Video Production Oakville – The Captain’s Blog

About Face

While online video production in Oakville continues to expand into new horizons, it’s important to understand that not all videos are created equally. Depending on your products, services, and message you’ll need to properly plan out your video production strategy prior to getting the cameras rolling.

For instance, new research is showing that it best to include faces in your videos. Faces capture attention and build a sense of familiarity. This is because human brains are hardwired to recognize faces. But the importance of having a person speaking in your video goes much deeper than simple familiarity. A study by Princeton psychologists found that in just a tenth of a second, we form impressions of strangers from their faces alone. Our amygdala automatically responds based on how trustworthy we determine a face to be. Once this quick judgement has been made, our amygdala then begins to alter brain processes and coordinate appropriate responses, depending on whether we decide to approach or avoid that person.

So how can we make the spokesperson in our videos seem trustworthy? A combination of factors appealing to both the visual and auditory senses can have a significant impact on the whether viewers will trust your spokesperson or not.

Tips for your on camera spokesperson:

. Be truthful with what you say. Make sure you’re delivering information clearly, so it doesn’t seem like you’re trying to hide details.
. Be yourself. The audience can sense if you’re uncomfortable, and they’ll mirror that feeling.
. Caring for people. If you’re wishing someone well or caring for your audience, they’ll notice it.

Other important tips to make it easier to hold your audience’s attention:

. Keep your background free of distractions. You want the focus to be on the speaker and not, for instance, on the dog running around in the frame.
. Put important points in onscreen text. If your video is on the longer side, it’s easy for people to zone out and forget the main points. Emphasizing larger points in text onscreen will also give your video more structure.
. Mind your body language. Your body language speaks just as loudly as your words. Make sure to stand tall and gesture with confidence.
. Use verbal cues. Say things like “once that’s done” or “next” to direct the flow of the video, so it feels like things are moving.

These are just some of the points to consider if you are producing a video and planning on incorporating an onscreen spokesperson. As we all know, a video production can be a very powerful sales and marketing tool… but as we have stated in our blogs for years, videos need to be produced properly in order for viewers to believe your message. And in that regard, it is always best practice to hire a professional Oakville video production company for all your video marketing needs.

Video Production Oakville – The Captain’s Blog

Video Metrics Benefit Influencer Marketers

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to expand your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you can inspire, hire and pay influencers to get out the word for you.

Influencer marketing often goes hand-in-hand with two other forms of marketing: social-media marketing and content marketing. Most influencer campaigns have some sort of social-media component, in which case influencers are expected to spread the word through their personal social channels. Many influencer campaigns also support a content element in which either you create content for the influencers, or they can create the content themselves. Although social-media and content marketing often compliment influencer campaigns, they are not synonymous with influencer marketing.
What all three do have in common is the use of some or all of the following:

• Video production
• Video animation
• Corporate video(s)
• Videos for business
• Videos for company marketing
• Video profiles
• Video calling cards and more

The ability to identify the right influencers for your business should not ever be underestimated and the right influencers should know how to combine “reach,” “resonance,” and “relevance.”

• Reach is the measure of the total audience or the number of subscribers that go into this metric.
• Resonance is the measure of the amount of activity generated plus the level of interaction with the content.
• Relevance is a measure of how relevant a topic is and how much the talk about it. Videos that incorporate keywords increase relevance.

Other metrics that are important influencer marketers to consider are:

• Conversation rate or the ratio of comments per video to overall followers. The video must be interesting enough to spark a conversation?
• Amplification rate or the ratio of shares for each video to overall followers. Is the video of such an incredible value that viewers will forward it to everyone they know?
• Applause rate or the ratio of favorites per video to overall followers. Is the video content interesting enough to attract followers, even if they don’t comment on it or forward it?

Conversation, amplification, and applause rates help to measure the real active engagement of users with your influencer marketing campaign.
Behavior is another important component for influencer marketing agencies and teams. They are increasingly being asked to connect their social media marketing metrics to business outcomes. To do this they need to connect what they’ve accomplished in YouTube, Facebook, and other social media with Google Analytics, then they can accurately calculate the economic value of an influencer marketing campaign.

