Are you listening to your viewers?
Because that’s the single biggest advantage Web video has over television. Internet TV producers can access data, practically in real time, on how their videos perform, who they reach and when they reach them. That’s the stark opposite of the TV world.
Are you using all the data at your disposal to fine-tune your videos, your content, your distribution strategy? Are you tapping into YouTube Insight, TubeMogul, VoloMedia or Visible Measures? And if you’re not using those, do you track who watches your video via RSS, or when your creations are embedded on other blogs?
Advertisers certainly want this information; they are demanding it.
“The confluence of content, technology and varying user behavior requires us to hold online and digital media in general to a higher standard of performance,” said T.S. Kelly, senior VP and director of research and insight at Media Contacts, a division of Havas.
My point is there is enough information, free and otherwise, to go the extra mile for your viewers.
Here are two examples. The producers of new Web series “The Circuit,” which runs on Mojo HD’s Web site, are tweaking the editorial based on viewership numbers from different sites. (For more details on how “The Circuit” is doing this, check back for next week’s New Media Minute.)
Then there’s TubeMogul, which both uploads and tracks the performance of videos. TubeMogul was the force behind a recent campaign that connected Coors and its agency AvenueA/Razorfish, a TubeMogul client, with popular video creators.
Earlier this year, Coors Light debuted a video called “Perfect Pour.” Now, the mere fact that a brand created a viral video is not unique. What is unusual is that AvenueA/Razorfish worked with TubeMogul to reach out to Web video creators that fit the Coors demo to invite them to create response videos.
“Coors wanted a young, male, heavy-drinking, ‘sketch, bro’-type demographic and we were able to direct them to several famous vloggers in that range, who were paid sponsorship dollars to create the response vids,” TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson said in an email.
So what are you doing to listen to your viewers? E-mail me and I’ll report back on the most innovative approaches.