Marketing with Video and Rich Media Blog

You are here: Home / 2009 / Archives for November 2009

Microsoft redesigns iPod packaging

November 24, 2009 By 2 Comments

Elegance and simplicity is tough to beat.

This video, which has been circulating for quite a while, should be required viewing for introductory marketing classes. While it picks on Microsoft (admittedly an easy target) the real point of the video is to illustrate that less is more. Anyone caught in the ‘design by committee’ death spiral will be able to relate to the added ‘enhancements’ that get thrown into this packaging exercise.

The challenge with simplicty is that it is really risky and most companies are risk averse. Complexity in packaging is just another way of hedging your bets – making sure that no group goes undifferentiated and that no bit of information goes unmentioned. Having the confidence and insight to be able to communicate to your target audience in a very clear and very simple manner is not the norm.

{As the story goes, this is an internally produced video by Microsoft to illustrate the unnecessary management layers that gum up the marketing process. Good for them if this is true.}

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

Have we reached the online video tipping point?

November 13, 2009 By

wsj

We may have just quietly passed the point of no return.

“The Wall Street Journal has moved its video player front and center with a twice-a-day live newscast on WSJ.com.” The New York Times recently reported that the iconic and venerable print publisher The Wall Street Journal is now featuring video prominently on their website. I think I just felt the ground shift a little under my feet.

Remember when the WSJ added color (colour) to its newspaper? That apocalyptic change was debated for months in media circles. This is a couple of orders of magnitude more significant and consequently will get much less attention.

Why did the WSJ do this? Well, as the New York Times explains  “A major reason is commercial.” Uh huh.

More and more people are going online to find what they want – information, news, entertainment, friends, etc. and video is quickly becoming the easiest and most compelling way to consume content online.  Online video advertising, while still small compared to TV advertising is growing quickly. The money will follow the crowd.

Many things could have signaled the transition from the ‘text’ web to the ‘next web’ such as rich media penetration rates, the number of  YouTube videos viewed per month or the percentage of companies using video on their websites. I think the symbolism of the worlds most prominent print publication prominently featuring video on its website is as good a signal as any to suggest that online video has finally  ‘arrived.’

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , ,

When Starbucks marketers drink the non-fat, mochachino kool-aid .

November 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

starbucks player

Q. What’s the difference between a salesman and a marketer?
A. Salesmen know when they are lying.

{Full disclosure: I love Starbucks, I go there quite often. I just find it silly when people take themselves too seriously.}

Caleb Hannon wrote a recent article in the Daily Weekly that  concluded with directions on how to “cleanse yourself of the stench of Pfeiffer’s corporate-speak.” I’m not sure if the self-important proclamations he refers to are quite this egregious but you have to admit that Pfeiffer and many other marketers do tend to take themselves a bit too seriously.

Starbucks is opening new custom designed stores that attempt to blend in with their local environments. That’s it. Unfortunately that sound bite would only last for a few seconds so Tim Pfeiffer, Starbucks VP of Global Magnificence felt he needed to fill that void with over three minutes of Starbucks marketing dribble.

The following is a guide to help you better understand what Starbucks is trying to say in this video:

“Cafe Presence” – A store.
“Open the Throat” – I believe he is either referring to an in-store tracheotomy procedure or perhaps this is a euphemism for increasing cut throat business practices… not sure which.
“Major Coffee Theatre” – A clear indication that everything he and the company does and says is an act, they don’t really mean any of it.
“Elevate the offering” – The religious connotations are self-evident here.
“More bespoke and one-off” -  ‘Mcdonald’s started building customized/localized stores a while back so we thought we’d copy that idea.’
“Availability of the interaction of the Barrista” … I got nothing here. It’s English (and he’s a marketer), so he was probably trying to make a point about something.
“The go-forward” - All marketing men of action are legally required to include ‘go-forward’ at least once in a conversation.
“Great coffee messaging” - Ads.
“Our coffee authority” – Starbucks will continue to crush all competition (in an environmentally responsible fashion.)

So Tim, keep up the good work… but get over yourself, it’s just coffee.

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, video production Tagged With: , , ,

The ‘art’ (parody) of local commercials.

November 10, 2009 By 1 Comment

Sure a lot of local commercials are absolute crap, but some of them can be quite engaging.

The creators of the commercial (and making of video) above are Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, two self-proclaimed ‘internetainers’. Like Kevin Nalts, they have managed to make a good living creating entertainment and infotainment videos for the web. The two North Carolinians have created over 200 web based videos including some very successful marketing promotions such as The Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip. They certainly look like they enjoy what they do and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling.

Their most recent promotional adventure, I love local commercials,  is sponsored by Microbilt a finance company that developed this promotion for small local companies encouraging them to enter a contest to win a commercial created by Rhett and Link. The promotion is coming to an end and there have been a lot of commercials created. Some of these are (c)rude, some are strange, some are funny and some are really engaging.

The Cullman mobile home commercial above features Robert Lee (no middle initials given), a no-nonsense business owner who says it like it is. This commercial is part reality TV, part parody, part local TV commercial and part documentary. It’s fascinating. I imagine it will make Robert and his mobile homes famous for a while and that will probably translate into more business.

The media have picked up on some of these videos and YouTube and other web hosting sites are seeing impressive take-up of this series.

Are the creators making fun of the people in these videos? Are we laughing with or at these people? Hard to say. Parody is funny that way.

Filed Under: General, local videos, Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

Absolutely stunning video production shot on digital camera

November 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The worlds of still photography and video are beautifully colliding.

Up until recently still photography and videography have occupied very different spaces. Simply put, there are a lot more moving parts in video, sound being one of them and time (shooting a sequence of images over time) being another. Advancements in DSL camera technology are beginning to bridge this gap.

Tom Lowe from Timescapes.org filmed these incredible sequences in California’s White Mountains and in Yosemite National Park all on the Canon 5D2. (The Canon 5d2 is a digital SLR camera than can also capture HD video footage.) He used a special automated dolly rig that he built to capture the time lapse shots with tracking motion.

Another great example of this convergence is a video (not time lapse or a sequence of stills) commissioned by Canon and shot entirely on a Canon 5D2 called Reverie.  This was shot almost a year ago when the camera was being introduced to show the camera’s capabilities beyond still images. Interestingly the video received either praise or derision depending on what image capture camp you hailed from. The photog’s loved it claiming it clearly showed the evolution of the trade and the videographers hated it claiming the story was thin and pointless – which really missed the point. The shots were amazing considering they came from a $2500 still camera. (In fairness the shooter probably used another $10,000 worth of lenses, not to mention a helicopter and a whack of other pricey equipment and services.)  Whatever. The point of the video was to show what you can do with the new DSLR camera camera and anyone with an open mind had to be impressed.

Ultimately, having great equipment helps, no question, but both of these examples also show that equipment is only part of the equation.

Filed Under: General, video production, Video Technology Tagged With: , , ,