Local Search | Jennifer Lind

The MIMA event I attended on Wednesday was a panel of 5 people from various interactive marketing agencies in Minneapolis that focus on digital advertising:

• The Uptake
• Smokin Yogi
• ThreeVolts
• MRM Worldwide
• Ciceron

Statistics:

It is becoming almost a daily activity to consume online video. The main types of video are: news, movies/tv, homemade amateur, music, and commercials. About 10% of the online video out there is corporate video. The other 90% is amateur/homemade.

Examples:

• www.savethewalls.org – a campaign from 3M designed towards college students
• Proquo Office Junk
• Rabbit Hole – Spec video for Nestle Quick – mrm worldwide, minneapolis

One interesting idea was having clickable products within a video. For example, a Harley drove by, and the motorcycle was clickable and directed you to the Harley website. Companies can utilize amateur videos by sponsoring their own products that appear in already created content. For example, one video we saw showed a Nokia phone that allows you to stream video right to the web so you can show live feeds. The guy shooting was holding a beer in his hand. Why doesn’t Nokia and Budweiser pick this up and advertise through this video?

One problem with this may be getting legal to sign off on content that isn’t regulated. Basic advertising rules and models do not apply to the web, and corporations tend to take their advertising too seriously. To be successful in video marketing, you have to go with your gut. For example, Nestle wanted to do a viral video campaign and on this document, it said that viral videos should be funny. MRM shot a video called What’s Your Rabbit Hole – meaning where do you go to get away from the stresses at work. One guy had a particular story he reads to his daughter every night. When he was stressed at work, he would call his daughter and talk to her as one of the characters from the story. It was a very moving video, but the marketers at Nestle threw it out because it wasn’t funny as the document had said was a requirement.

When it comes to budgeting, the cost is significantly less than tv. You don’t have to pay for Union talent. However, that’s not to say they are proud to pay actors less. Corporations think creating a web video should be cheap and has to look amateur. However, this is not true. There are no rules or regulations, so why force them? A web video has no boundaries and can be whatever you want it to be. There are no production models.