Know any great corporate sites with video?

[Sean Walsh]

I'm regularly trying to persuade local businesses to buy my video services and it's great when a client can immediately see and understand the value of using video on their website as a marketing tool.
But I'm struggling sometimes when a potential client says 'okay, show me a business that's using video on the web to the full.'
If anyone has any great examples of where video is being deployed on the web for marketing, sales, training, updates etc please share. I for one would be interested to see more great examples.

[Tripp Woelfel]

Video on corporate web sites is so ubiquitous that I no longer take note of it as unusual. I think you'd have better luck in finding a company that offers a similar, but not necessarily competitive, product to your prospect or prospects and show them the good ones of those.

You probably already know this, but different people prefer different formats for learning. Some prefer written words, others audio and still others video. It's a scientific fact. By adding video, your prospects can be more effective reaching the second and third groups with video. Also, video can be particularly effective in demonstrating how a complex product works.

I think just looking for other companies that put video on the Web might not be the most effective convincer. You might be more successful if you can demonstrate how web video will make their site more effective and drive present and prospective customers to their site. The specifics of that can be a bit tricky and will depend upon your client's product or services. That's why marketing types can make some decent wages.

[Sean Walsh]

Tripp,
You are absolutely right - evidence of how video enhances the bottom line is very powerful. But as anyone in the pr or marketing world will know, measurement of the effect or impact is a tricky issue - how do you quantify if a video or a press release or editorial in a newspaper or magazine actually leads to direct sales? I guess video promotion is primarily about brand building and awareness and sales follow on from that.
What I thought might be easier to identify is half a dozen shining case-study examples of smart companies who are using video on their sites to great effect.
My experience in the UK market is that many companies here are not rushing to embrace new (for them) channels of communication - and that video on the web is still regarded by some as a complex and costly exercise, and their currently reduced communications budget is better spent on traditional forms of marketing/promotion/advertising that they are familiar with.
So my question remains - does anyone want to share some good examples they've come across or have contributed to?

[Brian Boyko]

A good 75% of my video work is for NetQoS, Inc. - my day job. (I was hired as a pro-blogger for the company, but took a shine to video and I'm now the resident expert; I probably use Sony Vegas as much as I use Microsoft Word now!)

With travel budgets getting slashed, we couldn't get as many attendees of our annual Symposium as we have in previous years, so we're hoping to use video to bring some of the keynote presentations online.

Additionally, we do short videos illustrating different concepts and features of our products; they're very helpful for customers trying to figure out why NetQoS is better than Brand X, yes, but they're also educational, illustrating points in entertaining metaphor.

Right now, Patrick, who's going to Interop, is taking along the Canon HG10, and hopefully he'll come back with some interesting video for people who are interested in our stuff but couldn't meet us in Las Vegas this year.

[Greg Kiger]

I would echo Sean's question. Sure more and more corporate sites have video but who is doing outstanding work?

Those shining examples could help many of us sell the concept (general or specific) to interested but perhaps not so visually oriented corporate buyers.

So how about it - who do you look up to in the corporate video arena / what companies are doing it up right?

[Tim Polster]

I am getting a bit frustrated with this space. It really seems like it is still the wild west when it comes to delivery and implementation.

I also think many business owners still do not take the medium seriously enough to pay normal production rates.

I can't even get fellow DV Info'ers to help me test my website's videos for playback. My thread in the Flash/Web Video is dying on the vine.

It sounds strange but it still may be too early for this to be a "real" industry even though we can all see the usefullness.

[Rick L. Allen]

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

I am getting a bit frustrated with this space. It really seems like it is still the wild west when it comes to delivery and implementation.

You are correct. With so many acquisition codecs and delivery possibilities it is indeed the wild west. There are some major players like Flash but the rate of change in web delivery puts us all on a technological hamster wheel running just as fast as we can.

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

I also think many business owners still do not take the medium seriously enough to pay normal production rates.

You think! With the advent of cheap HD cams and editing software everyone is a DP which only confuses the uneducated clients who don't understand the difference in cost vs. quality.

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

It sounds strange but it still may be too early for this to be a "real" industry even though we can all see the usefullness.

It is a real industry. Here's one of my major clients and how they use web video -
Office Depot Racing : Tony Stewart. A great many corporate sites use web video for internal training & communications. But will smaller businesses adopt web video? Only if it's cheap/free and there are plenty of low budget companies out there offering just such a service. See the Turnhere.com thread.

[TJ Robertson]

When it comes to using video for marketing, you really have to sell the marketing. Companies don't pay for video marketing because they want the video... they pay for it because they want more clients or customers.

