Happy Holidays!

         Warm Wishes For The Happiest Holiday Season To All!

           Thank You For Your Support!!

Here is a revealing infographic from ReelGenie Marketing Associate Dianna Bai:

The Video Marketing Revolution” infographic highlights the explosive popularity of online video and its proven effectiveness for improving sales. These two factors will drive marketers to invest seriously in the medium in the near future.
While video was formerly seen as too expensive for production, the more pressing question for brands today is whether they can afford not to join the growing movement!

Mobile video Spikes 133%!

Here's an interesting article by Michelle Clancy in Rapidtvnews.com

Mobile video spikes 133% in 12 months 

Michelle Clancy | 12-12-2013
 

Mobile TV viewing has more than doubled in just one year. While mobile viewing levelled off in the third quarter due to seasonal factors, the overall share of mobile and tablet video views has increased by 74% since January, and by 133% from September 2012 to September 2013.

Ooyala data shows that as more premium, long-form content becomes available online, consumers are increasingly turning to mobile phones and tablets as first-screen devices. Mobile and tablet video viewers spent nearly 60% of their total viewing time watching premium, long-form content running more than ten minutes.

Mobile overall accounted for 9.2% of streaming video views, while tablets accounted for 6.4% of all online video plays.

Additionally, for digital distribution in general, live video continues to outstrip video-on-demand (VOD). PC viewers in particular are drawn in by live linear streaming, breaking news, sports and special events, watching live video for 30 minutes on average, 11 times longer than VOD. Audiences on smart TVs, gaming consoles and set-top boxes watched live video nine times longer than VOD, for an average of 46 minutes per play.

Long-form content is beginning to make inroads, the study showed, with tablet TV viewers spending 25% of their viewing time watching videos more than 60 minutes long. Connected TV viewers spent nearly a third of their time watching videos longer than an hour.

Google's New Search Algorithm

Google has unleashed a brand new search algorithm, it's called Hummingbird and it helps the search engine be more capable of interpreting queries. The idea behind Hummingbird is to understand the intent behind a search rather than just interpreting  keywords contained in the search. This is huge and will change much of what we do now to optimize for search.
In other words, previously a search for "how to change an automobile tire" would focus on keywords such as: automobile and tire. Consequently the results would yield a plethora of ads and information based on those words rather than what you were actually searching for. 
This has changed! The new algorithm places emphasis on the fact that you are looking for how to information (in this case on changing a tire).
Now, user intent is more important than keyword phrases.
What this means to your video marketing efforts is that it is more important than ever to think about what question are you answering or what problem you are solving with your content. If you are not doing either of these things then what exactly does your content offer the viewer? 

Why Video Is A Must For Marketers

Amazingly, we still get asked why video is a must for marketing!
Here is an excerpt from a recent post on the Business 2 Community website that helps answer the question:

Today, video marketing’s status as the fastest growing online marketing media format is unrivaled. It’s impossible for anyone with an internet connection to avoid video marketing. Friends share links to viral videos via social networking sites. Brands use video to sell their products and services, before producing further how-to videos to help buyers use their purchases. Videos start playing when you visit websites, whether you’ve requested them or not. Businesses are flocking to video marketing, impressed by its wickedly effective conversion rates and incredible shareability, and video advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Yet, it was only April 2005 that YouTube published its first video (and less than a second since it published its last one). So why is video marketing so effective? And how has it
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Today video's status as the fastest growing marketing format is unrivaled.
Businesses are flocking to online video due to it's effective conversion rate, sharability and cost effectiveness.
Video demands attention. You can't skim read a video you either watch it or you don't. It would take 1.8 million words to convey the combined meaning expressed in a one minute video! Online video works differently than TV ads. For an online video campaign to be succesful it must have impact and engage viewers. It should have something that they want to share with friends. 
Smart Brands use online video to tell a story and elicit an emotional response from the viewer. This starts a conversation with potential customers. This is where the impact factor comes in to play. The more impact and conversational engagement  you can create the more the impact of the investment grows and is shared further spreading the message.

The B2Community article uses statistics from kickstarter campaigns to make it's point: "Kickstarter projects with great video are 85% more likely to achieve their funding targets"!

The days of thinking video would be a nice to have marketing tool someday are long over. Video is the must have in any marketing effort!

