It’s official. The new Panther Softball Park is open.
The ribbon cutting ceremonies started off last night with Dr. Tony Prothro, Superintendent, thanking the crowd of several hundred for helping pass the much needed millage that will bring Benton School buildings and facilities into the 21st century.
After an introduction of past and present school board members, the Panther Softball players were introduced, then alumni players from as far back as 1997, were introduced as the opposing team.
The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Kitty Smith, wife of the late Coach Smith who took Panther Softball teams to state playoffs multiple times. An exhilirating, tear-jerking a cappella performance of the National Anthem by Shelly Bradley ushered in the in-augural game.
The opening of the park also marked the unveiling of the largest video display board in any high school sport in Arkansas. Benton Schools has contracted with YourAdTeam to manage the new video board at the state-of-the-art Panther Softball Park. The new complex, along with the video board, is the first for any public school system in Arkansas.
Ace Signs of Arkansas, worked with Benton Athletic Director, Scott Neathery, in the purchase and installation of the video board. YourAdTeam is responsible for ad sales, video ad production and management during each softball game.
To advertise on the video board, contact Shaun McFarland at 501.840.7100, or Bradley Lattin at 501.590.0490, or click here to send your information to YourAdTeam.
Does blogging and social media integration really work… even in Arkansas?
Yes.
ComScore recently reported that blogs were read by nearly 80 million Amercians in 2008 which totals nearly half of all U.S. internet users. The use of blogs helps establish ongoing dialogue with your target audience by referencing current news, events and opportunities.
Here are 7 ways to make a blog work for you:
1) Focus on your readers needs and search engines. Search engine optimized blog posts will help generate free visitors from search engines as opposed to pay-per-click visitors that cost you with click-through ads.
2) Blog like a professional. Blogs work best when they are formatted correctly, written frequently and consistently.
3) Blog from your own site. Stay away from free blogs. Free blogs are usually not trusted by consumers because of the large amount of spam. Besides, the reason to blog is to drive visitors to your website.
4) Be specific with your information. Use local city names, states and regions when talking about your products or services.
5) Work with an experienced business blog developer. You wear enough hats in your business already.
6) Hire a professional writer. There’s nothing much worse than trying to read a newspaper or magazine article, or a blog, that is poorly written. Focus on running your business. Leave the writing to the pros.
7) Blogs are not advertising. Keep your blog conversational. If you constantly push sales or pricing, you will lose readers. So keep it interesting and informative.
When you think of work trucks, cargo vans, utility trucks, dump bed trucks, passenger vans and flatbed trucks, you should think of T&B Auto Sales in Bryant, Arkansas.
YourAdTeam recently re-designed the T&B Auto Sales website. The site overhaul included custom software application development that manages the entry and sorting of inventory. The new and improved inventory section on the site showcases the plethora of work trucks available in stock.
Over the past 2 years, T&B Auto has taken a serious growth spurt. Ever since owner Tom Knoedl decided to turn his focus almost exclusively on nice, clean, pre-owned commercial vehicles, T&B Auto has gone from a part-time venture to a company with several employees and over 100 white commercial vehicles in stock all the time.
Even though T&B Auto has been around since 1987, it’s really just been a fun hobby, says Tom. “It was just a way to purchase vehicles for a business I previously owned—plus I could help friends buy cars at better prices and much less hassle for them.”
Here’s the situation. You’ve created this ridiculously wicked graphic in After Effects, and now want to matte it over an image in another program (usually Final Cut). However, when you export it, the area that is supposed to be transparent is instead a big black area that covers up the image you’re trying to overlay your graphic on.
How do you maintain transparency when exporting out of AE? Well, what I’m about to tell you is universal to every design program (PhotoShop, Illustrator, FCP, Motion, AE, LiveType, etc.). Only the logistics will change.
In AE, notice at the bottom of the composition window a button that looks like a checker board. Click it, and everything in your image that is supposed to be transparent is now a checker board. It is not necessary for this feature to be on to maintain transparency, but it’s always a good idea to check and see what it will look like after exporting.
Go to composition, and select “Add to render Queue”. In this window, select “Output Module”, and a new window will pop up. In order to maintain transparency, you must be able to select the Color Channel and set it to “+ Alpha”. There is a couple of ways to do this in AE. You can do it here on this window, select ”Channels”. Or you can select “Format Options”. There should be a drop down window labeled “Depth”. Your depth should be set to either “RGB + Alpha” or “Millions of Colors+” (this is simply short-hand for +Alpha). Not all formats can maintain transparency, so for video I suggest “Animation” and for stills “PNG”. Experiment with formats to find the best one for you.
… Gosh, I feel like everyone can see right through me.
Seems like Benton and Bryant have a lot more to compete about than football. The healthy part of this competition includes the positive economic impact, the challenge for each city to improve, and the challenge for each school to enhance educational opportunities for the kids.
So whether you’re a Bryant Hornet Fan or a Benton Panther Fan, you have a lot to cheer about.
Not only is Saline County making great strides on a national scale with the SCEDC, we are making a better, larger community to live, work and play.
Sooner or later, the undeveloped area between Bryant and Benton will become home to thousands more residents and dozens more businesses… and we welcome you all.
For two years now, we have been preaching the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly website development. And, yes, of course we know we must practice what we preach. Like most businesses, it’s difficult to find time to work “on” your business while you are working “in” your business keeping clients satisfied. Well, at last, the new SEO friendly YourAdTeam site is unveiled.
You can explore our advertising and marketing communications services, sign up for our marketing tips newsletter, and find out all about the team members that make us YourAdTeam.
If you have a project coming up that you need a proposal for or would like to interview us for, please submit your contact information via the Contact Us page and we’ll respond right away. For an immediate touch point, you can schedule an appointment by calling Tanya at 501.840.7200 or email her with your contact information so she can call you.
For you history fans, here’s our background info:
In 1997, YourAdTeam.com, Inc. was established in Benton, Arkansas to provide clients with “corporate experience without the corporate overhead.” YourAdTeam focuses on creating meaningful relationships with clients while providing effective marketing communications and advertising services. With a team of 12 staff members, YourAdTeam offers a full range of advertising services.
Since its inception, YourAdTeam has done work for clients in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, New Mexico, California, New York, Florida, Illinois and Japan.
