Press Record – Breaking Audience Barriers with Video

Why don’t more online companies utilize television advertising? It can be a great method for generating buzz and placing product in front of a targeted market. Oh yeah, cost. Video production bills ad up quick, whether you hire a private production company or your local TV station. And if your ad needs to be formatted in High Definition Video, you better make sure your credit card has extra headroom. Even with television networks floundering for ad revenue, the best bargains can still be pricey. A 30 second spot, plus airtime during the local 6:00 PM News, could wipe out a small, online company’s annual ad budget.

So, forget television. But wait. It’s almost the New Year. Let’s look forward for a moment, with my new friend Bambi Francisco of MarketWatch. In her 2006 Prediction List, Bambi forecasts the rise of free agents in regards to online video production: “Amateur or user-generated video will emerge as entertaining content to be used in commercials.” Bambi also predicts that amateurs “will be signed up to do commercials for a major consumer brand“.

And why not? Digital camcorder prices have fallen to the $300 mark. Companies like VideoEgg are making it easier than ever to publish video content online. Google Video is already in the process of creating online television stars. And with the AOL-Google merger (think of all those juicy video resources owned by AOL’s parent company, Time Warner), there’s no script for where video production is headed.

Barriers are being broken, people. The glass that separated your business from a viewing audience is cracked and leaking advertising everywhere. Why shouldn’t companies have their own video production department, no matter how small? You pooled enough creative forces to put together a worthwile website, why not do the same for video advertising? It’s an ages-old rule: the more visible the product, the more likely it is to sell. Across the internet, content-delivery portals are being generated, the likes of which have never been seen before, that are ready to accept your personalized brand of pre-recorded advertising. And the best part is, it’s not spoon-fed television. Video content can be as unique and creative as the people behind the production. Remember BMW’s online film campaign? How long before someone drives traffic to a website with a spine-tingling series of video podcasts (better known as Vodcasts)? Broadcasting has evolved.

So go ahead, press record, inspire me to watch, and then I’ll tell everyone what I saw.