More thoughts about yesterdays webcast

I was thinking about this again this morning. We had 17 people watching the webcast of the training session yesterday. I know that doesn't sound like much, but consider that if the company had flown each one here, put them up in a hotel for one night, paid for a car, meals, and whatever else they charge to their expense accounts...it could cost $1,000 per person easily. Believe me when I tell you...I did not charge them anywhere near $17,000. to do this webcast!

Money is one thing, but think about how "green" this was.

I have a client - a huge global company - that reduced their travel when business dropped off. Since they started using video services, they've decided to continue discouraging travel, opting for video conferences and webcasts instead.

This seems like an intelligent business decision. I just wonder why other companies aren't reaching the same conclusion.

Let me know your thoughts.

FYI - our new website is up and running. Be sure to check it out!
edifydirect.com

Just a quick note...

I am at a client location today, producing a training webcast. I am amazed that more companies aren't doing this. We have two subject matter experts here teaching to a room with about 20 people, and me. On the other end of the webcast, we have a number of people from the companies locations around the country. Some are watching from their desks, others are grouped in a conference room. All in all, about 15 people didn't have to fly here, rent a room here, rent a car, eat out, or lose three days of productivity ... while that may be bad for Nashua's economy, it's a great savings for the company. Why wouldn't every company do this??

Video Ads are THE Most Effective Ad Format

Yesterday, Google released a study via DoubleClick which showed quite clearly how online advertising which contained a video element outperformed other advertising types ... including Flash animation. The study, “The Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads”, has found that people who see a video in a rich media ad are more likely to make a purchase.

From the study, you can see that ads with video generally increase intent to purchase by 1.16% over a control group that did not see an ad. With Flash animation, the intent to purchase only rose 0.26%, showing that consumers do find video ads more compelling than Flash. The market norm is 0.60%, so video almost doubles it while simple flash performed the worst, falling short by about two-thirds.

So, if you're advertising on NHBR.com, NH.com, nashuatelegraph.com, wzid.com, ... you get the idea ... add a video and get better results.

At Edify Direct, we've always known that video was a powerful medium ... but it's nice to have proof.

Call us today.

parts of this article were excerpted from ReelSEO.com, Mark R Robertson

Online video really does work...

We all know what's been happening these days...marketing budgets are down, travel is down, sponsorships, donations, everything...down, down, down. So it was great when last week I had a meeting with a client who has been spending MORE with us. Why are they spending more? Because they have proven to themselves that online video really does work.

The client is McLean Communications, publishers of NH Business Review, New Hampshire Magazine, Parenting NH, Nashua Telegraph, and more. A few months ago, we Tech Produced the BOB Awards for NHBR. We also brought our camera and interviewed some of the attendees. We made a simple 4-minute video of the interviews which NHBR sales people showed to the sponsors a few weeks after the event. As a result, many of them re-signed for the 2010 show on the spot! They have also used the video to recruit new sponsors for next year.

Here's the video...



It's simple, but effective. We have just finished a video for the Family Fun Fair, which can be found at parentingnh.com, and I'm looking forward to this Thursday at the Best of NH event at the Verizon. We'll be working with comedian Jimmy Dunn, and the results should be fun to watch. Look for that video on the New Hampshire Magazine website and on TV!

This client has so much confidence in the power of online video that they have pre-booked us for events happening through 2010!

Making money or saving money ... online video is effective for both.

See you soon.
Dale
www.edifydirect.com

It's been a while

It has been a while since my last post. Does that mean we've been busy? Actually, yes.

Companies have been discovering the financial benefit of using online video for corporate communications, training, and customer relationship management. When you have a geographically dispursed company, training expenses can be very high, with the bulk of that expense in travel. By using online media options, travel expense disappears, lost productivity due to travel also disappears.

Projects we've been working on the past few months include:
- A Corporate Communications event for Timberland
- A 14-hour online course for tax accountants for ExamForce in Florida
- We edited the videos for the new St Joseph Hospital website, as well as continuing their Healthy Choices series of PodCasts

Coming up we have:
- A webcast for Cisco Systems
- Shooting and editing a series of 24 medical videos
- Shooting, editing and encoding a series of tax related videos (it's that season)
- A shoot for Harvey Industries
- Tech produce an awards ceremony for NH Business Review - the BOB Awards!
- And we will be continuing our game-day support for the Manchester Monarchs

That will keep us busy through March!

We would love to discuss how online video can save your company money.