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Google Glass, Lifecasting and the Future of Business Video

February 21, 2013 by 2 Comments


 

Welcome to the billion channel universe.

{Overheard somewhere in the distant future, say…. next year.} “CSI Toledo is a re-run and there aren’t any new disasters on CNN, let’s watch Roger Kaputnik’s lifecast and see what he’s up to! The implications of Google Glass are far-reaching. From privacy issues, to changes in lifestyle, to new forms of entertainment and gaming, to education, to global communication, to new business behaviors, this is a big deal.  While it’s difficult to say which new wearable devices will be the next big thing, or how these devices will be adopted, one thing is certain – we are going to be capturing more and more of our lives on video and we’re going to be augmenting our daily living with easily accessible information and this is going to have a significant effect on all businesses.

We never really see these things coming.

No one saw the internet coming. Even years after it arrived most businesses dismissed it. Same with mobile, social media, tablet computers, and almost everything else. Sometimes mass adoption takes time (although the adoption cycles are getting much shorter) and being an early adopter is not always the best use of scarce resources. Google Glass is a class of device that is going to do two things: 1. Augment our lives with relevant and contextual information and 2. Record and broadcast our lives. Should businesses care if we all begin to stream our geo-tagged, time-coded and narrated life experiences wirelessly to our personal storage accounts where these visual data streams will be parsed, packaged and organized ready for us to add a soundtrack, Instagram ‘look’ and a bit of meta-tagging to so that we can broadcast our every living moment to the world? Yes, businesses should care. Here’s why:

The ‘outernet’. 

This isn’t just ‘augmented’ or ‘virtual’ reality, this is real reality. We’re going to start using technology to capture and share our life experiences, unencumbered, in real-time. This isn’t us behind our first, second or third screens, this is us living, communicating, learning, sharing and recording. The mobile phone got us out from behind our desks. These new devices will integrate with our day-to-day lives and the effect on business will be dramatic.

Customer experiences. Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you can employ. They are social proof – that last thing we need to ice our decision to buy that 7 blade razer. What if instead of a testimonial you could share real customer experiences.  Imagine a POV video that someone shared right after they had an exceptional customer experience with your brand. Or conversely, what if someone shared a nightmare experience with your product or service. (Remember that video of the FedEx guy heaving the computer monitor over the fence… now multiple that by a hundred or a thousand.) What would that do to your brand? Simply put - your company will have nowhere to hide. If your product or service sucks – everyone is going to know about it. If your product or service rocks – that story is going to be shared.

Hyper-Social. Most established companies still don’t ‘get’ social. Many new companies, especially tech companies, exist because of social. These new devices will make us hyper-social. We’re human – social is our nature (except for my crabby neighbor Ned…) and these devices will accelerate this trend. Sharing text and photos was just the first step. Sharing our life experiences will be commonplace and we’ll start to do this across geographic boundaries. We’ll all learn a bit more about each other – that’s a good thing. Businesses have to pay attention.

Customer Support. Imagine being able to share (not explain… not show… but truly share) your experience with someone at the help-desk who can see and experience what you are experiencing - that would be remarkable. Customer support will be a critical success factor for any business that has any degree of complexity in their product or service offering. The best products are the ones you can just use right out of the box (I.e. Apple stuff…). But for those products or services that need explanation, or for when that product isn’t working the way it should, nothing will engender customer loyalty like having someone there to guide you in real time.

Advertising and marketing. (Google has stated that advertising isn’t a priority for this new product. I laughed out loud when I read this.)  There’s already been some pretty good Google Glass parody videos and you can imagine how distracting ads could be with this device but promotion doesn’t need to take form of graphic images or video – it can just be contextually delivered information based on your current situation. This has always been the great promise of Mobile but aside from Foursquare and a few other apps and games, mobile advertising has yet to live up to it’s promise. This will change. The purpose of these glasses is to help you acquire contextually relevant information. That search will be supported by audio queues from you and also by your circumstances. Visual search will also be part of this experience. (Where am I? What is this? Where do I go? Show me who I know is around. etc.) All of these things are advertising and promotional opportunities. Many of these exist today on your cellphone but it’s a kludge. Contextual awareness today is rudimentary. A head’s-up camera is a game-changer. Now your device and apps will be able to interpret your circumstances in real-time and provide relevant information based on your voice requests and preferences.

Market Research. Get a bunch of people together all wearing Google Glass for your focus group sessions and send them off on a brand quest to use / experiment with your product. This is research gold. Real-time feedback amongst peers all sharing and talking about a real-world brand experience – not behind a two way mirror. There is no better measure of a product or service than seeing how it performs in it’s normal environment under normal circumstances. This isn’t just eye tracking, it’s limb, torso, full body and attitude tracking all rolled into one experience.

Internal Communications, Public Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility will all take on new meanings and mandates when you can share the experiences that you are trying to communicate. Instead of stating that ‘our company cares about this, you can prove it by showing what you’ve been doing about it. Talking is good, but real life examples are better.

Get everyone moving again. Over the last few decades we’ve become a society of people who sit at a desk and stare at a piece of glass all day. It’s interesting to note that we spend billions now on air quality, environmental efficiencies and workplace health and safety standards and yet we totally ignore the one thing that is doing us the most harm – sitting all day. These devices could help to reverse that unhealthy trend.

The implications of always communicating, always connected and always recording are huge. Just because 98% of our lives are not that interesting doesn’t mean we’re not going to record them. I’m sure Google is working on an algorithm right now to determine who’s life get’s moved to the first page. Maybe we will start watching each others ‘casts’ instead of television – isn’t this the evolution of Facebook.  (BTW – If anything is going to dislodge Facebook from it’s social perch… this would be it.) This is a development that businesses can’t ignore. From a  shopping experience where access to real-time information such as product specs, reviews, and comparative pricing is available to getting immediate help assembling your new ‘Bjorgen Huugen’ shelving unit, businesses are going to be able to engage with their customers in ways far beyond the mobile capabilities of today.

Bonus video – check out this video put together by college students to demonstrate the creepy, but entertaining possible evolution of this idea.

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Filed Under: General, Social Media, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, The Future of Corporate Video Tagged With: , ,

Is the video production company you hire properly insured?

February 8, 2013 by 3 Comments

 

And is your company properly protected?

When you hire a video production company or independent production professional you expect them to be fully insured against all reasonable dangers and liabilities that might arise as a result of their engagement. Chances are, nothing will go wrong… but if something does go wrong you’d better hope that you and your production company are fully protected. If you video production company is not fully insured they may not be able to ‘make whole’ any damages that result from their actions.

