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YouTube is practically a household word. Digi-cams and video-editing software have become sophisticated and affordable. No wonder digital video is suddenly where the marketing action is. Now’s the time for ski area marketers to gear up and create a variety of video programming—online virtual tours, ski guides, and other videos—to promote their resorts.

The eye-catching nature and emotional, attention-grabbing abilities of online video make it a powerful instrument for raising brand awareness and engaging consumers on a more personal level. What’s new, though, is that technology and user habits have evolved to make it easily accessible. More than any other marketing tool, video combines many of today’s hot marketing elements—branded entertainment, paid search, viral marketing, consumer generated media, behavioral targeting, website brand marketing and online gaming.

The rapid adoption of broadband Internet access is the primary driver of online video. Earlier this year, the U.S. passed a key threshold: more than half of online households are using high-speed connections. A study by eMarketer estimates that 69.4 million households will have broadband access in 2008.

And consumers are putting their high-speed connections to use. More than 94 million Americans viewed a streaming video online in June of last year, according to comScore Networks. And it’s not just kids who are tuning in. Consumers between ages 35 and 54 accounted for more than 45 percent of online video watched in August of 2005. These adults are 20 percent more likely to watch an online video than the typical Internet user, the study found. People ages 25 to 34 are 12 percent more likely to watch a streaming video. In short, all your customers watch online video.


How Effective Is Video?

Many studies have proved the effectiveness of video. The Wharton School of Business found that video boosts comprehension and retention by 50 percent over a live presentation. Other studies have shown that video expedites buying decisions by 72 percent when compared to print. And that six times as many people prefer a video to printed information.

Video is important on the web because it gets attention. The average attention span of a web user today is measured in seconds. The new web visitor applies only very limited time and effort to scope out what you are communicating/selling/proposing and to decide whether you offer what he is seeking. If you can offer a fast, highly visual way to let him discover your message, you can hopefully engage his interest long enough to convert him to a customer.


An Evolving Business Mindset

Video marketing is part of the Web 2.0 atmosphere, in which websites transform from isolated information silos to a social phenomenon characterized by open communication. Web 2.0 thrives on user-generated content and functionality, such as chat, messaging, file sharing, and blogging. The beauty is that anyone can participate and become a reporter—thanks to dramatically reduced video production costs and the proliferation of social video sharing sites.

Mainstream companies such as Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, General Motors and Johnson & Johnson have used online video over the past two years, but ski industry marketers are just getting into it. Areas are adding flash and streaming video to their websites, e-mail broadcasts, and Internet ad campaigns. Ski area marketers will continue to shift up to five percent of their marketing budget from traditional advertising (radio, TV, and print) to the interactive channel, including online video. For a very good reason: ROI.


Where Ski Area Marketers Should Invest in Online Video

Video can be an extremely effective part of your overall marketing program. There are numerous ways to implement video on the web.

The hottest of these are the social video sharing sites—websites where users can upload, view, and share video clips. Among them:

• YouTube. Yes, the original video-sharing site everyone’s heard of: www.youtube.com

• Yahoo! Video. Another new, and big, player after recent acquisitions: video.yahoo.com

• Google Video. You can monetize your content by assigning a sale price to each clip: http://video.google.com

• Revver. YouTube with monetization. If people watch your video (and embedded ad), you get paid 20 percent of what the advertiser pays Revver. If they click on the Revver link at the end, you split the proceeds fifty/fifty: www.revver.com

• AOL-Uncut Video (5 min. clips). A new player in the social video network: http://uncutvideo.aol.com

• And there are others; more will surely appear as well, but for now, check out these: www.dailymotion.com/us, www.veoh.com and www.grouper.com.


Beyond Social Networking Sites

And there are many other ways to use video. To name a few:

• website entertainment (streaming media or Flash video). Polls, for example, allow users to share opinions of videos. Games engage active users who are focused on your brand for an extended time. For visitors with short attention spans, try instant wins and sweeps.

• press releases (DV-CAM or HDV digital video formats)

• e-mail-newsletters or broadcast marketing

• product and service offerings. Let “video hosts” speak directly to users.

• in-stream and in-page video ads (banner ads)

• ad networks. These extend the reach of quality video content beyond your own website. They include Broadband Enterprises, The Fifth Network, and Brightcove, followed closely by Google (after acquiring YouTube and DoubleClick) and Yahoo (after buying Right Media).

• affiliate distribution. You can always hit the syndication marketplace.


How to Make It Big Now

It’s easy to get started and test the waters with video banners and in-stream video. But keep these questions in mind as you develop your strategy:

• What content do you have, and how can you leverage that in an informative yet entertaining way?

• How does your target audience consume media on the web, specifically video?

