Online video, online video publishing, streaming media, OVP, OTT, web television, video advertising, marketing, startups, gadgets, social media, videoconferencing, collaboration and related topics are discussed here. Thanks for stopping by the "Klessblog."
I'll be taking a short break from my intense work schedule next week to speak at Streaming Media West, on a panel session, Webcasting Tips and Tricks From the Enterprise. According to the conference program, "this session focuses on best practices from enterprise corporations which have adopted and implemented live video across their organization. See firsthand how these companies are using video for internal and external communications and learn how you can better leverage assets already available inside your company. Hear firsthand from those who have been successful with their deployments and learn what advice they have for others deploying live video in the enterprise today."
Streaming Media West returns to Los Angeles and the conference organizers promise it to be even best show yet. Last year more than 2,500 content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, educators, and others all come to Streaming Media West to see and hear more than 100 speakers and 30 sessions focused on latest online video technology and the business models that are coming of age. In conjunction with the show is the first ever HTML5 Video Summit, which is an expanded two-day summit with how-to sessions, demos, case studies, round table discussions and more.
Here's a short promotional video about the conference which kicks off this Monday with pre-conference workshops and the show is November 8-9, 2011.
My session is scheduled on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 10:30 am and confirmed participants include:
Moderator: Patty Perkins, Team Leader, Wells Fargo Creative Services Technology, Wells Fargo
Speaker: Michael Chop, Senior IT Architect, Cadence
Speaker: Tony Sehgal, Sr. Manager, Digital Media Operations and Infrastructure, Oracle
Speaker: Eric Hards, Manager, Web, Media Graphics and Streaming, Lockheed Martin
Speaker: Larry Kless, Production Manager, Videoconferencing and Virtual Events, Kaiser Permanente
Here are some "best practices" that I shared in that post, that address the technical and logistical challenges for webcasting, and how you put the right team and the right technology in place.
If you are producing a webcast, consider the following:
Know your role. You may be producer, director and technical director and even camera all rolled up into one. Or you may have the luxury of hiring a full crew.
Get clients on board with deadlines, financial commitments and better understanding of web cast requirements.
Audio is the number one killer. It’s an ongoing issue when using wireless microphones, telephone call ins, multi-point conferencing and live PA (Public Address) system.
Working with a team you know and trust and who knows your business is best. Relationships are vital to your process. Delegation and deference to expertise key to getting the job done. You need to rely on your team to do their job and sometimes take over your chores too when you get called away to manage client issues and handle last minute changes.
Redundant personnel and technology is a must and equipment failure should be expected. Back up to you back ups really saves the day in a pinch.
Make every room a broadcast studio.
Site surveys at least a good 8 weeks ahead to inspect data and A/V ports, power requirements for lighting, ceiling height for rigging, windows and doors for light and noise, bring a digital camera, measuring tape and a continuity tester as part of your arsenal.
Complete all pre-web cast equipment and connectivity testing well in advance and conduct it on-site for higher reliability.
Prepare a production summary that includes every last bit of detail that covers the entire production. Give everyone on the crew a copy for reference and lead a production meeting before the works so that all teams are synched up.
Be prepared for last minute changes and if there’s time just roll with them – update your script, rehearse if possible, but say “No, we’re out of time” when you have to. Really, there’s nothing worse than a major on-air blunder. But as they, “It’s live television.”
Also, be sure to have back up equipment and crew in case of technical or physical problems, and don't forget to test your webcast on location. I'll share more tips following my session next week.
Online video is massive in its reach and scale with 6.9 billion videos watched in the U.S. in July and August of this year, and it's quickly growing into a major component of what people do online or how they consume information and entertainment. YouTube represents a lot of the growth of online video, with 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and 3 billion daily views are registered on YouTube worldwide. While viewership on TV is stagnant if not slowly decreasing year over year, online video is seeing a 50% yearly increase in viewership.
I spoke with Andy Stack, Product Manager at YouTube following his keynote, "Video Convergence is Here: Get Ready!", at the 2011 Liveclicker Video Summit, who says, online video is a valuable tool to drive brands, and is transforming the way consumers engage and conduct commerce. The use of online video in e-commerce is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss or not fully understand.
