Archive for 2010

In this issue:

- Digital Productions to launch new TVC production service.

- Multi-multi-multi award winning writer buddies up with the team.

- Why successful web videos don’t have to be global, viral sensation.

- Websites and Google replacing Yellow Pages.

Digital Productions to launch new TVC production service.

Since starting up as a web and online focused AV production facility in 2006, we’ve always kept in mind the need to develop into a full service facility.  September sees Digital Productions launch its television commercial service with the completion of two TVC’s for EzyCash Loans.

The 15 and 30 second commercials are graphic heavy, as the outlets are still going through a bit of a make over – but the new, clean brand image is clearly displayed, plus the overall feel delivers a clear message that the team at EzyCash Loans are the good guys of pawnbroking.

With the recession, SME’s and individuals are finding funding from traditional bank services drying up, so the pawn broking industry is gearing up. Nearly 50 percent of loans in the US are now from non traditional bank services – and so EzyCash Loans are giving their business a serious make over and are looking to develop the brand with television advertising playing a key role.

Having our own filming and editing facilities all under one roof enable Digital Productions to offer quality TVC production, for a reasonable budget.

Contact us now for a quote on your next TVC.

Multi-multi-multi award winning writer buddies up with the team.

With Digital Productions finding itself stretched in so many ways by the evolving use of online media, it’s darn handy to find a darn good writer – who’s a darn good bloke to boot and get him to join the darn team!  Introducing multi-multi-multi award winning writer and creative type – John Ferriss.   (Yes he merits multi-multi’s). John is now available to step in and take those creative brief’s by the horns.  As an independent creative who runs his own service – Windup Bird, John is now contracted by Digital Productions to help cover the expanding work load.  Send in those briefs now! Contact us.

Why a great web video doesn’t have to be a global sensation.

It seems that everyday we hear reference to one online video or another.  It is fascinating to see how these spread as an electronic AV virus around the world. The content is usually in reference to some performance, political gaffe or such, and occasionally a commercial, specifically made for the internet – promoting a large brand in a risqué clip.

The key element for many of these video snippets is entertainment – they are brief moments of time out from our day.   Businesses are increasingly incorporating a plan to make the most of the potential that online video presents.  It is an ideal medium to spread the word of a product or service.

However, the key element that is often forgotten is the craft of story telling, and applying some standard creative smarts.

For a business website, you don’t have to make entertainment a priority – someone who logs onto your website is already interested in your product or service, take this as a given.  How long they stay on your site will be directly related to how well you tell your story.  How impressed they are – or how it impacts upon their perception of your brand, product or service will probably be in the style of delivery.

Whilst we can all look to trying to create the next global, online, viral video sensation, it’s probably best to start with some standard video content on your website – then look to flex the creative muscle.  Remember – if you do drive a wave of traffic to your site – make sure it’s up to date and has plenty of video content already on it.

Looking at a specific example, several years ago we had a client come to us with a viral video marketing idea.  The concept was to use one of their spa pools in a stunt – film it and put it online.

The outcome would be a lot of irrelevant traffic, and a broken spa.  There was also the obvious idea of filming bikini clad bodies frolicking in said tub, and how that would draw a crowd.  But it would be the wrong crowd.  Upon investigation it was found that the key purchase decision maker was the wife or partner and typically they were couples, 30 to 49 years of age.

So with this in mind, and as they were on a tight budget, we decided to do a traditional, interview style video, with cut away shots. Simple enough, but we added a twist, the interview was conducted in the spa!

As an example of a “who we are and what we do” type video, this is still one of my favourites. The forum is engaging, informative and there’s just enough humour to entertain.  Best of all, it was a very simple and inexpensive production.  And after three years the video is as relevant today as it was the day we shot it, excellent value!  See www.formeleisure.co.nz

Whilst there’s no doubt that practically every business will benefit from joining the video revolution, how well video works for you will come down to having a good website video strategy, and telling your story well.  To have your story told with a web video – contact us today.

Websites and Google replacing Yellow Pages.