Using video production and connecting social media marketing metrics to business outcomes is how you can connect what’s been accomplished with YouTube videos, Facebook videos, and other video platforms with Google Analytics. Then it’s easier to calculate the economic value of an influencer marketing campaign.

Video Production Oakville – TrueView for Youtube

While many marketers in Oakville are still struggling over view-ability of their videos, YouTube is offering something much more valuable than just views. In March of 2015, YouTube launched Interactive Cards, which enable creators to share product information directly within their videos. Then, in May, YouTube took this feature to the next level with TrueView.

TrueView is a feature that specializes in helping viewers shop directly from the videos they’re watching. Similar to YouTube Interactive Cards, with TrueView, ads appear as an icon on the top right corner of the YouTube video/ad. When users click on the icon, Cards will drop down, and users will be able to scroll through images and pricing information about products featured in the video. If users are interested in purchasing, they can simply click the image and they’ll be taken to the retailer’s website to learn more, read reviews, or click to buy. Virtually any brand can now transform their videos on YouTube into a digital storefront.

TrueView provides direct sales of products like apparel, shoes, sunglasses, handbags, watches, custom goods, media, video game software, and books. This is potentially bigger than QVC and HSN put together because YouTube overall reaches more consumers than any cable network in the U.S.

TrueView has quickly and dramatically increased the importance of video production in Toronto and has created quite a buzz among marketers. In the coming months and years, you can expect the TrueView feature to become an essential tactic in e-commerce.

Video Production Oakville – Video Marketing Strategy

It’s no secret that video production plays a massive role today in online marketing. In fact, according to HighQ, 52% of marketing professionals worldwide regard video as the type of content with the best ROI. A good video marketing strategy is an essential key to success regardless of the type of business or organization you’re in.

However, as with any other marketing strategy, video marketing must be done right to achieve success. It’s all about strategy. Today, one of the most effective strategies being used by many of the leading brands is the Triple H strategy. Triple H stands for “Hero, Hub, & Hygiene”. This strategy was created by Youtube and has been used by many top brands and household names worldwide. Many marketers today are creating whole Youtube channels around this strategy. The Hero, Hub, & Hygiene strategy actually combines three different kinds of video content together into one channel.

Hero content is the more traditional video marketing approach. Hero videos are large-scale events or programs that drive mass awareness; oftentimes around product or event launches. Hero content builds awareness at a much broader scale to reach the mainstream. According to YouTube, Hero content is something that should be produced on average 1-2 times a year for a brand and will entertain and inspire the viewers with emotional storytelling. This usually generates a large boost in both traffic and brand awareness. Hero content is usually big-budget and often brings in big-name talent, or stunts…. something that can’t happen often.

EXAMPLES:
Volvo Trucks’ “The Epic Split”:

Redbull’s “Stratos”:

Pepsi’s Joe Flacco Football Party:

Hub content is meant to entertain and keep an audience coming back. According to YouTube, this content should be “regularly updated,” “valuable and engaging,” and should encourage people to “Subscribe, Like, and Follow”. It is regularly scheduled “push” content and is really the content that your core audience should want to come back and enjoy time and time again. A great example of this would be “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”. The channel regularly posts the most popular bits from the show to not only drive viewers to the channel, but back to the television show as well. This is the core business of most traditional YouTube channels: posting, entertaining and engaging content on a regular basis to keep their audience coming back.

EXAMPLES:
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon:
https://www.youtube.com/user/latenight
Who is job 2.0?:
https://www.youtube.com/show/whoisjob20
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos

Hygiene content is more searchable content intended to draw in viewers who may not already be watching your videos or buying your products. Hygiene videos are created around the core interests relevant to the ideal viewer or target consumer. Oftentimes this content is specifically created to capture viewers searching key terms related to the brand. For example, if you’re a computer software company, your content could be how-to videos helping your consumers navigate your product. People tend to find hygiene videos through search when they’re looking for answers to a specific question.

