This post is about five months old and goes back to the Reel Summit that was held at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco on July 24-25, 2014. I meant to do a lot of blogging on this event, which was put on by good friend and ReelSEO rockstar and founder Mark Robertson and Dave Holland, ReelSEO Events and Commercial Director, but as you have noticed I've been way to busy to blog!
So, I share this video produced by BonFire Labs as the first post to wrap up the year, and the best of 2014!
Stay tuned for more to come... and visit ReelSEO to get everything you need to know about video marketing!
Showing posts with label ReelSEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ReelSEO. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
The History of Video Marketing Part 1: Revolution [2014 ReelSummit] #reelsummit
The 2014 Reel Summit taking place today and tomorrow at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. This two-day conference is the only industry event devoted entirely to online video marketing for marketers and content creators who are serious about the (r)evolution of digital video marketing. The event is sponsored by ReelSEO and brings together inspiring brands, marketers and industry thought-leaders to share cutting-edge knowledge and advanced training and best practices on video production, online video advertising, brand management, e-Commerce and much more. ReelSEO welcomes video industry leaders YouTube, Vice, Vimeo, Cisco, Buzzfeed, Pixability, Brightcove, JW Player, Tubular, CinemaSins, and many others to learn from each other and celebrate the world of online video marketing.As YouTube marketing expert Greg Jarboe says, this video, "An Illustrated History of Video Marketing Meet the Screens", produced by Bonfire Labs, illustrates that online video has grown, matured, and become mainstream.
"So has its audience", says Jarboe. "What was once the domain of the cutting-edge few has now become so common that it’s transformed how the world interacts with the web. Companies that never thought of using video now realize it’s the best way to communicate with their customers, build their brands, and educate and inform stakeholders both inside and outside of their organizations. With this new audience comes new challenges and new possibilities."This year's keynotes include:
- Jonathan Perelman, GM of Video & VP Agency Strategy at BuzzFeed
- Jeroen “JW” Wijering, creator of the world-renowned JW Media Players;
- Jon Klaff, Head of Media Solutions, Brand Activation Team at Google/YouTube
- Jim Louderback, General Manager of Discovery Digital Networks
- Rob Davis, Executive Director/Founder of the Content Marketing & Advanced Video Practices at Ogilvy
- Allison Stern, Co-Founder of Tubular Labs
This Tubefilter article, 2014 Reel Video Summit Has A Stellar Lineup, Grilled Gurus, captures a great synopsis of the event and discusses a new and different format where attendees can "Grill the Gurus." Also, this Onlinevideo.net article written by YouTube marketing expert
Several of the sessions will be streamed live on ReelSEO's YouTube, so stay tuned for updates.
More information - http://reelsummit.com
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Klessblog's Top 10 of 2013 (Part 2)
Well, the hangover has finally worn off and with the new year in full swing, I can continue this top 10 Klessblog countdown. I picked this top 10 list based on my best experiences of 2013. The last four covered the first part of the year and these top six will bring things up to date. It was a busy year for everyone, with some upheaval, lots of change and a lot of things stayed the same.Online video growth continues to skyrocket, as we've seen more brands shift their advertising dollars into online video, a new wave of short-form video creators arose from people are uploading their Vines and Instagram videos, the majority of marketers are jumping into the waters of online video en masse to tell their stories and sell their brands. According to comScore's most recent data of online video rankings, 188.2 million Americans, watched 52.4 billion online videos in December 2013, and video ad views totaled 35.2 billion. That's means 86.9% of Americans who accessed the Internet last month watched online videos, and the average video duration was 4.2 minutes. The average video ads viewed were 15 seconds and they accounted for 40.2% of all the videos viewed and about 5.7% of all the minutes spent viewing online video.
