The term “book trailer” is a US Registered Trademark to Circle of Seven Productions. Book trailers are a book video product.
From WikiPedia:
A book trailer is a video advertisement for a book which employs techniques similar to those of movie trailers. They are circulated on television and online in most common digital video formats.
A Book Trailer is similar to a movie trailer, but for a book. The term Book Trailer is currently a trademarked term owned by Sheila Clover of Circle of Seven Productions. The first Book Trailer to be played publicly was at a book convention in Shreveport, LA. in 2003. The trailer was for a book entitled Dark Symphony by author Christine Feehan.
Though Book Trailers were being made as early as 2002, the term caught on in 2005 when user-generated online video upload became more popular. Sites such as MySpace, YouTube and iFilm allowed for the videos to be viewed by the public, creating a market for this promotional tool.
Book Trailers can be acted out, full production trailers, flash videos, animation or simple still photos set to music with text conveying the story.
Like a movie trailer (is that a trademarked phrase?), a book trailer gets the audience interested in the story, the real product, and allows mass distribution via media channels that view video.
Circle of Seven Productions offers a series of different level products, depending on your budget and your needs. The full book trailer(tm) is a scripted, acted, full scale production.
Book videos are a great way to get your book promotion onto the popular social networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace, and others. There are even booksellers who accept book video as part of your book promotion.
Imagine your book video going viral on YouTube! Can you say “overnight bestseller”? I knew you could.
Creative Solutions Press.com is proud to present our ebook on making your own micro-budget book videos. Our ebook will get you up and running and making your own simple book videos. Use video today to sell more of your books. Check out our ebook: Video Marketing Success for Authors.
Marketing Sherpa is one of my favorite resources for quality marketing information. Awhile back it was bought out by MarketingExperiments.com, another favorite of mine. Both companies concentrate on actual experimental data, case reports, and analysis for their conclusions.
Today Sherpa posted a great article on how to run your own Online Video Contests. :
Apr 24, 2008
How To #HOW612:
Online Video Contests - How to Start Them, Promote & Track ROI + Pitfalls to Avoid
SUMMARY: Online video contests have become a new frontier for marketers exploring the ROI of user-generated content. Credit YouTube for their popularity.
Here’s a Special Report on what you need to know about running your own video contest. Includes:
- How to build a contest and measure it
- 4 reasons for testing
- 5 promotion tips and 3 pitfallsOnline video contests are still in the toddler stage of marketing. But they are growing up fast with brands like Converse, Red Bull, Nike, Diesel Jeans, Mountain Dew, Coors, Sony BMG and even the AFL-CIO labor union running contests.
Enticing prizes usually are awarded to hype participation. And to create goodwill, marketers give away their firm’s own products to all the video folks who spend time creating entries for their competitions.
Is an online video contest for you? Read this report to find out everything you need to know about whether this marketing tactic is for you, how to build and promote your contest … plus, some problems to watch out for.
Will Video Contests Work for You?
First, what brands make sense to even try doing an online video contest in the first place? Well, they can work for most creative interactive marketers, although they seem best suited for brands that want to *enhance* an already strong loyalty — rather than those who want to create or repair loyalty.An informal Sherpa poll of a handful of interactive marketers, for instance, indicates that an online video contest works best for a company with a specific demographic. We asked them to rank three clothing retailers as potential online video contest sponsors.
Their ranking, in order:
o Patagonia.com - tight demo; relatively young; Web savvy
o Gap.com - wider demo; relatively young; relatively Web savvy
o JCPenney.com - very wide demo; older customers; less Web savvyIn other words, the tighter your niche, the younger and more Web savvy your demographic, the more sense it makes. Furthermore, consumers who truly identify with your brand — the real “brand evangelists”– are the ones who will take the time to create videos for a contest.
Brands with audiences active in Web 2.0 communities, such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and videographer destinations like CreativeCOW.net and the Yahoo! Final Cut Pro User Group, seem like natural fits.
