PixelMEDIA Inc.

Portsmouth, NH October 28^th, 2011 – Erik Dodier, CEO of PixelMEDIA inc., New Hampshire’s largest interactive media agency, has been honored with the Business Excellence Award in the Media & Marketing category by the New Hampshire Business Review.

The Business Excellence Award recognizes New Hampshire business leaders who exhibit imagination, industriousness, innovation, achievement, and community dedication. The award, which is in its 11^th year, is given annually to leaders across 13 different business categories. Hundreds gathered yesterday at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester to honor the recipients.

Dodier was recognized for his efforts in growing PixelMEDIA from a two person team in his apartment in Dover NH, with co-founder Tom Obrey, to an industry leading organization of 60 professionals on Pease Tradeport in Portsmouth, NH. Dodier has successfully navigated the company through three economic downturns since being founded in 1994, posting positive growth annually for the past 17 years. Speaking to those at yesterday’s event, Dodier attributed his success to “going above and beyond what is expected”

PixelMEDIA’s continued efforts to give back to the community that has supported the company’s growth has remained a key initiative to Dodier, who donated over 740 pro-bono company hours to worthy recipients in 2010 alone. Included in these efforts was the “Extreme Makeover: Website Edition”, an annual undertaking where PixelMEDIA provides their services to develop a website for a local non-profit, voted on by employees. The Friends Project, a Portsmouth non-profit, was the recipient of these efforts in 2010, and the company is currently working with New Generation of Greenland to provide similar pro-bono services.

In addition to the community focused efforts exhibited by PixelMEDIA and its employees, Erik continues to give back on an individual level. Erik serves as a Board Member for the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business and Economics, his alma mater, while also working closely with the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce to promote the hi-tech industry in the seacoast area. Erik also serves as a Director for Optima Bank in Portsmouth, NH.

About PixelMEDIA

Founded in 1994, PixelMEDIA offers a diverse range of professional services including web and mobile solutions, application design and development, user interface design, multimedia design, website hosting, and website management. PixelMEDIA provides the strategic, creative, and technical expertise needed to increase revenue opportunities and reduce costs. PixelMEDIA’s customers include industry leaders such as ECCO Shoes, Sam Adams, Bauer Hockey, Rubik’s Cube, Skillsoft, and Logica. For information, visit www.pixelmedia.com

The volunteers for the TAP Food Drive received a big surprise this morning when the PixelMEDIA crew rolled up with a van full of food. ($900 worth and a check for $100).

“What a way to start the day! I was hoping we’d have this much by the end of the day… this is amazing” was overheard from one of the TAP volunteers collecting donations.

In September 2010 the Seacoast Family Food Pantry served 159 families; in September 2011 that # is up 71% to 272 families being served. Without federal or state funding the Seacoast Family Food Pantry depends on the generosity of its community.

Well done PixelMEDIA!

Business NH Magazine announced its 2011 Business of the Year award winners, naming PixelMEDIA for its outstanding civic contributions and exceptional performance within the Business Services category.

The Business of the Year Award recognizes New Hampshire businesses that demonstrate leadership; achieve major business accomplishments; and support their communities, local economies, and employees.

Applicants for this year’s award were screened by a committee made up of members of the New Hampshire Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (NHACCE). Finalists were chosen by a panel of executives selected from companies that have won in previous years.

Read More…

It was 2:30 on May 7th, 2011 that marked the end of a long road for 6 employees, 1 co-founder and 3 friends of PixelMEDIA when we crossed the finish line at Tough Mudder New England. For hours, the ten of us subjected ourselves to 10 miles, 7,000 feet of steep hill climbing, 27 brutal obstacles, 10,000 volts of electricity and a pair of swims through 36 degree water in the snow maker retention ponds at Mount Snow in West Dover, Vermont.

It was back in November that I announced that several of us had teamed up to take on the Tough Mudder, a new paradigm in endurance racing. In a nutshell, Tough Mudder takes the novelty obstacle course racing of Spartan Race and Warrior Dash and combines it with the intensity and challenge of the legendary Iron Man Triathlon. The result is unlike any sporting event in the world. Each Tough Mudder is designed to test strength and stamina as well as “mental grit” of its participants, pushing them out past their limits to a new level of athletic performance. These courses are so incredibly difficult that Tough Mudder finds a typical finishing rate of 75% indicating that 1 in 4 participants will not complete the course. Tough Mudder New England, however, stated to be Tough Mudder’s most challenging course yet (Travlete’s Grade A review of the event agrees with this), actually had an 83% finishing rate, proving conclusively that New England Tough Mudders are the toughest of them all. Don’t be fooled, though. For all the aggro ferocity, mayhem and thunder of Tough Mudder, it is not a race. Tough Mudder is a challenge. Simply finishing is a major accomplishment and along the way you’re expected to lend a hand and help your fellow Mudders complete the course. Like I said. There’s nothing on Earth like it.

