Guerrilla Video

Watching video is becoming age neutral

2009-06-16T03:28:00.000-07:00

According to Nielsen Online, YouTube continued to rank as the No. 1 video Web brand with 5.5 billion total streams in April 2009. During this month, people between the ages of 35 and 49, was the fastest growing demographic in time spent viewing per viewer, increasing 29% during the past six months.

This blog posting discusses the issues of the changing demographics of Web video users. Dick Stroud

The rise of interactive video and its implications for online marketing

2009-06-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

An interesting article.

According to comScore's US video metrics, 14.5bn online videos were watched during March 2009 - a massive 11% increase from February. The UK is probably exhibiting the same level of growth.

This article considers the implications of this massive growth and its impact on consumer expectations about their online video experience. The more people watch on line the higher their expectations.

I guess it is like the early days of the Web when animated graphics seemed amazing stuff – amazement rapidly moved to indifference that quickly changed to boredom before ending up in annoyance. There are lessons for us to remember when considering the way Web video will develop. Dick Stroud

Creating Persuasive Interactive Video for E-Commerce

2009-06-16T02:51:00.000-07:00

The author of this blog posting asks the question: “should video interactivity be applied to e-commerce video”? His answer is that interactive techniques should be applied to video when shoppers are both highly motivated to engage in a behaviour we trying to drive (usually, but not always, this is a purchase), and when those same shoppers simultaneously have a high ability to complete the behaviour.

This all sounds a tad academic but the details of the posting explain all. A really good contribution to our knowledge about Web video. Dick Stroud

Google partners with agencies to research online video

2008-11-03T03:38:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting development.

Google is seeking to increase its understanding of how users consume Web video and interact with advertising. To improve the company’s insight it will be working with agencies, focusing on YouTube.

Google is also working on an incentive programme for agencies to encourage buying across the company's video display network, and so drive Web video advertising growth and develop scalable and effective campaigns.

This development is to be welcome but hopefully all concerned realise that YouTube type hosting and delivery is yesterday’s use of video. Still very interesting, but it is looking backward rather than to the future.

Still you can’t blame the company trying to sell more ads. Dick Stroud

Do's and Don'ts of Online Video Advertising

2008-07-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

Two things. Firstly, the Web video report can now be found as part of AdAge.

Secondly, the most recent edition contains an article about web video advertising from the marketing director of Turnhere the company I reckon will make a fortune from the Web video revolution.

It is a short sharp punchy article so I will not do it the disservice of trying to summarise. Just read it. Dick Stroud

YouTube tests geo video search

2008-07-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

YouTube is apparently trying to improve its search features. It seems the company plans to broadly add geographic search to the site so that people can find video clips tagged with specific locations, according to a report from the blog NewTeeVee.

The company is already testing the geographic search feature by including a thumbnail of Google Maps in a search for a specific location, e.g. "London techy events," along with related videos from the area. People can also move the location dot on a Google Map to see new related videos in that area.

Over a year ago, YouTube began allowing people who uploaded videos to tag clips with a location. But the company had yet to offer the ability to search videos by geography. Meanwhile, Google Earth had started giving people links to location-specific videos in a YouTube layer.

Video and the future of the Internet

2008-06-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

How many people would want to take the time to download from YouTube and listen to a three-year-old reciting the plot of the first Star Wars movie. Seven million people.

That is small beer compared with watching "The Evolution of Dance" on YouTube (87 million downloads) which is equivalent to transmitting 250,000 DVDs' worth of data across the Internet. Wow.

YouTube is just the tip of the iceberg. Netflix now streams videos to its subscribers over the Internet, and both Amazon and Apple's iTunes sell movies and episodes of TV shows online. Peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have graduated from transferring four-minute songs to hour-long Sopranos episodes. And all of these videos are higher quality--and thus more bandwidth intensive--than YouTube's.

