Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!

Looking forward to an exciting debut of our amazing new online video service in 2011!

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Online Video Marketing Tips

Producing, distributing and sharing video content isn't as quick or simple as we'd like it to be...until now. The "Hollywood" pros at VMakers has made producing quality custom videos easy!

Online video tips:
- Determine your objectives, prepare your creative brief, budget, time-line and plan all the details.

- Keep your videos short. Under 1 minute is perfect. The shorter the better, especially with everyones short attention span on the web. If you have a long video, make sure to break it up into individual chapters.

- Include your branding on all communications. A call to action is recommended also.

- Include your web address in your video description. When uploading content to YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing sites include your url before your description copy.  This will help generate leads and increase your visibility on Google's search ranking.

- Include a text summary when posting your video to blogs and/or websites. It can be as simple as a list of key points or a short descriptive paragraph. Again, this will help with search engine visibility.

- Enable sharing with links and embed code for others to distribute for viral opportunities.

- Make sure your video represents your business and brand properly.

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Social Media ROI: Socialnomics



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comScore Announces Video Rankings for November - StreamingMedia.com

comScore Announces Video Rankings for November - StreamingMedia.com

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10 Reasons Facebook Video Marketing Is Valuable For Business

Here’s 10 reasons you should definitely consider Facebook as part of your online marketing mix
  1. Audience – Facebook is the 2nd largest trafficked website, with over 500 million active users.
  2. Referrals – Facebook is the 2nd largest referral source for video.
  3. Mobile – 150 million active users take Facebook with them everywhere they go.
  4. Time – Many people spend a lot more time on Facebook than on Google
  5. Versatility – Many video formats are supported for uploading
  6. Length – Facebook allows up to 20 minutes, 5 minutes more than YouTube
  7. Connectivity – A wide range of sharing features and engagement opportunities. While Facebook doesn’t let you share it’s content onto other social networks (like YouTube and Twitter), because of its large member base, you will certainly have many more connections from the onset that may lead to better sharing potential.
  8. Search Engine Visibility – Facebook videos are visible within Google Search.
  9. SMO (Social Media Optimization) – Excellent keyword encoding (aka, “tagging”) capabilities.
  10. Conversions – Hot triggers around the video for taking an intended action.

Facebook Value Vs. YouTube?

facebook vs youtube 10 Reasons Facebook Video Marketing Is Valuable For Business
If you’re only going by video alone, we could probably mention 50 reasons why YouTube is a more robust and valuable platform for video than Facebook. However, as an overall marketing platform, Facebook is arguably more valuable than YouTube for many businesses. So while we would not treat Facebook video as an equivalent business value to YouTube – we completely agree that it should be a place for businesses to upload videos. At ReelSEO, we try to upload all of ours because they do show in search engine listings.

Video Marketing In Facebook – Better Business Opportunity?

Michael Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com explains the power of Facebook.

One of the things that most people don’t realize is how much time people spend on Facebook. According to the traffic ranking information service Alexa, Facebook is the second largest website in the world, with over 500 million active users; also, Facebook is the 2nd largest referral source for online video – just behind Google.

If you think about it, people today spend a lot more time on Facebook than they do on Google. Some of the Nielsen studies I’ve seen show that people are spending an average of seven hours a month on Facebook; that’s a lot of time spent.

Also, According to recent findings by market researcher Morpace, U.S. Facebook users are on the site for 1 of every 3 minutes of time spent online. Users 18 to 34 years old spend the most time on the site per week (8.5 hours out of 22.4 spent online). Users 55 and older spend an average of 4.6 hours per week on Facebook.

So if you think about the fact that people are on there that much, it opens up an incredible opportunity for a business to try to get in front of these 500 million active users; and what’s even more exciting is that about 150 million of them take Facebook with them everywhere they go – on a mobile device like an iPhone, iPad, or an Android device.