Most video production professionals insure their production equipment against loss or damage. This insurance, while valuable for the production company, does nothing to protect you. You want to ensure that your video production company also has other types of insurance in place to protect you and your company against the cost of any damage directly caused by the video production company.

The first and most common form of Insurance taken out by video production companies to protect their clients is General Liability Insurance. This is insurance to cover accidents that happen in the normal course of production: A light falls over and damages your CEO’s Ming Dynasty vase collection, or one of the crew accidentally knocks out all of the power on your campus. This type of insurance covers most production-related risks.

Professional Liability Insurance is a separate form of insurance and relates more to the proper / professional performance of the production company’s duties. Errors and Omissions insurance is a form of Professional Liability insurance. If the production company makes a mistake on a large project and is forced to re-shoot, at their own expense, they should have Professional Liability insurance to cover the cost of the re-shoot. If your production company accidentally films someone who didn’t grant permission to use their image in your video, or if the video production company uses music that they do not have proper copyright permission to use, the harmed party may come after both you and the video production company. Whoever has the most money is usually the primary target of the suit.

As well, there are other types of insurance that your production company should have in place:

Specialized Insurance If your video production involves foreign travel to dangerous areas or hazardous activities like stunts, filming onboard a boat, aerial videography, etc. you may require specialized insurance that covers these contingent activities.
Slander and Liable is a specialized coverage required in certain professions. If, in the production of your video, the production company represents an employee, a competitor or public figure in a way that is inappropriate, the offended party could have cause to make a slander or liable claim. Again, you want to know that your video production company has a rider in their insurance policy that contains adequate protection to cover this risk. While most industries cover slander and liable as part of the General Liability Insurance, certain industries such as media, publishing and video production often require specialized insurance because of the higher risk associated with work in these industries.

The current industry standard for commercial production is $2,000,000 in general liability insurance. In entertainment projects typical insurance coverage will run much higher than this depending on the scope of the project.

Bottom line – if you are not sure ask your video production company about what insurance coverage they have in place. If you are not sure what coverage they should have, ask your insurance broker.

 

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Filed Under: General, Managing Video Projects, The Effect of Video on Your Brand Tagged With:

9 Things to Consider Before You Shoot a Testimonial Video

November 28, 2012 by 6 Comments

 

 

No one really trusts you or what you have to say about your own company. Why would they? But people will listen to other people’s opinions about your company. If they know and trust that person – so much the better. Even if they don’t, they are more likely to believe a stranger (or better yet, a bunch of strangers) talking about you rather than you talking about you. That’s why testimonial videos are so powerful.

So is any testimonial video a good one? Not necessarily. It has to accomplish three important things:
1. It has be / feel authentic.  ‘Be’ is always better, but ‘feel’ is the next best thing. (We’re talking about marketing here….)
2. It has to be interesting. A talking head is still a talking head no matter what they are saying. Plan on having something interesting going on in the video. (Showing a customer using your product or service is a good place to start.)
3. It has to deliver a message which is relevant and that resonates.  Hearing a customer say “ABC Inc. provided great service… ” is not particularly informative.

 

Before you begin your next testimonial video here are nine things that you should consider:

1. Have you scheduled a pre-shoot meeting?  The best investment of time you can make is to schedule a pre-shoot meeting with the interviewee before the shoot to take them through the process. One of the reasons this doesn’t happen is cost – often your client won’t want to pay for the additional time to prepare for the shoot but this is arguably the most important time investment on the entire project. You get to know your interviewee, you get them familiar (and therefore comfortable) with you and the filming process, you get to do a site inspection prior to shooting and you get to find out the type of things that they may or may not want to say when you start shooting. All of this gives you time to plan and prepare for the shoot.

2. What is the overall style of the video? Is your video simply a talking head of someone sitting on their living room couch or behind their office desk or is it a video that incorporates footage of your customer actually using your product or service? Budget will dictate how much effort you put into your video but it doesn’t require much more effort to shoot the person you are interviewing actually doing something. Planning is usually the problem here. Unless your talking head is truly engaging (most are not) you should at least consider using two cameras for multiple angles (which makes the video easier to watch and helps you cut between sound bites) and you should also consider getting your interviewee physically doing something.

3. Who is speaking and who is on camera? This is an important decision to make upfront. Having a non-speaking spouse (as an example) or non-speaking business colleagues in a video takes away from the dynamic feel of the presentation. If multiple people are speaking and contributing relatively equally – that’s great. But if you have a person in the shot who isn’t speaking, that person will take the energy/attention away from the speaker. Two people are distracting unless their interaction is interesting and complimentary. Perhaps the single biggest challenge is the speaker themselves. Are they articulate, and more important, are they comfortable in front of a camera? If your answer is ‘no’ to these first two points then they had better be good at taking direction otherwise it’s going to be painful. I remember hearing comments about a testimonial video I had shot saying that my client was so lucky to have such a good speaker to represent them.  I wish the viewers could have been there during the shoot… direction and editing can cover up a world of hurt.

 4. What do you want the speaker to say? This is the single most important thing to consider. You don’t just show up with a camera, ask some questions and hope for the best. Before you approach your customer for an endorsement you have to know exactly what you want to hear them say and you have to know that they are receptive to saying it otherwise you may end up wasting everyone’s time. Just because you ask a question doesn’t mean you are going to get the answer you want. Even if you get the answer you want it may not be delivered in a suitable manner (i.e. a distracted ‘Ya… they showed up on time” versus an enthusiastic “Those guys where here exactly when they said would be.” . Arriving equipped to an interview with the right questions is only half the battle. You also need to be equipped with the knowledge of the exact sound bites that you need to hear otherwise you might end up staring blankly at your editing screen wondering what to do with all the useless footage you just shot. The questions don’t matter – it’s the answers you care about. Who’s responsibility is it to make sure the sound bites are exactly what you need?

