Online Video Is Not TV. A New Audience Builder for You - Walter Sabo

THE POWER OF WEB STARSOnline video has created a new group of stars We call them Web Stars You39ll recall from history that when TV started it spawned a fresh group of celebrities Some of them had been quotBquot movie actors like Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball who became huge on TV because TV not films was their mediumTV ended the careers of other megastars like radio39s Fred Allan because they were unappealing on the new visual stage The Internet is not TV It39s a new medium with a new very different relationship with its user In this article I39ll reveal a few of the facts we are learning about making online videos that attract and engage an audienceHere are the topline facts about online videoamp8226 99 of online videos on your website or anywhere have fewer than 300 lifetime views There is no long tail 80 of the views to any video take place in the first 72 hours after postingamp8226 Ad agencies as a rule make terrific TV but they often create unwatched online video Their model is set up to create compelling TV commercials Putting TV commercials online almost never works The exceptions that come to mind Old Spice Doritos are easily remembered because they are rareamp8226 Demographic appeal is universal Online video equally reaches all demographics It is a myth that it is an 1824 mediumamp8226 YouTube is now the second most used search engine But the most watched YouTube videos after music videos fall under the category of those created by quotorganicquot producers and performers That means these stars were born on the Internet stage The winning videos are not clips from TV or slick productions they are produced by web starsYou may recognize some of their names The annoying orange Whatthebuck Mr Safety Roy Williams Tobuscus and Community Channel Interestingly their tenure is stable predictive and of long duration On average EACH of their videos pulls over 300000 viewsamp8226 Cisco predicts that this year over 88 of online traffic will be for videoHow BigAccording to comScoreMore than 83 billion video ads were viewed in March representing an alltime high Time spent watching video ads totaled 35 billion minutes Video ads reached 51 percent of the total US population an average of 53 times during the monthHOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ONLINE VIDEO OFFERINGSA few facts revealed by our studies1 Many TV radio stations and newspapers encourage their audiences to go online and watch videos posted by their company Usually the invite is awkward The most effective way to send audience to watch an online video is personal asking for interaction quotI want to know how you feel about a video I just shared with youquot is the right language for inviting engagement with your videosNOT COVERAGE2 TV directors deliver quotcoveragequot shots of the entire scene When shooting interviews TV directors instruct interview subjects and actors to never look directly into the camera Online video is a different medium that has established a new dynamic with the viewers The most effective angle for shooting online video is a headon straight shot of the subjectStreaming video of a location studio store venue often looks like it39s pulled off a surveillance camera Long shots and lack of online detail renders video boring Tight shots of specific elements in the scene will generate more response3 4 minutes is too long4 Think Tom Cruise in Risky Business Everyone remembers when he danced in his underwear They rarely remember the hot sex scene on the Chicago L You relate to him dancing in his underwear because you do it and you couldn39t believe anyone else did You haven39t had sex on the L Online videos that reveal people doing privately what other people do privately are popular quotGquot rated videos have more viewers than ones that are more frisky CounterintuitiveJUST HIT REFRESH5 The mentality of quotpermanencequot does not apply With over 45 hours of video posted every few minutes no one video is that important For TV film trailers and other traditional video millions of dollars and months of planning go into video shorts and 3039s An online video posting is almost instantly replaced As Caitlin Hill our Chief Creative Officerwho started the job when she was 18 says quotJust hit refresh if you don39t like itquotSALESEvery advertiser is trying to understand how to incorporate online video with their messaging Many have suffered from failure Five years ago Budweiser launched BudTV It was an aggressive online video initiative rumored to be budgeted at over 25000000 Why didn39t it work It was TVSmart brands constantly seek ways to put online video to work for them We have found several elegant solutions for brands to make online video effective The key is custom solutions and high posting frequencyThe easy answer is a preroll but candidly it39s a lazy answer Why would a company waste money on an ad that says quotYou can stop this in 5 secondsquotVideo ads that work are those with compelling entertainment made for the Internetnot movie trailers or clips from slick productions After five years of study we have prepared a detailed report on which creative dynamics tend to work in online video and which do not Please contact us here for more information WaltersabomediacomThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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