What is your favorite story from your childhood? I don't mean what's your favorite book, or your favorite movie, or your favorite tv show. I mean STORY truly. Perhaps it's a story your grandfather told you, or your mother, or a story your deceiving older brother told you which you later found out was a lie.
Do you have your story yet?
Mine is a story my grandfather used to tell about growing up on a pancake farm and growing Arkansas pancakes. (a close second was the story about the sometimes mean ghost Matilda that lived in his attic).
Why is this my favorite? Probably because I remember it so well. Why do I remember it so well...
Because he told it ALL the time. Every time we had pancakes for breakfast, and even sometimes when we didn't, he'd tell us this story.
The biggest mistake I see with marketers trying to use internet video isn't that they don't tell a story, it's that they tell one story. Once. And then they're done.
Seth Godin gets it spot on today with "The long tale":
"The hard part is getting a little bit of permission to start telling your tale. The overlooked part, the part that wastes all that permission, is that you forget to keep telling your story."
Most marketers only tell their story once with internet video because they THINK they don't have the time or resources or dollars to do it more often, but that's because they haven't embraced internet video. They're still producing video like it's for tv.
It's time to take advantage of the biggest benefit of online video marketing - the ease of telling your story on an ongoing basis with close to zero distribution costs.
One of our clients, Interactive Intelligence, is putting on an online video contest titled "Outrageous Interactions." (Oi for short, as in "Oi, I can't believe the caller I just had to deal with." Well, that's my interepretation at least).
$5,000 goes to the winner and you'll get an extra $1,000 for not procrastinating (that is, submissions before September 30th are elgible for this).
The interaction can be based on a real experience or completely made up. You can see the rest of the contest rules and submit your video here.
And what about the tips for speaking to a customer service rep? You can find the link at the bottom of the contest page.
Have you heard of Marketing Experiments? I hadn't until Jeff Rohrs, VP of Marketing at ExactTarget, emailed me with an exclusive invite and discount code. Having worked with Jeff on video projects for ExactTarget and knowing to listen to what he has to say, I was intrigued.
The topic of the workshop is "Landing Page Optimization" and it will be held at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown on August 27th, 2009. You can register here and be sure to use the discount code ETEVENT to get $200 off the ticket price.
(I don't see any online video on the registration landing page. I'm curious to hear what they have to say about landing pages and internet video. At Cantaloupe.tv we're starting to do more work on this subject...)
I'm told the event will more than likely sell out, which is great news for the potential of MECLabs bringing more events like this to Indianapolis. And why shouldn't they? Indy is only the "marketing technology capital of the world".
Check out this article by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) on crisis communication.
There big takeaway, and I quote exactly: "Video dominates as online communications tool"
The article goes on to say: Organizations need to already have an established video channel that informs — or entertains — your key publics so that you have built an audience and goodwill before a crisis hits. Having an online Web presence will increase the speed of distribution and reach of your crisis response.
This is exactly what our online video magazines at Cantaloupe.tv do. We specialize in producing authentic, online video content which is the exactly what you need when communicating a crisis situation. And our web video platform, Backlight.tv, makes it easy to get that video up immediately.
The last thing you want to be worried about in a crisis is about how to get your video online. Backlight handles everything you need to get that video up immediately. Things you don't need to worry about with Backlight:
The file type. We handle mov conversion, mp4 conversion, mpeg conversion, flv conversion, and more
The online video player. Backlight provides you with that as well as an easy to use embed code
Online video hosting service. That's also included out of the box.
Distribution. Backlight helps you get your video on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, email campaigns, Twitter, partner websites, or wherever else you distribute online
Video analytics. Backlight provides you with all the online video tracking you'll need to determine the effectiveness of your story.
So don't wait for a crisis to hit before you start thinking about online video marketing and the video platform you need to distribute it. Take a look at our offering now.
If you have ever experienced dowtime at a hosting provider whether you're hosting something as trivial as a personal webiste that only your mom has ever vistited, or something as critical as a enterprise SaaS application that 1 million clients rely on every day, you know how frustrating it can be. No one can deliver 100% uptime, but they get so close that we come to expect it and take it for granted.
