Marketing with Video and Rich Media Blog

You are here: Home / Archives for The Future of Corporate Video

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

iStock_000005946607XSmall

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: , , , , ,

Sears employs online video to supercharge it’s online and in-store retail

September 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

new selina

My 14 year old thinks Sears is cool. So does my 82 year old father. Go figure.

Sears launched a major marketing initiative this summer called  Arrival Lounge to highlight to it’s younger target audience that you shouldn’t just go back to school – you should ‘arrive’ back to school- suitably attired in Sears back-to-school fashions. Sears hired Disney Channel celebrity Selina Gomez to lead the marketing program which is centered around it’s arrivelounge.com website. The site includes music, celebrities, dancing, backstage passes, coupons, behind-the-scenes features, air-band contests and high quality video production. Sears has done all of the requisite cross-promotions with social media sites like YouTube and Facebook and has also developed tie-in programs with MTV. The program has been a huge success for the company.

What makes this campaign particularly interesting is the company’s use of web-based video. Sears has comfortably broken a couple of web-video barriers (launching music on the site without asking and also playing full screen – albeit lower res -  video) and seem to be employing a video first and ‘text as support’ approach which until now has been the other way around. Video has traditionally been used as support for the text that appears on a website.

While it certainly makes sense that retail establishments targeting younger demographics would lead the integration of video marketing into websites this isn’t the beginning of the end, it’s the simply the end of the beginning (it made more sense when Churchill said it…). What we are seeing with sites like this is a glimpse beyond the ‘text web’ – the integration of broadcast media and rich media programming into what until now has been a static content delivery environment. Sears isn’t the first company to take this approach but given their history and positioning in the marketplace it is a significant departure from it’s traditional marketing activities.

The short term consequence will be a surge in rich media web video production – a lot of it quite awful (remember the first websites) and unfortunately will favor those with traditionally larger marketing budgets. That said, the clever use of social media channels could turn out to be the great equalizer between large and smaller companies.

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

2009 Survey – Online video is top priority for web marketers

December 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

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

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

Key Findings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Filed Under: The Future of Corporate Video

Internet Corporate Video set to grow dramatically

December 15, 2008 By 2 Comments

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Filed Under: The Future of Corporate Video Tagged With: , ,
Newer Posts »