Hitviews Pro: Two Feared Words: Experimental Budget - Walter Sabo - MediaBizBloggers

Experimental budgets are never really experimental. An experiment, according to the dictionary that came with my Powerbook, is: "A scientific procedure, esp. in a laboratory, to determine something."

When a client wants to do an experiment we ask them, "What is the measure of success if we agree to this lousy price tag? What is the reward for success?" Answers are hard to come by, even if the client means well.

Stephanie Gaines, marketing genius at CBS Incorporated, gave HITVIEWS an experimental budget. She has since revealed an aspect to "Experimental budgets" that many may not consider.

A company like CBS is hit with about 12 billion "vendors" a day. Each of them has a wacky, earnest scheme for increasing efficiencies or ratings for the network. A sharp executive like Stephanie may instantly grasp the benefits of the product, and would write a big check except for one pragmatic and social challenge: She doesn't know the seller. When Dave Knox at P&G or Matt Kershaw at Weiden and Kennedy commit to an experiment they already like the product. The experiment, if it is positive, helps them sell the new product to their management.

For those visionaries, another component is more important: Will the vendor team perform as promised? After CBS gave us a go-ahead, Hitviews made three videos that performed ok. They averaged 113,000 views and had strong engagement levels. Although most online videos, from any source, receive fewer than 300 views, we would have liked to have done better. Surprisingly, Gaines was THRILLED.

Why? "I didn't have to manage the process. Caitlin Hill and Jake Fogelnest at Hitviews kept me constantly updated. I didn't have to check in. They beat me to it every time. They delivered the videos before the promised date. The videos were hysterical and on message. My management – television executives – loved the webstar videos."

She also found the team to be easy to work with and totally honest.

Therefore in her mind, view counts and other traditional measures were less important. She was testing the "vendor."

This was useful information for our company. Now when we are offered an experimental budget we work on the assumption that the client is already sold on the product, and they are giving us an opportunity to sell them on the team that makes and delivers the product. When the client executive recognizes that both the product and the team deliver as promised, then they have the ammunition to secure a meaningful financial commitment in the next budget round. And they'd better!

Walter Sabo is the Founder and Creator of the business concept. He is an experienced leader of new organizations and is currently CEO of Hitviews. Walter can be reached at walter@hitviews.com.