Category Archives: Video

Corporate Viral Video of the Month: Coca-Cola Happiness Machine

Posted by Kelsey Media Productions Blog on March 4, 2010

It’s clear that here, at Kelsey Media Productions we believe using video is the most effective way to market your company online. Video provides a platform that is both personal and visually stimulating. We then use search engine optimization techniques to route as much traffic to your content as possible. However, in the case of “Viral” videos, it is the content itself that generates the massive volume of viewers that are so desired in online marketing. When executed well, viral videos can provide a substantial amount of attention for your company. Amusing time wasters like Chocolate Rain or Miss Teen South Carolina are great example of videos that have gone viral. However, using the appeal of viral video for corporate promotion is something that many companies strive for but only a few have managed to succeed, even without the use of sputtering sentence fragments or the soothing baritone of Tay Zonday.

In many ways, the key to an effective viral video is to keep it simple. The most successful corporate viral videos provide a brief smile and enough interest to pass along to a friend. Corporate viral videos do best with little dialog so it’s important to not be too wordy. This week’s corporate viral video of the week is the Coca-Cola Happiness Machine video. This video was posted on YouTube on January 12, 2010 and already has over a million hits. It is an example of a strong corporate viral video. The concept is simple and the focus of the video is the action rather than the script. Often, companies will try too hard to be funny and miss a large audience because humor is subjective. The Coca-Cola video won’t make you laugh out loud, but it will keep you smiling and has mass appeal. Another technique used in this video which makes it successful in the viral format, is that it’s not over produced. The hidden camera or home camera look is very effective with viral videos, it provides a more personal and intimate tone that we associate with Internet video and distinguish from television.

Ultimately, the successful corporate viral video does not express an overt point of view, but provides a moment of harmless levity in an otherwise dull corporate day. And therein lies the art. Contact us today at 781.365.4800 to see how you can create your own viral video!

Creating more webtraffic with Video Marketing

Introduction to Video Marketing
Without going about the usual blabber, I’m just going to ask you a simple question and that is … have you ever heard of YouTube? If your answer is yes, then you have already experienced the effects of video marketing and if you honestly answered no to that question, then I have to honestly tell you that you’ve been living under a rock all this while. I’m dead serious.

youtube video marketing

Because you see … out of the millions and millions of webpages and websites out there, YouTube is ranked #2 in terms of the volumes of traffic that they experience. What does this tell you? It tells you that video is extremely engaging and addictive which brings us to our main point and that is “How can I bring truckloads of targeted traffic to my website?”.

Easy on me now as I do my best to explain step by step and give you countless tips as to how you can go about riding on the coattails of sites like YouTube and the like and get lots of traffic. Oh, did I mention also that the traffic is FREE and viral?

Before I show you how you can create your own videos, let me show you the pointers to making Video Marketing work:

1) Keep Your Video Short … People in this day and age are busy and easily distracted so unless there is real value and the video is really engaging, they will MOVE ON. By keeping your videos short, they are more easily persuaded to check out your video and also grasp the point of your video much more quickly. As a general guideline, anything from 1 min 30 secs right up to 10 mins would be good.

2) Give Quality Information and Great Value … Surfers like to pick up new things and find out great information all the time. By giving them great value, you also make your videos viral because they are then persuaded to share the videos with their friends thereby increasing your visibility.

3) Title Your Video Appropriately and Attractively … If your video is about your great tips on fishing, title it something like “Watch Me Catch 20 Kgs of Fish In Just 74 Mins”. Compare that to “Great Tips On Fishing”, which do you think works better at getting their attention? Remember, you want to appear unique and interesting. One very important point to note … make sure your keywords are in there also. We must never forget SEO or search engine optimization. You want your videos ranked highly on search engines, dont you?

