Archive for the 'Managing Video Projects' Category

on March 3, 2010

in General, Managing Video Projects, Resources and Starting a Video Project

. 8 Comments

Video production can cost as much or as little or as your budget allows.

You can borrow a flip camera, shoot some video and upload it to YouTube – all for free. Or you could hire James Cameron to write, produce and direct your video where you’d be looking at a budget just shy of half a billion dollars when you include marketing costs and Hollywood accounting. Both options would result in a finished video but you’d probably need special glasses to watch the the more expensive option.

The good news for businesses looking to engage a video production company is that many of the factors that affect the price of a video have been going down over the last few years. Some dramatically. Assuming you find a company that does great work the first question to be answered is ‘how much does a video cost?’ There is no simple answer to that question but here are 25 factors (ranked in order of importance to the overall quality of the video) that affect the price of a web video:

Production Experience. Doctors, mechanics, lawyers, videographers… whatever profession you care to mention, experience matters more than any other factor and, all things being equal, you do tend to get what you pay for. There are many, many moving parts in the creation of a video but at the end of the day you are paying for the expertise and experience of the key people responsible for your video.
Costs: You can pay $25/hour for a recent film school graduate or $250/hour for a top flight video veteran. On average most production companies will charge between $50/hour and $150/hour for the people involved in key activities such as shooting and directing.
Concept / Script / Storyboard – Doing video for the sake of video is a waste of money (although it’s great for the video production industry!) What measurable business objective are you trying to achieve? How is this video specifically going to achieve that objective? And of greatest importance, do the people creating your video have the experience or guidance to create a video that will help move your business forward? Lighting, sound, framing and editing are all important but they don’t matter in the least if what you are creating has no value to your intended audience. Like companies that spend $10,000 on website development and little or no money on content for the site, many companies waste a lot of money on nicely shot but otherwise meaningless video.
Costs: Expect to spend between $60/hour and $125/hour for an experienced marketer (does it make sense to have an entertainment script writer develop your marketing script?) to develop a concept, script and storyboard that serves as the blueprint for you video.
Editing. The editing process is highly nuanced. Editing is where you create the style and substance of the video – you sequence all of the available assets into a cohesive story that communicates your key messages in a clear and engaging manner. Editors arguably should be the most highly paid (and skilled) in the entire process (quite often they are not.)
Costs: Editing costs run between $40/hour and $125/hour.
Actors/Presenters. Do you need to hire professional presenters, actors or models to improve the quality of your presentation? Not everyone is good on camera. You may need to make difficult decisions about who should represent your company. In a broadcast commercial quite often it is not someone in your company. Even in a corporate video you may decide that hiring outside talent is the best decision.
Costs: Presenters, models and actors can range anywhere from $50/hour to $200/hour or more depending on experience, demand and union costs.
Camera. The quality and flexibility of the camera you shoot with can make a huge difference in the finished quality and editing options for your video. Are you shooting on a $ 500 DV camera, a $2,500 SD camera, a $10,000 Full HD camera, a $40,000 RED or are you shooting on Film? The pace of technology advancement in film and video is breathtaking and the features and capabilities of cameras are changing weekly. Bottom Line: You should be able to see the difference in the final output quality in more expensive cameras. If you can’t, then it’s not worth paying for.
Costs: You will spend between $25/hour and $150/hour or more depending on which digital camera is used. Film cameras, lenses and stock will take you well over $1,000 /hour.
Equipment. The more experienced video production companies tend to have a wide variety of tools and equipment on hand for each shoot. Do you need a track dolly or a jib-arm to create a shot with movement? Do you have a high quality field monitor to know exactly what you are getting (or not getting) as you shoot? Do you have all the necessary audio equipment (lav’s, direction mics, booms etc) to capture the audio you need? Lighting and framing are everything in video. Do you have lights – lots of different lights to accommodate a wide variety of shooting scenarios? Do you have a variety of lenses to create the specific feel you are after – wide angle, fixed focal length or Cine lenses for narrow depth of field, etc?
Costs. Equipment cost can run anywhere from $25/hour to $100/hour or more depending on what specific equipment is required.
Crew. If you’ve ever watched a movie or television show being filmed you might wonder why you need so many people standing around idle on a set. Most business web video productions don’t require more than two people (and sometimes one is enough) but depending on the complexity of the shoot you may require a crew of three or more. If you are conducting man on the street interviews as an example, you need a cameraman, a sound man and a directer or interviewer. Concept videos like commercials will often require more people to help with the logistics of the shoot.
Costs: Expect to pay between $ 25 and $75/hour/person for experienced crew.
B-Roll / Cut-away shots. Most videos benefit from the addition of footage that supplements what is being said on screen. If you are interviewing a business owner who is talking about their new equipment you should cut away to shots of the equipment as they speak. Showing the viewer what is being described in the video is more informative (show me , don’t tell me) and also helps to keep the attention of the impatient viewer.
Costs: The length of time and equipment used to capture the b-roll will increase production costs. You can add anywhere from 10% to 50% of the total shooting costs if you need to supplement interview footage with b-roll.
Locations and production time. Where are you shooting? How long will each scene/interview/shot take?Are you shooting in one location or many? What are the specific requirements and constraints of each location? Are you indoor or outside? If you are shooting outside is weather a factor? If so what happens if it rains? How much set-up time is required? Are the locations close together? The most important factor is what is the total amount of time required for production. There are few economies of scale for time – but with good planning you can do a lot within a specific period of time.
