Tag Archives: Online Video

Research Study Profiles “Engaged” Online-Video Viewers

ReelSEO has a nice post about a recent Forrester & Veoh study that characterized the 40% of us “engaged viewers” that watch about 75% of the online-videos. The online-video users, like web surfers, will soon resemble the general population. But for now we’re a unique bunch, and the post has some takeaways for advertisers… advertainment is advised.

Are You Directing Your Own Life?

Last night I had the pleasure of dining with Filmmaker Chris Barrett, actor Efron Ramirez (best known for his role as Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite), YouTube Comic EdBassmaster, and Barret’s Publicist partner. Barrett and Ramirez had spoken to a group of underprivileged highschool students in Camden, NJ yesterday afternoon, and were doing a media circuit for their new book “Direct Your Own Life.” (We shot this short comedic-like video after dinner that shows me dressing like Pedro and getting “caught” by Efron).

It was a motley crew, which is typical when online-video pulls together characters who wouldn’t likely meet otherwise. And Barrett’s publicist partner asked me where I was heading with the online-video gig. “Do you want to have your own television show?” she asked.

That question made me realize that we often act in our lives, but fail to direct them. The book’s jacket cover states that “too many people are losing faith in their dreams… (the book) helps you write your own life script,  assemble your team, and ultimately debut your dream.”

This got me reflecting on what motivates me in my atypical role as marketer by day and YouTube guy by night. I awakened thinking about some of the formative moments that led to where I am now… and whether I’m directing my life or a b-grade actor in someone else’s production.

  • I worked for 7 summers at PBS television station in New Orleans, and paid for my growing audio and video obsession by disk jockeying parties and videotaping weddings.
  • I attended Georgetown University, and was asked to be Marketing Director for the Georgetown Program Board. I got a taste of marketing and liked it. Meanwhile I watched Michael Eisner’s son (Breck) making films on campus, and I had the pleasure of doing a voiceover for “Alex of the Underground” (an allegory based loosely on Alice in Wonderland). I marveled at the energy of film making but didn’t see it as a safe bet… too many people chasing too few opportunities.
  • My first job after graduating from Georgetown was a short-lived internship at advertising agency Earl Palmer Brown, which forever burst my dream of being a traditional advertising executive. Over beers these agency veterans would urge me to find a different path than theirs. They found artistic passions at night, and suffered through thankless, mechanical work during the day.
  • Later I’d work for 9 months at a newspaper startup that produced excellent editorial at negative profit. Warren Rogers, who covered Kennedy as a journalist and wrote a book about Robert Kennedy, was the editor in chief of The Georgetown Courier, and he hired me for $16K a year. Rogers erected a symbolic white-picked fence that separated the editorial team from the advertisers. There would be no “advertorial” under Rogers’ guard. I eagerly covered any films being shot in Georgetown, and once got to interview Pierce Brosnan. The paper, of course, went belly-up because it couldn’t sell ads.
  • I was crushed. I had worked around the clock as an aspiring journalist, but the economics weren’t solid. So I decided to take fate into my own hands by applying to the best MBA school for entrepreneurship — Babson. Either I’d get in, or bag business school and roll the dice in filmmaking.  I got in.
  • Years later as I maried and my family grew, I chose the safer career of a marketer — working at interactive agencies, big-5 consulting, and for five years at Johnson & Johnson. Now two-plus years as a Product Director for a Fortune 100 firm. Marketing is interesting, but what keeps me energized is this online-video space, and how it’s inviting me to apply both my creative passion and my experience as a marketer.
  • Playwriter John Guare said at my graduation, “never get a job.” But then you find yourself with children to support and a mortgage. So you take the job, and seek whatever passion you can milk from your job and look after hours to keep the fire burning. Hey- it beats coming home and watching TV.

Now, of course, my passion for film and video are converging with my profession of marketing. Online video have lowered the “cost of entry” and blurred the lines between advertising and content. So while it’s still hard to answer the question, “where are you heading with this, Nalts?” I am having the time of my life. But am I directing, or am I a hired actor in someone else’s film? Worth some reflection for me, and probably all of us.

NBC Brings Advertisers & Creators Together “From Start” for Web Series: Everything New is Old Again

TubeFilter, which tracks the “best scripted web series,” reports that NBC Universal Digital Studio will create a slate of new original web series to be produced with 60 Frames Entertainment.