5. How do you plan on structuring your soundbites? Let’s assume you get exactly what you wanted from your customer – great delivery and great content. Do you lead with a power statement that nicely concludes what you are going to see in the video or do you just start with the answer to the first question? What you place first is critical in video today. Online viewers today have attention spans similar to that of a house fly. You need to ensure that the message you deliver at the beginning of the video makes people think – ‘that’s interesting, tell me more.” I’ve seen too many testimonial videos that start with 30 seconds or more of preamble: “Well now… Bob from ABC Inc. gave me a call on Tuesday… no, it was Wednesday…  ’cause that’s when me and Earl go bowling, anyway, Bob gives me a call and asks me how my bowling game is doing – funny thing about that is… ”

6. How are the testimonial videos being presented? Are you doing one testimonial video or do you plan on doing a series of them. Like resume references, it’s not terribly difficult to get at least one person to say something nice about you. The more voices that support your message the better. If you are planning more than one testimonial video you should try to structure the videos so there is repetition on key brand elements and there is also new information in each video. If the videos are identical people won’t watch more than two because they will expect that they are all the same. If you are planning a series of testimonial videos you should label them clearly so that people can select the videos that relate to their specific concerns. (I.e “Bob Smith from Acme explains how ABC Inc saved him $4000 in research costs”)

7. What is the graphic and titling structure? How do you start your video.  I just watch a really well produced testimonial video that had 35 seconds of introductory branding and text. I wonder if anyone other than me made it through that intro. Do you start with shots of your interviewee, b-roll shots of your interviewee or do you begin with corporate branding and titling? Getting to the message as quickly as possible is critical. Do you include on-screen text anywhere in the video to support what is being said in the video? Using on-screen text in your video helps to reinforce a message BUT it may also make the video look more like a corporate/promotional video rather than a testimonial video. (I.E. Having the word ‘Lifesaver’ come up on-screen as someone uses that word to describe your service is probably too much.)

8. Do you include other support material in the video? As an example, if you are doing a renovation (house, car, person… etc) testimonial video, do you include a ‘before’ shot. Do you illustrate what the ‘problem’ that was solved by your company? It’s always better to show, rather than tell the viewer what the ‘problem’ was – that’s the whole reason to use video. Do you shoot b-roll to support the benefit of your product or service? (The answer is ‘Yes’). B-roll can include anything relating to the content being discussed.

9. What shooting style do you use in your interview? Is the interviewee sitting down or standing up? Are they in and around the thing the product or service that you delivered for them? (I.e. The most typical interview shot you see is someone sitting on a coach against the wall or someone sitting at a desk. Both are visually quite dull. It’s much easier to light and frame a shot if you can get move them and have them looking engaged – people often look ‘trapped’ sitting behind a desk or in the corner of a room on a chair.  This definitely takes more planning and cooperation from your interviewee but if you show up at someone’s office and capture a talking head interview with your iPhone it’s going to look like you showed up at someone’s office and captured a talking head interview with your iPhone.

9+. Do you choreograph your b-roll.?  Yes. Assuming that you want to make your testimonial video interesting to watch you are going to have to get people doing something that shows them engaged with your product or service. Remember, a testimonial video isn’t about you, it’s about the affect your product or service had on that person. Wherever possible you should try to demonstrate the use and benefit of your product or service which could mean purposefully getting the interviewee to do something more than standing in front of your camera. The chance of them doing something spontaneous that looks good on camera is low so you are going to have to tell them what you want them to do. An argument can be made that choreographing anything is disingenuous and takes away from the authenticity of the piece. While true, you have to balance this with the need to convey important information and get people to watch the video.

 

Considering all of these questions should help you begin to frame and deliver an effective testimonial video.

 

** Special Note: For those creating Testimonial Videos in the US here is a link to the 2009 FTC Guidelines governing Endorsements and Testimonials. (Thanks to Gavin Bryan-Tansley for providing this reference.)

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Filed Under: Corporate Video Production, General, Managing Video Projects, Marketing with Video, Starting a Video Project, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, video production Tagged With: , ,

Five things that make a marketing video effective.

December 15, 2011 by 5 Comments

This video is very effective.  It’s fun, it’s memorable, it’s evocative and it’s something that you want to share.  It informs you, it engages you, it moves you and it’s very well done. Wow.

Sponsored by RIOTUR, the City of Rio de Janeiro’s tourism authority, this video was created to support RIO’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. RIO won the bid making it the first South American city to host the Olympic games. I have to believe that this video contributed in at least some small way to RIO’s successful bid.

Like Paris, San Francisco, Vancouver and Venice, RIO is blessed with iconic scenery and natural beauty so an argument could be made that creating a video to promote the city shouldn’t be that difficult. There’s more to it than beautiful shots, however. This video works for a number of reasons:

1. There’s a strong story-line that carries the video. By story-line, I don’t mean ‘boy meets girl, boy leaves girl, etc.” The story-line is much more subtle in this video, but just as important. Music is at the heart of the video. Music not only sets the mood and pace of this video, it becomes clear that music is a core element that makes up the character of the city and the people of RIO. That’s the story being told. Music is an integral part of the culture. That’s a very compelling story.

2. The video is engaging. You want to watch the video, you are interested to see what comes next. This is a difficult thing to do in a video – make the viewer want to keep watching.

3. It solves a specific business problem. The business problem for the Olympic committee was ‘what city do we chose for the 2016 Olympics?’ RIOTUR provides ample reasons for IOC judges to consider RIO as the 2016 destination city: RIO is a ‘lifestyle city’ as evidenced by the myriad of activities shown in the video; RIO has a strong and obvious tradition of sports; RIO already has existing sporting facilities that could accommodate some of the different events; RIO will be a huge draw as a destination for travelers which will ensure that the games are well attended; and like the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the natural beauty of the hosting city will certainly have a halo effect on the games themselves.

4. Simple message. Show me don’t tell me. No talking heads, no spoken words, no happy talk or marketing bluster, just a compelling video highlighting the people, the lifestyle and the beauty of RIO all centered around a theme of music and culture.

5. The video is very well produced. From the inclusion of familiar iconic scenary like the cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city to an array of lifestyle and beauty shots of the city and it’s inhabitants, this video covers all bases.  A clever concept interweaving a combination of sound and music is complemented by beautiful cinematography and great editing.

I don’t know the name of the company that produced this video but they deserve a lot of credit for helping RIO win the 2016 Olympic bid.

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video and Government, Video Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

10 Reasons Why Your Marketing Video Isn’t Working?

September 7, 2011 by 4 Comments

You just spent $2,000, $20,000 or $200,000 on your most recent corporate video project and it didn’t move the dial. What happened?

The creation of your corporate video should follow a structured development process. When it doesn’t your chance of success is low. Here are ten common mistakes made by companies developing marketing videos:

1. Poorly defined objectives.
Can you easily fill in the following blanks?: This video will help ___{this audience}____  understand that our product or service solves ___{this problem}___  and provides ____ {these benefits)____ . We will measure the success of this video by ___{this rating mechanism}____.
If you can’t clearly and succinctly fill in the first three blanks chances are your video will fail to achieve any measurable results.  If you can’t fill in the last blank you’ll never know what was achieved.

