Video Email and the iPhone Experience

There was a lot of great video email tips shared during today's Drive Clicks and Conversions with Email + Video webinar.  Co-hosted with ExactTarget and the Web Video Marketing Council, today's presentation presented the results of the 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey.  In the weeks ahead, we'll be sharing the findings from this study, which we believe is the first to focus on video email.
The audience asked some great about video email.  With the emergence of smart phones, many marketers want to know if Apple's Flash restrictions have a significant impact if the video email has been created in a Flash Video (FLV) file format.  Chris Studabaker, a Senior Design Consultant at ExactTarget and Flimp's own CEO Wayne Wall asked the audience to keep the following in mind:

1. Flash is the video format for 75% of all online video.  
2. It is important to know what portion of your audience may be viewing content via an Apple iPhone or iPad.
3. If only a small percent of your total audience is using an Apple smart appliance to view content, an alternative video format may not be necessary.  If a larger portion of your audience is using smart appliances produced by Apple, then alternative video formats are recommended.

The has been a rapid adoption of smartphones by consumers.  Gartner reported that smart appliances represent almost 20 percent of all phones sold.  In the United States, Google's Android platform is the most popular, followed by the iPhone, and Research in Motion's Blackberry.

2010 Video Email Marketing Survey Results Webinar

Did you know that 52 percent of marketers believe that video email is the wave of the future? Be on the vanguard of this emerging direct marketing tactic by participating in tomorrow's Drive Clicks and Conversions with Email + Video webinar.  The results of the 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey will be presented for the first time.
Hosted by the Web Video Marketing Council, ExactTarget and Flimp Media, this live webinar will revel the key findings from the first industry survey dedicated to video email marketing.  Learn about:

• Ways to drive higher audience engagement and response rates with video
• Information on new video email marketing technologies
• Practical tips and advice on designing and conducting successful video email marketing campaigns

Pre-registration is required to attend the free Drive Clicks and Conversions with Video Email webinar.  All attendees will receive a free copy of the Video Email Survey Results and Trends Report.
The webinar's details are as follows:
When: Thursday, August 12th
Time: 12 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. CDT
Hosts: Web Video Marketing Council, ExactTarget, Flimp Media

Webinar: Drive Clicks and Conversions with Video Email

The Web Video Marketing Council invites you to join us on Thursday, August 12th at 12 p.m. EDT for a webinar on the results of the 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey Results.
Hosted by the WVMC, ExactTarget and Flimp Media, this live webinar will showcase the survey's results and provide expert advice on video email marketing.  Learn about the best techniques for integrating video with email to drive higher click through rates and conversions.  Plus, all attendees will receive a free copy of the Video Email Survey Results and Trend Report.
The 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey Results was initiated by the Web Video Marketing Council to understand and identified the trends and practices driving the increased use of video with email marketing.  As email inboxes become ever more crowded, marketers are challenged to find new ways to increase email open rates, click through rates and conversions. While the use of video + email is gaining popularity, video email marketing presents marketers with a range of technical and content challenges that hold back the integration of video +  email as an effective marketing practice.

This WVMC Survey was conducted in early Summer 2010 to gather data from marketers on how and to what extent video + email marketing is being practiced and to identify emerging trends and common practices that will help us understand and define the evolving video + email market segment.

Sign-up for the webinar today!

The Marketer's Viral Video Conundrum

There may be nothing worse for a marketer than to create a buzz worthy campaign that doesn't ultimately contribute to an organization's bottom line.  Everyone knows the purpose of marketing is to grab an audience's attention on the path that leads to a sale.
Over the past few weeks, the Intraweb and marketing industry has been in a tizzy over the wild success of Old Spice's innovative web video marketing campaign.  The team that first introduced Old Spice Man to the world via traditional broadcast ads extended the campaign into a great example of viral video marketing.  Videos were launched and viewers engaged . . . by watching the videos.  In fact, the Old Spice Man videos took up positions #1, #2, #3 and #4 on the Visible Measures "Top 10 Viral Video Ad Campaigns" chart for the week of July 5 - 11, 2010.
However, as reported by MarketingVox, sales for the Old Spice "Red Zone After Hours Body Wash" have dropped 7 percent in 2010. The MarketingVox article goes on to cite a BrandWeek analysis of the 2009 Evian roller babies campaign, another wildly successful viral video effort:

"An analysis of the top viral ads of 2009 show that the best a marketer can hope for is to raise awareness and drive traffic to a Web site."

Thus the marketer's conundrum:  viral video can be a great way to generate buzz, but that buzz may not contribute to sales.
If organization's are investing the time and budget to create online video content, the content should not be developed for the sole purpose of "going viral."  Take the time to create a distribution strategy.  Viral sharing may be one of the elements of this plan, but consider other proven web video marketing tactics including video email.
Additionally, online video can absolutely be leveraged to produce more than just a plethora of views.  The millions of viewers the Old Spice team reached through their sassy videos could have been converted to sales if the video content was part of a video brochure or video landing page.  Then an offer to purchase or a direct call to action to buy some "Red Zone" wash could have been presented in tandem with the videos.

