Archive for the ‘video examples’ Category:
Poor use of video marketing in the best European Business School
School is back and thousands of students and adult learners are about to decide where to invest their time and money to get the adequate education. More then ever Internet is the first and most important source of information for students of all ages to select a college, a university or a business school and check out their offers. Schools’ web site, home and landing page designs are crucial for converting a user into a lead or potential student. Since video content is playing a critical role in the online brand experience I have taken a look at how the top 4 European Business Schools - according to the 2008 Financial Time’s Ranking - use video to attract, inform and convert users online.
Therefore I tried to find out 2 simple things: 1. Do the schools use professionally created videos on the homepage (no embedded third party content from sharing sites), and 2. Do they include videos to sell their MBA programs. To evaluated the quality of the integration I also checked on the number of clicks necessary to find video content entering through the site’s home page and on the “web 2.0 character” of the content.
Talking about the who-is-who in higher executive business education, the findings leave a lot to be desired.
1. HEC / Paris
At the home page of the French icon of higher education we find a summery of a speach Bill Gates gave at HEC some while ago. It’s an embedded video from HEC’s YouTube channel. Click on the link “videos” and you are redirected to a news page that features a series of videos - the most recent from January 2009 - which are resumes of conferences or talks held at the university. Nothing too exciting and probably not too useful for someone who looks for information about programs. But with just 3 clicks from the home page you get to what is called “MBA stories”, a micro-site that hosts some 20 videos, basically testimonials of alumni (between 1 and 2 minutes long), where MBA graduates share their experience and memories and talk about the quality of the program. The video site has very basic sharing options: send the page to a friend and link it to Facebook or LinkedIn. No embed, no comment or video sharing options, though.
Conclusion: HEC’s home page clearly fails to impact on potentially new students - no video that explains briefly the advantages, the USP or the offer of the school. The MBA page includes a video mini-site but it lacks proper integration with the product site and the offer, no cross-selling, no call-to-action and a very basic player without sharing options.
2. London Business School
You won’t find a video at the home page of London Business School (LBS), but at least there a link to a “Dean Welcome Film” which leads to page with 6 videos about the core competences of the institution. The player is basic and the list of videos does not use thumbnails. Looking for further information on MBA programs, we find a text-based site on MBA contents, method, targets and alumni - no video either! Nevertheless, on the right we find a link to a content section called MBA TV that features 13 episodes about campus life, the program, students, etc. But the clips are presented as a list and you need to scroll down; but the worst of all: no thumbnails are include to quickly identify what the content is about. There is a download option but no way to embed, share or comment the content.
Conclusion: The idea to include a MBA TV is great, contents might be interesting for potential new students but integration is poor. There is no clear segmentation and so it’s impossible to know which content is interesting and / or useful for a specific user. Again, no sharing options are available to make the content go viral.
3. INSEAD
The second French School in the ranking, INSEAD does not use video on their home page either. 2 more clicks away from the home we find a 6 minute “MBA programme video, based on several interviews with alumni and students, sharing their personal experiences. At least, there are sharing options to export the page to Facebook or LinkedIn for example. All the rest of the information is text based.
Conclusion: Total lack of video marketing strategy.
4. IE
IE, the Madrid-based International Institute specialised in Business education and post-graduate programs includes a video window called “IE Media Campus” that features interviews with teachers, students and alumni. Although the content is institutional rather than promotional, it’s the only home page out of four that welcomes the user with a video. The player includes a scrollable list of other related clips. 2 more clicks away from the home page we find more video-base information about the International MBA program. The player does not reproduce the way users are used to - before starting the clip the user has to choose between image, podcast or video format - but offers a scroll to see other clips with practical information on admission procedure, program content and campus life.
Conclusion: Home and MBA product pages both offer videos. There is an associated site called “IE Media Campus” with more video content (student stories, practical info, financial issues, etc.) which helps the user make a decision whether IE is the right place to get a degree. There, users find the most common sharing options, including forwarding, linking, embedding and rating.
General conclusion:
1. 3 out of 4 sites analyzed have no clear video marketing strategy.
2. 3 out of 4 lack of the typical web 2.0 tools to distribute the content on the web.
3. None of the school uses innovative storytelling.
4. Contents are not designed to engage or convert the user. There is a lack of commercial and promotional intention in the implementation of video.
5. 3 of 4 do not use videos on their home page and fail to create a strong visual impact for first-time users.
