, Jason enjoys creating experiments with Flash, playing his guitars and video games and most of all, spending time with his family. Jason maintains two Flash-related blogs: The FlashCanon (http://flash.fincanon.com) addresses an array of Flash topics, and The FlashCanon Lab (http://lab.fincanon.com) offers a collection of his Flash experiments.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (August 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240809491
• ISBN-13: 978-0240809496
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,080,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jason Fincanon builds Flash-based websites, games and applications for interactive advertising agencies, branded entertainment, and advergaming companies. Since graduating from the Art Institute of Dallas in 1998, Jason has had the opportunity to work on projects for clients such as Patrón Tequila, GameStop, Hyundai, Fruit of the Loom, National Pork Board, Travelocity, Florida Department of Citrus, Nokia and many others. Outside of work he also stays involved in the Flash Platform community by co-managing Flash Dallas, an official Adobe Flash User Group, and maintaining a Flash and Flex related blog that can be found at http://www.jasonfincanon.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great information but needs more examples! November 16, 2007

By M. Jovel

Format:Paperback

I must agree with a previous reviewer that I purchased this book expecting to be blown away by the examples of the flash ad work. It is obvious that the author knows his stuff and he provides a great deal of information. I do however believe that the book could have used some more project walk throughs and included some innovative work and expalation on how it was accomplished while still meeting the constraints of ad design specifications. Despite that I do feel it is a good book and a great resource for anyone interested in flash and rich media ad design.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice reference November 19, 2007

By David Frederic Andre

Format:Paperback

I read it from cover to cover in one week, and got tons of great tips to enhance my productivity & quality. It covers a lot of material: ad placement, working with the creative team, quality control. It has a good quantity of samples & examples, even tough it could go deeper in details for some parts. It is a really good buy since it is not too expensive.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Black cover for grey book. October 26, 2007

By pauland

Format:Paperback

I'd been waiting for this book to be published and was prepared to be wowed by all of the great techniques for producing advertising using flash. I was distinctly underwhelmed when I received the book.

First the good points. The book has lots of great information about producing advertising using flash. I've done quite a few adverts already using flash but this book goes way beyond my knowledge of the genre and industry - it's clear that the author knows his stuff. The book is packed with information about the use of flash advertising/mini sites in the industry. It also goes into some basic flash techniques and use of the authoring environment. If you're not sure about flash advertising, this is the book to turn to. Sounds good doesn't it?

Now for the bad. As soon as I opened the book I was really disappointed by the presentation inside. For a subject that is intended to capture the attention of the viewer, we are given a book that contains no colour whatsoever and is typeset in a bland style. I was expecting to be wowed when I opened the book, but was met by a mass of text interspersed with grey dull blockwork and illustrations. The presentation lets this book down badly. For example, the author discusses image compression and provides three examples of different compression. The example with the worst compression actually doesn't look that bad compared with the others on first glance, but I'm sure would have looked really awful in colour.

The book is 231 pages long. It has been set with a larger typeface and line spacing to give the book that length. Despite the grey illustrations, the overall impression you get with the book is that it's a mass of text.

The author provides a lot of great information that is hard to come by. He also provides a lot of information that most people will know. The problem is that the people that need to know the basic flash information that is presented in the book aren't given enough basic flash techniques to get them going - this book won't teach you about flash.

The biggest let down for me was there's no "wow!" factor anywhere here. I had expected a full dissection of some flash adverts, a walkthrough of putting together a flash advert to follow a client brief, a complete run-through of asset preparation and different approaches to realise a brief. I was expecting to be enthused about the genre, to be shown some great techniques from start to finish (I was certainly expecting a discussion on the Penner equations and their use). I was expecting to have a CD/download with several complete examples of flash adverts/mini sites I could open and pick apart. I was expecting lavish colour illustration and well laid out pages. This is where I was disappointed. The advertising examples occupy 12 pages.

I think the publishers have gone awry with this book - it could have been so much more. The same publisher has done a superb job on another flash book "How to cheat in Adobe Flash CS3" and the contrast in production values between these books is quite amazing.

Should you buy this book if you want to learn about flash advertising? Well the answer is "yes" because it contains a lot of great information that you won't find anywhere else. Don't expect to be taught Flash and don't expect to be wowed, or to have complete walk-throughs. Be prepared for a sea of grey.

I wonder if the publisher cut corners because they think it's a niche subject? I'd have preferred to pay 50% more to get the book I was expecting, but I'm glad this is available. I'm keeping the book, but every time I open it, I think of the book it could (and should) have been.

Hands-on? Yes, for the author, not for us