One of our favorite people to work with is an organizer of a conference, trade show, expo, etc. This is such a great use of visual marketing! What better place to incorporate video into the mix?! Not only is video helpful to the event organizers to help promote to sponsors, exhibitors AND attendees, but it is also beneficial for the exhibitors to use video in their booth and in their follow-up marketing! While I can go on & on with the benefits of video in this very visual marketing platform, I figured I would share with you a great article I found in one of my emails recently - it is from MediaPost.com. It is a great list of do’s & don’ts for the conference world. I have to add a few of my own as well before I copy & paste this great article here for you:
1. Give exhibitors clear cut guidelines of what is expected of them. Of course, there are those that will never listen to the rules, but constantly allowing exhibitors to set up later or duck out early lessens the experience for others. There’s nothing worse than being the lone booth left at the end of the day in your aisle - attendees are turned off by the empty booths between you & them and won’t venture past them to get to you. Setting up late or leaving early takes away from potential jobs for other attendees.
2. Provide your exhibitors with resources to jazz up their booth. Do you know a display company that does a top notch job? Make their presence known to your exhibitors! Many first-time exhibitors just don’t know how to make their booth look good. Of course, I will also push the need for video - there are so many exhibitors that could use a video to enhance their site, but haven’t even thought about it yet. Find a good (great!) video producer in your area that specializes in trade show videos and get that information out to your exhibitors. The better your exhibitors look, the better YOU look!
3. Provide follow-up training. Many exhibitors will sit back in their booth, eat lunch, chat with their neighbor and hand out business cards expecting attendees to call them. When they get no phone calls the next day, they’ll bad mouth your show and say it was a waste of their time. One local show here does a great job “training” their exhibitors on how to follow-up with attendees. Their exhibitor training comes from a well know business coach in the area that gives key points on trade show success.
Ok, on to MediaPosts.com’s article. Hope you enjoy!
Industry conferences are a cornerstone of our interactive industry. They serve many purposes: idea exchange, education, soapbox, vendor bazaar, sponsorship, promotions, networking, market intelligence and revenues for the producer. Many are great, but too many are average. And with a robust interactive economy, there are more events than any industry professional could ever expect to attend in a lifetime. It’s overwhelming, and the conference calendar is getting still more crowded, with frequent overlaps!
As a regular attendee, speaker and occasional programmer and sponsor at a range of interactive marketing events, I’ve become sensitive to several facets that can make or break the conference experience. Most of these are obvious, but the obvious too often is neglected or ignored altogether.
Conference producers, take note! Here are my top ten recommendations to be great:
1. Be authoritative. To produce an A-level conference, you need to be the highest-level authority in the subject. That means acknowledging where your subject-matter authority begins and ends, and cultivating it over the long haul. Conversations are a conference core, and meaningful ones require thought leaders to attract the right participants, engage stakeholders, guide the discussion and synthesize conclusions. Are you an authority?
2. Define your community. Who are the core stakeholders that make up your community? Are you eyeing the strategic players, or ceding to industry tire-kickers and fly-by-night companies that probably won’t be around after recession or consolidation? The quality of everything correlates to your discipline in serving core, strategic community members — whether presenters, attendees, sponsors or partners.
3. Halt Powerpoint abuse. I’m shocked at how many conferences will charge thousands of dollars for a ticket and then subject attendees to boring presentations made excruciating by Powerpoint abuse. A lot can be done to improve presentations, but putting severe restrictions on slide usage is top of the list. By eliminating Powerpoint crutches, presenters would be forced to inject more thought and preparation into effective presentation techniques.
4. Enforce points of view. I’m also shocked at how many presenters and panelists show up with poorly constructed arguments — if any real point of view at all. Every single moderator, presenter and panelist should be forced to submit a one-page persuasive essay on his or her subject, with solid supporting evidence. Such an exercise would intimidate and weed out people without anything meaningful to say, and enforce more crystallized arguments and constructive discussion.
5. Pay the presenters. OK, maybe this idea is crazy. Why would a conference producer pay presenters if there already are so many people jockeying for the spotlight? First, many of the smartest, most relevant presenters won’t show without pay, or some other significant incentive. Secondly, if presenters are what drive paying attendees, shouldn’t conferences share in the financial gain? Thirdly, paying presenters would create demand for such presenter opportunities and drive the quality of the talent pool.
6. Showcase more new smart faces. There’s a lot of smart people that deserve repeat exposure, but too many conferences rely too much on the mainstay experts. Many conference producers can afford to do more homework to solicit new faces and compelling stories.
