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2009 Survey – Online video is top priority for web marketers

December 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

A survey conducted by PermissionTV  identified online video as the top priority for digital marketing budgets and also highlighted a strong preference among marketers for increased sophistication and interactivity in online video capabilities to help promote their brands.

Online video will hit its stride in 2009 as companies re-evaluate their marketing mix.  

Key Findings

·         More than two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) identified online video as a primary focus of their 2009 digital marketing campaigns, versus social media  campaigns (41 percent), search (34 percent) and podcasts/webcasts (32 percent).

·          In Q2 of 2009, more than half (52 percent) of respondents expect to be implementing or extending an online video project, whereas currently less than one-third (32 percent) are doing so.

·         Nearly 60 percent of respondents consider interactive video experiences to be the next evolution for online video. Also, 62 percent believe that non-linear, interactive storytelling will become the most effective medium for marketers. o Links to other videos is the most widely needed interactive capabilities for respondents, followed by graphic overlays, user comments and user-defined contents paths.

·        Respondents expect their 2009 digital marketing efforts (33 percent) to be least affected by budget cuts, followed by traditional marketing (24 percent), tradeshows (21 percent) and guerilla marketing (14 percent).

·        A majority of respondents (63 percent) are most likely to invest in a branded content/video destination next year. o Viral video (39 percent) and interactive experiences (38 percent) follow as the second and third priority, while only 22 percent plan to invest in simple syndication.

·        When asked how online video will enhance customer engagement, a vast majority (71 percent) stated it would help build brand awareness.

·        Driving lead generation was the second largest objective (47 percent), followed by enhancing loyalty/retention programs (44 percent) and converting customers (41 percent).

 

 

Filed Under: The Future of Corporate Video

Online video distribution companies struggle

December 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

old-tv

The term ‘Online Video’ encompasses a broad range of business activities.  This has lead to confusion in the media and in the marketplace. For businesses looking to use online video as a means of communicating with their key audiences, the future of online video is indeed bright. For portals and services looking to commercialize the distribution of the millions of videos available online (entertainment, corporate, user-generated… whatever) through advertising or service fees, the future is at best, uncertain.

Déjà vu? We’ve already seen how things will shake out for online video distributors. Remember Napster, Yahoo Music or Viacom’s Urge? The music industry struggled though the same painful consolidation that the online video consolidation and distribution industry is experiencing today. (The Ad Networks are next… the Content Delivery Networks are still in their growth phase.)

The VC’s that invested millions in too many similar ventures have turned off taps. Consolidation in the industry has started and will pick up steam in 2009. That will leave a number of dominant players like iTunes and Amazon on the fee side of things, companies like Hulu and YouTube as portal players and a few other heavy weights like Microsoft and Facebook (and perhaps a couple of the major TV networks) to round out major services.

While the portals and distributors of online video sort themselves out, the use of the online video as a communications medium continues to flourish.

Filed Under: Online Video Industry

A great corporate Christmas Video

December 18, 2008 By 2 Comments

“Any problem in the world can be solved by dancing” is a great corporate holiday video created by the folks at First Round Capital.  Sure it’s low budget, roughly edited and obviously ‘inspired’ by the YouTube viral classic ‘Where the hell is Matt‘  (over 14 million views) but what the heck – it’s engaging, it’s real and they obviously had a lot fun making it.

Nicely done.

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples

Youtube Video SEO

December 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The folks at Reel SEO published a summary of the insights  on YouTube’s algorithms, popularity, conversion and tracking strategies that were shared at the Video Search Engine Session for the Search Engine Strategies Chicago Conference and Expo. The post provides YouTube stats, a look into YouTube’s algorithm and many excellent ideas on how to get the most out of YouTube. And while you are on the site check out other posts on Video SEO and Internet Marketing Trends – the site provides a wealth of information on these topics.

Perhaps the most significant insight is the fact that YouTube is becoming a major search engine onto itself as video begins to take a more prominent role in the marketing mix.

Filed Under: YouTube Video Tagged With:

Online video script writing – 6 practical tips

December 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

green-video-camera

Writing scripts for movies, television, industrial videos, commercials, and web video all share one critical element required for success – you need to tell a good story. That means you have to know who your script will appeal to and why, before you write it.

Unless you are planning an unscripted video (this format still requires considerable preparation) the first step in the creation of an online video is the script. The script is the ‘what’ – it is the foundation for the entire video production process. Regardless of whether you plan to develop your script internally or hire a video production company to assist you, here are six tips to help make the production process a little bit easier:

Video Length You should have a good idea of how long you want the completed video(s) to be before you start. Are you creating a 2 minute corporate overview, a 4 minute detailed product demo, or 6 minute video case study. Online, shorter is better. Consider 150 words a minute as a general guide. {Try reading out loud for a minute at a comfortable pace and see how many words you get through.} Time guidelines will help you determine how long your script should be. If you are shooting for 3 minutes and your script is 1000 words you need to start cutting.

