Indianapolis Video Advertising

Leading Indiana news provider and video services and software provider combine to offer viewers dynamic video content

Cantaloupe.TV, LLC, has just announced a partnership with the leader in Indiana business news and video content, Inside INdiana Business, to provide an enhanced video experience for its online viewers. Cantaloupe.TV is an online video services and software company headquartered in Indianapolis, IN. The partnership allows Inside INdiana Business to provide leading edge video viewing capabilities through its website via Cantaloupe’s online video platform, Backlight.

“Cantaloupe offers an outstanding video management, hosting, and analytics platform for our viewers,” explains Gerry Dick, President of Grow Indiana Media Ventures, the parent company of Inside INdiana Business. “It is easy to integrate into our website and allows our viewers greater access to high quality videos. Our partnership with Cantaloupe will enhance our position as the Indiana leader in video content.” With Backlight, Cantaloupe offers a software platform that takes the guesswork out of online video, making it easier for media companies and businesses to manage their video library, incorporate video content in their online properties, and track its success.

Cantaloupe worked closely with another one of Inside INdiana Business’ partners, Bitwise Solutions, for the rollout of Backlight. “We recommended Cantaloupe’s Backlight product as a good fit to incorporate into the customized media website solution built by BitWise Solutions. Integrating the Backlight product into the website not only extends the video capabilities desired to benefit site visitors, but also allows Inside INdiana Business to continue making the updates themselves,” says Curt Franke, Vice President of Business Development for BitWise Solutions.

“Inside INdiana Business is a natural fit for our online video platform,” says Stacy Billanti, Cantaloupe’s president. “The user will be able to view and engage with videos easily, and Inside INdiana Business will be able to point-and-click to embed videos into the website, upload pre-roll advertising video, track video activity, as well as manage all of its online video content in a single library.”

Although hilarious, this video does have something to do with using online video advertising.  This web video is trying to sell wool or some high tech surfing gear, or maybe both.  It shows the amazing power of using video in your online marketing. You have to watch it all the way to see the product plug, but this video is very engaging, tells a story, and showcases quite the talented sheep.  I am confidant that this video also has potential for viral marketing.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a link showing Mildred the surfing sheep:

 http://www.finisterreuk.com/surfingsheep/

I came across this article (http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100118/FREE/301139998) in B2B online the other day and thought I'd highlight a few facts about how marketers are planning to increase the use of online video in 2010, and, how much they will spend. 

This data demonstrates the important role of online video in your marketing mix, plus, you’ll sound smart when quoting these:

• In December 09, eMarketer projected online video advertising will reach $5.2 billion by 2014, with a record $1 mil spent in 2009. This represents phenomenal 34-45% kinds of growth.
• 2010 online video ad spending will total $1.4 billion as forecasted by eMarketer
• “These extremely high growth rates are the result of video ads moving from the sidelines to center stage, becoming the main form of brand advertising in the digital space.” (quote from David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the report.

And online marketing efforts aren’t just starting or stopping with ads.   Marketers are using online videos in their own websites, in emails, and across social media sites. 

Want to learn about other trends in online video like how to use in your social media, and how it can increase your website’s SEO?   Click here for our Social Media and Online Video White Paper or, here for our Video SEO White Paper. 

Cantaloupe founding partner, Jon Digregory, was recently interviewed by Randy Berry with 50 Interviews: Video Marketers. Jon's interview will be featured in a book to be released titled: 50 Interviews: Video Marketers - How America’s Most Skilled, Most Inspired Online Video Advertising Creators are Transforming the YouTube Landscape. To see information on Jon's interview you can visit Randy's blog by clicking here.

50 Interviews: Video Marketers is a licensed production of 50 Interviews Inc, based on the original concept by Brian Schwartz.

Hear more from Randy and his experience with the interviews up to this point in the short video below.

I've talked about video search engine optimization many times before, but one question that keeps coming up is does where I get my online video hosting affect my search engine optimization?

Our stance right now (and it's always subject to change since Google is in a constant state of flux, always trying to improve its service), is it does not matter where your video is hosted. It is not necessary to host your video on your own servers or even on your own domain to get the authority credit for your domain or to get your video to show up in Google's universal search.

Additionally, there are big advantages to not hosting your video yourself, like the ability to utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN) which ensures an optimal viewing experience.

This is one of the tips that Mark Robertson, the Founder of ReelSEO a blog about "video search optimization, online video marketing, internet video advertising, and everything else related to online video" gives to his readers. He gives 9 other tips in a recent post titled "Web Video Marketing - 10 Common Marketing Mistakes" that I recommend all my readers check out. (Note: You'll see some back and forth comments I had with Mark about the subject of this post)

As a runner, I don't think I've ever seen a more inspirational advertising campaign than the New Balance LOVE/Hate. I think it has something to do with the subtlety of the inspiration and their ability to make tangible the psychology of running.

