Found an interesting question on LinkedIn Answers that I posted on, and I figured I would share my response here.
What are the pro’s and con’s of using embedded video on a corporate website?
I am in the process of specifying a corporate website (The company is active within the Automotive Aftermarket) and wonder if using video on the website is a good idea to present the company and its key values, possible using a human presenter. I have been searching far and wide, some use it and others don’t (rarely used in the aftermarket industry). I wonder if it is a good idea. I am keen to know others opnions and if any knows some really good websites using video.
I think there are more pro’s for this than con’s.
Depending on how big of a company you are working for (and how attractive you are to lawsuits), ADA compliance can result in increased costs or risk if you publish non-ADA compliant videos. But, the good thing is that making your online videos ADA compliant just takes some research and a little more development/production time.
The key thing about video is to make sure its entertaining or interesting enough to attract some sort of audience. Don’t just put the CEO or Marketing Dir. in front of a camera if they just don’t have camera-presence. Hire a talent, or do an internal casting to find someone that is comfortable and that looks & sounds compelling on video.
Video can be a great way to communicate brand, and strengthen the company’s image. Its also a great way to possibly bring in sales leads, or as an incentive to generate e-newsletter subscriptions.
I wish more companies where using online video to communicate — both internally and externally.
I’m not a football fan, but the commercials should be noteworthy. I’ll post some comments and reactions as the game goes on. While the actual game is going on, I’ll be doing some online shopping trying to figure out how to use all the birthday money I got today. [Most recent posts at the top...scroll down for the whole thread.]
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Final post… I’m going to call it a night. Feel free to post your comments and reactions to the spots, either those featured below, or the ones I missed.
8:42 Ok! My favorite Super Bowl commercial for 2008 is the baby trader spot for E*Trade!! It was funny, entertaining, and right on message.
8:32 Genesis commercial was pretty good. Good re-branding for Hyundai. The Disney & Pixar’s “Wall-E” preview was cute too. It got laughs out of both of us.
8:22 Vitamin Water O’neal commercial was funny! Poor horse–I hope PETA wasn’t watching! LOL Very entertaining.
8:09 The Daytona 500 spot was cool! That was amazing graphics and animations.
7:50 Sounds like the half time show is about to start. Tom Petty? I don’t think I have ever heard of him. I keep watching the Sarah Connors Chronicles spots…I’ve been enjoying that show. I’m looking forward to Monday’s new episode.
7:46 Watching some local spots…blah, blah, blah… While the talking heads discuss sports (boooring…) I wanted to mention I did also like Budweiser’s “Breath of Fire” spot. Really funny. Even my wife laughed. Here is the spot via YouTube.
7:26 Just saw the new Narnia series “Prince Capsian” trailer! WOW! WOW! This is awesome! Can you tell I’m a HUGE Narnia fan!
7:14 I’m not sure what to think about the “accent” Budweiser commercials. It’s funny, but I don’t know that any one of the ethnic groups represented would appreciate the joke in the spot. I’m not all that PC, so I won’t say I find it offensive or anything, but I’m not sure it was good advertising.
7:12 Gross! The Career Builder “Follow your heart” spot again hits the “to graphic” category… good messaging though.
7:08 The movie commercials are good. The Garmin spot is cool, but I’m biased on account of family connections. I blogged about the new NuviFone a couple days ago.
7:02 Budweiser’s “Rocky” themed spot was cool. I’m not a beer drinker, so I have to tell you beer makers have their job cut out when it comes to making their commercials resonate with me. This one has a nice underdog tone that should appeal to lots of people, and those horses are just beautiful! Here it is via YouTube.
6:59 The GoDaddy commercial was weak. They are just trying to capitalize on people’s obsession with tantalizing content…I’m sure its working, but what does that do for their brand? Does the average American even know what GoDaddy.com sells? Sexy models and near-nudity does not count as a product differentiators.
6:55 FedEx ad was great. Funny stuff. Cars.com was funny too! Tide’s http://www.mytalkingstain.com ad was right-on! I’m not sure they planned their server loads accurately, but it finally loaded after a few tries.
Here is the talking stain spot from Tide. Well done and good messaging.
Here is the FedEx spot via YouTube.
6:54 Dell Red commercials was catchy. It’s a good cause, so its a creative way to ad “sex appeal” to a cause.
6:49 Dorito’s “message from your heart” commercial was interesting, but who was that? Was that some sort of web 2.0 spot voted on by fans? Update: So I headed over to the Doritos…man, that is a multi-media intensive site.
6:48 Bridgestone…not bad.
6:41 I guess NFL is getting behind MySpace and their hosting of the SuperBowl ads–they just got an on-air and on-screen plug. I’m not a huge fan of MySpace’s cluttered interface, so I’ll stick to YouTube.
6:39 This explains why I didn’t get the Pepsi ad…I don’t watch Saturday Night Live. I’m a little handicapped here as a cultural commentator…
6:37 The ads seem funnier and I certainly get the message better when I’m giving it a second look in YouTube. Here is the Pepsi spot via YouTube.
6:35 Sales Genie…nice, but didn’t look like Super Bowl material.