EXAMPLES:
Gillette How to Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlistlist=PL5urOKdhITFTNYhuNtWQGVr6c8c5Wt-iH
Home Depot How to Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/homedepot/playlists

Today, video marketing strategies demand a highly intricate approach. Gone are the days when Oakville based companies would depend on the success of a viral video for their entire video marketing campaign. Today, brand channels need to have a solid foundation of Hero, Hub, and Hygiene content to draw viewers in and turn an audience into a community. This may take some time, patience, and effort creating your video content and developing your audience. However, in the long run, the Triple H strategy will deliver tremendous ROI to your company and can bring your brand to the next level.

Recap: The Triple H formula:
• Hero – large scale videos that reach the masses at scale
• Hub – regularly scheduled content geared around customers’ major passions
• Hygiene – always-on videos that are optimized to viewer’s intentions
and interest

Video Production Oakville – The Continued Growth of Mobile Video

These days, video production in Oakville is at an all time high and as you might expect, mobile video consumption is at the forefront of this boom. In fact, a new report states just how dominant mobile video will become over the next few years. According to the 2016 Ericsson Mobility Report , video production will account for 70% of all mobile traffic by 2021, an increase of 55% over the next 5 years. Here are some other important highlights from the report that companies in Toronto should know about.

Mobile Video Traffic: 2016 to 2021

The Ericsson report explains that the global popularity of posting videos to web pages and social network feeds is what’s driving this growth in traffic and consumption. YouTube remains the biggest presence in mobile video, accounting for 50-70% of all video-based traffic across smart phone networks.

However, tablets are associated with the predicted higher share of online video traffic. The article explains that while tablets and smartphones are used equally for watching video content with shorter durations, users prefer tablets for viewing videos with longer durations.

Teenagers Turning to Mobile

The Ericsson study reports a “significant increase” in video traffic via mobile devices as users gradually continue to change their viewing platform from traditional TV to streaming content via tablets and smartphones.

Teens remain the biggest consumers of video. In fact, teenagers watching video on smartphones rose by 127% in just 15 months during 2014 and 2015. The report highlights that between 2011 and 2015, teenagers increased viewing television shows on smartphones by 85%, at the same time cutting the time spent watching traditional television by half. In contrast, people 30-35 years old spent 4 hours more than teens in front of a TV.

The report confirms that the change in viewing habits has affected all age groups, but consumption behaviour in teens is the most pronounced. The report also finds that teenagers stream video for longer periods through the day than the older demographic. In homes, wifi is responsible for the consumption of over 85% of video data.

What this really means for Oakville brands and companies is that if your target customers include teen demographic, the video production content you create for mobile should focus on targeting teenagers in a very specific way. And in order for companies in Toronto to get the most of their video production campaigns, they’ll need to increase the amount of mobile video content in general. But be sure to hire a video production company that fully understands mobile video trends and best practices for tracking analytics. Online video is now more intricate and complicated than ever before. Video marketing success is dependant upon creating a substantial amount of quality video content that captures attention in less than 3 seconds, then publishing this content correctly using accurate social media platforms where your target market will find it. Oakville is a competitive city but with an effective mobile video production campaign, your company will be able to cut through all the media gridlock and deliver your message to the right markets. If you have any questions about mobile video, please contact us at info@groovyconcepts.ca.

Strategic Insights for your Oakville Campaign

The ROI that Oakville based companies get from video production marketing is well worth the time and money invested. That said, strategic planning is the key to whether a video marketing campaign will be a success or a failure. An important ingredient for putting together a great video marketing strategy is keeping up to date on industry analytics and trends. If you’re currently planning out a video ad or marketing campaign for your company, one recent study conducted by Yahoo (in partnership with Nielsen & Hunter Qualitative) is definitely worth the read. This study examines what concepts and production elements make certain ads perform better than others in any given campaign. It reveals some very interesting strategic insights that may help you in the planning of your own campaign. Below we’ve outlined the 3 most important takeaways from this study:

Proper Mobile Alignment:
• According to Yahoo’s research, ads need to be optimized for screen alignment. In other words, viewing a landscape ad horizontally compared to vertically, can increase brand affinity by 20% and lift purchase intent by 33%. Viewing a portrait ad vertically compared to horizontally can increase brand affinity by 80% and lift purchase intent by up to 100%.