The Value of Video Video is based on artistic and creative forms of art that have been around for thousands of years. We’re no strangers to these individual concepts online. Visual art is represented with images and web design, aural art is captured by music and voice, and the conceptual story is told through text. However, when you combine these different elements, you create a little piece of magic. Because one minute of video can represent the combined meaning that it would take 1.8 million words to express. Yet it takes only a fraction of the effort to produce than those 1.8 million words would.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Businesses are flocking to video marketing, impressed by its wickedly effective conversion rates and incredible shareability, and video advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Yet, it was only April 2005 that YouTube published its first video (and less than a second since it published its last one). So why is video marketing so effective? And how has it become the ultimate game-changer for online marketing?
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Today, video marketing’s status as the fastest growing online marketing media format is unrivaled. It’s impossible for anyone with an internet connection to avoid video marketing. Friends share links to viral videos via social networking sites. Brands use video to sell their products and services, before producing further how-to videos to help buyers use their purchases. Videos start playing when you visit websites, whether you’ve requested them or not. Businesses are flocking to video marketing, impressed by its wickedly effective conversion rates and incredible shareability, and video advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Yet, it was only April 2005 that YouTube published its first video (and less than a second since it published its last one). So why is video marketing so effective? And how has it
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Today, video marketing’s status as the fastest growing online marketing media format is unrivaled. It’s impossible for anyone with an internet connection to avoid video marketing. Friends share links to viral videos via social networking sites. Brands use video to sell their products and services, before producing further how-to videos to help buyers use their purchases. Videos start playing when you visit websites, whether you’ve requested them or not. Businesses are flocking to video marketing, impressed by its wickedly effective conversion rates and incredible shareability, and video advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Yet, it was only April 2005 that YouTube published its first video (and less than a second since it published its last one). So why is video marketing so effective? And how has it become the ultimate game-changer for online marketing?
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Today, video marketing’s status as the fastest growing online marketing media format is unrivaled. It’s impossible for anyone with an internet connection to avoid video marketing. Friends share links to viral videos via social networking sites. Brands use video to sell their products and services, before producing further how-to videos to help buyers use their purchases. Videos start playing when you visit websites, whether you’ve requested them or not. Businesses are flocking to video marketing, impressed by its wickedly effective conversion rates and incredible shareability, and video advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Yet, it was only April 2005 that YouTube published its first video (and less than a second since it published its last one). So why is video marketing so effective? And how has it become the ultimate game-changer for online marketing?
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Today, video marketing’s status as the fastest growing online marketing media format is unrivaled. It’s impossible for anyone with an internet connection to avoid video marketing. Friends share links to viral videos via social networking sites. Brands use video to sell their products and services, before producing further how-to videos to help buyers use their purchases. Videos start playing when you visit websites, whether you’ve requested them or not. Businesses are flocking to video marketing, impressed by its wickedly effective conversion rates and incredible shareability, and video advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Yet, it was only April 2005 that YouTube published its first video (and less than a second since it published its last one). So why is video marketing so effective? And how has it become the ultimate game-changer for online marketing?
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/why-online-video-is-the-ultimate-game-changer-0585397#6jg9ZEsPpbgG8RvG.99

Will Your Business Benefit From Online Video?

Look at it this way:

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and it is all about video. Twitter is up there with Vine video. And now Facebook has turned on video in Instagram (you need the latest updated app to use it).

Do you think they're trying to tell you something?

Great news for marketers, YES. If used properly.

If not... well,  look out for what your competition will do to you! 

If you don't know by now that conversion rates and sales are indisputably higher when video supports a product, (this is true in both B2B or B2C) then you have managed to stay blissfully far from what you could achieve in business!

The real question to ask yourself is why would you hesitate to fully engage? 

Bear in mind:

Facebook Users Watch 500 years of YouTube video every day!
700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute.
Instagram had 5 million videos uploaded in the first 24 hours.
We'd call these some pretty compelling stats.

 

Mobile Screens Matter!

If you are still on the fence about whether to include mobile in your marketing mix take a look at this image from the MIT techreview page on Twitter/  (twitter.com/techreview)

More people have access to mobile screens than toilets!




Enough said!

Getting More You Tube Views

Ok, so with 24 hrs. of video being uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds it would seem impossible for your video content to be found or stand out.
Don't fret, you know you have to be on YouTube and there are things that you can do to help be found.
Here are a few good ways to get started:


First: Use links in your video description. Keep it short and to the point since YouTube will cut your text off after about two sentences so put your link at the beginning of your video every time you upload. Embed your video's on your website so Youtube can be used to help refer traffic there.

