However, when the student recruitment video below for the Panhellenic Association at the University of Alabama went viral, it was quickly removed from their Youtube channel and the account promptly deleted.

The video was made by students for an internal recruitment event - not for external marketing purposes - but despite attempts to suppress it, the video lives on and has racked up nearly half a million views already!

It's easy to see why the video has became so popular.

A terrible, cheesy song, badly performed, with dreadful production values will almost always be a sure-fire hit online. Especially when it's difficult to detect even a hint of irony.

But should the University have removed the video? Is there such a thing a bad publicity?

Well ... when it comes to student recruitment videos, I would argue that the answer is usually, yes.

OK, you could say it suggests the University of Alabama is down-to-earth and a fun place to study, but prospective students (and parents) will always make assumptions about the quality of education they'll receive and the prestige of the institution. Anybody who watches this video is very unlikely to want to study there.

Spectrecom has produced hundreds of student recruitment videos for universities and colleges across the UK; and we've just cut a brand new showreel showcasing some of best work.

You can view it above or take a look right here. 

To find out more about Spectrecom's award-winning student recruitment videos, please click here.  

Brunel is a campus-based university situated in Uxbridge, West London, and is home to nearly 15000 students from over 100 countries worldwide; and the University has a relationship with the Olympic Games dating back to the last time they were held in London in 1948.

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s graduates of Borough Road, the West London Institute and Brunel University continued to compete at the Olympics and at the 1988 Games in Seoul Ian Taylor won the University’s first gold medal as goalkeeper in the victorious hockey team. Since the turn of the century there have been at least 15 former Brunel University students in each British team that has travelled to the Games, many of whom have come home with medals.

Brunel's "2012 Programmes" aim to create a lasting legacy by linking the University with sporting, educational, community and business partners through a series of activities, events and courses; and to maximise the potential of the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to London in 2012 to leave lasting benefits for Brunel University’.

The film above was commissioned to showcase Brunel's role in London 2012 and features 4 prospective British Olympians 400m hurdler Perri Shakes Drayton, high-jumper Ellie Newman, decathlete Ashley Bryant and rising Taekwondo, Jibreel Malik.

Spectrecom is the UK's leading producer of student recruitment videos. Find out more about the wide range of video projects we've worked on here.

Based in central London, the company boosts an award-winning design team of 15 leading architects / interior designers who help create “the ultimate environment that combines comfort, luxury, and utility.”

The company works on some of London’s most prestigous and luxurious properties; and asked Spectrecom to produce a web video featuring Casa Forma's Creative Director discussing their latest Mayfair project.

The web video was shot in a single day with a crew of just three.

Find out more about Casa Forma or why not contact Spectrecom about your own web video production requirements.

The web video was created before England’s loss to Ireland on Sunday and was leaked onto the Internet this week by an unknown source.

Made by sponsors Nike and an unknown video production company, the web video features players including Toby Flood, Chris Ashton, Bed Foden and Mark Cueto.

 A Nike spokesman said:

'We commissioned a celebration T-shirt and a video featuring the players, as we obviously need to plan ahead. It's unfortunate that this email has been leaked, and perhaps the lesson is to be less optimistic in our internal communications.'

Well quite.

Spectrecom specialise in the production of web video (usually about things that actually have happened). Get in touch on 203 405 2260 to find out how we can help.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s web video and video production services or contact us for a quotation on (0)203 405 226

Posting a boring, dry corporate video to Youtube about your business and just hoping for the best, will rarely - if ever - achieve the results you desire. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, single one-off videos which go viral unexpectedly and bring the creator fantastic instant results, but for long-term gain, you need to build an audience for your web videos over time.

The Old Spice or Blendtec web video campaigns have both enjoyed fantastic success of late by taking this approach; and so have the web video produced for and by Orabrush. Since launching their Youtube Channel Orabrush’s sales volume in stores is now comparable to premium toothbrush sales. A few years ago it was a struggling one-man band.

This video, for example, has now been veiwed over 13 million times and a staggering 19% of those viewers visited Orabrush's website afterwards. That is a LOT of sales leads.

Orabrush grew its own YouTube strategy organically – testing and learning from its mistakes as the campaign progressed. Click here to learn more about the web video campaign and how they did it.

Here at Spectrecom, we specialise in the production of quality, affordable web video; and enjoyed a good degree of web video viral success.

Our creative team, for example recently produced a student recruitment video for Kings College London that went viral within a matter of hours. Since Feb 7^th, it has been shared over 2000 times on Facebook, received nearly 25,000 views on Facebook and has even  been covered by the Guardian and Times Online.

To discuss your web video marketing requirements and get a video production quotation, get in touch on 0203 405 2260 or info@spectrecom.co.uk

Spectrecom specialise in the production of web video. Click here to find out more.

A group of musical university students at King’s College London watched the hugely popular video and decided to take the Americans on at their own game. They asked Spectrecom to produce a music video featuring a song they had written about life at the college and this is what we came up with.

Featuring members of All the King’s Men, The King’s Chix, Breakin KCL and the Gospel Music society, the video gives a very British take on the all-singing, all-dancing university experience.

And here’s the original Yale film;

Find out more about Spectrecom’s web video production services, or call for a video production quotation +44 0203 405 2260

easyJet and The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions are offering five lucky regional Double Dutch teams the chance to hop, skip and jump their way into the grand final in Central London in April 2011. They needed a film showcasing how it’s done by the professionals.

Shot on the Friday and edited over the weekend, the video was uploaded to the easyJet’s blog on Monday. So why not grab your rope and learn how to Double Dutch for the chance to win the ultimate prize of a city break to Amsterdam.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s web video productions and video production services, or contact us for a quotation on (0)203 405 226

Costing only £600 (+VAT) and filmed in just two hours at First Direct’s Leeds office, the video production was added to the company’s website in November.

The results?

“Since adding the Spectrecom video to our website www.5minuteangels.com we have experienced a 12% reduction in visitor bounce rate (58% down to 46%) along with an increase in overall sales enquiries. The video has also been uploaded to different video sharing sites such as Youtube and as a result it now appears in the SERPs for the phrase “corporate massage” which has helped drive more relevant traffic to the site.

As well as the SEO and visitor engagements benefits, the video has also helped to build credibility and trust with new potential clients that may not have come across our brand before and has had a positive impact on our conversion rates”.

(David Moore, Director, 5MA Group)

Click to find out more about Spectrecom’s web video advert packages for small businesses (£600, £900 & £1,200), or call +44 0203 405 2260

In Nov 2010, we were delighted to be asked by one our regular of client’s Guildford College, to sponsor their Media Graduate of the  Year Award 2011, for which we were also awarded a Special Commendation.

