October 16, 2025 • 31 mins
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What if your photo books could talk back? Not with another app or QR code maze, but with a small, tactile device that lets you record and play stories, songs, and memories at the press of a button. The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Geoffrey Stern, the founder of Voice Gift and the longtime audio mind behind Build‑A‑Bear’s wildly successful “sounds,” to unpack how voice transforms printed images into living experiences—and why that shift boosts both emotion and sales.
Stern explains the psychology behind audio as a memory trigger and the practical reasons customers finish purchases when they add their own voice: ownership deepens, abandonment drops, and the keepsake becomes personal. He discusses VoiceGift Play, a $59 handheld recorder that ties numbered audio tracks to photo pages, framed prints, wedding albums, travel books, and recipe collections—no apps, Wi‑Fi, or screens required. With 10 hours of storage, USB‑C backup, and standard MP3 files, it’s simple to share recordings across multiple copies or import music like a wedding playlist to soundtrack an album. There’s also a kids’ version with pictograms and stickers that turns storytime into an interactive, confidence‑building ritual, and accessibility use cases ranging from braille overlays to guided routines for dementia care.
Along the way, we talk about the shift from digital overload to analog delight, the “don’t add steps” mantra for photo retailers, and how self‑playing audio breathes new life into printed products without complicating production. From Build‑A‑Bear’s immersive retail lessons to practical upsells for photo labs and online platforms, this conve
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Hosted and produced by Gary Pageau
Edited by Olivia Pageau
Announcer: Erin Manning
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Manning (00:01):
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society Podcast, the
photoimaging industry's leadingnews source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society Podcastis brought to you by Media
clip, Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society Podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau, andtoday we're joined Geoffrey
Stern, who's the founder ofVoice Gift.
But I've known Geoffrey and hisvarious companies over the past
approximately thousand years inthe photo industry, but he's
really an audio guy.
Hi Geoffrey, how are you today?
Geoffrey Stern (00:38):
Isn't it great when we meet a fellow dog with a
bone?
We've been doing uh in ourperspective categories, whether
imaging or audio, for 20 plusyears, and we're still at it and
still excited by it.
Gary Pageau (00:51):
At least, at least.
So for those who aren'tfamiliar, now we're gonna get
into Voice Gift in a bit, butfor now, you've kind of been in
the audio and memories space fora long time.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you got started in the
business?
Geoffrey Stern (01:07):
Yeah, I've been doing this for over 20 years,
but mostly behind the scenes asa B2B.
Um, and we provided premiumretail companies.
The biggest feather in our capis Build-a- Bear Workshop.
We have been their exclusiveprovider of what they call
sounds.
Um for the last 20 plus years,we've probably shipped them over
(01:29):
60 million sounds.
And when that what they mean bysounds is uh if you haven't
been to a Build-A-Bear, it'simmersive retailing.
And uh they even call itentertaining.
You're entertained as youpurchase.
Um and you go to the Choose MeStation, you pick the skin of
the animal, it could be alicensed doll, and then you go
(01:50):
to the Hear Me Station.
So the second thing that you doin every Build-A-Bear store is
you animate the product thatyou're building uh with sound.
And we've been doing that, andwe've also uh done some work
with photo imaging companies,uh, we've done work with flower
companies.
Anytime you want to add thatdimension of voice uh to a
(02:12):
product, uh, we've also donepromotional advertising uh
products because guess what?
Brands also have a voice.
When I say voice, I meanself-playing voice.
It's it's a product that cantalk to you, give you uh
immediate feedback, a plush toythat you want to record your own
song into or a personal uhmessage.
(02:32):
Uh, you make it your own withvoice, and that's what we've
been doing for 20 years.
Gary Pageau (02:37):
So, for those who have not been to a Build-A-
Bear, and I have, so people canrecord their own voice or they
can put uh licensed recordingson there or stock voices.
What are the things people areputting on these voice chips in
the bears?
Geoffrey Stern (02:52):
All of the above.
Um, so they there's a kioskthere.
And uh in the old days, uh,when uh Build-A- Bear used to
license music uh prior to thelaunch of a movie, uh, we would
take 60 days to produce them,ship them all embedded with that
sound.
Nowadays everything is digital.
Um, and so you come to thestation, and uh, if you're
(03:13):
designing a plush associatedwith the the movie in the in the
theater that week, you uh clickon uh the screen and you pick
the sound from that character,uh, but you can also record a
sound.
People do all sorts of things.
A lot of people bring in withthem uh from their iPhone uh
their smartphone the lastmessage left by a loved one.
(03:35):
Uh it happens a surprisinglylarge amount of times uh because
the voice is a trigger, themost, I think, powerful trigger
of memory and emotions.
And everything that I knowabout voice, I've learned from
my customers.
And Build-a-bear is uh up frontand center.
Uh, they've taught me the powerof audio to drive sales.
(03:58):
Uh, but also if you're onlineand you're making a plush toy
and you add your voice to it,guess what?
Abandonment falls way downbecause it's already yours.
Now it's not Build-a- Bear'splush that you're buying, it's
your plush.
And that's a powerful, powerfultool.
Gary Pageau (04:16):
Has any other retailer picked up on this sort
of thing?
Because I'm thinking likeAmerican Girl or somebody like
that should could pick up onthis as well.
Geoffrey Stern (04:25):
Yeah, I mean, we are exclusive to Build-A-Bear,
so in the plush space, weprobably focus uh on Build-A-
Bear.
But there have been other uh uhretailers uh who have,
depending on the season, runsome promotions where we've
created a gift card uh that uhhad some um a licensed music on
it that you could dedicate withyour voice.
(04:47):
I mean, let's face it, Gary,there's an old, old tradition of
dedicating a song on the radio.
And you can do that with, youknow, a lot of times, and I find
this is cultural, we we had asystem where uh where people
could call in using the phone torecord a message.
And a lot of times foreignersuh would just keep talking.
Uh, and I didn't understandwhat they were saying, but they
(05:08):
had no problem expressingthemselves.
Americans sometimes have achallenge with expressing
themselves.
And what we learnt is uh thatif you have a context, so if
you're creating a bear, now youhave a context, you add a voice
to that bear.
Uh, if there's music todedicate a song, hey darling,
this is the song we danced uhwith.
(05:29):
It's so easy.
Uh so that's another thing thatwe've learned, and that's uh a
great segue into why I'm sointerested in the photo
industry, because when you havea photo in front of you and when
you're sitting around that uh ashoebox and you're taking a
photo out, what do you do?
You talk about it, you have acontext to express your emotions
(05:49):
and memories.
Gary Pageau (05:50):
And that's really been one of the challenges, I
think, over the years isconnecting audio or even video
to a still image, right?