Go to: My Videos/Edit Video/Description 

 
Also, YouTube now has Social Media sharing badges on its video pages! Viewers can connect their SM accounts to YouTube and share videos. No need to do anything special here just be aware of this feature.

Use YouTube Bulletins to post links to your video on subscribers pages!
Go to: My Channel/Bulletins


USE AutoPlay  Set this for one of your videos and every visit to your channel will rank as a view!
Go to: My Channel/Video Playlist 

Enjoy! and GET STARTED

 

 

How Marketers And Advertisers Are Using Video & Social

An informative infographic from our marketing group:

Click on image to see full screen:

Google's New SEO Changes

Every business knows how important Search Engine Ranking and optimization  is.  Here is a video outlining Google's new SEO changes coming this summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xQmQeKU25zg

Global Web Ad Spending On The Rise

Here is some illuminating information from Nielson regarding increase in Internet ad spending and some insight into how media budgets are breaking down. Note that television still commands the majority of Ad Dollars! 
(Click on the image graphics for the full view).

Advertising is on the rise around the globe and across nearly all media types, according to Nielsen’s Global AdView Pulse report. Gains in areas such as Internet (+7.2%), radio (+6.6%) and TV (+3.1%) offset the 1.3 percent decline in magazine spending in the first half of 2012, leading overall advertising investment to be up 2.7 percent.

Internet advertising made a powerful surge in the emerging markets of the Middle East & Africa (+30.3 percent) and Latin America (+20.6 %). Interestingly, despite being down in overall ad spend, Europe saw the third highest increase in Internet ad spend of any region (+11.2%).
While television continues to hold the majority of advertising dollars globally (61%), the medium saw the biggest increases in Middle East & Africa (+30.1 percent), Latin America (+6.2%) and North America (+4.0%). TV investments declined 2.2 percent in Europe and grew nominally in Asia Pacific (+1.4%).
Magazine spending fell significantly in both Europe and North America, but magazines and newspapers both saw growth in other markets including Latin America, Asian Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.
Cinema experienced a noteworthy 40.2 percent gain in the Asia Pacific market and a marginal gain in Europe of .4 percent. This led to an increase of 5.9 percent globally despite decreases in Latin America (-21.1%) and the Middle East & Africa (-19.1%).
Outdoor media ad spend grew during the first half of 2012, with the biggest gains in the Middle East & Africa (+38.8%)and the Asia Pacific (+16.7%).
Radio, which saw a global increase of 6.6 percent, was also up in all regions measured.

Methodology

Nielsen Global AdView Pulse measures ad spending for TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, outdoor, cinema and Internet display advertising. Some markets may exclude select media due to data availability.

Brand Websites-Most Important Digital Marketing Tool

Not so surprising information posted by David Moth on econsultancy reports:

• Brand websites, social media and online advertising are regarded as the three most effective components of digital marketing by executives in the US, according to a survey by Gartner.
• When asked what activities contribute to marketing success some 45% cited the brand website as one of their top three responses, while 43% pointed to marketing on social networks and the same proportion opted for online advertising.
• Overall, digital marketing budgets were found to average 2.5% of revenue, with a prediction they will increase by 9% in 2013.

We note the 2.5% marketing budget as a good (conservative) guide when determining your digital marketing budget. Don't forget to include production costs which will vary by your content needs.

How Video Improves Ecommerce Results

This is from a recent post on econsultancy.com

Posted 21 March 2013 15:22pm by Melody King

Videos are a powerful way to showcase products on an ecommerce website, and savvy online retailers are discovering ways to get the best return on their investment in video.
For example, videos can help improve SEO campaign results, and user-generated videos can help boost conversion rates.
Almost every type of website you visit these days  features video prominently, since website visitors and shoppers have a growing appetite for video.
It’s more engaging for website visitors, and tells a brand or product story in a more immersive way than text and images do.
For ecommerce businesses, video has provided a powerful new way to showcase products and online merchants are creating increasingly sophisticated videos to take advantage of viewer engagement.
Initially, videos were treated more like glorified photos, but today, they’re seen as valuable marketing tools for SEO and social media programs, as well as hugely beneficial for mobile commerce. Here’s how forward-thinking online retailers are using video to benefit their businesses right now.

Videos drive “curated commerce”

The popularity of websites such as Pinterest, which allow users to gather images and videos based on their interests, is causing savvy ecommerce companies to consider how video can impact these communities.
As these sites open up their functionality for video “pinning” – that is, allowing members to attach videos as well as images to their virtual “walls” – ecommerce businesses should be ready with creative videos that these users will eagerly share.
When it first debuted, Pinterest limited membership to individuals. However, in late 2012, the site opened up membership to businesses as well. This means now is the perfect time for online merchants to create Pinterest pinboards for their brands and businesses.