Facebook is one of the top sources for consumed video (and photography as well). We also know that many people on Facebook are constantly checking out what’s going on with their favorite friends, and also their favorite brands. This represents a huge opportunity to capture eye-share with videos in particular on Facebook. One of the hottest ways to just get your business noticed today is to use Facebook, and of course to leverage video marketing in there as well.

Recording Video Directly In Facebook – Good Or Bad?

The first thing is how video is integrated directly into the interface of Facebook. When you put in an update on Facebook, there’s an option to click to record a video. The downside of it is most people don’t use it, and those who have used it have had kind of a mixed response. Facebook can capture the video directly from your computer’s webcam, but doing that results in very poor technical quality; somehow they’re running the video through algorithms that makes it look just hideous. But the upside is it does allow people to record spontaneous video responses to comments on Facebook, and that’s kind of an exciting thing.

Linking YouTube Videos In Facebook Vs. Uploading

Mike: The other confusing thing about video with Facebook is whether or not to use YouTube links or whether or not to actually upload video directly into Facebook. Facebook has done something kind of interesting: If you go ahead and embed a link to YouTube, it will embed the player directly into the Facebook feed. Somebody can actually watch that video through Facebook, force-fed from YouTube just like if you were putting it up on a blog.

But the more powerful aspect is actually uploading the video directly to Facebook. Facebook has the ability to support a lot more formats and has a lot longer formats where YouTube is I think it’s now up to about 15 minutes, Facebook can go significantly longer. (20 minutes.)

The other cool thing about Facebook video is that people can easily share Facebook videos, where they cannot easily share YouTube videos. And in Facebook, others can not only comment on a video, they can also “like” a video (which will then show up in their own Wall page, aka Facebook home page), and can tag a video with their own keywords; and there’s a lot of other cool stuff.

Embedding Video In Your Facebook Page – “Secret Sauce”

Another powerful Facebook business strategy with video. Let’s say you have a business with a Facebook “fan” page, with a video uploaded to that page. Now, someone on Facebook – who is not yet one of your fans – can still watch that video’ and if they hover their mouse over the video there’s a button that says “like”, and they can become a fan of your Facebook page, just by clicking that button inline while they’re watching the video. It’s kind of the secret sauce to gaining fans. Intel corporation does this quite a bit on it’s own Facebook site. It’s really a very easy way to gain fans because if they really like a video, they can click on it; and they think they’re just liking the video, but they actually now become fans of your fan page, and that future engagement opportunity is there.

Tagging Videos In Facebook – SMO “Social Media Optimization”

The good news about Facebook video is you do have a lot of encoding keyword encoding capabilities, just like you do with YouTube. When you have a video with other people in it, if you’re friends with them you can tag them just like you can do with a photograph. Most people don’t realize that in the videos on Facebook, you can tag people in the videos as keywords, and add your own keywords.

What’s really cool about that is when you do tag someone in your video, then that video actually shows up on their wall for their friends. And it’s not just for videos of people. I believe you can also tag videos of businesses as well, which is another powerful thing.

Powerful Facebook Video Marketing Tip: Video Landing Pages

If you have a Facebook page you can set up what’s called a landing page on Facebook. What I’ve seen a lot of businesses do is record a welcome video, where it’s usually a talking head of the company welcoming them to the actual fan page, and sometimes pointing up and saying, “if you like our page please click the like button.” So the Facebook landing page is actually encouraging the viewer to act through the spoken talking heads in the video telling them what to do.

We found the engagement and conversion to be very, very high because you’re actually telling people what to do in video. That’s a little but powerful tip with video on Facebook, that most people don’t realize you can do.
-Grant Cowell, ReelSEO and Social Media Examiner

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Tutorial: How-to Add/Embed Video On A LinkedIn Profile Page

Tutorial: How-to Add/Embed Video On A LinkedIn Profile Page

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How Businesses Can Overcome Fear of Video Syndrome - Video Psychology 101

How Businesses Can Overcome Fear of Video Syndrome - Video Psychology 101

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How Technology & Social Media Helps Drive The Rise Of Online Video

How Technology & Social Media Helps Drive The Rise Of Online Video

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Monday, December 20, 2010

VMakers Official Debut 2011

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

"SuperHero" Video Produced by VMakers Now Online!