Costs: This cost is arithmetic. Two days of shooting is twice as expensive as one day. {If shooting extends for many days or is regularly scheduled then most companies offer a discount}
Studio shooting. Do you require the use of a sound stage or studio? Do you need a controlled environment to shoot in? Are you shooting green screen and keying out the background in edit? The use of a studio has to be factored into the overall cost of the production one way or another. Larger companies may include studio time in their shooting costs and other companies include it as a line item as studio rental time.
Costs: Factor in between $100/hour and $ 400/hour depending on the size of the studio.
Set, props, equipment, extras. Aside from video production equipment are there other special props or pieces of equipment that need to be included as part of the costs. Do you need to rent a van, rent furniture, hire extras, hire a plane or helicopter for an aerial shot or bring in special equipment for the shoot. These all have to be factored in to the cost of the shoot.
Costs: Depends on what is required.
Stock footage Do you require supplemental footage or images to support the video? There are many websites that sell high quality still and video footage. Some videos are comprised completely of stock footage, text and voice-over.
Costs: Stock images can be as cheap as $3 and great quality HD stock footage can cost as little as $50.
Narration Do you need a voice-over to tell your story or to tie the video together. Video is a powerful medium but it is even more powerful if you take full advantage of audio to support what is being shown on screen.
Costs: Voice-over costs have dropped dramatically over the last five years. Many voice artists work from home and can produce great work for almost any budget. $100 – $400 for a 2 minute video is reasonable depending on the experience and demand for the specific voice artist.
Audio files. Do you require a music bed, special sound effects or other audio to supplement your video?
Costs: Good quality music for video starts as low as $30 for a two or three minute track. Custom audio can cost $1,000 or more depending on the experience of the musician and what is required.
Teleprompter. A teleprompter can save a shoot. Even the most experienced speaker can be intimidated by lights and camera. It’s true that you can usually tell when someone is reading a teleprompter but that may still be preferable to the agony of a shoot spiraling out of control because the CEO can’t remember his lines.
Costs: Teleprompter and operator usually cost between $350 and $600 for a half day.
Geographic Location. New York is more expensive to shoot in than Central Lake, Michigan because the cost of living is higher in New York. Half day rates don’t exist in some large cities today.
Costs: Expect to pay between 25% and %50 more if you are shooting in a large city.
Digitizing, transfers, rendering and uploading. Video takes on many forms during the production process. If you shot on film you have to transfer it to a format that works in your editing system. After you edit it, you have to render it to a presentation format (for web, for broadcast, etc.) and depending on where it’s going you may have to upload it somewhere (your web server / YouTube / The Academy Awards, etc). All this takes computer and human time and you generally have to pay for both.
Costs: Sometimes these costs are buried, sometimes they are line items. Tape transfers are still very expensive ($100′s of dollars). Rendering and uploading time are usually buried in the costs but can also be charged out at an hourly rate ($50 – $100 per hour).
Length of the Video. The longer the video the more it is likely to cost. Web videos tend to be around a couple of minutes although this varies considerably depending on the type and purpose of your video. Filming an articulate talking head (limited editing) for 10 minutes is much cheaper than creating a 30 second commercial. So…
Costs: All things being equal (they never are) consider longer to be more expensive, but it’s not arithmetic. An extra minute of video might only cost you %10 more if you have planned the extra requirements into the overall workflow.
Licensing/Union Fees. Are you using any media assets or talent that could be subject to ongoing licensing, usage or union fees? The web continues to drive all costs down including licensing fees – but they still exist. The best talent is usually a member of SAG, ACTRA or some other union.
Costs: Varies depending on the project and talent.
Direct or Third party. Are you dealing directly with the video production company or are you going through an agency or other middleman?
Costs: You should expect that you are paying at least a %30 mark-up if you are going through a third party.
Interactivity. Are you creating linear video or are you building in interactivity? Is there a direct call-to-action that you want to get the viewer to follow? Do you require flash programming do build the video into a special player that will sit on a specific landing page? The future of video is interactive video.
Costs: Expect to pay between %10 and %30 more to develop interactivity and flash support elements into your video.
Hosting. Your video is going to live on the web. Where is it being hosted? You might end up hosting it on different servers (your own, YouTube, a business portal, etc.) depending on your business needs.
Costs: Hosting is either free or relatively inexpensive ($ 5 – $10 / month/video depending on bandwidth usage.)
Formats. How many different formats does your video have to be rendered in? Where is it going to be seen? Do you need a short version (editing down) and a long version? Does it sit in a multiplayer or is it in three different players? Should you break it up into pieces to make the length of it a little less evident and also to allow the user a bit more control?
Costs: Adapting multiple formats for a video could add %5 to %10 percent to the cost of the job depending on how much editing is required.
Language and translation. Do you need close captions? Do you need language versioning? Do you need onscreen text to change per language? Do you need to dub in different narration for different markets?
Costs: Language versioning can add %10 to %20 to the overall cost of the job. (Editing and proofing of different languages is usually much more time intensive than one language alone.)
Miscellaneous fees. Ya, everyone hates lawyers ‘disbursement fees’. Video production has the equivalent in ‘Miscellaneous fees’: Travel costs, meals, mileage, hotels, transportation, out-of-pocket… it all adds up.
Costs: Usually in the $100′s and sometimes in the $1,000′s of dollars on larger shoots.

