What to know from the Online Video Workshop
First big question: Is content still king? Unanimous panel agreement that it’s no longer the most important aspect of a media strategy. What is crucial is the user and the user’s experience. The internet allows so much more than TV currently does, such as interactivity and participation with the content. Pedro Rolla, Media Director at Terra Latin America adds that without the users, content is not important—people want to be able to spread something they’ve watched and enjoyed by posting it on a blog.
Borja Perez, VP, Market Development of Telemundo, Yahoo! Telemundo Alliance Leader makes a great point when he states that it’s in the best interest of networks and other content creators to make their product available online. Because users will do this anyway and, as he put it “I’d hate to have 16 million people watching my [high-production value] show on YouTube, that’s a bad user experience.”
Currently 70% of the content we watch online came from somewhere else offline. Meaning: it was produced with high-quality viewing portals in mind. At the same time, this pre-existing content is what drives people to UGC sites and encourages them to produce their own.
The concept of adapting production quality across media is echoed by Daniel Alpert, Client Director and Digital Marketing Services Lead at Avenue A | Razorfish. He states that the notion of analog TV is dead—it’s nothing more than a distribution channel. To really build your brand and drive consumer engagement you need to be able to work with media sites and create content strategically that will accommodate your consumer’s lifestyle.
Next big question: the role of advertising across different video distribution channels.
On Mixplay.com, brands can buy a simple banner ad or brand an entire channel, states Patricia Tomasini, Mixplay’s Sales, Product and Content Regional Director. The discussion then quickly turns to webisodes and methods of integrated product placement.
How about layered videos for online marketing? Daniel explains a concept where viewers have control over when they will be exposed to advertisements (bonus on the user experience side) by clicking on products or people within an online video. For example, click on a character of Grey’s Anatomy, and the original video will pause while a branded video starts running, informing the viewer about the clothing and products shown and where to buy it.
Borja concludes that branded webisodes work well, but the problem is that most clients aren’t educated about online advertising beyond the banner ad. So, dear agencies, the number one thing to take away from this workshop is to teach your clients about upcoming marketing trends so that they’ll start requesting them. The technology and strategy is already there, we just have to put it to use.
