While we generally cover online video from a viewer’s perspective, today I’d like to make a few points on marketing with video after taking a gander at Lenovo’s latest project. As you probably know, for the last several years both Mari & I have guided a variety of tech companies in their online outreach strategies. And I’ve found outsourced (and often overpriced) professional “viral” video projects (aka commercials) rarely pay dividends. That’s not to say companies shouldn’t go down this path. However, they need to determine beforehand what their goals are and who their audience is… and then how to reach/meet them within their prescribed budget. And, if they ultimately decide on video, expectations must be tempered – because there’s no guarantee it’ll go “viral.”
An interesting case study is one former client/employer who began a video project, running tens of thousands of dollars. The company never had a clear idea what the goal of the video was, and the project was greenlighted solely because a board member was fired up on the idea. So an agency put together a humorous and profane video (NSFW) which might have had the teen and college crowds chuckling. However, the company pitches premium products and research indicates their customerbase is aged 35-55. See the disconnect? Eventually the company did too, and killed the video (as I suggested) before blowing through their entire budget.
Related, companies need to perform some due diligence. I figured that’s now the case, given the new economic realities. But at CES I saw a well-funded company employing a team of “viral video experts” on site. Upon researching their product, I discovered they see as much traffic as a medium sized blog and the average video is only viewed a couple hundred times. Probably not worth the thousands of dollars being invested. (Good on them for bilking the ignorant?)
Back to Lenovo’s video (above)… I’m under the impression this was outsourced (and probably at significant cost), which may not talk to their target audience and won’t move much product. (Assuming, that’s their goal.) Compare with what I believe was an internally produced Lenovo video, on a shoestring budget, that saw a huge positive response across the blogosphere. It’s all about ROI. How can you get the most bang for your buck in conveying your message? And speaking of investments, the most overproduced “viral” video (which I thoroughly and repeatedly enjoyed) has to be Samsung’s Omnia unboxing:
While the blogger spoof is quite entertaining, it didn’t tell me a thing about the Samsung handset. And, in fact, I’ve yet to see even one Omnia in the wild.