His main message to brands and retailers is to create content, not commercials. Stack says that it's important for retailers to develop a content strategy and not necessarily an advertising strategy, and sponsor content that matters to your community and spend money to promote content that's tested and works.
Brands can’t sell brands, People sell brands
Stack says that the definition of content is very rich and changing, by definition. So, we shouldn't be held to old ideas of what content is. It could be curated content, mash-ups, expression, dialogue, and a variety of different types of content.
"Lines are blurring between entertainment and advertising, and between consumers and marketers. Marketing platforms are rapidly evolving, and at the center of it all is online video. Brands and consumers are interacting in ways they never have before, and everyone is witnessing this through the power of sight, sound, and motion."
But underlining it all, he says, is that we’re content creators by our own DNA.
“We are all storytellers, and a content strategy helps ultimately for people to sell brands, not brands to sell brands.”
If you’re a marketer, then you'll probably recognize some of the following videos. Which of these were made by users? By marketers? Who started the conversation?
Stack says that aside from being huge in reach, online video is also what many other media are not – it’s social in ways that move viewers to engage with your brand, connect with new ideas and even change the world. An interesting fact he shared was about the activism in Egypt earlier this year that was first sparked on the Internet and spread throughout the country to rally the population and spark a revolution that forever change people’s lives there. He shared the following quote that helped sum up his point.
"We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world…" — Activist in Cairo, Egypt, March 2011
Another example of how video is social is campaign called ‘it gets better’ campaign, that was launched on YouTube in September 2010, by Dan Savage and aimed to help young people, especially those struggling with their identity and sexuality, deal with bullying. The video has had millions of views and within a few weeks spawned thousands of similar videos from ordinary kids to the President, celebrities and even the SF Giants reaching millions more with a strong and united message.
Video + Social = Earned Media
Stack also cites Lady Gaga as one of the most impressive genius marketers of our time who is powered by video. She regularly uses social video to cultivate and project her image and message. She launched exclusive video premiers on Vevo, starred in a Google Chrome Ad that went viral, staged a live feed from Best Buy on launch date as fans poured in to buy her album and live interviews allowed her to take questions from fans.
The results is that Lady Gaga is the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube, and her music video for Born This Way has over 79 million views and in the first week of release her album sold 1.1M copies and brought down Amazon’s servers.
Stack says that a characteristic of successful videos are retailers, brands or others who have a whole social media strategy around the launching of a YouTube video.
"One of the other things I encourage is to engage the viewer in a conversation. Think of the video experience as a conversation. It doesn't start and stop with the video. There's great opportunity to have at the end of a video, various calls to action. Such that if somebody's hooked with the video, here's the next step that they can take to either engage with the brand, learn more information or perhaps discover other videos."
Another great example of a brand using video is Orabrush, which became a YouTube sensation. Who knew that oral hygiene products could be a cross-over hot with video, yet Orabrush used it's YouTube channel to sell over 1 million of the $5 tongue brushes, and major drugstores are now carrying it on their shelves. They were named one of the Top 10 Social Media campaigns of 2010.
Stack says, the power of social is something that retailers can harness to build your own brands too. One of the important aspects of social is sharing, and 30% of people share videos they like, over 400 videos are shared on Twitter every minute, and the amount of YouTube videos watched on Facebook is equal to 150 years. As the world’s largest focus group, online video lets you know if the creative or videos that you are running on TV and elsewhere are making an impact when people choose to consume your brand and spread the word. Retailers can use video like a sand box to experiment and use the variety of tools available from YouTube to find the right mix, then rinse and repeat.
5 Things Andy Stack has Learned about YouTube
Stack says there are 5 lessons he learned from his experience at YouTube to help create successful online video campaigns:
1. Rethink what “content” means
Kutiman & Pogo make work by micro-splicing together other content.
They use films, sounds, chords, even syllables to make their music. The Khan Academy also has emerged as a new voice of authority http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy.
2. Every video is a conversation (if you let it become one)
Electronic Arts produced this response to a user generated video on the Tiger Woods '08 game.
3. Every video is interactive
Interactive zombie movie adventure - Hell Pizza's uses annotations to encourage interaction.
4. Every video finds an audience.
Online Video is reaching NEW audiences every day. Blair Fowler and her sister Elle post style and beauty related tutorials that has reached millions on YouTube and are at forefront of the "hauling"phenomenon.