2. No clear message(s).
 “Expertocom is a world leader in the provisioning of leading edge solutions and robust, mission critical systems to it’s global client base.” Uh-huh. Even if you have a well defined audience, problem statement and benefit, you still need to communicate in clear and convincing manner. Some common mistakes:
- The video is all about you. No one cares about you, they only care about how you can solve their problem.
- B2N (Business to No one) If your message is so general that it applies to everyone it probably won’t resonate with anyone. Be specific. Pick one audience and deliver one really strong, concise message tailored to that specific audience’s needs.
- Jargon-loading. If you “utilize leading-edge best practices to incentivize and leverage your best-of-breed base through groundbreaking, synergistic and outside-the-box thinking” then… no one will understand you.
- Saying too much. “I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter but I didn’t have time to write a short one” – Mark Twain. It’s really difficult to be succinct. It also seems risky. Script-by-committee is death to most video projects. In video, shorter is almost always better.

3. Your video doesn’t resonate with your audience.
The best messages work on a visceral level. They make you think, even better, they make you feel something.  If your video is dull (i.e. a talking head) and if you don’t use video effectively (show me, don’t tell me!) then you will quickly lose your audience. Facts are important but a good story is better. While it may be interesting to note that your lubricant is 27% more viscous than any other on the market it may be more interesting to show that your product is the one that your local fire department depends on. Translating the key benefits you are trying to illustrate into ideas and building that into a compelling visual story is done before any crew show up to start shooting.  This is the most important part of the video development process and it’s also the hardest to get right, yet it’s usually the piece that gets the least attention. How do you find a company with this type of experience? Look at their previous work. If it’s not engaging, yours won’t be either.

4. Loose, or no processes at all to develop and promote the video.
The most important part of the video production process is pre-production. Chances are that if you are either surprised or disappointed by the results of your video it is because the planning process was flawed. A well defined storyboard should tell everyone involved exactly what is being said and what visuals are being shown to support those messages. A shotlist tells you exactly what needs to be shot, with whom and when.  When the video is shot and edited a marketing plan tells you exactly what the video is supposed to accomplish, how you are going to get your video in front of your intended audience (…who may or may not ever show up at your website) and how the results of the video should be measured. Again, all of this happens before anyone shows up with a camera. If your video production company tells you what your video should look like with little or no input from you – it probably won’t help your business.

5. You started with creative.
“Our President has this really cool idea!” Just like graphic design is the last step in the pre-development phase of a website (often it is first),  ’creative’ is the last step in the development of a video script and storyboard. Again… too often it is first. Creativity is an essential part of the video production process but it should never be be the tail wagging the dog. Sure, if you have a budget to create a whack of branded entertainment, that’s a different story – but for most corporate video projects, branded entertainment is not the goal.

6. Your video doesn’t support your brand.
 Too often, videos are created in isolation. Your brand is the sum total of all of the experiences people have with your company, that includes video. Your video has to support and complement the tone and key messages that you want associated with your brand. {Warning: Wacky viral videos often do more harm than good.)  Video production is not an isolated activity. Your video production company has to understand how you are marketing your business and has to be keen to engage with your marketing department and /or the marketing agency that is helping guide your brand.

7. Budget isn’t large enough.
“We took a couple thousand out of our cleaning budget to do this video.” “Yep, that’s all we’ve got, but we still want it to look like Avatar.” “My cousin Eddy said it would only cost him $400 to make the same video.” The cost of video production has decreased dramatically over the last five years. That said, there is little point in developing a video if you haven’t allocated a reasonable budget for the project. What does a video cost: Here are 25 factors and their prices that go into the cost of developing a corporate video.

8. Wrong type of video.
There are many different styles, structures and purposes for corporate video. Here are 51 different types of video you can develop to promote your business.  A thirty second pre-roll promotion video is probably too long and a one minute recruitment video is probably too short. Hiring actors to speak to a technical audience isn’t a good idea.  Putting your President on camera may (or may not be) a good idea. A talking head is often a waste of time.  A detailed technical video won’t resonate with people in the awareness phase of the sales cycle but can work very well for people in the consideration phase. What type of video you develop and what structure you use for the video is just as important as what messages you chose.

9. No call to action.
What do you want people to do after they have watched your video? If you don’t know, your viewer won’t either.

10. No distribution, SEO or promotion plan.
 Even if your video is great, if no one sees it you’ve wasted your money. Are you optimizing a webpage with keywords to help promote the video? Are you promoting the video on industry portals or other related sites where you intended audience might be? Have you developed an email campaign to promote the video to key audiences? Do you have a process to move prospective viewers through your sales cycle once they have viewed the video? Have you tested the video before widely launching it to make sure it accomplishes what you want it to? Do you have any budget for changes or do you assume that you’ll get it exactly right the first time through? Do you have a social media campaign, a PR campaign, a media campaign or some other promotional activity to build interest and awareness for the video?

The video production piece (shooting and editing) represents about 1/3 of the total value in the video development process. Planning (building the right messages for your audience) and promotion (making sure the video is seen) are both equally important.

 

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{Note: regarding ‘Jargon -Loading’, thanks to Lindsey McCaffrey for inspiration on ‘Words and phrases I don’t want to see in your copy‘}

Filed Under: Corporate Video Production, General, Managing Video Projects, Marketing with Video, Resources, Starting a Video Project, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Top 10 Posts, Video Marketing, video production Tagged With: ,

Marketing lessons from presidential candidacy videos.

May 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

Barring a political catastrophe, President Obama will likely be re-elected in 2012. So while discussions around the outcome of these videos are probably moot, it’s still instructive to see how the committed (or nearly committed) presidential candidates are using video (not just news interviews or TV spots) to position themselves. Companies large and small would benefit from both lessons learned and mistakes made in these videos.

Newt Gingrich {Grade: F}

As John Stewart pointed out last week – it looks like Newt’s video was shot in a Sears portrait studio. This video is all Newt. Nothing to see but Newt’s ample cranium for over two minutes. Talking heads are one the most common and least valuable uses of video.  Most are dull and forgettable – like this one. The message, if you listened to it, is pretty much a litany of cliches and generic promises. Video is a visual medium. Show people what you are talking about. Better yet, get other people to talk about what is important to them. No one wants to hear your company president blather on for two minutes about your product or service either. Show people the benefits of the product. Appeal to the buyers emotions. Get satisfied customers to gush about how your product changed their lives. Sure, if your candidate (or CEO) looks like JFK or Ronald Reagan then a bit of camera time is probably a good thing. This video is old school, it’s dull and there is absolutely no reason to share it with anyone.