Instead of showing blood, sweat, and tears or flashing up words like "pride" and "toughness" and "win" they show runners going through the psychological hurdles we all go through, like the challenge of leaving the comfort of your bed to train, or the fact that the first mile alway seems like the hardest.

I caught one of these traditional video marketing pieces (ahem...tv commercials) and wanted to share it with a friend. I searched on Google. No luck. I did a Google video search. No luck. (well, I got some YouTube results but they were poor quality) I went to New Balance's website. Still nothing, but they did lead me to their Facebook page...

There they are!

New Balance has done a great job using their facebook page to distribute online video, but they could be doing a better job with video search engine optimization. At Cantaloupe, we think Facebook is a great way to get some extra eyeballs (we're starting to see quite a few leads for our own business come through our facebook page) but we're still more optimistic about the power of video search.

The key to both video search and distributing video on facebook, or any other social networking site, is having a tool that makes it quick and easy to convert video online, manage it, embed it, and distribute everywhere you market. If you haven't seen it yet, Backlight is a tool to help you do just that.

There's a great post about why advertising will fail over at Techcrunch (of all places). At Cantaloupe.tv, we've often given three reasons ourselves why unscripted, serendipitous, non-commercial like online video production makes sense for the web.

1. It's what viewers want. People don't want to watch commercials on the internet
2. People use the internet to seek the truth. Being unscripted and sincere, authentic web video helps people get at the truth.
3. The internet is about long-term conversations. Interview-style shooting is more practical and cost effective and allows for producing multiple videos.

Compare ours to what business professor Eric Clemons from Wharton has to say about advertising (which very obviously includes online video advertising)

There are three problems with advertising in any form, whether broadcast or online:

• Consumers do not trust advertising. Dan Ariely has demonstrated that messages attributed to a commercial source have much lower credibility and much lower impact on the perception of product quality than the same message attributed to a rating service. Forrester Research has completed studies that show that advertising and company sponsored blogs are the least-trusted source of information on products and services, while recommendations from friends and online reviews from customers are the highest.
  
• Consumers do not want to view advertising. Think of watching network TV news and remember that the commercials on all the major networks are as closely synchronized as possible.  Why?  If network executives believed we all wanted to see the ads they would be staggered, so that users could channel surf to view the ads; ads are synchronized so that users cannot channel surf to avoid the ads.
  
• And mostly consumers do not need advertising. My own research suggests that consumers behave as if they get much of their information about product offerings from the internet, through independent professional rating sites like dpreview.com or community content rating services like Ratebeer.com or TripAdvisor

It's great to see that our indianapolis-based online marketing firm has gotten this message right from day one. We've always been about storytelling and authentic web video, and now we have an online video management software piece to make it that much easier to execute your video strategies.

So there you have it. Online video marketing is different from online video advertising.

Why do you need to know the difference? For the same reason that it was important to know the ugly duckling was actually a goose. As a duckling he was a failure, as a goose he was a great success.

Don't call your online marketing a failure just because you thought it was online advertising.

The economy sucks. Got it. But does that mean internet video marketing is the first thing to go when budgets get cut?
Some people might think so, but then again, those same types of people probably thought websites were a luxury marketing tool too.

Without a doubt, video is a medium whose worth is only going to continue to be validated as time goes on. Most marketers today don't have the video analytics to justify their spend - the direct impact on the bottom line is still hard to capture, especially in a b2b environment where people rarely click "Buy Now."

So in this tough economy, there's something to be said about every dollar that gets spent. There's less experimenting and more focus on proven strategies, and guess which medium is expected to have the greatest growth in 2008, the year of the tough economy?

That's right. Online video advertising.

Maybe you're not convinced that you NEED video on your website, but when you look at this chart you probably need to ask yourself what other marketers know that you don't.






 

ExactTarget in conjunction with Ball State University just released a new whitepaper titled Messaging Behaviors, Preferences, and Personas that has some enlightening findings about retirees in particular, the group that people often assume doesn't watch online video. (but what kind of online video don't they watch? TV episodes? Online video advertising? YouTube? Noone has made this clear when they've told me that reitrees don't watch online video, anyway...)

Well if this recent study is any indication of how willing retirees are to interact with marketing received over the internet, then why should web video be any different?

According to this study 73% of retirees who use the internet have been influenced by email to make a purchase and 81% have purchased online. (It's also worth noting that these retirees also had to own a cellphone. Between that and being an internet user I would not say they are your typical retiree)

The study calls those findings surprising, but I call them staggering, even when taking into consideration that they're atypical consumers of online media.

It's amazing to me how the many years of being taught how to watch TV when the networks wanted me to has been so quickly defused by the new age and ease of online video. 

