VOD South Think Tank

Green Video?

2007-10-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

You know I must agree with one of my entertainment icons..Kermit the Frog, it is tough being green! But that doesn't stop folks from every business category from trying to Leap, Jump or hop, no offense Kermit, on to "It's cool to be Green" band wagon. In the last week I have read 4 articles on production companies going green by suggesting that crew or cast members drive Hybrid vehicles or not use Styrofoam cups!!! Today this is a main article in AD Age
http://adage.com/article?article_id=121206 Video: making TV commercials the Carbon-Neutral Way
Carbon-Neutral TV commercials??!!? Ok because I have worked in this arena for 25 years I feel I have the right to say this..Excuse me Are you folks smoking oregano? You will find no larger group of wasteful folks than most commercial production companies; money, food, paper, electricity, water and time. Why then are we talking about "Green Video Production"? Because it is the in thing. Doing something because it is the "in" thing to do is ALWAYS the WRONG reason.
I started my production company 20 years ago because I knew that quality productions could be made with less money and less material waste. But I didn't do it to be cool, I did it because I believed that those that are hired by a business to provide services for that business should not be wasteful of OTHER PEOPLES money. They should provide a quality service that generates strong ROI for their client. The client will then return to that production company over and over. One of my main clients for 17 years was BellSouth Corporation, in 1993 their CMO stated, "Kim you will never be rich..but you will always have work because of the way you handle your clients money..you create a great product and unheard of rates!" I have always stressed for my crews to recycle as much as possible; batteries, lighting elements, foam core board, writeoff boards verses poster board, craft services, props, double up in vehicles, everyone has "their cup or glass" we create as little trash as possible and if we are shooting outdoors we take ALL of our trash with us etc.
My final word is why weren't more production companies doing these sort of years ago? Because they had plenty of their clients money to burn and most importantly..it wasn't "the in or cool thing" to do.

A Meat Shop?

2007-09-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Sept 6th, Sundar Pichai, Google's director of product management, and Nicholas Fox, Google's group business product manager, addressed the possibility of bundling image or video ads into Google's Universal Search. The discussion took place at the Citigroup Technology Conference in New York.

Fox says integrating video or image ads into sponsored search results is an option that has come up in internal discussions, since search ads are there to give users information that is most relevant to their query. "In many cases that's a text ad," Fox says. "In some cases, it may be an image, a video, or something else. But the risk is not showing something garish or flashy, because users would become blind to the ads and it would hurt the business long-term."

Fox gave the example of a local butcher: A video with shots of fresh meat and the overall store experience would be more enticing than a 10-word text ad. More value is provided to both the consumer and advertiser.

Ok, is it just me or would video of a butcher and his meat not even be in your top 100 products that would have leaped to mind when thinking of a great way to use video to highlight a product?! There are so many creative ways to use online video to market so many products and Nicholas Fox gives us "raw meat". No wonder Google is slow to enter the arena of video search.

That is my thought on the matter, I welcome yours.

And Away We Go!!

2007-09-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

Ok I have jumped in and I am now treading water...which is good because I thought I would sink like a stone...The purpose of this blog is to discuss the daily changing world of online video. The main focus is going to be how to best use this medium as a marketing and advertising tool for the business community. We will talk about successful and not so great online campaigns. Clever ways of positioning various types of video tools. What makes an online video viral? How do we create buzz with video? In about 45 days I will add a vlogg to this Think Tank..but first I want to wade out into the water and see if there are any sharks or riptides. I look forward to many invigorating and lively conversations about this new and exciting arena..the world of video on demand!!