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"I'm Back in the Game" Video Produced by VMakers Now Online



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5 Tips for Successful Online Videos

Online professional videos are great for educational, informational and promotional purposes. The videos you publish must represent your business properly and enhance your brand and message. Don't risk your company's reputation. Make sure to keep these 5 essential tips in mind:

1. Prepare
- Project Description
- Background
- Communication Objective(s), Primary and Secondary
- Target Audience
- Audience Current Behavior
- Audience Desired Behavior
- Positioning
- Tonality
- Features and Benefis
- Timing
- Executional Guidelines
  What equipment, locations and talent are needed?
- Support, i.e. other marketing initiatives, follow-up, etc.

2. Plan
- Concept Development
- Formats
- Script Writing
- Directing
- On-Screen Talent
- Voice Over
- Graphics, Animation/Motion
- Music
- Editing

3. Publish
- Host the video on your website and/or blog for optimum SEO visibility.
- Upload to the online video sharing sites including YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo, eHow and others. TubeMogul is a great resource for submissions to multiple video sharing sites.
- Be consistent and publish new videos regularly to build and maintain your audience.

4. Promote
- Make your videos "share" friendly with the right video player.
- Email the video to others.
- Offer code so others can embed or link to your video from their website or blog.
- Optimize the content, i.e. description, tags, keywords, etc.
- Encourage audience participation. Mention your videos on social sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr. Encourage people to comment on your videos.
- Comment on other blogs and social networking sites on topics or discussions that relate to your own video. Include a URL to the video on your website.
- Submit news releases. Online services such as PRWeb.com will embed your video in the release, which gets picked up in the search engines.

5. Performance Tracking
- Measure what's working.
- Check your website analytics.
- Check YouTube's Insights.
- Check Facebook's Insights.
- Measure audience engagement levels and feedback.
There are many companies that offer performance metrics, both fee and free. Contact us for a list.

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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Social Video Advertising Soars In 2010, Study Shows

2010 was the year social video advertising officially arrived, according to new research from Web video analytics firm Visible Measures.

Indeed, categories that produced millions of views in 2009 generated hundreds of millions in 2010, while the number of active brands in social video advertising more than doubled.

In particular, campaigns like Old Spice's The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, Nike's Write the Future, and Pepsi's Oh Africa captured the attention of audiences across the world.

Overall, the number of brands participating in social video advertising exploded. In 2009, fewer than 450 brands launched social video ad campaigns, while that number more than doubled this year to reach nearly 1,000 brands.

In 2009, the industry saw less than 700 social video campaigns, including Evian's Roller Babies, T-Mobile's Dance, Cadbury's Eyebrow Dance, and Volkswagen's Fun Theory.

In 2010, however, social video advertising was home to 1,800+ campaigns -- a 180% increase year-over-year.

What's more, social video campaigns generated 820+ million views and 1.5 million comments in 2009, while in 2010, these numbers increased to 2.7 billion views -- a jump of over 3.3X -- and 4.4 million comments.

In 2010, other participating brands included McDonald's, Burger King, Coke, Nike, Adidas, Walmart, Target, Verizon, AT&T, Ford and Volkswagen, to name a few.

The most-watched category of the year was health and beauty, which collected over 390 million views -- 14% of all social video advertising in 2010.

This is in large part thanks to Old Spice, which inspired over 180 million views for the year. Nearly 70 million of these views come from their revolutionary Responses campaign. By comparison, the entire health and beauty category attracted just 44 million views in 2009.

Yet, as more brands incorporate social video advertising into their marketing mix, the competition only continues to escalate, making it more difficult for brands to separate themselves from the pack and stand out to their target audiences, according to Visible Measures.