Spectrecom MD Andrew Greener presented the award in person to fledgling film-maker Thomas Oswin, who vowed not to let failing eyesight stop him from pursuing a career in the film industry. Thomas suffers from tunnel vision as a result of the degenerating eye condition retinitis pigmentosa; and although he prefers to make light of it he admits his diagnosis shook him initially but he has used his experience positively in a documentary he made exploring the way his disability affects those around him. It has already proved inspirational to other visually impaired students.

Everyone here at Spectrecom wishes Thomas all the very best for the future!!!!!

Find our more about out student recruitment videos or contact us for a quotation on 0203 405 2260.

Spectrecom has recently produced a range of charity marketing videos for The London Youth Games. Here‘s the latest one, starring England and Arsenal ladies football star Rachel Yankey, the Games’ 2011 patron.

As a youngster, Yankey represented her home borough of Brent at the London Youth Games. 
She follows in the footsteps of Chicago Bulls basketball captain Luol Deng and Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu as former London Youth Games competitors who have gone on to be an annual patron of the London Youth Games.



Rachel Yankey said: "The Balfour Beatty London Youth Games is one of the most exciting events any young Londoner could wish to experience. It is Europe’s largest annual youth sports event and is like a mini-World Cup and Olympic Games all rolled into one.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s charity marketing work or why not sign up to our mailing list to receive the latest charity marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s latest projects.

We’ve also just put together a brand new charity marketing video showreel this week, showcasing just some of the many projects our creative team has worked on.

Over a period of 3 months Spectrecom produced sixteen films – each one based around a storiy told by charities told by the charities themselves about what they do, why they needed to be supported by The Social Investment Business and how that help has helped them.

The filming process was tight – usually filming two and occasionally three films in one day, all around the country. The films are simple in structure - interview led, with cutaways or scenes of the organisations at work, showing how the company operates, and giving information on the ease of the application process and post-grant support provided by The Social Investment Business.

While the project demanded a challenging schedule and workload, the films were a pleasure to make. The crew had the privilege of seeing a lot of the country while visiting wonderful people donating their lives to the improvement of others.

The films were shown on the big screen at a funding event recently and will be used at many other events to come. Their online launch is imminent and the films will be hosted in this part of The Social Investment Business website and on their YouTube channel.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s charity marketing work or why not sign up to our mailing list to receive the latest charity marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s latest projects. We’ve also just put together a brand new charity marketing video showreel this seek, showcasing just some of the many projects our creative team has worked on.

A circus themed extravaganza was held on November 12 in Emma Cons Gardens opposite the Old Vic. It featured several stalls in a big top, manned by teams made up of local businesses and charities, who attempted to generate as much money as possible for the good causes by creating a circus themed attraction.

Each team was given £50 to help them buy props and materials and the money had to be spent in the BID area.

The Clowns - a collective of volunteers from Oasis Trust and Solar Century - won the scheme beating the Strong People, Magicians and Jugglers.

Spectrecom filmed the entire event free-of-charge and the Clowns' victory was recognised at an event held at our Waterloo Film Studios on December 16, which saw a film of the planning and market played back to the teams.

The event also launched Waterloo Quarter's new Corporate Social Responsibility program.

Spectrecom were honoured by Waterloo Quarter with “Outstanding Contribution To The Local Community” award.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s charity marketing work or why not sign up to our mailing list to receive the latest charity marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s latest projects.

We’ve also just put together a brand new charity marketing video showreel this seek, showcasing just some of the many projects we’ve worked. Click on the play button above to take a look.

Our clients included OXFAM, The Social Investment Business (TSIB), The Mental Health Foundation (MHF), Body Gossip, The London Youth Games & The Courtauld Institute of Art.

We've just put together a brand new charity marketing video showreel, showcasing just some of the projects we’ve worked. Click on the play button above to take a look.

Find out more about Spectrecom's charity marketing videos or why not sign up to our mailing list to receive the latest charity marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s latest charity marketing videos.

It offers free parking, free Wi-Fi, state-of-the-art leisure facilities, a 2 AA Rosette restaurant, a traditional pub, 2 gyms, a spa and a swimming pool. It’s also walking distance from Kendal centre.

No wonder it holds the honour of 'Cumbria Large Hotel of the Year 2009',

Here’s a video Spectrecom produced about the hotel to help their marketing attract more paying guests in 2011.

It’s typical of our entry-level hotel marketing videos, click here to find out more.

Like to receive the latest hotel video marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s most recent hotel video projects? Try our hotel marketing mailing list.

Contact our sales team for a video production quotation on +44 (0)203 405 2260

Our creative has been producing promotional marketing videos for the hospitality industry for over five years now. We’ve worked for restaurants, hotels, resorts and health clubs around Europe and the UK, including some the industry’s biggest names.

Take a look at our brand new showreel above featuring just some of the content we’ve produced for clients such as Choice, Best Western, SAGA, Cunard, Guoman & David Lloyd.

Be it in the center of London, just off the A4, or across the Mediterranean, Spectrecom has the experience and expertise to produce promotional videos that will make a real difference to your bottom line.

Click here to find out more about our hotel and resort marketing work.

Like to receive the latest hotel video marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s most recent hotel video projects? Click to sign up to our hotel marketing mailing list.

This imposing modern hotel near Tower Bridge and the Tower of London takes its name from two of the UK capital’s most celebrated and defining landmarks.

With 801 luxurious bedrooms, including 18 suites and apartments, and uninterrupted views over both the River Thames, and 1000 years of British history, the Tower hotel provides a tranquil haven. But what makes The Tower hotel truly one-of-a-kind, though, is its atmosphere.

It was our job to capture this on video. This is what we came up with.

Be it in the centre of London, just off the A4, or across the Mediterranean, Spectrecom has the experience and expertise to produce promotional videos that will make a real difference to your bottom line.

Click here to find out more about our hotel and resort marketing work.

Like to receive the latest hotel video marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s most recent hotel video projects?

Click to sign up to our hotel marketing mailing list.

Here’s a brand new showreel featuring just some of the content we’ve produced for clients such as Choice, Best Western, SAGA, Cunard, Guoman & David Lloyd.

Be it in the centre of London, just off the A4, or across the Mediterranean, Spectrecom has the experience and expertise to produce promotional videos that will make a real difference to your bottom line.

Click here to find out more about our hotel and resort marketing work.

Like to receive the latest hotel video marketing news and keep up-to-date with Spectrecom’s most recent hotel video projects?

Click to sign up to our hotel marketing mailing list.

• Unlimited super-fast broadband. Free

• Connectivity for live broadcasts in all 4 studios

• Ability to upload digital media to client servers
  

This month, our creative team delivered a brand new student recruitment film showcasing University College, or Castle as it is affectionately known.

