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Web Video Production will have a profound effect on how businesses evolve

October 29, 2009 by 5 Comments

Computer Monitor

We tend to take most things in life on face value. The earth is round, the universe is expanding, the internet is slow, but improving. This slow progression and acceptance of our ‘realities’ also tends to stop us from seeing what’s just around the corner. An example:

Imagine if television in the 1950′s evolved the same way that the internet has.  What if TV in its infancy was little more than radio with text – much like the early stages of the web.  What if television started with many, many channels but they all offered slow text, perhaps a few graphics. Over time, maybe ten years or more the television broadcast networks evolved to allow some blinking graphics, then motion graphics via flash files that allowed you to see moving images accompanied with text. How powerful a medium would TV have been up to that point. Would it have consumed our lives the way it has? Would it become the focal point of our entertainment, our advertising, our news consumption?

With the Internet today we are close (but not quite there) to where television started over fifty years ago.  Video is widely viewable today online around the world but the experience varies considerably. That will change over the next few years as good or great quality video will be delivered to any screen you want it on (tv, computer, mobile devise). When that happens this will have a profound effect on how business communicate and evolve. Like the frog in the slowly warming pot of water, many businesses won’t even notice the change.

What makes the impact that much more significant is that all of the televisions are connected, everyone is creating their own television shows and you can watch what you want, wherever and whenever you want. Context is everything and the companies that win in this game will be the companies that can produce contextually relevant video products for their audiences. Content that has real value (not commercials), content that people want to share and content that changes how people see and do things.

No, text isn’t going away (in spite of the recent pain in the print industry) in our lifetime but we are entering a time where new visual languages, graphic interfaces and video content will change how businesses communicate.

Filed Under: Content Marketing, General, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, The Future of Corporate Video, Video Marketing, video production, Video Technology Tagged With: , ,

Are corporate websites dead? No, but some may require life support.

October 29, 2009 by 1 Comment

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Websites don’t matter. The content on them and the content that gets consumed and shared (wherever) is what matters.

I recently responded to a blog article that posed the question “are corporate websites dead?”  My take was that the purpose and function of corporate websites is changing – they will still serve as a repository for corporate information but the days of websites being a ‘destination’ for information about the things you do are long gone. An Example:

Recent changes to driving laws where I live now make it illegal to hold/use a cell phone while driving. I needed to pick up a good quality Bluetooth headset. While scanning some recent tweets I noticed a comment about a new Plantronics Bluetooth headset. I followed the link to a YouTube video. It sounded interesting but I wasn’t convinced. I then viewed a number of related reviews on YouTube that seemed more credible and decided that this was indeed the device that suited my needs. I Googled to find the best price and ordered the product online. I never went to the Plantronics website – there was no reason to. I know the company and have purchased products from them before so there were no credibility issues to investigate.

The user generated videos I viewed provided good general information but ultimately the more professionally created videos sold me. The whole process took ten minutes and at the end of it I felt very informed and very comfortable making a purchase decision.  Would I have been as confident if I just went to the Plantronics site and consumed their literature? No way. Would I have been as comfortable if I went to my local electronics store and waited to listen to an inexperienced sales clerk sell me on equipment he may or may not have a lot of real experience with? No.

We are moving from the ‘text web’ to the ‘next web’ ( or ‘web something dot something’) and many companies still don’t see it coming. I’d rather watch a video review or video product demo than read product literature because video and other rich media content show me things that a document cannot. It’s also easier to make value judgments about the presenter and the content.

There is huge value in showing your product/service being used, showing people talking about their experiences with the product and showing how it clearly benefits the potential buyer.

It’s the content (and where that content is seen) that matters, not the website and the implications of this reach far beyond simple consumer products. All companies have to take into account how social media, rich media, mobile engagement, word of mouth, and especially the creation of truly valuable content is going to affect their brand and their business. Even companies with long sales cycles that involve complex buying decisions need to consider how they are going to engage the ‘next web.’

Filed Under: Content Marketing, General, Marketing with Video, The Future of Corporate Video, video production, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , , , ,

4 Advantages of Adding Video to your Email Marketing

October 27, 2009 by 1 Comment

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The good folks at  Wistia – a video tracking company decided to, in their words,  ‘eat their own dog food’ by using their own online video tracking service to monitor the effectiveness of adding video to their email marketing activities. (I prefer ‘fly your own jets’ as far as marketing metaphors go…)

You can read the results on a recent blog post but here is a quick summary:

1. Click through rates were 3 to 4 times higher with video
2. Visitors spend more time on site with video
3. You can track specific benefits of video content – see where visitors lost interest or chose to engage the company further
4. They also used video engagement as an indication for further lead gen, with measured success.

Admittedly the last two items are associated with the services this company provides but there are hundreds of articles and blog posts that support the idea that adding video to your email can have a significant effect on the effectiveness of that email. Here are a few:

http://www.smartmarketmovie.com/eric/videos-email-marketing-campaign/

http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2009/08/video-email-when-to-use-it.html

http://www.strongmail.com/resources/blogs/email_marketing_insights/2009/03/how-to-leverage-video-in-your.php

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video Tagged With: , ,

Volkswagen goes for fun in new viral video production

October 13, 2009 by Leave a Comment

BMW or Mercedes, I can’t remember which, has  successfully pushed ‘engineering’ as a key brand attribute for years.  Volvo has wrapped it’s brand around ‘safety’ for decades. Toyota is the king of reliability.  Volkswagen is going for fun. Why not? Fun is a great thing to associate your product or brand with. (Unfortunately ‘bankruptcy protection’, ‘restructuring’ and ‘didn’t require bail-out assistance’ are terms  that don’t seem to resonate with car buyers.)