These trends are likely to continue into 2011, according to the firm. As more audiences come online and watch social video, we'll see more brands, more campaigns, and more competition, all in efforts to influence consumer choice. -
Gavin O'Malley, MediaPost

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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

How to Promote Your VMakers Videos on Twitter

-Add a Hashtag
Hashtags are Twitter’s way of organizing or tagging tweets. Simply add a “#” before your tag. To tag your tweet as “hair stylist” type “#hairstylist.” Remove all spaces. After your VMakers video is on your website, tweet a link to it with a hashtag.
-Add Your Name/Business to WeFollow
WeFollow is a directory of Twitter users organized by interests. Add your Twitter account to WeFollow and get discovered.
-Upload Your Video to TwitVid
TwitVid lets you to upload your videos and tweet them.
- Shorten Links
Twitter allows 140 characters. Use tiny.url or Bit.ly to shorten links.
-Follow Us @VMakersLA
Get tips, industry trends and ask questions. Include “@VMakersLA” in your tweets to keep us posted.

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How to Hire a Video Production Company and Increase Profits

VMakers.com - Custom.Web.Videos
It may seem overwhelming with so many video companies claiming to offer all sorts of features, pricing packages and the "best" productions. Not only do you need a video production company with skilled technicians, state-of-the-art equipment, technology and experience, but it's important to have a team who knows how to craft a compelling and engaging message to motivate prospective customers. Don't be lured by price alone. You get what you pay. The videos you distribute must represent your business properly and enhance your brand and message. Don't risk your company's reputation.

Where to start:
- Get referrals from business associates, advertising agencies, and friends.
- Research referrals and video production companies online:
  review samples/reels, experience, testimonials and contact their clients.
- Contact a select few candidates. Meet in person or contact them via email or phone.
- Discuss your ideas with these candidates. Tell them your objectives and what you have in mind.
- Get rate and payment information, time-lines and deliverables.
- Inquire about ancillary services, i.e. distribution, web site integration, social media, advertising, etc.

Make sure your video production company:
- Has marketing and advertising experience.
- Provides sound strategic solutions.
- Is creative.
- Employs a variety of visual techniques.
- Provides excellent audio and visual effects, graphics and voice-over and/or on-screen talent.
- Knows how to prepare and distribute your video to multiple channels-online and offline.
- Has a reel/portfolio.
- Fits with all your requirements.
- Adds value to your business.

Ready to increase your profits?

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New Video Posted! The Virtual Revolution.



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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Mobile Video Users Grows

Users of mobile video continue to grow -- as does the time spent watching video -- but it's still a small piece of the overall mobile phone user population. In the second quarter, Nielsen says there was a 43% increase in people who have watched video on mobile device -- some 22 million. This represents about 10% of all mobile phone users, which stood at 229.4 million in the second quarter of this year -- a number that has climbed 4% over a year ago.
Monthly time spent among mobile subscribers watching video was three hours thirty-seven minutes, a 11.3% gain over the year before. That amounts to 22 more minutes in the second quarter 2010 versus the same period the year before.
The biggest users of mobile subscribers were teens 13-17, taking in some seven hours and 13 minutes a month of video; 18-24 users were next, with 4:20; followed by 25-34 users, at 3:37; 35-49 users at 2:53; adults 50-64 at 2:10; those 65 and older, 1:48; and persons 13 years and older (the entire mobile population) at 3:37.
Looking at overall share among each group, 25-54 users comprised 30% of all video usage; 35-49 was next, at 25%; then 13-17 users, 18%; 18-24 users, 15%; 50- to-64-year-olds, 11%; and 65-plus, 2%.
Overall, men use mobile video more than women -- 55% to 45%.
-Wayne Friedman, MediaDailyNews
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