Bottom Line?

Taking all of the above into consideration there are reasonable ballpark figures that you can use as a guidepost for budget purposes. A two to three minute web-based corporate video presentation might cost between $2500 and $7500 depending on the variables mentioned above. If you use the time honored “$1,000 a minute” for a professionally produced online corporate video as a starting point, that will give you a reasonable idea of where to begin in the budgeting process.

Budgeting Tip

The best way to get a quick estimate is to have a reference video to compare to. (I.e. “How much would something like ‘this’ cost.”)

Did I miss something?

Set, props, equipment, extras. Aside from video production equipment are there other special props or pieces of equipment that need to be included as part of the costs. Do you need to rent a van, rent furniture, hire extras, hire a plane or helicopter for an aerial shot or bring in special equipment for the shoot. These all have to be factored in to the cost of the shoot.
Costs: Depends on what is required.

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13 things to consider before you start your next video project

Published

on June 11, 2009

in General, Managing Video Projects, Marketing with Video, Starting a Video Project and video production

You’ve heard about the growth of video as a marketing tool, you’re starting to notice video pop up on more and more websites and you’re considering adding video to enhance your marketing efforts. Where do you start? The following is a list of things to consider before starting your next video project.

1. What is your goal? Video for the sake of video is a bad idea. You should have a business goal in mind when you begin a video project. Am I trying to show people how my product or service works? Am I trying to provide engaging testimonials from my clients? Am I trying to highlight a complicated concept in simple terms? There are lots of ways to take advantage of video (See 26 ways to use video) but each one of them should have a well defined and measurable objective.

2. What is your budget? There are many factors that determine the cost of a video (See What does an Online Video cost). A video can cost under $1,000 to produce and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars. A video production company can take you through the process and show you examples and explain the cost associated with each type of video. That said, if you know you only have $ 2500 dollars to spend you will save everyone a lot of time and effort by saying so.

3. What can you bring to the table? Do you have a clearly defined audience, positioning strategy, business goals and market differentiators that should be highlighted in the video? Video is just another marketing medium – more engaging to be sure, but still a communications tool that has to be developed based on clear business objectives. Aside from a good budget, clear business guidance is the best thing you can provide to your video production company.

4. What should my video production company bring to the table? I remember a client telling me about an awful experience they had when a graphic designer redid their website. “It looked good but was sort of useless?” They hired a graphic designer… what did they expect? Videographers and video production companies come in many different shapes and sizes and have very different skills. Some production companies do corporate work to maintain cash flow between entertainment projects. Some independent videographers are great camera people but have limited business experience. Some social media companies have great experience with web 2.0 projects but may have limited experience with video. Most ad agencies, design shops and marketing firms list video as a core competence. That may be true. Everyone has a specialty. It should be clear what skills and experience the companies you are considering bring to the table.

5. What is the timeline and approval process? Don’t leave this to chance. If you are planning a sizable production you will need a script and probably a storyboard. There should be no surprises. If you need approvals get them worked out before the shooting starts. Make sure you assign a project lead who is responsible for the outcome of the project.

6. Are you building in interaction? The more interaction you can build into the experience the more engaged the viewer is with your brand. Interest, engagement and interaction should be the goals of online video “Click here to…” is a good start. What do you want the viewer to do when they have finished watching your web video? How deep do you want to take your viewer in an interactive presentation? Ultimately conversion is what counts. What do you want the viewer to do after they have watched the video?

7. Show them, don’t tell them. Late night infomercials may be a marketing cliché, but you can’t deny the guilty pleasure of watching that little plastic blender create fourteen meals in 5 minutes. Educators and trainers have long known that the true benefit of video is that it generates much higher retention rates because it engages more than one of the senses at the same time. Retention rates can triple when what you hear is being reinforced by what you see. The ability to show your customers how your product works, how it solves their problems and how it is used by others is where video marketing and rich media is unsurpassed as a vehicle to engage and persuade your audience. A walk-through of your software interface may be helpful – but it doesn’t demonstrate to prospects the benefits of your product or how your products or services fit into their processes or business cycles. Video, animation and interactive flash programming can build compelling visual examples of exactly how your products work and why they solve your customers’ problems.

8. Are you supporting your brand? Good viral video can be very effective, but good viral video is really, really hard to do. Crappy viral video is surprisingly easy to accomplish. Video should be engaging and it should tell a good story, but it should also support your brand. If you goal is just to create entertainment then you should consider selling tickets. Your internal marketing team and/or ad agency have spent a lot of time and effort on building and supporting your brand. If one of the goals of your rich media efforts is ‘branding’ (building brand awareness) then it is essential that the style, tone and content of your video rich media tools all support your desired positioning in the marketplace. (Most viral videos seem to do the opposite of this today.)

9. Are you promoting the video? Posting the video on your website is a great start, especially if your site recieves a lot of traffic. But one of the true benefits of video over any other marketing medium is it’s reach. Websites as destinations are becoming less important. Social media and changing online behaviours are causing companies to bring their messages to where their audiences are online – instead of just hoping that people find your website.

10. Are you optimizing the video for SEO? Google likes video. You need to consider how you are promoting the ideas, the terms and keywords in your video to help with your SEO activities. Good meta data and titling are important.

11. Who’s perspective are you considering? There is only one perspective that matters in business – your customer’s. No one really cares about you or your product but they do care about how you might be able to solve their problem. Are you speaking your customers language?

12. Authenticity is important. Sure ‘authenticity’ has become a marketing cliche but social media is all about connecting on a human level. There are many different styles and approaches you can take when developing video but ‘authentic’ is a really good place to start.

13. Is your video Shareable? Are you going to put it up on YouTube, Facebook or any of the many other social media sites? Why not?

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Six things to consider with audio (and one very bad example)

Published

on February 9, 2009

. 1 Comment

Audio quality is very important in a video. Some would argue that audio has more impact on the overall perception of a video than the visual component of the video, that great sound with a mediocre image is OK, but weak sound quality, no matter the visual quality will always make the video seem inferior. I’m not sure that this is always the case, but audio quality is often an afterthought in the video development process. Good audio is not difficult to do and represents a small percentage of the overall cost of production. Does it make sense to spend thousands of dollars on the production of a video and then get ‘one of the guys in sales’ to do the voice-over using a cheap microphone?

