Online Media Firms

Continuing on the series of common web video mistakes in marketing, let's focus on video file formats.  I'm sure you'd agree that technology changes quickly these days and feels like a full-time job to keep up with - not to mention keeping the alphabet soup of web video formats straight. wmv, mov, swf, flv, mp4, MediaThis and RealThat... it's enough to make your head spin. 

Tell me this: How many times have you visited a website, encountered an online video you're excited to watch and been forced to download it onto your computer before attempting to play it? Or worse - you had to figure out what software to download in order to watch the brief video. I would bet my lunch that rather than figuring out how to watch the video, you left the site in search of a competitor who made the experience easy. 

As you produce web videos in house or select an online video firm to help you, rely on the expertise available to ensure that you provide your website visitors with a hassle-free viewing experience. Think usability - this isn't a place to cross your fingers, hope you guessed right.

I read an interested article last night in OMMA, Magazine of Online Media, Marketing&Advertising (a highly recommended read if you enjoy staying up-to-date with those three categories).  It featured Josh Warner, President and Founder of FEED Company.  FEED “seeds” videos in strategic online areas in order to create discussion and mass views for their high-profile clients who use online video.  

Though his interview focused mostly on FEED and its strategy, procedures & insight, there was a statement within the article that really stuck with me…

WHEN CREATING AN ONLINE VIDEO THINK LIKE AN ENTERTAINER NOT AN ADVERTISER.

While our clients use their videos mainly as marketing materials, which are not related to “advertising” in the usual sense, this statement still makes sense… 

WHEN CREATING AN ONLINE VIDEO THINK LIKE AN ENTERTAINER NOT A MARKETER.

Isn’t it a marketing video though?  Aren’t we trying to market our company, products, efforts, etc?  Yes, but online video MUST be entertaining.  If not, you’ll reap drop-off rates, not benefits.

The only way to gain a following and to increase views is to give viewers something worth watching.  You cannot force people to watch whatever you put online.  So ask them, and if they watch, make sure your content is entertaining and relevant to the audience.

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. 

There's been a lot written about NBC's online video coverage of the Olympics. There are people on both sides of the fence - those who say NBC failed with its coverage and those who say NBC set a precedent for taking traditional tv media and putting it on the internet.

The argument for the "failed" side says NBC proved that it's still difficult to impossible to make money off of web video. The "succeeded" side points out the technical feat involved.

For a broadcaster looking to make money this begs the question, "If people are watching video online, what does that do to my tv viewership, and ultimately the ad dollars I can get for selling tv ads?"

It turns out, putting video on the web is fueling tv viewership, rather than reducing it, with 50% of online viewers trying to catch up with what they missed, and with 40% watching something they already saw on tv.

This is interesting news for marketers trying to determine whether to put money into its online collateral or other traditional collateral. I'm sure many of them have figured out that one influences the other, often positively. (Take GQ's video magazine as an example)

However, in the long run my prediction is these technologies blend so much that you can't tell the difference between when tv stops and when online begins.

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.  

I had to check myself twice before I typed that title. Do I really mean exactly what that says, that quantity is more important than quality? In a debate could I stand my ground? I've already given you my answer.

Blockbuster web videos and grand openings elevate quality.
So do TV commercials on the internet,
And traditional media firms (for the most part)

Video Magazines elevate the quantity. Why? Because it's about the relationship, and most relationships are not love at first sight. They're built over time with multiple conversations.

Read that again and apply it to the way you used to think about internet video. How often did you think about internet video as an ongoing strategy (quantity)? Now how often did you think about it as a piece of glitter for your website (quality)?

Quantity vs. Quality is really a false dichotomy. They're not necessarily mutually exclusive. As a digital video production company, we produce quality videos. Do we produce the highest quality? No. Do we produce the highest quality needed to reach your online marketing goals? We like to think so.

But you be the judge.