These examples are taken from the start of an excellent article appearing in Technology Review that is about how the Internet might, or might not, cope with the deluge of video that is washing through its backbone. Dick Stroud

Two interesting storefronts that use Web video

2008-06-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

What do you think of this ad? Maybe not.

The really interesting thing is the company behind this shopping channel (The Talk Market). It is like an Amazon market place but using video. Funny I should think of Amazon.

According to Business Week the company has just received an equity investment from Amazon. Looks like a smart move by Amazon - wait and see how things develop, if it looks like the user generated video model is successful, then buy the company and incorporate into the Amazon business model. Clever.

Turnheretravel.tv is another interesting outfit. Like all of the stuff this company does the quality is excellent. I wonder why they don't enable embedding of the video? Dick Stroud

How to Maximize Search Engine Optimization for Web Video

2008-05-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

This looks to be an excellent article about SEO and Web video. Definitely worth a read.

These are the top tips

Tip 1: Make your tags relevant
Tip 2: The more tags the merrier
Tip 3: Use consistent tags
Tip 4: Use adjectives in tags
Tip 5: Use tags that describe categories
Tip 6: Match titles and descriptions to tags
Tip 7: Don't use natural language in tags

If you haven’t already you should subscribe to Webvideo Report where this article was sourced. Dick Stroud

Demographics of your YouTube video watchers

2008-05-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered who on earth is watching all of those YouTube videos you have uploaded? Now you can.

What a great feature. The above shows the demographic breakdown of the views of two ads on my YouTube channel. Lots of young guys watching the beautiful M&S models. A much more mature group of females watching the Dove Pro.Age ads. Dick Stroud

Latest US data on Web video watching

2008-05-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

In March 2008, people in the US watched about 11.5 billion videos online, Google dominated the viewing with more than 4.3 billion videos viewed (according to comScore Inc).

The videos viewed in March, were up 13% from February, which came from almost 139 million users or 74% of the total U.S. Internet audience.

Accordingly, the typical online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video, up 14% from an average 206 minutes in February. The regular online video clips duration was 2.8 minutes, compared with 2.7 minutes in February.

That is one hell of a lot of Web video watching. Dick Stroud

The small business Web video ad

2008-05-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

This article gives a good overview of the new ventures that are entering the local small business web video space. There are lots of them.

one new entry will need no introduction - Fox Interactive Media will soon launch a service for creating video and display ads targeted to small local advertisers.

The service, called FIM AdStore, will be accessible via local Fox TV station Web sites and branded by each site. Advertisers will purchase the ads through a bid system on a CPM basis.

Others companies attacking the local ads market are TurnHere - with a custom approach, pairing local advertisers with video makers based around the globe. Firms like Mixpo sell ready-made video spots and handle custom jobs. Spotmixer is a self-serve video company. Dick Stroud

Using Web video to sell property

2008-05-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

Cristalla 1010

An interesting venture that is all about using Web video to sell property. I particularly like the featured video. Dick Stroud

Standardising online video ads

2008-05-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published new guidelines for online video ads for public comment.

The guidelines do not prevent new online video ad formats from developing in the future, but they may cut down on proliferation of forms, which can frustrate consumers and make the business of selling ads more difficult.

eMarketer has published some predictions about spending on online rich media and video ads, by format, from now until 2012. As you can see the format will dramaticly increase in importance. Dick Stroud

A YouTube Factlet

2008-05-05T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Google-owned video-sharing site attracted 70% of the U.S. traffic to video Web sites in December 2007.

Just over half of Americans will watch videos on the Web regularly in 2008, a 12% increase over 2007, according to eMarketer. Video clips shorter than five minutes dominate viewers' attention online. Dick Stroud

Google – what a company

2008-05-02T01:34:00.000-07:00

This article in BusinessWeek is worth reading, especially if you are interested in video ads on YouTube.

I still don’t have any firm views about this promotional mechanism. I suspect that like most things Google does it will work or will evolve until it does work. What is so refreshing about Google is that they appear to tell it as it is.

