Creating online video is a great marketing tool for comedians, as well as being cost effective it can get your act out to a much wider audience than performing in dingy pubs around the country. Twitter and comedy have made a wonderful partnership ever since the social networks inception and have helped raise awareness of a number of burgeoning talents.

Perhaps one of the most famous Twitter success stories was the feed entitled “S*** My Dad Says” which was made into a book before being turned into a television series starring William Shatner. Following in the footsteps of “Dad Says” is the feed “S*** Girls Say” which currently has over 100,000 followers and has just embarked on a web video series.

Actress Juliet Lewis even makes an appearance in this first episode which uploaded just a couple of days ago has already garnered a massive 2.5 million views, making this joke from writers Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard a potentially lucrative one for the future.

If you want to make a splash on YouTube with your video production, why not get in touch.

Web Marketing is a world in which being forward-thinking is a distinct advantage – as one might well suppose aeronautics was not so long ago, given what a wacky and likely-lethal idea trying to get airborne in a big metal box must have seemed to most. Only logical then that airlines themselves are keen to show off their looking-to-the-future credentials, as exemplified by a new, social media-powered initiative from KLM.

KLM, the flagship airline of the Netherlands, is allowing its passengers to access the Facebook and LinkedIn profiles of those flying on the same plane as them, thereby giving them greater opportunity to make an at least semi-informed choice about who they choose to sit next to.

Now whether this proves a notable step in a genuine effort on KLM’s part to help usher in a new era of user-friendly flying or just a smart web marketing move, guaranteed to secure column inches from impressionable bloggers with space to fill, would seem to all hinge on the extent of the take-up on the scheme, given that – like UK organ donation – it requires participants to opt in.    

Still, not hard to see the benefits of getting a sneak preview at those you are due to be spending hours cooped up with in a high-flying tin can. Certainly Shatner could have made good use of the function back in the day, to spare him his Teddy Ruxpin torment…  

Interested in video production? Then get in touch with Spectrecom and see what we could do for you and your business.  

Video production is often heralded as an industrialised, greed-sodden process in which a great number of parasitic corporate fingers dwell. But, one stand-up comic is cooking up something entirely different of late, and breaking the mould of distribution for the better. Louis CK, American stand-up comedian, has produced, edited, directed and distributed his new comedy special himself.

The star took a huge gamble on this new project, which cost around $170,000 to produce. Another $32,000 was needed for the website, which was the keystone of the show’s distribution. Though a large portion of this was paid for by ticket sales, Louis himself had to fork out a hefty chunk to ensure that video production standards were kept.

Selling the show at $5 a download, this is a landmark event which should leave the big television studios shaking in their boots. The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10^th. Since then, he has sold over 110,000 copies for a total which exceeds $500,000. This hints at a very interesting point. Consumers do not inherently wish to steal products and stifle artists. Louis’s method is not only organic, streamlined and highly advantageous to all involved; it also allows more people to see Louis’s work for less, rather than less people seeing it for more. This is accentuated by the lack of regional restrictions, copyright drudgery and general corporate joy-kills which go hand in hand with mainstream means of distribution. Here are some outtakes from the special:

Respect is well deserved by Louis CK for taking a chance on something which epitomises the democratic power of the internet, and if you would like to harness that same power in your web-video content then check out our film studio here.

A not-that sad inevitability of video marketing is that brands and brand ambassadors eventually have to go their separate ways. Well, except for Ronald McDonald. That escapee from the Id of Stephen King is yoked in for the long haul and then some. For most, however, divorce is as certain as death and taxes, and as if to perfectly illustrate that claim, Iggy Pop and car insurance firm Swiftcover have just parted company.

One of the more curious video marketing campaigns of recent times, Swiftcover’s signing of Iggy Pop to front its commercials served to both dramatically raise the profile of the motor insurance outfit and also attract copious moans ‘n’ groans from the self-appointed keepers of rock’s sacred flame of rebellion, all whining that the Stooges frontman had sold out – as if they all would have been so hip to spotting the merits of Pop and his cohorts when the original Stooges records were released and panned into near-oblivion, with the non-sales to match.    

But the Pop/Swiftcover detractors are now free to de-work themselves from their collective lather, as the rock ‘n’ roller has been supplanted by two new animated characters: a pair of dogs named Sid and Johnny, voiced respectively by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton from League of Gentlemen. And while the new ads will screen on TV in January, they are debuting first on the Swiftcover Facebook page. How modern.       

Mind you, in an episode which offers salutary lesson for firms seeking to engage with their public via social media, the unveiling of the new campaign has, it is fair to say, left Swiftcover customers underwhelmed, hoping as they apparently were that the trailed ‘big announcement’ might revolve around them saving some money on their insurance, rather than a pair of cartoon pooches.

To wit, the four Facebook responses so far to the announcement read ‘Oh.’, ‘Care?’, ‘What a let-down!!’ and ‘Yeah, just chuck more of our premiums on advertising! Well done!’ The natives, it would seem, are revolting…

Are you interested in harnessing the benefits of video marketing for your own firm? Well, get in touch with SpectrevVids then, and find out about some of the great video production packages available, all at eminently affordable prices.  

The prospect of web videos on the Xbox means a whole new audience for your online video productions and in-video advertising. The Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii have had YouTube for some time now but this latest update from Microsoft, incorporating not only the most popular online video destination but also services like 4OD, Netflix and HBOGo means that the most popular (and best) gaming platform now has the capabilities.

With no browser function, the YouTube for Xbox has been custom made and has a number of easy to use features that can even be utilized with the Kinect, “Xbox, Nyan Cat!”

Here’s a clip from IGN explaining the new application:

As web videos move from the computer domain to the television there will be a myriad of opportunities for video marketing. Creating content that appeals to gamers is an excellent start whether it’s getting creative with your video productions or including gamer specific memes and culture in your copy. The video games market, unlike the film and music industry hasn’t floundered in the wake of Internet downloads and the recession. With games like Modern Warfare 3 making upwards of $1 billion in sales it’s a market that is certainly worth tapping into.

If you want to get your video production on your site and across the web why not get in touch with SpectreVids for cheap but effective videos.