We are very excited to be featured in todays Winnipeg Free Press on the subject of the online video industry. It’s a great industry to be a part of and we always love to talk about it.
Here’s a link to the article (man does Doug need to get some sunglasses!): http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/online-video-gives-biz-new-tool-95503589.html
Online Video Gives BIZ New Tool
The budding video marketing industry may give Winnipeg a chance to shine, according to local industry professionals.
“This industry is speeding up, so it’s a really exciting time,” said Doug Darling, executive producer and co-owner of Tripwire Media Group, which produces promotional videos for a variety of clients, among other services.
More and more organizations are turning to online videos to capture the public’s attention, and new production houses like Tripwire are able to make bigger strides in the industry, because clients don’t need to meet them face-to-face to organize online campaigns.
“New media puts Winnipeg on the map because now we’re not confined to the places we live in,” said Darling, who is working to accumulate a national clientele. “There are small companies making incredible leaps and bounds across the world.”
As the media industry continues to move away from traditional avenues, online advertising becomes more important. “TV is somewhat in its decline — people are watching less TV and especially less commercials,” Darling said.
Julie Préjet, a recent graduate of Red River College’s Creative Communications program, agrees.
“Because media is changing, a lot of people will be turning to videos. People are very visual.”
For her major project in the program, which teaches students to take advantage of the changing media landscape, Préjet produced and filmed four two-minute promotional videos for the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine (DSFM). She said the videos were well-received and will soon be appearing on the DSFM’s website.
“I wanted it to be online videos so people across the world can access the videos to see what the division’s about,” explained Préjet, whose project targets local French parents as well as French newcomers choosing where to send their kids to school.
Darling says online video has the potential to get people really interested in what you’re marketing.
“You can really immerse the viewer into the product or the company and get them more involved,” he said. “A picture speaks 1,000 words — videos speak 10,000.”
Reaching audiences on a more intense level is one reason David Reid, president and CEO of Winnipeg’s EPIC Information Solutions, is launching a new online video campaign to recruit employees and clients. In addition to more serious and professional clips, EPIC plans to create a series of creative, quirky videos to play on YouTube that will entice people to visit their site.
“We’re much more interested in doing funny, obscure viral (videos),” Reid said. “We can use those viral videos to attract people to know a little more about us.”
But for any business wanting to go the online video route, it’s important to keep content meaningful.
“Think about your audience and plan accordingly,” said Sabrina Geremia, head of agency relations for Google Canada in Toronto. “Visitors particularly enjoy instructional videos or ones that offer solutions to problems.”
She says you should always “think beyond” your own websites and explore other ways to draw people to view your content.
YouTube has become an incredibly effective storytelling tool for small businesses since you can communicate with people through conversation and have images to back that up, said Geremia, “You can actually create an environment around your brand and invite your audience to converse with you.”
It’s also essential that your video has a compelling opening, since you only have 30 seconds or less to get an audience’s attention. Finally, look at the numbers to see what works and what doesn’t. YouTube Insights provides detailed analysis on who is viewing your videos, when they drop off, where they are located, and more.
Geremia reports that in Canada alone, YouTube attracts 17 million unique users a month across all demographics.
“It’s also the second-largest search engine in the country next to Google. That’s an enormous opportunity to reach all sorts of audiences.”
Posting video content is also free of charge. All you have to do is create an account, produce your videos and post them. The content can then be used to populate different sites in order to create a video “ecosystem”.
As the industry develops, it gets easier and more affordable for companies to make videos to display online.
“In an older world not too long ago, videos were tougher to justify” financially, said Tripwire’s Darling. “Now that the ability is there, people are just jumping at the chance to do it.”