4) Submit Your Videos To Multiple Video Sites … You need to leverage as much as possible every single video you create. Why submit to one site when you can submit to 20 others? Why 20 when you can do 40? After all, your whole point of video marketing was to gain traffic (which hopefully turns into a positive cashflow). What follows is a list of the best 8 video sites that you can submit your videos to:

  • YouTube – Biggest One Of Them All (Lots of junk here though)
  • DailyMotion – Gotten lots of views with this
  • MetaCafe – Same goes for MetaCafe
  • Revver – Pretty strict with copyrighted stuff

5) Display Your Site URL Clearly … There are 2 main places to display your url so that your audience know where to look for you. You need to put your link somewhere on your video (more on that in point #6). The other place you should have your URL / site link is where the description of the video is (see screenshot). Some sites make it clickable (like YouTube) so that’s to your advantage.

6) Display URL on the Video … There are 2 main styles of displaying your URL on the video. One is to pad the video at the beginning and at the end of it. The other is to show the URL at the bottom of the video throughout the video. Decide what’s best for you.

7) Mass Submitting Your Video … Coming back to point #4, if you’ve decided that you or you would like Kelsey Media Productions to put up your videos on multiple sites, it’s best then to use some tool to achieve that so that you save your time (i.e leverage). You don’t really wanna log in to each and every single video site and upload your video one at a time, do you?

8.)Be passionate and enthusiastic – This is a KILLER TIP! If you can convey a sense of enthusiasm and passion shows up clearly in your videos, you have a very high chance of your audience wanting to find out more about your products and services. Ask the top salespeople around. They’ll attest to this.

9) Be focused – Be focused on the objective of your video so that your audience know what is going on. Confusion is not going to work well in your favor.

10) Provide a call to action – At the end of your video, provide a call to action such as “Head over to http://… right now” or “Want A Free Report?”, etc

11) Submit Your Video To Social Bookmarking Sites – Yes, you can submit your videos to social bookmarking sites as well like StumbleUpon, Digg, etc … No better way to get even more viewers!

Video Marketing in Conclusion

I hear people say a lot of times why they don’t want to do any video marketing and I’ll like to address some possible objections here:

1) I can’t speak well enough – Hey, if you can speak to the average person on the street in your own language, there’s no reason why you can’t do videos. Contrary to the myth that you need perfect english, a casual tone would work much better than the “perfect professor’s english” (if you know what I mean).

2) I’m too ugly for video – Sheesh … you don’t have to appear on video if you don’t want to. And if there’s a real need for a real person’s face to present some product or service, photo stills can work or you can always outsource it, can’t you?

3) It’s too time consuming – Well, it depends on the niche and how complicated you want the video to be.

So you see … there’s really no reason for you not to give video marketing a shot. If you like to get in touch with us, feel free to contact Kelsey Media Productions 781.365.4800 and have fun with your video marketing! =)

Which HD video Web service is the best?

by Josh Lowensohn

Around this time last year we put together a comparison of various video sites to determine which ones had the best overall quality and user experience. Since then, high-definition-capable digital cameras and camcorders have taken off, and several major video hosts have rolled out official support for wide-screen, super high-quality Flash video in response. So we think the time has come to take another look at what these sites are offering now and crown a new leader in the realm of HD video.

The six sites we’re putting head to head are: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, DailyMotion, SmugMug andBlip.tv.

What’s being tested

Quality. For our tests, we looked at detail on two levels–both still and in motion. For the still, we used a shot of our corner Italian restaurant. From our test footage you should be able to read everything on the front awning.

For the motion element, there were plenty of cars and pedestrians outside our offices that would have made good test subjects. In this case, we went with a bicycle since it falls somewhere in between the two.

In last year’s tests, we were able to do a neat mouseover trick to show you each site’s original quality from the same part of a clip. We’ve done that again this time, but since the videos are too wide for this page, we’re only doing it with a portion of the clip. While the player size on each service was different, we viewed each video at the maximum full-screen resolution (1280 pixels wide), in order to preserve the original quality.

Value. Some of these services aren’t free. So what we wanted to find out is: for those that cost money, is the charge worth it?

