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No video? No problem! Control Costs with Production and Content Acquisition Strategies

Moderator: Jed Alpert
Alison Jeske, drugtore.com
John Weaver, FansEdge.com
Wes Pomeroy, RIVR Media

Initial remarks from Jed Alpert

Video is here to stay

When people do their online research, they are twice as likely to get it from retailers
What Webcollage does. Example with ToysRUs. Lift of 6% to 15% in sales with syndicated content on product page from manufacturers.

Wes Pomeroy - RIVR media
9 key cost control consideration

- Productivity: careful planning. By far most essential aspect. How many videos can we shoot in a single day. Techniques we use are about getting as many videos as possible.
- Product size: Example of how small products increase productivity (a watch VS a pair of pants == requires someone to put it on).
- Homogenous product: similarity of products — 10 pair of shoes better than 4 pairs of shoes, 2 pair of socks, 4 jackets.
- Complexity/simplicity: is the additional product quality selling more? Setting is expensive. Rather have a simple video on 10,000 products that a more complex video on 200.
- Leveraging raw footage for multiple videos: also requires planning ahead
- Automation: using motorized turn tables etc
- Camera/Lighting/Software savings
- Outsourcing: key question is how many videos you need to shoot? If you have a sustained amount of volume, you don’t need to outsource. Another issue is inventory management: if your warehouse is located near you, you will not need to ship items for videos. Other items: consider the soft factors (quality?), brand growth (no outsource company will advocate your brand better than you).

John Weaver - Fans Edge
Indie film maker background

- Being and indie film makers taught me to be creating about costs
- Essentially no budget, but using knowledge and creativity you can save and make it happen
- Biggest focus is on product detail page. Management believes we have to get right to revenue. But also do stuff on the about us page, even on YouTube
- On a given day, the goal is to get as many videos done. Planning in advance is the big thing
- Why should you have an in-house producer? Lots of SKUs, and most important, it’s not a static inventory. We do stuff year-round (football, basketball, etc).
- Importance of telling a story (showed video of a Jets helmet with professional players signatures)
- YouTube http://www.youtube.com/fansedge people love sport heros. Fansedge inserts logo on interviews of professional players like Dan Marino. Celebrity attract views

Alison Jeske - drugstore.com

On the beauty.com side
- Focus on original content: focus on unique aspect of an event.
Example: tips and tricks video for butter LONDON http://video.beauty.com/v/1892/butter-london-polish-tips-and-tricks-free-underground/
- Rollercity girls
- Also add other types of content: photo slideshows.
- Sometimes you are surprise by the results of a video http://video.beauty.com/v/1473/prescriptives-all-skins-foundation-makeup/ has 200,000 views on third party web sites

On the drugstore.com side
- Supplier provided content: commercials, product demos, brand stories, customer testimonials
- Customer provided content: contests for customer engagement (video/photo)
- Example of using contest to get engagement (http://drugstore.liveclicker.com/p/159/tell-us-why-your-pet-is-the-best/)

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