Approvals  Depending on your internal structure (and your aversion to risk) you may need to get internal approval on your video script. The script stage is the best place to get approvals and make changes. Don’t wait until the shoot to make your decisions or worse, after the shoot during the post-production stage. Script changes here are either expensive or impossible. One thing to be aware of during the script approval stage is script bloat. Everyone will have something they want included and the path of least resistance is often to just include everything. That could result in a longer and inferior final product. Having a target length helps limit this problem.

Structure of the script Try to break the script down into smaller pieces. If it is longer than 4 or 5 minutes you may want to break the video up into two or three discreet pieces that the viewer can choose to navigate between. (It’s better to offer the viewer a choice other than just to leave your video.) If the script is short you should still break it down into smaller discreet pieces. This gives you more flexibility at the edit stage and also makes the production (filming) process much easier.

Teleprompter If your video includes a script you should consider renting a teleprompter and operator. It will save you hours of production time and might just save the whole shoot.

Onscreen elements Even if you are not going to the effort of creating a proper storyboard for your video you should at least map out the onscreen elements and actions that are planned to accompany the narration. Is there onscreen text to support the script? Are there cut-aways to screen shots, B-roll or other onscreen graphics required? Getting this all down (and approved) in script format first will save you a lot of time and money.

Script Dry Run Before you bring the film crew in, schedule a dry run. You can’t think of everything. Your location, the software you were going to demo, the presenter, the flow or pace of the presentation… something is not going to work the way you thought it would. Better to catch it before the crew arrives.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: General, Starting a Video Project Tagged With:

7 Ways to use video to communicate with your employees

December 15, 2008 By 1 Comment

Accenture (you know… Tiger Wood’s company) recently announced the winners of their internal employee orientation video contest. With close to 200,000 employees the firm decided that the best people to call on to create employee orientation videos would be their own employees. Videos submitted by employees for this contest were required to align with three main themes and were peer reviewed to determine the winners.

The project was a huge success, received lots of recognition both inside and outside of the company and will undoubtedly be repeated in some format in the near future.  Aside from the obvious outcome – the creation of engaging employee orientation material – Accenture also took the first steps in walking the walk that they, as a leading edge global consulting agency, have been communicating to their customers: Video is becoming an important internal communications tool, social media (media that encourages pass-along viewing and interaction) isn’t just for teenagers and structured user-generated content within companies can have significant benefits to the organization.

Video is a powerful and engaging way to communicate within your organization. Some examples:

1.    Local Heroes. Highlight the people that move the company forward, who make a difference and who add character and vitality to your organization. (Not just the executives.)

2.    Internal Case Studies. Video is a great way to model behaviour and show (rather than just tell) how and why business practices help make everyone’s job easier.

3.    Employee orientation. Either professionally produced or employee generated – video is a great way to get people to listen and to understand.

4.    Tell your story.  If you are blessed with great communicators at the helm then you are well ahead of the game. If not, video is an excellent vehicle to remind your employees of your core values, your business objectives, your commitment to the community and the environment and most importantly, why your employees should be excited about their future with your company.

5.    Events/Conferences and Trade shows. Events and conferences are a great opportunity to capture what is going on in your company and in your industry and to communicate this knowledge with your employees.

6.    Customer Testimonials. Of course customer testimonials and video case studies have huge value as external marketing tools but don’t forget to communicate these valuable stories to your employees.

7.    Training Videos. Sales training, process and best-practices training, corporate governance and compliance , and Health and Safety are all areas that benefit from the use of video communications tools.

Video is a great way to tell your story and to engage employees.

Filed Under: General Tagged With:

Internet Corporate Video set to grow dramatically

December 15, 2008 By 2 Comments

 

Cisco Systems recently published  Cisco Visual Networking Index which provides key findings on a variety of consumer and business IP networking trends. Their projections are stunning. The implication to businesses and the future of business communication is huge. Some of the numbers:

·      Between 2007 and 2012 there will be a sixfold increase in IP traffic (combined annual growth rate of 46 percent) due mainly to video.