It’s the oldest college of Durham University, founded in 1832, and located in a Norman fortress! And it is also is a vibrant community of students and staff: undergraduates, from home and abroad (the JCR), postgraduates (the MCR), and members of University staff, visiting Fellows and people from the City and region (the SCR).

Durham Castle is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is a working castle and the home to over 100 students.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning student recruitment videos.

One of the many attractions of studying at the university is a campus located within easy reach of a vast array of excellent sports facilities. Practically every activity imaginable is accommodated, within just a gentle jog from the centre of campus.

The university provides opportunities for all levels of sport and physical activity. They run 59 individual sports clubs, plus an extensive college sport programme, heavily focused on participation. In addition to regular college sport, last year they also organised one day competitions in: dodgeball, cross-country, ultimate frisbee, women’s football, futsal, swimming, rugby and lacrosse .

If you want to get fit, have fun and make some great friends while studying, you will not go far wrong with 3 years at York.

Boost ads will “appear in search results when location is a factor”, such as “video production London”; and will appear above the organic results and above the local business map. Your business icon on the map will even turn from red to blue, meaning your location will stand out from your competitors’.

At the moment, a beta version of Boost is only available to customers in three U.S. cities: San Francisco, Chicago, & Houston. But if it works out, expect to see the ads appear in your own search results anytime soon.

If Google Boost is rolled out a global scale, this new technology represents a fantastic opportunity for business owners around the world to harness the power of online video marketing. This is because the ads are linked directly to the owners Google Places account, which permits users to upload 5 videos completely free-of-charge.

Businesses who choose to invest in the service, but not in a video content to promote their products and services, will miss out on a fantastic, cost-effective opportunity to connect with potential customers.

Here’s the only video I could find discussing Google Boost. Unfortunately, the production values are pretty poor, which may explain why it ‘s only been viewed 22 times; and should probably also act as a warning to marketers that production values can often be crucial to a video’s success, so don’t scrimp too much on your video budget. It can be counter productive.

]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/353 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:56:01 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/353 Here’s the 5^th video from Spectrecom’s video series for Bromley Council, showcasing winners of this year’s

Winner of the Primary School Award, Pickhurst Infant School have tackled all things environmental – from recycling to saving energy and composting, to growing their own food and even keeping chickens!

According to Bromley Council’s Environment Team, their entry was “very well presented, well-recorded and very comprehensive covering a whole range of environmental issues which also involved community links, children and parent ‘buy in’, and many different project such as ‘Walking the World’, a home-energy competition, a gardening club and many, many more.”

Find out more about Spectrecom’s video production work.

The main aim of the campaign is to “raise awareness of loneliness, to tackle the stigma that surrounds it, and to help individuals who are feeling lonely to connect with others”.

According to the Mental Health Foundation,

 “In life, it is not uncommon to feel lonely at one time or another. But when experienced for a long time, loneliness can be detrimental to our well-being. The campaign and video is designed to highlight the importance of spending time with others. For some, this may be a case of picking up the telephone to arrange to see a friend, volunteering for a local charity to meet some new people, or joining a local sports club. For others, loneliness can be caused by deeper problems but can be overcome with the right kind of help. A GP is often a good person to talk to about such problems.”

Find our more about the Mental Health Foundation’s Loneliness Campaign and Spectrecom’s charity marketing work.

Spectrecom recently delivered this student recruitment video to York University, showcasing all the ancient City has on offer for prospective students.

Studying at York means living in one of Europe's most beautiful historic cities.
An important political, cultural, religious and trading centre since Roman times, York retains an impression of every age, with its ancient walls, winding medieval streets, and elegant Georgian town houses.



The campus itself enjoys a prime location, in a beautiful landscaped park, within easy reach of the historic centre, helping position York as a world-class destination in which to work and study.

Several University departments are also located within Grade 2 listed buildings at the King's Manor, right in the heart of the city centre; and since 2000 York has added 20 new buildings to its Heslington West campus.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning student recruitment work with universities, colleges and training providers across the UK.

David Lloyd Leisure is the UK's leading racquets, health and fitness group, operating 78 clubs in the UK and a further 10 sites across Europe. The Group has over 450,000 members and employs some 6000 people; including an expert health & fitness team of over 750 and more than 350 tennis professionals.

Shot over the course of 3 days on a Canon 5D, the “David Lloyd Leisure Experience” video has recently been added to the company’s website homepage to help promote the club to prospective members; and can also be viewed by clicking the play button above.

The guys at Law Creative have all been a real pleasure to work for and we hope to do so again, very soon.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s video production work for the health and leisure industry.

The campaign – Opening Minds to Art - is “an urgent drive to raise £24m in endowment, revenue and scholarship funds to enable The Courtauld to continue to educate the cultural visionaries of the future”.

What’s more, if they manage to raise £8.25m by 31 July 2011, The Courtauld will also be eligible for matched funding of £2.75m. They’ve already raised nearly £7m, but need the public’s help to complete this challenge for the final £1.2m. 

Directed by Spectrecom’s Creative Director, Steve Milton, the entire project was filmed using a SONY EX3 and Letus Adapter; and encompassed shoots both here in the UK and abroad in New York. After several months in the post to get the film just right, it can now be found on The Courtauld’s campaign micro-site and is currently being used by their campaign team at fundraising events.

We’re very proud of the final results and wish The Courtauld the very best of luck securing the require funding.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s video production work and campaign films.

There are 12 in all, each one focusing on various aspects of university life, some of which incoporate gyro-stabalised aerial footage of York’s stunning campus, the City itself and gorgeous surrounding countryside.

Here’s the first film, which provides prospective students with a general introduction to the University, which in less than 50 years has become one of the top ten institutions in the UK for teaching and research, and is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world.

This year, it has been shortlisted in four categories in the 2010 Times Higher Education Award, including University of the Year, Widening Participation Initiative of the Year & International Collaboration of the Year.

Not bad at all considering it was only founded in 1963, with just 230 students. Today, there are over 30 academic departments and research centres and the student body has expanded to 13,000.

Former students of the University include Editor of the Sunday Times John Witherow; former Director-General of the BBC Greg Dyke; authors Jung Chang and Helen Dunmore and comedian Harry Enfield.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning video production work with universities, colleges and training providers across the UK

Perhaps surprisingly, the northern town - birthplace of poet and author Simon Armitage and the late record-breaking dancer Roy Castle - beat Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and even London for the fastest typical broadband speeds.

Huddersfield is certainly at the top of the broadband game. It’s just a shame that its video production industry seems a little behind.

The town might well be “within view of the Peak District National Park” and “have plenty to offer any visitor”, but I’m afraid this video does the home of Rugby League a great disservice. Amazingly, it was made as recently as, 2004.

It should perhaps be seen as a warning to anybody thinking of taking the online video marketing plunge or has already dipped their toe in the water. Scrimping on video marketing budgets and cutting corners will most often result in poor production values, non-existent storytelling and videos that have the opposite affect desired.

The town of Huddersfield deserves much better.

Since opening as a specialist speech and language therapy practice in 1986, the Practice has grown to become one of the UK’s leading specialist paediatric centres, earning an excellent reputation both here and overseas.

The film was shot over the course of 2 days and combines interviews with CEO Professor Michael Lewis and his dedicated team, plus a powerful case study - testament to Practice’s incredible work.

It is currently being used around the world to showcase their work and can also be found on the homepage of their informative website. Here’s what CEO Michael Lewis has to say about the film’s impact;

“Recently one of my colleagues and I were invited as the guests of the Punjab Government to Lahore, in Pakistan. I showed the film at a meeting with several Ministers including the Chief Minister and it was very well received. So much so that we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chief Minister which appeared on television and was on the front page of the newspaper the following morning. Since returning to London we are in the process of signing a legal agreement that will require us to work with those poor children of the Punjab (pop: 97million) who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities, commencing in January 2011. Last weekend we were in the UAE and armed with our film we are hopeful we will win further work there too!”

Find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning video production and video marketing work.

The comprehensive study - conducted by SAY Media (formerly VideoEgg) and comScore - discovered that thanks to video-on-demand “about a third of the adult, online population in the US, is choosing video entertainment on their own schedules instead of being locked into when broadcasters want them to watch”. 

Online video is already the world’s fastest growing advertising medium and with global access to the Internet increasing exponentially, there is very little doubt that this phenomenon will continue apace.

Here’s a great short film from Thornley Fallis - a California-based public relations, communications and marketing agency - which brilliantly showcases the power of online video to communicate an advertising message

Orchid Telecom - a family run business that imports and exports telecommunications equipment to Europe, Australia and America - used Company Partners to help secure enough investment so that they could grow the business sufficiently, making it more attractive to potential buyers. 

You can discover more about Orchid Telecom here; www.smallbusinesstelephonesystemsuk.co.uk

Want to know more about Spectrecom's award-winning video production services? 

They helped U-Rooms - an Internet company that matches landlords and agents with flat seekers - find the investment they needed to take their business to the next stage 

Take a look around their fantastic website right here; http://www.u-rooms.com/

Find out more about Spectrecom's online video adverts. 

Here's the first film, which is for a great Internet start-up called Pet Compare, who found an investor through Company partners and even rejected an appearance on Dragon's Den! 

Run by Lee Hodgson, Pet Compare is a social networking site and business directory, aiming to become the number one website for anything pet related in the UK. 

Do you have a pet? Check out their excellent website here; http://www.petcompare.com/

Find out more about Spectrecom's online video adverts.

Today, more and more consumers choose where they’d like to stay without ever getting near a travel agent, or their hands on a printed brochure. But why is video online so effective when it comes to marketing places to stay? This article highlights five key reasons why thousands of hotels have invested in video production companies with their marketing in promotional web video.

Recognition, Branding & Visibility

Commissioning a hotel marketing videos offers a crucial advantage against a hotel’s competitors, because it makes your business instantly memorable, your brand recognisable and your website far more appealing. A customer is far more likely to remember a particular hotel after having watched video, as opposed to just images or text, and as a result more inclined to re-visit your website or book a room.

Setting a Standard

A video is of course not the only way to market a hotel, but just by employing this method, it can demonstrate to potential guest that your business is in touch with current trends and your demographic. Just make certain the video is good though, a poorly produced film will do the exact opposite and is likely to put potential guests off, who may assume your standards or service mirror the video’s shoddy production values.

It shows also that as technology advances, so does your business, along with your awareness of a customer’s needs. To elaborate further, just 5 or 10 years ago having wireless Internet in a hotel room was neither wanted, nor particularly needed, whereas today, it is a necessity. We expect to have the latest technologies and as customers, we expect to see video on a website as a standard.

Believable & Visually Pleasing

A good hotel promotional video will show customers exactly what is in store for them when they walk through the door, if they choose to book. And unlike still photography, which thanks to things like fish-eye lenses can be vey deceptive, video won’t leave guests disappointed when they arrive to find the hotel looks nothing like what they had imagined! I

Customer Engagement

With so much interesting content online just a mouse-click away, it’s no wonder that web-users have a well-deserved reputation for notoriously short attention spans. Video content however is proven to engage viewers with a website for far longer than text alone. People want to see and hear the information they require, not just read about it.

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton recently stated that "People don't really want to read text, they want videos, they want images, bigger, more lavish.”

In other words consumers want online media products to resemble magazines and television.

To Summarise

A good promotional video is essential for any hotel that wishes to compete effectively in the modern market place. It helps present a modern, contemporary, forward-thinking image, which potential guest will associate with the facilities and standard or service to be found at your hotel.

Recent reports suggest that even the house building industry is now using web video marketing to reach out to potential customers.

According to house-building Internet marketing website Builder Target, even property developers are finding more creative ways to reach potential buyers with creative video concepts.

Dawn Sadler, Founder of Builder Target has recently stated …“ that the rise of home builder social media is challenging new home marketing professionals to constantly provide fresh, compelling, informative content online. Today buyers are looking for more than online tours when researching a home purchase. They need instant access to reliable information about the housing market. Builders are responding with videos that address specific buyer concerns.”

She also reports that … “in addition to model home virtual tours, home builders are using more informational videos to educate potential home buyers. Recent videos on Youtube have featured homeowner testimonials, response to changing housing trends, information about financing for first home buyers, and condensed versions of an on-site sales presentation”.

It’s perhaps no surprise that this embrace of web video marketing - a highly cost effective way of marketing – has continued apace in today’s economic climate.

Want to find out more about online video marketing?

]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/300 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:23:03 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/300 One of the most effective of methods of hotel marketing is undeniably, online video. Today, more and more consumers choose where they’d like to stay without ever getting near a travel agent, or their hands on a printed brochure.

In just the last few months, the creative team here at Spectrecom has produced marketing videos for a variety of well-known hotel brands including Best Western and Guoman & Thistle.

We were recently asked to do the post-production on this video for The Aviator Hotel in Farnborough, Kent, by our partner Streaming Tank - a multi award-winning full service video streaming company - based just down the road from us in Waterloo.

Want to see more of Spectrecom’s hotel marketing videos?

