Video Podcast Workflow Tips from Podcamp NYC

I spoke this past weekend at "Podcamp NYC" to a standing-room-only crowd. I promised to post a summary and also provide the links, especially for those peeps who watched from the hallway!

Thanks also to these peeps who attended and offered their input: Jamison Tilsner of Tilzy.tv, Chef Mark Tafoya of Culinary Media Network, Tom Guariello of True Talk Now, Adam Sherlip of New York Islanders and Rahiem Drinkwater of Pdashmedia.

1. Concept (How time-consuming is it?)
   • There is a direct correlation between the difficulty of producing your show and the frequency by which you publish. The easier the format, the more often you can realistically deliver an episode.
   • The more often you release new content, the more often you show up on the top of the page of the various web video aggregation sites.
   • It better be something you love in order to sustain the amount of work it takes to deliver well and deliver consistently.
   • A typical 3-4 minute episode of Beach Walks with Rox, which uses a very simple formula (8 second title sequence, 3-minute one-shot main clip, and 20-second credit roll) and is unscripted, takes about 2.5 - 3 hrs to produce from start to finish.
2. Naming Conventions (for you & your subscribers)
   • Creating a naming convention makes it easy to file and search your content.
   • It makes things line up nicely when displayed on other people's directories such as iTunes.
   • For correct date sorting, use YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD, regular English will not work.
3. Project Template (reusable parts)
   • Create a master template folder (using your naming convention).
   • Have your main project file built in the software of your choice, and embed all of the reusable clips, such as your theme music bed, your show name and URL, and your version of copyright licensing.
   • Do the same for your episode thumbnail graphic. (You can use one main show graphic or you can use a unique graphic for each episode. I recommend using an episode graphic if you have visual content that changes from day to day - it helps people find an episode when viewing in iTunes, for example.)
   • Duplicate the template folder and rename accordingly for each new episode.
   • Assemble any additional bits and pieces of content in there belonging to that episode.
4. Look & Feel (easier editing & brand consistency)
   • Take some time when first creating your show to develop a look and feel.
   • Experiment with a few transition and titling styles, then stick with them. (Saves you time by being able to ignore all the other choices!)
   • Be sure to build in your show name, your web site address, and your copyright license. Some people also plan ahead for ad insertions, contact information, or other custom items.
5. Encoding & Uploading Tips
   • Flash format will play for most users. Several hosting sites will encode your Quicktime or Windows Media files into Flash for you.
   • You must also supply a downloadable format to enable RSS subscriptions. Your best option is a Quicktime-compatible format.
   • Be sure to add the META data to each episode. You can do this easily by bringing the encoded file into iTunes, and editing the info and adding your artwork.
   • Encoding times can vary considerably depending on the length, size, and output quality of each episode, as well as the speed of your computer. The Visual Hub software (below) does a remarkably good job in dramatically faster times. (Almost in real time whereas other programs can take 3-10 X real time.)
   • Uploading video files can be very time-consuming, and naturally will vary depending on your internet connection speed.

Links Mentioned
Visual Hub - Encodes in multiple formats; $23.32 USD
Viddler for free hosting, comments, & social features
Blip.tv for free hosting and built-in blog; geared to episodic shows
Tube Mogul for batch distribution across the web & stats tracking
Creative Commons for licensing your work if you want something other than full copyright.
Ioda PromoNet for royalty-free music for non-commercial use

Update! Going through my acquired business cards, these folks work in the space.

A Few More People I Met
Ariel Publicity - Ariel reps independent bands who want to promote their music on other people's shows
Filmosity - Chris Cavallari can help you with shooting, editing, on location work for hire, etc
Carrot Creative - Creative shop to help you with the web site and embrace new media
Truffle Media - They can help you with turn-key business podcasting
Vivid Screen Designs - Jane Gussin does motion graphics and video production
Cheil Worldwide - Ann Marie Mathis and Howard Levenson grok new media & social web campaigns

Do you invest more in people or gear?

There was a job posting over on a message list I follow, and it got me to thinking. It seems that lots of companies feel safer and more comfortable about investing in a lot of high end equipment, but then want to find people to work on spec or for very little pay or for fame. As a creator though, I have some different opinions, so I posed the question to a group of colleagues at ad:tech last week. You can listen to their opinions, then make up your own mind - and please tell me what you think!

Here's the original posting for context:

[Company X] is looking for a video engineer to manage, enhance and
operate our state-of-the-art HD multi-camera streaming video studio.
We're switched, have about 3,000 square feet of shooting space, a green
screen, etc. We need someone who wants to chart the course of what a
videoblogging/streaming studio should look be, on a beer budget.

In all fairness, beer is part of the company's culture, so you could take that last comment a couple of different ways. Feel free to leave a comment right in the video as well - you'll just have to create a quick account over at viddler.

Are You Addicted to Big Numbers?