• How and when will your target audience be the most receptive to your message?

• Where does it make the most sense to distribute your video?

• What tracking measurements will be set up and monitored?

• How can it be integrated into your other marketing campaigns?

More than any other marketing format, Internet video has the potential to become one of the hottest ways to attract customers to the slopes and learn what keeps them coming back for more. With integrated tracking, we can learn about customers every time they forward a video to a friend, write a comment, or conduct a search. We’ll take that information and improve, giving customers what they really want next time, and the time after that.

The best part is that this is only the beginning.


Samantha Rufo is president of nxtConcepts, an interactive marketing & media company. For more information contact her at 1-888-215-0820 or sam@nxtconcepts.com.



10 Tips to Make Video Matter
As you begin to embrace new video opportunities, here are a few key things to bear in mind:

1. Five minute rule. Keep your video clips short, preferable under five minutes. Most people are unwilling to give any one video too much time. Playback has to be fast, easy, and high-quality.

2. Wow! Factor. Your video message must be informative, entertaining and something that consumers are open to receiving. If it doesn't "wow" people, they won’t share it with other people they know, or send it across their social networks.

3. Entertain, don’t sell. Keep commercial or promotional content to a minimum. The most powerful short videos are those which are purely entertaining. You can add your sales message once people are interested in learning more about you.

4. One is a lonely number. Create a series of clips. It is nearly impossible to predict which videos will catch your customers’ attention. So create several, and learn from the one which performs best.

5. Tag it. Use tags, keywords, description, and bookmarking links to help people find, save and share your videos.

6. Face time. Create videos with multiple stars (possibly some of your customers). Your best viral marketers are the people who appear in your video and pass it to friends and family.

7. Community tools. Integrate community building tools that complement the video viewing experience and facilitate dialog between users: voting for their favorite videos, creating a personal profile, or even uploading their own creations.

8. Size matters. Even broadband users prefer videos that download fast. If you must post a large file (one meg or more), try breaking it up into smaller chunks. If you can’t, then make sure the user knows they are waiting to view something of high value. Remember, too, that video delivery is bandwidth-intensive for the provider, too. Make sure your website doesn’t come to a screeching halt just when your video popularity soars.

9. Be professional. One thing is certain—you can always tell a professional video from an amateur. With professional talent and production, you can get the video that you need, when you need it. The end product will look polished and the consumer will appreciate the difference.

10. Flash rules. QuickTime, Real Video, WindowsMedia, MPEG, H.263, Adobe Flash…how to choose? It is critical that you know your video will be seen and shared. The best way to accomplish this is to use Adobe’s Flash software. Flash has almost a 98 percent penetration with the online public. Compare that to 20 to 30 percent of the other video players combined.



Make it Big this Season
The Dove “Evolution” campaign that locked millions of users to the site, www.campaignforrealbeauty.com, created a viral response allowing fans to e-mail the links to friends, and generated pop culture buzz. And of course, the online video paid off in higher sales and website registrations.

It’s a case study worth emulating.

What: Dove’s “Evolution” is a riveting, 75-second film of a young woman's transformation from pretty-but-ordinary to strikingly beautiful billboard model. It deconstructs the beauty myth by revealing all the ad-production secrets employed, from the impact of lighting and the application of hair and make-up to retouching, Photoshop-stretching the neck and widening of the eyes. It concludes, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” After the video, the site launches into an actionable item—eight- to 12-year-old girls can sign up for Dove’s “real beauty” workshops, which teach girls about the importance of identifying beauty within themselves in the pre-teen years before peer pressure to be like the mythical supermodel drives them to anorexia or bulimia.

Results: Dove uploaded “Evolution” on YouTube for free. It generated more than 1.7 million views in the first two weeks. Then the buzz spilled over to mainstream media. In TV alone, the campaign was featured on “The View,” “Ellen,” CNN, “Entertainment Tonight” and Fox’s “Geraldo.” In comparison, Dove spent $2.5 million for a one-time ad spot during the 2006 Super Bowl. This created almost 500 million impressions, though most viewers were not part of the target audience. In fact, “Evolution” drove three times the traffic of the Super Bowl spot.

“Evolution” generated major buzz for good reason. It is authentic, genuine, and true to the Dove brand. It is an extension of the values that Dove has demonstrated for the past several years (it was one of the first major brands to feature larger women in its ads). It challenges convention and educates.

As a viral campaign, “Real Beauty” employs all of the right strategies and tactics. It’s easy to send the website to a friend, it has a compelling call-to-action, and it positions the educational resources on the site as the main focus—a testament to Dove’s humanitarian reasons for creating the campaign. It is clear what is important here, and that isn’t just selling product. It’s helping women and girls redefine beauty to change their life in a positive way.