Online Video: Can it save advertising?

We are currently in negotiations with a very large global company, inside of which are a very few brave souls trying to bring new media and new thinking into a well-established, well-rated company that moves at a molasses pace like most corporate behemoths. The product in play is online video. My ears and eyes are tuned in to conversations happening about how video "works." So today's post has three points made by others, including two from MediaPost. I hope this client reads our blog!

1: Online video is cheaper and longer lasting than traditional advertising methods
From Bradley Inman, Maximizing Online Video In An Economic Downturn

As the word “recession” proliferates across the media, companies inevitably look to cut spending to stay competitive. However, in their hurry to get financially lean and mean, brands must not forget the importance of having a strong and dynamic online presence beyond a few pay-per-click text ads. One of the best (and cheapest) ways to meaningfully engage with potential and current customers is through online video. With the ubiquitous nature of Internet video, the ad industry has been slowly moving to the Web to meet the demand of a rising audience. According to recent research from comScore, 75% of Internet users watched online video in November 2007.

Knowing where and how to place the video, and capturing that sweet spot of attention? Still priceless.

2 Online video requires authenticity, production quality, and social media savvy to be succesful for business
From Gregory Wilson, In The Digital Age, Failure Will No Longer Be Lucrative

In the non-digital age, we knew that half of all the advertising that ran didn’t work...However, marketing on the Internet calls for a new approach to video - the development of very customized, engaging content that is authentic and relevant to the topics that the user has been searching for. No scripts or actors or clunky amateur videos, but real people telling stories about subjects they are passionate about.

Easier said than done department: finding the right mix of professionalism, authenticity, tech-savvy-ness, and concept execution is the biggest challenge for large companies right now, after they fight all the internal battles against "we've never done that" thinking. Once done though, your videos can play forever and ever for no additional fee, and at least for now, you get double ROI if you count the PR buzz you get from hitting a new media home run.

3 The tech gets better and better; you can now measure online advertising unlike anything ever before in traditional media
(Please refer back to point #1)
One of our favorite new companies now is Ooyala, who is offering what they term "user-initiated advertising." Started by some ex-Googlers, it is a video hosting service that tracks percent of views along with built-in chapter markers and clickable embeds. These features give the content owner best available data tracking and the user maximum control over the viewing experience.

This are just three quick points being made. I'd love to hear what other points you would contribute to the discussion. It takes a village to help companies brave new territory, so your assistance is welcome in more ways than you can imagine.

Connection Speed: Are You Getting What You Pay For?

Here in the Santa Fe office (we’re in The Lofts) we switched from DSL to cable modems a couple of years ago. When we built the space in 2000 there weren’t a lot of options in terms of cable versus DSL. So we had to go with a satellite on the roof for TV and DSL for our connection.

When we moved to Hawaii and got hooked up with Oceanic/TimeWarner's digital cable and Road Runner broadband service. Oceanic has the best customer service I have ever experienced. And we were very happy with the speed and ease of use of our cable modem compared to what we had gone through to get DSL up and running. Remember, this was over 5 years ago and I'm sure the technology has improved since then.

So when Comcast came to Santa Fe and we were able to dump satellite (TV used to drop out during snow and rain storms for hours at a time) and switch to Comcast cable for both TV and internet.

Comcast used/uses outside contractors to install new cable/internet accounts. I had already wired the office with cable and hight speed cat5 cable to every outlet. So the Comcast outside contractor just dropped the cable modem in the data closet and called it a day. It's been an OK connection since then but it does drop out from time to time. Lately it's gotten worse and during this trip I've been without an internet connection for hours at a time.

A call to Comcast very late on Tuesday night secured an appointment this morning with a Comcast field tech. He glanced at the data closet and asked me if I wired everything myself. "Yes!" I proclaimed proudly. "Well there are some serious problems here with the splitters and connectors and I have to replace them." he replied. Upon further discussion and reflection, I remembered that the Comcast outside contractor just popped the cable modem into my pre-existing wiring setup. He should have replaced all the cheap connectors and splitters.

Seems the cheap splitters and cable connectors I had picked up at Home Depot were causing feedback and "leaking" signal. Unknown to me, when connected and split with cheap components cables can "leak" a signal so bad that he was able to detect it with a device in his truck when he pulled up. We're on the second floor and he parked across the driveway!

He swapped out the cheap parts and we headed over to the speakeasy speed test to see if that helped. Boy did it!! Results are shown below.

The moral of this story: Even if you don't fully understand what the cable guy/gal is doing, and even if you do, make sure they are installing brand new components. Ask them questions about "signal leaking." And before they leave, have them prove to you on your own computer that you're actually getting the connection speed you're paying for.

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Judy
URL:
DATE: 12/27/2005 03:47:32 AM
Shane,
This is very interesting. A few months ago I had a problem with our cable service and wish I had know this then. IT certainly is something everyone with cable service should know! Thanks for information.

Mahalo.