This is a masterfully produced show by an American comedy veteran Will Ferrell. The main character is called Kenny Powers, a former baseball pitching star and ex-athlete that drank away any remnants of discipline. Using one of our larger film stage’s - Film Studio (2), FOX had a few comedy actors reciting humorous lines in front of a green screen infinity cyc.

Look out for Kenny’s new adventures this November.

]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/295 Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:14:27 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/295 The creative team here at Spectrecom has been producing engaging student recruitment videos for over 5 years. We've worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities.

We recently delivered a series of 4 student recruitment films for Orpington College, a popular further education college based in Kent, south-east England, which offers a range wide of GCSEs, A levels, GNVQs and BTECs. The College has been offering courses for over 30 years and over that time they've seen thousands of ambitious, keen students through their courses and on to achieve their goals.

This is a film all about college life, showcasing the fantastic atmosphere, the brilliant support staff and the stunning new-build.

Find out more about Spectrecom's award-winning student recruitment work 

His brilliant intro was broadcast in the US last Sunday and opens with the street artist's tag scrawled across the town of Springfield.

The closing minute-long sequence shows dozens of sweatshop workers in a warehouse painting cartoon cells and making Simpsons merchandise.

Here it is; 

The study shows that the “boom in online video, social and ‘performance’ marketing contributed to the 10% increase … which saw UK marketers invest £1,968.6 million, lifting the medium to a record market share of 24.3%”.

According to the research, “the key drivers for this growth include the fact that more people than ever before are online, audiences are maturing, the ubiquity of broadband, “social media fever” and improved connectivity:

Good news for businesses and online video marketers everywhere!

Here’s a video of Tim Elkington - Head of Research at the IAB - presenting a full overview of UK online advertising spend for the first six months of 2010.

Mat Cutler is the CMO at Visible Measures and wrote about the findings in a recent blog post, “Benchmarking Viewer Abandonment in Online Video”. Their study, which looked at short-form videos of less than 300 seconds (5 minutes) in duration, discovered that;

- 20% of the audience will abandon viewing in the first 10 seconds

- 33% will click away within the first 30 seconds

and …

- 44% of the audience will have left by 60 seconds

This is clearly a problem for online video marketers, desperate to make every view count and the very most of their marketing budgets. Here are three top tips to help combat web video viewer abandonment;

Short is Sweet.

Unless you have a VERY good reason for doing so, don’t waste money by producing long form films purely for online use. The vast majority of viewers won’t get anywhere near the end. If you’ve got a lot you want to say or show off, a video series of short 30-60 seconds films is almost always preferable to a 10 or 20-minute video, no matter how well-produced or conceived.

Be Interesting!

Web-users don’t want to be sold to - they want to entertained! Make sure that your online film or video offers them an experience beyond sales spiel, jargon and facts & figures. This can be left to text on your website and in printed prospectuses. If you don’t engage your viewers, somebody else will.

Get To The Point.

Make sure your videos engage right from the outset. And if the successful delivery of your message relies on viewers watching for more 30 seconds or so, employ good story-telling techniques to create dramatic tension and intrigue, encouraging viewers to watch until the pay-off occurs.

Find out more about effective online video marketing and web video production.

Showcasing the products of Europe's leading contemporary bathroom brand was a real joy and pleasure. Their beautiful, faultless designs and unique showroom lend themselves perfectly to HD camera formats!

Find out more about Spectrecom’s promotional videos and films.

With broadband speeds at such a high rate, video uploading will no longer take hours, but minutes instead.

Jon James, Executive Director of broadband at Virgin Media said: "We’re once again pushing the boundaries of UK broadband with a true next generation broadband service that vastly outperforms struggling DSL-based services.

"With the huge growth in social networks these new upload speeds will help Virgin Media customers share their most precious moments and keep up with what friends and families are up to, whether it’s uploading to YouTube or even hosting a live video chat to show off baby’s first steps in high-definition."

This news marks a major advance in online entertainment and distribution of video production.

 

Take a look at the trailer shot here:


]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/273 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:39:04 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/273 In a bid to to revamp their image, Panda, an egyptian manufacturer of cheese and dairy products commissioned four original television adverts.

The original concept for the adverts, were if you don't like panda products, eat panda products, or refuse a panda cheese sandwich then prepare for a visit from a foul tempered panda.

Utilising dark and subtle humour, the 'Never say no to Panda' televised adverts reveal people refusing to eating Panda products. They then look nervously to see a life sized panda staring blankly into their eyes. As the somewhat eerie Buddy Holly True Love Ways track plays in the background, the panda then proceeds to reek havoc.

With the huge success of these adverts played in china and egypt, they eventually were placed online and have become a viral video hit with millions of views throughout the web.

The videos were made by Elephant Cairo, a small advertising company with only four employees. The advertising agency has already won two grand prix awards at this years Dubai Lynx and continued to wow audiences with their latest work for Panda.

 

Find out more online Video Production.

Here’s a list of easily actionable tips and advice that will help ensure your videos get the exposure they deserve.

Compelling Titles, Tags & Descriptions

It’s absolutely essential that you create a compelling title for your video, which is unique, catchy and relevant, encouraging web-users to want to view your content.

However, don’t forget to include important keywords in your title too, otherwise the video may never be found in the first place. This trade-off can be tricky, but when done properly it will greatly improve the chances of your video being found, drastically increasing both the quality and the quantity of views your video content receives.

Persuasive and relevant descriptions, which include the keywords you’re targeting, are crucial as well. Youtube permits up to 5000 characters, so take full advantage of this and use as many as you can. And don’t just include information about the video. As the creator, it’s perfectly acceptable to incorporate detailed information about who you are and what you or your company does. Include this sort of information in every single description. Not only will it help Youtube users find your video, your brand name will become better associated with the video content.

The right tags will also ensure good visibility for your video content on Youtube. Make sure they are keyword-rich (not stuffed) and as detailed as possible. They should be consistent with each other, be found in both the title and the description, as well as relating directly to the specific content of the video at hand. Always include your brand name, location, city, subject and themes.

Using adjectives in the description and tags is also very important, people use them when they search, so make sure you take full advantage of this.

Enticing Thumbnails

Like titles, thumbnails are proven to a have a significant impact on whether a Youtuber decides to click on your video content, or someone else’s. However at present, only “Youtube Partners” can create custom thumbnails, everybody else gets a choice of just 3, taken from the ¼, ½ and ¾ way points on your video. Make sure you always choose the most enticing option, as it will have an enormous effect on the quantity of views you’ll receive. You might also want to think about this in the edit and make sure you place an interesting image at one of these points, otherwise you may have to pick something inferior and ineffective.