2011 - Top 7 Online Video Trends

1.     Branded entertainment will see even more explosive growth. It's no secret - it's becoming increasingly difficult to reach the consumer via a 30-second advertisement. Even YouTube is now giving the consumer the option to skip a commercial in certain cases. As consumers are given these options, advertisers are going to have to become more nimble in their approach to advertising their products. That's why in 2011, branded entertainment will see even more explosive growth. Advertisers will realize that seamlessly integrating their message into online video in a way that adds value to the content will become the ideal way to generate brand awareness amongst consumers.
2.     Low-end Web advertising will die. Somewhere along the way, advertisers forgot that integrating quality content into every online ad will likely drive significantly higher return metrics and deepen engagement.  In 2011, look for more Web publishers to follow the lead of cutting-edge publishers like Gawker to provide advertisers with larger avenues to deliver relevant ads.
3.     More celebrities will find their way to the Web. Celebrities looking for more freedom than afforded by the traditional broadcast television model will turn to online video to make their dream projects happen. Keep an eye out for some major A-list celebrities to make the move in 2011, perhaps finally bringing about the "I Love Lucy" moment we discussed last month.
4.     "Smart reach" will make its way into every forward-thinking agency's RFPs. Agencies will finally realize in 2011 that it's not all about demographics anymore -- it's about "smart reach." Getting to consumers with engaging, relevant content at the right time and in the right places will be a priority for agencies looking to get the most out of their ad spend.
5.     "Snackable" video content will find even more competition from quality long-form content. Snackable, use- generated videos are not dead by any means, but they're going to find significant competition from well-made, long-form original online Web content.  We learned this year that when excellent content is broadcast over the Web, viewers will watch.  For example, DBG-produced ControlTV enjoyed record engagement numbers, with viewers sticking around for over 25 minutes at a time. Expect these numbers to rise in 2011 as more entertaining and engaging long-form content finds its way to the Web.
6.    The average TV viewer will increasingly become screen-agnostic. TV viewers won't care where they get their video fix in 2011. The introduction of Hulu PLUS and the increasing popularity of streaming services such as Netflix will give rise to a TV viewer more concerned about what they're watching as opposed to what they're watching it on.
7.     Expect mobile video to grow. As mobile networks continue to improve their networks and video networks expand to include mobile, the amount of high quality video content that can be transmitted to mobile phones will increase exponentially. As this happens, look for marketers to target mobile users specifically with exclusive content.
-Chris Young, MediaPost

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Google - The Early Years

An interview with Marissa Mayer.
Check out our new video!



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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Why Use Video on Your Website?

People look for moving images when they come to your website, and video is a mark of professionalism as well as customer integration. Differentiating your business in the marketplace is crucial.

Get fast, effective and affordable custom videos for your website.
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Video or Print? What Sells?

How effective are you at generating leads and converting them into sales?
Have you been relying on white-papers, webinars and collateral for lead acquisition? These are all fine, but there’s a way to get more for your marketing dollars.

Did you know video posted to your company site and your YouTube channel can convert prospects and bring in new leads more effectively than the seminar you’re thinking of doing?
Your web site reaches more customers than any other medium, but it can be hard making your business come to life with only words and still images. Online video is the best way to captivate your audience because it conveys emotion, story and visual beauty.

Why video:
- Video sells. 21% of video viewers make a purchase. (BIA/Kelsey User View Study, February 2010).
- Your website is 50x more likely to appear on the first page of Google with video on your web page (Forrester Research, January 2010).
- Video features the qualities that differentiate your business – capturing the attention of current and potential customers.
It’s time to reassess what marketing channels you are using, how effective they are and what market leaders are doing. Go beyond collateral and use the power of video to engage and sell.
First make sure you address the following:
- Listen to your customers, competitors and industry leaders.
- Monitoring your brand.
- Address your customers’ pain points and challenges.
- Engage in a two way dialogue with your customers.
- Put your content in the right channels.
-Make sure your message reaches the right audience.
Test and measure to determine the most effective content and marketing channels. Then devote your time, money and effort to reap the rewards.

