ENDAVO BLOG

Will The Real New Media Broadcaster Please Stand Up?

By Shaun Pope

Last week I had the privilege of presenting a keynote speech to the AMA Tampa Bay Digital Media SIG event. The focus was video -- and how New Media is changing traditional broadcast models. It sounds fairly straight forward, right? But when you think about it, the components or framework for monetizing content hasn't changed; the real change is in the new-found ability of all stakeholders to take on new roles in the process.

At the event, I introduced a concept I like to call the "New Media Framework," which illustrates how similar old and new broadcast models are. "Monetization" is one of today's top buzz words. However, traditional broadcasting and new media are built on the same principle: generating sustainable revenue from content. The 3 key components to successful content monetization are: Content, Audience, and Sponsorship/Advertising.  When all 3 are clicking, you have monetization. NOTE: I intentionally left out paid content, as it has its own dynamics.

Within the traditional media framework, each participant is rather fixed in their role. Content producers make content and sell it to broadcasters. Audiences passively consume it. And, sponsors/advertisers place their 30- or 60-second spots in targeted media outlets. Again, it's all designed as one-way communication, hence the term broadcasting.

So what's "new" about New Media. In short, emerging technology, the Internet and social media platforms have unleashed the true potential of the traditional broadcast model, allowing flexibility. Here are just a few examples of new broadcast strategies where roles have shifted resulting in monetization:

• Audience acting as broadcaster: YouTube personalities. The user generated content (UGC) craze has been fueled by social media portal sites where anyone can publish/distribute content. Individuals like Dave Days, YouTube Fred and LonelyGirl15 have all built significant audiences with nothing more than a hand-held camcorder and their computer. Even though it's challenging to reach maximum monetization (see: Online Video, Nothing's for Free), strong content and established audience creates sponsor demand. Specifically, product placement and in-video branding, enabled by companies like HitViews (started by YouTuber Caitlin HIll) has created real revenue for these content entrepreneurs.

• Content producers acting as broadcasters. A great example of this is Endavo Media's client American Powerboat TV. Here is a traditional content publisher that continues to sell content production services to traditional media brands, but realized they were leaving money on the table. With their own Internet TV channel, AmericanPowerboat.tv has created a niche audience of enthusiasts with sponsorship driven deep into the content. In effect, they have become a broadcaster, with all 3 pieces of the New Media Framework under their control.

• Sponsor acting as broadcaster, or as its become known, branded entertainment. Arguably, this has become one of the hottest trends in marketing. It can take many forms, from concert sponsorship with an online component (recent U2 on YouTube event), to serialized webisodes like IKEA's acclaimed "Easy To Assemble," and/or UGC contests like Hienz Ketchup's ongoing "Top This TV Challenge." In all cases, the flexibility of the New Media Framework allows big brand marketers to create/aggregate content, deliver it, promote it and wrap their brand around it. Again, controlling all 3 pieces of the model.

These examples are meant to demonstrate the opportunity that exists for multiple groups to succeed within the New Media Framework. Now, no one is relegated to a single role. However, taking on these new roles can mean venturing into uncharted water for some. If you lack the ability to fill the content production role, or you're not a strong marketer, you'll need to find partners that are and forge relationship that can deliver on all 3 phases of monetization.

Look at the graphic above, and remember: shoot for the middle.

Web Communities and Social Media: There’s More to Life than Facebook

By Pete Contardo

Without a question, social media and web communities are becoming increasingly important to businesses looking to engage and connect with their target audiences. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networking sites allow companies to join the conversations forming around their products, services and brands. They can attract new customers, reinforce marketing efforts, build brands and even find new ways to generate revenue.

However, as Krishna Kumar writes in 10 things CEO's should know about social media and online communities, navigating the social media space where 99% of content is irrelevant can be a daunting task. And finding and creating appropriate web communities requires dedication of time as well as sufficient human and financial resources. It’s much more than just putting up a Facebook profile and seeing what happens.

Now don’t get me wrong, Facebook and other social networks can be critically important to your business…but they are not necessarily the only way to leverage the power of social media. This is where building your own web community comes in. Why not create your own online community where your potential and existing customers can interact with each other and your brand? By doing so, you’ll be able to engage with your audience in an environment that you can easily monitor, control and manage according to your business goals. You will also build relationships with your community members that extend far beyond a product or service. Just remember that with social media you cannot, and don’t want to, control the conversation. You can only facilitate the environment in which it takes place.