The video above is a case in point. The audio quality is so bad, you can’t tell why it’s bad. They obviously went to considerable effort to put the video together. They wrote a script, did a lot of filming and spent time editing it. Did they just run out of steam at the end?

Here are six things to consider when creating audio for your video:

1. Audio starts with the script. Everyone knows that ‘Your customers are your top priority’ (what else would your top priority be?) so think of something unique to say. If you don’t have something interesting to say it doesn’t matter if James Earl Jones delivers your corporate message – it won’t stick.

2. Equipment matters. Buy a good microphone if you are doing audio in-house - it’s a really good investment. Yes, you are compressing the audio when you optimize it for the web but the same rule holds true for audio as it does for the video component – garbage in, garbage out.

3. Elocution matters. Just like visual style, there are many styles of voice that could be appropriate for your video – folksy, authoritative, somber, funny… whatever. You need to have a narrator who can speak in a clear understandable tone, who can speak in an appropriate cadence - given the subject material, and who can enunciate. Voice professionals do this stuff for a living. Remember the voice on your video in some ways becomes ‘the voice of your company’. That’s important.

4. Chose your soundtrack carefully. Adding a soundtrack is a great way to create a mood, to add drama or excitement, to maintain a consistent aural tone and to simply tie the whole video presentation together. Not all video needs a sound track however and unless you are able to afford original music you run the risk of using the same tunes that everyone else is using. If you do go with a soundtrack make sure you crank it down when your narrator starts to speak.

5. Test the audio. It’s very difficult to imagine that the audio in the above video was subject to a rigorous screening process. Mix the audio with the soundtrack or musical loop , soinds effects etc. that you are going to use and let people listen to it. If everyone starts turning their heads sideways and squinting, you may want to give it another go.

6. Language and accent are very important. Peter Jennings was considered one of the best American news anchors for many reasons including his neutral (Canadian) accent. If you are creating promotional video content for foreign distribution – make sure that you use a narrator that delivers English in a very neutral tone. If you are dubbing in another language make sure your translator and reader understand the local dialect and idioms.

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6 HD video hosting services compared

Published

on February 6, 2009

in General and Managing Video Projects

6-hd-compared1

Josh Lowensohn - an associate editor for Webware.com has published an article comparing 6 HD video hosting services. He declares YouTube the winner which is impressive considering Yougle only dipped their toe into the HD pool a few months ago. Given that YouTube/Google can afford to stream a cazillion hours of HD video a minute, process and store video at a ridiculous rate and add new features almost daily (and inspite of the fact that they have yet to generate any significant revenue), the other companies should be looking to find some way of differentiating themselves from the GooTube juggeraut.

The article includes side by side video and still image comparisons and is well worth a look.

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How to present video on your website

Published

on January 13, 2009

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There are many ways to present video on your website. The cheapest and easiest is to upload your video to YouTube (or one of the many hosting alternatives) and place the embed code for that video on your site. The downside to doing this is that you can’t control the quality or of your video as well (although the ability to affect YouTube video quality and others is getting better) and you also have to deal with having other videos display at the end of the video in that player. Hopefully it’s not a competitors video or something equally distasteful.

Hosting Video

You can host your video on your own servers if they are relatively fast and you don’t expect much traffic to your video or you can chose a content delivery network that will host, serve and track your video. Your video will still look like it is on your site – it is just streaming from another server. (Refer to ‘Where to host your corporate video” for reference.) Once you have chosen where to host your video the next step is to chose a video player. All video has to be in a player to be viewed on the web. Flash Player is the standard. YouTube and most other video portals use flash, as do most corporate sites. Microsoft is trying to get Silverlight accepted as another standard. We’ll see how that goes. (Zune anyone…?)

Video Players

There are many options when it comes to implementing a flash video player on your site:

1. You can use the default flash player that comes with Adobe software.

2. You can purchase a customized flash player that has many features built in. There are many available at under $100 such as Flowplayer (which I currently use)

3. You can build your own custom player – you would need some very specific requirements to chose this route.

4. You can use an open source player like the one being promoted by the Open Player Initiative .

5. You can use the service of a video production and or distribution firm that promotes a ‘platform’. Usually in this case you need to sign on for other services to use their player.