For fast, easy and affordable custom video production for any size business call VMakers.
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Monday, November 22, 2010

Why Video Should Be a Major Part of Your Marketing Mix

We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in which everything we know about content sites is changing. Just as television rose to rapid dominance in the traditional media world, online video is now rising to dominance in the digital media world. Increasingly, the Web is about video -- not text, not pictures.
Video is an inherently powerful way to tell a story. This, of course, also makes it an effective way to communicate an advertising message. It's about entertainment value and emotional appeal.
Online video is, in fact, rapidly becoming an entertainment genre in its own right. One of the indicators of this phenomenon is that young adults have dramatically increased their consumption of online video, especially short-form premium content, in the past year. They are now relying on this medium as a primary source for information about and access to the entertainment content they've long been passionate about: movies, video games, music, sports and TV.
This audience, which we refer to as "Entertainment Drivers," is composed of 18- to 34-year-olds who are early adopters, enthusiasts and influencers. Their tastes and preferences typically have a dramatic impact on entertainment choices, media consumption patterns and consumer purchasing trends across demographic groups. They define pop culture and determine breakout hits. Their consumption of online video today has immediate and long-range implications for brand advertisers.
The new 2010 Magid Media Futures study, conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates, reveals some important insights into today's Entertainment Drivers, consumer behavior and preferences in online video, and the reasons brand marketers should consider online video an important part of their media mix.
WHO: Viewers aged 18 to 24 have the most voracious appetite for online video, with 85% of males and 68% of females now watching online video weekly (representing a 15% and 27% increase over 2009 respectively).
WHAT: Three out of four Internet users watch some type of short professionally produced videos online regularly, with the highest percentage among 18- to 34-year-olds (83% of males and 75% of females).
WHEN: Half of Internet users now watch online video weekly or more frequently, up from 43% in 2009.
WHERE: 38% of respondents are interested in connecting their computer to a TV to watch online videos, with young men far outpacing this average (56% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 49% of 25- to 34-year-olds).
WHY: Short professional online videos rival TV shows in entertainment value, with 31% of respondents finding them equally or more entertaining than watching full-length TV shows on a television.
So what does this all add up to for today's marketers? An important shift in the way they connect with the influential consumers who define pop culture, and impact media consumption patterns across demographic groups. Today's Entertainment Drivers consider online video a primary form of entertainment, making it an integral part of the marketing mix for brand advertisers.
-Erick Hachenburg, Video Insider

Find out how to use video in your marketing, contact:
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The Secret to Boosting Sales

The secret ingredient to improving your chances of getting noticed and giving your sales a boost is video production!

Savvy companies are leveraging the power of video production.
But what makes video so effective?

Videos are engaging, eye-catching and can grab your visitor's attention like no other medium. As an additional benefit, uploading a video on your website will increase visibility on the major search engines, improving your site's SEO.

If your website had a powerful video that allowed visitors (and potential customers) to just sit back and watch all the benefits your business offers, wouldn't that differentiate you from you competitors?

Implementing a well thought out promotional video can get you noticed faster than the written word. 


Video production gives your visitors what they want - visual stimulus, graphics, easy-to-understand dialogue and motion... a very powerful sensory combination. However, it is important to make sure that you remember to include the details about your business, the offer(s) and how your products or services can help the viewer. Make sure your visitors know they need you and they need your products and/or services.

Video production is a highly effective marketing tool that will bring your business to the forefront of the internet, and will engage your potential customers by giving them the information they want in an easy to digest format. Why would anyone want to go through loads of websites and read page after page of content when they can just watch your video? It's a no-brainer.

VMakers provides creative digital communications from the "Hollywood" experts. The pros behind Ellen, Seinfeld, $#*! My Dad Says, How I Met Your Mother, Better With You, The Disney Channel and more. From video production to motion design, animation, web development and branding, VMakers produces unique content designed to engage viewers and boost sales.

For more information on how video will enhance your online business performance, visit http://www.VMakers.com.

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Friday, November 19, 2010

Where do you rank on the Search Engines and SERPs?

Discover how video can get you better results on Google, Yahoo and Bing.
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How to Increase Video Views

Video CPMs are the one of the highest revenue sources for Web publishers (versus display and BT ads), and for the first time in many years, advertiser demand is higher than publisher supply. This year the video advertising market is estimated to cross $1 billion, and consolidation is well underway. Clearly there is a lot of movement into the video space, and one of the key questions is: "How can publishers generate more supply and tap into this exploding market?"