What’s NOT being tested

Unlike the last time we did this, we’re not taking upload times into account, since everyone’s connection is a little different. Likewise, we’re not quantifying processing times, since the clip you’re uploading at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday night will probably get processed faster than the same clip at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning. We have, however, noted the respective size limits at each site, which can be incredibly important. HD video files are big, even if you’re talking about a relatively short clip.

All the services we used processed our videos within about 10 minutes. The one exception was Vimeo, which took nearly three hours from the time it finished uploading to show up live on the site. This could have just been a bad time to upload, and keep in mind that paying users of Vimeo’s Plus service get their videos sent to the front of the queue.

About the test footage

Click to play the sample video

To get a decent test shot, we went with a consumer-friendly, pocket-sized capture device. In this case it’s the recently releasedFlip Mino HD (CNET review). It captures really good-looking video in 1280×720 resolution at 30 frames per second. It doesn’t shoot in 1900×1080, also known as “full HD,” but we’re assuming that most folks are going to be using devices that shoot 720p anyway.

The footage is just a hair over three minutes long, which is about the standard for Web video, and has not been changed from its original camera formatting. It encompasses fast motion (the cars whizzing by), fine detail (local restaurant signage), and plenty of ambient sound.

Blip.tv

Blip is a newcomer to this year’s contest. Blip takes nearly anything you can throw at it, including HD videos. What makes Blip particularly neat is that it can play your content almost immediately, since it supports playback of the native file. You can also tweak the player to automatically play your video in a certain format. For instance, the H.264 clip I uploaded could be played back in a Flash player, or in a QuickTime player.

As for the results, Blip remained fairly sharp but a little washed out from the compression. Colors that popped in YouTube and SmugMug were just a little less vibrant. Some of the text from the awning was also a little choppier. This became much more apparent in the motion test, where Blip fared the worst of any of the services tested.

DailyMotion

DailyMotion was also not included in the original comparison. It launched its high-quality video service back in February of last year, the same month we did the first round of testing. As a user, you cannot actually upload anything that’s HD or above 150MB in size before becoming a “MotionMaker,” which is just a fancy way of saying you’re promising to not upload a bunch of copyrighted material. It’s an extra step on top of user registration, and your video must then undergo a quick review by DailyMotion staff before going live.

Most are unlikely to want this many hoops to jump through, but once you’re a part of the program, uploading your videos is a cinch and the quality is great. Our only quibble is that it’s the one service that sticks pre-roll ads in front of your videos. For some this might not be a big issue, but if you can get similar results elsewhere without them (and without the extra registration step) it’s kind of a turn-off.

Facebook

Facebook rolled out HD video rather quietly in late 2008. It has some of the loosest requirements of any video service, letting videos go up to 20 minutes in length and up to 1GB in size. In comparison, YouTube only lets you have 10 minutes. HD video on Facebook is gorgeous when viewed in the service’s built-in player, but it does not scale well at all when viewed in full screen. Many details are lost in this transition, including the outdoor signage in our clip, which bordered on becoming unreadable. Likewise, the sharpness seen in SmugMug , Dailymotion and YouTube for the bike test was lost when viewed in Facebook.

The big, big plus side of Facebook is that you can tag people who are in the video if they’re Facebook users. This makes it a far more compelling place to upload something if you’re intending to share it with friends.

SmugMug

SmugMug is the only service on this list that wasn’t originally intended for video sharing. It’s also one of the best we used. SmugMug added its video hosting in response to more cameras, both point and shoot, as well as DSLR cameras like Nikon’s D90 and the Canon 5D Mark II shooting in HD. The one big thing that SmugMug does that the others don’t is support 1080p video–the kind that comes out of the 5D Mark II and future high-end DSLRs.