Sony BMG, for example, used an online video and photo contest to promote a band’s album and received more than 1,000 submissions from participants in Web 2.0 communities.
4 Key Reasons to Test Online Video Contests
Popular online communities are a big part of why brands are testing video contests. Destination websites are not getting the traffic they once did, and participatory promotions are an excellent way to bridge the gap between brand and the Web 2.0 world.Here are four key reasons to consider when mulling an online video contest:
-> Reason #1. Breaks barriers and viral possibility
First and foremost, they create *meaningful* interaction between brand and online consumers. The blood, sweat and tears that videographers — amateurs and pros alike — put into their submissions will not get lost on your target audience.
Top-notch video entries will be obvious displays of the high level of commitment and ingenuity of contest participants. Your brand will benefit by association, and the potential for viral on YouTube is the icing on the cake.
-> Reason #2. Keeps your company looking young
Traditional companies are trying to look hip in the Internet age. If you are an old CPG firm or cataloger, online video contests can make your brand look younger.
Indeed, online video contests succeed when they have an attractive main concept that is something quirky or fun. It’s important to keep the idea of youthfulness in mind when putting together a contest.
Your audience doesn’t have to be young. But your online video contest should target what makes them feel younger. It should inspire them to get off their couch or out of their office and grab a camcorder.
-> Reason #3. They’re cost-effective
Here’s a key part of your pitch for the CFO: an online video contest can produce a similar amount of impressions compared to a TV commercial at a fraction of the price. The UGC of the campaign eliminates costs for talent, preproduction, production, postproduction and media buys — while also curbing your agency bill.
Plus, if marketers want to, they can form and use groups at YouTube, Facebook and MySpace at essentially no cost. You simply need staff members to monitor the groups so the contest is well-run. (More on these groups later.)
-> Reason #4. Testing and participation is simple
Another great aspect of the Web 2.0 groups is that they make testing on the backend potentially very bare bones and easy. You develop the copy, images and other elements and incorporate them into the pages of your YouTube, Facebook and MySpace accounts.
And while it has gotten relatively simple to generate video content, you still need to urge creators’ participation. Whether the contest is held in a 2.0 group, on the brand site or via a microsite, you can make it fairly seamless for participants to upload and organize their video footage by incorporating simple drag-and-drop features.
Ask your IT folks about the technicalities of incorporating video from consumers into your site system. If need be, ping your Web design agency about what your software or consulting needs may be.
How to Run a Video Contest
The effort put into running an online video contest depends greatly on the extent of your campaign. For instance, setting up the contest can take a few days to a few weeks. Executing the idea properly will take anywhere from one or two people to a handful of staff members.In all cases, after you announce the contest, your team will need to:
o Review every submission
o Record notes about each entry
o Update progress daily with other team membersContent management systems exist that can be programmed to aid in the sorting of submissions. If you are a big brand with a big audience, you will want to consider using such a program. The last thing you want is a couple of staff members watching thousands of 5-minute clips.
Like most marketing campaigns, the most important thing to figure out is what your objectives are before beginning your contest, says Butch Bannon, Director, Special Projects, TAOW Productions. “You need to set realistic expectations, look at who is your community and then figure out how you can best speak to them. From there, you design your contest around those key ideas.”
How to Promote a Video Contest
A huge driver behind most successful video contests are online communities. Get to know their URLs.“Many times, people do not know how to get the word out,” says Justin Johnson, Founder, OnlineVideoContests.com. “The reason behind that is that they don’t have a community — they have a business. That’s when things can get really tricky.”
For marketers to engage an audience realistically, they have to incentivize, says Shawn Gurn, Interactive Media Director, Moroch. “To be clear, the Holy Grail is to have consumers who really want to be spokespeople for you [for free]. But until we get to that point, incentivization seems to be the way to make it happen.”
Here are 5 tips on promoting your online video contest:
Tip #1. Advertise the contest on your homepage and in the various categories of your website six weeks before the video deadline.
“You need around 14 days to get the word out and then a month for them to arrange their shoots and finish their videos. If you give them too much time, people will probably put it off until later and eventually forget. If you do not give them enough time, they’ll give up before they even start,” Johnson says.
Tip #2. Send an email to your subscriber list that’s dedicated to getting the contest off the ground, with all the details about how to participate. Be specific about how long the video should be (5 minutes or less is a good suggestion) and try putting the length in the subject line. Something like: “You + 5-Minute Video = Big Prize?”
Tip #3. Set up groups on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to build a community of “friends” and then push the contest to them. “The really good videos may very well go viral,” says Eric Anderson, Director, Agency Services, White Horse.
Tip #4. Niche marketers should look into running banners at individual sites targeted to their audience. If you are a surfer-products retailer, run a banner for the contest at one or two of the biggest destination sites for surfers.
Tip #5. The contest page should include a clearly written and thorough list of instructions on how to participate. Don’t leave any stone unturned. If you do, you’re going to have would-be submitters falling by the wayside simply because of poorly written instructions.
How Much Does It Cost?
We recommend that smaller brands test with free YouTube accounts and groups before committing to the creation of a microsite. Otherwise, your CFO may not care how much less expensive they are than TV commercials if the first test cost too much and produced too little. When you get to the point where you know what you are doing and feel comfortable with investing ad dollars, the cost of a properly run online video contest varies greatly.“We have run successful online video contests anywhere from $25K to $150K,” says Bannon. “It depends a lot on the [complexity] of what you are trying to do.”
How to Measure Effectiveness
There are two primary ways to measure the effectiveness of an online video contest:
o Number of submissions
o Number of unique visitors it drawsAt the same time, if you have a dedicated microsite for the contest, you can track back sales of people who visited the site first before clicking through to your ecommerce pages. “Any analytics suite would allow you to do that, provided the contest microsite resides on the same domain as the ecommerce site,” says Anderson.
Yet, Anderson and others point out that you shouldn’t paint yourself into a corner with traditional direct marketing metrics, such as conversion rates. An online video contest deals first with interactive branding and second with sales — especially if you are a multichannel company that may reap extra product orders via one of your offline avenues.
3 Potential Pitfalls
There are some problems to watch for. Here are three of the top hazards and how to dodge them:-> Pitfall #1. Upsetting non-winners
Online video contest participants often put a great deal of effort into their submissions. So, you don’t want them to go away angry if they lose (some will think their video was the best no matter what and feel like they were treated unfairly). To help avoid that, give *everyone* who submits a video — at the very least — a personalized email with a reward coupon ($25 to $50 off + free shipping, perhaps).
Another pre-emptive solution is to send them cool swag — a free item they will wear or tell their friends about. In a past online video contest, Converse sent participants a pair of Chuck Taylors. Marketers should consider budgeting in product giveaways.
“Part of the essence of all UGC initiatives is making sure that users get something out of it besides only the entry,” Anderson says. “It’s even truer in the case of video. Even if they do not win, it’s good to put up as many submissions as possible on the website. At least that way, they can send a link to friends and family and generate some kind of personal interest with that.”
Quick tip: Use a panel of judges in your marketing department to determine the winning entries. Don’t allow viewers to vote for the winner; it undermines the authenticity of the contest, which could turn into a ‘click competition.’
-> Pitfall #2. Attracting contest ‘junkies’
There are numerous contest sites that drive traffic to freebies. This is potentially bad because you don’t want to attract more contest junkies than actual prospects.
There are plusses to having a few junkies join in, though. Their content can generate interest in your contest.
“In one online video contest, we tracked where all of the people came from,” Anderson says. “And we got about an equal amount of free traffic from those contest sites as we did from paid media. You might think the quality of the content [the ‘junkies’ contributed] would be much lower, but we actually got some really decent content from them.”