Because people have triedvarious things with photo books
over the years with QR codes andand things like that.
And we're gonna talk about yournew product in a bit, but for
now, in it from historicalcontext, what it gosh, we met
(06:11):
like well, like you said, 20some years ago at a PMA show
when you were coming in.
What was the the world likethen in the products you were
working on back then?
Geoffrey Stern (06:20):
I think the technology has not changed that
much in terms of what we do, uh,but I think it's more uh, for
instance, uh digital was all therage.
And now people are uh gettingtired of apps and they're being
tired of subscription-basedservices.
Right and they're getting tiredof screens and uh a personal
(06:43):
device like a smartphone.
You can't look at a picturewithout having a text message
coming in with an alert comingin.
So I think that has changedbecause we were all glaz-eyed
with all the new technology thatwas developing.
We're not so glazy-eyedanymore.
If anything, we're overwhelmed.
(07:03):
And so what we have alwaysfocused on is self-playing
audio, meaning to say, in theday 20 years ago, you didn't
have to boot up your computer,you didn't have to make sure you
were using the right operatingsystem and that the file was in
the right format.
The idea is, you know, there'sa reason we say a picture is
worth a thousand words becauseit truly contains stories.
(07:27):
And we all know that.
We talk about storytellingtoday.
So what has changed really isthis demand.
Uh, we're going back to analoga little bit.
We find that kids are lookingfor headphones that have an
actual wire.
So you don't have to beconnected by Bluetooth with a
device that's going to disturbyou.
Uh, during COVID, especially,but it's outlived COVID.
(07:50):
The power of audio, whether itis podcasts, whether it's voice
texting, there's a certain uhintimacy of having a voice come
into your head, whether it'ssomeone reading a book or
sending you a message that Ithink we are rediscovering.
And that is what I think uh hasreally, really changed.
(08:11):
The other thing that's changedis in the day when I came to you
and you, I think even featuredme at a PMA show uh in terms of
new products, I had anintegrated talking or recordable
photo book.
And what I've learned is thatin industry today, uh, you can
add new features, but don't addnew steps.
(08:34):
Uh, don't create another reasonfor a consumer to be
overwhelmed.
They're adding their photos,now they have to add their
audio.
Don't add another uh speed bumpin the press that is producing
these books.
So everything that we've donenow is self-serve.
And besides the fact of makingit easier and taking the onus
(08:57):
off of the printer to add audioto a photo, instead, we put that
on the customer.
We did something else, andthat's where it gets back to the
Build-A- Bear and the retailtainment.
It is entertaining once you getthat beautiful photo book and
it comes to your house, and thenyou can sit and look at it with
(09:18):
somebody else and record thestories behind it.
It means that you're going touse that photo book much more
because the project doesn't stopwhen the ink dries, so to
speak.
That's what's kind of changed.
Gary Pageau (09:32):
Yeah, I think you're right because I think
there's a lot of ideas, youknow, and people are still
trying to crack that nut oftrying to figure out how to make
a printed book interactive oror do something with you know QR
codes, launching videos,launching audio, and all those
things.
Like you said, it's verydifficult to add that
information post-printing,right?
(09:54):
Inside the printing process,right?
You've got to get that QR codeand you got to make sure it's
linked to the right file.
In a lot of cases, you can'tchange the file, right?
If you wanted to uh append thataudio, you can't do that.
But you've come up with aproduct that will allow you to
do that.
That when after you get thatphoto book or have that print or
have some sort of maybe even awhatever the thing you want to
(10:17):
attach a memory to, you can nowattach a voice to that.
Can you talk a little bit aboutvoice gift and what it is?
Geoffrey Stern (10:23):
Yeah, so we created play, voice gift play,
and uh we we did it in twoversions.
One is for kids, but I want totalk about the one for us, for
photo enthusiasts.
And my inspiration was, and youand I probably remember this,
you would go, we would go into amuseum in the day, and they
would have a kiosk where youcould put on headphones and take
(10:45):
this little audio recorder, andyou'd walk around the museum,
and there would be a numberinnocuously on the side of the
different paintings, and youwould enter in that number on
the keypad, and you would hearthe curator uh add color, add
expression, explain uh what youwere looking at.
And I said to myself, why can'tthe consumer have the same
(11:08):
thing?
So uh this is a podcast, you'renot seeing a video, but if you
could imagine something as smallas a remote control for a TV,
something that you can hold inyour hand, it has uh a place
where you can put a tether on itso you can wear it around your
neck, just like we did in themuseums.
Um, and it has a keypad, noscreen, uh, no need to go
(11:28):
online.
And basically, what you can dois anything that you can put a
number on.
So, yes, you could have a photocollection framed on your wall
and write a little number on theside of the frame and record a
narration of what happened, whywas grandma laughing
hysterically uh in this pictureby the side of the boat, taken
(11:48):
in the day?
Or you can go to your photobooks and you can put a little
number next to an image in thatphoto book.
And as you sit around thatproverbial shoe box or looking
at photos, you can capture thesounds.
You can put music on this musicthat you heard when you were
pictured here.
You can uh talk about theimage, what happened, you can
(12:12):
invite friends and family totalk about it.
And uh, it has a keypad thatgoes from one to ten.
So, yes, you can record up to999 messages.
I don't know if anyone has thatmany messages, but the point is
it doesn't even uh connect toonly one book.
It has a clip on it, so it canclip on the sides of every one
(12:33):
of the photo books that you haveat home.
And as long as you put a uniquenumber next to a photo, you can
literally capture the sounds,the impressions, the memories
associated with that photo.
I love being in direct toconsumer because we see how
people are using our products.
Recipe books, they are nowrecording.
You have grandma's recipe book,her favorite uh brownie uh
(12:57):
recipe.
And somebody can record thefirst time they tasted the
brownies, where they got therecipe from.
Anything that you can put alittle number on it, I think of
it a little bit like an uh audiosticket.
If you can apply a number tosomething, you can record.
It can go in the galley of abook.
Uh, voice journaling is verybig, but all of these different
(13:19):
applications are kind ofmeshing.
We want to be able to add ourvoice to things.
You know, when when The Walkmanwas first introduced by Sony,
their tagline was the soundtrackof your life.
Uh, I think of that becausewhat happened was for the first
time, people could hear soundsaway from their stereo system.
(13:41):
You could walk around.
Well, we've progressed a longtime, a long way since then.
Uh, our tagline is the way lifesounds.
And and the idea is uh whetheryou're looking at images, uh,
whether you're uh creatingstuff, you can actually record
audio when you take the picture.
Uh and as long as you justremember the number, then you
(14:03):
can meld them later.
We've had uh weddingphotographers who are using our
device, which is look, it'spriced at $59.
It's a consumer device.
Uh, it's not expensivedictation product, but it does
what it needs to do.
It it uh it records uh audioassociated with something.
Gary Pageau (14:22):
So tell me a little bit again, since this is an
audio podcast, most people won'tsee it.
So I mean it's a small, likeyou said, uh remote style
device.
Do people even care or evenknow how much memory is in it?
Because and does it have abattery?
What's the upkeep on it?
Geoffrey Stern (14:36):
Yes.
So it holds 10 hours of uhmemory.
Again, my approach has alwaysbeen, and this too applies all
of our products, is uh the costof memory has come way down.
There's no reason why youshould ever run out of memory or
can feel uh constrained in thatway.
Uh, it has a USB-C connector,which is used both to charge it,
(14:59):
but also to back up the files.
Let's say you order five photobooks based on a trip to Hawaii.
You come home, you have allfive, you go ahead and you take
one of my play devices.
And by the way, the way you uhrecord is there's a little
selector switch on the side.
If you put the selector switchinto record mode and you enter
(15:19):
the number 37, then you push uhthe play button, you start
talking, the light goes on.
You can record as long of amessage as you want.
Up to 10 hours.
Yeah, and you press play again,and forever that message is
under that number.
Then you put the uh selectorswitch into play mode and it
(15:40):
will always play that associatedmessage.
But after you finish using thatprimary recorder to capture all
of the audio, then you can backit up on your computer, you can
buy five more, four more playdevices, put all of the audio
onto them, and when you send outthose photo books, you include
(16:01):
a play with it, and voila.
Uh, everyone who receives itgets to see and hear about the
experiences from the trip theyshared in.
Gary Pageau (16:11):
Are those audio files like can they do something
with them or are they likeencrypted or they're standard
MP3 files?
So theoretically, people couldtake that file 37 and affiliate
it with a digital image on awebsite if they wanted to.
Geoffrey Stern (16:24):
Absolutely.
They can almost use the play asa capturing device.
That's what I was talking aboutfor the wedding photographer.
You literally can capture audiowith the device, they are
standard MP3 files.
So you also can import uh audiointo it.
You can import music.
So you're looking at a weddingalbum, uh, you can literally put
the playlist from the out fromthat wedding into the device and
(16:49):
seamlessly uh listen to it asyou go.
Now, the thing about enteringthe numbers, if you enter
numbers in sequence, so let'ssay I'm looking at that photo
book from Hawaii, and I putunder the number one my
introduction and two uh anexplanation of the scene where
we were getting off the plane.
When you come to playback, youdon't have to keep on punching
(17:11):
in numbers.
You push in one, and thenthere's a forward button.
It goes to the next file insequence.
Okay.
It also has a pause button incase the phone rings while
you're listening to it.
So it's surprisinglysophisticated, given the fact
that I spent a lot of timetrying to keep it simple.
No screen, uh, not a wholebunch of buttons, just very
(17:34):
intuitive.
Gary Pageau (17:35):
So the question is some would say, why isn't this
an app?
I mean, that's why couldn't youjust create an interface on a
phone that looks like this withthe 11 buttons and the same
thing?
Why can't it be an app?
What's the advantage of havinga standalone device?
Geoffrey Stern (17:53):
So obviously, as you say, the the app is part of
your personal phone, uh, whichhas multiple apps on it.
It has text coming in, it has awhole bunch of other things.
So there's the distraction partof it.
It's not as immersive as this.
But second of all, just likethat photo book is so much more
compelling because it's tactile,uh, because you can touch it,
(18:16):
because you can feel it, you canput some something into it.
Uh, that's the business we'rein in the Dag Pitzel Society.
We're trying to create, we'retrying to create images that can
live on their own.
And I think that's what I'mhearing more and more from users
that the ability to have thison that coffee table and not
(18:38):
maybe it's on a weekend andguess what?
Maybe I unplug over the weekendand I don't like my phone to be
sitting next to me.
Maybe it's a child coming whocan intuitively look at a page
and press a button, or anelderly person uh who doesn't
want to be confused with an app.
There are so many reasons, Ithink, uh, to say that making it
(19:00):
like the book itself, somethingthat's tactile, that's
application specific andimmersive is very, very
compelling.
And we see it with the users.
Uh, when the users you it, it'sa different experience than
scanning a code.
Gary Pageau (19:15):
Yeah, so that's one of the things I want to talk
about.
Right now, you're available,you know, through online
services, people can bothonline.
What has been the reception tothe feedback you've gotten from
the customers?
And have you had to make anychanges to the product based on
feedback from the customers?
Geoffrey Stern (19:30):
I love that.
Because uh actually, as I saidin the intro, I've been in B2B
for so many years.
I I only started uh voice giftin terms of uh a uh
direct-to-consumer during COVIDuh when we were starting to hear
from uh elderly people thatthey wanted to hear the sounds
of their grandkids and whatever.
But what I have found is thatyou literally can look at these
(19:52):
reviews and see, get ideas andsee how people are using it.
You know, just today, I aperson purchased one of these uh
play devices uh for uh ahusband uh who had early onset
of uh of dementia.
And she wanted the audio, hisaudio tracks, his voice, uh
voices of people in his familyso he could look at an image and
(20:14):
hear a voice.
But we've gotten, I think thebiggest feedback is the
diversity of how people areusing this.
I think the one really materialinput that I had was uh, how do
I tell uh that the battery iseither full or empty or halfway
there?
So in the next production run,I don't need to put a screen on.
(20:35):
You're gonna be able to pushtwo buttons at the same time and
it's gonna say battery high,battery medium.
I think that's a great ideawithout adding any hardware.
We can address that.
Customers want are coming backto us with how they are using
it.
Uh, we, as I said before, wehave a tether on it.
And so uh people are recording,whether it's meditations, uh,
(20:57):
whether them when they gotraveling, they want their coach
uh or trainer to record uhthings that they need to do to
remind them what series orsequences they have to do.
They all want this because theywant to take that um uh walk
every morning without theirphone.
Uh they want to take their, butthey nonetheless want to hear
(21:18):
that meditation or hear that uhuh recording from a friend who
prepared something for them, putthem in a state of mind.
Gary Pageau (21:26):
And you also have developed a version for kids,
which has got you knowpictographs instead of numbers
and things like that.
Was that part of the originaldesign, or is it something you
developed later?
Geoffrey Stern (21:37):
Well, I started Voice Gift um with my daughter,
and my daughter has a daughter,so that makes her my
granddaughter.
And so everything that we do,we try to benefit from the fact
that uh I'm close to 70 and sheis in her 30s.
Uh, we look at how differentpeople might use this product.