Video on SmugMug was some of the best of the bunch. It was crystal clear, loaded fast, and had one of the slickest players. Our only caveat was that it’s pricey. To upload and host HD video on SmugMug you have to pay $149 a year, which comes out to $12.50 a month. Of course if you’re a semi-serious photographer you’re not just paying for the video hosting. The service is, hands down, one of the best photo-hosting services around. It boasts an impressive slideshow tool and a built-in storefront that lets you price and sell each shot. If you’re just thinking about shooting video however, Vimeo’s Plus service is less than half the cost.

Vimeo
Vimeo won last year’s competition (alongside Veoh) for standard definition. At that time it was already ready, willing, and able to host HD clips (though we only tested its standard-def features). Vimeo has tightened its belt a bit since last year, introducing a new premium “Plus” service that gives users unlimited uploads. At the same time, it limited how many HD videos you could upload to just one per week, as well as restricting how many HD views you can get when it’s embedded elsewhere.

Vimeo did a great job both on both tests. What sets it apart from the other services being compared is that it lets you turn scaling on and off. This lets you watch videos in their native size as long as you’re watching them in full-screen mode. That means if you’ve got a display that’s as big or bigger than 1280×720 pixels, you can view the original video in a 1:1 pixel ratio.

YouTube
YouTube was the runt of the litter last year, and one of the main reasons we put together the initial comparison. Its video was some of the grainiest around. But that has since been remedied with both a higher-quality stream and the capability to display HD clips in a buttery-smooth 16:9 player.

Our test footage in YouTube came out gorgeous. Motion was clear, the sound was excellent, and it started playing right away. YouTube scored the highest marks–right up there with SmugMug and Dailymotion, in both the motion and still tests. Not a bad comeback compared to last year.

Stat sheet

The victor: YouTube
This time around, we feel really comfortable giving YouTube the quality crown. Its HD encoding is really nice, and you can’t beat the price (free). One thing that really separates it from the others is that you can do so many things with your clip once it’s up there. You can replace the music, as well as add subtitles and annotations. Community members can also respond to it, adding in-line video replies.

Runners up: Vimeo and SmugMug
Only one of these services will really cost you money (SmugMug), but both give you really great-looking HD Web video. A nod must be given to Vimeo for blazing the trail here. It’s been doing HD video for a while now, and it is one of the most colorful and beautiful sites around. Likewise, SmugMug’s player and interface are top notch, although it’s not as social, and the $150 price tag might be a turn-off to casual users who don’t intend to use its photo-hosting features.

Update: It was inevitable that we’d leave someone out of this by accident. In this case one of the first to let us know was Motionbox, which launched its HD support in early 2008. While it’s too late to include it in the comparison, it’s worth giving a plug here.

Motionbox’s $30 a year service lets you upload files of any size and length. Founder Chris O’Brien also wanted to note that his team has been trying to get all versions of the AVCHD format (found on most hand-held camcorders) working. You can see a demo of how the video looks here.

Think we got it wrong? Sound off in the comments.

YouTube Launches Site for Smartphones

By Chris Crum – Fri, 08/07/2009 – 09:46
Made for iPhone, G1, Palm Pre

Smartphone users now have their own version of YouTube. The company says that smartphone users with “capable” browsers like the iPhone, G1, and Palm Pre can access the mobile site.

“As more and more people are using the browser on their smartphones for checking email, visiting websites, and even accessing YouTube, we want to make sure that we provide the best possible YouTube experience on your mobile browser,” says YouTube Product Manager Dwipal Desai.

Users can log into their account, view their favorites, and find and share videos just like normal. “It’s part of our mission to create the best possible YouTube experience for you, whether you use the site on your computer, in your living room, or on the go,” says Desai.

To access the new mobile site, just go to YouTube.com from your mobile phone. From there you’ll be taken to a new website designed specifically for your mobile device.

This version of YouTube is not available on all devices, keep in mind. According to some people commenting on YouTube’s announcement, it doesn’t work on the Blackberry Bold, or the Sony PSP, to name a couple.

It’s gong to be wise for YouTube to be optimized for as many devices as possible, especially now that it has its own AdSense-type program. The site is also catering to new a lot more these days, which could increase demand for the site for users on the go.