Video helps improve SEO campaigns

Adding product videos to websites can help boost search rankings. Google in particular favors video in its search results. Additionally, a rise in your rankings can also be expected.
Google and YouTube are continually changing their search algorithms for video in order to determine how to present results that their users find most relevant.
In October, for example, YouTube announced that it would rank videos based on “watch time,” giving preference to videos that are watched for longer periods of time instead of only watched for a few seconds. It’s clear that sites like Google and YouTube will continue to change their search algorithms to refine video-related results.
Become a regular reader of the Google and YouTube blogs to stay current on search changes.

Video plays a role in digital marketing

When you’ve invested time and money to create ecommerce videos, you want to realize a proper return on that investment.
Smart marketers use videos beyond website product pages. For instance, they embed videos in email newsletters, post them onto social networks, and create channels on YouTube or Vimeo. All of this helps increase their visibility, and their impact on the bottom line.

What Exactly Is Content Marketing?

It seems to go by many names depending who you ask: "branded media, branded content,...etc.
The truth is that Content Marketing really says it best.
So, Content Marketing Institute probably defines it in the most straightforward way:

Content Marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Basically content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without directly selling. In other words it is non interruption oriented. Instead of pitching your product or service you are providing information that will make your buyer more intelligent. The result of this, as we now know, is the belief that if we consistently deliver valuable information to buyers they in turn will reward us with their business and loyalty.
And they do! Content Marketing is being used by most of the major businesses in the world, including P&G, Cisco Systems and even John Deere.
The wonderful thing about it is that it also empowers small and one-persons businesses with equal impact.
The reason is because IT WORKS!

TV Ads Viewed Online Up Brand Recall

From Wayne Friedman/Online Media Daily


Shifting up to 15% of TV ad spend to online builds higher brand recall with lower cost and better reach.

That's per a new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which also found that moving TV ads to digital video can increase a brand's recall by 33% -- when running in conjunction with a TV campaign. 

Looking specifically at recall, the study found that brand recall, message recall and ad likeability scores for ads run during a full episode online are almost double those of a network TV commercial alone.

The study analyzed 18 actual TV schedules in ad categories including consumer packaged goods (CPG) -- specifically health & beauty and food and beverage -- as well as technology, automotive, retail, finance and telecommunications. On average, CPG advertising reach grew 3.4% (3.4 reach points) among persons 18 and older.

What Exactly Is a Brand And Branding ?

This is a question that we get asked a lot more than you might think. For some the answer is obvious, for others it seems like some kind of foreign language.

Unfortunately adding to the confusion is the fact that there are as many answers to the question floating around as there are organizations claiming to provide it.

 

Here is some food for thought that will hopefully illuminate it's importancy or at least clarify the terminology.

  

The American Marketing Association defines Brand and Branding this way: 

“A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and

ideas often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme.

Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or services both dirctly relating to its use, and through the influences of advertising, design and media commentary."

As a result, you always know a "Brand" when you see it. 

For example: Kleenex is a brand even though there are many varieties of facial tissues.

Or, to look at it another way, as Hubspot puts it: "A couple of hamburger patties and a slice of cheese on a bun are just that. But, add special sauce and it becomes a Big Mac!

That's "Branding"!

Videology's Q4 '12 Infographic Breaks Down Online Video Ad Market

Here's one from Will Richmond's Videonuze site
 
Video ad technology provider Videology has released its Q4 '12 U.S. video infographic, continuing to break down into fine detail which industries are using online video advertising, how/who their campaigns target and performance. The data is based on nearly 2.4 billion video ad impressions Videology served in Q4, and it offers extremely rich insights for anyone looking for a deeper dive into the surging online video ad market.
(click on infographic for a larger view)