So while the adult version hasthat keypad on it and can record
(22:01):
up to 999 uh separate files,the uh child's version uses the
same 12 buttons, but as you say,they each have a pictogram on
them and they come with matchingstickers.
So the idea is there's asticker for a soccer ball.
You can put that soccer ball ona photo book that you've
created, and you know, all ofthe services now have templates
(22:25):
uh for creating books whereeverybody uploads an image of
the family pet, of grandma, ofgrandpa, of uncle uh Louie.
The child will know that whenit when they see that uh soccer
sticker, they go over to thedevice, they just press the
button associated with thatsoccer icon, and they can hear
the audio behind that as well.
(22:46):
Uh, so it works obviously withchildren's books, whether
they're personalized withimaging, or they're just
standard goodnight moon.
The idea is you're able to readyour favorite kid a story even
when you're not there.
Gary Pageau (22:59):
That's kind of cool, actually, because uh so
you could record yourselfreading the book, and the kid
could listen to you read it justby pressing the pictogram base
on each page in the book.
Geoffrey Stern (23:08):
So we have been contacted uh by different
communities, special needscommunities.
So the site-impairedcommunities, they've already
taken my product that I made forkids, so it only holds 12
distinct files, and they've putbraille stickers on them.
And then they put braillesticker on whether it's an
appliance or something else.
(23:28):
And the person knows that ifthey push that button, they're
gonna hear audio guidance, uh,special needs kids that have
problems communicating.
But you can connect the dotsbetween the two of the products,
one that has all that capacityand the other one that's fairly
simple.
Uh, you could definitely createphoto books or lit, you know,
(23:49):
sometimes we're overwhelmed withoptions.
And I think a better way tolook at the kids' version is to
look at a simpler version.
I think it has a lot ofopportunity uh for the aging
generation uh who just 12messages is more than they need
to really create a playlist, tocreate uh the soundtrack of a
(24:12):
photo book or whatever it isthey're working on.
Gary Pageau (24:15):
And you know, I mean, if once they fill up the
12, they could buy another one,right?
I mean, there's really noreason to I mean, obviously you
don't want to, you know, getinto selling people thousands of
these things, but I mean, thereit does have the opportunity.
You could have multipledevices, like you were saying
earlier, you can reload them andhave multiple devices in in the
home.
Geoffrey Stern (24:32):
Yeah, I should say, and uh that you can record
over a message.
Uh so people have used it.
Uh uh there are 12 buttons, bythe way.
I understand calendars are abig thing in the photo industry.
You can record literally uh arecording for each season, uh,
making note of the birthdaysthat occur in that season, the
kind of thoughts that you have.
So there's almost an infinitenumber of applications if you
(24:57):
look at it as a remote controlfor audio.
When my granddaughter startedreferring to it as her remote,
there was pushback initially.
I said, no, it just looks likea remote.
And then I realized that forher, it gave her a sense of
agency and power.
Uh, she will take this thing tobed when no other toy is
allowed, and she can just listento different voices in the
(25:19):
family.
But you can extrapolate fromthat how older people would use
it as well.
It becomes just a very simpledevice for delivering audio
messages.
Gary Pageau (25:30):
Because I mean, you know, there have been various
people who have been, you know,doing these sort of things with
attaching audio to images, andthis is just another way to do
that.
So you've been selling thisonline, but you're also looking
for other opportunities uh withpartners and things like that.
Can you talk a little bit aboutkind of what your objective is
there?
Geoffrey Stern (25:46):
We see this as an amazing upsell for any uh
photo gift because again, whatas I was saying before, the
marriage of those two senses ofsight and sound is uh so
natural.
And that what we see is itmakes not only the purchase of
uh whether it's a photo book ora framed photo or whatever the
(26:09):
photo uh object is more excitingbecause you know you're going
to be able to attach your voiceto it.
And by the way, we have simplevoice tags that can record a
60-second message and go withany gift.
But ultimately, when you get itat home, I think the the real
power of our products is to givemore longevity, more multiple
(26:32):
impressions and usage of all ofour photo products.
And at the end of the day, whydo I go back to that website to
create a new project?
Because I find myself and myfamily getting a lot of pleasure
from the last book that Ipurchased or the last frame.
And I think what it does uh forany photo retailer, uh whether
(26:55):
online or in store, whether aphoto lab, is it makes the whole
category that much moreexciting.
It adds a whole new dimensionto the category.
And at the end of the day, whenwe are in the Dead Pixel
Society and we're focused onliteral, on touching printed
photos and books, anything thatwe can do to enhance that
(27:19):
experience, to expand thatexperience, and to drive home
the message that there'ssomething magical about having
uh the printed image in front ofyou and the ability to use your
senses uh to experience it.
Gary Pageau (27:36):
Because I mean I think this is interesting
because there's so much youknow, emphasis on like augmented
reality and some of theseadvanced technologies to do
this.
And like you said, I mean, it'sinteresting, but it's also
cumbersome and not always easyto use, and not everyone is is
technical or wants to wants tolearn yet another interface and
(27:58):
learn other things, but justpressing a button on a device is
very, very easy.
It's it's what we are are usedto doing.
Geoffrey Stern (28:05):
You know, I imagine that you're like me and
most of the listeners that thereis a piece of music that we can
hear that will trigger amemory.
Uh, it takes us back to ourdorm room, and we're gonna be
able to smell the beer on thefloor if we hear that sound.
Uh, a song from a wedding, uh,the sound of a loved one that we
(28:28):
haven't seen.
Uh, it's such a powerfultrigger.
Um, and I think we overlook it,but we are at a stage now where
people are starting torediscover the power of that
audio.
And I think that's really uhwhat I find so exciting about
getting my products out into thehands of consumers, about how
(28:50):
meaningful they are to them andwhat a trigger that audio is.
And I think it's just a uhperfect um companion to visual
and to print uh in terms ofstorytelling, in terms of um uh
uh legacy and uh memory making,these are all things that are
making sure that our industrynever goes anywhere.
(29:11):
Uh, and I think that this isreally the power of what you and
I are doing uh and makes it soexciting.
Gary Pageau (29:19):
So, where can people go for more information?
They were looking to eitherwant to start offering voice
gift or wanted to partner withyou or just wanted more
information.
Where can they get informationon that?
Geoffrey Stern (29:29):
So our website is www.voice.gift.
It's no.net, no.com.gift is theURL.
And it's a consumer site, butyou will see that there is uh a
page, a tab there for wholesale.
We are on something calledFair.
A lot of retailers are nowbuying uh uh using Fair to
(29:50):
purchase products.
Uh, and of course, you cancontact me directly.
I'm sure you'll have my emaillinks in the show notes.
Um, and uh we are really Reallyinterested in partnering,
making our products available soyou can touch and feel them at
retail.