Dilbert on Viral Online Video

You know that web video marketing is a mainstream tactic when it gets covered in the comic strip Dilbert.  In the strip published on 18 July 2010, Scott Adams imagines what it is like to approve a marketing project at the high tech company that Dilbert works at.
Recognizing that web video marketing is a smart tactic, the marketing team created an online video that they hope will go viral.  As the strip progresses, hilarity ensures.  Dilbert has concerns about the accuracy of the video's content.  But marketing pushes back, since a member of the engineering team approved the concept.  The approver, Wally, didn't mean to endorse the script.  Rather, he thought the marketing team asked if he found the video funny.
This is not the way to launch a web video marketing campaign.  One commenter to this strip said it best:

This comment is dead on.  If, as Dilbert noted, the content in the video makes inaccurate claims, then the video could indeed be poised to go viral.  While the marketing team wants the video to go viral, they want a positive experience. They don't want to be dealing with backlash over technologists making fun of their product or service.
Viral video marketing is extremely tricky.  When launched successfully, such as last week's Old Spice campaign, viral video content can get people to share content and talk about your product.  However, just because a video goes viral doesn't mean that organizations will see an increase in quality engagement that generates leads and sales.  Plus, if the video is distributed virally on its own and not incorporated into a video brochure or video landing page, viewers may not have an easy way to connect with the organization.
Since no marketer wants to be compared to the Dilbert Company's marketing team, consider these suggestions before launching your web video marketing campaign:

1. What is the purpose of the video content?
2. How will the content be distributed?
3. Is there a way for viewers to engage with my organization through easy to understand calls to action.
4. Will identifiable branding and messaging be included with the video content in a video brochure/video landing page structure to ensure that viral viewers can connect with my organization?
5. What metrics will be used to determine if the campaign was successful?

So take it from the Dilbert Company's marketing team . . . web video marketing is a do.  Just don't create content that presents your organization in an unflattering light.

Online Video Brochures for Direct Marketing

It is hard to believe that five years ago the concept of web video marketing was still in its infancy.  A number of factors have spurred the growth of online video as a marketing tactic:

• The widespread adoption of video viewing on sites ranging from YouTube and Hulu.
• Acceleration of online video content increasing website SEO.
• Ease of content creation through do it yourself tools including Flip cameras.
• Ability to distribute video content via email and social networks.
• Analytical data to gage ROI of web video marketing campaigns.

Recognizing the evolution of web video marketing, Flimp Media recently published a new white paper titled "Online Video Brochures:  A Powerful New Direct Marketing Application."

 

 

 

Online Video Brochures are digital collateral designed to focus viewer attention on a specific offer or information (either editorial or commercial).  First and foremost:  audiovisual content typically generates engagement that is four to seven times higher than static print, email or web content.  Video brochures leverage the advantages of working with audiovisual content by combining an interactive multimedia experience with messaging, targeted distribution and comprehensive viewer tracking.

 

Unlike stand-alone video content, video brochures afford an opportunity for both viewer interaction and response with the ability to distribute via different digital avenues (email, social media, web integration) and capture and measure audience activity. 

 

Compared to traditional collateral, video brochures can also be less expensive to produce, since organizations do not need to actual print the brochure or assume costly distribution costs associated with postal mail or even geographic limitations.  Also, unlike print production, video brochures can be created in a short amount of time.  Plus - if you need to update something, you can avoid reprints and more effectively manage version control.  Finally, marketers are afforded the ability to track audience engagement.

 

To learn more about how video brochures can become a part of your marketing mix, download this free white paper.

Online Video's Most Important Feature

In web video marketing, the most important element online video is not the video view.  It is actually the Post Play Interaction or PPI.  As defined by Rob Davis, a Partner and Interactive Marketing Director at Ogilvy, PPI is "the click immediately after the video plays."

From a metrics perspective, many marketers deem total video views to be the most important element of a web video marketing campaign.  True - video views are a sound metric, along with video viewing minutes.  It is a good way to ascertain if audience was captivated by the audiovisual content and it can be a sound way to compare the success of multiple campaigns.  But views are only one component in terms of evaluating a campaign's ROI.

Since the video content is being used to spur the viewer to action, the PPI is a major factor that needs to be consider.  After someone watches video content, what do they do?  Do they just close out of the browser window and move on to some other Web activity or are they sharing your content?  Better yet - are they engaging with your organization through a direct action? Effectively, the PPI is "the most important video-related click" - in some ways equal to hitting the "play" button and starting the video.

At Flimp, we often will say the reason online video is popular in marketing communications is because the audiovisual content spurs a reaction.  When the video is on its own, the onus (or PPI), is on the viewer to engage with an organization.  However, if the video is part of a video brochure or video landing page, viewers see branding, messaging and - most importantly - calls to action.  Enveloping the video with calls to action ensure that the viewer is able to easily move to a PPI. Which is the whole point of a marketing initiative.