Super Bowl XLV11 Ad Cost

For the last two years the Super Bowl Broadcasts have been the most watched programs in U.S. television history!
Considering the media fragmentation of todays world that kind of mega-audience obviously comes with a price!
How much does :30 of air time cost to grab that number of eyeballs? Well, according to Shoot Magazine a :30 tv commercial on this years CBS broadcast went in the neighborhood of $3.8 million! Thats up over last years $3.5 million.
The surprising thing is that (as all the stats come in), the thing that's getting the most buzz didn't only happen on the big screen. Preliminary analysis of viewing habits show that smaller smart phone and tablet screens (watched simultaneously with big screens) created quite an astounding marketing flurry on their own. The blackout in the third quarter only helped to contribute to all of this. Oreo was quick to post a graphic tweet: "You don't need light to dunk"
And Audi quickly took a shot at Mercedes Benz who is a backer of the stadium.
So, what's the take-away?
1. Be quick to pay enough attention to your marketing efforts to take advantage of opportunist occurences!
2. If you can't afford $3.8 million for a single airing of your :30 TV commercial you can still be in the game on the small screen!   Put another way don't overlook the growing trend toward multi screen viewing.
As reported in the New York Times, e-Bay bounced back by focusing on mobile. Face it, nearly everyone capable of buying the products or services offered by your company has a smartphone today and he or she is connected seven days a week, 10 hours a day.  If you want to connect, you need to embrace mobile today.
Just be sure to optimize your content (especially video) for Multi screen compatibility!

FYI: Social Media

If you read this blog then you know that we were early adopters of incorporating Social Sites in your marketing mix. Especially if you can't find the budget dollars for a more comprehensive approach.
In that regard here are some stats from a recent Nielson study that come as no surprise:
The article was reported by "Media Buyer & Planner"

The study released on Tuesday by Nielsen and Vizu finds that 89% of advertisers and 71% of agencies use tools such as pages, posts, "likes" and "pins," while 75% of advertisers and 81% of agencies say they purchase social media or sponsored content. Also, 64% of advertisers say they plan to spend more on social media in the future.
While paid social media is relatively new, Jeff Smith of Nielsen says, "Advertisers are starting to look at social media as an integrated part of their advertising strategy."

We gotta wonder, are they just now figuring this out? I mean Really!

ITU Approves Low-Bandwidth HEVC/H.265 Video Coding Standard

This just came across the Radar: Post From: Studio Daily.com!

Bryant Frazer/1/28/13

New Technology Is Said to Require Half the Bit Rate of H.264 at Same Quality Levels! 

The ITU has approved the new High Efficiency Video Coding standard (HEVC) for high-quality, low-bandwidth video. The new standard, also known as H.265, will require about half the bit rate of its predecessor, H.264/AVC, the ITU said.
The H.265 standard includes a Main profile for 8-bit 4:2:0 video, a Main 10 profile that adds 10-bit support, and a Main Still Picture profile for using the same HEVC intraframe compression tools for still images.
Expect future extensions to the codec to include support for 12-bit video as well as 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma sampling. HEVC is also expectde to be extended with tools for stereo-3D video encoding. The ITU said HEVC has already been implemented in technology demos from Ateme, Broadcom, Cyberlnk, Ericsson, Fraunhofer HHI, Mitsubishi, NHK, NTT Docomo, and Qualcomm.
However, the smart money is not on H.265 becoming a new universal standard overnight. For one thing, the bandwidth savings comes with an increase in computational overhead, which means that devices that support H.265 will be more costly than their H.264 predecessors. The cable TV industry, as one example, is still wrangling the transition from legacy MPEG-2 video equipment to more efficient H.264 technology.
HEVC may be crucial in any Ultra HD transmission plans, as well as for video streaming where bandwidth is at a premium. But it'll take a few years before the technology reaches a critical mass. In a posting last week at StreamingMedia.com, Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Dan Rayburn wrote, "We believe that while token adoptions — such as incorporation into DVB standards for terrestrial broadcasting — will occur in the short-term, and a few channels may also be launched by 2015, a critical mass of adoption will not begin to occur until at least 2016."
For more information: www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/studygroups/com16/video/Pages/jctvc.aspx; hevc.hhi.fraunhofer.de/

Back From The Holidays

Well as it happens every year, we are playing catch up after the holidays.
We have some good posts coming up including an insight into "Programatic Buying".  It's  must read information for every advertiser/marketer.

In the mean time this study commissioned by Pitney Bowes Software and published by emarketer came across our radar.
It's supposed to show how Internet Users & Marketers are using Social Media Sites but there is a glaring flaw in the data interpretation as you'll see in a minute. Here's a graph of the "findings"

Now, What's Wrong with this? As the folks at ReelSEO point out: Although 93% of consumers are using Facebook, do these "marketing decision-makers"  know that 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook? Do they know that 53% of consumers are using YouTube and 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week? And do they know that 31% of consumers are using Twitter, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute?

Lesson here is that as marketers we have to learn how to interpret the data collected by bean counters into meaningful and real world usable information!