5. You don’t always have to make video, you can inspire others or curate Tweak inspired fans to help them design their shoes and the result was the mythical shoe, with wings and a pocket for a guitar pick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6meIMpnwp4#t=2m20s )
Mass Media is De-Massing
Are they watching less TV? Generally speaking, Stack says, no. People are watching more TV. They are just watching cable. If you stack networks by percentage reach, you’ll see that 50% of viewership is on networks with a rating less than 1.0 (1% of households). And at 0.5% share (the point at which Nielsen stops measuring), you’ll find 30% of viewership.
YouTube offers great opportunities to online video publishers, says Stack:
"It’s a good time to be a content creator. Our system allows you to unlock the untapped value of networks you may not have previously considered. For example one brand seeking to target young adults found that Fuse network delivered a much more efficient cost per order than the networks they were traditionally targeting, now Fuse is a permanent part of the line up. This also means that the established media companies don’t have the high upfront cost strangle hold on access anymore"
Andy Stack is a product manager at YouTube focused on the financial performance and video analytics of YouTube content creators. Prior to YouTube/Google, Andy was a serial entrepreneur mixing media with metrics. Andy co-founded Mozes, the leader in mobile engagement around music, sports, entertainment and causes; Stata Labs, a personal media search company acquired by Yahoo!; and DealMaven, a quantitative analysis software company acquired by FactSet. He received his MBA from the Wharton School and BSE from Princeton University. Follow @andystack
Marc Scarpa, veteran director and executive producer of live interactive media events, has launched the first of it's kind social TV network with Comcast Xfinity On Demand, called VidBlogger Nation, that brings popular local YouTube talent into the living room of millions. VidBlogger Nation is shot on location by local video bloggers in 10 key markets, including Philadelphia, New Jersey, New England, Atlanta, South Florida, Michigan, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, and San Francisco. The episodes are short 3-5 minute narrative shorts by unique voices from across the country who share colorful stories of people, places and things in their city from a first-person perspective. The VidBlogger Nation roll-out will initially include three full seasons for each market, with over 240 episodes available so far on Comcast Xfinity On Demand local, and they're in the process of shooting 120 more. Both Comcast On Demand Local and SimplyNew Studios will consider further markets after the initial run concludes.
"We're using a lot of social platforms in order to engage conversation in and around the content that we're creating. We're using Facebook, YouTube and obviously Twitter, in conjunction with distributing the content over Comcast On Demand. So really, what distinguishes us from other types of networks is, we're not a technology platform, we're really focused on that conversation between the video bloggers themselves and of course amongst their audience."
Scarpa says that they look at their audience more as followers and friends than as viewers – which is a traditional television approach – to the point that the VidBloggers are really involved with the audience on an honest and genuine way.
"Because it's their voice that's being carried throughout the network. It's their points of view, it's their opinions, it's their stories, it's their experiences that they're sharing with that audience, and the audience actually helps them create their content."
Scarpa says it becomes social by engaging the viewers to become involved in the programing decisions, and more importantly, they then become invested in the lives of the video bloggers themselves. This new approach transforms the traditional audience into collaborative partners in a participatory media experience.
What also makes VidBlogger Nation unique from traditional broadcast television, says Scarpa, is that they went out and found people who who had stories to tell, as opposed to doing a casting session that would have attracted mainly actors.
"We went and we sought tastemakers, and voices, and personalities, and we actually searched around 3,000 to 4,000 videos in the course of a 4-week period. Then narrowed it down to roughly 100 people, 10 per market, and out of that 10, we then narrowed it down to 1 per market."
Scarpa says their VidBloggers are already talented producers and great storytellers who shoot and edit their own videos. He is working closely with each host to supply them with editorial and technical support, content production and legal issues.
"We wanted to create a social TV look-and-feel that emanated from the web, with a style that fit the locale of the vidblogger's world, and enabled them to be natural hosts for stories that were authentic to them," says Scarpa. "As television moves toward an all-IP universe, the grammar of what we watch on t.v. will have more to do with an emerging, and immersive, web presence. Vidblogger Nation is the first step toward blurring the boundaries between web TV and cable TV."
