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The power of video. A story told well can reach a broad audience.

December 23, 2010 By 1 Comment

“Rosling believes that making information more accessible has the potential to change the quality of the information itself.” – Business Week Online

Doctor and health researcher Hans Rosling has spent the last few decades of his career making statistical analysis more engaging. In this recent video (an excerpt from a BBC series – The Joy of Stats) Rosling employs animation to demonstrate how the overall health and wealth of everyone on earth has advanced over the past 200 years and more importantly, how developing nations appear to be catching up to the more prosperous western nations. While I can’t comment on whether the oversimplification of such a complex issue as global health is a good or bad thing, I am impressed with the effectiveness of Rosling’s presentation. Almost any message – corporate, educational, or otherwise can benefit from a healthy dose of ‘show me don’t tell me.’ Risling employs a compelling mix of enthusiasm and animation to highlight the important points of his message. At two million YouTube views (remember this isn’t Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber), this video clearly demonstrates that a story told well can reach a broad audience.

I’d also like to believe that the story being told is both positive and hopeful.


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

Tufts University Accepts YouTube Video as part of Application Process.

February 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Is this a publicity stunt or a simply a sign of the times?

The New York Times published an article today explaining how Tufts University is encouraged University applicants to include a 60 second supplemental video as part of the application process. According to Lee Coffin, dean of undergraduate admissions, 1,000 of the 15,000 applicants have already submitted a video. There are no video guidelines on style, format or content just the suggestion that video might be an engaging way to show the school who you are.

Is this a publicity stunt?  Coffin suggests, “maybe I was naïve, but it didn’t occur to me that these videos would be so public, and so followed.” Coffin goes on to explain that the idea came to him last year Spring  as he watched a YouTube video someone had sent him. “I thought, ‘If this kid applied to Tufts, I’d admit him in a minute, without anything else,’ ” Whether this is a well conceived marketing gimmick by the University or simply an admissions officer recognizing the power of a new medium I believe it represents something larger, something that the phenomenal growth of YouTube is just an early indication of – that video is changing how we communicate.

And why not? We all have different learning styles – visual, auditory or tactile, why shouldn’t we encourage different communication styles. Not everyone is a great writer but you know that there are a lot of people with really great projects, hobbies, accomplishments, and passions that might be better showcased with a well conceived video.

Is this the end of the written word? Of course not. Communication isn’t a zero sum game. Our brains aren’t quite full yet. Coffin defends his heretical idea (I imagine in order to protect his good standing with the English Department) by stating, “we will never abandon writing.” “No matter what, it’s important to be able to express yourself elegantly in writing.” He is, of course right, but it is also becoming more important to be able to communicate visually and aurally as well.

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

5 Reasons You Should Post Your Marketing Video on YouTube

February 16, 2010 By 1 Comment

Happy Birthday YouTube.

The LA times just posted a recent article that highlights YouTube’s meteoric rise over the last five years.  Google’s $ 1.6 billion purchase of the site in 2006 is still being debated but few people are betting against Google eventually turning YouTube into yet another money making machine.

All hype and controversy aside, YouTube’s numbers are impressive:

85% online video market share in the US
#4 site globally in terms of overall traffic
#2 site globally for search
20 hours of video uploaded every minute
5 Billion video streams a month
#2 time suck behind network television
…etc.

The folks at ReelSEO posted a great article in the fall that compared the options of ‘Hosting’ your video versus ‘Posting’ (placing it on a free hosting site like YouTube) and considered nineteen variables that should influence your decision. Their conclusion: “Unless your business is dependent on monetization of content (you are Hulu), chances are that the odds will be in favour of posting video.”

The biggest complaint about YouTube is that it is a big messy sandbox where you can’t control how your video is being presented. That’s true, but it’s important to remember that YouTube is more than just a place to post your video for free – it’s also a marketing platform. Here are five reasons why you should place your marketing video on YouTube (regardless of whether you also host them on your own site):

1. Sharing
Yes, you do lose some control over how your video is presented on YouTube, that’s the down-side of social media – the single biggest issue for companies deciding if and how to engage the great social media experiment. The upside however is huge. YouTube was built for the express purpose of sharing. The reality is that your website isn’t as important as it used to be – it’s no longer the exclusive or final ‘destination’ for all things about your products and your brand. More than ever people are discovering content wherever they happen to be (physically or virtually). You need to create content that is intended to be shared and consumed in many different ways and YouTube is the world’s biggest content bizarre – open 24/7.

2. SEO
Google is prioritizing video in it’s universal search algorithm. Every SEO article I read tells me that Google is explicitly looking for video content. Does Google have a bias toward video on it’s own website? It’s hard to say but you know that Google is certainly aware of it’s own video and is reading the meta data that you have tagged on your YouTube channel. Ideally, if you have a video sitemap on your website with proper mRSS feed Google should be able to find and promote your video as well. Why not do both? As well, you benefit from metatagging your video content on YouTube and linking back to your own website to help improve your site’s pagerank.

