ENDAVO BLOG

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!

Attracting New Advertising Dollars: Online Video is the Great Equalizer

By Pete Contardo

There’s an old saying: “Ain't No Fun When the Rabbit's Got the Gun.”

This sort of applies to today’s smaller and mid-size content producers and advertisers. In the offline world, smaller companies clearly can’t compete with the big boys. But once the playing field shifts to online, we usher in a whole, new set of rules—rules that now make room for advertisers previously unable to pay the exorbitant costs of traditional broadcast TV. 

In many ways, I think online is the great equalizer. Yes, small can be the new big. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not to say money doesn’t rule. It does. But as I posted recently at OnlineVideoInsider in a discussion about the future of online advertising, web video has given smaller and emerging companies the opportunity to compete with big brands --

“Being a quality destination for a targeted message to a targeted audience is probably the best place to start, especially for the larger online video sites. But it's not just about taking a piece of the television ad pie, it's about how the pie can now be bigger. Great advertising opportunities are no longer only limited to those who traditionally could afford television buys.”

The online space represents a world of new opportunities for smaller, emerging brands as well as content producers. In this world, smaller advertisers can align with niche publishers who are building passionate audiences around quality content.

So, as the industry continues to compare online video advertising to offline TV ads, content owners and brand marketers should focus on the opportunities that online video offers. Such opportunities include branded entertainment, product placement, sponsored contests and other creative ways for smaller brand marketers to “own” the online video experience of their target audience and for content owners to monetize their online video.

What do you think?

Internet TV Platforms and UGC. Do It In ’09!

By Paul Hamm

With the User-Generated Content Conference and Expo having been held this week, I guess we still have UGC on our minds here at Endavo Media, after Pete Contardo blogged here earlier this week. It’s been the buzz around our offices. And we’re encouraging content producers and brand and marketing directors to conduct a UGC campaign for 2009. C’mon, let’s take the lead on this!

Despite the success and interest generated among Internet users worldwide, UGC campaigns haven’t yet, at least on a large scale, produced consistent ROI for marketers and site owners. While we believe marketing and revenue-generating opportunities for UGC campaigns are virtually endless, they do require a smart, sound UGC strategy, patience, risk-taking, creativity ... and a genuine commitment to making it work.We believe UGC can be a very profitable component of an entire social media strategy, but not a single whim or quick fix.

Look, research study after research study today tells us that web users under age 30 are spending more and more time viewing UGC videos ... way more than watching “traditional” broadcast television. This fact alone should spark strong interest in UGC campaigns among brand and marketing directors.

As Dave Dutch points out in a recent Online Video Insider article, UGC contests can turn customers and fans into a powerful network of content creators who communicate through video. Cult footwear favorite Crocs, for instance, has set up a site that invites lovers and haters of the brand to upload videos about how they feel about the product. Beverage brand Jim Beam is also hosting a user-generated social media event — a contest asking the public to create their own Jim Beam commercial for a chance to win $25,000. These are very real, successful UGC campaigns.

Yes, offering cash and other valuable prizes will inspire greater participation. Giving enough extrinsic motivators, as  Christine Beardsell points out, can inspire a short-term intense level of UGC participation. However, a winning strategy should be a combination of cash and prizes with intrinsic motivations.

At Endavo Media, we are predicting more and more companies this year and next will begin building their online communities through various video content, including UGC contests and promotions. And these communities in turn will come to represent potential new customers or much-sought-after eyeballs for advertisers. That’s how you can monetize online video.

What are your thoughts on the role of UGC in engaging web users and building online communities to build sales and advance brands? Please feel free to contact me anytime at 877.843.7242 or email me at paulh[at]endavomedia[dot]com.

Monetize Your Video Via User-Generated Contests

By Peter Contardo

On the heels of this year’s Super Bowl ads and Doritos third go-round at lending out their precious brand to Web users and customers, and with the User-Generated Content Conference and Expo (UGCX) starting today ... well, I guess here at Endavo Media we’ve got UGC on the brain. Mostly making money with online video, such as with selling advertising for your UGC campaign.

FYI, UGCX takes place today and tomorrow in San Jose, and we have Endavo Media folks out there, so we encourage you to follow our conference activities here at the Endavo Media Blog, and via Twitter. All of this is a huge reminder that user-generated contests are being used today to monetize online video in various ways, as well as extending branded entertainment properties into the social web.

Doritos/Super Bowl contest was followed up last night with similar user-generated contests by the Grammys and auto brand, Lincoln.

At Endavo Media, we know that user-generated contents are hardly just a Generation Y phenomenon any more — with the right Internet TV Platform UGC is a viable way to monetize businesses, be it an online-centric business, or not. Let me know if you’d like a copy of our white paper on ideas for setting up your own user generated contest peterc[at]endavomedia[dot]com.