Auto-start native video ads:
• Compared to industry standard pre-roll video ads, the study shows that auto-start video ads in native environments (blogs, articles, etc.) achieve 51% higher aided recall (memory retention of the ad), 10% higher brand familiarity, and 4% brand affinity.
• Comedic ads have proven to drive a 50% lift in brand familiarity with Millennials, compared to overall viewers.
• Dramatic or emotional ads cause a 33% lift in brand affinity with Millennials.
• Informational ads have proven to drive a 31% lift in purchase intent.

These results show that fairly simple items can have a dramatic effect on video production marketing campaigns and important demographics. This is why research and strategic planning is one of the keys to video victory. A short cut here is to hire a professional Oakville video production company like Groovy Concepts to produce your content. On top of producing highly engaging content, a professional video production company should be well versed in the latest industry analytics and trends and will be able to provide consultation to help you get the most out of all your video marketing campaigns.

We’ve stated many times that research and analytics is paramount when launching and maintaining a video production marketing campaign. Video production can be expensive and Toronto based companies must know which video genres catch the most attention and how well campaigns are doing as they go along. If you are planning a paid online video campaign to boost visibility and brand awareness you’ll need to set key performance indicators (KPIs) for that campaign. This kind of research and analytics is considered best practice among the top online marketers in north America.

Although views aren’t always the best kind of metric to measure performance, with over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it’s handy to have a benchmark to ascertain how well your video content is doing against others in the same vertical. Average # of Views per Video by YouTube Category (according to research by Tubular)

• How-to and Style:  8,332 views/ video average
• People and Blogs:  2,354 views/ video average
• Entertainment:  9,816 views/ video average
• Gaming:  3,050 views/ video average
• Education:  4,872 views/ video average
• Automotive and Vehicles:  5,673 views/ video average
• Travel and Events:  3,070 views/ video average
• Pets and Animals:  6,542 views/ video average
• Science and Tech:  6,638 views/ video average

A video’s view count can be a great indicator of how engaging your video content is, how well you have optimized your metadata, and how well it’s performing. However it is also very important that you also examine your watch-time metric, your subscriber growth, and other performance indicators.To make the most out of your video marketing campaigns make sure you are doing the following to attract as many viewers as possible:

• Build your subscriber base. A loyal fan base will watch almost anything you upload. DisneyCollectorBR has over 3.5 million subscribers which is why they get a huge amount of views.
• Adjust and revise your titles and description. This is one we’ve mentioned in the past. Test what works, and then test it again. Test your custom thumbnail images as well to see what works best.
• Make sure you upload your videos to the right category. This can be changed after you have uploaded the video.
• Pay for an ad campaign.
• Connect with other brands to expand your audience reach.

Researching statistics like the ones listed above can greatly help you in choosing the right genre of video to produce and can help make your video marketing campaign a successful one. We all know how competitive the Oakville market is and that everyone seems to be launching hefty video marketing campaigns these days. However with the right research and planning, your campaign can be a tremendous success making your company standout in this highly competitive city of Oakville.

Viral Video In Oakville

We receive lots of questions from our Oakville based clients about branded viral video (online videos that are heavily shared and talked about… mostly via social media). We all love watching and sharing viral videos and we all seem to understand the social impact of them. But few seem to really understand the potential business impact of viral video. Other than a purchase, there is no more intimate and influential metric than a social share, and brands who run successful viral video campaigns often earn back five times more from their investment than with any other form of content. Not only that but in some cases, viral video can launch the growth of a new product or service at an exponential rate. That said, creating a successful viral video takes one of the most sophisticated approaches in video production and marketing. The efforts and costs are well worth it if your video …well…goes viral.

