Video Demos: Powerful, Effective, & Yet Still Pretty Rare
by Jeremy Scott
Published October 13, 2009

Jason Kincaid wrote something insightful over at Techcrunch today that I want to encourage you to read.  Aimed at helping businesses toward a better method of boiling down their pitch, the piece is called The Underutilized Power Of The Video Demo To Explain What The Hell You Actually Do.  (Hmm… maybe we could boil that title down a bit while we’re at it?)

The main thrust of the article is that more people should be using a simple, straightforward video demo to explain their core service or product.  And I have to agree.  In the YouTube age, there are a surprising number of web-related companies and startups that are curiously still ignoring video as a means to give an elevator pitch.

And all signs point to continued dominance of online video.  The masses are trained to look for video content—even salivating for it.  As much as traditional businessmen and classical English teachers don’t want to hear it, there are millions on the web who simply will not ever learn what you do if the only way for them to learn it is by reading text.

There’s a reason why more people are searching on YouTube than on any other site except for Google.  Video rules. It’s the ultimate in lazy learning.  “Content” is no longer king… he’s been overthrown by “Video Content,” his far more entertaining son.

Kincaid points to Dropbox as a positive example of the kind of video demo he’s entreating us all to create… and with good cause—Dropbox’s video was created by the gifted folks of Common Craft, who we’ve praised before, and its fantastic.
More than that, a demo video actually shows people what your product or service does, instead of merely describing it.  The late Billy Mays was a pitchman known for demanding one thing of the products he sold:  that they be demonstrable.  If you’re in business, then you have a product or service that is demonstrable.   You’ve got to show people why they should be moved to do business with you.  (Read full story)
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The Three Types of Online Video for Business
Eyeview - Daniel Sevitt
Published November 26, 2009

So much has changed about the way we absorb information in the past few years. Can you even remember what accessing the Internet was like ten years ago? In 1999 one of the most used features in Netscape’s Navigator was the ability to uncheck Autoload Images. Once you did that you would only get text, no pictures. Page load times were crucial as users were often paying per minute to their phone service provider in addition to whatever they were paying their Internet service provider.

Jump forward to 2004 and everyone was starting to sign up for broadband, but no one was watching video online, it was still too heavy. Short clips would be distributed via email inevitably resulting in your inbox getting clogged up trying to download 5 Mb attachments from the server.
Then in early 2006, things started to change – instead of video being attached to emails people started sending links to a mysterious new site called YouTube. Even more exciting was when people started sending links to sites and blogs other than YouTube that had embedded videos that were hosted by YouTube.

By the time YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in September 2006, everyone who used the Internet regularly had seen one of their videos. Once it became common practice for people to watch video online, it was only a short time before it became an essential part of the experience. As the commercial world started to exploit the power of the Internet for business, it became clear that online video would be co-opted into that fight and made available by almost every business with an online presence which, by 2009, meant every business.  (Read full story)


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Q:   “Is there a cost-effective way to utilize video for my business? ”

A:    Yes.  Even on a tight budget, a basic but well-produced video can leverage all the hard work you've put into developing your products or services.  The combined power of moving pictures, motion graphics, spoken words and music is compelling enough to get your prospects off the fence and start placing orders. Moreover, when you consider how many ways there are to share your video, or re-purpose it, the cost of producing a TV spot, for instance, no longer has to be amortized across the life span of the media buy. With a little planning (and re-editing) you can monetize the same content by utilizing concurrent campaigns like web video, e-newsletters, DVD, mobile devices, etc.  A great example of this is the Cush'n Shade project we're currently producing.  We shot at two locations for one full day, acquiring enough "footage" to produce 5-6  videos, each with it's own target message and unique content.  For a website, several strategically-placed shorter videos will do a much better job than one longer video that attempts to tell the whole story.

Q:  "How do I know what style of video is right for my business needs?”

A:    That depends on your business and whether you provide a service, sell a product, or both.  To get you thinking, consider the following:  who is your target audience and what it is you want them to know about you, your products or your services; how might you promote yourself without being too pushy; how much time does it takes to get your message across.  Next, you should choose the delivery methods such as e-newsletters, DVD, TV, mobile devices or social networks. Finally, you can decide how best to convey your message: testimonials, how-to videos, product demos, etc.  We can help you through this ‘discovery’ process with a free one-hour consultation.

IAB: Video Advertising Up 38% so Far This Year
NewTeeVee - Liz Gannes
Published October 05, 2009

Digital video advertising, in stark contrast to an expected dip for U.S. Internet advertising revenues in the first half of 2009 vs. 2008, has gone zooming off in the other direction. Overall, online ads are down 5.3 percent year-over-year, but video ads have grown 38 percent, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ quarterly report for the Interactive Advertising Bureau.  Video advertising has accounted for $477 million in revenue so far this year, or 4 percent of an overall $10.9 billion in online ads. That’s up from $345 million, or 3 percent of last year’s first-half total.

What we’d consider video advertising is actually broader than this segment. The IAB breaks out digital video advertising as a subset of display advertising. Considered separately within display is sponsorship, or “custom content and/or experiences created for an advertiser which may or may not include ad elements such as display advertising, brand logos, advertorial or pre-roll video.” That category brought in $184 million in the first half of 2009.

Meanwhile, U.S. broadcast television advertising was down 12.3% to $20.1 billion in the first six months of the year.

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