Read More…

Congratulations to Erik Dodier, our co-founder, for being named as a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year award given by New Hampshire High Technology Council!

The winner will be announced at the upcoming NH High Technology Council’s Entrepreneur of the Year celebration Monday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Radisson, Center of New Hampshire in Manchester.

For more information, read the complete article on NHHTC’s website.

“A Buzz” has started about PixelMEDIA’s new mobile application “Bzzy”.  With the recent release of the product on April 8th, we’ve seen a fantastic response so far!  Read more about how Bzzy came to be in this recent article published by the Portsmouth Herald.

Now through the end of April, download Bzzy for free during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Distracted driving has been called a “deadly epidemic” by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

According to the Department of Transportation, 5,500 people in the United States were killed and another half a million were injured in accidents related to distracted driving in 2009.

“It only takes a moment of distraction to cause a tragedy,” said Jim Guest, president of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “No text or call is worth a life.”

Now a Portsmouth, N.H.-based company has launched a mobile phone application that will let others know when someone is unavailable to text.

Download at www.bzzyapp.com

“Bzzy” is being offered as a free download in April during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Bzzy automatically responds to texts using either a pre-set or customized message.

Activate the application and incoming texters will be sent a response: “I am driving,” “I am viewing (a movie)” or a custom message.  All texts received are still available on the phone once the person is ready to respond.

“It’s about staying focused, on whatever you are doing, but especially on driving when your life and others on the road are at risk,” said Erik Dodier, CEO of PixelMEDIA. “Bzzy will remove the urgency we feel to reply back right away, and instead let those who are trying to reach us know we are unavailable.”

The goal is to allow people to focus on what they’re doing, whether it’s driving or even watching a movie or playing with their kids, without being distracted by texts.

“There’s something about a text that seems so instantaneous,” Dodier said. “But we all know there are times we should just let others know we’re temporarily unavailable.”

Dodier said 10 percent of any future proceeds from the product will be donated to efforts aimed at increasing the awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.

Bzzy is currently available on Android phones only, however, PixelMEDIA  is looking at offering Bzzy for iPhones in the future.

“Take a step toward driving safer, download Bzzy for free through April 30^th at www.Bzzyapp.com,” Dodier said. “It will allow a driver’s focus to stay where it should be, on the road.”

PixelMEDIA created and executed a popular email calendar that increased traffic, downloads, and brand awareness – and resolved a troublesome bottleneck.

GOAL

Bus-Tech provides virtual tape backup systems to IT managers looking to control costs and improve performance over physical tape backup systems. To nurture existing leads, Bus-Tech was running an email campaign that invited visitors to download a series of whitepapers. The leads had already converted (filled out a form) on the site previously; the email campaign was intended to engage these visitors further, and give them more reason to view Bus-Tech as a potential vendor.

Great idea – but the delivery schedule was inconsistent, and the whitepaper deliverables were too old to be compelling. Creating new content on a monthly basis quickly became an onerous task – let alone keeping the themes fresh, on-topic , and attention-grabbing.

SOLUTION

PixelMEDIA suggested that they could help by creating and fulfilling a six-month email/ whitepaper calendar. Read More…

Top from left: Bryan, Brendan, Terence, Cris. Bottom: Matt, Erik, Josh. Not shown is Rachel.

On May 7^th, a group of PixelMEDIA employees as well as our CEO’s wife, Rachel, will be taking on the elements and obstacles setup on Mt. Snow in Vermont for the Tough Mudder competition.  Our team has pledged their support of The Friends Project by pledging $1 per a mile.  Show your support of The Friends Project as well as PixelMEDIA team “PixelMUDDIER” by pledging what you can.  Donations are accepted directly through The Friends Project via PayPal and credit card.

The new Friends Project website went “live” yesterday!  We celebrated this achievement last night in PixelMEDIA style with a party! What a great turn out of support from friends, family, and staff from both PixelMEDIA and The Friends Project.  We even had several young adult participants come too!

It was hard to keep a dry eye while watching the new video that Atlantic Media Productions produced for The Friends Project.  Listening to the parents talk about how isolated and depress their children were before The Friends Project to how Read More…