NBC promises to bring the “most talented writers and producers in entertainment” in efforts to “create a much higher-quality production value than what is normally associated with digital production.” The Studio’s “innovative new business model” will bring advertisers and content producers together “from the start.”

This is significant news, folks, for two reasons. First, it’s signs that NBC continues to be the leading network for online evolution. Second, it’s a novel approach for online-video, but based on a model that has proven itself over time.

It won’t be pain free, but could change online video in meaningful ways. If NBC’s muscle can keep creators and advertisers in a room and force them to cooperate, then we may see something far more interesting than Hulu shows with interstitial forced ads. Products woven into plotlines, product placement… it’s not new, folks.

As much as a like product integration, I just want to be the next Ed McMahon. Anyone keeping a list of the products he’s pimped?

Is Online-Video Recession Proof?

Online-video advertising is still dwarfed by television advertising. But fear not the recession, online video advocates! Fear not these gloomy photos of the depression that you’re seeing on all of the weekly magazines. And this is according to  Christine Beardsell from Digitas writes in a ClickZ article.

Here are three reasons Beardsell says online video advertising will come out ahead during an economic downturn. Parenthetically, search “recession” on Google Trends to see how freaked people are getting.

  1. No Longer Experimental. Past economic crises often led CMOs to cut back on experimental advertising, and they rely on the skills and responsibilities they’ve traditionally relied upon… as Keith Bobier, senior director of marketing at Unilever, put it: “We are not pulling in the reigns at all…there is nothing experimental about this for us.” In fact, during financial struggles, aren’t the customer-centric things exactly what brands and their customers need most?
  2. Possible, Affordable Optimization: If you’re a marketing executive given the option to either make two new TV spots for the year… or create several video brand content experiences throughout the year that can guarantee measurable, detailed, optimized results and build engagement with your customer, which option would you choose? You get less for more when it comes to TV spots.
  3. Less Buying, More Conversation: While there may be a lot less money to spend when money is tight, that doesn’t necessarily mean people will spend less time engaging with your brand. In fact, frugal spending often means longer hours researching products and discussing those products with trusted friends and family. And with research and conversations now happening predominately online, brands more than ever have the opportunity to join these discussions and help customers make smart purchasing decisions.

I’d add two things. When I tighten my marketing budget, I tend to focus on squeezing down the largest spend, and not starve innovation. So as long as online-video ads provide metrics (see Daisy Whitney’s article on TubeMogul and Visible Measures) then they’re not going to be the first part of the mix that’s cut.

The Great Social-Media Consumption Project: Open Mic Time!

As you may know, we have two audiences for WillVideoforFood:

  1. Online-video industry advocates (agencies, bloggers, marketers, media). These people quietly graze for stories, but rarely interact.
  2. The online-video junkies and Nalts watchers. These folks are more active on the web, and usually keep this blog alive with a clever thread of comments– which is more interesting than the blog itself.

Well guess what? It’s “open mic” time for the latter group, and the former group can listen carefully as if they’re watching a focus-group behind a 2-way mirror! Let’s learn how hard-core online junkies daily consume media and interact with friends, colleagues and family.

You see, our media consumption patterns have changed radically in recent months and years. We don’t wake up and watch morning shows, and then check e-mail (unless you’re wifeofnalts). Instead, we consume via a customized, electronic intravanious drip of what and who important to us via RSS, e-mail, YouTube, blogs, and social-networking applications.

I encourage the curious to read the thread below. Anyone can post comments, but I hope all readers will take note of the insights below. I may try to summarize them in a future post:

  • What’s a typical day for you on the computer? What do you most look forward to, and how do you consume the information?
  • What’s changed most in the past year? Do you use e-mail less/more, or have new destinations you love?
  • How do you keep current on videos, news or new sites/tools that interest you? Do you find them, and share them? Or does someone you know help you find them? How on EARTH do you know so quickly when I post a new video? Do you use Google alerts to track certain words (like your name or a company name)?
  • What advice would you have to people who are trying to engage more in Web 2.0, social media, online-video and other communication tools?

I’ll start with my own typical day (see more). You may want to write your own description before reading mine so it doesn’t bias you…

Continue reading The Great Social-Media Consumption Project: Open Mic Time!

YouTube’s Funniest Guy: ShayCarl

You know, he may be one of the most over-exposed YouTubers of the summer. But he’s absolutely one of my favorite YouTube personalities. Having met him, I can tell you he’s really centered and a wholesome family man. So that makes videos like this Moto Man (in which he spins his motorcycle around his house for no apparent reason) even more special. And his wife plays a perfect dead-pan straight man. Or woman.