What is often the most frustrating is not knowing when the service will come back up or what exactly caused it in the first place. After the fact, these hosting providers are left to figure out how to best make amends with their customers and to restore faith in their hosting abilities.
This is where online video production and internet video marketing can help.
Take for instance Rackspace. Rackspace recently had two outages, one on June 29th and one on July 7th. They responded the best way they could have. They not only fixed the problem and made efforts to ensure that it never happens - they actually took the time to put the CEO on camera to explain this to us.
You can see the video below and also check out this blog post by Lifeline Data Centers.
Recently at Cantaloupe.tv, we've had some great conversations with clients who are trying to figure out this emerging world of video seo.
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)
We get this question about video email marketing a lot, but it's usually not this direct. It usually comes in some form of "Can Cantaloupe.tv and Backlight put video in email?"
The answer is "No, we don't actually put the video in the email" and we state that the reason why is that there are a number of obstacles that make it an undesirable method.
This answer is once again reiterated by other marketing experts at BtoB Online:
"Most e-mail clients, including Outlook 2007 and the majority of Web-based providers, disable the scripting mechanisms that enable video to be played. This means few recipients will be able to view a video directly from an e-mail."
The writer goes on to say:
"...marketers should use a click-to-view link—whether in the form of a graphic simulating a video player or a prominent call-out—in the e-mail that directs the viewer to an external landing page that plays the video."
This is exactly what our Backlight web video platform does. It easily allows you to create online video "play buttons" to embed in your email. Need an example? Check out this Cantaloupe email below. The graphic to the left is the "play button." If this were a functioning email you would be able to click it to watch the video.
Stay tuned for more interesting news from Cantaloupe.tv about video emails. We already have a partnership with email software firm ExactTarget and another very interesting integration on the way.
Josh Bernoff, a researcher at Forrester called buyers in the business-to-business sector "one of the most active groups (he's) ever seen when it comes to social participation." He goes on to say, "If you're a B2B marketer and you're not using social technologies in your marketing, it means you're late."
As a purveyor of a social technology (i.e. internet video marketing) that even surprises me, but it's hard to argue with the numbers. According to the report "The Social Technographics of Business Buyers," a whopping 91% of B2B decision makers in the technology sector are using social media.
But even more telling is the fact that 69% ARE USING SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS REASONS.
If nearly 70% of buyers are using a certain technology for business purposes and you're not, then it must follow that you're late, right?
As a marketer, I'm tired of self-proclaimed "social media experts" telling me that without a twitter account my business will wither and die, but within all that exaggerated noise lies some truth. Social media is becoming increasingly important to our prospects, therefore it should become increasingly important to us.
At Cantaloupe, we didn't rush into social media. We were very early adopters of internet video, but we eased our way into Facebook, twitter, and YouTube. Each of these has become valuable to us for different reasons (which you can read about here). As some of the social media experts will even admit, the important thing isn't to be everywhere, but to fully own the places you chose to be.
We think online video is a great place to start because it integrates well with what you're already doing. Video can add a lot of value to your website, email marketing, live events, blog and even your search engine optimization. And once you do decide to start that Facebook page or twitter account, you'll want video to push out to your fans and followers. In the end, content is still king, and video storytelling is great content.
Vontoo is an Indianapolis-based provider of automated voice messaging solutions and a useful tool not only for marketing, but for many other communications as well. Recently Vontoo launched a new product called Vontoo V2. The V2 stands for "Video + Voice" and it's an interactive online video that synchs up with a personal phone call distributed through Vontoo's voice messaging system.
Cantaloupe got involved when Vontoo came to us to help with the video production portion of the project. You should check out a couple of their examples. I think you'll be amazed at how the phone call synchs up perfectly with the video. Check it out here and see even more examples here.
I have no idea how they do this. Maybe this is a feature we should consider for our online video platform Backlight? I'll have to ask our developers if this can be integrated into our online video player, ha.
It's great to see trends in internet video marketing originating right here in Indianapolis, IN. It's cooler yet to see how different online marketing technologies are coming together to create truly unique products whether it's video + voice, video + email, voice + email, email + blog, etc. the list goes on and on.
Great work Vontoo and thanks for letting Cantaloupe participate in your new product!
It seems Bluelock has found a way to establish themselves as experts in cloud computing, and it seems a big part of that is their internet video marketing strategy.
I recently wrote a post about how their videos have shown up on a social network for cloud computing. Now it seems that someone else has grabbed the embed code for their LEGO demonstration of server virtualization and embedded it in their blog.
The ability to let others grab this video and spread it around is made possible through Backlight, Cantaloupe's online video platform. What kind of impact is this video having on Bluelock's business? Well, Bluelock can see exactly how many views their getting from this video placement by checking out the online video analytics report also provided through Backlight.
Another valuable feature is Bluelock's ability to change the ads in this video, that is, to change in-stream calls to actions. Even though this video is already embedded, Bluelock can control and change the message to viewers. (Check out the 2:20 mark in the video) Now they can actually convert these viewers into prospects or even customers.
I also think it's worth mentioning this quote from the blog:
"...yes, it’s an ad for bluelock, but the video makes virtualization a bit easier to understand..."
That is a suresign of successful video marketing. The company being promoted is visible, but that doesn't discourage the viewer because the video content is actually valuable in its own right. This is authentic web video production at its finest.
A successful viral video does not have to mean a million views. It means making it easy for your content and ultimately your brand to be shared and spread around.
It took less than a week for two of our videos from our video newsletter to rise to #2 and #3 in Google's video search for "Indianapolis video production"
I have to find out if our clients are having the same results or if they're even getting the full use out of Backlight and it's video SEO capabilities. As a video management system, it's such an easy tool to use and it's the perfect answer for so many internet marketers who are trying to figure out how to use video online.
("Backlight Tip" and "Clarian" are ours and the cool thing is if you click through to the actual video, it leads you to our blog)
The video below is set to become the greatest online viral video of all time.
DON'T JUST SKIP TO THE VIDEO If you do, I think you'll miss a valuable point that might just benefit you're own online marketing strategy.
As you watch the video below, think about how this story isn't even a story if the only way to present it is in text. The "punchline" requires a visual image as well as audio.
Is the "story" on your website really a story if it's presented in text? Are you missing out on the potential effect video can have on the impact of your sales and marketing because for so long video wasn't an option?
(Update 5/26/09: Susan Boyle is now the 5th most watched viral video of all-time. Ahead of her are 3 music videos and 1 movie trailer)
(The video owner disabled embedding so you have to click through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk)
Clarian's success in serving patients relies heavily upon the quality of its nursing staff and continually recruiting the best and brightest is no minor task. With nurses in such high-demand, the space is competitive, and Clarian was looking for a "secret weapon" to help them connect with nurses on a more personal level.
Below is a chat conversation Cantaloupe recently had with Kelly Wright of Clarian Health's nursing communications.
--------------- Cantaloupe :: So what is your role with Clarian Health?
Clarian :: I work with Nurse Recruitment and Nursing Communications
Cantaloupe :: What do you mean by Nursing Communications?
Clarian :: In addition to constantly looking for the best and brightest nurses, we also maintain communications throughout Clarian's nursing community. Clarian employs almost 5,000 of the most dedicated nurses in the business, and it is important to stay in touch with them, keep them informed, and ALWAYS remind them how important they are to the level of care Clarian delivers.
Cantaloupe :: What are some of the tools you use in recruiting new nurses and communicating to the nursing community?
Clarian :: Because we recruit nurses of all ages and experience levels, we have to utilize a wide variety of recruitment tools. Some traditional - like classified ads and Open Houses. And some not so traditional...
Clarian :: Like Cantaloupe!
Cantaloupe :: (Noting that I'm not paying you to say nice things about Cantaloupe) Why did you decide to try using internet video?
Clarian :: Clarian is truly a unique environment for nurses. Clarian treats the sickest of the sick in a very fast-paced environment. For this reason, it is important that we show potential nurses exactly what our environment is like. We decided to try internet video because we thought it would be a very personal and real way to show recruits what a "Day In The Life" of a Clarian nurse looks and feels like.
