Indianapolis Marketing Firms

King Fish Media, Hubspot and Junta 42 recently conducted a study looking at how marketers employ online video in their business activities. The first part of the report I'd like to focus on is Social Media Usage.

• 75% of the companies included in the survey have a social media strategy.  I would be interested to see how many are well developed and how many simply say "post on Facebook and Tweet", but I digress.
• 75% of respondents say their companies will increase investment in social media marketing over the coming year.
• 20% of them are redirecting funds from other, more traditional marketing strategies, to keep up with customers who are switching to social media.
• 85% handle their own social media marketing with in-house staffers, as opposed to hiring consultants.
• Only 30% have run an ad campaign on a social media site.
• A shockingly high number of respondents (43%) have never done any kind of ROI measurement.
• Respondents are using social media with a variety of intentions, with customer relations being the number one reason.

Stay tuned for more nuggets from this research. Want to dig deeper into the numbers and the behaviors behind them? Pose a question in the comments and we'll address it in a future blog post.

Cantaloupe is expanding!  You may know us best as an Indianapolis Video Production company, but we have been doing work for our clients all over the country & even outside of the country for the past 5 years.  Now we are focusing on the Windy City!  We have been creating online video for many clients in Chicago over the past year... and now we are making it more permanent - we have found a resource to represent Cantaloupe in the Chicago market! 

It wasn't an easy position to fill - we needed a great personality, with experience in the Chicago Marketing community, that had a solid understanding of the needs of online marketers.  Someone with talent and experience to build relationships with clients and enthusiastically promote our video marketing solution. 

We finally found her!  We'd like you to meet Abigail Salch.  We like to call her "Chicago Abbey"

She's a Chicago native that has been working in the marketing industry for - well, we don't want to show her age.. lets just say 10+ years.  In addition to being a marketing whiz she is an avid biker.  She recently did some crazy week long bike ride across Iowa!  ragbrai.com/

Welcome Abbey, we look forward to seeing more of you.. give her a shout if you are in Chicago, she'll be a great resource to help you with your online video marketing needs!

Over the past five years, Cantaloupe has worked with hundreds of client on thousands of online video stories. Some have been brief projects to meet specific needs, while others have been ongoing engagements. 

I received an email the other day that - to paraphrase - said: Do you still shoot and produce videos? Why, yes. Yes we do. But that's not all we do. 

Cantaloupe has evolved ('ripened' as founder Jon DiGregory would say) from our early days of shooting video for the web. We still tell compelling stories for our business and non-profit clients, but that's only one slice of what we do.

Cantaloupe has been peeling back the rhine of what makes for well produced, delivered and measurable online marketing video campaign. We've broken it down into bite sized chunks that provide an organic recipe for success.

Take a look at our 5-ingredient process that begins with strategy, moves on to production, publishing, distribution, measurement and back into strategy. Yes, Cantaloupe continues to help our clients tell compelling, authentic stories online and off, now ensuring that it closely aligns with your business goals and unique flavor.

Online video marketing is fun and exciting, for sure. It's also important to ask if your video is working for you as best it can. To assess the impact of incorporating your video stories and content into your social media marketing strategy, here are five metrics to keep an eye on:

1. People. Think quality over quantity. Are people viewing your videos? Are the right people in the right places viewing your videos? Are they sharing your video stories and helping you extend your reach?
2. Stories. Have you told a variety of stories that paints a well-rounded picture of who you are and what you do? Are they tied to goals that are, in turn, measurable? Are your stories being talked about by clients, prospects and viewers you didn't even know were listening?
3. Perception. How has the sentiment toward your brand changed since using your video stories? Have your videos helped to handle objections normally encountered during the sales process or at other points in your relationship.
4. Actions. Have your viewers responded to your on-screen and in-video calls to action? Are these stories aiding their buying decisions?
5. Profitability. What product sales can be traced to your product stories? What are the costs related to the production of your video stories compared to the benefits you have experienced?

Your stories provide the basis for brand affiliation and make people want to use and interact with your product or service. Getting your video with the right message in front of the right people in the right places will help you to meet your marketing and overall business goals. 

To see how Cantaloupe's Backlight provides you with insights into the metrics of your online video, request a demo here.  

We've talked about how to make your online marketing videos talk-worthy or prepare them to go viral (on a moderate scale). It's important to integrate stories into all of your content marketing - on your site and across social media channels where dialogue, interaction and sharing occur.