The term “viral video” is so mis-understood that many brands have been derailed trying to achieve success with it. The reason is that the “viral” part of the phrase “Viral Video” cannot be created and can only be earned. Without the right knowledge, budget, campaign tactics, and a qualified production company, creating a successful viral video is a serious long shot. Before planning out a viral video production for your Oakville based company it’s important to know a few key components about this niche. Branded viral videos generally come in two categories depending on company objectives:

1. Modern infomercial
2. Branded entertainment

Modern Informercial

The modern infomercial is used mainly to drive direct response sales. If this is your objective, an infomercial or promotional approach is best. Brands such as Dollar Shave Club, Squatty Potty and FreshPet have attained a lot of success with this approach. Their sales-oriented videos have a very strong call to action and are usually presented in a comedic way. Dollar Shave Club’s viral video almost single-handedly launched the company now valued at $615 million, driving 12,000 sign-ups, and earning $100k in the first 48 hours. Squatty Potty’s video success actually out shined their Shark Tank appearance, earning them $15 million in sales with a 600% jump in online sales, 400% jump in retail sales, and quadrupling the size of the company. And as for FreshPet’s video, it is said that the the overwhelming traffic it received almost crashed their website. Needless to say, they’ve created more viral videos since.

Branded Entertainment

Branded entertainment is used primarily for brand awareness, social shares, and growing your audience. If this is your objective, branded entertainment is your best bet. This form of viral video gives you the opportunity to more narrowly define your brand while tapping into the younger demographic. If tens of thousands of people share your video, your message can become part of culture… which is really one of the ultimate goals for any brand. The Coca Cola Happiness Machine video is a powerful example of Branded Entertainment. In this hidden-camera style video a Coca Cola machine dispenses free Coca Cola bottles… and then balloon animals, then a pizza, and then even a long sandwich to a delighted student dining hall. The Red Bull Kluge video is another great example of branded entertainment. The Red Bull brand is now synonymous with extreme sports in the minds of the public, and extreme sports videos were some of the first to go viral on the Internet. This one has it all and is brilliantly executed.

One important thing to keep in mind is that the fewer resources you are able to put towards your viral video, the less your chances are of breaking through the clutter. Viral video is a highly competitive form of content and opportunities for easy breakthroughs are much less common today than they were five years ago. The rule to follow is to always plan the campaign budget to be three times that of the production. You should always develop a plan for paid advertising, influencers, video SEO and PR once you’ve created your concept.

Also, remember to test your viral video before you launch. This is the only way to know if your video is going to work. Create multiple versions of your viral video as a YouTube Ad and use different titles, thumbnails, and edits that change the shots around. Try using different calls to action as well. This should provide all the data you need for figuring out which version of your video is most engaging. If engagement is low on the most optimized version, then you may need to re-shoot some shots or segments to fix what is lacking. The producers behind some of the top viral videos of all time literally wrote and tested more than 100 title variations of their videos. This pre-launch testing is also a great way to solve any creative arguments within your team as data doesn’t lie!

Viral video production is certainly not the easiest form of content to undertake and it’s results can be mixed at best. Oakville companies should tread carefully when considering this kind of video production. Viral video can be compared to music production. There are lots of musicians putting a lot of hard work into producing their music but very few songs become smash hits. Unfortunately, that is the reality of viral video. That said, if your video does go viral, your Oakville company or brand could be on the fast track to global success and exponential growth.

Video Title Optimization

Oakville is a highly competitive city and market regardless of the company or sector. Oakville based companies really need to think outside the box in order to make themselves stand out and grab attention. Although producing high quality videos and ads can give companies the edge they need to engage with their target-customers, little attention is given to the importance of video titles. The reality is, regardless of the quality of your videos, they need to have compelling titles in order to grab significant viewer attention and bring in the engagement you want.

Flashy keywords that cleverly explain the subject matter are important and can impact search results, engagement, and views. However that’s not all. One thing many Oakville marketers tend to miss is that the length of a video’s title can also impact these areas.

YouTube titles are limited to 100 characters. That said, Youtube recommends that titles be shorter than 70 characters as any more than that will usually be cut off in the search window. In fact, according to BuzzFeed’s analytics, videos over 70 characters performed almost 40% worse in views compared to BuzzFeed’s YouTube average.

On Facebook, BuzzFeed actually got below average engagement with every video title over 40 characters. In contrast, video titles that were under 40 characters received around 44% higher engagement than their average posts. This may be due to the fast paced nature of the Facebook news feed and the necessity to attract attention as fast as possible. Oddly enough, this didn’t seem to be the case on YouTube, as Buzzfeed’s videos seem to perform roughly the same regardless of whether a video title is under 70 or under 40 characters.