Mitt Romney {Grade: D+}

This video has a number of things going for it that Newt’s doesn’t: 1. Mitt took the time to shoot the video somewhere (no doubt this video will solidify the New Hampshire High School football vote), 2. Let’s face it – Mitt looks like he was pulled out of central casting (“hey, we need a presidential looking guy… and not Martin Sheen”), 3. Mitt makes reference to conversations with people and speaks about their concerns. 4. It didn’t looked too staged. (Of course it’s staged – all of these things are staged. There is no ‘real’ in reality TV) but at least he made the effort to be seen in a fairly natural setting. The video felt comfortable – that’s a good thing. But in the end it is was still dull and there were very few messages or ideas that really stick with you in this video. People understand and remember if you tell them and show them what you are talking about. If you sell fertilizer (a purely coincidental choice of analogy…) it would make some sense to get your spokesperson out on a farm delivering your message – so kudos to team Mitt for that. But wouldn’t it be better hearing a farmer describe how and why your fertilizer is the best stuff around.

Tim Pawlenty  {Grade B}

I give this video a lot of credit, it has it all: Epic soundtrack – check. Lots of special effects (especially ‘lens flare’) – check. Lot’s of quick cuts and shaky camera – check. This would have made a good movie trailer or John Mellancamp video. No question it’s slick, maybe too slick, but there is no denying it gets and keeps your attention, it delivers well on a few key messages and it is something you would share, or at least want to watch all the way through. Problem is Tim is going to find it difficult to live up to the hype of this video. I’m not sure he’s really that cool in real life.

President Obama {Grade B}

I really like this video because it focuses on real people saying real things (sure it’s staged… this is marketing we’re talking about) but it does what the Obama campaign team do so well and what few republican teams seem to grasp – it seems to relate to people on a human level. It makes a real connection. (Those connections drive involvement which wins elections.) Obama isn’t even in this video (he’s got a day job that precludes him from appearing too ‘campaigny’) but that doesn’t really matter. People talking about Obama on a personal level resonates with many people – it’ll stick and it’ll get people thinking. Most of the other videos don’t make you think – they don’t try very hard to engage you – they just talk about what they think you want to hear.  Whether you are promoting a new cleaning solvent or your presidential candidacy the message has to resonate – it has to appeal emotionally or you’re wasting your time.

 

Bonus Video:

Congressman Paul Ryan’s Pathway to Prosperity {Grade A-}

Ryan won’t be running in 2012 but this is still a great video that shows how to effectively promote an idea. (Isn’t that what the elections should be about…) I’m not going to comment on the oversimplification of some very complicated issues being shown in this video but I do believe the style and approach are very effective. Probably the best of the lot. It’s well produced, interesting to watch and more importantly, it communicates something of lasting value. It gives you a clear (at least in Ryan’s mind) view of where he sees the specific problems and discusses how these problems should be addresses. The biggest issue with most political videos is that they are usually forgettable, have little lasting value and most importantly, they never make a convincing point. Ryan has taken a stand and also taken the time to clearly and effectively communicate his position on a very specific issue.  Any company would benefit from taking this type of approach: Clearly identifying a specific pain, addressing the specific solution(s) to stop that pain, and most important - clearly demonstrating the benefits of fixing that pain. Marketing 101. Kudos to Ryan for this. See you in 2016.

{Follow-up note: Time magazine just named Ryan as a runner-up for their ‘Time, Man of the Year“.  And while Ryan claims in this article he doesn’t have the fire in his belly to be President, I’d be willing to bet that  will change in the near future.}

Even more bonus videos

Go to Ron Paul’s site and watch some of his older videos – they’re the most fun to watch.  He’s the only guy who you believe isn’t just saying whatever is needed to get elected. You actually feel that he believes what he says and probably won’t change his mind once elected. (He doesn’t stand a chance.)

 

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video and Government Tagged With: , , ,

51 ways to use web video to help your business grow

January 3, 2011 by 43 Comments

video wall


As bandwidth increases and video production costs continue to decrease businesses are beginning to adopt video as a primary method of communicating with their customers and prospects. In-house or outsourced, video is quickly becoming a marketer’s media tool of choice for two reasons: video is engaging and, more importantly, video is persuasive. Here are some of the ways that businesses are using video to help improve their bottom line:

Customer Reference Videos

1.  Customer Testimonials (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Nothing is more compelling than seeing and hearing your customer (ideally in their own environment) extol the virtues of your products and services or explaining how your company helped them to achieve their business goals. These videos usually run from fifteen second snippets to a minute and are typically combined with or used to support other marketing material.

2. Success Stories (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Similar to a customer testimonial these videos run between one and two minutes and follow an interview format where the person on screen answers questions posed by an interviewer just off-camera. These videos are usually delivered as stand-alone marketing support materials and are often grouped with other customer success stories.

3. Video Case Study (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
A video case study combines customer testimonials with more a more in-depth explanation of how your company’s products and services helped your customer be successful. These case studies usually incorporate two voices – a narrator and the voice of your customer and can run anywhere from two to five minutes. The video structure follows the same “Problem, Solution, Benefit” format found in a printed case study and usually include b-roll or other supporting text and video.

4. Man-in-the-street Interviews (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
These videos are typically done to promote events and to build buzz around coming events but can also be employed to capture ‘spontaneous’ responses to targeted questions that help promote your product or service or to help differentiate the benefits of your brand compared to the real or imagined problems associated with your competitors. Consumer focused companies such as soft drink manufacturers, phone companies and fast food companies often use this video format in advertising but you are starting to see this type of video appear as a stand-alone promotion on business websites or YouTube business channels.  Sometimes these videos are genuine. Sometimes they are completely staged. ‘Authenticity’ is, in some sense, becoming a style…

5. Customer Presentations. (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Low)
If one of your customers is presenting at a conference, trade show or event or even in your offices and is talking about your products or services either directly with you or indirectly as part of a larger discussion this may be a perfect opportunity to capture the presentation of video (with permission, of course) to re-purpose on your website and intranet.

Product and Service Promotion

6. Product Presentations (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Product (or service) presentation videos are typically employed early in the buying cycle. Product or service presentations focus on benefits and talk from your customer’s perspective. They should speak clearly to how your product solves a specific business, personal or economic problem that your prospect is experiencing. They are used to help your customers and prospects differentiate between the benefits of your products and services to those of your competitors.