Two things publishers should focus on:
(1) Promote, promote, promote videos across your site. If you look at comScore and Google Analytics, most of the sites on the Web have many more page views (articles, homepage, images, etc) than they have video views -- usually a ratio of at least 20 to1. Converting even 2% from non-video to video content can create a 40% increase in your video views, which provide higher revenue. Promoting videos across your site will help you get users to watch the very first video (the "anchor video) where you can then encourage users to watch more videos. It is not easy to get users to click on a video recommendation from a non-video page, but some sites are doing a good job of it, like  Bloomberg or About.com, both article-oriented sites, among others.

(2) Build viewership outside of your site ASAP. There is much you can do to increase viewership leveraging your own site traffic. Let's say you're able to even triple your views by promoting videos across your site -- which can be rewarding, but what if you could increase them 5x-10x over what you have today? The only way is to transition from leveraging not only your own site traffic, but also leveraging the entire Web. You can do that by promoting your videos to sites that don't have videos but have massive traffic. Some users on those third-party sites would convert through your video content, creating a secondary type of "anchor videos" on another site. Start as soon as you can. Here are different ways to do this:

Syndication platforms: This usually means you will upload your videos to third-party platforms or sites, which will generate views on your content using their video player. They will sell ads against your videos and share some of that revenue with you. Examples are AOL, YouTube, CineSports and others. Some minuses are that in most cases you are not selling the ads, hence are losing a direct relationship with your advertisers, and if you have aspiration to have users relate to your player experience, it will not happen. However, you will win video views you don't have access to today.

Distribution platforms: This is essentially the next generation of embedded videos as you know them. In this case you will offer third-party sites, from blogs to large traffic sites, the opportunity to embed your video player so that they can match their articles to relevant videos of yours in real time. For example, ,a third-party site featuring an article about fixing a tire will automatically offer videos about the same topic from your inventory. When people watch your videos on a third-party site they will watch it using your homegrown player, and with your ads. One minus is that you will need to promote this service/widget to third-party bloggers and sites that don't have videos, much as you offer sites to embed your videos today.

In summary, the Web is becoming heavily distributed, and users are consuming content wherever they are -- not necessarily on your video section or even your site. As a video content owner, you want to develop the awareness across your site that you have good videos, as well as partner with syndication/distribution platforms to offer users who don't know about your videos, ones they "might like" from your inventory.

Do that and you will build competitive advantage, and increase your business.
- Adam Singolda, MediaPost