In addition, according to Pew Research, the percent of online American adult who have either created their own original content for viewing or download has doubled from 14% in 2009 to 31% in 2013, with many hoping their videos will go viral. Additionally, the number of adults who watch or download videos has grown almost 10% since in 2009, from 69% to 78% today, with the growth fueled mainly by rapid increase in the use of mobile devices and the growing popularity of social media sites.
But this isn't news to those of us who've been following these trends over the years. We all knew online video would grow and prosper. I could go on and cite countless sources that covered the trends, but again, I refer you to all the great sources I listed in my last post, on the side bar of this blog, including ReelSEO, Beet.TV, Fierce Online Video, OnlineVideo.net, Dan Rayburn's The Business Of Online Video, StreamingMedia.com, VideoNuze, and many more.
I started this blog in November 2007, to join the voices of the streaming media community as a way to share my knowledge, ideas and analysis of the online video industry. As I said in my 100th blog post and my 600th blog post, I'm grateful for the support of my family, friends, followers, readers, supporters, community members, colleagues, and to the many of you who have contributed to this blog by sharing your time with me to meet and be interviewed by me, sent me press releases and kept me up to date on the latest news and information. I look forward to an even bigger year in 2014 and look back one more time to wrap up Klessblog's Top 10 of 2013.
6. My Google+ Hangout with Neil Davidson on, "The Core of a Successful Corporate Video"
5. The Strategic Video Awards and Content Marketing Awards
My category was "Best Topic Specific Video" which had over 40 entries with a variety of styles and techniques. After viewing all the entries the ones that really stood out for me were real stories with real people shot as live action video productions. Many marketers rely just on animated, motion graphics and voice-overs which end up looking like boring animated Infographics that just leave viewers uninspired. So my advise is to actually shoot video to tell your story. See the winners of the 2013 Content Marketing Awards here. Thanks to Program Chairman David Murray and also Benjamine Knight from McMurry/TMG who did an incredible job organizing the competitions.
4. Streaming Media Magazine articles Part 1 and Part 2, "Best Practices for Live Events"
Thanks again to Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen for the opportunity to write for Streaming Media Magazine, and contributions from Nick Balletta, Harvey Louie, Donn Kanagaki, Casey Wilms, Harvey Woo, Steve Dung and to the many people who I have worked with over the years to help me learn what works best for live events, and what doesn't work so well.
3. The 2013 ReelSEO/Liveclicker Video Summit
2. Online Video Conversations
1. Don't be Afraid to Let Them See You Dance!
Thanks again to all my loyal readers, followers and supporters. Many thanks as well to Kris Drey at Vidcompare for the years of advertising and all the best to him in this ever-changing industry. As we move into a new year, we'll see continued growth and experimentation as standards and distribution models mature. I know I'll be busy as ever and even more so at both my day job and my own business venture with new clients, new challenges and always new adventures.
My best to everyone all in the new year!
(Editor's note: Sorry for the delay, but the year got away from me. Stay tuned for much more to come)
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Video Marketing Tips from the 2013 Video Summit [ReelSEO Creator's Tip #105]
The 2013 Video Marketing Summit was held on July 25-26 in San Francisco and is the largest and only annual event devoted to all things video marketing and video commerce. The sold-out event drew over 300 attendees and was co-hosted by ReelSEO and Liveclicker, and was held in tandem with the Liveclicker's Video Commerce Summit. This year's combined summit was Liveclicker's 5th annual and an inaugural event for ReelSEO, and drew a cross section of over 300 retailers, brands, and agencies attending either summit.Over the last few years, I've interviewed attendees and speakers at the Liveclicker video commerce summit, and this year the tables were turned, when Tim Schmoyer asked me to share a video marketing tip for his weekly ReelSEO Creator's tips. He included me in the following video, with video marketing tips from Suzie Reider (Marketing Director, YouTube), Jim Louderback (CEO, Revision3), Reed Lucas (Director of Channel Management, Channel Factory), Rob Sandie (CEO, vidIQ), Sofia Stefou (Video Strategist, Sofina Media), Jason Cesare (Account Executive, Unruly Media), Jay Nolan (Producer, Ecommerce), and Anthony Bucci (Founder, RevZilla).
