VideoRetailer.org - Exploring the Intersection of Video and e-Commerce.

Reading through European and North American blogs about digital marketing these days, one gets a rough idea where marketing budgets and efforts will go to next year. Most experts share the opinion that two areas will see a huge growth: 1. mobile marketing, pushed by the rapid adaptation of smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry and cell phones that run on Android, including Google’s Nexus One) especially in Europe and 2. geolocalization.

(For more info on 2010 digital marketing trends I recommend reading “Where Digital Marketing Is Heading in 2010 (Part 1)” published at Advertising Age).

So what does that mean for video marketing and video commerce?

I think that in general mobile commerce is still in a premature phase and it’s too early still to speak about “mobile video marketing” (the use of video content in mobile marketing). Just think about watching a video on your cell phone… While Apple (57 million iPhones have been sold worldwide) and Google (Android) have made sure that YouTube videos can be viewed on their devices, reproducing a video on a Blackberry is still quite a painful if not impossible user experience. In general, it will take more technical effort and time until e-marketers provide relevant web content for mobile users (at least that’s what I predict for the European market), let alone video integration for mobile navigation or mobile video commerce applications.

Having said that, let’s look on the possibilities of video and geolocalization. Actually, it makes a lot of sense to combine content mapping or geolocalization -one of the killer applications on the web- and video content.

Look at Trip TV, “The Hotel Video Guide”, a site that sells hotel rooms around the world. For me it is one of the best e-commerce sites when it comes to integrating video-based geolocalization. The idea is really simple: optimize the user experience by providing the necessary information for holiday travelers.  Users can browse the site using a Google Maps interface that includes videos of listed hotels.

The video player has all the state-of-the-art features necessary to guarantee a great user experience: in video thumbnails to go from chapter to chapter, a more info button on the hotel, a photo gallery and related video (similar hotels) button, sharing options and a “see on map” option.

Click on “Rooms” and you will get short videos of everything the hotel offers.

You got the idea: mash up video content and maps to optimize user experience. The online travel industry shows the way. I wonder why so few retailers are using this simple combination to stand out in map-based search engine marketing. Something to think about for 2010!

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