7. Tap into audience wisdom. Even conferences with poor attendance typically end up gathering relatively significant numbers of smart people. Conferences should do more to harness that wisdom and redirect it back into the overall experience. A conference can attract some great presenters, but the collective wisdom of the attendees will always be far greater. Think survey research, focus groups, workshops, debate and online interaction. Eliminate “audience” status and make everyone a participant.
8. Serve good food. Why is bad hotel food the staple of so many conferences? Dry chicken breasts. Overcooked salmon. Soggy vegetarian plates. Then there’s the self-serve box lunch with aging cold cuts on a stale bun, accompanied by a waxy apple. Considering the cost of conference tickets, there’s room for better food!
9. Provide reliable WiFi. Most conferences have received the memo: not providing WiFi creates a tumultuous experience for busy execs who need to be on the grid. Not having WiFi also creates friction for press and bloggers filing stories. Conferences are getting better, but WiFi provisions still are not guaranteed. They should be, especially in cavernous venues where wireless broadband cards don’t work.
10. Remember that less is more. Finally, producing more conferences isn’t necessarily better. If there’s a market for more, great! But expanding conference franchises may risk diluting core conference brands and signature events. Great care must be taken to ensure that quality and exclusivity are not jeopardized in the quest for greater volume and revenues.
If you live in my area, you have probably seen the Comcast ad that encourages viewers to turn to television advertising in this time of economic turmoil. While I tend to not agree with many benefits that television commercials boast (like chewing a certain kind of gum will really make you hotter than a supermodel!), I have to agree that this commercial offers some terrific advice! NOW is the time to use your money wisely and invest it in ways that will help you grow your business. However, while TV advertising has its merits and does work for some companies, I believe that the most cost effective way to spend your money is in video on the web (and I’m not just saying that because that’s what I do). You’re going to spend relatively the same amount of money to produce a TV commercial as you would for an online video. However, with TV advertising, you need to purchase your ad space - again and again - and struggle with which demographics would best serve your message. With an online video - you can post it on your website for the cost of asking your webmaster to copy & paste a code for you! You can then get your intern to search for blogs, social networking sites and message boards that reach your target demographic & have them submit your video. There you go - hundreds, thousands or even millions of views for alot less than the cost of one month on the local cable station.
As LeVar Burton would say, don’t just take MY word for it! MediaPost Publications recently sent out an email newsletter that does a great job explaining many of the benefits of using internet video during this “economic downturn.”
“One of the best (and cheapest) ways to meaningfully engage with potential and current customers is through online video.” Media Post’s Bradley Inman suggests videos use “real people” telling real stories. “When audiences view video that is interesting and relevant to them that doesn’t smell of shameless promotion, they have a much richer experience.” What kind of story can you tell? What are you passionate about?
A television commercial still has its place in this world - I will never try to talk someone out of it. But an internet video is a great compliment to your ad program or a great way to enter the world of video marketing. There is a place for all types of videos - the traditional “30-second spot,” an informative podcast, the history of your company, spotlight on a specific product or service, humorous “infotainment,” and many more options - the sky’s the limit! What type of video works for YOUR company?
Short films that is! Want to see our new short film entitled, “The Fairly Accurate and Slightly Truncated History of Video”? Well, if you’re a NJ local (and proud of it!), come to our Business Breakfast Seminar on Wednesday, June 18 in Freehold. This education morning of fun will be held in the AIR CONDITIONED offices of the Western Monmouth Chamber of Commerce from 8am-10:30am and will feature continental breakfast and lots of door prizes. For an added touch of excitement, see if you can dig up your old cap & gown - this graduation-themed event is full of surprises for those that get into it!
Ok, so maybe you can’t go into work late just so you can have a little morning fun - tell your boss (even if it’s your husband, wife or yourself you have to convince)Le regole - Il primo lancio di dadi in un’incontro di casino online e detto “lancio di apertura”. that you WILL learn some valuable lessons in business at this event! Hidden somewhere under the fun & excitement is great advice on hiring and dealing with your employees presented by Susan Koval of Koval Associates. We will also have a SECRET special guest financial adviser to help you with your retirement savings and setting up benefits for your employees.
Are you intrigued by all of this excitement & mystery? Well click here for our flyer (and learn some of the REAL benefits of attending this event)! See you there!
Ok, so Kobe Bryant may not be your best friend, and you may not have the funds to fly him first class to your hometown, so how do you create a Viral buzz like Nike?
