Recently we’ve collaborated with Studio XL to post-produce a series of 5 video spots for Stuart Weitzman’s new Winter line. Check them out as they roll out on Stuart Weitzman’s homepage each month – Watch the first one now! These conceptual pieces drive home the playful glamour in this season’s line up.
We’re also about to launch new content we produced for Moms Made Easy after shooting interviews with moms, kids and Founder and CEO Monica Taylor. You want cool products for you and your kids that will make life easier? You’ll like these products for sure! Stay tuned on that front.
The adorable Jackson Gabriel himself.
And thanks to John Pellitteri over at Grassi CPAs for thinking of Moped when he introduced us to Alex Silver of the Jackson Gabriel Silver Foundation (JGSF). In October of 2007, Alex and Jamie Silver’s incredible son, Jackson, was born with Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB, which is an inherited connective tissue disease causing blisters in the skin. The Silvers are founding JGSF to help their son and other children facing this life-threatening skin disease via the support of researchers who are working to find a cure for EB. Stay tuned as Moped works to establish the foundation’s media presence, tell their story, and help them work towards the cure for EB.
Here’s one question we get asked a lot: Where can potential clients actually see our work? The answer — lots of places.
As you develop and execute your multimedia marketing strategy, think multiple venues, think versatility. Think various versions. And generally speaking, think short.
Your own website – What better place to give your new visitors some insight into who your organization is comprised of, the level of work you do and the success and impact of that work? Think through the areas on your website where additional information through videos and photos would be complimentary, attention-grabbing and easy to find. And get your social media feeds to update visibly on your website as well.
Your electronic newsletter and blog - For topical videos and slideshows discussing new services or your organization’s latest achievements, your blog and e-newsletter are perfect venues for reaching those whose attention you already have. There are several blog plug-ins and ways to give multimedia a sleek imbedded look in your e-newsletter, so your biggest challenge is thinking through the content that is most relevant.
YouTube and Vimeo - Bring your message to a vast, diverse community of potential clients by taking advantage of these sites that specialize in hosting videos to broad audiences. Rule #1 of placing video outside your own properties: ask something of your audience, and drive them back to your website or other supporting information when appropriate.
Facebook – The presence of video and photos on social media websites is growing rapidly, and based on what audience you are targeting, they can be great resources for multimedia marketing. The ‘Like’ button on Facebook gets your message high visibility in the news feed. Want to target younger music lovers? Remember MySpace has a good audience there. Fundraising? Don’t forget LinkedIn for the professionals.
Twitter - A great vehicle for raising wide awareness of your videos and engaging a demographic that looks for new and visual information. Be sure to tie Twitter into your YouTube and LinkedIn sites so everything you post is shared across all your platforms. Definitely keep videos short for this audience. Perhaps 140 seconds?
In-person meetings and events – This is one area where you are able to bend the rules on length a bit. But remember, your audience can only take away about three things from viewing your video. Brevity overall is most effective at dinners or events where people are standing, eating, drinking, etc. This is one venue where you can also create DVD takeaways that the audience can view later for more in-depth stories.
Partner websites - Don’t forget your existing audience can contain your biggest advocates. Offering versions of your marketing content to be shared across other’s websites automatically carries the approval of the distributor. Consider it the equivalent of re-tweeting or the ‘Like’ button. Think about your partners as avenues for reaching audiences beyond your own, who will already have similar interests. If your brands are young, offer a link-back in exchange for placement, so your audience is also learning about them.
Envisioning all the people and all the ways you want your media to be seen is one of the first steps towards getting it out there in bigger ways. From there, remember, it’s not about big budgets. It’s about smart strategy.
About this time last year, we were just starting our work with CafeMom.com, which is the leading social networking website for moms. With the high engagement level that is had with moms, CafeMom was partnering with brands that wanted to reach moms in a rapidly changing digital environment. We helped create video conversations that brands were able to participate in, whether it was about how moms were managing their kids manners, homework assignments or allowances, to what types of family stories were coming out of the fall and winter holidays. Brands like Target have tapped into the website’s 6.7MM unique visitors per month on cafemom.com and 18MM+ unique visitors per month on CafeMom Plus, a boutique network of sites that reach moms and parents.
