This year is shaping up to be a great one for us at Simian, and that means good things for our growing community of Simian users in the production, advertising, media and digital industries.

That’s because we’re always working on refining and enhancing our products to make sure they meet the changing needs of our customers. As the way video is being used today has shifted, so have the roles and distinctions of those both producing it and consuming it.

While agencies are still firmly entrenched in the process of creating, producing, finishing and distributing brand-related content (be it commercials, web shorts, long-form branded content or whatever), they’re getting into production and post with more in-house departments taking shape. Meanwhile, independent production companies and post houses are working directly for clients or generating their own original content for brands more and more.

It all means more video’s being made than ever, and the demand to conceive, shoot, post, revise and deliver finished content just keeps growing.

We’re responding with some new developments that Simian users will be happy to see. For example, we’ll be unveiling an updated version of our Simian Go! mobile app, which makes accessing media and creating, sending and tracking reel presentations from your phone or tablet even easier.

We’re also upgrading the ability to do file versions in our Projects folders. Now you’ll be able to upload multiple versions of a spot, a cut, an effect or other scenes all attached to the same record, which will allow faster and easier side-by-side comparisons of different versions for clients.

“Making it easier for Simian users to focus on what they do best is what keeps us stoked to come into the office every day.”

And we’ll be sprucing up our email templates, so users that choose to send out reels and projects files using our email system (rather than merely copying links into their own emails) will have more options and greater flexibility to customize the look, with hero images, thumbnails and their own logos and branding.

Of course, it’s going to be hard to follow up the year we had in 2017! We launched Sawt, an entirely new service aimed at filling a gap in the world of searchable archives and databases for ad content. Home to literally hundreds of thousands of commercials and online content creator videos, Sawt combines the best of social media with an intuitive, easy to use search capability, all the while offering users a platform on which they can promote their work and build their brands. If you haven’t joined Sawt yet – and it’s free, so go ahead! – you should do so now. Everyone loves an early adopter.

We released the fourth version of Simian in ’17, too, which featured a complete redesign of the UI and UX that improved functionality and ease of use. This update made for easier, faster reel creation and more control over reels after they’re sent. Accessing, sharing and managing project files was simplified for improved collaboration, too, and we added threaded replies, making it easier to have discussions in comments during review.

We also launched our Infusion plugin, so users can import comments and notations directly into Adobe Premiere, allowing editors to read notes and comments while in the editing program. They can reply to them from within Premiere, too, and they’re automatically uploaded into Simian and shared with the team – all of which are designed to make the editing workflow smoother and more efficient.

We gave users more options when presenting their work with a fresh set of contemporary reel and project presentation choices as well, and improved our video player and annotation tools, so work looks great when shared with clients and collaborators.

If the words ‘faster and more efficient’ keep popping up here, that’s because making it easier for Simian users to focus on what they do best is what keeps us stoked to come into the office every day. And with the Super Bowl behind us and a big year for ad content in the offing – everything from today’s Olympic broadcasts to the World Cup, a slew of elections (don’t get us started) and a continuing explosion of online video – we have every reason to believe 2018 is going to go down as a big year not only for us, but our customers, too.