Right now they're being sold onAmazon and we have our own
company website.
But we really do feel that animaging specific site, something
(30:15):
like this, would sell uh sellwell and really would uh not
only be uh a something thatgenerates additional revenue,
uh, but I think that ultimatelymakes the whole experience that
much more rich and makes thepurchase that much more
gratifying.
Absolutely.
Gary Pageau (30:32):
Well, thank you, Geoffrey.
It's great to see you onceagain.
Looking forward to uh sharingthis uh information with our
listeners.
Again, always great toreconnect with people over the
years from back in the day whoare still very active today.
And it's always great to uhhear more new innovations coming
to the industry.
Geoffrey Stern (30:48):
Gary, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Erin Manning (30:51):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixel
Society Podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
www.the dead pixels society.com
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society Podcast, the
photoimaging industry's leadingnews source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society Podcastis brought to you by Media
clip, Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society Podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau, andtoday we're joined Geoffrey
Stern, who's the founder ofVoice Gift.
But I've known Geoffrey and hisvarious companies over the past
approximately thousand years inthe photo industry, but he's
really an audio guy.
Hi Geoffrey, how are you today?
Geoffrey Stern (00:38):
Isn't it great when we meet a fellow dog with a
bone?
We've been doing uh in ourperspective categories, whether
imaging or audio, for 20 plusyears, and we're still at it and
still excited by it.
Gary Pageau (00:51):
At least, at least.
So for those who aren'tfamiliar, now we're gonna get
into Voice Gift in a bit, butfor now, you've kind of been in
the audio and memories space fora long time.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you got started in the
business?
Geoffrey Stern (01:07):
Yeah, I've been doing this for over 20 years,
but mostly behind the scenes asa B2B.
Um, and we provided premiumretail companies.
The biggest feather in our capis Build-a- Bear Workshop.
We have been their exclusiveprovider of what they call
sounds.
Um for the last 20 plus years,we've probably shipped them over
(01:29):
60 million sounds.
And when that what they mean bysounds is uh if you haven't
been to a Build-A-Bear, it'simmersive retailing.
And uh they even call itentertaining.
You're entertained as youpurchase.
Um and you go to the Choose MeStation, you pick the skin of
the animal, it could be alicensed doll, and then you go
(01:50):
to the Hear Me Station.
So the second thing that you doin every Build-A-Bear store is
you animate the product thatyou're building uh with sound.
And we've been doing that, andwe've also uh done some work
with photo imaging companies,uh, we've done work with flower
companies.
Anytime you want to add thatdimension of voice uh to a
(02:12):
product, uh, we've also donepromotional advertising uh
products because guess what?
Brands also have a voice.
When I say voice, I meanself-playing voice.
It's it's a product that cantalk to you, give you uh
immediate feedback, a plush toythat you want to record your own
song into or a personal uhmessage.
(02:32):
Uh, you make it your own withvoice, and that's what we've
been doing for 20 years.
Gary Pageau (02:37):
So, for those who have not been to a Build-A-
Bear, and I have, so people canrecord their own voice or they
can put uh licensed recordingson there or stock voices.
What are the things people areputting on these voice chips in
the bears?
Geoffrey Stern (02:52):
All of the above.
Um, so they there's a kioskthere.
And uh in the old days, uh,when uh Build-A- Bear used to
license music uh prior to thelaunch of a movie, uh, we would
take 60 days to produce them,ship them all embedded with that
sound.
Nowadays everything is digital.
Um, and so you come to thestation, and uh, if you're
(03:13):
designing a plush associatedwith the the movie in the in the
theater that week, you uh clickon uh the screen and you pick
the sound from that character,uh, but you can also record a
sound.
People do all sorts of things.
A lot of people bring in withthem uh from their iPhone uh
their smartphone the lastmessage left by a loved one.
(03:35):
Uh it happens a surprisinglylarge amount of times uh because
the voice is a trigger, themost, I think, powerful trigger
of memory and emotions.
And everything that I knowabout voice, I've learned from
my customers.
And Build-a-bear is uh up frontand center.
Uh, they've taught me the powerof audio to drive sales.
(03:58):
Uh, but also if you're onlineand you're making a plush toy
and you add your voice to it,guess what?
Abandonment falls way downbecause it's already yours.
Now it's not Build-a- Bear'splush that you're buying, it's
your plush.
And that's a powerful, powerfultool.
Gary Pageau (04:16):
Has any other retailer picked up on this sort
of thing?
Because I'm thinking likeAmerican Girl or somebody like
that should could pick up onthis as well.
Geoffrey Stern (04:25):
Yeah, I mean, we are exclusive to Build-A-Bear,
so in the plush space, weprobably focus uh on Build-A-
Bear.
But there have been other uh uhretailers uh who have,
depending on the season, runsome promotions where we've
created a gift card uh that uhhad some um a licensed music on
it that you could dedicate withyour voice.
(04:47):
I mean, let's face it, Gary,there's an old, old tradition of
dedicating a song on the radio.
And you can do that with, youknow, a lot of times, and I find
this is cultural, we we had asystem where uh where people
could call in using the phone torecord a message.
And a lot of times foreignersuh would just keep talking.
Uh, and I didn't understandwhat they were saying, but they
(05:08):
had no problem expressingthemselves.
Americans sometimes have achallenge with expressing
themselves.
And what we learnt is uh thatif you have a context, so if
you're creating a bear, now youhave a context, you add a voice
to that bear.
Uh, if there's music todedicate a song, hey darling,
this is the song we danced uhwith.
(05:29):
It's so easy.
Uh so that's another thing thatwe've learned, and that's uh a
great segue into why I'm sointerested in the photo
industry, because when you havea photo in front of you and when
you're sitting around that uh ashoebox and you're taking a
photo out, what do you do?
You talk about it, you have acontext to express your emotions
(05:49):
and memories.
Gary Pageau (05:50):
And that's really been one of the challenges, I
think, over the years isconnecting audio or even video
to a still image, right?
Because people have triedvarious things with photo books
over the years with QR codes andand things like that.
And we're gonna talk about yournew product in a bit, but for
now, in it from historicalcontext, what it gosh, we met
(06:11):
like well, like you said, 20some years ago at a PMA show
when you were coming in.
What was the the world likethen in the products you were
working on back then?
Geoffrey Stern (06:20):
I think the technology has not changed that
much in terms of what we do, uh,but I think it's more uh, for
instance, uh digital was all therage.
And now people are uh gettingtired of apps and they're being
tired of subscription-basedservices.
Right and they're getting tiredof screens and uh a personal
(06:43):
device like a smartphone.
You can't look at a picturewithout having a text message
coming in with an alert comingin.
So I think that has changedbecause we were all glaz-eyed
with all the new technology thatwas developing.