7. Product Demonstrations (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Product demos show how your product works and highlight the features that differentiate it from that of your competitors. Software screen captures, a 3D cut-away, or a high impact demo by a presenter are all excellent ways of showing how your product or service works. These videos are typically used to influence a prospect who is relatively far along in the sales cycle. In technology marketing these videos would be targeted at the technical approvers who need to understand how something works. In consumer marketing these would be targeted at the economic buyers of larger ticket items who may be further along the sales process.

8. Product Reviews (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
The best product reviews are trusted third party reviews. Video reviews can be found anywhere from YouTube to various business portals. To the extent they are positive and promote your brand, they should be referenced. You can also partner with trusted third parties to create product reviews for your own products.

9. Visual Stories (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Quickly rising in popularity, visual stories employ illustrations, animations and motion graphics with a voice-over to explain complex products or services in a simple and compelling manner. These are sometime referred to as ‘explainers’ and are usually between one and three minutes in length. A new version of this tool, used primarily for entertainment, are websites that offer predefined characters and backgrounds that you can both animate and add an automated voice to (sort of like building your own Second Life commercials). You will begin to see many new hosted services offering customizable cloud-based animation modeling options – some good and some quite awful.

Corporate Video

10. Corporate Overview (Popularity: High  | Growth Potential: moderate)
These videos are the video equivalent of the ‘company brochure’ for small companies – intended to give new visitors to a website a better idea of the company. Corporate overview videos typically company history, key products, executives/owners and other top level business info. As the cost of video production continues to decrease and the popularity of video increases you will start to see these videos being replaced by multiple, more targeted video.

11. Executive Presentations (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Whether you are preparing for a quarterly update, responding to a major event in your industry or making a regularly scheduled presentation there is great value in presenting the “face” and “voice” of your leadership team to all of your constituents.

12. Staff Presentations (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Social media and other Web 2.0 trends have caused companies to reconsider how they communicate with external audiences. Your senior leadership team should not be the first and only consideration to represent your company. It is becoming more imperative to consider showcasing the people that drive the day-to-day operations of your company. Customer service representatives, technical experts and legacy workers are all valuable considerations for this new category of corporate video. Surveys show that there is more trust associated with these employees than with senior management. When you are selling to influencers in organizations (versus economic buyers or decision makers) it is especially important you represent your company with people that your customers and prospects can relate to.

13. Corporate facilities or equipment tour (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Low)
Ten years ago corporate facility videos and equipment tours were popular. Down-sizing, off-shoring, outsourcing, a couple of recessions and a hollowing out of North America’s manufacturing base has change the priorities placed on these videos. Uniqueness is key to success here. That said, it’s really not about you and your stuff any more – it’s about how you can solve your customers problems.

14. Annual Report / Review (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Low)
Public companies are legally obliged to create annual and quarterly reviews. As well, larger privately held companies also create their own quarterly and annual reviews. As print continues to fall out of favor video will either supplement or replace these materials.

15. Video Signature and Video Introduction (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are just starting to enter into the corporate culture even though they have been part of the social culture for years. Other social sites like web-based dating services are now commonplace. Video is becoming a key component in how you ‘sell’ yourself, in your private life… and in business. A video signature is a video (either embedded or direct link to video) that is in the signature portion of your email. Introductory videos serve the same purpose – to give people who don’t know you a better idea about who your are.

Training

16. Training (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Corporate video first gained prominence with training (service, support, sales, personal development etc.) and continues to be one of the best uses of video. Online Video is a cost effective substitute for in-class training. You can also easily integrate video into online training management tools.

17. Overnight expert videos (Sales Support)  (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
If you serve a large geographic area or sell through channels then it is well worth the effort to put together short ‘overnight expert’ sales support videos that highlight the key selling points, features, benefits, objection handling and follow-up issues to consider by your direct or channel sales force.

18. Just-in-time learning (‘How-to’ Videos)  (Popularity:Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Contextual training videos are becoming very popular on the web. ‘How-to’ videos, video manuals, on-site video reference, quick assembly demos, and other types of video are being used to supplement or replace traditional training. Mobile video will increase the popularity of this type of video.

Customer Support

19. Post sale support and maintenance videos (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
No one reads manuals. You can save thousands of dollars of post sale support by creating informative assembly, installation and maintenance videos for your products and services.

20. Website FAQ Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
In certain formats video can be a suitable replacement for text where an authoritative voice, support materials or other visual references are required. A list of FAQ’s answered by a company expert is an example.

21. Live, two-way video (i.e. Apple’s FaceTime or Skype)
I believe an interesting application for mobile computing and video is going to evolve around the ability to incorporate live and recorded video into the customer support process. Imagine being able to show someone the problem you are having with their product rather than trying to describe it or send them a photo. Showing someone the problem is just the beginning. Getting a step-by-step video response with someone talking you through the solution – live… that’s the holy grail of customer support. Most companies will dismiss this as too expensive. Other companies, like Apple, will integrate these types of services into their entire brand experience.

Internal Communications

22. Internal Communications (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
In larger companies few people have the time or interest to understand what other groups or functions within the company do or even why they exist. Internal videos that highlight business plans, new business activities and achievements can improve knowledge transfer and lead to more effective communications. They are also a great way to show off your local heroes. These videos can be either live or recorded and are typically used in larger more geographically dispersed companies. As employees continue to work from home these videos will become more important.

23. Event/Conference and Trade Show Communications. (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Low)
Most companies spend a disproportionate amount of their marketing budget on attending and participating in a variety of industry events and yet only a very small percentage of employees ever benefit from these activities. Share the knowledge gained at these events by capturing the presentations, demos, interviews, commentaries etc. on video.

24. Employee orientation (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Once your new recruits are on board employee orientation videos are a great way to get new staff up to speed. Company history, structure, procedures, policies and codes of behavior can all be communicated effectively with video.

25. Health, Legal & Safety (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
The cost of dealing with health and safety related issues within organizations continues to grow. Video is one of the most effective means of minimizing these costs.

Advertising , Marketing  and Promotion

26. Commercials (Popularity: High  | Growth Potential: High)
While advertisers are becoming more selective in how they chose to spend their promotional dollars with broadcast television, other venues for commercials such as online video pre-roll, online sponsorships, in-game advertising, event sponsorships and in-theatre advertising are starting to take the place of broadcast / cable commercials. A proliferation of video screens cropping up on every building, device and structure will create an even more diverse set of advertising opportunities. The challenge will be to create specialized content targeted to ever- shrinking niche audiences.