By creating programming that allows partners to be part of your audience’s conversation and add value to their lives, online content can drive both new and dedicated traffic to your site which allows for great leverage in terms of future marketing, sales and sponsorships!
As with any worthwhile investment, you want to do everything you can to get the best return for your business – especially when it comes to your multimedia content strategy. Video without optimization is like trying to date online with a blank profile, or one of those terribly embarrassing dreams where you’re delivering a public speech naked. Avoid the pitfalls of doing things halfway, and dress up your video for some hot dates with the search engine robots.
Learn from real-time examples and avoid dumping your multimedia investment into the Internet gutters. In a recent case study comparing the success of e-commerce videos of two major retailers, QVC and Overstock.com, search index results show that Overstock’s optimized video reach heavily outweigh it’s TV-based competitor for online prominence. Although both retailers have thousands of online videos, the strategy-minded search engine robots could care less about the videos without optimized content attached to them.
Give your video and integrated multimedia wings by optimizing it with tags, keywords and applicable descriptions. If you’re overwhelmed, start out simple by adding the most relevant tags (names, locations, topic) and a brief description that summarizes the video. Then keep building with more detail as you solidify your online marketing strategy. Need more guidance? Refer back to my Tech Talk articles, How To Optimize Your Video With YouTube and Using Video As A Call To Action, which are chock full of tips and links to further resources.
Recently we helped launch third-generation ocean explorer Fabien Cousteau’s nonprofit organization called Plant a Fish which aims to empower and educate local communities through the action of “re-planting” aquatic species of plants and animals in environmentally stressed areas to make a positive impact. Check out the short introductory video we produced. We’re so excited to see the organization launch and gain the attention of national press. To help them out even more, be sure to vote for them all through August to win $50K in Pepsi’s Refresh Everything challenge – Vote Now!
We’ve also delivered to DeWitt Stern three fantastic video white papers which will inform and excite sophisticated buyers of fine art, entertainment and film insurance. Their new website just launched with the pieces so be sure to check out their site!
And we were happy to meet with Brooklyn’s American Cancer Society office to discuss the development of our new documentary in development, Highly Evolved Human, which we are producing with Laundry Service Media. Highly Evolved Human is a funny, endearing and powerful film that tells the true story of Nick Ross, an incredibly talented writer-performer navigating twenty-something life, while battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Tamara Ehlin and Sally Cooper were generous enough to offer incredible insight into the need for candid stories about the cancer experience. To get involved as a partner, sponsor or investor, email us at info@mopedproductions.tv!
Think of today’s most popular sites – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – they’re all run on user-generated content. It’s more than just a catch-phrase. It’s how web-based companies are attracting users. And making money.
Net firms aside, even established retailers and media brands are turning to user-generated content to rally old fans and garner new ones. Last month, national discount retailer Stein Mart announced it was seeking real-life shoppers for a fall campaign. Over 250 women entered their short videos via Stein Mart’s Facebook page, hoping to win a spot. Also last month, Oprah fans entered a video contest to have their own show produced on the Oprah Winfrey Network starting in January. And currently, Michigan State University is collecting stories from their nearly 500,000 alumni, faculty, staff and students around the world.
Are user-generated videos a good way to promote your business or non-profit, or communicate a campaign message? In an age when everyone expects their 15 minutes of fame, people are willing to participate, and it could be a good way to draw attention to a new product launch, or, correctly targeted, to make an appeal during a capital campaign.
As for whether user-generated content is here to stay, the jury is still out. Critics say that Twitter still isn’t turning a profit. Admirers will argue that the critics are short-sighted, and that it takes time for every new technology to be fully monetized. But if Oprah’s doing it, our guess is yes.