In this interview with Zennie Abraham, (who represents Atlanta), Scarpa says that VidBlogger Nation is not video blogging:
“I’ve always been a big fan of this school of improvisational story-telling, from the reactionary film movement to the John Cassavetes-style of film-making. What really captivated with early independent film and early web videos was this notion of ‘first-person perspective,’ where an individual is empowered to tell their story, there way, and how they want to. Web video has taken that to a whole new level.”
Zennie agrees and says the experience has been tremendous for him:
"What I’ve learned could fill a book, but the basic lesson is that the creative mind can be improved if only it’s working with other creative people. I love learning from Marc and the other vloggers. Frankly, I’m used to just letting it rip with a camcorder, where with VidBlogger Nation, I’ve become much better at telling a story with the camcorder."
VidBlogger Nation is a product of Scarpa's SimplyNew Studios which has long track record of producing and pioneering the live participatory programming genre for television, the web, fashion and music industry, and even the White House with the "Townhall with President Clinton" (now part of the permanent collection of the Clinton Presidential Library).
Scarpa says that the overall goal of VidBlogger Nation is to have a new forum for very talented people, like Zennie and his fellow VidBloggers, who have a voice and help them extend beyond the web into a new market, and a traditional broadcast environment like Comcast provides access to 60 million homes.
Get social with VidBlogger Nation
About Simplynew Studios
Simplynew Studios is a leading developer of participatory media programming and productions, including live television, web, mobile, and on-demand broadcast events. Renowned director-producer Marc Scarpa, a pioneer in the industry who is founding chair of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council East, established the company in 2001. Based in both Los Angeles and New York, Simplynew Studios specializes in multi-platform productions, and have delivered groundbreaking content for customers including Comcast, Sony Music, MySpace, Fox, The Recording Academy (GRAMMY awards), Marc Jacobs International, Woodstock ’99 and the White House among others.
According to ReelSEO.com's Mark Robertson, online video is the swiss army knife of online marketing, and social video can help eCommerce retailers move from conversions to conversations with their customers. I sat down with Mark following his keynote, "Welcome to the ‘REEL’ Web: Why Video Marketing has Evolved Beyond SEO" at Liveclicker’s 2011 Video Commerce Summit in San Francisco last month, to get a high level overview of how social media has changed search, the state of V-Commerce and what tactics and tools eCommerce marketers can harness to move beyond product videos.
Retailers Have Embraced Product Video
Mark says that SEO has evolved over the last 10 years, and now social media engagement enhances SEO rankings, a lot. Universal video search is becoming less effective for e-commerce transactional queries.
"I feel that eCommerce providers, for the most part, have done a fairly good job with online video, and they've embraced product video, specifically. So product videos on their landing pages, which makes sense. It's cost effective, highly measurable and they are there to sell products. But I believe as well, that online video is the swiss army knife of Internet marketing. It really can be used all over the customer life cycle. So, whether it's customer service, whether it's marketing, even recruitment, people are using video."
He included a few statistics in his presentation to illustrate his point: •73% of US retailers feature video on product pages in Q4 2010. ⇑ vs. 55% 2009. •# retailers > 1,000 videos on their websites⇑10% from Q4 2010 to Q1 2011. •⇑ 37% YOY growth in video views for LiveClicker retail sites live with video >1 year.
Source: eMarketer's "Video for Ecommerce" report | Sunday Sky’s “State of Video in Ecommerce Q1 2011” | MediaPost, Justin Foster 7/2011
Mark emphasized that while product videos are great, they don't lend themselves well to social sharing or universal video search. So while they're incredibly important, he says that marketers’ must embrace social video throughout the customer life cycle and produce video that lends itself to social. He cited a number of strategies and video types that can be applied to the video marketing purchase funnel, and a key ingredient to every application is to make all videos sharable.
Strategies
Video Types
Video Advertising, Video SEO, Live Video Events, Social Video, Video Distribution
Video Commercials, Branded Video, Instructional (How-to) Videos, UGC Videos, Lifestyle Content
Video SEO, Social Video, Video Chat
Company profiles, Product Demos, Video Case Studies, Video Testimonials, Video Comparisons,
Website Video, Video Chat
Product Videos
Website Video
Training Videos, User Generated Videos, Video FAQs, Corporate Image/Culture, Customer Support, Thank you/rewards videos
Video Sharing/Social Video/UGC
MAKE ALL VIDEOS SHAREABLE
Product Video Reviews/Testimonials
Examples of Retailers Going Beyond the Product Video
He presented a few examples of companies that were doing some innovative work that goes beyond the product video.
