Posts Tagged ‘online video’
What makes a great online promotional video?
December 19th, 2010
What does make a great online promotional video? Intent, expertise, emotional intelligence, knowledge, content, execution … with an essential quality that I always struggle to define. Perhaps it’s ‘nowness’, capturing our disparate neurotic thoughts and squeezing them through an intelligent sieve to find the essence of what we think.
The great promotional films transcend the terrifying limitations of the device, and somehow connect with us in deep, primal way so that we feel ‘alive and now’ through text, voice and music.
The thousand words needed to match the narrative of a still image is almost unquestioned. The antecedence of this aphorism is questionable but worth following, if you are so minded. While we accept it, apparently, does that mean we believe it?
Images enrich a story; they pose questions and offer mysteries but, I do not think they narrate the story. That is only in the gift of text and voice – and music.
The great promotional thinkers of the last century employed the services of the best psycho-analysts in an effort to understand and exploit the fragilities of the human mind for commercial benefit.
Somewhere along the way, they lost the map and, in their confusion, developed the art of “lying with style”.
This mode of telling gossamer untruths cannot find a berth in our web. Yet we still see, with every click, the impractical propaganda of agencies and brands that still believe in the efficacy of lying.
I hope that in 2011, we will see the final move away from this dissembling. Brands need to embrace the idea and benefits of communal honesty.
Give you an example, you know I’m a Slate evangelist and I believe that this device form can open a Web 4.0 market, engaging “everybody else” who has not gone online. This video tells me so little, and yet promises so much. It’s beautiful but not extraordinary – the Slates are truly innovative and should form the next generation of connected devices - globally, everywhere. It’s not lying - just not telling me the truth.
And talking of essence, beauty and intent, I’ll leave you with Marian Anderson, a black woman who transcended the prejudice and hate of her time with a rare, clear voice:
PR case study: Bringing ROO to Europe
February 6th, 2009
We like to let you know when new resources are added to our website, and this week we’ve uploaded a case study featuring a European launch campaign that we managed for ROO, now known as Kit digital.
ROO was one of the early pioneers of online video publishing and distribution. Formed in 2001 and publicly listed in 2003, it was enjoying a position of market leadership in the US and Australia by 2006, serving over 80 million streams per month and boasting syndicated content deals with Fox News, Reuters, Associated Press, ABC News and 20th Century Fox among others.
But having entered the UK market in late 2006, its brand profile in Europe was low and ROO was facing stiff competition from the likes of Narrowstep, Brightcove and Vividas. A high-impact PR campaign was required to support ROO’s aggressive and ambitious expansion plans for Europe.
If you’re interested in reading about how Liberate Media enabled ROO to seize media share of voice from its competitors within a six month period, as well as deliver direct new business leads from brands such as Universal Music, please click through to the full ROO case study here. We hope you find it a useful read, and as always, feedback is very welcome.
November 22nd, 2007
The long-awaited digital edition of New Media Age has gone live today, available here. It is aptly part of an online video special, incorporating demos of cutting-edge online video advertising.
It’s a great first attempt at integrating digital-focused editorial with interactive content. For a magazine that pitches itself as being at the forefront of digital marketing, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
NMA has great journalists on staff, and is well-respected by the industry…but that won’t be enough to carry it through the social media era. My RSS feeds are full of expert digital commentators and bloggers, and for NMA to keep its head above the rest of the crowd, it’s increasingly going to have to find more ways of engaging with its audience online.
So big thumbs up to NMA!
As a funny aside, just as I was about to click ‘publish’, I received an email from NMA saying its advertising rates are due to rise in 2008. Great timing Centaur!
Technorati tags: nma, e-edition, publishing, online+video, magazines, digital+media, centaur