Last year at this time, The Urban Assembly School for Law + Justice was in need of a tool that would bring potential donors and strategic partners into their world to see the impact and change they make on students daily. By now, we were in full edit mode for the Virtual Visit Video that we had conceptualized and produced in the Spring. We focused on using personal stories to communicate the tangible and emotional benefits of the work being done at the school and in tandem with partnering organizations’ contributions of time and resources. By eliminating barriers, such as time and travel constraints for supporters wanting to make a school visit, we increased opportunities for SLJ and improved organizational efficiency through the use of technology and storytelling.
Tell us how video has improved communication for you!
Technology has not only changed the way we communicate with each other; it has changed the way we respond to crisis. When it comes to taking action, not everyone is able to donate funds, show up at a rally or volunteer in person. However, the number of people who have daily access to mobile phones and internet with streaming video is increasing faster than ever. The key to crisis communications is reaching networks of supporters with content that not only raises awareness, but also delivers action-enabled multimedia.
Static, non-interactive video has proven to be an effective campaign tool, and now live video streaming is taking it up a notch for online organizers who are building communities of supporters. Crisis response teams provide integrated communications campaigns are usually leveraged by emails, chock full of straight-to-the-point information and links to interactive multimedia galleries that encourage action and spread awareness. The most successful results have come from providing the user with one-click action methods, directly followed by the option of automatically updating their Twitter or Facebook status with links for their friends and followers to do the same.
Take for example the environmental organizations who are working tirelessly to protect our oceans. Greenpeace recently announced a victory on retaining the ban on whaling, backed by a community of online activists who rejected the Obama Administration’s plan to support the legalization of commercial whaling. In just one week, CREDO Action reached 97% of their goal to gather 130,000 signatures to petition against BP’s attempt to contain the oil spill “controlled burns,” when they decided to shut down animal rescuers who were saving endangered sea turtles. These successful initiatives were only supported by still photos – can you imagine the impact of live video streams?
Live video streaming has become a major asset to crisis communications campaigns by bringing the reality of disaster to the public in real-time. USTREAM, an online application for broadcasting live video feeds, has attracted major media outlet users like PBS NewsHour who launched the below live stream of the April 20th oil spill.
I believe that live video streaming will become a more common form of communication, especially within crisis response management. Do you have experience with live video streams or examples of campaigns using live video streaming?
This month we’ve been shooting with DeWitt Stern at the spectacular Pace-MacGill Gallery and the world-renowned Joyce Theatre, in production for a series of video white papers that will inform and excite sophisticated buyers of fine art, entertainment and film insurance. Senior Producer Jean Candiotte and DP Zac Halberd are on site with DeWitt Stern team – stay tuned for more.
Shooter Sam Sundaram was also on deck – bright and early – with third-generation ocean explorer and environmental ambassador Fabien Cousteau during the launch of his new nonprofit organization, Plant a Fish, which aims to engage local communities toward stewardship and restoration efforts of their marine environment. Working with Editor Byron Thompson to pull together an outreach tool.
Editor Libby Fabricatore rocked a sizzle tape for MTV360 alongside Producer David Cook.
And Sharon Reudeman touched up the edit for the American Cancer Society’s pitch video to help land sponsorships for future events and initiatives.
The wildly popular Twilight Saga hits the top of the Variety charts for the most impressions of it’s official online film trailer of ‘Eclipse,’ in theaters June 30. How did they do it? In partnership with Unicast, an independent, interactive advertising and marketing technology company, they executed a broad outreach via targeted online campaigns, featuring rich media including a Twilight iPhone app and designated online communities filled with video and graphics for all to share. Geotargeting, Movie Finder and MySpace play a huge role in captivating the core audience, by allowing fans to purchase the soundtrack, buy movie tickets locally and encouraging offline viewing parties.
Do you think that all the available media and previews spoil the actual movie? Or does it make you want to see the movie more?