We're not so glazy-eyedanymore.
If anything, we're overwhelmed.
(07:03):
And so what we have alwaysfocused on is self-playing
audio, meaning to say, in theday 20 years ago, you didn't
have to boot up your computer,you didn't have to make sure you
were using the right operatingsystem and that the file was in
the right format.
The idea is, you know, there'sa reason we say a picture is
worth a thousand words becauseit truly contains stories.
(07:27):
And we all know that.
We talk about storytellingtoday.
So what has changed really isthis demand.
Uh, we're going back to analoga little bit.
We find that kids are lookingfor headphones that have an
actual wire.
So you don't have to beconnected by Bluetooth with a
device that's going to disturbyou.
Uh, during COVID, especially,but it's outlived COVID.
(07:50):
The power of audio, whether itis podcasts, whether it's voice
texting, there's a certain uhintimacy of having a voice come
into your head, whether it'ssomeone reading a book or
sending you a message that Ithink we are rediscovering.
And that is what I think uh hasreally, really changed.
(08:11):
The other thing that's changedis in the day when I came to you
and you, I think even featuredme at a PMA show uh in terms of
new products, I had anintegrated talking or recordable
photo book.
And what I've learned is thatin industry today, uh, you can
add new features, but don't addnew steps.
(08:34):
Uh, don't create another reasonfor a consumer to be
overwhelmed.
They're adding their photos,now they have to add their
audio.
Don't add another uh speed bumpin the press that is producing
these books.
So everything that we've donenow is self-serve.
And besides the fact of makingit easier and taking the onus
(08:57):
off of the printer to add audioto a photo, instead, we put that
on the customer.
We did something else, andthat's where it gets back to the
Build-A- Bear and the retailtainment.
It is entertaining once you getthat beautiful photo book and
it comes to your house, and thenyou can sit and look at it with
(09:18):
somebody else and record thestories behind it.
It means that you're going touse that photo book much more
because the project doesn't stopwhen the ink dries, so to
speak.
That's what's kind of changed.
Gary Pageau (09:32):
Yeah, I think you're right because I think
there's a lot of ideas, youknow, and people are still
trying to crack that nut oftrying to figure out how to make
a printed book interactive oror do something with you know QR
codes, launching videos,launching audio, and all those
things.
Like you said, it's verydifficult to add that
information post-printing,right?
(09:54):
Inside the printing process,right?
You've got to get that QR codeand you got to make sure it's
linked to the right file.
In a lot of cases, you can'tchange the file, right?
If you wanted to uh append thataudio, you can't do that.
But you've come up with aproduct that will allow you to
do that.
That when after you get thatphoto book or have that print or
have some sort of maybe even awhatever the thing you want to
(10:17):
attach a memory to, you can nowattach a voice to that.
Can you talk a little bit aboutvoice gift and what it is?
Geoffrey Stern (10:23):
Yeah, so we created play, voice gift play,
and uh we we did it in twoversions.
One is for kids, but I want totalk about the one for us, for
photo enthusiasts.
And my inspiration was, and youand I probably remember this,
you would go, we would go into amuseum in the day, and they
would have a kiosk where youcould put on headphones and take
(10:45):
this little audio recorder, andyou'd walk around the museum,
and there would be a numberinnocuously on the side of the
different paintings, and youwould enter in that number on
the keypad, and you would hearthe curator uh add color, add
expression, explain uh what youwere looking at.
And I said to myself, why can'tthe consumer have the same
(11:08):
thing?
So uh this is a podcast, you'renot seeing a video, but if you
could imagine something as smallas a remote control for a TV,
something that you can hold inyour hand, it has uh a place
where you can put a tether on itso you can wear it around your
neck, just like we did in themuseums.
Um, and it has a keypad, noscreen, uh, no need to go
(11:28):
online.
And basically, what you can dois anything that you can put a
number on.
So, yes, you could have a photocollection framed on your wall
and write a little number on theside of the frame and record a
narration of what happened, whywas grandma laughing
hysterically uh in this pictureby the side of the boat, taken
(11:48):
in the day?
Or you can go to your photobooks and you can put a little
number next to an image in thatphoto book.
And as you sit around thatproverbial shoe box or looking
at photos, you can capture thesounds.
You can put music on this musicthat you heard when you were
pictured here.
You can uh talk about theimage, what happened, you can
(12:12):
invite friends and family totalk about it.
And uh, it has a keypad thatgoes from one to ten.
So, yes, you can record up to999 messages.
I don't know if anyone has thatmany messages, but the point is
it doesn't even uh connect toonly one book.
It has a clip on it, so it canclip on the sides of every one
(12:33):
of the photo books that you haveat home.
And as long as you put a uniquenumber next to a photo, you can
literally capture the sounds,the impressions, the memories
associated with that photo.
I love being in direct toconsumer because we see how
people are using our products.
Recipe books, they are nowrecording.
You have grandma's recipe book,her favorite uh brownie uh
(12:57):
recipe.
And somebody can record thefirst time they tasted the
brownies, where they got therecipe from.
Anything that you can put alittle number on it, I think of
it a little bit like an uh audiosticket.
If you can apply a number tosomething, you can record.
It can go in the galley of abook.
Uh, voice journaling is verybig, but all of these different
(13:19):
applications are kind ofmeshing.
We want to be able to add ourvoice to things.
You know, when when The Walkmanwas first introduced by Sony,
their tagline was the soundtrackof your life.
Uh, I think of that becausewhat happened was for the first
time, people could hear soundsaway from their stereo system.
(13:41):
You could walk around.
Well, we've progressed a longtime, a long way since then.
Uh, our tagline is the way lifesounds.
And and the idea is uh whetheryou're looking at images, uh,
whether you're uh creatingstuff, you can actually record
audio when you take the picture.
Uh and as long as you justremember the number, then you
(14:03):
can meld them later.
We've had uh weddingphotographers who are using our
device, which is look, it'spriced at $59.
It's a consumer device.
Uh, it's not expensivedictation product, but it does
what it needs to do.
It it uh it records uh audioassociated with something.
Gary Pageau (14:22):
So tell me a little bit again, since this is an
audio podcast, most people won'tsee it.
So I mean it's a small, likeyou said, uh remote style
device.
Do people even care or evenknow how much memory is in it?
Because and does it have abattery?
What's the upkeep on it?
Geoffrey Stern (14:36):
Yes.
So it holds 10 hours of uhmemory.
Again, my approach has alwaysbeen, and this too applies all
of our products, is uh the costof memory has come way down.
There's no reason why youshould ever run out of memory or
can feel uh constrained in thatway.
Uh, it has a USB-C connector,which is used both to charge it,
(14:59):
but also to back up the files.