After nearing the completion of my 30 days worth of video fashion rules from GQ, I've decided I'd very much like to see the video tracking and how many people skip over the intro that's included with every video. It'd be a great case study in web video production.

The intro is good in a way. It's fast-paced and it builds excitement - at least it does unless you've just watched 5 in a row, which often happens because I rarely find a little bit of time every day to watch each video, and rather watch a bulk at once.

I started fast forwarding through it, and I'm sure others do to.

From a producer's perspective I get that the intro is good if the video ever leaves the home of its video magazine. The thing is, it's very unlikely to leave its home. The only way it can is if someone embeds it in a blog or takes it upon his or herself to post it on YouTube.

Even if I post it to a social network like Facebook, it still links back to the original page - which you can only get to if you've registered, making it less likely the video will ever leave its original page.

Intro music and title screens are an old way of thinking about video. It recalls the weekly sitcom and drama that we watch on tv. It doesn't embrace user control and our different viewing habits (like watching a bunch at once).

Yeah, I can fast forward, but why should I have to? You could do something better with my first 15 seconds - like get me interested with something I haven't seen before. I'd rather seen interesting video advertising for Burberry or JCrew instead of watching the intro again.

Even Cantaloupe's digital video production team still uses intros. I think I'm going to open up a debate...

Internet video marketing: yes, it’s new (or somewhat new) still and yes it's gaining traction.  But is that traction justified?  Are all these marketers just buying into a new trend or does online video actually work?  Well, Video Ad Benchmark research from Double Click, a leader in digital marketing technology, proves that it does work.  While many advertisers and marketers toy with the idea of using online video advertising, others are actually taking action and reaping the benefits. 

Video ads don’t only beat out image format ads - they smash them.  Videos have a much higher click rate (meaning people click on the video to watch it) than image ads.  When I say much higher, I mean that video ads are clicked on five times as often as image ads. 

Actual click-thru rates (CTR) for video ads are anywhere from .4% to .7% whereas GIF and JPEG ads only average about .1% CTR. That’s a difference that can make a huge difference in your bottom line.

Now let’s turn to actual interaction rates.  8% of video ads generate interaction from viewers.  And on average, video ads plays at least 2/3^rd’s the way through – that means you’re getting a pretty decent amount of face time with your viewers via streaming video.

What does this have to do with Cantaloupe TV?  Well, even though we don’t necessary regard our videos as “ads,” but more as stories, these high rates of viewership and interaction show that even blatant video advertising is being consumed.  It also shows that video is more engaging and interactive than normal text and image layouts.  You make the connections, but I think this research is simply reiterating what we’re been saying:  online video works.

According to Lehman Brothers' Internet Databook for August, online video advertising is projected to grow 63% this year making it the hottest sector in online ad spending. That's quite a jump. I haven't seen exact numbers on what's fueling it, my best guesses would be:

• Increase in tv media online. A great example is the website for the Beijing Olympic games and the prominent placement of live streaming video and videos of previous events
• Continued growth of high-speed, broadband connections among households
• A greater acceptance of internet video as a marketing channel

What this number doesn't include as far as I can tell is the growth of online video marketing, that is, the people using video to market their companies outside of advertising.

It would be interesting to see what the growth number is there...

Big companies with their magnificent media planning agencies have been doing more and more “stuff” outside the normal realm of advertising.  One thing in particular that I find simply genius is online video advertising focused on providing help.  What makes these web videos work for brands is that they aren’t really commercials in the sense that we’re used to (hint: they don’t look, seem, or feel like commercials).  Yes, they are branded, yes, there are marketing messages seamlessly integrated in them, and yes, they were developed primarily to boost someone’s bottom line.  But that’s not why people are devouring them like hotcakes.

7 million people search for help online every day.  Help with cooking, cleaning, getting fit, going green, developing a web page… lots of things.  The fact is, people want help and they’re looking for it online.

Creating streaming video that is focused on instruction is the perfect way to distribute branded entertainment in a way that doesn’t come off as pure commercialized content and a way to capture that huge market of people looking for your knowledge and expertise.  Most of the time when it comes to search, people want information more than they want entertainment.  As marketers we should keep this in mind when developing online video content. 

Howcast is a site (developed by Google and YouTube people) that delivers how-to videos.  If you’re looking for ideas for your business it’s a great place.  Some of the videos are branded too.

They key to developing a seamlessly branded how-to video is to figure out what you’re a pro at, what you need to accomplish and how your products or brand can be included in the message.  If you want to sell your product then focus your how-to on something that requires the use of that product.

Some food for thought:

Restaurants – Do a tutorial on how to perfectly prep a chicken.  Throw in messages about what kind of chicken your restaurant uses (i.e. always fresh, local, etc.).

Hair Salon – How to prep for the best salon experience (cut out photos, explain what you want like in hair stylist terms, wash hair/don’t wash before color session, etc.)