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eCommerce Video Production Tips from the Pros: eBags
Note from VideoRetailer.org: Last fall, I asked Scott Roon and Jason Carncross to share a few video commerce production tips. This is the incredibly creative duo that’s behind eBags.com’s video product and delivery. Some of their most popular videos are the eBags MacroLoader demo, and most recently, the eBags Web Busters video.I put the camera on a tripod and left these guys present it, their way.
Scott Roon: Hey, what’s happening? I’m Scott, new Media Producer at Ebags.
Jason Carncross: I’m Jason. I’m a Senior Web Designer at Ebags.
Scott: He’s more qualified than I am. Anyway, web video is kind of new, right? I mean, I guess. We’re doing commerce web video, but it’s not what you think. Okay, it’s Ecommerce. Alright, and I guess we’re talking about kind of some of the easiest way to get started, I suppose. Basically, I’m just trying to teach them everything I learned in college. How much time do we got? [Scott looks at his watch] Okay. Sound, first and foremost. Right?
Jason: Yeah. You got to have sound.
Scott: Super important.
Jason: Sound, you can jitter video all you want. You can drop frames. You can have black and white, scratchy…whatever. As soon as you have bad audio, people leave. Kind of have to have great audio.
Scott: I think when we started doing video here, I was pretty adamant on trying to sell them on a thousand dollars worth of audio equipment. I could not stress enough how important it is. When you’re shooting video with someone and somebody’s talking, you don’t want it to sound like old Hamm radio. It’s the least engaging thing ever. People will turn it right away. I do that on Youtube when I’m watching. If you can tell just that the audio is not right, that’s sort of a subliminal thing. The thing that sucks about video and producing video, is that if you’re doing your job right, nobody notices because the end goal is to make it look seamless. And nobody knows. That’s why all video producers are people in LA. It’s because it’s a thankless, thankless job, but that’s the whole point. You know? It’s super smooth. And sound is–immediately, you will recognize bad sound. I mean, video you can…like you said, you can throw filters if you want. You can do whatever you want. You can fix video, but audio is…
Jason: Another thing that’s bad about audio is If you use the same public domain clip that everyone else is using, then you end up triggering mental relapse from the user about some other site they were just on ten minutes before yours, and that association is bad. If you can do original music at all, even if it’s loop based, but original in edit. That’s better than just pulling something off the shelf, and plugging it in and running with it. Most of the people out there are doing that. You’ll get caught. People will come up and say, “Hey, you know that track in your music, I heard that on TV or I heard that on a commercial. It’s like, “Oh man.”
Scott: I see some of the political ones now, and they use some of the same loops we have. But yeah, you start recognizing. Sound is such a subliminal thing. I mean it’s just..you can’t get away with a lot when it comes to sound. So, do not skimp on sound equipment, since we’re in a lesson here. Do not do that.
Jason: What camera do you use?
Scott: I use prosumer Panasonic DVX 100, for whatever that means to anybody out there. It’s the DVX 100B, which is the third generation of that one. But it was the first prosumer camera, which is half pro half consumer, around three grand, $3,000 that shot 24 frames per second which is a simulated film effect as you know. It simulates value. The eye can recognize the difference between 30 frames per second. If you get farther than 30 frames per second, your eye can’t physically tell. If you slow it down, It’s a trick it plays on the eye to give it more depth. That’s what we use. We haven’t found an HD yet.
Jason: Everything’s been small. We use a 320/240 resolution for all of our videos now. That might change in the future, but for right now that’s what we’re using. Tripod or handheld?
Scott: I love handheld. I’m old school. I came from a music background. It’s at your discretion. I’ve done a lot of behind the scenes tours of companies. It’s a more personal feel for me. Again, that’s if you’ve shot it right, and if you know the technique and all that. But first sit down interview. How about yourself? Do you use…?
Jason: I don’t have any preference. I like smooth dolly shots. I like big budget looking shots. Cranes. Throw a crane in there. It’s just that’s how I shoot. I like more high production look. The problem with shooting high production is if you want to maintain that. You can’t do halfway. You can do minimal cost minimal effort. As soon as you start to get used to high end production. You have to do it right, or someone will call you out. How come you shot it at night? So many elements that you have to control in that world. Unless you’re planning on a big budget, you want to try and make it feel as organic as possible.