Think Thin
ThinkThin, a health and wellness bar retailer, is providing comment value with its lifestyle web series that features the company’s CEO and Founder, Lizanne Falsetto, called Lizanne Naturally. It's highly produced branded entertainment in the form of a weekly web cooking show that is simultaneous released across all channels (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter), with outreach partnerships on relevant YouTube channels and niche target sites like diet.com. It's a good example of an eCommerce company investing in online video outside of the product page.
"In challenging socio-economic times, people are searching for authenticity, even in the brands they buy. Consumers want to be given something more than forced advertising. They want community and trust. Producing original branded video content is one way to provide value back to the community and grow brand awareness and loyalty at the same time." - Stacy Bellew, ThinkProducts, Inc.
How does it tie back into sales?
• Carefully - Viewers want value, not a sales pitch
• Indirectly – Brand awareness, Loyalty = soft ROI
• Calls to action
- “Download the recipe” – takes viewers to product website.
- ASK: for email information, Facebook likes, etc...
- Incentive: 20% coupon
Zappos.com
Zappos is embracing video like it's going out of style. The eCommerce retail giant sells over 300,000 different products, and began producing product videos in 2009 and soon found that the company could sell anywhere from 6-30% more merchandise when accompanied by videos. In its first year, Zappos exceeded its goal producing over 50,000 videos and is looking to double that in 2011. Zappos also has a YouTube it uses to expose its brand to the public and interact with the community. The channel offers fun behind the scenes looks at Zappos and has a number of blooper reels in its YouTube page. Zappos is a great example of a eCommerce retailer getting it right with video and has developed a broad and comprehensive video retail strategy.
“What works the best is the fact that our videos are very real. There is value in being candid. There's an emotional connection that can’t be captured via photograph or text” – Laurie Williams, Zappos.com Video Product Manager
The results have been powerful with an increase in product page conversions and customer satisfaction and a decrease in product returns. Its success can be attributed to an honest, personal, informative approach to its video strategy and a diffusion to all its channels (Zappos website, YouTube, Facebook).
This video is from Zappos' insidezappos YouTube channel and explains how to properly package a return.
Moving from Conversions to Conversations
Mark concluded that eCommerce retailers must embrace social video as part of their overall marketing strategy throughout customer life cycle.
"I really think that product videos are a no brainer, and I honestly believe that every eCommerce retailer should be doing them. I can't think of any logical reasons now why they shouldn't. That being said, I think that there's many other opportunities around that and I think that if eCommerce retailers really want to embrace online video and really excel, they'll be doing video across the customer life cycle and that will lend itself better to social, that will lend itself better to search and helpfully we'll some interesting innovation there."
About Mark Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Publisher of ReelSEO, an online information resource dedicated to the fusion of video, technology, social media, search, and internet marketing. In addition to running Reel SEO, Mark is a popular web video consultant and has worked on digital-video initiatives with several major brands, including, Zappos.com. He is considered a leading expert within the digital video and search marketing industries and has had the pleasure of speaking at many conferences including Search Engine Strategies, Streaming Media, SMX, PubCon, Video Commerce Summit, Online Video Platform Summit, Online Video Summit, and more… Twitter @markrrobertson | Google Plus | Facebook | Linkedin | YouTube
For many of you who have followed this blog, you may have noticed that things have slowed down here a bit at Klessblog, and I wanted to take a moment to give an update on where I've been and what's happening here on the blog.
Over this past year, the number of posts I've written has decreased significantly, with only two posts each for the past few months, and that's mainly due to an extremely busy work schedule at my day job. For many in the corporate video sector, things tend to slow down in the summer as people cash in on their vacation time and break away from the daily grind. But things actually got busier for me and it looks like that's going to be a continued trend through the end of the year.
Outside of my busy work schedule, I've also been trying to spend more time with my family and less time online. So that's why you haven't heard much from me over the last few months, but that I plan to get back to blogging soon. I've got a lot of interviews I've been working on the last few months, mainly online video conversations with industry professionals and executives, and my goal is to publish each one I have in the works.
With that, here's a quick snapshot of who's coming up on Klessblog:
