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by Flavio Garcea
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1 Comment |
Interview with John Love, CEO of SpotMixer. He tells us how the idea for SpotMixer (the B2B service they recently launched) wasborn because they noticed that many small businesses were using their consumer service to create internet video ads.
Interview conducted at the EADP Conference in Barcelona, 2008.
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by Videoagency
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5 Comments |
We are proud to announce that Videoagency and our new Local Video Player Solution (LVPS) – which we have developed in partnership with AgendiZe and PLY Media – were featured and reviewed with enthusiasm on the Kelsey Group Blog. Please see the demo of this player here.
The Kelsey Group is the most important analyst in Local Search. In their own words: “The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories, local search, SMB advertising and local media.”
Thank you Mike Boland for your words!
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by Videoagency
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4 Comments |
Introducing the first local video player solution featuring Call Tracking, Click-to-Call, Save and Share features with local mapping and subtitling.
Barcelona, Spain—May 8, 2008—Today at the EADP Conference on Managing Directories in Barcelona, Spain, AgendiZe, the premier provider of call-to-action services, and Videoagency, the next generation video production company, announce their partnership to introduce the first local video player solution (LVPS) for small businesses. Now SMBs can present targeted, local video advertisements to their customers with convenient, built-in Call Tracking, Click-to-Call, Save and Share, and local mapping features.
“We decided to partner with AgendiZe because their Call-to-Action suite connects users with the widest array of social services, click-to-call, and local mapping features, and they offer deep experience working with the IYP industry,” said Thomas Owadenko, CEO Videoagency.tv. “By combining our next-generation video production network with their Call-to-Action services, we can present SMBs with a powerful local video player solution where consumers can not only watch local ads, but take immediate action when they see them.”
Videoagency’s local video player solution (LVPS) is powered by Videoagency’s next generation video network. Video content can be created by tapping into Videoagency’s global network of more than 4,000 filmmakers and can then be optimized and distributed across the web, utilizing Videoagency’s video search engine optimization (VSEO) tool to maximize the visibility of video content to search engines. Subtitles are also provided in partnership with Ply Media, and allow SMBs to target a much larger audience affordably.
Videoagency’s LVPS incorporates AgendiZe’s comprehensive Call-to-Action suite, making local video ads actionable for any SMB. Users that view local video ads can click-to-call the business or click-to-save and share business information or maps on Facebook, AIM, SMS, MySpace, del.icio.us, blogs, email and more than 100 services and devices. AgendiZe’s Call-to-Action capabilities make it easy for users to visit or contact local businesses, or spread the word virally to their friends—all while they are watching local ads powered by Videoagency’s LVPS. AgendiZe also provides unified reporting and tracking across all services, so SMBs can easily analyze their customer interaction and calls received.
“The challenge that most SMBs face with online video advertising is getting the customer to physically complete the last mile to visit their location in person or to pick up the phone and call them,” said Alexandre Rambaud, founder and CEO of AgendiZe. “Videoagency’s LVPS is the only local video solution that’s powered by AgendiZe’s Call-to-Action suite, which makes it easy and intuitive for a user to simply click-to-call, send a map to themselves or share the business’s info with their friends.”
The AgendiZe Call-to-Action Platform currently powers over 20 of the world’s leading online classifieds and directories, including Yellow Book USA, Yellow Pages Canada, QDQ Media and Editus, extending the reach and duration of any advertisers’ online content by making it possible for users to extract information from the Web and save it to different devices or share it with friends and colleagues. More than one million local advertisers use AgendiZe call-to-action services worldwide.
About AgendiZe (http://www.agendize.com)
The AgendiZe Call-to-Action Platform enhances any online marketing, advertising and e-commerce effort by engaging the social consumer. AgendiZe offers a complete suite of Call Tracking, Click-to-Call, Click to Chat, Click-to-Save and Click-to-Share solutions that integrates with more than 100 popular chat, mobile messaging, calendar, social bookmarking, email and enterprise communications services on a wide variety of personal communications devices. Founded in 2003 and privately held, AgendiZe has offices in Troyes, France and San Francisco, CA. For more information visit: http://www.agendize.com
About Videoagency (http://www.videoagency.tv)
Videoagency produces quality internet videos in high volumes and at low cost. With the largest filmmaker network in Europe, Videoagency can send a professional to any business easily, and their powerful production workflow tool allows them to manage hundreds of video shoots simultaneously. In 2007, Videoagency produced over 600 hotel videos in ten European cities in under two months, demonstrating the efficiency of their process and network. Videoagency’s production service is now available as a white label product to companies who need to offer video solutions directly to their clients. For more information, please visit http://www.videoagency.tv
For additional information, please contact: press@agendize.com and/or info@videoagency.tv
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by Videoagency
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1 Comment |
We are proud to announce the launch of your new corporate website at www.videoagency.tv
Videoagency now offers three important services to its clients all over the world:
Video production: Videoagency produces high quality internet videos at low cost, allowing business of any size to create videos that meet their budget and requirements. We have one of the largest filmmaker networks in the world and can dispatch a professional to you locally. Our video production is also available as a white label product to companies who which to offer video production services directly to their clients directly.
