I ran across an interesting article about the myth that online video has to be short and attention spans on the web are shorter than Paris Hilton’s skirts. All the videos we make for aggregation on the web follow this principle of “shorter is better” – somewhere Ryan Seacrest has a small smirk on his face. Anyway, the below New York Times article says that the trends as of late are for longer longer online videos. What do you think? What’s your attention span online?
Archive for the 'online video' Category
02
Aug
09
Online Video – Size Does Matter
Arguably, Fed-Ex is one of the most recognizable brands out there. Their name is synonymous with overnight delivery – most people say “I’ll fed-ex that to ya,” they don’t say “I’ll UPS that to ya.”. And now, with what seems as the same sudden and quick pace in which they treat their deliveries, they have made some changes in how they are treating their television advertising dollars. Every year for the last twenty years, Fed-Ex has advertised on television during the biggest game of the professional football season – the super bowl. You could almost set your watch to it. Matter of fact, they have even had their tv spots rated “most memorable” and won several awards during that time. Well, not this year, my friend. Fed-Ex has decided that the Super Bowl isn’t so Super – at least for the money versus exposure….especially when they think they can get the same exposure through online video. Next Monday, Fed-Ex will introduce to the internet world the first online video in its new advertising campaign. They will have five three-minute short films featuring Fred Willard. Yes, the funny man that you recognize, but not from anything you can remember. Obviously, they hope to hit the elusive viral video gold mine.
The videos will appear on a dedicated YouTube channel, and on FedEx’s own Web site. Steve Pacheco, director of advertising at FedEx, said, “we’re still very involved in television…but digital advertising and communication is taking a bigger role in the overall plan, because we try to scale our media plan to be where our customers are.” (Source: N Y Times) But will that involvement include a future spot at the Super Bowl, doubtful considering the $3M price tag for a 30-second, one-time airing. The amount of advertising they can do online for that same amount is probably astronomical in relation. With a big brand like FedEx dipping it’s toes into the shallow end of the online video pool, does this mean other’s will follow? Overnight delivery is their bread and butter, but the results of their foray into online video advertising surely will not be determined as quickly.
14
Jul
09
Optimus Prime or Ed Asner?
I had been anticipating seeing the Tranformers sequel like a teenage boy anticipating his first car, minus the acne. So this past weekend, I grabbed my five year old son and headed to the cineplex. He too, had been anxiously awaiting the fist-pumping, shape-shifting, metal-on-metal, explosion-filled spectacle. Truth be told, I was really there for Megan Fox.
The movie was good, not life altering, but as advertised. After we finished watching Transformers, we snuck into “Up,” the latest Pixar creation, to attempt to bring the testosterone levels back down to an acceptable level to drive home. “Up” was a good movie as well. All in all, nice day at the movie theater, two movies – neither of which were the normal dismal experience.
So, later that night I asked my five year old son which movie he liked better and to my surprise – he went with “Up.” I asked him why and he said it had a better ‘series.’ So, I had to clarify what ‘series’ meant and after a little sleuthing on my end, what he meant was the ‘story.’
There’s a lesson here, folks. If a five-year old boy, who lives for the wham-boom-pow in everything, sees more value in a good story than the glitz; what does that mean for you? Well, I’ll tell you, wrap your product, brand or service around a story and you’ll win every time. Tell a story – a good one – engage your audience and watch the results. Hopefully, you’ll be as surprised as I was to my son’s choice in film. Even Megan Fox couldn’t sway him.
13
Feb
09
Joaquin Phoenix off his rocker
So, I saw Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman last night. Laughed through the whole thing. I had read in MovieMaker Magazine he was retiring from acting and starting a career as a hip-hop artist. I had actually seen him rapping (or barking by the sounds of it) on YouTube. Strange days indeed for Mr. Phoenix. As I watched him on Letterman, I couldn’t help think that maybe this was all a big joke, some kind of publicity stunt, but I can’t for the life of me think of what he is publicizing. Regardless, funny stuff. What do you think? Check it out:
Today we had a little creative round-table about a new campaign for one of our clients. The client expressed interest in creating a series of television spots that would engage the audience and create an anticipation for the next tv commercials in the campaign. Earlier in the year, we produced a spot for them in which a young man goes around town, showing up in everyday locations, and convinces people to go back to school – but with a full-blown, high energy pitch, his trusted easel in tow. Check out the behind the scenes shoot here:
The client loved the spots and they performed well, but wanted to build on it to include a reason for the audience to anticipate the next spot as well as motivate them to go to the website for more info, and, hopefully create a viral effect down the road. Their idea was to kill off the ‘easel guy’ at the end of every spot, a la Kenny from South Park. I personally love the idea, but don’t think it would work because it would hurt ‘easel guy’s” credibility. Springboarding off of that idea, I think we have come up with a great alternative to achieve this. Now, I don’t believe you can “plan” a viral campaign necessarily. However, you can include a lot of the things that you think might make it viral, and I think our spots will have that. But videos go viral for a ton of different reasons, and the most important is the community – your audience – whether or not they think the content is funny enough, shocking enough, relevant enough, or just plain stupid enough to send it to their friends. We will go for a little of it all – humor, shock and stupidity. Stay tuned.