You don’t have to be particularly observant to notice a change in the use of the stalwart of small business marketing – the Yellow Pages.

Whilst the attached picture provides a visual reference to the trend (shows the 2010 directory as being about 15% thinner than 08),  the online data backs it up even more.  There is a steady stream of research, reports and announcements promoting how print based, classified type advertising, including the Yellow Pages, has been hit hard by the swing towards online search services and in particular – Google.

Most of us who go online use a search engine every day to find everything from aborist’s to zoo’s.  And why wouldn’t you?  Just type in the key word of a product or service you are after and generally, click – there’s your answer.  However many of the businesses that benefited the most from Yellow Pages advertising are missing out on this quick and low cost marketing opportunity as their prospective customers struggle to find them, particularly if they are a smaller, local service.

The first reason is that many small businesses still don’t have a website.  And many that do have a site are not covering the basics of search engine optimisation.  At the least you should ensure you clearly display your catchment area suburb by suburb, not only on the site but also in your key words and tags.  It is also a common theme with sites to have a separate “contact” page.  This is still important – but so is putting your key contact details, in particular your contact phone number/s clearly at the top of the page.

Often people are just looking for your website as a quick solution to getting your phone contact – and it becomes a very frustrating process if they find themselves having to troll through pages to find it.

Ideally your business is in both the Yellow Pages and has its own website – but with use of the Yellow Pages dropping off, it may be that you need to seriously review how well your business stacks up when it comes up ( or not) on Google or other search engines.  For a free SEO audit on your business – Contact us.

Digital Productions nominated for 2010 People’s Choice Awards, New Zealand’s largest conference and event awards programme

A big thank you to the client who put forward our nomination for the category of “Best video production” for this years conference and event awards. Our nomination is based on grading for positive feedback, qualifications and industry merit and the highest standard of customer service. The team at Digital Productions work hard and take pride in the work we do for our clients – and award or not, will always do the best we can. So, to help us keep up with the good work – please click below and vote for us!

Three conferences and an RFP

It’s been a busy month with conference bookings for live, big screen feeds plus recording the event for later distribution via online and DVD. If your company is looking to stage a conference, contact us for a competitive quote for a video feed to the big screen, and prices for editing into DVD’s and hosting online segments.

Interview special takes off

Conferences aside, Digital Productions special offer for interviews has proven very popular. The demand for well priced, professionally filmed and edited interviews and short segments to camera has allowed us to streamline this service – and a big thumbs up to Sovereign Insurance, with Sovereign Insider making great use of this facility. Have a look at their website to get a few ideas for your business, then book your interview from $599.00 ex gst.

http://www.sovereigninsider.co.nz/Video-List.aspx

Recently, a fairly decent sized RFP from a very large international company, saw a leading New Zealand computer and IT support brand contract Digital Productions with a specialised video demonstration brief. We can’t yet say who the company was, but the feedback we have received was that the video component played a critical part in the presentation’s success. So, for your next RFP, rather than tell them – show them! Contact us for a quote for a video component to your next business presentation.

Coming up: Keep watching for the launch of a new web channel, news of a short film and more.

Keep it online!

Cheers

The Team at Digital Productions.

The iPad – better to wait for version two?

Whilst Apple are reveling in all the hype of the iPad, and it’s sales success (or over-success for those on wait lists), poor old Microsoft and Fujitsu must be scratching their heads, wondering what they did wrong.
You see – the concept of a table PC has been around for quite some time – in fact I was the proud owner of a Fujitsu tablet PC way back around 2003.

The Fujitsu Stylistic was an awesome machine.  Whilst it was a little bigger, and a little heavier than the iPad, it was overall, I believe, a better machine because it had one function the iPad does not; a writing tool.

With its stylistic pen, I could call up a conventional A4 lined writing pad and scribble notes to my hearts content – and never run out of paper.

Best of all, I could review back over years of notes and easily find the page I was looking for.  I had researched thoroughly, and the Fujitsu model had the best overall reviews for writing functionality – and my personal experience was it lived up to and even exceeded its billings.