-> Pitfall #3. Justifying video vs. other UGC contests
Getting people to make a video for your brand is far more time-consuming than getting them to write a letter or send in a photo. So your numbers may not be worthy of running down to your CFO at first.
In addition, some agencies are still having a difficult time with the idea of relinquishing control over the message to the consumer audience. In other cases, they are having a hard time selling the idea to their clients when doing a letter or photograph contest also are on the table.
“There aren’t a lot of clients who may be as comfortable as the Nikes and the Mountain Dews — that can more easily see this as a viable marketing plan,” says Gurn. “But there is a definite value to allowing your consumers to have a voice in the marketing message.”
Useful links related to this article
Creative samples of online video contests:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/ovc/study.htmlTAOW Productions:
http://www.taowproductions.com/White Horse:
http://whitehorse.com/Moroch:
http://www.moroch.com/OnlineVideoContests.com
http://onlinevideocontests.com/
Questions? Contact Customer Service at (877) 895-1717 (outside the US and Canada please call (401) 247-7655), service@sherpastore.com© 2000-2008 MarketingSherpa, Inc., ISSN 1559-5137
Editorial HQ: MarketingSherpa Inc 499 Main St., Warren, RI 02885
So go out there and get your contests going! You don’t have to produce your own videos to run a contest, you can get others to do it.
I recently read an article on NewswireToday about a company that was “chosen to produce an in-store product demonstration video”.
Check out this quote: “ A recent study compiled by Dynamic Logic in 2004 showed that a single exposure to an online video increased Brand Awareness by 10 percentage points, while 10 exposures to an ad banner only raised awareness by 6%. ”
Not sure how they can call that a “recent” study. Even in scientific research, 2004 is old news, let alone in internet marketing research. Besides, how many of us even had the broadband internet access to watch online video in 2004?
Still, if those were the stats in 2004, they are probably even more true now. With banner ads largely blocked (do I really need another one in my face), and permission marketing at its peak, video is most definitely going to serve your branding campaign better than banners.
If you’re hesitating at all about using video to market your niche business, read this article: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/2/prweb705233.htm
Channels Network™ Unveils Video on It’s Niche Business Websites
For the past several months Channels Network™ has been working behind the scenes to join the power and popularity of video with their niche e-business network websites. They are pleased to announce today that the planning, development, and beta testing is over, and the bright future of Channels Network™ is underway.
Lake Junaluska, NC (PRWEB) February 19, 2008 — For the past several months Channels Network™ has been working behind the scenes to join the power and popularity of video with their niche e-business network websites. They are pleased to announce today that the planning, development, and beta testing is over, and the bright future of Channels Network™ is underway.
The Channels Network™ http://channelsnetwork.com of e-business websites uniquely serves viable niche markets such as antiques, apartments, auctions, dating, diamonds, estate jewelry, FSBO real estate, hotels, recipes, restaurants, and others that are perfect venues for video content and presentations.
“Now homeowners listing their homes on our real estate site FSBO Channels can add a virtual video tour to their listing of their home’s interior, exterior, the yard, the neighborhood, the local schools and more. Now that is effective internet advertising to the 85% of all real estate buyers who search the web”, said Bert L. Bill, COO and co-founder.
The recent launch of Recipe Channels™ http://recipechannels.com an exciting new “video recipe” web development of Channels Network™ , has received rave reviews from visitors and is experiencing double digit daily increases in unique visitors and video views. The appeal of video recipes is expected to soon replace recipe sites with basic printed ingredients, preparation and cooking instructions.
The power of a narrated streaming video brings everything to life like nothing else can and is clearly at the center of all marketing. Until now, only large companies could afford to produce and air a video “commercial”. With the invent of affordable digital videography and broadband, the advertising playing field has been leveled and now open to individuals and businesses of all sizes.
The exploding popularity of video and the marketing power of the medium need no more proof than the fact that Google™ paid $2 billion for YouTube™ last year. Video is clearly at the center of all future business advertising and marketing until something replaces audio and video presentations.
