Spike

Businesses are just beginning to come around to the idea that to help get their message across and be seen as forward-thinking, they need to embrace web TV. Online video for businesses is no longer something frivolous to add to a website, it is increasingly becoming an important part of the marketing mix.

It gives the audience (existing and potential clients) more than just an overall impression of your company, it engages them which is what people are looking for more and more. It is more than this though, the internet allows companies to measure the success and track the use of it in a way that was never possible before. Audiences are immediately trackable and, importantly, they stick around the site longer which means they aren’t on your competitors’.

Driven by the rise in broadband availability, marketers are using web based video to build brand awareness and connect with new customers and consumers in a medium they have enjoyed watching for years, but only now is available online. People’s expectations of an online experience have changed: the high profile sale of YouTube to Google for US$1.65 billion showed how strong web TV has already become and it is still in its infancy. People are looking to the internet for their information and they want it delivered by film; this is only going to increase in the corporate world and also in our personal lives, as we will soon be able to watch programmes from the internet on our televisions as easily as we watch Sky or terrestrial TV.

To a business the advantage of film is huge. People remember far more of what they see and hear than they do by purely reading or listening to audio. In fact the argument for corporate films is easy to make as research has shown we remember only 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear but a massive 70% of what we watch.  This means every person who watches a film on your site gets a strong message which they will retain. Films can also be produced to covey the emotions you want, be it happy sad, inspirational or serious.

Businesses can get information directly to their customers through secure emails which include links to the relevant information on their website. This is a simple procedure that a production company with web TV experience can handle easily which means no hassle for busy executives and marketing managers. There are many ways businesses can harness this powerful tool to their benefit. They can dedicate whole new sites to this communication which can be as creative and innovative as they wish. Products can be shown, key features explained and customer testimonials screened; it can also be used to communicate to staff internally and through subscriptions to a monthly update plan, audiences will return time and again to see the latest news and products.  Web TV has already reached a point in the US where many large companies have recognised the importance of having a web TV strategy within their marketing plans.  Wal-Mart have video on most of their pages, Land Rover have launched their own internet channel, Ford use it to deliver key strategic messages to motivate staff, numerous estate agents have realised that they can vastly increase the user experience by having advertising films made of the houses they’re selling… This can directly help increase sales whilst making them a more attractive company to deal with. The limits are endless.  On-demand video is going to transform the way we watch television and it will also transform the way businesses present themselves and communicate both internally and externally, even if they haven’t yet realised it.

The all important cost is not overbearing on budgets either – in fact quite the opposite.  Some companies will spend thousand of pounds on a sales or corporate video that might be shown once or just to a select number of people, but by streaming this from their website they are able to extract much greater value from their initial investment.

Many Marketers in the UK may not have gotten up to speed with all of this yet, but those who have are likely to reap the rewards of being at the forefront of a communications revolution. The important thing for them, and anyone else, to do is to find a company which has a strong track record in delivering web TV and high quality production. It can be a minefield with many companies making promises they can’t keep but companies like Spike Productions who have been doing this for several years can make the whole process painless and help you to make the most of your first step into the web TV world. They can advise on what to include and the various ways your films can be presented. As a starting point, you may just want to show one film and expand over a period of time, or you may want to start with a dedicated site with your web content available covering a range of subjects, or just add on to your existing site. No matter how big or small you want to go, Spike are able to advise and get your message out to a global audience. Spike Productions are calling 2007 the year of Web TV. This year it is going to be big – next year is going to be huge.