When some lowlife broke into my car and stole the tablet – it proved impossible to replace (stock not available anywhere due to low sales). So when I finally replaced it with an HP laptop with swivel screen -was not too surprised to find that their model performed poorly for stylistic writing.  Actually that’s an understatement – it was so useless that I gave up on this feature.

For the iPad not to have a quality writing feature is a very large oversight.  With this simple function it would become irreplaceable in every business persons folio – and the iPad could then not only threaten books, but would jeopardise sales of A4 writing paper world wide.  A real “save the trees/planet” marketing opportunity missed.

Microsoft and Fujitsu must be wondering about the fadnatisim type sales the iPad is experiencing despite its shortcomings – guess it was just that the tablet PC put out by them wasn’t looking cool.

So the door remains open to them to take the new wave of tablet acceptance, and come back fighting with a relaunch of a modernised version of their functional model.  But should Apple get the feedback that I believe they will, and load a writing tool into the next generation of iPads – their market share lead would leave tablet PC’s in a very low runners up position, probably forever…

As YouTube celebrates its 5th Birthday, and online video content evolves, the case for web based business video is compelling, if not conclusive: Online video is booming, globally, 16 billion videos are viewed every month – and online video is showing strengths to rival, and even exceed that of television.

International studies have shown that after viewing online video;

• 55% of respondents indicated they checked out the web site.
• 30% said they went to the store
• 24% made a purchase.

(Data reported by Kelsey Group USA)

• 52% of viewers took action after viewing a video ad
• 28% looked for more information on the product or service
• 16% purchased something

(Data reported by Marketing Sherpa)

• Conversions from site visitors to sales improve by 15%

(As reported by Internet Retailer)

Video provides powerful search benefits. Video is 50 times more likely than a text page on the same topic to appear on Google’s first page of search engines.

And as YouTube is now the number two search engine in the world – it is clear that searchers are turning to video for answers. And whilst the majority of viewers of YouTube videos click out in the first minute – more than 70% of authentic business profiles are viewed to the end.

With the development of more affordable editing facilities, the cost of having a professional video filmed and edited are a fraction of what they were before YouTube was formed. Tell your business story – and get more sales today! Contact Anthony at Digital Productions on 021 678 799, or 09 360 0511

Digital Productions

If improving your websites look, effectiveness, and Google ranking is on your list of things to do for 2010, then having video on your site is a must do.

Whilst the communication benefits of video have been promoted for decades, and more so since the first video content was posted on the internet, the case supporting the use of video on most business websites from a cost/return perspective has only just been settled as we start the new decade.

This year – online video content will evolve from its perception as an entertainment and communication fad, and develop to establish the medium globally as a full blown entertainment channel – and a must have feature for every business website.

Whilst Google is the worlds most used search engine, it is no surprise that YouTube, also owned by Google, is the second most used.  Back in 2007, such was the perceived value in online video that Google purchased YouTube for about 1.5 billion USD.

When looking to develop your sites search engine optimisation, it appears that Google now rank video higher than audio podcasts and blogs.  This fact alone is a compelling case for website video. Even more compelling, is the fact that Google now translates the voice track on a video into searchable text.  In other words – what you say on your video can now impact directly on its potential to rank as a stand alone result in a related search.  This could result in the video alone drawing users to your web site.

There is also data that also suggests you should have more than just the one video, especially if it’s on your home page.  It would appear that Google defaults home page videos as promotional, and videos on secondary pages as informational.  So, whilst a home page video is an excellent facility for providing an overview of your business and what you do, which is important, so too is the use of a more specific, informational video loaded further within your site.

To date the case for a website video has been very much bundled around the communication strengths that an AV presentation provides.  Now, the data is compelling.  Anyone interested in increasing traffic to their website should be planning their web video marketing now.  The key thereafter is to ensure what users see is relevant, and of a quality that backs up your business or service.  In this fickle age of online consumerism, when it comes to web video – the viewer can be very quick to change channel if they are not happy!