In December, nearly 141 million U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos, according to ComScore. Video lovers watched an average of 3.4 hours of video during the month, representing a 34% gain since the beginning of 2007. The average online video lasted 2.8 minutes, and the average viewer watched 72 videos.
Online video ad spending will double from just under $800 million in 2007 to $1.6 billion this year, and will hit $4.3 billion in 2011, according to researcher eMarketer.
When Channels Network began building their niche e-business portfolio, they selected keyword specific domain names that included the word “Channels” with the knowledge that video was about to become more widely used, according to Ray Whitmer, CEO and co-founder. The portfolio contains dozens of successful operating sites and hundreds of top level keyword rich domain names.
Catch those bits I bolded? Video is now, and video is for your business.
Use video to enhance the content on your site, bringing targetted visitors and increasing your branding.
Recently, Sari Holz of All Beauty Supplies used the content from one of their how-to articles to make a video for the company website.
Watch her video to see how she uses her content as the script, uses her site logo for branding, and uses transitions and video effects to achieve a look second only to videos produced with thousands of advertising dollars.
Sari read our ebook, Video Marketing Success, to get tips on how to use video to market the All Beauty Supplies website. You, too, can easily make content videos to market your niche business effectively.
Get our ebook on Video Marketing Success today.
See, nobody wants to watch ads:
Online Video Ads Must Change
A recent survey of people’s attitudes toward online in-stream video advertising suggests that advertisers using this increasingly popular form of Internet marketing are wasting their money.Half of all respondents said they stopped watching online videos once they encountered in-stream advertisements, and nearly one in six said they immediately left the web site, according to results of the survey released Monday by Burst Media, an online advertising network.
“In-stream video is not getting the benefit advertisers hoped,” said David Cooperstein, chief marketing officer for Burst. “People are expecting the content—not to be interrupted by an ad.”
Web publishers increasingly are adding online video content to their sites, as the technology for creating and posting it has become cheaper and as more web surfers are connected via broadband. The Burst survey—which polled 2,600 web users 18 years or older—found that nearly 70 percent of respondents have viewed online video, including more than half of respondents 65 years or older.
Advertisers haven’t been far behind this surge in online video. eMarketer estimated that U.S. Internet video advertising—including in-page and in-stream—will reach $3.1 billion by 2010 from $775 million in 2007.
The Burst findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of in-stream advertising, in which a commercial interrupts streaming video, either before, during or after it has begun.
Mr. Cooperstein said advertisers should use shorter commercials—from 5 to 10 seconds long rather than 15 to 30 seconds like on TV—and they should be matched to the content of the video interrupted.
An in-stream ad placed at the beginning of a skiing video, for example, should be related to the sport.
Some advertisers also have had success with overlaying their commercials in the corner of the video screen so the user could still see the video, said Mr. Cooperstein. Other advertisers have experimented with displaying their commercials in separate screens just to the side of the video.
If in-stream commercials don’t change, consumers have shown they’re willingness to click away.
I picked up this widget on Squidoo, while trying to wrap my brain around what to do with a Squidoo lens.
Click through to see the plexo
Not sure how it will look in WordPress. Basically, this widget pulls a list from an article by Squidoo main squid Seth Godin . The article is called “How to make an eBook in just a few steps“. I haven’t gone through all the examples in this list, but the first one, Seth’s own ebook on “Flipping the Funnel” is a very good marketing read. And it’s important for the new social networking agenda.
He makes a big point in “Flipping the Funnel” that those who get in on new marketing trends tend to make the highest ROI (Return On Investment).
Right now, video marketing is FREE via YouTube and the like. Right now, your keyword phrase may be WIDE OPEN, or even better, populated by poorly-done-cell-phone-unedited-pieces-of-forgettable-fluff (PDCPUPOFF’s). Get in now, before it costs you as much as a Superbowl halftime commercial.
