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Which Video Player? It Depends…
So you’ve been playing around with that shiny new digital video camera and you’re dying to get some of the video up on the Web so you can share it with friends, add it to your blog, or even feature it on your website. And since you want to keep the process of uploading and presenting them pretty simple, you’ve decided you’d like to use one of the free video uploading/sharing sites that are so popular in our digital society. There are a ton of great options, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s say you’ve narrowed it down to the two most popular, Vimeo and YouTube.
But how do you decide which one to use? They’re both free. They both allow you to sign up and begin uploading and sharing immediately, and they both allow you to build a social network with which to share your videos with relative ease. Indeed, they both have their advantages and disadvantages, so the answer to that question really depends on your objective. Allow me to explain.
Let’s say you’ve invested in a high definition video camera and have just caught some spectacular footage of London at night. Since the content of your video is exceptionally beautiful, you’ll not only want the quality of the playback to be great, but you’ll also want to display it with the best looking video player. This will be especially important when embedding it into your website or blog. If this is the case, Vimeo is for you. Not only is the video playback quality better, but the navigation for the interface disappears after you click play and only reappears when you roll over the video again with the mouse, leaving nothing but the content of the video for you to see in its full splendor. The playback experience on Vimeo is by far and away better than over on YouTube. Here’s one of my favorites:
On the other hand, let’s assume you were out with your pocket-sized Flip video camera and happened to catch Sasquatch sauntering across the road in your hometown. You snatch the camera out of your pocket and catch 25 seconds of proof that he exists. With this video, you might not be as concerned with quality, but you certainly want to make sure that folks all over the world see the video. In this case, choose YouTube. It’s the third most visited Internet site of all time, so with a massive amount of traffic comes a massive opportunity for your video to go viral.
To recap – If you’re looking for high-quality video and a seamless video viewing experience, Vimeo is the solution. But if you’re looking to go viral, you should probably go with YouTube, as it will help ensure your video spreads like wildfire. Now get to uploading!
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Keeping An Eye On The Competition
As brand managers execute integrated marketing campaigns it’s absolutely essential that they have a good understanding of both their product (or service) and their target consumer. But let’s not forget how important it is to keep at least one eye on the competition.
Conventional wisdom has always said to be proactive, not reactive but I’d contend it’s important to be a little bit of both. You have to have the ability to think on your feet and adapt to changing market conditions and react swiftly to competitive campaigns. BMW was able to do that in the example below, and turned what was a competitor’s direct assault into a net positive for the brand. Brilliance:
This billboard duel has gone viral, too, receiving coverage on tons of blogs and Twitter feeds over the last couple of days. One of our favorite blogs, Jalopnik, has even been taking reader submissions for an Audi response to the BMW billboard. You can check that out HERE. Here’s my favorite:
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Ads Created By The Audience
As Nissan prepares to launch the Cube this spring, their goal is to make a big impression with their young target audience—18- to 24-year-olds. They’re making sure they connect with that audience by employing them directly to create the advertising campaigns that will influence their peers.
Nissan has inked deals to become a part of the curriculum in marketing classes at 10 large universities across the United States including Johns Hopkins, right here in Maryland. There they will work with students to create ad campaigns that will run on each individual campus this spring. It’s like a reverse focus group—Instead of asking the target audience about the campaigns after they’re created, they’re involving them in the process of creating the campaigns.
The only directive that Nissan has given the students is that the ads should drive interest to local dealerships, but otherwise they’re staying out of it. This is a smart move because the last thing they want to do is stifle the creativity of these students. It should be very interesting to see what the students come up with—Stay tuned, I’ll write a follow-up after the launch.
And in the meantime, you can keep tabs on things for yourself:
See the Cube microsite HERE
Follow the Cube on Facebook HERE
Follow the Cube on Twitter HERE
Via Autoweek
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Unveiling 2.0
Automobile debuts are going increasingly high tech. It used to be that they were great photo opportunities for the automotive press at car shows and the rest of us had to wait until the car mags published the pictures, but with new technology and social media, they’ve really morphed into so much more.
Take the shining example that was the Tesla Model S unveiling. They could have settled for pulling the cover off in front of a fully-loaded crowd at the New York Auto Show like a number of other manufacturers are planning to do. But they chose not to. Instead they really went much further to unveil this ground-breaking electric sedan.
They started by purposely leaking a photo about a month before the official unveiling. But not a clear photo – one that obscures many of the integral details of the vehicle’s design, leaving many blogs and media sources to speculate on what the uncovered car may look like. Here’s the photo they leaked:
The buzz this created was immense. Automotive and technology media covered it in droves, bloggers wrote countless posts about it, and there were thousands of mentions on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The seed had been planted, and the public wanted more.
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If Advertising is Dead, Then What?
I just read an article titled “Advertising is Dead. Long Live Packaging.” I’m not sure I wholly agree with that sentiment (I think advertising can certainly still be effective), but there’s no denying that the days of blasting print and television ads all over creation and waiting for the customers to roll in are long gone.
The article made the case for investing more marketing dollars in product packaging as a way to differentiate your product on the shelves and enhance the brand experience at the first point of contact. I took the article with a grain of salt in the first place because it was published on The Dieline, which is a blog showcasing top-notch packaging design, so clearly they have a reason to feel this way. But the argument really made sense to me because I’m a strong believer in the power of experiential marketing and I think product packaging is a big part of that. It’s generally the first REAL interaction a consumer has with a product. It’s the first chance for the consumer to touch and feel a product.
Most of the buzz surrounding the marketing world places social media squarely in the crosshairs of the future of marketing. Those that know me know that I’m a true believer in the power of social media for people and brands alike, but I am not biased toward that medium - like The Sutter Group, I like to consider myself media-neutral. What I do believe is that there are HUGE opportunities for brands to market through brand experience (not limited to a specific medium). That means more and more focus on how consumers interact with products and services—from packaging, to environmental graphics to interactive and social media to events and guerilla campaigns. I think these are going to be huge areas for growth in the next 3-5 years.
What do you think? Have any prognostications of your own?
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