Two years ago I wrote a blog about engagement through video. I would like to think that the marketing world has embraced the delights of video and animation and taken web experiences onto the next level. I would have to confess that when I am wandering around the internet there still seem to be less rather than more sites delivering wonderfully engaging content.
Show me the money
Let's begin with the justification. Zappo's have found that adding video descriptions to products boosed conversion rates by 6 - 30%. This is such a big win that all organisations should be thinking about ways that they can integrate video and animation into their web experiences. If you don't want to justify it with traditional business metrics like making money, then how about "engagement"? There are more reports emerging into how people consume video via digital media and I am pleased to say that a brand new one for the media industry has been revealed by Brightcove . They conclude that for media sites video consumption is significant...
On-line video content from broadcast networks average 2:53 minutes watched per stream followed by music labels at 1:50 minutes and newspaper publishers with 1:41 minutes per stream.
I Bet your products are not as boring as these...
No disrespect to Cisco, but I personally cannot get very excited about their 800 Series Routers. This is a job for Osman Mohammad. Osman loves routers. He speaks about them with a passion and he'd loved to tell you about them right now. Go on, just click.
Osman can sell 800 Series Routers in his sleep. His passion for Routers cannot be communicated through the printed word. He never fluffs a presentation and he's never late. Osman is probably the most prolific sales rep Cisco has ever has. I hope he's on commission.
So, video is not just for cool sneakers - its for business products too.
Let's take another BtoB cracker. How do you sell an interactive white-board to schools? This is the most delightful animation I have come across with cartoon characters in sync with interviews with real teachers.
It's called "Teacher Comforts" and is drawing on some excellent animations from Nick Parks (of Wallace and Gromit fame) called Creature Comforts in the 1990's. Skip to the end to watch the out-takes...a leaf out of Toy Story's book!
How about video to explain things?
Here are 2 of my favourite "explanation" videos. I run a lot of digital marketing training courses and try to blend the Powerpoint and web learning style with some video content. CommonCraft is a company that continues to develop really simple, clear videos that inform and entertain. The one on the left is for "social bookmarking" but check out their site for plenty of others (I can even recommend the "US Election" explanation as a puzzled Brit!).
The video on the right is an explanation of ChatRoulette, the web phenomenon that seems to polarise opinion almost as much as Facebook did a few years ago. It's very very well deisgned and deserves a wider audience, so share with your friends - it's from a designer called Casey Neistat and is a lovely piece of work.
So there you have it. A quick round up of great animated experiences on-line and not a single YouTube logo in sight. But of course, if nothing else, find a home for all your video content on a branded YouTube page or on your Facebook pages.
Happy animation