See my tip is at 1:15, "Tell a story and capture your audience, whoever they may be--marketers, consumers, your customers." Don't sell the product, tell the story.
For a summary of all of the video marketing tips, see the related ReelSEO article here: Quick Video Tips from Experts at the ReelSEO Video Marketing Summit [Creator's Tip #105]
For a full look at the event, speakers, schedule and video summit links, visit reelsummit.com.
For a preview of last year's conference, watch this video with interviews I conducted at Liveclicker's Fourth Annual Video Commerce Summit.
2013 Video Commerce Summit — Advancing video in e-commerce
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
At Long Last… My Interview with Merton, the Piano Chat Improv Guy
It was more than a year ago when Merton, the improvisational piano player, became an Internet sensation when he first appeared on Chatroulette playing piano and serenading the strangers he'd meet on the video chat website. His videos have attracted over 25,000,000 views on YouTube and he has performed in London, Montr̩al, and he now has a live, interactive, webcam show that airs weekly on Wednesdays at 10:00 PM ET called The Merton Show.Merton is a self-taught improvisational pianist who lives in the Colorado rockies. He's a quick-witted, friendly guy who conceals his true identity by wearing a green hoodie and fake horn-rimmed glasses. There had been some speculation that he was actually recording artist Ben Folds in disguise Рespecially with Ben Folds' Chatroulette Piano Ode to Merton video Рbut while the two have similarities in appearance and musical styles, they both disputed the claim in a recorded Public Service Announcement where they appeared together.
I met Merton last year at NewTeeVee Live where he spoke about his experience as a web celebrity and how he planned to further develop and evolve his improvisational social and musical style. Merton says that he's played piano and done improvisational music for a long time, but Chatroulette gave him the mass exposure to freestyle in real-time with random strangers and become a viral video phenomenon.
"What I'm into mostly is public piano playing. I like to set up a piano in a strange location where people are not expecting it, nontraditional, unorthodox audience situation. I like when somebody is just living their life thinking about "what groceries do I have to buy?" on the way home and all of a sudden here's a guy with a piano singing about them."Chatroulette: The Dark and Lighter Side
Chatroulette was created by a 17-year-old high school student named Andrey Ternovskiy and launched in November 2009 as a social video website akin to speed dating, where random strangers from around the world could connect for webcam conversations. The media became obsessed with the site for its prevalence of inappropriate content (e.g. naked guys) and Jon Stewart lampooned it on The Daily Show. Merton learned about Chatroulette from friends and while he knew about the objectionable content he still thought it would offer him a good opportunity to weave his musical talents with its unique interactions and random nature.
"On Chatroulette, I was always dealing with someone who had basically volunteered – they had a limited set of expectations, they knew they were logging onto this website, someone was going to show up on the other end – but in real life it's much more fun because they're not ready for it, they're not expecting it so I get a different king of interaction."Merton's Improvisational Musical Style
Merton only plays real pianos. He's not interested in synthesizers or organs and he doesn't bring a piano anywhere. He looks for them in weird places, like the hospital waiting room where people don't expect to be entertained and improvisation is a big part of what Merton does."Improvisation for me means making it all up on the spot. There's a lot of different interpretations of improv. A jazz improvisation usually is a set song with a chord sequence, and then you keep using the same chords but you play different stuff over it. Acting improv usually has a format. If you go see Second City Live, or something like that, they'll say let's do the Star Trek sketch, but let's let the audience decide what we're going to talk about. But they still have a framework. I'm interested in absolute pure improv where I'll sit down and someone says, play that Bon Jovi song, I'll play the Bon Jovi. If a guy in a plaid short walks up, I'll play the song about the guy in the plaid shirt. So, I'm interested in really free improv, I think especially because I'm not good at preparing for stuff, and so I walk in with a clean slate, no prep and I get to go from there. So I'm lucky I've become an improv musician."See Jeremy Scott's musical interview with Merton on Reel SEO for on his improvisational musical style: Reel Songs With Merton, PianoImprov Chatroulette Viral Video Star – Interview Conducted In Song.