Sharing, Embedding & Commenting Etc

Youtube is a video-sharing site and a community, so make sure you’re part of it. Allow users to comment on, embed, rate and share your video content with the world.

Comments are particularly important because not only do they help reinforce your keywords and increase long tail search traffic, they also increase the number of internal links to your videos, as the comments will also appear on the commentator’s profile page. They also provide a fantastic opportunity to directly interact with your viewers and build a relationship. Respond to people’s comments, positive or negative, whenever you can.

URLs & Driving Traffic To Your Website

Finally, to drive people back to your website, make sure you include your webpage’s URL right at the very start of the description, using the full http:// version or a URL shortener. If not, the link will not be clickable or viewable without having to scroll down.

Well … Dynamic Logic, a US-based research company that specialise s in measuring advertising and marketing effectiveness, has just released a rather interesting that suggests that;

“In terms of brand awareness, repurposed television spots performed at the same level as ads created specifically for the web, but in terms of conversions original web content rules, beating out repurposed television ads handily”.

Here’s a clip from NBC’s The Office, released online last week to promote the new upcoming. It went “viral” in a matter of hours, generating huge amount of views and traffic, for virtually nothing.

Find out more about how viral video marketing works?

Spectrecom has recently produced two videos for Body Gossip, a UK-based body-image campaign starting a “beauty revolution” by collecting real people's stories about their real bodies. 

Here’s the 2^nd film 'This one is for you', a powerful farewell to an eating disorder, written by Laura Nation and performed by a cast of well-known actors and presenters.

For out more about Spectrecom’s charity marketing work.

HMV recently embraced this burgeoning trend by incorporating video into their latest email campaign, promoting a remote controlled helicopter named the Parrot quadricopter AR Drone. The campaign proved to be a huge success. Click-through rates for this product tripled in comparison to emails without video. This successful campaign was led by Experian CheetahMail and HMV eCRM manager Kevin Hurst.

Having proved that email marketing and video production can go hand in hand, Hurst stated that "This campaign has been one of the most successful email marketing projects we have had at HMV, significantly increasing click through rates and driving sales.

"Experian CheetahMail's integration of video into email campaigns will help us more effectively communicate our latest products and offers direct to consumers in a more interactive way."

Find out more about web video.

Unlike most shoots involving kids, this one felt like a family day-out in a film studio – instead of a park or a zoo. Usually our green room is dimly lit so to endorse a calm atmosphere, but this time around we cleared most of the furniture and turned it into a mini play-den for the two infant stars of the show.

Tantrum TV were shooting a new title sequence for the Norwegian version of the American (Showtime) hit TV show Dexter. With the programme already boasting one of the best opening title sequences, it is a brave move to produce a different one.

For all you Norwegian’s amongst us, I will not spoil this for you by revealing anymore details. All I can say is it involved, sharp knives, blood and smiling babies.

Yesterday, I posted clip of their genuinely incredible short film “Dot”. It was commissioned by the Finnish telecommunications giant to celebrate the Nokia N8, a mobile phone that in remote countries across the developing world is combined with a microscope to diagnose malaria remotely.

Were you were wondering exactly how they animate a character just 9mm tall with a mobile phone? This video, which has enjoyed almost as many hits as the short film, takes us behind the scenes of the amazing magical, magnified world of “Dot”.

The film was directed by Ed Patterson and Will Studd, along with creative’s from Weiden & Kennedy, Mark McCall & Richard Dorey.

Find out more about video production.

Spectrecom has just finished working on two films for Body Gossip, a UK-based body-image campaign starting a “beauty revolution” by collecting real people's stories about their real bodies. 

The first film, “'What Are We Protecting Our Children From?' was written by Kate Tym and is performed by a cast of well-known actors and presenters, including Patti Boulaye, Nikki Grahame & Anne Diamond

For out more about charity video production.

If you haven't seen the latest twitter advert then I advise you do it now, to fully appreciate this simple yet effective video.

With the launch of the new Twitter on Tuesday, the social media giant released its own in-house promotional advert.  Costing only $3000, the video follows Twitter design researcher Mark Trammel planning for a first date.

The compelling factor of this clip, is that the entire video is based on Trammels tweets, in which he asked fellow users for advise his date including what bottle of wine to take and what book to read.

When everything comes together, we see Trammel acting out his date based on his followers' recommendations.

Trammel believes his own experience reflects how others are actually using the services these days.

“In studying how people who are new to Twitter learn how to Twitter, the folks that get the most out of it are those who go into ‘discovery mode’ early on,” Trammell says. “We think Twitter is the best way to discover what’s new in your world.”

The success of this video came down to the involvement the public played in the creation of this advertisement, as well as the huge fan following Twitter has achieved in such a short time.

Find out more about online video marketing. 

Online video adverts can help boost the profits of almost any small business.

Here’s a 90’ video advert we’ve just delivered for Maidenhead Golf Centre, in Braywick Pk, Berkshire.

The centre is located just minutes from the centre of Maidenhead centre, offering a fully covered state-of-the-art, 20 bay driving rage, the N1 Golf Academy and one of the very best fitting centres for clubs and balls in the whole of the UK.

Find out more about online video adverts.

The call for entries stated:

“We’re looking for animation, motion graphics, narrative, non-narrative, or documentary work, music videos and entirely new art forms - creations that really challenge the world’s perceptions of what’s possible with video. We want to elevate the debate.”

Since then, they have received a staggering 23,000 submissions, from 91 different countries, and have just announced that the Guggenheim has narrowed the list down to 125.  They’re calling this The Short List. Here’s a video:



The next phase of YouTube Play will involve whittling down the remaining 125 entries to just 25, which will then be honoured at a unique exhibit hosted by the Guggenheim in October. 

As well as filming at Spectrecom, the two comedians recently hosted an innovative and popular show at the Pleasance as part of the Edinburgh Comedy Fringe Festival.

Find out more about Waterloo Films Studios.

Here it is featured in London’s greatest free newspaper, the Metro:

The photo was shot here against green screen at Spectrecom’s Waterloo Film Studios, by Jonny Franklin.

Yesterday, OXFAM released an image - created by Spectrecom here at Waterloo Film Studios - designed to raise awareness about the dangers of childbirth and pregnancy in the developing world.

This week, the charity also launched this video to promote its Hunger Banquet Programme, which teaches citizens about poverty and hunger and how they can help those in need.

“For more than 35 years, the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet has been one of the best recognized and effective events, introducing tens of thousands of people to Oxfam’s mission and enabling them to help in the fight against hunger and poverty,” says Nancy Delaney, constituency outreach manager for Oxfam.

Find out more about charity video production and charity marketing.