Banks/Finance institutions – How to prep for a business loan meeting, how to boost your credit score, or how to get the best car/home/recreational loan rates

Comedy club - How to tell a joke everyone will laugh at

Almost any company could find some type of tutorial that could help boost their bottom line.  If you're trying to sell balloons this video would sure work great:

 I was reading an article about sports video on the web and there's this great graph showing what percentage of people are watching what type of web video. I'm looking at it and I'm asking myself "Where's the online video marketing category? I know people are watching marketing videos as they're perusing around the internet trying to learn the truth about different companies."

And then I see the fine print:
"Note: excludes advertising or marketing video content"

Now that makes sense. Looks like the percentage of people watching online video advertising and marketing is too big to be stuck in the "other" category.

If that's the case, have you start utilizing video on your website? Are you looking for a company who can help do it for you? See www.cantaloupe.tv.

Cantaloupe has got its hands in something big: Internet video marketing.  Of the 150 million Internet users, about 85 million are viewing video online at this point in time.  The future of online video may seem mystifying, but if one thing's for sure, it’s not going away. 

Online video spending was at $225 million in 2005 and then $640 million in 2007 (these numbers include video advertising dollars, digital media production costs, and online media firm fees, etc.).  eMarketer projects that by 2009 spending will reach $1.5 billion.  With the increasing popularity of this entertainment medium there's good reason to expect that kind of growth.

According to a study by F.N. Magid Associates for Online Publishers Association:

-       5% of consumers view online video daily

-       24% view it at least once a week

-       46% view it at least once a month

Marketers want web video because it engages viewers.  Viewers want it because it’s engaging (and entertaining).  Online users watch many forms of video, but news video ranks highest in popularity (except with younger viewers), and humorous videos came in second place (probably because these videos are most likely to be shared with others).  According to the study conducted by Pew Internet & American Life titled "Online Video," professional videos are preferred among viewers over amateur content.  Thankfully Cantaloupe can help you out in the area of professionalism.  That's not to say if you really want amateur-style video we wouldn't do it though...

The more popular and available online video becomes, the more people will view it.  Google and Yahoo already have video search options making it easier for people to find video on websites.  Strides like this will only amplify viewer numbers.  

Since the emergence of Internet video marketing, companies have looked for more and more ways to incorporate video into their own marketing plan.  We all know people don’t want to read through a bunch of mumbo jumbo to figure out what you/your product/your business is all about.  Just show them.  Through video.  It can be fun, entertaining, informative, and chock full of your wonderful marketing messages (but not blatantly full of them of course).  Soon there will be a day when people expect video.  Might as well start giving it to them now.  

If you don't know a lot about video production, you probably know even less about web video production.

And why should you? Unless you're specifically involved in this industry you don't have a reason to be an expert in it. Yet, because their is so much going on with video on the web from video aggregators like YouTube, to primetime tv shows available on the internet, to video on websites, to online video advertising, to even sales collateral that used to be primarily text like white papers, now creeping up as video white papers, you have an interest and reason to learn about video production.

But I'm sure you still have no desire to be the expert. Instead, you desire to know who the experts are and to rely on them to guide and counsel you.

At Cantaloupe, we're striving to be the experts in internet video marketing. Our one product, online Video Magazines, represents the best of what we know about how marketers of mid-size to large organizations can utilize internet video to tell their stories.

Storytelling. That's one of the best practices we've learned about marketing with online video. Check out what else we know and see if we might not be able to your internet video marketing expert.

It's no secret that internet video is one of the hottest trends in the marketing world.  Articles are constantly being written about it, venture capital money is pouring into it, and associations are sprouting up around it and starting to hold conferences to discuss it. At Cantaloupe, we like to consider what we're doing as part of this online video craze, but the truth is, most of the buzz about internet video in the marketing world is around online video advertising.

When I hear the word advertising, I think interruption marketing and I think commercials, which as I've mentioned before, is not what we do at Cantaloupe. If someone asks, I say Cantaloupe does online video marketing (or internet video marketing, one is as good as the other in my mind)

Now some might not differentiate between online advertising and online marketing, but my point is this - most of the talk about internet video is around trying to figure out how to monetize commercials on the internet. Should we do pre-roll ads, post-roll ads or in-stream ads? Should the commercial that plays be a layover? Should we play the commercial in a banner ad? Even Google is adding to this narrow discussion by experimenting with video ads in its ad network.

But really, what makes sense for most organizations is not putting commercials on the internet, but using web video to communicate messages you previously couldn't communicate, or were trying to communicate with text. These messages are delivered to people who want to receive them and are expecting to receive them - they're not delivered while someone is trying to watch the latest episode of Gray's Anatomy online.

Keep this in mind next time you're reading about the power and popularity of internet video. It's a much bigger world and opportunity than what most marketers are writing about.