I hate to say it, but sometimes there's a good reason for companies not wanting to pay big production costs for their marketing videos. Recently, consumers have come to trust low-quality videos more than high-quality videos.

Some of the best converting video marketing campaigns today are done with flip cameras. Consumers like it because they feel like they're seeing a real person instead of a big fancy production...

So, while there are some big companies that want the high budget productions... the real players in video marketing right now are Marketers who know how to shoot video.... not Videographers who know how to market...

[Tim Polster]

I would agree.

How about videographers who do not know how to market? Where do we fit in? (just joking) :)

[Richard Gooderick]

Originally Posted by TJ Robertson

I hate to say it, but sometimes there's a good reason for companies not wanting to pay big production costs for their marketing videos. Recently, consumers have come to trust low-quality videos more than high-quality videos.

Sometimes that's true.
In particular circumstances.
Do companies want badly-designed websites or scrappy leaflets - no.
Do they employ amateurs to make their websites and print material - no.
When it comes to the crunch they want films that work for them. If the sound is bad or crucial shots get missed that reflects on them. It reflects badly on their competence and detracts from their image.
What's the evidence that consumers have come to trust low-quality videos more than high-quality videos?

[Tim Polster]

I see TJ's point.

Maybe the word "relate" to lower cost videos than trust lower cost videos is closer to the mark.

Another factor is you have to understand a medium to spend big in that area. Sure people know the internet is popular, but when it comes time to get the wallet out there is a fear of the unknown for a lot of non-tech savy people.

[Andy Wilkinson]

I think it's important to realise that corporate clients use video in different ways - well mine do. Some of my clients put what I do for them directly on their website, although none of my clients (yet) have a highly videocentric website that I could point you at. Quite a few upload it to YouTube etc. (or ask me to do that for them) and most use it for presentations to their clients either in 1 to 1 meetings around a laptop in the field or in larger conference room type meetings. Some hand out discs whilst others use my videos internally on intranet or password protected/hidden areas of their public websites for instructional use by divisions of their company all over the place.

Sure, some of my corporate clients are initially pretty skeptical about the benefits of video when I start projects - but someone high up in their organisation has seen the light/my work and has become the champion within that organisation to commissioned me. Luckily, I've usually been directly introduced to them with a personal recommendation from another business client who has used my video services before - beats the need for advertising.

Satisfyingly, by the time I've finished the client's video, usually even the most skeptical in that organisation go out of their way to seek me out and thank me for the powerful promotional/image making tool I've now provided them with! I had this (again) recently with a large multi-national printing company (video is on my website and on YouTube if anyone is interested) where the Managing Director knew I'd deliver the goods and championed it but some of the other Directors were initially very skeptical. It was a great moment when they told me just how effective the finished video had been (as an integral part of a presentation they had just given) in helping them secure a new multi-million pound contract. Sure, this 5 minute DSSMG video alone would not have done that - they and their class leading capabilities did that - but it was used as a powerful, supportive way in getting their messages across. Needless to say I've now been given other video work within this vast company as a result!

We're still in the early days of what video/web video can do for business - some companies have been well ahead of others in understanding this - but it's growing. I'm sure that video, and especially web video, is a vehicle which more and more businesses of all sizes will embrace - I hope so, as that's what I've based my business model on!!!

[TJ Robertson]

Originally Posted by Richard Gooderick

Sometimes that's true.
What's the evidence that consumers have come to trust low-quality videos more than high-quality videos?

It's not the low-quality aspect that gains the consumer's trust, it's the candid aspect.

You'll see this pretty consistently in the internet marketing realm...

Sure, big companies still tend to use big high-quality high-budget videos on TV, but have you followed many online video marketing campaigns? If you do, you'll notice that more and more of them are doing something like this...

"Hi, this is "so-and-so" owner of "such-and-such"... I was just sitting here at my house and decided to make a little video for you guys on my flip video camera. I just wanted to give you a little update on what's going on in the company..."

These blog-style videos are so genuine that they typically aren't even recognized as video marketing campaigns.... and the people making them have the big budget, they just know that candid videos like this work better in some instances.

People get the idea that the person who made the video was just sitting there and thought of something he could share with his customers... when in reality, they typically spend days carefully planning that short little low-quality video.

So, in some circumstances, low-quality video works better... especially online.

[Richard Gooderick]

I think that you hit the nail on the head. That it's about trust and that marketing departments will make carefully planned and executed videos that look spontaneous because viewers will consider them to be more genuine.

[Greg Kiger]

Hey Sean, I really agree with your approach - show potential clients good work, yours or others, in order to awaken them to the possibilities. In the end you can't talk pictures, you need examples. I am always searching for good work but its so rare. Anyway, just found this group doing it right, at least IMO

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