Our creative team were tasked with recreating Charles Ebbets’ iconic photo of New York construction workers taking lunch on a girder high above the city, except we had to do it with 11 heavily pregnant women!

Here are the results.

The image is designed to highlight the dangers of childbirth in the developing world and that fact that 1000 women still die everyday in pregnancy and childbirth in poor countries due to basic lack of healthcare.

The photo was shot here against green screen at Spectrecom’s Waterloo Film Studios, by Jonny Franklin.

Find out more about OXFAM and maternal health issues.

Video production and video marketing have both been embraced with open arms in recent years by universities, colleges and training providers around the UK who want to get ahead.

At Spectrecom, we’ve helped dozens of institution attract the best students and have recently been producing a series of 6 films showcasing academic departments at Goldsmiths - a globally-renowned arts institution, revered for its unconventionality, which has produced alumni such as Anthony Gormley and Damien Hirst.

Here’s the penultimate film within the series of six. This one focuses on The Department of Art at Goldsmiths; a vibrant and expanding department,  specialising in making, curating and writing about contemporary art in a dynamic, critical and interdisciplinary environment

Having worked with over 30 institutions - from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities - Spectrometer is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

This years IFA event in Berlin, allowed companies to show off their latest creations and one of the most impressive was Vestel's 46-inch lenticular lens-based 3D television, which doesn’t require silly and uncomfortable glasses.

Visitors to the event were both delighted and astounded to see a crisp image of a 3D Pinocchio poke his nose out of the screen.

Vestel continued to show off their new technologies by revealing a £6,000, 52-inch 3D monitor for businesses, due for release in the next couple of months.

However, anyone getting excited by this article will have to calm themselves, as the cost for such a luxurious television is said to cost around 40,000 Euros, and they’re not commercially available just yet.

So … when can consumers expect permanent glassless 3D television? Experts believe we have another 3 - 5 years to go before our homes and networks are provided with such a luxury.

The social networking site has announced a major overhaul of its homepage, including a variety of brand new features, which eliminate the need to constantly navigate away from the site.

Some aesthetic changes have also been revealed, such as splitting the home page into two panes, one for general use and tweets, the other for additional content about the tweet and the tweeter, which could signal a rise in advertising opportunities

These new features will undoubtedly change the way we tweet, making the process a lot faster and much simpler.

Twitter chief executive Evan Williams had this to say;

 "You can now take a simple short tweet and get more context and information in less time."

"We liked the old Twitter, but thought we could make it better. There was a lot buried underneath Twitter and now we are bringing all of that to the surface.

Follow Spectrecom on Twitter and be part of the conversation

They recently asked Spectrecom’s creative team to produce a video showcasing how the London Youth Games has changed young peoples’ lives in the capital for the better. Here’s the result.

The London Youth Games are a unique season of events at the heart of youth sport in the Capital, involving all 33 London Boroughs and 26 National Governing Bodies. 

The Games are free and open to all young people, aged between 7 and 17, living in or going to school in the Capital.  In 2010, over 45,000 participants began the journey to represent their local borough in one of 60 competitions across 30 sports.

Many highly successful athletes, sports stars and Olympians have participated in the Games including Linford Christie, Steve Backley and Luol Deng, as well as two of Great Britain's gold medallists at Beijing 2008 Mark Hunter and Christine Ohuruogu.

It is organised and managed by London Youth Games Foundation, a registered charity (1048705).  The Board of trustees is made up of representatives from the London Boroughs and a number of independent trustees.

Find more about Spectrecom’s charity marketing and charity video production work.

They predict that mobile video revenues, including direct downloads, ad-supported video and subscriptions, will roughly triple between 2009 and 2014, creating a rise from $436 million to $1.34 billion.

To put these figures into perspective, by 2014, US mobile video services will be earning $42.5 per second. The figures show that the majority of this money will be via mobile subscription services rather than pay per view, which they expect to be a less profitable service.

Mobile video is quickly becoming yet another way to access information fast and on the move. With the birth of 3G browsing, video content has become far more accessible and there are new apps created every day providing video streaming services.

]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/236 Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:05:32 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/236 Youtube, as part of a historic global cinematic experiment “Life in a Day” to create a user-generated feature film documenting a single day on earth.

Over 80,000 videos were submitted from 197 different countries and Oscar –winning director Kevin Macdonald is currently editing the most compelling submissions into a documentary film, which is being produced by Ridley Scott and will premier at the Sundance Film Festival and on Youtube in January 2011.

In their latest video you can watch Joe Walker, film editor for Life In A Day, talk about how he and his team of researchers in London, are going through the 5,000 hours of footage submitted.

They're about halfway through watching everything, and at the end of our process, hope to have about 100-200 hours of footage, from which to create the film.

While sailing one of her 21 Transatlantic Crossings this season, Cunard‘s flagship Queen Mary 2 navigated a mid-Atlantic rendezvous to cheer on the rowing team for ‘Artemis Investments’ as they attempted to break the 114-year old world record, set back in 1896, by rowing from New York to England.

“It was a thrilling moment to witness this one-of-a-kind encounter at sea, not only for me and the crew, but for all our guests aboard Queen Mary 2,” said Captain Nick Bates.

“We wish the Artemis team good luck and Godspeed as they continue the quest for their world record-breaking journey.”

Find out more about Spectrecom’s video marketing work in the travel and tourism industry.

Just several months after launching a ‘TV’ section allowing users to catch up with their favourite shows, Youtube now has signed a deal with Sony Pictures and several other movie giants including MGM and Lionsgate, as well a British firm Blinkbox, to host some of their film content.

400 films are currently available for viewing, including a range of classic titles, from dramas such as 'Cross Roads' and 'Rudy', to animations like George Orwell’s 'Animal Farm'.

“This is one of many efforts to ensure that people can find all the different kinds of video they want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports, to full-length films and TV shows,” Youtube head of video partnerships Donagh O’Malley told the Guardian.

The US Youtube movie service was launched in April which allows users to watch a collection of movies for free and paid, fortunately for Youtube UK all movies are made available are free to view, although Youtube may consider introducing a pay per view service in the near future.

The Swedish furniture giant released 100 domesticated cats into their store in Wembley, London, and filmed the results. Simple. To date, the video has nearly 2 million views and they’ll soon be using the footage for a TV advertising campaign entitled “Happiness Inside”.

None of the cats were trained, so this was a risky and unpredictable endeavour. Fortunately, it seems to have paid off.

Find out more about viral video marketing.

Filmed on Jan 5^th 2010, on location at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard in Italy, the video documents the ship’s momentous "Float-Out" ceremony, when the water from the Adriatic Sea touches the ship’s hull for the very first time.