·      Mobile Data traffic will double each year from 2008 to 2012

·      Video on demand, IPTV, peer-to-peer (P2P) video, and Internet vido are forecast to account for nearly 90 percent of all consumer IP traffic by 2012 

·    Global business IP traffic is forecast to grow strongly at a CAGR of 35 percent from 2007 to 2012

 

The study also goes on to predict that there will be three distinct waves of growth. We are currently in the first wave – Internet Video to PC.  The second wave will start in earnest later next year – internet to the TV and the third wave will take hold in the next four to five years – interactive video.

 

Video, rich media and social networking are the key drivers behind this rapid increase in IP traffic. Increase broadband penetration in the small –business segment, adoption of advanced video communications and rapid growth in the Asia-Pacific market also major drivers. This growth in the use of video will create both challenges and opportunities for businesses:

 

1.    Video will become a much more important part of the marketing mix –both for B2B and B2C companies. As video expands to become a mainstream marketing tool – companies will have to invest to keep up with new communications techniques.

2.    The line between advertisements, entertainment, information, training, and community outreach will continue to blur as companies learn new ways to communicate with their audiences.

3.    Business to business video communications is limited primarily to the PC today. As mobile devices become video enabled (like the iphone, the Blackberry storm etc.) and TV’s start to be used for internet browsing, the lines between lean-forward (PC’s), lean-back (TV’s) and in-transit (mobile) screens will also start to blur. Work places will extend to any screen anywhere, any time.

4.    Business marketing and business survival will be much more dependent on social outreach and engaging audiences with rich media tools.

5.    Interactive video and other rich media tools will have a huge effect on business communication compared to the limited affect that interactive flash presentations have had on business communications to date.

Filed Under: The Future of Corporate Video Tagged With: , ,

13.5 Billion online videos viewed in the US in October.

December 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Comscore just released data from its October 2008 Video Metrix Report and the numbers are impressive.

  • US Internet users viewed 13.5 Billion online videos during October which represents a 45% increase over last year.
  • Google (through YouTube and Google Video) had a 40% market share serving 5.4 Billion videos.
  • The average time spend viewing a video is 3 minutes.
  • The average online viewer watched 274 minutes of video
  • Over 80% of 18-34 year olds watch online video.

We are in the rapidly rising section of this growth curve. These numbers – both for consumers and for business viewers will continue to grow quickly.

Filed Under: Video Statistics Tagged With:

Are high production values necessary?

December 10, 2008 By 2 Comments

Are high production values necessary for corporate video?  No, not necessarily.

The spare and primitive style used in the above promotional video for Ford’s new Sync Technology might make you wonder whether Ford just decided to save some money and go with the animated storyboard presented by their agency. The video was created by Commoncraft, a small Seattle-based company that produces instructional and informational web videos using very simple techniques - cut-out images, simple diagrams and a straight-forward delivery.

The video works on many levels. It serves it’s purpose – it describes the value proposition and benefits of Fords new service very well, it is easy to understand, it is very easy to watch and I imagine it appeals to a relatively younger market who care about the ability to sync multiple devices in a convenient way.

Corprate videos don’t have to be slick (overproduced). Not everyone likes slick (big budget, mini-movies). Gen Y and the Millennials have grown up with not-so-slick (YouTube). And while Gen X’ers and Boomers are more accustom to traditional media - MTV and television, online viewing habits are changing quickly. The influence of user-generated content (yes, most of it quite awful) will have a significant affect on the style and production values of corporate video in the future. We will see many new non-standard approaches to corporate video as the cost of production continues to drop and the accessibility and exposure to different production styles continues to increase.

All style issues aside (sure, many other styles could have communicated the same key marketing messages for Ford just as effectively), the important thing is that the video did it’s job – it communicated the intended message very well and I imagine it was done at a cost that pleased the struggling automaker.

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples Tagged With: ,

Should my corporate video be 16×9 or 4×3?

December 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment

 

The two standard aspect ratios (ratio of width to height) for commercial and consumer video are 16×9 – which is the new standard for high definition video and 4×3 – which is the old standard for television. (Cinemascope, which is the movie theatre standard is 21×9).

You will start to see all new televeision shows being broadcast to fit the new 16×9 standard. New computer monitors now generally conform to the wider 16×9 format. YouTube – a bellwether for the online video industry – has recently switched it’s video standard to 16×9.

The majority of new commercial and consumer video will be shot in 16×9 format in the future. 4×3 will start to look ‘dated’ in the next few years. You still see many corporate videos being shot at 4×3 – this is because the videos are being shot with 4×3 format cameras or because the company has chosen to continue with an established corporate standard for consistency or to fit into a pre-formatted player.

16×9 is the new standard. I would recommend, where possible, to shoot your corporate videos at 16×9.

Filed Under: Video Standards Tagged With: ,
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