You got the holidays. You've got it in photos and videos, even voice recordings -- trimming the tree, lighting the Menorah, singing songs, eating the turkey, grandma snoozing after dinner, the whole shebang.
So what do you do with it all? If you're like most folks, probably nothing. It'll just sit on the hard drive of your computer, those images of lights reflected in little eyes never to be seen again.
Three Utah companies have realized that although the digital age offers easy ways to take photographs and produce other media images, actually doing something with them has been more complicated than many people cared to tackle.
"There were thousands of digital photos on their hard drives and nothing to do with them," said Chris Lee, CEO of Heritage Makers.
So, each of the three companies offers products to help consumers do scrapbooking and publish their photographs, videos and recordings, whether in the form of books, CDs or DVDs, slideshows or digital scrapbooking, posters, even greeting cards or MP3 videos.
And each company -- StoryRock of South Salt Lake, aVinci Media of Draper and Heritage Makers of Provo -- has a different approach to marketing their products, which are largely used by women.
"Women are the chief memory officers in most families," said Terry Dickson, vice president for marketing and business development of aVinci Media Corp.
Here's a rundown of the three and their products:
StoryRock
The company sells a software program, saying many users prefer to control their personal content from their own computers and also not have to rely on Internet service to create a project.
It allows buyers to take almost any digital file and turn the file into books, CDs and DVDs, greeting cards, poster-like pages and MP3 videos.
The program offers templates, or the user can freelance, adding photos, text and other files to pages. Photos can be pulled from where they are stored and plopped onto a page. Text can be added, along with video or music links to online sites. Thousands of scrapbooking effects such as borders and backgrounds also can be easily placed on the page.
When you're done, you can send your creation directly to the company to create a book or a DVD, or both. CDs can be made, single pages printed out as posters, greeting cards created and even mailed out by the printer. You can even download your creation onto MP3 players.
"Once you get started you just can't quit," said Sharlene Hawkes, the former Miss America who serves as chief marketing officer for StoryRock.
Hawkes recently took photos from her son's football season and turned them into a book. She added video highlights from the season to the same project and then burned a DVD for each player that included text photos and video.
StoryRock was started by John Lund in 1998 and originally sold interactive yearbooks on CDs and DVDs as a supplement to the printed high school yearbooks. But the company found it "couldn't reach critical mass" with that product, in Lund's words.
"We made a decision to move on to a different market," said Lund. Instead, with the explosion of digital photos and other files, the company decided to create a product to "manage memories."
The company, with 24 employees, has licensed its consumer product to Polaroid but says it soon will announce partnerships with companies in other consumer markets.
aVinci
The Draper-based company provides software that manages the process of turning digital photo files to print photo books or DVD disks. It offers the product through kiosks in retailers such as Wal-Mart, on Web sites such as Costco's photo center and in take-home kits available in photo-counter displays in Walgreens.
The company aims its product at a mass audience that does not want to take the time to master a more complicated computer program or add text, other than the book title. Its products permit consumers to create books or DVD productions in a few minutes by uploading photos and adding text.
"We provide an engine for automated multimedia creation that results in simple-to-create and beautifully produced photo books and DVD movies you can play on your TV," said Dickson.
The company offers a series of templates onto which users can simply upload photos. Books and DVDs can be themed to Christmas, weddings, vacations, birthdays and many other life events.
"Our approach is to allow consumer to chose a template and we do everything for them," said Dickson.
He said a user who had organized and uploaded photos could finish a project in minutes.
In addition, aVinci has licensed music and scenes from the movie "Polar Express" that can be used in projects.
Three brothers --- Chett, Richard and Ted Paulson -- started the company in 2003. It has about 25 employees
Heritage Makers
The Provo company is strictly a Web-based application but is marketed much like Tupperware. It aims to guide its customers through the process of creating stories out of their photographs.
It has 5,000 sales representatives who conduct workshops with potential customers to show them how the online system works and what can be produced. The sales reps get a commission for everyone who signs up and also can earn more by recruiting other reps in a multilevel-marketing plan.
"We have published well over 200,000 books and we also have introduced a line of greeting card, posters, canvas prints, playing cards and what we call scrapbook pages," said Lee.
Customers upload photos to Heritage Makers Web site, then chose a project such as a book. The photos can be placed on pages and text added.
"We have hundreds and hundreds of templates available for all those project types," said Lee, ranging from a book on a grandma to the family pet to the Hawaiian vacation.
In addition, the company has licensed thousands of pieces of art, including backgrounds, borders, alphabets, ribbons, bows and images, available for a monthly fee.
Oprah Winfrey's O magazine in its December issue named Heritage Makers books as one of her favorite gifts under $100. She heard about the company after a sales representative made a book about Oprah and her dog, and sent it to the media mogul and TV favorite.