But before you jump into planning your branded web community, check out Mack Collier’s blog post in which he gives six reasons why online communities fail. In this post, Collier writes that heavy emphasis on monetization, insufficient value creation and lack of engagement on the community owner’s part are the main factors why business-sponsored online communities tend to fizzle out before they get a chance to grow. So, based on Collier’s analysis, here are some things you must address to increase the likelihood that your web community will be a success.

1. Focus on establishing a following of dedicated fans. Monetization may be part of your overall strategy, but the primary purpose of your web community is to connect people and provide a user-friendly social environment that facilitates conversations. How you ultimately monetize should come naturally, after the community has already formed.
2. Offer something of value. Provide your community members with an abundance of interactive tools, encourage content creation through forums, blogs and comments or start a user-generated contest. Online video is another great way to add value to your web community. From weekly announcements from the company’s CEO and insightful industry overviews, to a fun web series featuring your products, to educational ‘how-tos’ and user-generated uploads, online video content will engage your community members and keep them coming back for more. 
3. Become an active community member. Participate in forum discussions, comment on your members’ blog posts, create content, respond to your members’ concerns and treat each of your community members with equal respect.
4. Make it easy for members to promote your community and content. As people enjoy participating in your community, give them the tools they need to share their enthusiasm with family, friends and co-workers. For example, allow users to email and link to your video content or embed it on their personal websites and blogs.

Good luck on your new web community! And, as always, let us know if Endavo Media can help.

Sports Programs Need Social Media Marketing Interns

By Shaun Pope

With the exception of top tier universities, college athletic and sports marketing departments are notoriously lean operations with everyone wearing many hats. But they have access to help. Universities have a stable of willing and able resources right at their fingertips: the student intern. But like any other business bringing on an intern, the question becomes how best to use their time; not only to benefit the school, but the student as well.

Social media marketing, including blogging, user generated video, Twitter, Facebook and other online awareness techniques, has become a key consideration for marketing and promotional campaigns both small and large. It can drive online awareness, build brand/team advocates, spike ticket sales, create fan engagement and more. However, the challenge in executing these programs is creating the content required to sustain relevancy in the crowded social media space.

Interns are nothing new for college athletic departments. But how they should be used is changing. While attending the NACDA conference recently, the social media marketing and technology tracks were packed with assistant athletic directors eager to learn social media tricks-of-the-trade. And that's part of the problem: there are no "tricks" or magical shortcuts to social media. If anything, it's just the opposite. It is a time consuming commitment that requires dedicated resources and planning. Specifically, a content strategy and a resource to produce/gather/organize the content. It may be cheap, but it's by no means free.

Here's an example of a current Internship description for Auburn University. Not to pick on Auburn, but I'm a Gator, so it's understandable. You can see it has no mention of social media. This is typical of what I found with most other universities.

Comparing the overwhelming interest in social media I found at the NACDA conference with the fact that very few university athletic department internships are focused on social media, I discovered a gap. University athletic departments want to use social media, but don't fully understand how to do it themselves, much less teach a student intern how to do it.

The reality, however, is many students today are very media savvy. They understand the technology; the content creation process; the conversational marketing style. What they need is someone to channel that activity towards established branding goals and defined marketing objectives -- something assistant athletic directors are especially good at.

So here are a few suggestions to all you college athletic department internship description writers out there. Start including these activities:

Title: Social Media Marketing Intern

Description:

• Grab your digital video camera and laptop, bring your passion for your school, and start building an online audience for your content.
• Plan and schedule interviews with coaches, alumni, students, student athletes, local community businesses.
• Create a content deliverables schedule including blog posts, twitter updates, Facebook updates and video posts.
• Comment and engage with existing fans online, bring them into conversations, promotions and niche content on the university's web properties.
• Coordinate with ticket sales and events group to drive core business goals through the use of social media techniques.
• Establish method for measuring social media campaign effectiveness.

They great thing about this kind of internship is the department will learn as much from the intern as the intern does from the department.

Web Video Quantified

A number of recent studies reveal interesting trends emerging in the online video industry:

According to a new study from Web video company BBE, pre-roll video ads are 8-25 times more effective than in-banner ads when it comes to click-through rates.

Forbes Insights, in association with Google, released a new study revealing that almost 1/4th (24%) of C-level and top executives at major US companies prefer online video for business information.

According to Nielsen Online, as of June 2009, people spend 49% more time watching video online than they did a year before. 