27. Viral Video (Popularity: High  | Growth Potential: High)
A video is viral if it is so compelling that people want to share it. (Calling a video ‘Viral’ doesn’t make it so). Viral videos have to be extremely engaging, entertaining, shocking or meaningful to be successful. Unfortunately some of the most successful viral videos have little connection (and therefore value) to any brand. Everyone references ‘Will it Blend’ but very few viral videos are remotely this successful in actually driving sales. Viral video is very difficult to do well.

28. Email Video (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Testing has shown that open rates can double if you include video in your email marketing activities. To be effective the video should be purpose-built to elicit a specific conversion activity such as requesting a demo, more info, etc. E-mail is seeing a resurgence with marketers and embedded video in emails (like gmail supports) or links to video in email is becoming very popular.

29. Infomercials (Popularity: High  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Infomercials have been around forever. While they continue to be the primary focus of web-based parody videos they have remained remarkably resilient over time. The shopping channel is, in effect, a 24 hour infomercial. If done well, Infomercials can be very effective at selling certain consumer products.

30.  Content Marketing (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Huge)
This is a broad category that will become very important over the next months and years. Much of the content (video or otherwise) being created today by companies is focused on selling and focused on the brand. Focusing on solving your customers problems first and then associating your brand with those solutions will be increasingly more important and effective. (i.e. Home Depot has developed branded ‘how-to’ series that sits on their website and shows their customers how-to fix various things around the house. ) What knowledge do you have that can help your customers and prospects. People don’t go to your website to see your sales pitch. They go to see if you can solve their problem.

31. Landing pages and micro sites (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential: High)
Video is beginning to replace or supplement text and graphics as a content element on many corporate websites. Landing pages can offer a more compelling call to action with video. Some micro sites on larger web properties are self contained, purpose-built conversion machines that have the singular purpose of generating a conversion activity (sign-up for more info, attend event, order something etc.). Video is becoming an important part of the conversion process.

32. Interactive Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: High)
The promise of interactive video has been around for years but we’re just starting to see companies build in interactivity into their videos. You can build in calls to action, form fields, multiple scenarios and any number of engaging content that get people to not just passively watch your video but actually gets them to start to interact with your video. Technology will play a huge role in interactive video over the next few years. You can already see the foundations of this with YouTube allowing you to add annotations and links to videos.

33. Branded Entertainment and Sponsored Video (Popularity:Moderate  | Growth Potential:Moderate)
Viral Video in many ways is just branded entertainment. There are many ways companies can benefit from having their names attached to content. In the ’50 the ‘soaps’ were a great way for P&G and other consumer companies to promote their brand. Everyday there is a new format for sponsored video being created for delivery on the web. Many will fail but some will become hugely popular. Associating your brand with the right entertainment and informational content on the web is a very interesting opportunity.

PR Support and Community Relations

34. Video Press Releases (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: High)
The standard four paragraph press release is now being supplemented with video and rich media to tell a more engaging story. Video is now being purpose-built to directly support the important company announcements. The new challenge for press releases is to change the focus from the company to the customer.

35.  PR Support Materials (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)

Make it easy for networks, bloggers, news gathers and others to promote your business and also to talk about your industry. Smart companies are developing video support catalogs of company and industry related materials (b-roll, industry footage, sound bites etc) and offering them to news and business portals. The demand for video is everywhere. If a news agency (online or broadcast) is looking for stock footage to use in a story it might as well be yours. (assuming the story is positive, of course)

36. Community Relations Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
If your company is out working in the community, being good corporate citizens, helping the environment or contributing to important causes you should be capturing those efforts on video. Show the world what you are doing, don’t just talk about it.

37. Corporate Talk Show / Interviews (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Weekly newsletters require a lot of effort and the ‘open’ rate on most of these is quite low. Companies of all sizes are now starting to develop talk-show format video where a host interviews various people (either internal or external to their company) to discuss things that are important to your audience. Think of it as the long tail of interviews where very specific interviews are being delivered to very specific audiences.

38. EPK (electronic press kit)  (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
While EPK’s are still being delivered on DVD, web based video and text are quickly replacing this electronic version of the press kit which became popular in the mid 90′s.

Event Video

39. Event Presentation video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Events represent a unique confluence of expertise and opportunity – often under-leveraged. Trade Shows, meeting and conferences are usually attended by your top sales people, your corporate executives, industry experts and other influential business people. If you are speaking at an event or someone is referencing your company you should be capturing this valuable content on video.

40. Round table Sessions (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Take the opportunity at an event to corral four to six of your best customers and other industry experts, put them in room and video tape them talking about industry trends, business issues and the future of your industry. This content will be the most valuable content you could ever capture.

41. Q&A Expert sessions. (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
There are many opportunities to take specific event participants to the side and take them through informal Q&A sessions on various topics that matter to your customers. This content is valuable lead generation content.

Other Uses of Video

42. Recruitment Videos (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Finding the best employees is the single most important function of any company and yet comparatively small amounts of time and money are allocated to this critical task. Recruitment videos that feature company employees, highlight corporate culture and promote the direction of the company can be very influential.

43. VLOG (Popularity: Moderate  | Growth Potential:Moderate)
There are many levels and types of Vloggers today but for the sake of brevity I will identify two: 1. Pro Vloggers who have engaging styles, rich content and a growing list of followers who promote their vlog on their site and through various syndicated channels and 2. Regular Vloggers who have chosen, for whatever reason, to speak into a camera instead of typing on a keyboard. The problem today is that, unlike onscreen text, you can’t scan a vlog – you have to watch the whole thing to see whether it is worth your time. The other problem is that most people just aren’t that compelling on camera so there is little, to no value of a talking head – and often it’s a distraction. Of course everyone references Gary Vaynerchuck (from Wine Library TV) as the rule (rather than the exception) for video blogging in the same way that everyone references the success of Will It Blend as being what to expect when you launch your first viral video project. For individuals looking to gain notoriety from their passions vlogging can be a good option if you have a good on-camera presence and great content.

44. In Store Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: High)
Wal-Mart has its own profitable in-store TV network that makes shoppers aware of new promotions. LCD screens are ubiquitous. In store LCD’s will be networked and customizable offering you the ability to promote your own goods and services or make money by promoting other complimentary services.

45. Company Lobby / Waiting Room Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
HD video screens are popping up everywhere – why not in your lobby or reception where you can get a jump start on first impressions and also take advantage of a captive audience.

46. Mobile Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Huge)
Yep, ‘there’s an Ap for that’. Mobile video will soon be the largest video category outside of broadcast. In the short-run, mobile video will consist of hastily re-purposed video made to fit on a mobile device. It will quickly evolve into a much more specific format – i.e.  five to fifteen second hyper targeted messages that are part of geo-located (‘location aware’) and micro-niched promotions. Adding mobility (true context) to video will generate many new uses and formats for video.