Online Video Leads Online Advertising

According to the results of its inaugural survey of leading U.S.-based online publishers by BrightRoll, video advertising is outpacing other forms of online advertising by at least 25%, say two-thirds of the respondents. Citing the medium's interactivity and ability to engage online audiences, 63% of publishers expressed optimism about the category's future, predicting higher CPMs leading into 2011.
BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti, says "As consumers continue to... engage with video online, advertisers are being forced to respond in kind and to shift campaign dollars... online video... offers interactivity, targeting and verifiable reporting that print and broadcast do not... "
Additional key findings from the report include:
    •    Pre-roll is still viewed as the most effective video ad unit: 94% of publishers who had used the unit said it met or exceeded their expectations.
    •    32% of respondents indicate targeting as online video's most valuable trait.
    •    Standardization (45%), interruption of user experience (33%) and lack of advertisers (29%) were among publishers' primary concerns.
    •    According to publishers, the most acceptable forms of targeting are content (73%), demographic (71%) and deep geographical (61%). Retargeting (41%) received the least support among publishers.
Publishers voiced some concerns about working with online video ad networks including standardization concerns, difficulty of integration and higher implementation times than those associated with display networks. However, many of these are reflective of the general concerns with the online video advertising industry as whole. Some general industry concerns also include interruption to the user experience (33%), integration with third parties (29%), lack of advertisers (29%), metrics (20%) and cost (10%).
According to the publishers specific concerns, voiced by their brand partners, 33% said reach, and 26% think targeting capabilities, are the most significant concerns held by brands, highlighting room for improvement in these areas.
Pre-roll continues to be viewed as the most effective means to reach consumers with 94% reporting preroll units with companion banners either met or exceeded their expectations. Removing the companion banner had some effect on performance, with 85% reporting met or exceeded expectations using preroll alone. Expandable, in-banner and overlay video trailed slightly, with 81%, 76% and 60% of respondents rating them as meeting or exceeding expectations, respectively.
88% percent of those surveyed indicated that their clients would be more likely to increase spending on online video if they had research demonstrating its efficacy. Additionally, 52% of respondents from BrightRoll's agency survey said that their clients had previously asked about research into the effectiveness of online video advertising. These findings further emphasize the need for credible research particularly pertaining to individual campaigns as a means to help advertisers optimize future campaign spend for maximum impact.
As online video advertising continues to mature, standardization is becoming increasingly important for the success of the industry's growth and development. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), along with publishers, advertisers, ad networks and other industry stakeholders have answered the calls for video standards with two initiatives: Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) and Digital Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions (VPAID).
According to the IAB, VAST is designed to standardize communication protocol between video players and servers, while the VPAID standard is intended to meet the needs of emerging in-stream ad formats such as both non-linear video ads and interactive video ads, aiming to address the known interoperability issues between a publisher's video player and different ad technology.
The major players in online video have responded by largely accepting standardization efforts. BrightRoll's publisher survey shows nearly 78% of publishers claim to be VAST compliant, and 69% said their systems are VPAID compliant. Of the publishers surveyed, 77% responded that their sites were compliant with both VAST 1.0 and 2.0, 14% said they are VAST 1.0 compliant only, with 8% VAST 2.0 compliant only.
The majority of survey respondents (63%) predicted that CPMs would be higher in the second half of 2010 leading into 2011. Such forecasts are a testament to online video advertising's growing viability, but respondents also suggested that search would reign supreme, possibly generating the highest revenue in 2011. Respondents pinpointed several other areas of anticipated revenue generation, including mobile, rich interactive media and in-game video, highlighting video's trend toward monetizing non-video content. Survey respondents feel in-banner display will edge out both in-banner video and in-stream video (pre-roll and mid-roll) as revenue generators in 2011.
The report concludes by noting that although 2010 began with falling CPMs and economic uncertainty, publishers have expressed optimism for the future, predicting CPMs will rise in 2011 and online video will outpace all other forms of online advertising by nearly 25%. Looking at both the agency side and publisher side survey results, it becomes clear that both sides agree: standardization efforts, technology innovation, effective targeting capabilities, verifiable reporting tools and mobile applications will be the factors that drive growth for 2011 in the online video advertising industry.
-Jack Loechner, MediaPost

How to Get Found Online with Videos

Confused about video?
Good news, you aren't the only one.

Why Video is Important

Videos help you rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) on Google and YouTube (the second largest search engine in the world behind Google-the parent company). YouTube has over 2 billion videos watched per day with tons more uploaded daily!

Not only do you show up better in the search results page, more and more people are viewing video content from computers, mobile devices and television. Your business has a much better chance of getting found if it has a video on YouTube as well as other web site, i.e. Vimeo, your website.

Make Video a Priority
It will increase business and build a competitive advantage. It's easier than you think. Do it yourself with a camcorder or hire professionals like VMakers.

How to Get Started
- Research. Search for videos and related products and/or services online. Look for ideas and trends.
- Get creative and generate ideas for content.
- Establish the format and length. Make sure your video isn't too long. Most videos lose viewers after 10 seconds.
- Create a channel on YouTube and Vimeo - they're easy and free. Upload your videos (instructions are provided online) to YouTube, Vimeo and your website.
- When uploading videos optimize the title, description and tags. Use targeted and relevant keywords, similar to meta data of a website. Don't keyword stuff.
- Use analytics to track your videos.

Get started now. Contact VMakers at 888-712-8211 or info@VMakers.com