CNN,  reports that, from June 13 to June 17, more than 50% of the total iReport.com submissions from Iran (1,600) were citizen-produced(user-generated) reports.

Recent analysis from The Diffusion Group (TDG) indicates that:

• More than 100 million households in the world will have an Internet-connected TV by 2011
• U.S. Internet users will consume about 32 minutes of web video per day by 2013 (up 22% from current video consumption)
• Online video usage will bring in more than $10 billion in revenue in the U.S. by 2013

 

Online Video Marketing: Getting It Right

By Tatiana Tugbaeva

While researchers are still debating over how pervasive and effective online video is, marketers across all industries are adopting it as a promotional medium.  Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been finding some great examples of how companies and organizations are using web video to achieve all kinds of objectives – from building their brands, to engaging with the audience, to delivering on specific business goals like increasing sales or tapping into new sources of revenue. Here’s what I found:

The Pennsylvania Tourism Office launched an original web series called "Peter Arthur Stories." These webisodes tell the adventures of a 22-year-old Peter Arthur as he travels around Pennsylvania searching for the waitress that served him a slice of Shoofly pie when he was 12 years-old. While the young man rides around the state in his sidecar, the audience gets to see Pennsylvania’s beautiful landscape, farmlands and towns. Viewers can also enter into a sweepstakes for 12 Pennsylvania getaways by answering 4 trivia questions.

Cabela, one of the largest mail order, Internet and retail outdoor outfitter produces its own TV series and also hosts a collection of about 250 videos on its web site, Cabelas.com.  Professionally produced videos vary in content, from product-related to ‘how-tos.’ Cabela is using its online video assets to add value to its services, improve user-experience and engage site visitors.  

A&E Television Networks is orchestrating a viral marketing initiative to promote its new "docu-drama" series "Hammertime," which chronicles the present-time life of the mega celebrity MC Hammer. A&E’s video “Hammer Pants Dance” has generated almost 1,300,000 views on YouTube driving traffic back to www.aetv.com/hammertime where you can watch more videos, ‘meet’ Hammer’s family, follow him on Twitter, participate in discussions, connect on Facebook and, of course, pre-order a DVD of the “Hammertime” series.

Another viral video campaign was launched by the Miami Dolphins to boost new season ticket holder sales. The Dolphins released an interactive feature that allows fans to input their contact information and experience the excitement of new signee experience. Once you submit your info, you are taken to the next page to watch a video of YOU ‘getting in the game’ by signing a contract, high-fiving fans and running through the tunnel with the team mascot. You even ‘get’ a customized jersey and see your name appear on the screen as they talk about ‘the new signee’ on the news.

All these campaigns are great examples of how online video can be used to drive traffic, engage the audience and generate revenue. However, all of them fall a bit short of their full potential. Online video is a highly interactive medium. So, these organizations could be enabling their viewers with the tools to rate, comment and share the content. How about incorporating some user-generated uploads? Who wouldn’t want to watch more ‘Hammer pants dance’ videos from fans? A&E could sponsor a contest where the winner gets to spend a day with MC Hammer and his family. Now that’s “Hammertime!”

Online video: short-form content is the winner

By Tatiana Tugbaeva
"While online video usage is growing, it is shortsighted to think of this primarily as an alternative venue for watching TV shows," says independent analyst Bruce Leichtman. "In fact, consumer use of video online remains much more about short-form video."

At Endavo Media, we support Leichtman’s outlook on web video. Online video is more than just watching regular TV programming on the web. In fact, in his recent survey of 250 broadband households, Leichtman found that only 8% of respondents watched repurposed TV shows on their PCs.

The greatest thing about online video is that has given equal opportunities to big and independent content owners to distribute their videos online. It has also allowed smaller and emerging brands to tell their stories and connect with the audiences without breaking the bank. You don’t need high-end equipment and a million-dollar budget to produce engaging content and reach your audience. All you need is a hand-held camera, compelling story to tell and broadband connection. 

Small Sports Teams/Leagues: Huge Opportunity to Use Online Video

By Shaun Pope

The great thing about sports is that people get so passionate about it. So, if you’re a sports marketer, team/league promoter or just a hardcore fan, building an online community around sports is a no-brainer.

The first step is to create a place where fans, players and supporters can meet online. You can always start with a blog. But sport is about action and nothing does this better than video. So, using online video is a great way to attract fans to your site. Not to mention the sponsors that want to reach them.

