In the UK, we watch over 280 million hours of video each month (source: e-consultancy) and this figure is growing. Online video offers businesses an opportunity to develop new routes to market and to create a richer customer experience.
When it comes to online video, there are many different ways to communicate with your audience and it is important to think about what you want to achieve. Do you want to share ideas and inspiration, inform or educate, encourage people to take action or just engage for a bit of fun?
Here at Access, we have seen a huge increase in the number clients who want to create videos for the first time or those that have seen success and want a bigger slice of the online video pie. For us, this has meant everything from styling up and designing user journeys on YouTube to developing guidelines for users, to tacking copyright issues as well creating a variety of videos in different styles.
In the last year alone, we have produced animated ‘information guides’, video case studies, sales videos, product launch videos, infomercials and engagement pieces – all of which have benefited from two key developments in the video landscape – cost of production coming down and quantity/quality of delivery channels going up.
For example, we are currently producing our sixth animated information guide for the Office of Fair Trading which has already resulted in over 400,00 views in 2012 - a successful online campaign used to help people better understand their consumer rights. Animation worked well for the message in this campaign, by its nature the format was simple, the message was basic and the call to action straightforward.
However, if, like the Welsh Government you want to demonstrate the real benefit of your offering, then the real life case study is your best bet. Here’s one of 16 videos we have created this year to support entrepreneurship and business growth in Wales.
And being close to the new BBC Studios at MediaCity we have been able to take advantage of their facilities when recording more studio-based sales videos such as the ‘news’ story we created for Deb Group.
If you’re committed to making a video part of your marketing strategy (from just embedding the sales process into your website as we have done for Plumbs to creating a bespoke product sales video that we recently did for CTEK), and it’s not something you’ve explored before, there are still a number of things to consider. For example, the kind of video you want to produce may depend on how you measure your return on investment. There are many risks and rewards associated with all kinds of videos but there is no denying its potential impact.
At Access we have created over 30 such videos in 2012 and we’re on hand to help you create yours...