3. Content marketing and getting noticed
Content marketing will have the greatest potential to influence your brand in the future. Traditional marketers will argue that it’s a waste of time to place their videos on YouTube because no one is looking for them and no one is going to find them. That’s true. No one is looking for your traditional marketing video because it talks about you and your products and no one cares much about you or your products. If instead, you post a really informative video that solves a specific problem that your customers are facing your video will not only get found, it will get shared. ‘Yes, but we can’t just give stuff away,” you might respond. If you don’t someone else is going to.

4. Reach.
The long tail gets longer every day. YouTube has the greatest reach in the world (thanks to Google). Your audience may be huge or it may be very, very small. It doesn’t matter. There is no more cost effective way to reach your potential audience than on YouTube. Sure, the person typing in “Lolcats” into YouTube is not your customer, but the person typing in “North East Bolivian Pitted Kumquat Ripple Delight” just may be. Your customer may not frequent YouTube but I would bet that someone who knows and is trusted by your customer does.

5. It’s free.
Chris Anderson explains in his new book ‘Free – The Future of a Radical Price’ (a great read btw) that free is the inevitable price for many things online – you just have to figure out something else to charge for. Free doesn’t necessarily mean cheap either. YouTube continues to upgrade it’s service every month with things like better support for HD video, interactivity, metrics, mobile integration (i.e. the only easy way to get video on an iPhone at the moment) etc.

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

Web Video – a powerful way to make a point

December 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

“If I put the real price I don’t get any customer.”  Ha! Ouch.

Wind Mobile is in the process (pending CRTC approval) of launching a new mobile service in Canada. One of their key differentiators will be not locking people into ridiculously long service contracts. (I believe the good people at Bell, Rogers and Telus have currently all agreed to handcuff users for three year terms.)

Wind is pre-launching with promotions that go after the ‘mobile services indignation niche’ – that’s a big market in Canada.

Here is what Wind didn’t do:

1.They didn’t hire some Windbag to get in front of the camera and try to convince you that Wind will have the “best combination of mobile features in the country”.

2. They didn’t associate themselves with cute or exotic animals.

3. They didn’t clutter up their promotion with excessive information or complexity.

What they did do is present a single scenario that everyone can relate to and they associate that scenario with the frustration and absurdity of the current moderately competitive (at best) mobile  landscape that we all have come to accept as the status quo.

Simply telling your audience that things are out of whack and that Wind has a better way would have had limited value. Showing your audience your key differentiator by means of a simple, but powerful example is a far more effective method of soliciting a visceral reaction (and also a great way to highlight the key benefit of using the new Wind service.)

The video also benefits from being fun to watch. A great example of  ’show me, don’t tell me.’

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, Video Marketing, video production, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , , ,

Channel creates more video (film) art to promote their brand

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

 

When you own a premium brand you have to spend premium dollars to support it.

Channel has just released their newest commercial / mini-movie and as before, have done a wonderful job. Last time it was Nicole Kidman in a three minute short film (or a three minute long commercial). This time around Audrey Tautou – one of France’s national treasures – graces the screen for Channel. North Americans might remember her as ‘Amelie’ in one of the few French films to get theatre time back in 2001. The Director of that film – Jean-Pierre Jeunet directs this commercial and was given a free hand in creating Channel’s newest filmette. Naturally he cast his favourite actress (it didn’t hurt that Tautou is also playing Coco Channel in the recently released film ’Coco Avant Channel’ in France) in the lead role.

The story (not that it matters a whit) centres around a chance encounter on a train to Istanbul. Tautou spends the remaining two minutes waiting and hoping to hook up with the handsome stranger. A sudden romance on a night train to an exotic destination – ya, it`s cliche. Romance and mystery and the promise of adventure – that`s what you buy when you drop $100 or more for a little bottle of purfume – the promise of something exciting. That`s exactly what Channel is selling, and they are quite good at it.

You have to give Jeunet top marks for his direction. He spared no expense (watch `the making of` to see what kind of coin they dropped on this little video) at creating some asbolutely stunning sequences. He`s come a long way since his last big North American film - he directed the last Alien film (I think it was called Alien Abomination). Like the perfume Jeunet is selling, this video won`t be for everyone  but for those who it targets, he hits the mark perfectly.

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

Youtube Video SEO

December 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The folks at Reel SEO published a summary of the insights  on YouTube’s algorithms, popularity, conversion and tracking strategies that were shared at the Video Search Engine Session for the Search Engine Strategies Chicago Conference and Expo. The post provides YouTube stats, a look into YouTube’s algorithm and many excellent ideas on how to get the most out of YouTube. And while you are on the site check out other posts on Video SEO and Internet Marketing Trends – the site provides a wealth of information on these topics.

Perhaps the most significant insight is the fact that YouTube is becoming a major search engine onto itself as video begins to take a more prominent role in the marketing mix.

Filed Under: YouTube Video Tagged With: