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:
VMakers
888.712.8211
info@Vmakers.com

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.

VMakers
888.712.8211
info@Vmakers.com

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.
Call VMakers 888.712.8211 or info@Vmakers.com

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