Here are five ways to create and use video stories online:

1. Determine trending topics. Relevancy is key. Leverage interest around hot topics with new, creative insights. Remember that your story has to be consistent with your brand and messages and allow this to enhance your other online and offline efforts.
2. Source stories from customers. Let others tell stories related to your product and brand. Create brand advocates and highlight the real-world impact of your product or service.
3. Incorporate a human-interest element into your videos. People are attracted to people like themselves. Be authentic and help your audience put themselves into the shoes of your customers.
4. Allow for interactions and additions. Using social media outlets as distribution channels allows your audience to interact with you and your brand. It provides the opportunity to post comments, share with friends and become personally invested. 
5. Enable easy sharing quickly and broadly. One of the major attractions of social media and online video marketing is the ability for users to share your content when and how they desire. Using a video player, such as the one included in the Backlight video management platform, that includes share features encourages and assists with the sharing of videos.

Want more tips on making video content compelling?  Contact me and we can discuss the process we use for developing a video strategy for clients, and how we do our story development process to ensure we produce engaging, compelling videos.

I just read a paper from Omniture talking about Steven Slater, the flight attendant who stormed off the JetBlue flight in dramatic fashion recently. In the post, it was noted that he has amassed 200,000 Facebook fans since the tantrum incident (more than many corporations can boast). Really? Why?

Simple. We find Steven's story fascinating. It's being described as "urban myth quality". His story is one we can relate to. It's compelling content. It has all of the attributes of good content marketing. 

To make your content talk-worthy on social media platforms, develop strong stories that are in line with your brand, including its voice, language and visuals. When you create your online marketing videos, make sure you incorporate these elements to create powerful stories that your audience wants to hear, engage with and share. 

1. Add emotion. Just telling your audience the facts about your product or service won't get them to care. Find the connection and make your product or company's story resonate with your audience.
2. Identify with the protagonist. Stories must motivate your target to connect with the man character in some way, perhaps by stepping into his shoes.
3. Memorable. Stories have a beginning, middle and end, making it easier for viewers to remember your video's message. Familiarity increases memorability, add your own twist.
4. Easily adapted. Stories can be changed and embellished by the teller to suit his or her purpose. This makes stories more dramatic and increases the audience's ability to empathize, personalize and share your message online and off.
5. Sharable. This can occur in the old fashion way where one person tells another or it can happen through social media and electronic channels. Using the proper video player to support your message will aid your video in going viral.

Want more tips on making video content compelling?  Contact me and we can discuss the process we use for developing a video strategy for clients, and how we do our story development process to ensure we produce engaging, compelling videos.

• Stick to your time allowance. Five minutes means a guess; four minutes makes a promise. 
• Begin with a positive, concrete statement. Tell them something at the start.
• Use short sentences. The man who can’t make one word do the work of two is no four-minute speaker.
• Avoid fine phrases. You aren’t there to give them an ear full but a mind full.
• Talk to the back row of your audience; you’ll hit everything closer in.
• Talk to the simplest intelligence in your audience; you’’ll hit everything higher up.
• Be natural and direct. Sincerity wears no frills.
•  Give your words time. A jumbled sentence is a wasted sentence. You can’t afford to waste on a four-minute allowance.
• Don’t fear to be colloquial. Slang that your hearers understand is better than Latin that they don’t.
• Don’t figure the importance of your job on a time basis. Four hours of thinking may go into four minutes of speaking.
• You represent the United States of America. Don’t forget it. And don’t give your audience occasion to forget it.
• Finish strong and sharp. The butterfly is forgotten as soon as he departs, but you recall the hornet because he ends with a point.

Why four minutes? That's how long it took the movie projectionists to change film reels. 

If you're an information junkie like me, you really should read more about the Four Minute Men and how they have influenced many of the things we do today on the Joyful Public Speaking Blog.

 The once bold dividing line between television and web content is rapidly becoming blurred.

More and more people are replacing there television watching habits with the convenience of online options.

A large number of companies have new offerings of hardware gadgets that enable you to watch online video on your television.

Sezmi, Boxee, Roku, and Kylo are all companies introducing innovative products that enable users to take advantage of the convenience and affordability of web video, right on their flat screen.

For those interested in reaching a broad audience, video marketing on the internet seems to be a bright-future option.

To learn about the five hurdles of online video and how Cantaloupe.tv can help, click here to register for our webinar.

This inspiring 6 minutes of awkwardness was Microsoft's attempt to motivate customers to host their own Launch Party. Launch Parties were to test and use Windows 7 with friends. It sounds like an acceptable marketing idea until you match it with sad jokes, bad acting and weird lighting. Imagine if they hosted a REAL party with REAL people and captured them experiencing Windows in REAL time.