6:34 Diet Pepsi max ad… hmm…. funny, but not memorable.
6:26 The Audi “Old luxury on notice” commercial was just weird! It took me a few seconds to even get it. I think it started off a bit slow. With today’s ad saturated audience, you got to catch their attention early — this spot didn’t do it. Frankly, I also think it might have been a bit to graphic for prime time TV. [ok...seeing it again, it's not graphic at all. Goes to show I totally didn't get it. Is it because I'm not filthy rich?]
Nice car, but the commercial falls flat for me. Here it is via YouTube:
6:25 Bud Light Fire commercial made me laugh!! LOL
6:22 I’m thinking of getting the Microsoft Zune 4GB MP3 & video player. This is what WalMart description says:
It’s brand-new, super-slim and goes anywhere. Highlights include wireless sharing, video playback, innovative touch controls and a built-in FM tuner.
6:13PM First commercial worth noting…the new Chase “Secret Agent Man” commercial. I’m not a huge fan of the black & white video-my TV might be the reason the image is just to dark–but the script is funny and memorably highlights Chase credit card’s security features.
I’ve been looking into Zeta Interactive’s RelevantNoise and hope to get a closer look through a demo and maybe a trial run. Having worked in the blog world for several years, I know how powerful it can be to be able to track what bloggers are saying.
Here is how they describe it:
Are your ears ringing? They should be, because someone out there in the social internet – 75 Million blogs, countless message boards and online communities – is probably talking about you. And what they’re saying could make or break your brand or your products.
Think it can’t affect you? You’re wrong. What you don’t know CAN hurt your brand. But knowing – and staying one step ahead of the tide – can empower you to protect your company, clients, products or services.
With Zeta Interactive’s RelevantNoise overview dashboard, you can quickly see what these “citizen journalists” are saying about your brands across social media – and the impact they’re having – in real-time.
I’ll write more once I get a better look at the tool.
Glenn Reynolds mentions the new Garmin Nuvifone slotted to be released the 3rd quarter of ’08 — it looks awesome!! “Pretty cool” is right! My wife and I live on the Garmin Nuvi for finding our way around. This would totaly cement my geek-reputation. I’m going to have to see if I can get myself on a beta test group or something… let’s just hope the pricing and phone plan are a bit more sensible than Apple’s iPhone.
Just found a series of video clips by John C. Maxwell. Very interesting short tidbits on leadership. I think I’m going to go out and get me a copy of his revised/updated book.
Best selling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell walks through the Laws of Respect, Intuition, and Magnetism. Taken from his completely revised and updated book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell insights are learned from his leadership successes, failures, and observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religions, and the military.
Ouch! These RIAA lawsuits against music listeners is just plain abuse of the legal system, and certainly poor public relations. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t condone downloading free music through bit-torrent (file sharing sites are blocked on my computer), but suing some poor guy for backing up his music on his computer is going way to far.
In legal documents in its [RIAA] federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
If thats the case, I better get myself a lawyer, because the first thing I do when I get a new CD is to burn it to my computer. I don’t even own a CD player, and I mostly listen to music on my computer while I work.
The net result of all these feeble attempts to sustain an outdated business model is to encourage and strengthen the indie music industry.
Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA, sees it coming.
The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”
If there ever was a time to be an independent artist, it is now! Recording gear AND distribution costs are going exponentially down — all it takes is the determination go at it and the talent to stand out from the rest (and sometimes not even that…).
Helo! If you’ve been here recently, you may have noticed some technical difficulties going on. I’ve been pretty consumed with a lot of things recently, leaving me with little time to dedicate to the blog. But now that I finished my MBA, got settled in my new job and got done with my travels and speaking engagements for 2007, I plan to get back into writing and posting more often.
So, I’ve had to do a re-install and upgrade of Word Press, and as you can tell, my custom design has gone bye-bye! But, no fear — I have a back up somewhere. Nevertheless, I think I’ll use the excuse to look around for a new Word Press Template to customize. For today, I’m trying out this Mac style…what do you think?
I’m going to try to get back into a blogging rhythm with my usual regular posts on the intersection of technology with communications. I do expect to start touching on business topics a lot more, which I hope will ad value to the blog.
We started this morning with a session with photojournalists Gary Fong & Kenneth Irby. Interestingly, Kenneth is a ordained pastor, which made for a very fun Gospel-like presentation!
I’ll be presenting along side La Shawn Barber at 1PM about the power of blogging. I have read La Shawn’s blog for a long time, but I never had the honor of meeting her. I’m hoping to learn a thing or two from her, as well as from the many other great presenters today.
You can get a preview of what I will be talking about via SlideShare.net.
Herbert Lowe will be giving the introduction keynote speech.
Herbert Lowe is director of communications for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit research and policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the foundation in May 2007, Lowe was a newspaper reporter at Newsday in New York City. He is a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the world’s oldest and largest organization for journalists of color.
Lowe was elected on Aug. 8, 2003, to a two-year term as NABJ president, and served as chairman of its 19-member board of directors and chief spokesman during a period of unprecedented growth. The total of full, associate and student members swelled to a record 4,695 in July 2004, a 43 percent increase from a year earlier.