This proves that just because a title may work on one platform, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will work on another. So if you are posting videos to both Facebook and YouTube, we’d suggest creating a 70 character or less title for YouTube and then creating an alternate title under 40 characters for Facebook posts.

On a side note, there is a common misconception in the Oakville video marketing world that making your video title into the form of a question builds intrigue and mystery. But this is not really the case. Titles have to compliment the content of the video. On average, Buzzfeed’s Facebook video posts performed 22% worse when they began with a question. In the case of Youtube posts, results were 24% worse. When you’re talking about a global network like BuzzFeed, that’s more than 500,000 views lost due to titles.

Whether your company is aiming to get views or simply make engaging content to boost your brand awareness, the trend remains the same for the length of titles. Shorter is better. There is definitely a sweet spot on YouTube for keeping titles at around 41-70 characters and a significant benefit on Facebook keeping them under 40. In a competitive market like Toronto where properly produced and marketed videos can give you an edge, it’s very important to be mindful of the seemingly “small details” of video marketing.

Live Video Streaming in Oakville

Building a community around your Oakville based company and connecting with your audience is paramount. Research has shown time and time again that video production is the key to attaining this. In fact, live video streaming is now becoming more and more of a wide spread tool for Toronto companies of all sizes. Live video streaming has been utilized for many years but due to costs for this kind of production, it has only really been viable for large (and sometimes medium size) corporations. From insider video announcements to live Q&A sessions, product launches, press conferences and more, live streaming has the power to take your brand awareness to the next level and build on your existing audience. Although live video streaming has been out of reach for most micro size to small companies throughout Oakville, today there are apps that can allow anyone to tap into this effective form of video production.

One such app that is taking the live video streaming world by storm is Periscope. Another very popular platform is Facebook LIVE video and Instagram has also recently added live streaming videos to their offerings.

The Periscope app was acquired by Twitter in February of 2015. Since that time, it’s become one of the leading live video streaming apps available. Periscope enables you to go live using your mobile device. The app basically enables anyone to become their own on-the-fly broadcasting station, streaming live video to any viewers who join their broadcast. Periscope truly takes advantage of its mobile platform, incorporating notifications as well as social sharing (on Twitter), live discussions and feedback. Although Periscope has been used mostly by vloggers and bloggers, there are many ways Periscope can be utilized for business and it can really allow you to showcase public speaking abilities.

Once a live broadcast is over, your audience can watch a replay, and even send feedback through the Periscope app for up to 24 hours. After that, the broadcast is taken down from the app. That said however, each of your broadcasts can be saved to your mobile device and then published and shared online just like any other video. Best practice here is to post these Periscope videos to the platform that is home to your primary video audience (i.e. Youtube, Vimeo, Daily Motion, etc). Posting your Periscope video gives it a place to live that lasts longer than 24 hours and it also gives you an opportunity to promote future Periscope video broadcasts.

There are however technical issues that can come with using live streaming apps like Periscope and Oakville executives shouldn’t dive into tackling a live video stream without professional support. Just as with any other professional video you’re planning to produce, it’s always best to hire an experienced corporate video production company like Groovy Concepts to handle your live stream. Spending the money is well worth it to avoid embarrassment. You certainly wouldn’t want your video to cut out in the middle of the broadcast which is a typical occurrence for vloggers.

Common amateur mistakes can be disastrous! For instance, if someone happens to call you during your Periscope Broadcast, you’ll be knocked offline, your broadcast will be over, and your audience will be annoyed to say the least. Always remember to block your calls temporarily prior to a live broadcast on Periscope. Also, not knowing the range of your Wi-Fi network can also knock you offline very quickly. Don’t go walking around in the middle of your Periscope Broadcast unless you know the range of your Wi-Fi network and that you are well within it. Also, some rooms have better signal than others… stick to filming your broadcasts from these rooms wherever possible.

Disastrous technical issues can be avoided completely when an experienced professional video production company is involved. Ideally, it is always more reliable to simply hire a reliable company with access to professional live video streaming production equipment. At the very least it is advisable to get a full consultation and in depth how-to from an experienced professional. That said, using an app such as Periscope correctly can allow your Oakville based company to tap into the power of live streaming video and can even extend your audience reach throughout the globe.