There are a few if not many lessons to learn from the Launch Party video:
1. If you dare script anything make it entertaining
2. Talking to the audience online only works for so long, not 6 minutes.
3. Reality is king and poor acting only motivates customers to laugh at you!

“No more long, cumbersome marketing documents – no more boring presentations. Video is how companies and business should communicate." 

That's a pretty powerful quote, especially coming from IBM. They're not talking about online commercials, rather web-based video content that helps feed information to their key audiences. They're replacing old-school business practices of creating binders of typed prose with online marketing, communication and training videos.  

We all did this exercise as children. We ask a question of an adult and get an answer. We then follow it up with "why?". Another answer from the ever-patient adult. "But why", we ask.

When did we stop trying to dig a little deeper and begin taking things at face value? I've watched clients' faces when I've put on my kid hat (not my kid voice - let's not get those confused) and asked, "but why" in a meeting.

Yes, you want to do a video about X, but why? What's the story? What's the business goal it serves? What's the objective this video or the larger online marketing campaign? Why now? What is the larger plan that this marketing video fits into? Why this particular audience (you do know who your audience is, right?)?

Answering the 'why' questions will help reveal the deeper objectives of the video and will help us craft the most effective online video for you. Ask yourself "why" when you are making decisions about your authentic video stories. Ask "why" of your coworkers when they pitch the next great story idea. And don't be afraid to ask your Cantaloupe video production team "why" when we recommend your next video strategy and series to you.

 

 
Thanks to the folks at GapingVoid, we're reminded that there's no secret sauce. There is no magic bullet. There is no one canned plan that will satisfy all tastes and cravings when it comes to your business and message.

Every marketing project requires a unique recipe for the just-right outcome. Authentic style video stories is one ingredient. Your distribution channels are another. Stir in a little of your company's singular flair and all of a sudden you have the winning recipe you've been craving.

Let the chefs at Cantaloupe whip you up a strategy for online video marketing that will set off the taste buds with your clients and prospects.

Mom said never to, but I just can't help it. I do. I do it as I'm skimming the shelves at the library. I do it at the grocery to figure out which can of green beans to buy. I do it on YouTube when deciding which version of the singing cats video to watch. And I do it on corporate websites when trying to figure out whether their videos are apt to align with what I am looking for.

If I do it, I'm sure others do it with your online marketing videos. Your video's thumbnail image - the "teaser" picture in your video player - is so important. It may be all your viewer uses when deciding whether to click "play". You've put in a lot of time and energy getting the video perfect, identifying the right distribution channels to get in front of your audience. Take one final step and make sure your first impression drives them to press play.

Take the following screenshots for example. Would you watch the video for any of these?

Mmmm... probably not this one. Andy looks a bit dazed and there's a not-at-all-compelling ceiling in the background.

What about this one? Although Chris is also mid-word, there's more context. He's in a more interesting setting. His title and personal style might be compelling enough for most to hit play and see what the story is.

Here's what we ultimately went with for our CantaSeries Laughter Yoga video. You kinda want to chick on it, don't you? Go ahead.

Kevin and JD traveled to Florida with with three camera packs.  They were given full access to the campus to make sure that any angle they wanted to shoot was shot.  This is a great example of using an interesting story to promote a product.

We've set an expectation that Cantaloupe's team will provide new (hopefully useful) information about online video marketing, video SEO and creative online communications everyday through this blog; day in and day out. We've trained you what to expect from our content and when you can expect it online.

We didn't post on the Cantaloupe blog Thursday and - let's be honest - I bet you went all day without thinking about us. You might not have even spared a thought about web video as you read through your RSS feed. It's ok. My hurt feelings will heal - after all, it's my own fault.


Out of sight, out of mind, right? Right. It's the same with our blog followers, as with our clients and yours. When we don't blog, you don't think of us or how we can help your business reach it's goals. The same holds true for each of our clients' businesses.

Determining your video distribution schedule and plan is important. Sticking to it is more so. Your audience might miss you the first month you don't release a new video in your epic-sode series or when your video newsletter doesn't arrive on Monday morning as it always has, but they'll soon get over it and move on to something else that caught their attention.

Give them a reason to revisit your site by releasing new episodes of your stories regularly. Give them a reason to come back to your blog to see FlipCam stories of your current projects and a behind-the-scenes of your company that you always post on Fridays. Give them a reason to look forward to opening your email because they know it contains a video about how you are making their lives easier. Set the expectations and don't allow your audience to forget you (like you forgot about us yesterday).

Need help figuring out the right stories, distribution channels and pacing? Let's talk!