“It takes longer to bring in a YouTube dollar than it does to bring in a search dollar," concedes Google's top U.S. ad-sales executive. "Can you make [that process] more efficient? We think "yes.'" He adds: "If you talked to me about this in early '08, "I'd have been more anxious. But we're making nice progress."

I bet they are. Dick Stroud

Tips to make Web video effective

2008-04-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

This short article has some useful tips about getting the most from your investment in Web video.

Part of the advice concerns how to increase the exposure of the video, in particular through the use of MRSS feeds. If you want to read some more about subject of search engines and video then this article is a must read. Dick Stroud

What a terrible video

2008-04-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

I am a great fan of Web video. But, when it goes wrong it goes wrong big time.
Chuck Nyren has posted an item about this video:

I guess the target market is supposed to be older execs, mostly Baby Boomers, who make such decisions in major companies. Or actually the target is the sales force (inside and out) hawking Vista to Boomer execs.

It is that sort of experience that makes me squirm, wriggle about in my seat and in desperation slam the stop button. Surely it is spoof? Microsoft could not have produced this, aimed at any age of audience – could they? Dick Stroud

The potential of e-mail video.

2008-04-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received this e-mail.

It Illustrates the potential of video as a direct marketing tool but also the problems, the main one being that my basic security setting in Outlook would not enable the video to play. The only way I could view the thing was to go to the web version.

Also, I am not so sure about the content. Dick Stroud

Weird or what.

2008-04-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of “would you like to write about this” type e-mails. Some I do, some I don’t.
Last week I received one that fascinated me. This was in the context of another blog I write about marketing to older consumers.

Do you think 50 year olds would like my documentary I just release online?

http://rampenfest.com/

----Jeff Schultz, DirectorBite the Bullet Productions----
http://jeffschultz.wordpress.com/
http://youtube.com/user/jeffschultzusa
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ramp/23771095713

If you have some time on your hands then give it a play – don’t you just love the teeth?

If you only have a couple of minutes then read this blog posting. It will be interesting to see how it plays to the wider audience. Dick Stroud

Flickr expands into video with new service

2008-04-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Flickr's video technology to debut late Tuesday, shows that Yahoo is still trying to catch up to Google and fend off Microsoft.

It is yet another company providing free web video hosting. You can read more about the development here. Dick Stroud

Brand Positioning Using Web-Video

2008-04-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Brandchannel contains an interesting paper that discusses the interplay between, sight, sound and to affect an audience's experience and reaction to a Web-video.

It provides a really simple example that illustrates the same video without sound, with a voice over and then with voice over plus music. Very effective. Dick Stroud

Video should be integrated not kept separate

2008-03-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Brand Republic has started a video Web site brandrepublic.tv. The site is currently about green issues, sports and Honda. Sounds 'fascinating' - I don't think.

I find this a really retrograde step. It is great to see that Brand Republic is using more video but it should be integrated into its main site not into a ghetto site. Dick Stroud

Redwood “gets it” about the use of video

2008-02-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

Last week I recorded some video material for a Redwood – a UK content company. It was great to deal with a company that really understand the way that video is changing the rules of the Web.

Even more unusual to encounter a company that practices what it preaches. Have a look at the way the company uses video to describe themselves. Have a look at the “About Us”. page. The one with the lips is great. Dick Stroud

Company – the magazine adds video channel

2008-02-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

The National Magazine Company's digital arm, Hearst Digital, has created GetlippyTV, an online

TV channel to support the publisher's monthly women's lifestyle title Company.
GetlippyTV, launched this week, will add video to the Getlippy website that already includes coverage of areas such as fashion, beauty and celebrity news.The channel will be sponsored by skincare brand Clearasil and contains three channels covering showbiz, comedy and user-generated clips.

At long last the print media is waking up to the power of video. Dick Stroud