Cantaloupe :: How did you do that before video?
Clarian :: Through more traditional methods - brochures, a static web site, and in the ads we place. It was effective to a point, but we were looking for a way to connect on a much deeper level with nurses. And that's what video has enabled us to do.
Clarian :: It's MUCH more effective to SHOW someone an environment, than to simply tell them about it. Clarian :: Think about it - would you respond more to a paragraph of copy describing what a job is like... or a video that actually lets you MEET someone who is currently doing that job... WHILE THEY'RE DOING IT?
Cantaloupe:: So tell us a little about the five videos you just did for nursing recruitment.
Clarian :: We started with five videos that showed a "Day In The Life" of five different Clarian nurses. We wanted the videos to show not only the personality of the nurses themselves, but also what it was like to walk a mile in their shoes (and we all know nursing shoes need to be comfortable!)
Cantaloupe :: What is the planning process like? How much do you try to script out exactly what is going to be in the videos?
Clarian :: We do NOT want the videos to be scripted. We want real-life action, and HONEST story-telling. If we scripted them, it would just be another blatant marketing piece, and we don't want that. But we DO plan around what we want the basic content to show. We plan what types of situations we want to show, and what kind of information we want the video to impart. Then we turn the videographer and producer loose and let them capture each nurse's story. It works well, because Cantaloupe's people are an objective "outside" point of view. Sometimes we're a little to close to the subject matter... Cantaloupe does a great job of helping us determine the best way to tell each nurse's story.
Cantaloupe :: You just signed up to do 10 more videos. What stories are you planning to do? More "day in the life of" or something different?
Clarian :: We are going to diversify a little bit in this second group of videos. Several will still be "day in the life" of nurses. But we also want to show other aspects of the Clarian Nursing experience - advanced educational opportunities, certain nurses who have been recognized for clinical excellence, etc. We're also going to do a video following a new nurse on her first few days in her pediatric nursing job. Anything that illustrates why Clarian is such a great place for nurses to advance their careers...
Clarian :: We also intend to do a video with Linda Q. Everett, the chief nursing executive, where she can talk directly to potential recruits and tell them about Clarian's philosophy when it comes to nurses...
Clarian :: Now THAT is personal!
Cantaloupe :: And how are potential recruits going to see these videos? Do you expect them to find them on your website? Do you promote your videos in any of the other marketing tools you mentioned before? (i.e. brochures, open houses, etc.) Clarian :: In addition to an email distribution list, we also we feature them prominently on the web site - www.ACallToChange.org/Nursing. We promote our web site (and subsequently the videos) heavily. The videos fit perfectly into the web site environment - which is also created to show the Clarian Nursing Experience. We call it - "a chance to meet our HEROES."
Cantaloupe :: What about social networking sites? Are you using those in recruitment or communications, if so, how and do you have any plans to add video to them? Clarian :: Good question - and YES, we have pages on Facebook, and yes we are incorporating the videos into these sites. Social networking is an excellent tool for this type of message.
Cantaloupe :: How are you tracking your video? What results have you seen?
Clarian :: We have been monitoring the click-thru rates and viewership numbers... and the results have been extremely good. We are VERY happy with the response we've been getting. Because recruiting nurses is so competitive, we have to find every advantage we can, and Cantaloupe is definitely one of our secret weapons! (Unless someone from another nurse recruiting team is reading this, in which case, it's been an abject failure and we wouldn't recommend you do it. ;) Cantaloupe :: What's the biggest obstacle Clarian faces using video? Cost, time, anything?
Clarian :: There aren't many obstacles related to the videos... we do have some political isues, and require a few more approvals before a video can be posted, but it's really pretty hassle-free. And the cost is very reasonable for the effectiveness and results.
Not only is Bluelock one of our clients, they are also a leader in "cloud computing," which at Cantaloupe we clearly get since our very own online video platform brings all kinds of cool things to the cloud like a video hosting service, video conversion online (many types including but not limited to mov conversion, mp4 conversion, flv conversion, mpeg conversion), video analytics, video uploading etc.