Not sure how to get in on video marketing? Try our ebook: Video Marketing Success .
From PRNewswire:
Got Video? Training Just Got Easy
Video-based training service offers new options ASHEVILLE, N.C., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Infinity Learning Solutions announces the latest release of DigitalChalk.com, an online learning system that offers multimedia-based training as an on-demand service. "This online service is a groundbreaking advancement in e-learning. We are putting all the tools needed to build rich multimedia lessons into an online design and delivery system. With DigitalChalk.com, everyone can publish high- quality online training without being an expert in complex authoring tools," states Russell Stinehour, President, Infinity Learning Solutions. "DigitalChalk is going to turn the e-learning market delivery model on its head," says Tony McCune, VP of Sales. "With our Winter 2008 release, we have combined our online Chalkboard Editor and Viewer with our e-commerce delivery system. Instructors can build, publish and sell video-based courses online within a matter of minutes." DigitalChalk.com provides a web-based visual studio with the tools for synchronizing video, audio, PowerPoint(R) and web content into a multimedia presentation. There is absolutely no software to buy and install. "Instructors publish courses on DigitalChalk and get paid based on the courses sold on the system. It's a no-risk option for posting video training online," says McCune. DigitalChalk also offers the same features in a business account for corporate customers that include a branded training portal and integrated user management. Infinity Learning Solutions, an e-learning software business with online training and assessment products, is corporately located in Asheville, North Carolina with offices located in Atlanta, Orlando and Kansas. Press Contact: Tony McCune - VP Sales & Marketing telephone: 877-321-2451 x1 fax: 866-531-4940 http://www.digitalchalk.com This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information,visit http://www.ereleases.com.
If you’ve spent money on Camtasia… well take a look at CamStudio , which is free. And if you want to cut your learning curve and skip all the software installs, run, don’t walk, to DigitalChalk.com .
However, if what you want to teach isn’t a computer program, you’ll still need to shoot video. Buy our ebook to get it right: Video Marketing Success Book.
If you are an author, you can use video marketing to promote your book.
Book trailers are like movie trailers. A book trailer is a video that gives your potential customers a preview of your book. This can be a very creative process. Use images you love, images that evoke the emotions you’re hoping your book will evoke. Use beautiful music that touches the soul. Be sure to link to your website or your Amazon page, or wherever your book is available for sale.
Many self published authors are taking advantage of “Print on Demand” services, such as Lulu.com, an online POD provider. Lulu provides many online tools to aid the writer who wants to print a small amount of books. You can even design your cover with Lulu tools!
Once your book is available on a site such as Lulu, you need to promote it. The truth is, that even if a major publisher takes on your book, you are expected to promote your book. In fact, getting your book published often includes having a spiffy marketing plan that impresses the publisher more than your competition.
Enter new media — online video.
- It’s surprisingly easy to make your own video on a micro budget.
- It’s fun to upload using new tools online and get comments, all the while making a buzz about your book.
- Once your video is made, you can also offer it on disc as a bundle.
Check out our newest creative solution:
Lulu Book Author’s Video Marketing Success.
It’s available for $7 — less than dinner out. This ebook differs from our full Video Marketing Success Book in several ways.
- We have returned the YouTube references, which ClickBank demanded be removed for them to sell it.
- We have only included the marketing tactics that are relevant to authors.
- You don’t get all the bonuses, only the author’s ebook.
Should you want to see the full marketing potentials and ideas we present, you’d need to purchase the full Video Marketing Success Book.
Surely at $7, you know an author who could use this information to bring their book promotion into the 21st century. Get today:
Lulu Book Author’s Video Marketing Success.
ClickZ tackles the local web advertising dilemna in a recent article. Video ads are part of the new array of options available to local businesses. Is a local web ad right for your business? It’s not always so easy to do the math:
“However, publishers have yet to determine which video offerings will appeal to local advertisers, and how best to sell them. Selling Web video ads is also a struggle for some traditional media outlets, according to Peter Krasilovsky, principal of local media consulting firm Krasilovsky Consulting and program director, Marketplaces for The Kelsey Group. He told ClickZ News he’s heard mixed reports suggesting some local sales teams aren’t doing a good job of selling video advertising.