PianoChatImprov = The Truman Show?
Merton says he loves to document and archive his experiences and is somewhat obsessive about it."I'm very nostalgic about personal memories. I love photos and videos of everything, and in all seriousness, as freakish as this sounds, if I could have a little camera running for every moment of my life I would definitely do that."Especially, he says that when dealing with strangers, they're a big part of the content. He doesn't think the public is that interested in just seeing him sit down in a plain room perform and make things up off the top of his head.
"The interactive component of what I do and the other person is a huge factor, they're my co-stars."He says when he's playing on the street or in a public context sometimes magic happens, he says, "and if the camera isn't running, it doesn't count. I don't get to show the results."
So when he's playing on the street he carries three cameras with him all the time and sets up three-point shooting.
"I love to capture the moment because I want to be able to watch it later and show it to people."
He says he doesn't actually like to be the center of attention but he does like to be a catalyst for making things happen. This has led him to several projects over the last year that took him to London and Montréal, where he worked with T-Mobile to play piano and sing to passengers at airports around the UK, and on streets of Montréal.
The Merton Show
Merton recently released his first solo piano music, called "The Montreal Song"available on iTunes: http://bit.ly/k1swwq and launched his weekly live, webcam show where fans can interact with him via chat and video. His advice to artists and performers looking to build their audience and expand their reach is to just do it.
"Video is huge and I don't know if I can say anything that hasn't already been said. But a picture is worth a thousand words but a video is worth a million pictures. If you think of a good friend who is no longer around or you get older and change, you have video of a moment of your life is worth so much. You know, you see the person, how they move, their mannerisms, how they speak and it's very different then looking at a photograph.
And so as far as being a performer, without video and Internet in particular, obviously, for somebody like me, I would never got a record deal. I probably never would have walked into a record office and said, here's my demo tape, here's my photo… But because I was able to make this humble little 5 minute video and put it in a place where millions of people could watch it. I was able to insert myself in the mainstream that way. So, I would encourage anybody who is a performer or artist to just do what you do. Put it on film or take pictures, put it on the Internet and people can find it."
Merton's related websites:
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Video is the Swiss Army Knife Of Internet Marketing - Mark Robertson, ReelSEO.com
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 Video Strategy
• Product videos
• How-to videos
• Brand marketing
• Internal communications
• Corporate culture
• User-generated product reviews (planned)
• Video reviews
• Customer service videos
“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 ManagerThe 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
Twitter @markrrobertson | Google Plus | Facebook | Linkedin | YouTube
Related
- See these related posts by Jen Fahey on VideoRetailer.org » Mark Robertson on why retailers should explore beyond the product video and on ReelSEO.com Video Marketing Advice For Retailers: Product Videos Alone Aren't Enough Anymore
- Visit the The VideoRetailer.org Blog to see more conversations from the 2011 Liveclicker Video Commerce Summit
Thursday, April 14, 2011
If You Publish It, Will They Come?
ReelSEO's Mark Robertson moderated the discussion and opened the session with new data from TubeMogul which pointed out that while Google is still generates the highest volume of video traffic from search, "referral traffic from Facebook and Twitter is growing faster than traditional engines as a source of video views."
Frank Sinton, of MeFeedia added that, "The portion of video watched when it has been recommended by a friend is significantly higher than viewing times for content found by search."
Mike Sommers of KickApps noted that the problem with video is that Google's search engine bots can't understand what video content is about as well as humans can. He said that search engine optimization (SEO) is evolving into friend engine optimization, "which is building your website in way that makes it sharable, that invites people to take our content, notify your friends about it and then drive traffic back to your website."
