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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: , , ,

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 Leave a 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: ,

Bank of America backs down after YouTube smackdown.

September 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Most companies are not prepared for the impact of social media.

CNN Money recently posted this article about Ann Milch, an irate BOA customer who concluded that the only way to get even with the ‘thieving, scheming bastards’ at the Bank of America was to post a scathing YouTube video letting the world know exactly how she felt. At 400,000 views and 6,000 comments, she has received a lot of people’s attention… including the bank’s. Bank of America has since retracted the 30% interest rate (is that legal?) it was charging her and has reinstated the previous 12.9% rate. Good for them.

Whether you agree with Ann and the vast majority of YouTube commenters that the Bank is evil or whether you  feel, as some do, that Ann would not have experienced this problem if she had simply lived within her means you have to agree that the impact of a single angry customer can have a significant affect on your brand.

It’s tough to know what makes any video go viral. YouTube is filled with angry rants, this one just seems to have struck a resonant chord. A lot of people are hurting right now. Perhaps BOA is just the lightning rod de jour, attracting the current anger and frustration surrounding these difficult economic times.

These are still early days. If a single video can garner this much attention imagine what would happen if the angry hoards got together. Imagine if the conversation started to spiral out of control and you were not part of it. Imagine if the groups and people that are impacting your brand were all playing in a sandbox that you knew nothing about, and frankly had no credibility in. Imagine if the majority of negative word of mouth about your brand was visual and interactive and the only arrow in your quiver was a press release.

Time to engage.

Filed Under: General, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video PR, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

Perhaps bad is the new good for Microsoft. This video is really bad.

September 23, 2009 By 5 Comments

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Microsoft made this video lame on purpose.

What’s the point? To generate buzz? Mission accomplished I suppose, but it’s not the type of buzz  a company should be promoting. Microsoft has turned the comment feature off on the YouTube channel it sits on so if they are trying to generate buzz, they don’t want it recorded. So far the comments on various blogs break down roughly between the following:

1. This video being six minutes of your life that you will never get back (I only lost two of those minutes)
2. Criticism of the acting, the film work and just about anything else imaginable about the video
3. Microsoft providing another reason for people to switch to Apple.

I can’t see much value in that buzz. You could start hurling farm animals from the roof of your corporate headquarters and that would generate a buzz as well. It probably wouldn’t move much product however.

Microsoft lost their way with the Seinfeld/Gates ads, which tried to be funny but were not. They then adopted ‘lame’ as the new corporate video standard in their Songsmith  music – thing. Now they have circled the wagons around ‘just plain bad’. Maybe bad is the new good but I can’t imagine how this will help the brand.

Of course the other possibility is that Microsoft actually thought this was a good promotion. That would be really bad.

Filed Under: Content Marketing, Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: , ,

Incredible, amazing, awesome Apple video

September 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Incredible, awesome, amazing and fantastic!

Someone has managed to unlock the code behind the Apple marketing juggernaut. The ‘secret sauce’ has finally been revealed: Hyperbole – incredible, unbelievable, sensational hyperbole. And repetition. Lots and lots and lots and lots of repetition.

To be fair to Apple and Steve Jobs you could likely take any video presentation and edit it down to make a presenter look silly, given enough free time to do these things. Is the best pitch man in the business guilty of a little exaggeration, a little too much hype – sure he is. But that ceaseless cheer-leading, optimism and excitement (often referred to as ‘the reality shield’ within the walls of Cupertino) has also led the company to stunning (Steve would have liked that one) market success. What makes Jobs so great is that you know he really, really, really believes what he is saying and he truly wants to build great products and he wants everyone to understand how great these products are. It’s a little manic, a bit (maybe a lot) over the top, but it’s genuine.

I hope Steve remains healthy enough to continue leading one of the most successful companies on the planet.

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