Whatever route you chose you will need to make a minimum amount of changes to the html on your site to accommodate the flash player. You will have to use the services of a web expert to help you plug the player into your site. The code that is required to implement a flash player on your site can be found at here: http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/

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When should you use a Teleprompter

Published

on December 6, 2008

‘Unscripted’, ‘authentic’, ‘spontaneous’, ‘extemporaneous’ - this is the mantra of a new generation of online video producers. Unscripted is a great way to shoot video… sometimes.

Image this scenario: You’ve hired a camera crew, a studio, some special equipment and your senior spokesperson/presenter is ready to go. You’ve given your presenter speaking notes – and he assures he doesn’t need them. A couple hours into the shoot everyone including the presenter realizes it’s not going well. The presenter decides maybe he should refer to the notes, but now he can’t deliver them well because he can’t memorize them and they are not his words. What do you do?

Short form, off the cuff video segments are becoming more popular today as companies look to build their brands by communicating in a less formal manner and by trying to engage their audience using a more personal approach. Corporate presentations and company overviews lend themselves well to this format where an exec and/or staff member might deliver an unscripted, but heartfelt explanation of what makes their company great.

You can be successful with this style of video production if you have a good plan for what you want to get out of the video (and how you will be delivering it), a smart set of talking points to reference and a good presenter who is comfortable with this unscripted format. If on the other hand, you are shooting a detailed product demo or a particularly long or complicated presentation or if you have a presenter who does not have a lot of experience in front of a camera you should consider renting a teleprompter.

These are some of the situations where a teleprompter is well worth the investment:

1. Using a professional presenter/actor. If the presenter is not a subject matter expert then they either have to memorize a script (which is very difficult to do well) or read from a teleprompter.

2. Long presentations. The longer the video and the longer each speaking piece in the video is, the greater the need for a teleprompter. You only have to sit through one session where the presenter continues to stumble over the correct delivery for a prolonged period of time to wish you had invested in a teleprompter.

3. Complex presentations. Product demos, technical presentations and presentations that require a lot of different verbal and physical actions to happen at the same time would benefit from the use of a teleprompter. Product managers and business owners know their products better than anyone but that does not guarantee that they can give you a fluid and professional read if the verbal requirements are complex.

4. Experience in front of a camera. Your best trade show guy might be a crackerjack pitchman in front of an audience (large or small) but that can all change quickly when they are asked to talk to a camera under the glare of lights and no one there to provide feedback. {Shooting them talking to someone on screen (or off) may be a good compromise if that style suits your business needs.}

5. Failure is not an option. {This may be the best reason to consider renting a teleprompter}. If you’re investing a lot of time and effort for a video shoot (which is usually always the case), if you have asked for senior exec’s or business owners time to shoot the video or if you are working to a tight deadline (which is always the case) the availability of a teleprompter might just save the day.

The problem is that unless you have seen the presenter on camera before you won’t know how the unscripted format is going to go. Your video production company should be able to guide you on when and where to use a teleprompter but if you are doing the video yourself you should be able to rent a teleprompter and an equipment rental shop for between $300 and $500 for a half day (This includes a teleprompter operator – the person who loads and keeps the onscreen text moving). Conversely you can buy the equipment and software yourself for under $1,000.00. If you plan on doing a fair amount of in-house video then this may be a good option. You’ll just have to train someone on how to use the software (it is not difficult to learn).

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Where should you host your corporate video?

Published

on December 5, 2008

. 1 Comment

You have just completed shooting a three minute corporate overview of your company’s services that you want to put up on your website. Now what?

Assuming you know the answer to the following questions:

1. Where on your website you want to place your video? (Is it on your home page, is it on a main section page, is it in a videos section, is it buried further in the site because it relates to some specific content )

2. How the video will play on your site? (Will it launch a pop-up window that plays the video, will it take you to another page that contains the video in a player or will it simply play in place by simply clicking on a screen capture image)

3. What type of player you will play the video in? (Will it launch in a flash player, in a windows media player, in a quicktime player, in the adobe media player etc.)

4. What features you need in the player? (Play/pause, stop, slider/time bar , elapsed time/full time, audio control, enlarge to full window, and other controls)

You then have to decide how you are serving (hosting) your video to your website visitors.

Listed below are some of the decision criteria for determining the best way to host your video:

1. How many people do you anticipate will watch the video – both in total (I.e how many people will watch it in one month) and simultaneously (What is the chance that 10, 20 or more people will watch the video at the same time.)