How can a video like this not have millions of views? And what about “Chubby Kid Falls from Roof“? As Sxephil joked to me in LA, “when I saw Roof Ninja, I saw money.” Hence their collaboration on a new SxePhil/Shaycarl channel called, “BamBamKaBoosh.”

And who could forget ShayCarl’s wonderful homage to Nalts and his addiction to YouTube?

Virgin Mobile Allows Break Logo on Its Video Site

break.com or virgin mobile video site? You decide.Virgin Mobile today is permitting Break.com to place a small Break logo on its website. See Break.com for example.

Naturally, I’m being sarcastic. Break shows that online-video sites can paint themselves like a public-transportation bus or a college-kids head… hey, it works better than banners or pre-rolls. And don’t pretend it didn’t make an impact.

My Fake Writers Staff

Last night I was discussing with Cory (mrsafety) the concept of doing a video for the audience or yourself. We agreed that an enduring motive was making videos that pleased ourselves. But it’s worth noting that many of my favorite Nalts videos never went far — like this video below with about 12,000 views after a year.

I’m not sure if I ever revealed the true backstory of these videos (there were 8 in this playlist, and some were a bit long but packed with quirky moments). A year ago I was working with NYC WLNY’s Flix55 as the producer and host of “Quick Flix,” a television show that would feature the best viral videos and be syndicated nationally. The station’s owners contacted me when they saw this video where I pitched the idea of a TV show packed with online-video favorites. The show and the website never materialized, but in the process I made several trips to the television station to cast a co-host, script the concept, videotape pilots and on-board a group of college kids that would be campus liaisons to promote the site and recruit talent.

Even though the show never saw light of day, the interns at Flix55 — who played my fake writers — were a blast. We kept having to kill cast members because they’d go back to school or leave. The 8 videos were never scripted, and usually based on a spontanious idea and improvization. Here’s my favorite because it’s funny and tragic.

Sponsored Fun or Selling Out? Comedy Duo On Road Trip for Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz.

rhett and link buffet songRhett and Link, comedic video amateurs, are mountaineering above the overhang of “The Great Cliff of New-Media Sponsored Advertising.” They’re harnessed to each other with a taut rope, knotted with creativity. The friends swing effortlessly to the next hold in a pendulum traverse. Rhett knows the objective danger as he firmly grabs his nub, and Link’s total attention is committed to spotting him. Their eyes lock, then gaze slowly down upon the falling spree at the mountain’s base. It would be a perilous drop to their death (is that ZeFrank’s skeleton?). But they both smile, knowing full well that they’ll live to see another climb.

[Editorial addition 6/20 9 pm EST: Rhett and Link have an insightful comment below] In their latest celebration of corporate sponsorship, the singing and acting duo present this hysterical video called “The Buffet Song.” It’s a song parody about all-you-can-eat buffets. Now there’s *every reason* I should have known this was a sponsored video:

  1. It was clear on the video’s description and it was a reply to a video about the Alka Seltza tour.
  2. I received this from them via e-mail, and it was explained as a video that it’s part of their of “Great American Road Trip Series” sponsored by Alka Seltzer.
  3. Heck I even last week agreed via e-mail to meet them in Philly (Pat and Gino’s Cheesesteaks) for a video that they said was part of some Alka Seltzer series. They wrote, “It’s part of our Alka Seltzer road trip gig…. We’re still developing the angle so if you’re interested, you can weigh in as we develop it.” I took that as a fun challenge, and began soliciting others to collaborate. See- sometimes it’s not all about the money. Maybe they’ll have free samples.

But then, like, Yipes, Scoob… I opened this video above, and all of that awareness vanished — just like those pain pangs of overindulgence when met by a delciously effervescent glass of heartburn and indigestion medication.

In fact, I’d like to take you sequentially through my experience, which is something I can’t stand in a conversation. I’m always telling my wife, “you’re burying the lead again, Jo… I don’t need to know about how much change the post office gave you before the freak you saw on the way out. Just tell me about the freak.” But now I digress…

To read about my sequential experience wrapping my small brain around this video campaign, click MORE (bottom left corner of this blog – right above the “share” link”). Trust me, it’s worth it.

alka seltzer

Continue reading Sponsored Fun or Selling Out? Comedy Duo On Road Trip for Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz.