Web Video Platform

 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.

 Last week Christian and JD found themselves with a few free hours between shoots at the Indiana State Fair. Earlier that day they heard of deep fried butter being sold this year.

So they fired up the camera and were off to learn about this culinary wonder. They spoke with the owner of the butter stand, a number of customers and even consulted a dietitian. They ended up with a web video that provides a glimpse of what this battered, buttered, ball is all about.

Our time with our friend and intern, Lily Cameron, has come to an end. We all got together and went to Arni's to bid her farewell.

This short web video was shot on the iPhone 4 and is the first in an ongoing series, chronicling Cantaloupe lunches around Indianapolis.

The Cantaloupe folks are a unique variety. They challenge one another and keep raising the bar. They do this with their work, on the parking lot basketball court and now on they have decided pushups is the next mountain to scale. This has spread from our production team down the hall to our founder's office and around the corner to our fearless leader, Stacy*. 

Someone found an iPhone app that promises to help you do 100 pushups in a sitting within 6 weeks (the disclaimer graciously reminds users that it might take a few 6-week training cycles for some of us). Day 1: you do as many pushups as you can and enter it in the app.From there it guides you through a steady pushup regimen that moves you closer to the app's target of 100 pushups.

Anyway, as I was laying on the floor after a measly 16 pushups, I mentioned needing to blog today. Stacy's response: "pushups!" Pushups on a web video blog? Makes perfect sense to me. Let's see what we can do with this.

Each Cantalouper is starting at a different place on the road to the same goal - 100 pushups. Your prospects are starting at different points of awareness about you, but are also moving toward a single goal - signing a contract or buying your product. 

There are those who are in pretty good shape. They know all the great things you can do for them and are nearly ready to knock out all 100 pushups (make the purchase). There are others who know of you - they can do some pushups - but need more work (attention, conversations, information) before they're able to hit your goal for them.

Then there are those who (like me) can just do a few. These are the prospects that are unaware of you or underaware of what you can really do for them. They need lots of work - perhaps a couple 6-week training cycles - in order to get where you want them to be.

Where does video come into play, you ask? Video is their training tool. It keeps them engaged with the program and keeps them progressing toward your goal, toward the purchase or contract, toward the day when they can do 100 pushups without collapsing on the office floor.

What type of training regimen (message or video story) does the individual need? That depends on how "in shape" they are when you engage with them.  Make your online video conversation personal to who you're talking with and where they are. Move them along at a steady pace so they don't pull a muscle, get overwhelmed and take a seat on the sidelines.

*Jon was a little slow with the camera phone, so there's no evidence of us on the carpet, but I will tell ya, Stacy has some guns on her!

Have a challenge you'd like to see the Cantaloupe team take on? Post in the comments. We'll grab a camera and post it on the blog for all to see.

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.

Every week, Cantaloupe chooses a place to go to lunch and puts together a short web video documenting it. Tell us where you'd like to see us go to lunch at facebook.com/cantaloupe.tv or on twitter: @cantaloupe_tv

Cupcakes. Zeppelin. Cantaloupe. Now that is a combination for the ages! On Friday, August 6, Cantaloupe decided to run up to the Hamilton Town Center to get some cupcakes from the Cupcake Camper. When we arrived, we found that it had been replaced by the Mobile Cupcakery.

This short web video was shot on the iPhone 4 and is the first in an ongoing series, chronicling Cantaloupe lunches around Indianapolis.

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.

 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.




The point of this web video is pure entertainment.  Sure, there are still some behind the scenes hopes. We hope you like and share it. We hope it gets in front of people that have never heard of us, and we hope some of those people decide to go to our website to learn more about us and maybe want to buy our services.  However, our viewers aren't going to share a video of us talking about ourselves with their friends, so we better do something people might actually want to see!

 This short series touches on tips for optimizing your online videos for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Some of these are second nature, but it's always worth the reminder.

Go Beyond YouTube
You've heard us say it before - YouTube is a good distribution channel, but it is still just a distribution channel. Regardless where your marketing, branding and culture videos are published (hosted), they should be embedded on your website.

Your visitors, once they find the video through a search, will be driven to a website to view it. Why send them to YouTube or another outlet when your site's SEO could be benefitting from it's views. Traffic to your site and length of time spent on your site are factors search engines take seriously when serving up search results.