Volkswagen’s European ad agency DDB Stockholm have developed a series of viral videos which are getting good traction. The concept is simple – How do you make ordinary things more fun. (Having fun driving a car, ultimately being the end game in all of this.). As viral videos go these are well structured:

1. Video Production. The quality of the video is excellent. It’s not too glossy, has a natural feel to it and doesn’t rely on much more the action in the video – no motion graphics, minimal in style and the audio is subtle. It doesn’t feel over-produced.

2. Focus is on human response. Not all viral videos focus on human interaction/response but the ones that do, and do that well tend to be able to capture genuine emotion associated with the subject matter. In this case it’s easy to put yourself in the place of the people in the video and share the intrigue, excitement… and the fun that they are experiencing.

3. Branding is subtle. There are obvious exceptions (Will it blend?) but for the most part successful branded viral videos downplay the brand in the video – either including a logo at the end or subtly including the brand in the video itself. No branding is pointless unless you can sell tickets to see the video, but there are diminishing returns on how prominent your branding can be. By comparison, paid ads with prominent branding are simply the (disruptive) cost you pay for viewing content. People are more likely to share content that isn’t obviously promoting a product (unless, of course if the ads are exceptional.) Is the branding too subtle? Perhaps.

4. Brand association is direct and the message supports the brand. More than anything Volkswagen is associating it’s brand with fun. This takes a lot of money to do well and to support over time but all things being equal, fun is a great brand attribute to aspire to. This certainly isn’t a stretch for the brand. The Volkswagen Beetle in it’s old an new incarnation have always been associated with fun. By comparison, the benefits to any brand of say…  catching a computer with your butt or herding electric sheep might not be as apparent to the viewer.

5. The video is very good. Not just the video production quality, which is very good, but the concept, the execution and the ‘pass-on-ability’ of the video. This is a video that many people will want to share with friends.

6. A series of videos with ‘teaser’ videos to support the campaign. Creating one viral video is a good start – if that video is successful. But even if it hugely popular it will still have a shelf life measured in weeks. Reach is important for getting noticed, but frequency is what changes behaviors. Volkswagen has developed a series of videos to support this campaign and is even creating teaser ‘coming soon’ videos to let people know that more are in the works. As video slowly begins to replace text (let the impassioned discussions begin over this idea) it will become more important to develop complimentary and overlapping videos that work together to tell a broader story.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , , ,

Do you produce videos that leverage the many ‘how-to’ sites?

October 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment

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Do your marketing videos do anything more than just sing your praise?

‘Content marketing’ is a term that is starting to take hold in online marketing conversations. The idea that it promotes is straightforward: Create content that helps your customers and prospects solve their business problems, content that informs them (rather than screams at them), content that they care about and content that helps them to understand something new, something they didn’t already know. Information about your company and the features of your product or service is less important. The benefits of your product and how your product fits into the ecosystem and community that exists around your product is what matters.

One of the fastest growing web content categories is the ‘how-to’ sites. These sites offer more than empty entertainment calories – they help you do stuff. They intrigue you, they inform you and some even inspire you. And their numbers are sure to grow. Niches, sub-niches and micro-niches (I just made that up) will soon begin to proliferate. At the center of all of these sub categories of information and community will be trusted knowledge leaders – companies like yours who have positioned themselves in this community by providing valuable knowledge and insight into things that matter most to your customers and prospects.

A sampling of how-to sites (these are top-level aggregators but new sub-category sites will emerge):

eHow – One of the originals it covers a wide range of helpful topics.

WikiHow – A huge, slightly messy repository of open source knowledge and helpful stuff.

Howstuffworks – An interesting collection of trivia, tips and just about anything you could ever imagine.

Lifehacker – Definitely one of the cooler how-to sites.

Make – Geek heaven, chock-a-block with techno stuff.

5-min Started this year and is quickly building a good inventory of knowledge.

The companies and people who provide real value and impart knowledge to their constituents are the ones who will lead this next great movement.

Filed Under: Content Marketing, General Tagged With: ,

Nicely played Prime Minister Harper!

October 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment

He doesn’t have Pierre Trudeau’s charisma or even Ringo’s vocal range, but to give credit where credit is due – nicely played Mr. Prime Minister.

Even dyed in the wool conservatives will acknowledge that Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper tends to appear a little wooden at times. So it was surprising, even shocking to many to see our country’s leader take center stage and sing and play piano in the middle of a gala performance at the National Arts Center in Ottawa. He was pretty good.

Was this a just another political contrivance dreamed up in a back room by the conservative puppet-masters? Perhaps, but even if it was you still have to give the PM full marks for taking the risk… and pulling it off. Very, very few people would have the courage to do this.

I imagine this video will make a difference. Aside from the broad media coverage it has already received this video will be shared and viewed by demographics that would never have otherwise watched a Stephen Harper video. It will cast him in a slightly different light – as something other than leaden and it will give some, maybe even a majority of people enough of a glimpse of humanity that they may change their feelings about him come election time.

Prime Minister Harper and all politicians would do well to engage the electorate not just through press conferences and shouting matches during question period but also through the use of social media where people are sharing stories, engaging their networks and slowly building new and important communities of influence.

Rock on Stephen!

So what do you got Iggy?

Filed Under: General, Video and Government Tagged With: ,