Cantaloupe's Backlight video management platform was designed to help marketers publish, distribute and measure the success of their videos across the web. It's continuing to evolve and will soon become an even more powerful solution for our clients. Enough with the fluffy salesy talk, though.

As your Video Success Manager, it's my responsibility to ensure you are getting the most out of your videos and the tools at your disposal. I wanted to touch on one often underutilized feature of Backlight: the ads.

Video ads are more than just a place for your advertisement to display. They are truly calls-to-action that you can place in your video player as you wish. Use ads to underscore a point, drive viewers to take a specific action ("Register for our webinar!") or lead them to additional information ("Learn more about our solution!").

This empowers you - the marketer and online video content manager - to create, update and place these calls-to-action when and where you want without having to make edits to the video itself - the message, placement, duration and destination webpage are completely within your control.

Below is a sample video. At the 5-second mark, you'll notice an ad pop up and hang out for 10 seconds, then fade away. Clicking on the ad pauses the video and directs the viewer to Cantaloupe.tv's 'Request a Demo' form. (Feel free to request a Backlight demo while you're there.)

As an added bonus, Backlight's analytics tracking allows you to report on how many viewers engaged with each ad. 

You have powerful tools and information at your fingertips - are you taking advantage? If you need help using any of the Backlight features or would simply like a demo to see what all the chatter is about, drop me a note or give me a call at 317.594.9999!

 We produce lots of web videos, and we are very proud of them.  Each week we will showcase one.  Sometimes they will be funny, feature compelling characters, showcase best practices for online video marketing, and hopefully even be entertaining.

We want to share this story because it exudes the raw power of authentic storytelling. There is not one frame of video that is not authentic (even the dramatic head turn!)

 By focusing on story and not the product, IMMI has allowed the viewers to share this powerful story with all their friends without feeling guilty about spamming their friends with a marketing video. That means the "sharability" factor increases and is more likely to hit a wider audience. From that audience, people that choose to learn more about RollTek can watch a more straightforward "About Rolltek" video.

Another fun fact about this web video: It was my first complete video using HDSLR's. The whole thing was shot by a two man team, in 2 locations, in about a 5 hour window with a Canon 7D, Canon T2i and Zoom H4N Recorder.

ReelSEO, a leading blog in all things online video, did a post recently on the pros and cons of self-producing your online marketing videos vs. hiring a professional firm. If you're thinking - like many of your peers - "I'll do it myself (or have the intern do it). How hard can it be?", take a gander at the balanced argument they offer.

They post comes down on the side of hiring a professional and includes the following benefits:
1. Added value & services from a partner who can bring knowledge and best practices to the table
2. Creative collaboration
3. Minimal wasted time & energy
4. Quality in line with your brand and image

They go on to conclude:
"There are really only three instances when choosing to self-produce is the best choice:
Remember: video production is only one of the hurdles to take into consideration. Learn about the five hurdles of online video during our weekly webinar.

We talk a lot about how telling a good, compelling, engaging story is the essence of online video success. To tell a good story, you need the 5 W's and an H - who, what, when, where, why and how. Skip one of those and... well... your story falls flat, right?

The same applies for your online video marketing strategy. When planning your project, make sure you satisfy all of these as well.

Who: In your overall strategy, think of who you are talking with. On the story level, think of who your characters are that will build credibility and authority with that audience.
What: What is your goal for the series? For the individual video? What are you trying to educate the audience about? What action would you like them to take? What will you measure success by?
When: When will you use these videos to impact your audience? When is this content relevant to the target audience?  Perhaps this is date-specific, perhaps tied to milestones in the sales cycle. Use this information to determine your distribution schedule.
Where: Where will you distribute your videos? YouTube, LinkedIn, your blog, your partners' blogs, through direct email campaigns? Where does your target audience "hang out"?
Why: Why does your product/service/message/call-to-action matter to this particular audience? Why video over another medium or in conjunction with your other online/offline efforts?
How: How will you get your video onto the web and into your emails? How will you get in front of the people who need to see your video and hear your message? How will you ensure they hear you over all the noise out there?

As with a good story, none of these can be left out of your strategy. Understanding the who, what, when, where, why and how of your efforts makes your plan of action easy to define and execute.

Ahhh... the perks of having a school teacher as a mom. (thanks, Mom!)

Check our eMarketer's new report, Video Content and Syndication:  Long form content on the Rise.    This report speaks to the changing viewing habits, what is fueling the change, and includes a lot of key stats.    It also covers where video syndication is heading and the integration of broadcast TV and video.  


Has anyone gotten the report yet?  Would love to hear your comments on the full report.