To be sure, traditional media outfits like newspapers and TV sites still need help selling online display ads to local advertisers. That could simply be because online ad novices like small local advertisers tend to gravitate first towards search text ads, online classifieds, IYP ads, or other performance-based advertising, said Shawn Riegsecker, president of Centro, a media services and technology company that facilitates ad buys on local sites.”
In all honesty, I have been encouraging more and more online businesses to look into offline advertising. The trust factor for offline options such as radio, local papers, and local non-competitive but related businesses is huge. If your customer’s trusted radio announcer mentions your great coupon on his radio show, your customer will trust that more than an ad on another website.
Local businesses are smart to go for the pay-for-performance first. Madison Avenue type of “branding” campaigns are for the rich companies that don’t have to answer up to every Return On Investment cent. Pay-for-performance is the way to go for driving local sales and leads at the beginning.
Once the first online presence is established, video is a great way to build a relationship. Use video to personalize your business, present your products, present tutorials on how to use your products, interviews with experts in your field, any number of content value added methods for building your relationship with your customer.
That could be how to use online video to drive more offline sales. But it’s not a pay for performance model.
If you thought the doctor’s office video channel was niche, try the other shoe. If it fits, wear it.
Online Media Daily reports a new “all shoes” video channel:
The Shoe Must Go On: New Online Video Channel Devoted To Footwear BETTING THAT THERE IS NO end in sight for American women’s obsession with shoes, Powderhouse Productions is getting ready to launch ShoeTube.tv, a web channel devoted to nothing but shoes. (okay, there will be a little bit about boots, too.) Programming for the site–scheduled to launch on Valentine’s Day–includes eight regular segments, says Marcy McCreary, director of new media, marketing and sales for the Somerville, Mass.-based company. “Pimp my Pump,” for example, allows women to show off their own shoe embellishments; “Walk on By” features woman-on-the-street videos shot in major U.S. cities, and “Real or Deal” invites contestants to decide whether a designer shoe is real or a knock-off.
There’s even some more highbrow programming, such as an interview with the comedian who created the foul-mouthed “Shoes” video on YouTube. And there’s also a segment on “Walk This Way,” a recent exhibit of shoes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
To add a social network element, “we’ve also hired a number of fashion writers to blog about shoes and create forums,” she says, so viewers can comment as well as post their own shoe videos, YouTube-style.
The site, which targets women ages 18 to 44, will be ad-supported, allowing sponsors to buy video ad overlays, ShoeTube Boutique microsites, banners, and contest and polling efforts. So far, Nine West has signed on to promote its 30th anniversary as well as the launch of its fall 2008 boot line, McCreary says, and other shoe marketers and retailers are on deck.
Finally, the site will offer four “mood” zones–sinfully sexy, chic comfort, fit and feisty, and fun and funky–and will sell sponsorships for each zone, she says.
Over the top? Absolutely. But so far, there’s no indication that America’s shoe fixation is slowing down. Total footwear sales in the U.S., reports NPD Group, Inc.’s Consumer Tracking Service, came in at $44.2 billion in the 12 months ending in October. And a recent poll from Consumer Reports National Research Center found that the average American woman has 19 pairs of shoes.
Sarah Mahoney can be reached at sarah@mediapost.com
This is a major undertaking, but if you already have a staff of bloggers, some videographers, and a niche that you know is well loved (women and shoes, how about men and cars), you could be on to the next video channel.
Do some homework. Look into keywords with Wordtracker. Look into what major companies or sites advertise for those keywords. If you can find major companies that would purchase ad space for branding (rather than pay for performance, which would be harder to actually pull off on a video channel), you might want to look into a niche video channel.