Business Video on the Web - Does it Work?

There’s little doubt that the age of video on the web has arrived. The advent of YouTube and the myriad other social and business networking sites mean that the moving image is part and parcel of most people’s day to day surfing experience.

But the big question for business is how do we tap into this popular medium to spread our message across the web.

There are many forms of moving picture on the web, but I want to focus specifically on what might loosely be called promotional or marketing video – in other words a video on your website that is specifically aimed at carrying a message about your products, services and the people behind them.

Up to now video on the internet has fallen broadly into two categories. The first is the infamous UGC or User Generated Content – the backbone of YouTube and many of the social networking sites, UGC is just a posh name for homemade. Often very funny, occasionally outrageous, usually self indulgent and amateur, UGC is completely inappropriate for most business use.

At the other end of the production quality spectrum is the corporate video – often very expensive corporate ego trips, these sunset and cheesy music fests are a highly effective cure for insomnia but offer little beyond that.

Is there a more sensible way to use video on the web? – Well yes, of course there is and a few of us spend a lot of time championing it. It’s called the broadcast style interview and it offers so many advantages to both participants and viewers that it’s a puzzle that it isn’t more widely used.

In video, as in so much media, content is king – it’s a cliché but no less true for that. What the typical viewer of a website wants is information. Straightforward, clear, intelligent information that tells them what they need to know to make a decision. If that message is carried on video, they need it delivered in a professional, watchable and interesting way. What they don’t need are special effects, hideous library music or the MD pretending to be a TV presenter on a grainy webcam.

The broadcast interview has been around since TV began. We all watch them every night on the TV news and the reason they’ve been around so long is that they work – always have done, always will. Not very glamorous, I grant you, but if it’s information you need and you want it from the horse’s mouth (absoloutely the best source under most circumstances) then they can’t be beat.

And here’s why they work:

1. We all know the format – we watch it night after night on the news and in documentaries, we understand how it works and we know what to do with the resulting information

2. It’s easy for the interviewee. Remember the client is paying the interviewer – this isn’t Jeremy Paxman head-butting you into submission - this is a friendly interview with the questions agreed in advance. A professional interviewer will make you feel relaxed and comfortable and ask the appropriate questions at the right time.

3. You don’t have to pretend you’re a TV presenter – we’ve all seen those embarrassing shots of the MD or owner trying to talk directly to camera – for most of us that will never work. The interviewer simply asks the questions to prompt you to explain your key messages – and you tell them in a relaxed and convincing one to one manner, talking to the interviewee, not the camera – it works.

4. The presence of the interviewer gives the film authority and an objective feel – think TV news. The professional interviewer is the customers’ advocate.

5. It’s the next best thing to a real face to face meeting – you get to look the person in the eye, hear them talk and you can decide if they’re your sort of people – “people buy people” - another cliché that happens to be true.

6. Good professional editing ensures the story gets told with a beginning, middle and end – it’s the way it’s done by TV and radio professionals. The editor gets to choose the best bits to tell the story properly and delete the mistakes and repetitions.

7. Finally, you can illustrate the words of the interviewee with lots of nice footage taken of the product or service under discussion – so the viewer gets pictures and sound – it’s why TV is so powerful when the pictures and words have a proper relationship.

I’ve been around the broadcast and media world for about 23 years and as a broadcast producer and interviewer for quite a few of those, I’ve come to realise this really is the simplest and most powerful method of getting a message across. And because of that simplicity, it’s also affordable and when done properly, with an experienced professional interviewer and crew, comes out looking exactly like those films you see on the TV news every night – watchable and compelling. Easy for the participant, interesting for the viewer and a great deal cheaper to produce than traditional corporate style business video – I believe this is the way forward for business video on the web.

www.bizview.tv

Date: 28/05/2008
Category: BUSINESS EDITORIAL