Scott: There are certain things you can fake. There are certain things that are difficult to fake. That’s where the TV background is helping. Every corner that I can cut. Not to say that we’re skimping on everything but realistically, it’s a business like everything else. You got to know how to efficiently create something. On any given day, you shoot three things a week. It better not be super expensive. Especially, if you can’t really measure success. I mean you can…but…
Jason: What is your philosophy on edits? I know you have some interesting cut through shots.
Scott: I’m a little aggressive when it comes to edits. I hate dissolves. It’s just my personal thing. They are forced, cheesy, and contrived–Disney movie.
Jason: I agree.
Scott: I think the hardest part has been brevity. Creating rich content that moves–gets in, gets out shows people what you want. A lot of that comes from knowing your consumer. I directly take recommendations off of of our testimonials. I need to know the size of it. I get shots of the presentator relative to the size. I make sure I get good shots. A lot of it is listening to what people want.
Jason: I know the answer to this one, but I’m going to ask for their sake–single cam or multicam shoot?
Scott: In theory, what do I want? Or what do I do? I shoot single cam because it’s just me. It’s really hard to do this with two cameras and talk to someobody. I shoot single camera. I’ve found a couple tricks to get around it and to make it look a little better. Everytime, the first thing that I ask everybody is for lifestyle images, still images anything I can use to enrich a one camera shoot. I want two. It’d be nice. But then I need someone else. It becomes more production. That’s one of those corners, I want to try and cut. I hate using that term by the way. It seems so cheap, when I say “cut corners.” But “maximize efficiency.”
Jason: What about your b-roll, How do you keep track of the straps you have to pick up?
Scott: I do the interview first. Generally, time permitting. I shoot the interview first, and keep a mental note of where it is. That’s kind of the beauty of being the pre-production, the production, and the editer. At the end of the day, the one thing that’s terrible is, I have no else to blame. The one thing that’s good is that I know everything i need in order to create. After i do an interview, i know specifically, what shots I’m going to need when i get back to the editing room.
Jason: One more question.
Scott: I don’t know when this turned into a..
Jason: Because you are a better speaker than I am. Is there something that you would call the Ebags style? How do you come up with it? As far as the edit…can you look at two different videos that you shot and edited and say, “Yeah that was done by the same person?”
Scott: Wow, I really try not to though is the thing. Again, if I’m doing my job right it makes it look like we have 7 different producers and a bunch of different people doing this, different editors and different styles. I’m trying to take as diverse of a look as I can.
Jason: You don’t need a response. I don’t know. I just figured it was a good question.
Scott: I figured you were leading me into something where you were going to make fun of me for something.
Jason: If you’d like me to, I could…
Scott: I try and do it as professional looking as possible, but as engaging as possible. A lot of it comes from the Youtube. I surf Youtube not at work obviously, all the time. I’m always looking for the ways people portray just the stupid things that they do, and the products that they they love, and the things they love, and the the people they are. If i can pull all of that together into one cohesive style, then I have effectively escaped this question.
Jason: Ever think of running for office?
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How is Amazon Selling you the Kindle? (Hint: starts with a “V”)
Like Apple, Amazon is aggressively spreading video across its product pages to pump up conversions and educate its users for its top selling product: the Kindle. eRetailers take note.
Even in this economy, the Kindle is going to be the hot Christmas gift for many Americans this year. It’s been predicted that Amazon will sell over a million Kindles before 2009, making this new toy one of the most successful new electronics product launches since the iPod. A billion dollar opportunity, according to some.
Make no mistake about it - the Kindle is a big opportunity for Amazon.com and naturally, the web experience team must have invested countless dollars on the product page to make sure it converts. And — oh what a surprise — a video of the Kindle is taking a prominent location on the product detail page.
This is a major shift from traditional product detail pages, where traditionally, the left side of the product page is occupied by static images, and sometimes a 3D view of the product. Confident that the video is more persuasive, Amazon chose to replace the classic images and feature the video instead, a bold move I’m sure has been validated with rigorous A/B testing.
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There is a lot more - I was particularly impressed with these features which I think are terribly missing from many video retailers that I come across: - The ability to share the video - The subtle use of music in the video - The clever use of captioning to stress key selling points - A clear call the action at the end, with an HTTP link - User review scores and other important link right underneath the video in support of the purchasing decisionI get a sense that this type of product presentation will be copied over and over again in the next few years. After all, Amazon.com has pioneered important eCommerce innovations in the past and seems to always be one step ahead of the competition.This is exciting, to say the least. |
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