I love math. It has an uncanny way of teasing apart the truth, but alas, it can also just as easily be used selectively to manipulate or create false impressions. And if we get addicted to a certain type of math - tracking eyeballs and households for example - then we can be inadvertently wasting time and money on our way to building brands and selling stuff.

In the old days of business, it was not possible in most cases to communicate with just the people who were a good fit for your products and services. So your agency developed campaigns for you that involved sending out millions of mailers or commercials broadcast to hundreds of thousands of households.

Typical rates of return? Less than one percent. We all know that. But those big campaign numbers are still so addicting. "I need the big numbers in order to get the rates of return to justify this expense." Well, you only want the actual end result numbers.

The point is that now with technology, new media aka podcasting or downloadable media and social networks, you can actually reach the precise people who are most likely to buy from you, on the first round. You don't have to bother interrupting or shouting at gazillions watching a mainstream TV show knowing that in there a few customers (who are probably fast-forwarding the commercials anyway...) You have other more powerful ways of having "private" conversations with your target audience instead of hoping your target finds you in the midst of all that noise.

I call it the phenomenon of having people actually self-enrolling themselves and it's one step faster and juicier than "targeting." Though there were dozens of companies here at ad:tech promising better and better targeting of audiences, wouldn't you rather be able to just show up with your stuff knowing that people had already organized themselves around a related "something"?

I have a couple of examples for you.

iPhone Users and Web Software
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal wrote about a new iPhone software:

Earlier today, we wrote about new software that lets businesses customize Web sites for visitors with iPhones. Our take: Businesses that sell to other businesses shouldn’t rush out and buy this software because iPhones only account for 0.18% of Internet traffic...

That's a really small number. 0.18%. Who wants to bother with such a small, even microscopic group of people? Well what if you knew that iPhone users as a group are high income and highly educated phone users, and as early adopters they are also trend-sensors as well as trend setters? They are the people who have the money and the intellect to detect smart moves in the marketplace and tend to have others who follow them.

Now, not every company wants to meet the smart, rich, trendy, 24-7 movers and shakers, but if you do, iPhone users have already identified themselves as such, and making your web site i-Phone-compatible is an incredibly easy way to say to them: hey you! over here. My company wants to make it easy for you to play with us.

Mainstream Media Placement or Podcast Placement?
There's a local girl band here in Hawaii, MighTyJ. During the production of their album, they set up a blog and filmed a vidcast aka video podcast with their recording engineer, Doctor Trey. When it was time to start promoting themselves, they used a combination of approaches. For one they got booked on the CBS-affiliate morning show (about 25,000 households). After that appearance, there was zero uptick on their web site traffic and no increase in downloads or subscribers to their vidcast.

Then they made an appearance on our daily Internet TV show, Beach Walks with Rox, average daily download of about 2500 or one-tenth the reported size of morning network TV. Their site traffic jumped enormously and they doubled the number of subscribers to their podcast.

So do you want to waste your time contacting 25,000 and get no response or contact 2,500 and get an enormous response?

Welcome to the new new math people. Fall in love with small numbers. Be willing to pay a higher CPM/CPA because other things (technology) and other people (podcast creators) are doing the heavy lifting for you.

Targeted, Downloadable Video Commands Highest Value

From this recent post over at Web Video Report 080327, it's clear to see that having targeted audiences and offering downloadable media both command higher rates than general audience and embedded media - a direct reflection of their higher value to both consumers of the content as well as to show sponsors.

Most of these companies reported CPM rates for a wide range of pre/mid/post roll video, host shout outs, overlays, etc. Goodnight Burbank's numbers are for product placement per episode.

What was not discussed is the relationship to an online community, aka social network associated with each show. These user communities only increase the value, as they don't just consume the media, they keep talking about it over in the community - which presents added opportunities for banner advertising and special offers.

SHOW/SITE	RATES	PAST ADVERTISERS
blip.tv	$10-$100+	Unilever, Dewars, Comedy Central, HBO, GoDaddy, Adobe
TV Guide	$25-$30	ATT/Cingular Wireless, Kraft
CNN	$25+	Orbitz, Lending Tree, Chrysler, Apple, Chevrolet, Netflix, Sears, Toyota
Goodnight Burbank	$3K-$8K	HBO
Mania TV	$10-$30	GM, Honda, Toyota, Verizon, AT&T, NBC, ABC, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Old Spice, L'Oreal, Sony, Nike, Coke, Citibank, XBox, Best Buy, HBO, Victoria Secret, WWE
Revision3 / Diggnation	$60-$80	Virgin Atlantic, Adagio Teas, Body by Venus, Sony, Microsoft, FX Networks, Adobe
For Your Imagination	$20-$60	Graco, BabyBjorn, TJMaxx

CNN and TV Guide feature general audiences and embeddded video. The other sites feature targeted shows and allow users to subscribe to their shows for viewing on the device of their choice, at the time of their choice. Many of the independently produced shows also have social networks or websites that encourage ongoing group discussion.