Think of YouTube as the search engine that it is. Help your viewers find you in and when they are looking there. Otherwise, help them to find your website - with all of your calls to action and valuable information - when they are using Google, Yahoo or any of the other website search engines.

This short series touches on tips for optimizing your online videos for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Some of these are second nature, but it's always worth the reminder.

Always Provide an HTML Link
Some video management platforms, including Cantaloupe's Backlight software, allow you to place calls to action within your online video as you wish. This is a great opportunity to drive your viewer to take a specific action, such as 'register for the webinar' or 'get more information on our new product enhancements'.

Using such features in the video management system also allows you to change your calls to action on the fly, rather than re-engaging with your editor.

By adding an HTML link behind these calls to action, you will drive more traffic to and within your site. This is especially important to do if you are distributing your videos outside of your website. Search engines view these inbound links as a popularity contest. The more (quality) inbound links you have to your site, the more popular and credible the search engines believe your site to be.

Plus, you want to make sure your viewers find their way to you, right?

 This short series touches on tips for optimizing your online videos for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Some of these are second nature, but it's always worth the reminder.

Provide Excellent Content
Average time on site is a measure of success search engines take into account when determining the quality of your site. SEO is a fine art and this is just one factor, but it is a factor. The quality and relevance of content will keep people on your site and help you become more attractive to search engines.

As part of your video strategy, take into account who your ideal viewers is, what they will find to be valuable content, and what you can teach them. This is an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and skill and to position yourself as an expert. 

Although the average length of a video online is 3.8 minutes (ComScore, 2009), your video must be able to hold their attention, convey your message and achieve the online marketing goals you have set out for it... regardless of length.

 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.




What makes this web video interesting is the 'behind the scenes' look at firefighter gear. I personally had no idea any of this may be an issue until I went to shoot the video.  From an internet marketing standpoint, it does a great job of hiding the 'product demo' into a story about these firemen.

This short series touches on tips for optimizing your online videos for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Some of these are second nature, but it's always worth the reminder.

Make Your Title Count
There are two main reasons why your title is important. First, a great video title can grab the viewer's attention.

Secondly, like titles to blog posts, the title of your online marketing video helps you pull powerful traffic to your site. When using appropriate keywords in your title, your page is more likely to show up higher in search engine results when people are searching on your topic. The major search engines admittedly place greater weight on keywords tied to videos than text alone. Why not take advantage of this opportunity?

Search engine optimization for online video (SEO) remains a hot topic in the world of online marketing. Here are a few tips & tricks to getting the most bang for your buck.

1. Make sure you use your keywords in your video's title, description and tags. The tool you use to manage your web videos should enable you to specify these pieces of information and adjust them over time.

2. Use the content of your website to support your video's SEO. Place your video on a page that makes sense to its message and tags. Let the textual content of the page reinforce the content of your video. This will make it easy for Google and the other search engines to figure out what your videos are all about and serve them up as results.

3. Target specific search phrases, not just single words. "Cupcakes with organic frosting" is better than "cupcakes" (if you're an organic bakery) or "authentic video production in Indiana" rather than "online video" (if you are Cantaloupe).

The biggest mistake most people make in video marketing is trying to do all of the 'heavy lifting' themselves.  There are millions of people out there online, create something that even people outside of your target audience can enjoy.


 
Above is a video from a contest Interactive Intelligence held. They took the simple idea that "Brilliant Technology can't solve every problem" and had a series of entertaining and funny web videos created.  I will say that most of them are a little long, but it's still better than 2.5 minutes of someone talking about their software.

This is a perfect video for video marketing because it speaks to a wide audience. Anybody that watches this can relate to it and will more than likely find it funny. That increases the chance that they will share it with their friends.

That means that even if they aren't Interactive Intelligence's target audience, one of the 5 friends they share it with may be. People like to be entertained, give them what they want! 


Justin Gutwein

  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.



Cantaloupe spent a day with race car driver, Tony Stewart, at a commercial shoot for a foundation he supports. It was fun for us to accomplish all of our production needs without interrupting the commercial production.  It reminded us of how much we can accomplish with just a little time.

 A short and fun web video where JD looks for a good picture to take at Napa Valley's Castello di Amorosa.  An 80 million dollar castle and winery in California.