Let's say you order five photobooks based on a trip to Hawaii.
You come home, you have allfive, you go ahead and you take
one of my play devices.
And by the way, the way you uhrecord is there's a little
selector switch on the side.
If you put the selector switchinto record mode and you enter
(15:19):
the number 37, then you push uhthe play button, you start
talking, the light goes on.
You can record as long of amessage as you want.
Up to 10 hours.
Yeah, and you press play again,and forever that message is
under that number.
Then you put the uh selectorswitch into play mode and it
(15:40):
will always play that associatedmessage.
But after you finish using thatprimary recorder to capture all
of the audio, then you can backit up on your computer, you can
buy five more, four more playdevices, put all of the audio
onto them, and when you send outthose photo books, you include
(16:01):
a play with it, and voila.
Uh, everyone who receives itgets to see and hear about the
experiences from the trip theyshared in.
Gary Pageau (16:11):
Are those audio files like can they do something
with them or are they likeencrypted or they're standard
MP3 files?
So theoretically, people couldtake that file 37 and affiliate
it with a digital image on awebsite if they wanted to.
Geoffrey Stern (16:24):
Absolutely.
They can almost use the play asa capturing device.
That's what I was talking aboutfor the wedding photographer.
You literally can capture audiowith the device, they are
standard MP3 files.
So you also can import uh audiointo it.
You can import music.
So you're looking at a weddingalbum, uh, you can literally put
the playlist from the out fromthat wedding into the device and
(16:49):
seamlessly uh listen to it asyou go.
Now, the thing about enteringthe numbers, if you enter
numbers in sequence, so let'ssay I'm looking at that photo
book from Hawaii, and I putunder the number one my
introduction and two uh anexplanation of the scene where
we were getting off the plane.
When you come to playback, youdon't have to keep on punching
(17:11):
in numbers.
You push in one, and thenthere's a forward button.
It goes to the next file insequence.
Okay.
It also has a pause button incase the phone rings while
you're listening to it.
So it's surprisinglysophisticated, given the fact
that I spent a lot of timetrying to keep it simple.
No screen, uh, not a wholebunch of buttons, just very
(17:34):
intuitive.
Gary Pageau (17:35):
So the question is some would say, why isn't this
an app?
I mean, that's why couldn't youjust create an interface on a
phone that looks like this withthe 11 buttons and the same
thing?
Why can't it be an app?
What's the advantage of havinga standalone device?
Geoffrey Stern (17:53):
So obviously, as you say, the the app is part of
your personal phone, uh, whichhas multiple apps on it.
It has text coming in, it has awhole bunch of other things.
So there's the distraction partof it.
It's not as immersive as this.
But second of all, just likethat photo book is so much more
compelling because it's tactile,uh, because you can touch it,
(18:16):
because you can feel it, you canput some something into it.
Uh, that's the business we'rein in the Dag Pitzel Society.
We're trying to create, we'retrying to create images that can
live on their own.
And I think that's what I'mhearing more and more from users
that the ability to have thison that coffee table and not
(18:38):
maybe it's on a weekend andguess what?
Maybe I unplug over the weekendand I don't like my phone to be
sitting next to me.
Maybe it's a child coming whocan intuitively look at a page
and press a button, or anelderly person uh who doesn't
want to be confused with an app.
There are so many reasons, Ithink, uh, to say that making it
(19:00):
like the book itself, somethingthat's tactile, that's
application specific andimmersive is very, very
compelling.
And we see it with the users.
Uh, when the users you it, it'sa different experience than
scanning a code.
Gary Pageau (19:15):
Yeah, so that's one of the things I want to talk
about.
Right now, you're available,you know, through online
services, people can bothonline.
What has been the reception tothe feedback you've gotten from
the customers?
And have you had to make anychanges to the product based on
feedback from the customers?
Geoffrey Stern (19:30):
I love that.
Because uh actually, as I saidin the intro, I've been in B2B
for so many years.
I I only started uh voice giftin terms of uh a uh
direct-to-consumer during COVIDuh when we were starting to hear
from uh elderly people thatthey wanted to hear the sounds
of their grandkids and whatever.
But what I have found is thatyou literally can look at these
(19:52):
reviews and see, get ideas andsee how people are using it.
You know, just today, I aperson purchased one of these uh
play devices uh for uh ahusband uh who had early onset
of uh of dementia.
And she wanted the audio, hisaudio tracks, his voice, uh
voices of people in his familyso he could look at an image and
(20:14):
hear a voice.
But we've gotten, I think thebiggest feedback is the
diversity of how people areusing this.
I think the one really materialinput that I had was uh, how do
I tell uh that the battery iseither full or empty or halfway
there?
So in the next production run,I don't need to put a screen on.
(20:35):
You're gonna be able to pushtwo buttons at the same time and
it's gonna say battery high,battery medium.
I think that's a great ideawithout adding any hardware.
We can address that.
Customers want are coming backto us with how they are using
it.
Uh, we, as I said before, wehave a tether on it.
And so uh people are recording,whether it's meditations, uh,
(20:57):
whether them when they gotraveling, they want their coach
uh or trainer to record uhthings that they need to do to
remind them what series orsequences they have to do.
They all want this because theywant to take that um uh walk
every morning without theirphone.
Uh they want to take their, butthey nonetheless want to hear
(21:18):
that meditation or hear that uhuh recording from a friend who
prepared something for them, putthem in a state of mind.
Gary Pageau (21:26):
And you also have developed a version for kids,
which has got you knowpictographs instead of numbers
and things like that.
Was that part of the originaldesign, or is it something you
developed later?
Geoffrey Stern (21:37):
Well, I started Voice Gift um with my daughter,
and my daughter has a daughter,so that makes her my
granddaughter.
And so everything that we do,we try to benefit from the fact
that uh I'm close to 70 and sheis in her 30s.
Uh, we look at how differentpeople might use this product.
So while the adult version hasthat keypad on it and can record
(22:01):
up to 999 uh separate files,the uh child's version uses the
same 12 buttons, but as you say,they each have a pictogram on
them and they come with matchingstickers.
So the idea is there's asticker for a soccer ball.
You can put that soccer ball ona photo book that you've
created, and you know, all ofthe services now have templates
(22:25):
uh for creating books whereeverybody uploads an image of
the family pet, of grandma, ofgrandpa, of uncle uh Louie.
The child will know that whenit when they see that uh soccer
sticker, they go over to thedevice, they just press the
button associated with thatsoccer icon, and they can hear
the audio behind that as well.
(22:46):
Uh, so it works obviously withchildren's books, whether
they're personalized withimaging, or they're just
standard goodnight moon.
The idea is you're able to readyour favorite kid a story even
when you're not there.