19
Jan
09
Advertise on TV, Google-style!
Google does it again. If you like Google AdWords, and who doesn’t? They are now applying that same technology to traditional television advertising. Google is now offering an easy way for companies big and small to advertise on National TV. In simple terms, you can now use the basic functions that make AdWords so attractive to marketers – bidding on ad space, keyword driven, CPMs, data analytics – but for television and online video distribution. Now there is a low cost entry into advertising on television AND you get to almost instantly now how effective it is. Now, all you need is a tv spot and I know exactly where you can get one of those! Is this something you think you could use?
Clean, sparkling water. Here we are behind the scenes of our latest production, an online video educating the public about the harmful effects of unfiltered water and hard water in your home. Bad stuff. Get a water filter now.
Client: Pelican Technologies
08
Jan
09
Golden Era of Online Video
I believe we are on the verge of a golden era in online video -original content and advertising, much like the golden era of cinema and television that has long since past. I liken the current state of online video (and video for mobile devices) to the pre-golden era of cinema and television for several reasons.
Think about it.
We are in an experimental period much like these two well established mediums were in their infancy.
- Format?
Is 3 minutes too long for online viewing? Can I develop characters in two minutes or less? How often between releases of webisodes? In cinema, The first film shown publicly was of women exiting a factory – one shot. Not exactly worth repeat viewing. It took years to develop the concept of two hour, long-form narrative through editing. In the early years of television, most shows were variety shows, which were simply the visualizing of radio shows and vaudeville acts of the time. It took Lucille Ball to come along and develop a three-camera setup to shoot a story – creating sitcoms. Think about it, before the 1950’s, sitcoms didn’t exist. Now it’s a staple of television programming. The same will happen with online video, and has already begun – short, comedic webisodes and informative how-to videos seem to be prevailing.
- Monetizing online video?
Pre-rolls, Post-rolls, overlays, banner ads? In the early days of television, marketers would sponsor tv shows and Milton Berle would hold up an Alpo can and speak directly into the camera plugging the product. Dog food sold to the masses, but too obtrusive. Then someone decided to make 30 second breaks and develop a creative around a product to help build brand. They called it a commercial. Think about it. The 30 second tv commercial format hasn’t been around that long. It was developed during the golden age of television. That will happen with online video as well. But it will be much more targeted, trackable, and transparent.
Give your audience good content. Be transparent. Your audience will appreciate it, come back for more, grow, and in the end, buy what you are selling. The golden age of online video is right around the corner, are you ready?
According to ABI Research, the number of online video viewers will grow from 563 million at the end of 2008 to 941 million by 2013, as convergence, speeds and services increase their speed to market.
“All stakeholders in the online video ecosystem are eyeing the living room,” remarks ABI research director Michael Wolf. “With the continued adoption of network-connected video game consoles, …(and) services such as Hulu and Netflix onto third party consumer electronics devices…we see this market for TV-displayed online video continuing to grow.”
Great news! Not “oh crap, that’s a shock’ kinda news,” but added fuel to help convince my clients – online video is the future of marketing! Not to mention verifying there will be a sizable audience for the original webisodes and other content we are producing. I love tv, don’t get me wrong, I’ve made a living from it, and the web has quite a ways to go before it can provide my clients and our original entertainment the kind of reach tv can. But it’s not far off! For some of my clients, and you know who you are, it’s already arrived! It’s all about niche markets and accountability. So, let me know what you think. Are you using video on the web? Are you thinking about it? What’s stopping you?
