1. What is the role / objective of the video.
2. What’s our success measurement / KPI.
3. What longevity do we need.
4. Does our brand / service best suited by a funny creative.
5. What is our customers expectation of our brand message.

Most importantly to the question ‘does the video have to be funny?’.  My personal view is funny videos / viral videos are the exception, terrific when they come off, which is rare, but in most cases are risky ground for brands and business.

More interestingly is to review factual data on what actually makes video engaging.

Encouragingly the recent Emarketer/Nielsen survey re-enforced our thinking that interest and purchase desire is driven by video that is informative and emotionally pulling. For our customers their video can hit these drivers.

Reviewing the table above, you will see that the segment that reacts best to informative video is the under 20 age group. Another blow to those media commentators pedlling the story that the youth of today are dumbing down, though apparently this has been a view through-out the history of man-kind.  Unders 20s react well to all styles of video but over half are engaged by information and educational content.

As we approach our 2000th video at Silverlinemedia.tv results from our customers prove that good informative and passionate website video improves conversions and through online video distribution and marketing is attracting quality customers at a fraction of other marketing channels. We had a client today, Sportaloosa.com, which after one day has received enough response to pay for the video four times over. A really informative video about the Spotted Horse Breed. Fascinating.

YouTube has launched a home page redesign which brings search more to the fore. Not surprising given it is the second biggest search engine on the web, after parent company Google. However I suspect the redesign is more about the launch of YouTube AdSense.  

An evolutionary change reducing clutter and putting focus on search. YouTube  ran an astoundingly large multivariate experiment with over 1,024 versions on the US-English homepage. Utilizing Google Website Optimizer, they made small changes to three key sections on the homepage with the goal of increasing the number of people who signed up for an account. They claim the results were impressive: the new page performed 15.7% better than the original, resulting in thousands more sign-ups and personalized views to the homepage every day.

The push on search and the imminent launch of YouTube adsense, further prioritises the need for companies to ensure their content/message is not only on video sharing sites like YouTube but that their online video is also correctly tagged and optimized. We have achieved good results for our clients in this area, and this change further prioritises our focus on YouTube marketing.

Check out the YouTube blog on their multivariate experiment.

YouTube, Fox Interactive Media and Hulu top research company ComScore’s list of sites providing the most-watched online videos.

The volume is overwheming and continues to escale to normal surfing behaviour. Key learnings are attention spans are brief. As we know at silverlinemedia.tv – the majority of online video, particularly advertising, works best at the 2 minute mark. However of interest is the significant rise of broadcast streams from traditional and new broadcasters and networks such as Hulu.com.

Silverlinemedia.tv

Silverlinemedia.tv, New Zealand’s biggest internet video company, has opened a Chrischurch office to develop the demand from customers in the South Island for website video production and marketing.

The new South Island office is headed up by highly experienced media executive David Parlane, who until recently headed up ACP Trader in the South Island and has had executive sales roles in magazine, radio and cinema and online.

David comments ‘This is the most exciting business and media solution I have been involved in for a long-time. The value proposition and response customers across different markets from property to retail is simply terrific. We have big plans and I am pleased to announce Peter Wilson on board with me, who has a very strong background in the travel and hospitality trade. ’

Lee Williams, Chairperson of Silverlinemedia.tv  – I’m thrilled to be able to attract highly experienced talents like David Parlane  and Peter Wilson, to drive and develop Silverlinemedia.tv services through the South Island.

We’ve now created over 1,400 website videos since August across many industries and are our customers are receiving terrific response.

This wave of embracement in New Zealand quickly follows on from a US report by the Kelsley Group earlier in the year which showed in the US a third off all dealers were already taking advantage of video.  The survey reported 59% of dealers planned to use video on their own websites within the next 12 months

The rational for this explosion. Is simple. Our view that video increases conversions for websites is supported by Larry Pryg, the National Marketing Manager for GM’s certified-used auto business has stated that “Video is exploding,” and that when it comes to used cars, dealer websites that have video are 2X more likely to generate phone calls or emails from prospective shoppers vs. websites just using still pictures.

Of course you can also pay for them online.