Well here is an example of how Bluelock has leveraged their videos to further their demonstration of expertise in the field of cloud computing. Using Backlight, they've embedded their videos into a community site specifically for networking around cloud computing.
What's really cool about this is that because the videos are embedded using Backlight, Bluelock maintains control over the messaging in the videos.
What do I mean? Check out the 56 second mark in the first video. Bluelock has inserted a video "ad" with a link back their website. This is the perfect way to convert otherwise casual viewers into potential customers.
There's no shortage of ways that Backlight can help you get more use and value out of your videos. Check out a demo today to see what Backlight can do for you.
So for the moment it's a self-described accomplishment, but it's an exciting topic to rally around which is why I think so many high-profile people from the Indianapolis tech community have contributed comments to this blog thread. (Internet marketing software city? by Norm Heikens)
Cantaloupe's own contribution to the Indianapolis online marketing community includes Backlight, a Saas video solution for helping marketers utilize video online to strengthen their businesses, engage prospects, and sell more stuff.
We like to pick on tv commercials at Cantaloupe, but it's not because we hate them. (In fact, I'm about to share with you a commercial I like.) It's because for most marketers commercials aren't the right video tool, especially not on the internet where the ability to skip advertisements makes Tivo look like a joke.
I recently heard about a commercial for a company where tv advertising does make sense. It was one of those instances where I was hanging out with some friends and one of them said "Hey, have you seen the (insert description of funny/astonishing/inspiring/useful video here)" This time it was the new Nike Tiger Woods commercial.
I hadn't but now I wanted to, which meant I had two options:
I could watch ESPN until the commercial finally came on, if it ever came on
Or I could find the nearest computing device (I would have settled for an iPhone) and search for it on the internet
When you look at it like that, it's crazy to think that not too long ago the second option didn't even exist, but now, there should be no reason why I can't share in this commercial with my friends.
Except the commercial wasn't available on the internet. Not ony was it not available, but it seemed someone took the time to remove it from YouTube. I could find the commercial in Google results, but as soon as I hit play the video was "no longer available." I was in disbelief.
Here I am, your typical commercial-loathing American, actually going out of my way to watch a commercial - this has to be every tv advertisers dream - and yet, you're stopping me from watching it?Nike = Fail
So what can we learn from this? Well, if you're a tv advertiser, embrace the fact that people will use the internet to search for your tv commercials and make them available.
If you're like most marketers who don't use tv commercials, take this as a sign that users are actively searching for video on the internet and give them what they want. I was searching for entertainment reasons, but next time my company needs to hire a new PR agency or we need a new web meeting tool, I'll be looking for a video to help me make my decision.
I eventually found the commercial I was looking for on YouTube, but you can tell by the quality of the video that Nike likely didn't put it there themselves.
I just want to congratulate Denise Meyer and team at Interactive Intelligence for successfully launching their first video playlist using Backlight. You can check it out for yourself here.
These are some very powerful videos and I'm glad our online video platform could embed them on their website. I'm not currently in the market for a call center software solution but I found myself watching this whole video all the way through. (Note how easy it was for me to grab Interactive Intelligence's video from their website and embed it in my blog using their online video player)
If you haven't heard, Backlight is Cantaloupe.tv's new online SaaS video management system that makes it easy to upload all your videos, convert them to web-ready formats, embed them on your website, and then analyze the online video tracking.
Check out our website to learn more about Backlight.
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.
What is your favorite story from your childhood? I don't mean what's your favorite book, or your favorite movie, or your favorite tv show. I mean STORY truly. Perhaps it's a story your grandfather told you, or your mother, or a story your deceiving older brother told you which you later found out was a lie.
Have you heard of Marketing Experiments? I hadn't until 
Check out this 
Recently at Cantaloupe.tv, we've had some great conversations with clients who are trying to figure out this emerging world of video seo.
Josh Bernoff, a researcher at Forrester 
Clarian's success in serving patients relies heavily upon the quality of its nursing staff and continually recruiting the best and brightest is no minor task. With nurses in such high-demand, the space is competitive, and Clarian was looking for a "secret weapon" to help them connect with nurses on a more personal level.
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