2. How are you marketing the video – will people just see it when they come to your site or are you sending out one or more emails to drive people to the video (an e-mail campaign would increase the likelihood of many people viewing it at the same time)

3. What capacity does your web server have – can your servers adequately serve video to people on your site – have you tested it with video? Have you tested it with multiple views of video at the same time?

4. Where do you web visitors come from – are they local or in your region? Are they from all over the country or are they international.

5. How important is the quality of the video experience to you – Will it matter to your audience if the video doesn’t play right away (‘right away’ being a relative term), will it matter if the video pauses occasionally during playback.

6. Do you just want to host it on a video aggregator like YouTube. – If the playback quality is not that important to you and you don’t mind having other videos appear with your video (could be a competitor’s video or a video of dancing cat) then a video aggregator site might be an option.

Placing your video on a video aggregator like YouTube is free but you cannot control the experience – you can’t control what videos play with it and you can’t control the quality (compression) of the video. Placing the video on your own servers is a good choice if you don’t expect a lot of traffic to the video and you have tested it and are relatively comfortable with the overall experience.

The best route is to use the services of a CDN (such as Akamai, Limelight, Amazon or Edgecast) either directly or through a third party who has a service contract with a CDN. CDN’s have high speed, multi-server capabilities and redundant points of presence that allow for very fast and reliable delivery of video around the world. {Note: The video is served from the CDN’s server, but it will still appear on your website – the visitor to your site won’t know where the video is being served from.}

The video production company that created your video should be able to provide these services. If not, Google ‘Content Delivery Network’ – there are many service providers with many different price points and plans.

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How long should my online corporate video be?

Published

on December 4, 2008

How many pages should my printed material be, is a similar question.

Attention spans are getting shorter with the consumption of all media, so while shorter is better online there is no ‘correct’ length for an online corporate video. A two page product brochure and an eight page whitepaper have very different purposes. Similarly, a one to two minute corporate intro video has a very different purpose than an in-depth four to six minute video case study. Video whitepapers which highlight (in a product and company agnostic format) the solution to an industry problem can run between five to ten minutes and incorporate narration, information graphics, video and a host of other media to outline the solution to a complex problem.

Purpose, context and relevance determine the length of an online corporate video:

Purpose. From your perspective, what are you trying to achieve with this media asset? What is the goal, who is the audience and what exactly are you trying to communicate to the audience. Shorter is definitely better because you have to assume that online attention spans are limited. If the goal is to give people a brief overview of your entire suite of products or services then two to three minutes is sufficient. If the goal is to provide an in-depth description including the benefits (with examples) of one of your products then three to five minutes is a reasonable time range.

Context. Where will your audience be consuming the video? On your site, on a business portal, on YouTube? If you control the environment – on your own site – what other collateral will support the video. If you have print whitepapers and product brochures that deal with the detailed specifics of the offering then the video may only need to be two or three minutes long. You can provide direct links from the video or on the same page to the support material. If you have no other support material then you might want to add a minute or two to the video to provide some of that information.

Relevance. From the customer’s perspective, what do they get out of the video? The more relevant and valuable it is to them the longer the video can be. (If it is really valuable to your customers then five to ten minutes is not unreasonable.) Relevance should be the primary factor guiding the development of every video and this, I believe, is what will drive the length of videos to increase (marginally) over time. Too many corporate videos today are internally focussed: Beauty shots of the buildings, talk about the company history, clients and processes all peppered with the ramblings of an important executive. Like desktop publishing before it, these videos are the first wave in the evolution of a new communications medium – an artefact from industrial videos which were shown at annual meetings and large presentations. Today, online videos need to be much more tactical.

In broad strokes, two to four minutes is a good starting point. If you have a lot of relevant material then you might want to consider breaking the video into smaller chunks – a minute or two each and present them in a way that allows the viewer to easily move between the sections. A flash player that automatically moves from one section to the next, but also provides the ability to jump between sections is ideal for longer videos. The ability to control the viewing experience is often enough to encourage viewers to watch a longer presentation in its entirety.

The very nature of this frequently asked question – how long should a web-based video be? – speaks to the nascence of this new corporate media type. As different web video media types evolve (product demos, product overviews, video case studies, corporate presentations, video whitepapers, video case studies, video testimonials, commercials, video press releases, etc.) specific standards will emerge for each specific media type.

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What does an online corporate video cost?

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on December 3, 2008