47. Market research, focus groups and polling (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Moderate)
Market research firms are now capturing the anecdotal feedback along with the raw statistics of their research. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video of your customer describing her likes and dislikes of your new product is priceless. Go to YouTube to see how people are describing your products and services.

48. Video White paper (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Low)
Video white papers have evolved over the last years from basically a person reading a white paper on camera (what’s the point) to a professional delivery that is accompanied by charts, graphs and other visual references to make the presentation more valuable.

49. Video Magazine (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential: Low)
Some video production companies specialize in helping companies deliver serialized video content to their customers. Like the name implies video content is created on a regular basis (usually monthly) that customers and prospects can view through a subscription service. While it makes sense to apply tradition formats to new technology and ideas, not all ideas transfer as elegantly as others.

50. Customer UCG Campaigns (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential:Moderate)
User Generated Content Campaigns- where customers are encouraged to upload videos showing how they use your products are becoming quite popular. Contests are usually the driver but sometimes just giving customers a forum to express themselves is enough.

51. Behind the Scenes Video (Popularity: Low  | Growth Potential:Low)
Personalize your brand. Open up the cultural veil and let customers and products understand who you are – a group of humans rather than a ‘brand’. Authenticity is important.

Have I left any out? Let me know.

 

Bonus Applications:

52. Projection Mapping. Like everything else related to video, the costs of projecting video is dropping quickly. As a result you are starting to see innovative applications of projected video. Here are some great examples: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7676-16-mind-blowing-examples-of-big-brand-projection-mapping?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

Filed Under: Content Marketing, General, Marketing with Video, Resources, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, The Future of Corporate Video, Top 10 Posts, Video Marketing, video production Tagged With: , , ,

The implications of Yogi Bear’s shocking death

December 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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Warner Brothers has to be impressed, very angry and a little nervous, most likely in that order.

Edmund Earle, a recent animation graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, developed his own ‘alternate ending’ to the current Yogi Bear movie based on the ending of the movie ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.’ Earle’s video is impressive (especially considering he did it himself) and will no doubt help to launch a successful animation career.  Earle refers to the video as a parody hoping to fall into ‘fair use‘ protection and avoid litigation. YouTube, like Hollywood is rife with ‘Parody’, ‘Inspiration’ ,’Homage’ , and people otherwise copying the style, themes or ideas of others.

This issue isn’t new but because the video is so well done, I believe it could start a much larger debate over ‘fair use.’ The simple claim would be that Earle is not directly making money off of a copyrighted brand, it was intended as a ‘parody,’ so – no harm no foul. WB on the other hand could claim harm and they might have a point. This video might also generate a huge amount of buzz for a movie that is still in theaters. (Wouldn’t it be brilliant if WB was actually behind this as a publicity stunt…)

Regardless of the legal issues or what side of the ‘fair use’ argument you happen to fall on, the implications of this video are significant to your company:

1. How much control do you have over your brand?
Is it okay for anyone to do anything they want with your brand, your copyrighted material and your intellectual property as long as they call it a parody? Most industry observers concede that social media is causing companies to lose control of their brands.

2. How should you react when this happens?
The easy and correct answer is – it depends. How much harm was caused? What are the short and long term implications? Will reacting or not reacting cause greater harm in the future? What are the PR implications to how you react? Do you scream like a petulant child or do you embrace (and therefore co-opt) the transgressor?

3. How does this ‘new reality’ affect your business and your brand in the future?
I believe this is the important consideration in this matter – the question all companies should be considering right now.  A few years ago the technology didn’t exist to allow one talented individual to develop and share something like this. Today it does. All bets are off. This is going to happen again and again, in many different ways with many different consequences.  Companies may or may not be protected by the law (just ask the recording industry), so what should you do to anticipate and embrace this change? Do you build this new reality into your future brand and business planning or do you fight kicking and screaming? Should WB start hiring more lawyers or should they be encouraging animators to develop alternate endings to some of their movies – like this one, while they are still in theaters?

Should you be steadfastly protecting your brand or sharing it with the masses?

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

T-Mobile’s next installment in the “Life’s for sharing” viral video series.

October 31, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Back in early 2009, T-Mobile developed their hugely successful ‘T-Mobile Dance video in Liverpool station‘ (23 million views on YouTube). Then, three months later they delivered the T-Mobile Sing-a-long at Trafaulgar Square video. (4 millions views). A year and a half  later T-mobile has introduced their most recent video developed to support their ‘Life’s for Sharing’ brand message. With this new entry, T-Mobile has delivered yet another clever video featuring great music in public places that captures both inspired performances by participants as well as great reactions from onlookers.

Creating a hit viral video is like creating a hit record – it’s really tough to do. I’m not sure if T-Mobile will ever be able to repeat the magic of the original T-Mobile Dance video, but any video that captures millions of views, as this one surely will, has to be considered a success. All of these videos are uplifting, fun to watch and very well done. I can’t think of a better way to continue to support the ‘Life’s for Sharing’ brand positioning.

Filed Under: Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, Viral Video, YouTube Video Tagged With: ,

Inspired Viral Video shows performance is still a big part of the song.

October 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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So what did this one cost to make?

Like any popular song, an inspired video needs a hook. In this case the ‘hook’ is the band substituting their instruments with iPhone aps to play one of their recent songs ‘spontaneously’ on a New York subway. It feels real so it probably is, and if it’s not, it probably won’t matter. Did they do it in one take? Did they overdub some music in the studio? Was any of this really spontaneous? Perception is reality.

The band Atomic Tom delivered on a very simple idea – play your song using iphone aps instead of real instruments… in a public place. The video is certainly helped by good shot planning and structure: Start slow to limit expectations and build engagment as you go; Include crowd reaction shots to build interest and show that you should take notice of what’s going on; Include close-ups of the instruments to demonstrate how impressive (or ‘improbable’ for skeptics) the feat of playing a 4 inch sheet of glass can be.  And it certainly helps that the song they are promoting is a good one.

Like the experience of  Sons of Maxwell, this video will lift the band from obscurity and guarantee them their 15 minutes. The question remains, are they now on the same viral treadmill as OK Go where their future success is tied as much to the quality of their videos as it is to their music?

It’s a great video, and will no doubt inspire a thousand different (and lesser) variations on this theme.

… and yes, Steve Jobs has to be really happy with this video.

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