Coming up with a viral video idea is tough. Is it funny enough? Does it have enough star power? Does it make people want to cry (and not from boredom)?In order to figure out the best viral campaign for your company, you need to figure out your target audience. Are you trying to get millions of hits around the globe through YouTube? Chances are, for many local small businesses, you really want your message to hit a bit closer to home. Can you still go viral with such a limited target audience - of course you can! If you look at how a flu virus spreads, you’ll see it goes person to person as they physically spread the virus face to face. This approach works well in local networks when you are trying to become better known in your own circles.Find a local celebrity to really kick your video off! While someone in St. Louis, Missouri may not know your town’s most popular politician, I’m sure your local target audience will. You may not have the most hits on YouTube, but those that are hitting your video, are much more qualified when they are from your local area.Take a look at our recent project that we have been tracking. This project is not specific to the local area, but because our client is well known in this area, her hits have been primarily local. One of the videos had 587 hits at last count, her website hits broke down like this:
Total Hits: 179
USA: 151 - 84%
NJ: 65 - 36%NY: 16 - 8.9%
CA: 15 - 8.3%
Other states had 7 or less hits per state.
The key here is to find something that your local audience would want to see - spotlight a favorite hangout or band, feature a ‘famous’ person or just talk about something that your audience will want to hear about. Make sure to keep the content pertinent to your audience - whether they are local, regional, national or world-wide.
Before I get into the meat of this post, I wanted to share some statistics I recently came across. According to the Center for Media Research, Nielsen Online’s online video measurement tool, VideoCensus, provided the following statistics:
1. Over 100,000 viewers watched online video in the US in both January & February.
2. On average, each person spent between 124-130 minutes watching video online each month.
3. The top sites for watching video online were: YouTube, Fox Interactive Media & Yahoo! - each getting over 20,000 unique visitors.
4. 74% percent of unique viewers of video content on eBay in February 2008 were people aged 55 or older.
My own recent research shows that using TAGS when uploading videos to online sharing sites is VERY important! I have two test subjects online for which I am tracking views. The first test subject, I barely gave a thought to tags in my rush to get the videos online. After one week, I had around 290 total views from all of the sharing sites I used. For my more recent project, I have between 377 & 416 views at the one week mark for each of the 3 videos!
Finding the right tags is even more important. Search for my recent client “Koval Associates.” When I just did that - 5 of the results on that first page are her videos! Now, her actual site shows up first, but many companies don’t even show up when they search their own name! Uploading a video and using the appropriate tags on the right sites can help you get noticed.
Now search “job match.” Her video site comes up on that first page - giving her a great edge over the other job searching sites that come up. When a HR professional does this search, they probably aren’t looking for a job search engine, and will find her videos useful.
Finally, search “employee assessment, NJ” - something her target market is very likely to search. Her videos take up two spots on that first page, giving her a great advantage over her competition not found in the top results.
We are still experimenting & learning. TAGS are very important, and it is crucial that you find the right ones. I did not give the client very strict guidelines in creating her tags for this project, so hopefully next time, the TAGS will better pinpoint the clients audience and create even better search results!
After much anticipation (by us….hopefully by some of you too!), we are proud to release our first Viral Video campaign! The following campaign is for Koval Associates & is intended to help her showcase her Job Match Program - asking the question “Are your employees in the right jobs?”
Viral Video is a specific area of the new viral Marketing initiative. Viral Marketing is a relatively free form of marketing, where you create a campaign that spreads through word-of-mouth like a virus. Someone gets an email with your message, thinks it’s funny & sends it on to their friends. Each friend then sends it on to their friends & so on. Eventually, the virus makes it’s way around the world & everyone knows your message!
Viral Video does this with, well, video! Your video can be funny, compelling, shocking - any video that draws on emotions.
In this campaign, Sue Koval of Koval Associates created three scenarios that placed a good employee in the WRONG job. What happens when the employee and the job don’t match up very well? The results aren’t pretty!
If you liked that video, check out the others at JobMatchVideo.com!How can you help spread the virus? Send this blog post to all of your friends & family! Be part of the next YouTube phenomenon!
I just read in the Ocean County Gazette that May 10-18th is National Tourism Week which is held annually by the Travel Industry Association. According to the Gazette, “Tourism is a top industry in Ocean County, a unique area in the state, with tourism facilities in nearly ever part of the county: north, south, east and west.” Does your company target tourists? In this competitive market, you need to find a way to set yourself apart from the rest and let everyone know “hey, I’m here & I’m ready for your business!” Why not take National Tourism Week as the perfect time to start working on new ways to market your unique offerings?
