Do you still need proof of how POWERFUL online video is? PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 28 July 2009 15:44
Online video is POWERFUL. There is NO question any longer of its relevancy. Take for example the Johnson Automotive group in Raleigh North Carolina (www.nobadgers.com). Their series of very funny commercials appear on YouTube. If you go to www.YouTube.com and type in “Badger Commercials” you will see a whole series of them. This dealership has received over 10,000 unique visitors to their website in a single month! Sean V. Bradley - Articles and Interviews What is surreal is the amount of views these videos receive. One titled “Wiggle Room” received 264,334 views. What is profound here is that for a video to be counted as a “view”, someone has to watch the entire video, so it’s not simply a “hit”. It was marked as a favorite over 555 times! They have a combined view rate of almost two million views from their series of online commercials! Two million views… That is astronomical. Ok… but how did they do it? Can you simply throw up commercials and the YouTube Gods will make it rain? Not a chance! You need to think outside of the box. The Johnson automotive group took it outside the box. They created a whole concept, a character, they personified the emotions of the public, they made it funny and they made a statement about their dealership. So, the first step is taking time to think about a totally new concept that will capture people. Humor is a great way to accomplish that. You need to know that one of the most powerful aspects of online video is the viral aspect, meaning that a tremendous amount of videos are being forwarded from other people. So, people are watching those YouTube Badger Commercials and are laughing their heads off and they are emailing them to their friends. To be specific about this point: * 67 percent of video viewers ages 18-29 send others links to videos they find online * 50 percent of video users that are 30 and older send video links to others (Source Pew Internet & American life project March 7, 2007). Please be careful and try not to just rip off the idea in a half baked way. There is a dealer group that tried to hijack the badger commercials and make the Badger into a Wolf. So, if you go to YouTube and type in “Matt Blatt” you will see two videos on the top that were an obvious attempt to duplicate the Badger commercials. This campaign failed miserably. They only received 294 views and 454 on the other one. Big difference from “Wiggle Room” at almost 300,000 views. You need to make sure that whatever concept that you decide to go with just make sure you do it the right way: Like Covey says… “Start with the end result in mind”. Meaning, don’t just get your video camera out. Have a strategy meeting and try to brainstorm some ideas. Go to YouTube or MyspaceTV and take a look at other videos, funny, serious, public relations. Take a look at other car dealerships. Remember even a broken clock is right twice a day. Meaning that you can learn what NOT to do from what you see online as well. But, you just want to gather your field intelligence and get some inspiration. After you have your concept, figure out the production angle. You can go YouTube style and try to do something with a Flip Video Camera or a basic camera that is cheap but you are NOT going to have the same effect as the Badger Commercials. Everything was thought out ahead of time. The Badger himself, the voice, the clichés, the script, the set and the production quality was awesome. Remember if you want the things others don’t have… You must be willing to do the things that most people aren’t willing to do to get them (Meaning, working hard and smart). After you have created the video production you are going to want to upload them to ALL 50 of the Video Search Engines. Not just YouTube or MyspaceTV. Once you have all of your videos uploaded you are going to want to make sure that all of the subject content is written properly, the descriptions and keywords need to be thought out properly as well as be unique content. You CAN NOT just upload once and think you are done. You need to constantly and methodically create and upload content on a weekly basis or your campaign will NOT have the most dominating effect on the Internet. It is no longer a question of will online video capture the greatest share of eyeballs on the net, it already has. I really suggest that all of you reading this try to figure out how they can do what Johnson Automotive has done. If you think a clever, professional video is not worth it consider this, when was the last time you gave out money for a referral? How much would you pay to have 67% of your customers refer you to someone else? Sean V. Bradley
Last Updated on Friday, 07 August 2009 18:14