The good news is that you don’t even have to worry about production. Most fans, parents and coaches are already capturing video and pictures. What you need is a centralized place where community members can share their user-gen content and interact with one another. The most cost- and time-efficient way to get your video community up and running is to select a fully-hosted online video platform that lets you create a branded video community and gives you total control over your media, audience and monetization options. As your community expands, you may decide to stream live video from key athletic events or to invest into additional video production like interviews with players and weekly team reports.  Your Internet TV platform should have the capability to supports your community’s changing needs.

You can then monetize you online video community by attracting sponsors and advertisers who want to reach your audience.  Advertisers will be able to become active community members by supporting team segments, including their own videos, sponsoring live events or displaying ads on your website and within your online video player. Need an example? Take a look at what American Powerboat TV has done with its sponsors. You can also monetize your community through fee-based subscriptions or by selling access to live streaming events.

What’s great about online video is that it’s a great equalizer. It’s now possible for USA Water Ski to have the same powerful marketing and promotion tools as the National Football League. And if you’re wondering, yes, Endavo Media can help.

What Defines a Successful Online Video Campaign

By Tatiana Tugbaeva
If you ever wonder what the heaviest hitters in viral video history are, Visible Measures has the answer. The company specializes in measuring online video across the web and it put together a nice list of “online video campaigns that have accumulated a nine figure total viewership.”  What’s interesting is that out of 18 “heavy hitters” only four are user-generated videos and only one of them, Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist, is in the top ten. Music videos (8) are dominating the list, followed by movie trailers (4). There are also a couple of TV show clips.

So, if you still think of a successful video campaign as something that goes viral and generates millions of views, you might want to reconsider. There’s much more to web video than that. Producing compelling quality content that resonates with your target audience and delivers on your marketing/business goals is what defines a good online video strategy.

Evolution of Dance, position 11

Choosing an Internet TV Platform that Works for You

By Shaun Pope

A few posts ago, Paul D Hamm revealed the big secret of a successful online video business – finding multiple monetization models. But an appropriate video publishing and distribution platform is also crucial to execution and success of any online video monetization strategy. So, here are a few things you need to consider when choosing an online video platform that works for you:

Monetization options. Your online video platform should allow as many monetization options as possible. Video and banner advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions, pay-per-view, affiliate programs and e-commerce should all be easily available for implementation.

Control. When you put your video on a free hosting site, giving up control is an inevitable trade-off. Having control over your audience, player/website branding and advertising options means you choose how to make money with your online community.

Analytics and Member Data Management. Comprehensive video analytics together with community members’ personal information provide a valuable insight into your audience and make a great asset for negotiating deals.
 
Interactive and Social Media Features. Over the past few years, interactive features like commenting, sharing, rating, voting, user-generated uploads and live chat have become an expected part of user experience. These tools are also essential for building online video communities. Your platform should have features that make it easy for your content to go viral and for you to monetize your videos wherever they go.

Live Streaming.  Some monetization models like pay-per-view and subscriptions work best as ‘tickets’ to live events,  especially when it comes to sports, music, entertainment, news training and education.  

Tell us what’s important to you in an online video platform. And good luck!

Keeping Members on Your Association’s Web Site Can Grow The Membership, Make Money

By Stephen Wilkes

A key goal for every Association is to generate new members, right? Question is, how can new media help meet this marketing objective? As an Association, having your own Internet TV Platform allows you to deliver added value to members, generating more revenue from advertisers and sponsors ... and overall, providing more ways to grow your membership.

So, sending members to other Web sites is a lost opportunity—your lost opportunity to engage your audience. Keeping members on your Web site keeps them engaged in your content, and your brand, via videos, commenting, sharing, or linking to your site. And, if you have an advertiser associated with your video, you just made some money, too!

Today it’s all about monetizing online video.

Keep in mind, with an Association Internet TV platform you have the added option of selling video ads, which you can’t do on YouTube and other social video-sharing sites. Your advertisers can be local or national ... and each new advertiser (or sponsor) can mean more revenue, more events, and ultimately more members. Basically, the more member interaction on your site, the more potential success for your Association.

Conducting contests with your own Association Internet TV Platform. 

Why not? Large corporations and brands are doing it. User-Generated contests get your members involved and interested in your Association, your brand. The more User-Generated contests, the more opportunities to retain and attract members. 

Look for more ways and reasons to have your own Association Internet TV Platform in future blogs. In the meantime, let’s hear what you have to say!