Patrick Starzan of Funny or Die, said that search is a bigger factor when it comes to their content being played and but social media media gives them more engaged viewers. He said, "Our optimization may be driven by top celebrities we've worked with-Lindsay Lohan searches yield Funny Or Die as one of the top "found" sites-but then viewers spend a lot of time browsing and viewing other videos."
Adam Singolda of Taboola, agreed that search and social media are both important and that said that publishers spend time optimizing their sites, "and look closely at the anchor videos which bring viewers to your sites, but remember that most sites-including those with interesting videos-are primarily still not video-centric sites."
Read more of Tim Siglin's article here and watch the video below for more of the discussion.
Speakers for this session include:
Mark Robertson, Founder, ReelSEO (Moderator)Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com, The Online Video Marketer's Guide, which provides news, tips and trends on the online video industry and video marketing. Mark speaks regularly at conferences, webinars and industry events sharing his extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Mark was previously the Director of Search for Freedom Communications and has worked with many newspaper and broadcast stations for optimization online content. Follow ReelSEO Video News (reelseo) on Twitter
Frank Sinton, CEO, MeFeediaMr. Sinton is responsible for product development, communications, advertising and media functions at MeFeedia. Before founding BeachFront Media, LLC/MeFeedia.com Mr. Sinton spearheaded the strategic technology vision at Sony Pictures Entertainment and was largely responsible for the search engine that powered the successful startup of Business.com ($340 million acquisition). Mr. Sinton is also the founder of Gotkidsnetwork.com, a parents social networking site. He received his B.S.in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University. Follow MeFeedia (mefeedia) on Twitter
Mike Sommers, EVP of Products, KickAppsAs Executive Vice President of Product Management, Mike oversees all of KickApps’ product management efforts. He has over 15 years experience building Internet products. Before joining KickApps, Mike was VP of Product Development for AOL Search. In his 7 years at AOL, he was also responsible developing a variety of rich media, search and community products. Prior to joining AOL Mike worked for a variety of Silicon Alley startups in New York City.
Mike has a B.A. degree from Columbia University. Follow KickApps (kickapps) on Twitter
Patrick Starzan, VP of Marketing, Funny or DieFunny or Die, www.funnyordie.com, is an award-winning website that has become one of the top destinations for comedy on the web. The site has averages over 5 million unique video views per month. With hundreds of exclusive celebrity videos and a steady stream of huge viral hits, Funny or Die has become the "place to be seen" for comedic celebrities, and the obvious destination for a daily comedy fix. Funny or Die's founders are Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy. Mr. Apatow is also a partner in Funny or Die. Follow Funny Or Die (funnyordie) on Twitter
Adam Singolda, CEO and Founder, TaboolaAs the chief executive officer of Taboola, Adam Singolda is leading the company business strategy, execution, and business development, while maintaining a unique company culture of competitiveness, quantitativeness, and innovation. Prior to founding Taboola, Adam served as an officer in a mathematical elite unit in the Israeli National Security Agency (I-NSA) for almost seven years. Adam’s focus in the unit was data-mining and “unsolvable problems.” His background uniquely prepares him to lead Taboola’s efforts toward technological advantage that focuses on scale and quantifiable value to publishers, advertisers and users. Adam is an honored alum of the IDF's elite "Mamram" computer-science training program, and he finished first in his class in the officer's academy of the IDF. Adam's vision for Taboola is to change the way people around the world discover the videos they like no matter where they are. Follow adam singolda (adamsingolda) and Taboola (taboola) on Twitter
The Online Video Platform Summit is a two-day event designed to help organizations of all types, not just those for whom video is their core business. Held on November 2-3 in conjunction with
Streaming Media West in Los Angeles, the Online Video Platform Summit is designed for video publishers of all types and sizes, whether small businesses looking to publish content for the first time, independent entertainment content creators, large media organizations, or anywhere in between.
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