Gary Pageau (22:59):
That's kind of cool, actually, because uh so
you could record yourselfreading the book, and the kid
could listen to you read it justby pressing the pictogram base
on each page in the book.
Geoffrey Stern (23:08):
So we have been contacted uh by different
communities, special needscommunities.
So the site-impairedcommunities, they've already
taken my product that I made forkids, so it only holds 12
distinct files, and they've putbraille stickers on them.
And then they put braillesticker on whether it's an
appliance or something else.
(23:28):
And the person knows that ifthey push that button, they're
gonna hear audio guidance, uh,special needs kids that have
problems communicating.
But you can connect the dotsbetween the two of the products,
one that has all that capacityand the other one that's fairly
simple.
Uh, you could definitely createphoto books or lit, you know,
(23:49):
sometimes we're overwhelmed withoptions.
And I think a better way tolook at the kids' version is to
look at a simpler version.
I think it has a lot ofopportunity uh for the aging
generation uh who just 12messages is more than they need
to really create a playlist, tocreate uh the soundtrack of a
(24:12):
photo book or whatever it isthey're working on.
Gary Pageau (24:15):
And you know, I mean, if once they fill up the
12, they could buy another one,right?
I mean, there's really noreason to I mean, obviously you
don't want to, you know, getinto selling people thousands of
these things, but I mean, thereit does have the opportunity.
You could have multipledevices, like you were saying
earlier, you can reload them andhave multiple devices in in the
home.
Geoffrey Stern (24:32):
Yeah, I should say, and uh that you can record
over a message.
Uh so people have used it.
Uh uh there are 12 buttons, bythe way.
I understand calendars are abig thing in the photo industry.
You can record literally uh arecording for each season, uh,
making note of the birthdaysthat occur in that season, the
kind of thoughts that you have.
So there's almost an infinitenumber of applications if you
(24:57):
look at it as a remote controlfor audio.
When my granddaughter startedreferring to it as her remote,
there was pushback initially.
I said, no, it just looks likea remote.
And then I realized that forher, it gave her a sense of
agency and power.
Uh, she will take this thing tobed when no other toy is
allowed, and she can just listento different voices in the
(25:19):
family.
But you can extrapolate fromthat how older people would use
it as well.
It becomes just a very simpledevice for delivering audio
messages.
Gary Pageau (25:30):
Because I mean, you know, there have been various
people who have been, you know,doing these sort of things with
attaching audio to images, andthis is just another way to do
that.
So you've been selling thisonline, but you're also looking
for other opportunities uh withpartners and things like that.
Can you talk a little bit aboutkind of what your objective is
there?
Geoffrey Stern (25:46):
We see this as an amazing upsell for any uh
photo gift because again, whatas I was saying before, the
marriage of those two senses ofsight and sound is uh so
natural.
And that what we see is itmakes not only the purchase of
uh whether it's a photo book ora framed photo or whatever the
(26:09):
photo uh object is more excitingbecause you know you're going
to be able to attach your voiceto it.
And by the way, we have simplevoice tags that can record a
60-second message and go withany gift.
But ultimately, when you get itat home, I think the the real
power of our products is to givemore longevity, more multiple
(26:32):
impressions and usage of all ofour photo products.
And at the end of the day, whydo I go back to that website to
create a new project?
Because I find myself and myfamily getting a lot of pleasure
from the last book that Ipurchased or the last frame.
And I think what it does uh forany photo retailer, uh whether
(26:55):
online or in store, whether aphoto lab, is it makes the whole
category that much moreexciting.
It adds a whole new dimensionto the category.
And at the end of the day, whenwe are in the Dead Pixel
Society and we're focused onliteral, on touching printed
photos and books, anything thatwe can do to enhance that
(27:19):
experience, to expand thatexperience, and to drive home
the message that there'ssomething magical about having
uh the printed image in front ofyou and the ability to use your
senses uh to experience it.
Gary Pageau (27:36):
Because I mean I think this is interesting
because there's so much youknow, emphasis on like augmented
reality and some of theseadvanced technologies to do
this.
And like you said, I mean, it'sinteresting, but it's also
cumbersome and not always easyto use, and not everyone is is
technical or wants to wants tolearn yet another interface and
(27:58):
learn other things, but justpressing a button on a device is
very, very easy.
It's it's what we are are usedto doing.
Geoffrey Stern (28:05):
You know, I imagine that you're like me and
most of the listeners that thereis a piece of music that we can
hear that will trigger amemory.
Uh, it takes us back to ourdorm room, and we're gonna be
able to smell the beer on thefloor if we hear that sound.
Uh, a song from a wedding, uh,the sound of a loved one that we
(28:28):
haven't seen.
Uh, it's such a powerfultrigger.
Um, and I think we overlook it,but we are at a stage now where
people are starting torediscover the power of that
audio.
And I think that's really uhwhat I find so exciting about
getting my products out into thehands of consumers, about how
(28:50):
meaningful they are to them andwhat a trigger that audio is.
And I think it's just a uhperfect um companion to visual
and to print uh in terms ofstorytelling, in terms of um uh
uh legacy and uh memory making,these are all things that are
making sure that our industrynever goes anywhere.
(29:11):
Uh, and I think that this isreally the power of what you and
I are doing uh and makes it soexciting.
Gary Pageau (29:19):
So, where can people go for more information?
They were looking to eitherwant to start offering voice
gift or wanted to partner withyou or just wanted more
information.
Where can they get informationon that?
Geoffrey Stern (29:29):
So our website is www.voice.gift.
It's no.net, no.com.gift is theURL.
And it's a consumer site, butyou will see that there is uh a
page, a tab there for wholesale.
We are on something calledFair.
A lot of retailers are nowbuying uh uh using Fair to
(29:50):
purchase products.
Uh, and of course, you cancontact me directly.
I'm sure you'll have my emaillinks in the show notes.
Um, and uh we are really Reallyinterested in partnering,
making our products available soyou can touch and feel them at
retail.
Right now they're being sold onAmazon and we have our own
company website.
But we really do feel that animaging specific site, something
(30:15):
like this, would sell uh sellwell and really would uh not
only be uh a something thatgenerates additional revenue,
uh, but I think that ultimatelymakes the whole experience that
much more rich and makes thepurchase that much more
gratifying.
Absolutely.
Gary Pageau (30:32):
Well, thank you, Geoffrey.
It's great to see you onceagain.
Looking forward to uh sharingthis uh information with our
listeners.
Again, always great toreconnect with people over the
years from back in the day whoare still very active today.
And it's always great to uhhear more new innovations coming
to the industry.
Geoffrey Stern (30:48):
Gary, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Erin Manning (30:51):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixel
Society Podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
www.the dead pixels society.com
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