VSEO: Video Search Engine Optimization is a development in classic SEO that enables you to leverage on video as a ranking tool. With all the major search engines integrating videos directly in the search results, it is now more important than ever to optimize your videos for visibility to the search engines. Videoagency is pioneering a VSEO strategy which is now available to our clients to help them get the most out of their internet videos.
Digital Asset Management: Taking into account the importance of videos on the internet, Videoagency has developed a tool for companies (such as advertising agencies, media companies and SEO agencies) who need to manage a large number of videos from different sources and clients. The tool will let you upload videos on any video platform, manage the metadata around them. Furthermore, the advanced reporting tools will allow you to track the success of your video campaigns and calculate their ROI more accurately.
Message for all filmmakers: As before, you can register and join our network fro free on: http://www.videoagency.tv/filmmakers.html
Visit www.videoagency.tv for more information.
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by Videoagency
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1 Comment |
An article published by EADP outlines the 2008 outlook for local online advertising in the USA, based on a study conducted by Borrell Associates.
The outcome of this study predicts that local online advertising will continue to grow in 2008 but will require a dedicated sales organization to do so. These predictions can be attributed to the rising popularity of local search and the use of online video advertisements.
Most interesting for us, and of course our filmmakers, is the fact that locally placed online videos are set to triple, reaching $1.3 billion!
Here are some of the other key figures presented in the study:
One of the interesting points made in the study is that local media companies, such as Yellow Pages publishers, will need to invest to create a dedicated online sales force to be able to satisfy the strong growth predictions outlined above. Their traditional sales structures and strategies, according to Borrell Associates, will simply not be able to cope in 2008. This is underlined by the fact that most of these large media companies are beginning to lose market share to newer players who focus just on the internet for their business.
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by Videoagency
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1 Comment |
Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) are really moving fast to get videos onto their websites because they see it as major component of their growth (turnover but moreover also profit).
Over the past six months, all major US players launched a video offering: Yellowpages (US & Canada), Superpages, Citysearch… In Europe, the Italian IYP Pagine Gialle has also added videos to their client offering.
But for IYPs this huge opportunity also has some challenges…
First opportunity: With videos, they can offer website visitors an engaging and personal connection with their advertisers. Video positively influences users’ buying decisions because it gives them extra transparency and reassurance about the business they are about to buy a product/service from. Since an IYPs main goal (like any other media’s goal) is to deliver its clients with more sales leads, it makes sense to offer them videos.
Look at this video about a cool hair salon…
It gives me (the internet visitor) an invaluable insight into the business, more so than any text content could. They say that an image is worth a thousand words, but a video like this one really goes beyond that. It makes me want to find the same kind of hairdresser here in Paris!
Second opportunity: IYPs can offer their clients the possibility to insert the video on their own websites too. This makes the video a branding tool for the IYPs but also a valuable SEO tool, as it will provide them with many backlinks if all their clients embed their player on their websites. This is exactly what YellowPages.com are doing:
Third opportunity : $$$$$! Videos is a wonderful upselling tool and its benefits/value can be easily conveyed to the client (“you will be the star of the show”).In the meantime from the production side it represents big challenges:How do you roll-out a unique offer with a universal price across all territories? And how can you assure the same level of engaging content in all videos? (not all SMB owners are as cool and hip as the hairdresser in the above video). To solve this problem, most of the US IYPs are using TurnHere’s services. Why? Because TurnHere developed a unique network of filmmakers and manages all the production backend for them.
Again, TurnHere is definitely the kind of nexgen production company…and I think their sales orders are going to go up very fast!
If you want to know more about TurnHere check my last post (link)
Last but not least who owns the rights ? The IYPs, their advertisers? This is a key question because if, as an advertiser, I want to use my video as a marketing tool and display it everywhere, I have to control it or else pay for a video on every media I want to advertise on.
This is an exciting and unique moment in this ‘emerging’ market, as many rules are not yet defined…
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by Videoagency
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1 Comment |
Yesterday Youtube announced that it has broadened its APIs thus making it even easier for third parties to integrate YouTube content and community into other websites, desktop applications, video games, mobile devices, televisions, cameras, as well as a bunch of other applications… In essence, Youtube has become an open video services platform.
According to Jim Patterson (Product Manager at Youtube) the new API services include :
- Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
- Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
- Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
- Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
- Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software”
Check out the video that Youtube has made in order to explain the new API changes:
This is an exciting step forward for online videos, however it will also have some brutal consequences. As Techcrunch (Erick Schonfeld) correctly points out, other video-hosting platforms such as Brightcove, Maven Networks and Move Networks will probably have a hard time keeping up with these changes.
Another question in everyone’s minds at the moment is how the ad revenue split will be defined. Here is what Jim Patterson had to say on the matter:
“We are not introducing any fundamentally new way to monetize. Any video that is uploaded through our API is treated exactly as on YouTube.com. In general if a video is uploaded to YouTube, in some cases we serve ads into that on YouTube.com. When people embed those we reserve rights to serve ads in the future.
It is not a white-label service. We do offer a hosting service, but it is not a direct alternative to the companies that you mention. There are some big differences. It is a YouTube-branded experience. It is free. The price you pay for using it is you must participate in the YouTube community. ”
Lets see what happens next! In the meantime take a look at these interesting case studies to see how various partners have integrated Youtube into their sites.
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by Videoagency
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No Comments |
Hey!Spread helps any producer to publish and track videos on different platforms. I invite you to read the interview I had with him. Hey!spread is evolving in the same space as Tubemogul, Divinitymetrics and Visible measures.
Thomas Owadenko: Hello, in a few lines, please introduce yourself (name, age…) and your track record?
Eric Fontaine: My name is Eric Fontaine. I am 30 years old. I did all my studies in Marketing and Strategy. Before launching my own company, I worked at Universal Music Group International and the mobile phone department for 5 years.
TO: When was your company launched and where is it located?
EF: Hey!Spread was launched in July 07. We are in located in Marseille, in the South of France.
TO: Why did you launch it and what is its mission?
EF: Actually, we always try to develop tools that can help people do everything video-realted as easily as possible. And we do it pretty well through our two services Hey!Watch, our video encoding web service, and of course Hey!Spread. On the one hand, video is the trendiest medium on the web and online video platforms pop up like mushrooms. And on the other hand, people are becoming video web producers and want to create the buzz around their video content. Unfortunately, spreading their content over all the platforms is something very boring and time consuming. That’s how Hey!Spread was born. From now on, promoting your video content over the best video portals can be done in one shot. Easy, efficient and quick.
TO: What are the strengths of your products?
EF: Actually, we do not only distribute content. We promote it and allow our client to highlight their video creations. We propose many innovative options like watermarking, encoding, real time monitoring, cross-posting, credentials-checking, job-restarting… All thees features optimize the distribution. It’s not a closed or blind service. The user is almighty. Besides, as we do for all our products, we propose an API. That way, companies can integrate Hey!Spread as a white label and offer it as a new feature. They can spread from one platform to another. It’s very successful.
TO: How many people work in your company?
EF: We are two founders. I, Chief Business Officer and Bruno Celeste, Chief Technical Officer. When there is a peak of activity, we hire external people.
TO: Who are your clients?
EF: We have many different clients. Live streaming video platforms, online video portals, User Generated Content websites, Web agencies and individuals. Actually, most of our clients combine our two services to have a global and powerful video tool.
TO: Why did they choose you?
EF: The main words that we heard are Flexibility, Reliability and Reactivity. Even if we are a small team, we do not need to sleep a lot. We want to be available for our clients at any time. We do not only want to provide tools. We also want to work closely with them to make their project successful. Proposing a good tool is not sufficient, people need human relationships too.
TO: What is your turnover?
EF: We have not closed our first year of activity, so we can’t provide that information.
TO: Who are your competitors?
EF: Actually, we do not have “real” competitors. I mean our tool was thought out for integration as a white label. Both Hey!Spread and Hey!Watch are technical and business enabler tools. Some other services propose the distribution of content, but only through their interface. We want to free our clients from any technical prison.
TO: SEO and Video ? Myth or reality?
EF: As video content is like text or images, we need to find it. But the way it is right now things are still a little confusing. You can use many methods to find videos, like classic search engines or directly on a well-known video portal like YouTube. The main problem is the same with the text 10 years ago: Relevance.
TO: What do you think about Google universal and how it should be?
EF: Google is a company that impresses. How can one not be impressed by two men building an empire based on free tools and Ads. Actually, they invented the current most used business model. The only problem is what is great for Google is not the same for all. Free is not a business model at all. I am sure that too many small companies suffer from this philosophy that everything must be free on the Web. So, each time the same story, you raise funds, propose a free service hoping you will have huge traffic and wait to be bought. I hate this idea.
TO: Did you raise money? How much and who invested or do you plan to raise?
EF: We are self-funded and very proud of it. We are often approached by VC’s but we want to be independent. We make money, we like our clients and they trust us. We keep the good work.
TO: What are the “top 3″ priorities for your company in the coming year?
EF: We are working a new version of Hey!Watch. We will develop 2 new services this year. We are currently negotiating some nice partnerships.
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