According to NJBiz.com, the number of tourists in NJ rose 6% in 2007! So maybe residents are bailing out of living in NJ, but it seems people love to come here to play! I know when I left the state for about 8 years, I missed the shore - the boardwalks, beaches & fun summertime activities. While 22% of the tourists came from within NJ itself, people from NY, PA, MD and even South Carolina enjoyed taking the summer vacations on the Jersey Shore!
If your business can benefit from the increase in tourists in the Garden State, now’s the time to act. The busy summer months are approaching & businesses from Sandy Hook to Cape May will be competing for their vacation dollars. Why not get yourself out there & introduce yourself to them BEFORE they even get here? Video on your website and targeted video mailers can entice these vacationers to come to YOUR hotel/bar/restaurant/amusement park/etc. Why not get together with area businesses & create an all-inclusive DVD that highlights your street/block/town?
Video shows you care and that you are waiting for THEIR business. These days people are getting wary of places found online. A good description and a photo taken in the best light can make event the shadiest of places look great on the internet. But a video shows VALUE. If you took the time, energy & money to create a video, you must have something worth seeing. Show your customers that you value them and target the 2008 tourists on the Jersey Shore!
We get many inquiries from Realtors about using our video services to help sell a home. While we find it is not cost effective unless the home is going for 7 figures or more, there are many other ways to use video in this competitive market.
1. Instead of highlighting a house, highlight a town! Most Realtors specialize in a certain area. Why not make a video of that area to provide potential homeowners coming from distant towns, states or countries. Many times when I’ve looked at listing after listing, I’ll fall in love with a house, only to be disappointed by the area that it is in. Or on the flip side, a house may not look like much online, but when I get to the neighborhood, I am embraced by its charm. A video can delve into what makes the town tick - the local hotspots, eateries, schools & more. This little round disc can set you apart from every other Realtor vying for their commission.
2. Focus on YOU, not your products. What makes you different? Are you nicer, stronger, provide more services than your competitors? Make a video about THAT & distribute it virally! Viral Video is video that spreads around the internet much like a virus through a 3rd grade classroom. Make your video funny, shocking or compelling & it just might take the same course. From your 15 minutes of internet fame, you may find yourself turning down offers to sell homes in your local area!
3. Focus on your higher end properties. I mentioned earlier that video is not cost effective if the house is selling for less than $1,000,000. But higher end homes are PERFECT for video marketing. Take potential homeowners on a tour through the 10 bedrooms, sauna and movie theatre all on the home’s compound. When taking this approach, make sure you choose a highly qualified professional company. Remember, you are looking to attract high end clients. Skimping on the production quality says that the home is not worth top dollar.
4. Of course I am going to encourage you to use a professional for all of your video marketing needs, but I am realistic. I watch YouTube & I see how many people think they can save a few bucks & do it themselves. There are a few things to think of if you decide to go this route. First of all, make sure the quality of the video matches the price you are asking for the home. I don’t know about you, but I am not willing to spend $400,000 based on a shaky, dark video where I can somewhat see that there are hardwood floors. Make sure there is adequate lighting when shooting the video (look in your camera’s manual for information about “iris”). Also, don’t zoom in & out excessively. It is better to get steady shots than to be moving around all over the place. Try to avoid the “sea-sick” floating back & forth - use a tripod if you can. Also, watch out for “peanut gallery” comments as you shoot. Idle chatter in the background is rather annoying. Finally, NEVER turn your VIDEO camera sideways to get a “tall” shot. I don’t know about you, but my TV & computer screens don’t have a tilt button, so the shot will only appear sideways.
I hope I have helped you figure out how to use video to sell your next home. If you have any questions about these suggestions, feel free to contact me directly.
This post will take a break from my usual “professional” information that I give on how you can use my services & will be more of a rant!
Please….please….PLEASE….do not have “auto play” video on your website! Did you know most people search the web at work? Now, picture a nice quite cubical farm (you know, those offices where everyone is tucked away neatly in a cubicle) and suddenly some fast obnoxious song comes blaring out of cubical number 29478. What do you think that employee that has only been working there for 2 weeks will do? They will CLOSE the window, program or computer down right away….quickly leaving your website never to return again.
Small business websites aren’t the only ones that drive me nuts with videos that auto play. I’ve been tooling around all of the video sharing sites lately & can’t believe how many of them are set to auto play! EVERY TIME I go to check out how many hits my video has gotten, it AUTO PLAYS! If I hear the first 5 seconds of my video one more time…..
Please, if you have video on your website, talk to your webmaster & make sure that it is “on demand” and not “auto play.” If you don’t believe me, read Larry Bailin’s book “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From” and he’ll tell you the same.
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