MAD Perspectives Blog

November's blogs have focused on the use of video solutions in the B2B market.  Some of you may be asking, well, heck why doesn't MAD Perspectives use video?  Bottom line, we're a small business who loves video and leverages it in many ways (webinars, online video tutorials, desktop video conferencing, etc.) but hasn't prioritized it's use - yet! 

What do I like or not like about how i see B2B companies using video?

I like:

- Executive Presentations -  Or, perhaps I like dynamic executives who can overcome the well scripted content to inject personality.  I'm happy when they focus on 3 key points and support these points with market perspective, customer testimonials or facts and figures.  I'm even happier when they inject personal anecdotes (even if they are scripted).  I want to see executives interact with their audience.  I want to see them get excited about their products and solutions.

- Product Demos - It's a great way to see and hear how to use a new product.  The best videos are those that have a passionate spokesperson who REALLY understands the product and its target market.  The demonstrater who can talk clearly, succinctly and knowledgably about their solution can win new customer while retaining existing ones.

- Webinars/Webcast - They are a great educational resource whether it is to gain high level knowledge, engage in Q&A, gather some market statistics.  Webinars are often the first step in the product/company awareness process for a prospective buyer.  The ability to inform, educate and differentiate using this format can arm the potential buyer with great insights before a face to face sales meeting.

- Video Conferencing - there is nothing better than being able to see the person to whom you are speaking!  Even if there is a slight time lapse (i.e., Skype, Windows Live Messenger) there is still the ability to see and read facial expression which add more context to a conversation.  These solutions continue to evolve and I can imagine a future where video conferencing is an every day occurence.

I don't like:

- Executive Presentations - that are sooooo scripted they no longer feel authentic. 

- Product Demos - that use a spokesperson who obviously does not understand the product nor do they understand the target market.  The script is bland and reflects the company's focus on marketing blah blah and ignoring the real needs of the customer.

- Customer Testimonials - that don't explain what the customer problem is or how the company's product helped them solve that problem and what improvement they've seen - in laymans terms!

There are a lot of moving parts when coordinating a video strategy and many of them are quite technical.  If you are looking for insights into streaming media solutions, check out www.streamingmedia.com or www.onlinevideo.net for some insights, best practices and vendor lists.   Understand what you are trying to accomplish before you get buried in the technology.  Who is your target audience?  What do they need to understand?  What information are they seeking?  What action do you want them to take after viewing the video?

We are going through this process here and wee hope to jump into the video world in 2011.  Hopefully, we'll be able to share that experience with you!

What's your perspective?

Video is a pervasive part of our lives.  As consumers we watch TV to enjoy comedy, sports, entertainment and news.  We also go online for this same content and more.  We go to YouTube to check out user generated videos as well as professional videos.  We use Skype to for ad hoc video communication.  Enterprise business recognizes the value and power of video, but is still predominantly using video for internal purposes.  Consider the power of video and then consider video as a critical part of the enterprise communication strategy.

Large enterprises have been leveraging video for employee education, customer training, customer support, product promotion and market awareness for many years.  These large (think Fortune 500) companies are also targets for Unified Communication solutions offered by companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, HP and others.  However, there are also many vendors offering solutions for video streaming, video conferencing, webcasting, web conferencing and more.  According to Forrester Research’s Enterprise and SMB Networks and Telecommunications Survey from Q1 2010, within the next 12 months:

-          31% of companies  are interested in Desktop IP Video Conferencing solutions

-           29% of companies are interested in enterprise IP/Digital Video for internal purposes

-          32% of companies are interested in immersive video conferencing (i.e., telepresence)

However, few companies have actual plans to implement and deploy these solutions.    Adoption of these solutions will take into account business requirements, geography, feature/functionality, price, impact on corporate network and ongoing management.  Why should companies be developing actionable plans for video solutions?  Here are some pros and cons:

 

PROS	CONS
-          Video is expressive and compelling	-          Video solutions are complex
-          Video enables participants to see body language, facial expressions and reactions	-          Video infrastructure is expensive
-          Video is more memorable than the written word	-          Video is time consuming to create, edit, process, upload and consume
-          Video enhances clarity, authenticity and credibility of messaging	-          Video needs to be distributed with multiple media player options (i.e., Microsoft, Real, Apple)
-          Video can be re-purposed across a variety of distribution channels
-          Video solution vendors offer increasingly cost-effective business models
-          Video can reduce travel expenses

 

As companies develop their plans for incorporating video into their enterprise communication strategy, they should consider:
1. How the company will use video

•      - For internal communication and collaboration
•      - For external communications and education
•      - One to one, one to many or many to many communication
• 2. Developing Content
•      - Length of meeting or presentation
•      - Goals for the meeting
•      - Personality mapping (consider your audience and the type of presenter who can create best impact)
•      - Metadata description of content
•      - Search Engine Optimization (based on title and metadata)
• 3. Post event activity
•      - Availability of on-demand video “replay”
•      - Posting/Distribution of content on website or 3rd party sites (i.e., YouTube, BrightTalk)

 

Video has become more than a solution for pushing information to a target audience.  It has become part of the real-time communication process.  With desktop video conferencing and immersive video conferencing (think telepresence) ranging from high-end to low-end, companies have greater opportunities to leverage video on a daily basis.  Whether you are a large enterprise or a small/medium sized business, video can help you communicate with your audience.  Aligning the use of video with your overall business strategy is critical.  Aligning internal business groups (i.e., Execs, marketing, sales, IT, etc.) is also important.  How is your company going to incorporate video into your communication strategy?

What’s your perspective?

Video has been utilized by Fortune 500 companies for many years.  The benefits it provides are numerouse and number of vendor, providing video centric solutions to small, medium & large companies, continues to grow.  That said, many companies don't necessarily use video to its best advantage and/or don't measure the ROI or don't align their use of video with key goals. 

I'm a big fan of enterprise use of video as there is no other medium that provides the same value as video.  Video is far more memorable than text.  Studies show that one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words.   People remember 50% of what they see and hear vs. 10% of what they read. With that said, there are still many companies that don't have a strategy that incorporates video.

The Aberdeen Group recently released a complimentary report, "Business Class Video", that provides some excellent insights on how video is being utilized, what Best in Class companies are doing that differentiates them from the rest and recommendations for incorporating streaming video and/or video conferencing into your business strategy.  You can download the report on their website, but here are a few tidbits:

- 100% of Best-in-Class companies can measure the ROI for their video solutions vs. only 36% of Industry Laggards being able to measure ROI

- Learning & Development departments lead the way in the use of video solutions

- Lack of organized strategy is the top challenge for companies considring business video

This aligns with MAD Perspectives goals to help clients align their strategy for digital media with their business goals.  (And, in case you are wondering, there is no paid relationship between MAD Perspectives and The Aberdeen Group).  Defining relevant metrics (i.e., cost savings, reduced carbon footprint, qualified leads) based on the goal  (i.e., reduce travel, going green, increase sales) will enable companies to easily justify the investment in in-house, hosted or Saas video solutions.

Check out my FAQ section for more information on different types of video solutions and vendors.

Do you use video?  How do you incorporate video into your business?  Can you measure your ROI? 

What's your perspective? 

Once upon a time, Cisco provided network products such as switches and routers.  They still do.  These are not necessarily exciting products, but they were (and still are) critical to facilitating the flow of content and information across private and public networks.  However, Cisco has long had a reputation for growing through acquisition.  In the past 10 years, these acquisitions have become very intriguing as Cisco perceived the impact that media could have at both the corporate and consumer levels.

Cisco has a stated commitment to collaboration that incorporates video and social networking.  It is pervasive across the company through Cisco's focus on interoperability of its platforms, its R&D investments, standards leadership, acquisition strategy and partnerships.  Cisco has been building it's video management capabilities over the past 5+ years with a focus on capture, create, manage, edit and share video assets.  There capabilities run the gamut from the very high end (e.g., HD content encoding for broadcast) to the low end (e.g. consumer video capture) and the all the complex challenges that happen in between. 

Tuesday, Cisco CEO and Chairman, John Chambers, spoke about Cisco's vision for collaboration.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart.  Having worked for a Fortune 50 technology company for many years, I was able to take advantage of various collaboration tools to connect, communicate and collaborate with my colleagues regardless of geographic distance.  I saw the evolution from proprietary corporate email to "standardized" email systems to the use of document management systems, virtual rooms, web conferencing and telepresence conferencing.  I personally saved many, many hours and dollars through the use of telepresence solutions.  However, the enterprise of tomorrow demands more than stand alone products, it requires integrated products to simplify collaboration and communication. 

Cisco is leveraging its vast array of assets for unified communication, IP communication, presence, web conferencing and media asset management to address the increasing relevance and use of video plus the growing demand for enterprise social networking.  It's Enterprise Collaboration Platform, which integrates new social networking products with existing communication and conferencing platforms, allows emloyees to navigate an employee directory designed in the manner of a LinkedIn or Plaxo.  The difference is its incorporation of tags for both data and video content, enabling users to find people, data and video content relevant to the topic searched.  Of high interest is the ability to view professional (studio created) or casual (import from Flip) video content at the specific frame that discusses the search topic.

It is clear that Cisco has a vision and is aligning its technology assets accordingly.  Cisco estimates the market opportunity to be $30B+ per year over the next 10 years.  Given Cisco's presence in the enterprise it will be interesting to see if they grab a significant share of the emerging enterprise investment in social media networking.  If nothing else, Cisco's announcements validate the investment and presence of the many small businesses that are emerging in this space. 

What's your perspective?

Remember 10 years ago when content delivery networks were all the rage?   The ability to cache content at the edge of the network emerged during the rise of Internet.  A plethora of companies emerged, all with patent pending algorithms, to focus on the challenge of making sure the end user’s could easily and quickly  access web content.  These companies included both software vendors and service providers.  As with most markets, consolidation occurred with a few remaining big players and several contenders.

The recent launch and buzz around a new market entrant, Cotendo, acts as a reminder that we need content delivery network solutions now, more than ever.  Just think about the volume of content that is distributed across the Internet every day.  In the late 90s, we were predominantly concerned about delivery of web pages.  These pages were mostly static.  Although, the example of the day to articulate why we needed to acquire CDN technology, was the Victoria Secrets online fashion show.  CDN technology would cache this content at the network edge, ensuring that fans around the globe would not miss one second of Heidi Klum or other angels strutting in their underwear.

Without question, the volume of video content on the web has increased by millions.  Enterprises are streaming executive analyst briefins and customer educationa content externally and using increasing volumes of video content interally.  However, the volume of video content shared between consumers is where the phenomenal growth has occurred.  The networks that sit behind the Internet and the websites that we access to view this content must use CDN technnology to ensure that our user experience is a postive one.

It's interesting (and fun) to see that core technologies such as CDNs stilll get get some buzz.  An undestanding of these solutions should be part of any digital media strategy.  What's your perspective?