There are plenty more video blogs to come, so stay tuned.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s video production work

Whether you’re a business who hopes to sell more products, a charity who needs to raise money, a hotel who wants more paying guests or a university who must attract better prospective students, it’s crucial that you work with a video production company who’ll deliver the results you’re after. Choosing the wrong video production company won’t just be a waste of money - an unwise choice could even damage your hard-earned industry reputation.

But with several thousand video production companies currently operating in the UK, how do you find and choose an organisation to work with? How do you find a video production company that understands your requirements, a company who can deliver a video on time and on budget, and a video production company that truly understands online video marketing in 2010, not just the art of filmmaking?

Here are five things you should always consider when choosing a production company;

1. Clients & Reviews

A production company’s client list is usually a pretty good indictor of the breadth and depth of their video marketing work. If a video production company has been commissioned to produce films and videos by a variety or organisation, across a range of industries, this clearly demonstrates they understand how to adapt to an organisation’s specific needs and more often than not, that they are also used to working with a variety of budgets.

The client list should always be accompanied by positive reviews, testimonials and case studies, with accompanying video samples. Beware though, client reviews on a company’s website are of course controlled and moderated to present the desired image. However, if the company is using a third–party website such as Free Index, you can be much more confident that the comments are genuine.

2. Proven Results

Testimonials and case studies are of course very helpful, but a company that really understands video marketing should be able to demonstrate that films they produce gets results, which go beyond anecdotal evidence. Video production companies should be able to provide facts, figures and statistics.

3. Relevant Experience

While a good video production company should be able to produce films for almost any industry, you should always find out if they have produced films for a similar type of organisation, worked on projects with similar objectives and/or delivered video projects with similar budgetary or creative requirements. If they have, they should be able to provide evidence of this, including video samples.

However, you should bear in mind, that every video production project is completely different, so it’s unlikely you’ll find a company who has worked on a video exactly the same as the one you require.

4. Location / Facilities

Some video production “companies” will have a great looking website, but they could very well be a one-man-band operating out of his or her bedroom, with a semi-professional or second hand video camera, pulling the film together with a free piece of editing software. That’s not to say there are not any talented people out there operating very small video production businesses, but a larger organisation can draw upon a much bigger wealth of creative resources, will understand how to operate a successful business itself and will be able to provide much better guarantees, ensuring that your money is not wasted.

The IVCA is the UK’s video production industry body and all reliable video production companies should be a member.

5. CSR Credentials

Working with suppliers who have good Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) credentials is often an integral aspect of securing higher-value tenders. The film and video industry is notoriously wasteful, but increasing numbers of companies implement CSR policies, involving the reduction of waste, recycling and supporting worthwhile projects in their local communities.

6. The Creative Team

Commissioning a promotional video often means spending a considerable amount of time with the creative team you’re working with. Like any business relationship, it’s important that you’re able to relate to them as people. You’ll sometimes find team videos on production company websites and a few even offer video profiles of individual team members.

Follow these simple guidelines and the chances that you’ll create a fantastic promotional video that produces real results will be greatly enhanced.

Having already provided live streaming for U2 concerts and the Indian Premier League, Youtube has decided to pursue this venture further in unveiling a two-day trial of  'Live on YouTube'.

This new platform enables a user to stream live Webcasts and includes a “Live Comments” module, which lets users engage in real-time with the broadcaster

After the two-day trial, YouTube will determine if this new platform is feasible and test for any bugs that may creep up. Joshua Siegel, YouTube product manager had this to say on the matter:

"Based on the results of this initial test, we'll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide."

"Bear with us as we test this new platform as there may be some bumps along the way," he continued.

After the trial ends, YouTube is set to release a press release on whether they will pursue this new platform and what new features it may or may not provide.

Last week saw the “release” of this video, shot during the filming of a genuine Gillette commercial in Switzerland, which features tennis legend Roger Federer knock a soft drink can off the head of a crew member, with a powerful serve, twice in row.

Supposedly, the clip is a genuine and spontaneous “behind-the-scenes” moment, captured on camera almost accidentally. However, the clip is very clearly a fake, but an excellent one at that. It’s brilliantly directed in a single take, very well-acted and (almost) believable. If it was any other player, the video would probably have been dismissed immediately.

Find out more about viral video marketing.

]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/225 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:13:22 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/225 Online video marketing is quickly becoming the go-to student recruitment tool for universities, colleges and training providers around the world.

Spectrecom recently delivered this video to the Centre of Lifelong Learning at the University of York.

The Centre runs almost two hundred short courses, that can be accessed by anyone with an interest in the subjects covered, which including everything from arts and humanities to social sciences and urban horticulture. They also offer a range of distance learning courses in creative writing, archeology, family history and psychology.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning student recruitment videos

Aimed at a target market of 20-30 year olds, the web-video advertising campaign began on July 26th and has attracted a mass following on Facebook, with 17,000 ‘likes’.

Part of the success of this new brand is undeniably due to its unlikely founder, pop sensation, Justin Timberlake. According to the company’s website;

'Justin Timberlake has always had a passion for tequila, whether on-stage, backstage, or off-stage. Not feeling satisfied in his search to find the finest and smoothest tequila, Justin decided to create his own. He chose the Tequilera Newton distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, to help him create the juice that would eventually become 901 Tequila.' 

The US pop-star and heart throb has played an active role in the web video marketing campaign, directing each and every advert, but has made it clear that he does not wish to become the face of the brand. Fans however, are interested in him as an individual, which will inevitably carry a commercial advantage.

The video marketing series comprises 3 short videos entitled 'Risk and Peril', 'Let Them Eat Cake, and 'Improved By Use'. 

901 Silver is not yet available in the UK, but there are discussions currently taking place about the alcohol reaching British borders in the coming year.

Find out more about viral video marketing.

What begins as a standard YouTube video, quickly becomes a hugely entertaining (and addictive) interactive user experience. It’s brilliantly conceived, unique, fun, VERY cleverly executed and perfectly on message. A textbook piece of viral video marketing.

7 million people (and counting) can’t be wrong.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but if you click the link below, I guarantee you’ll not be disappointed.

(And yes … it does work with some rude words)

Find out more about viral video marketing.

The 4-minute video celebrates 50 years of history since the university received its Royal Charter in August 1961, the first of a new wave of universities founded in the 1960s; and combines classic black-and-white archive footage and newsreel, with new material filmed by Sussex media students.

Nearly 50 years on, the University has become a leading teaching and research institution. In the 2009 Times Higher Education University World Rankings, Sussex was ranked in the top five per cent of all universities worldwide.

Find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning student recruitment videos.

If you're a Jedward fan, you can catch the first episode of "Jedward: Let Loose" tonight at 9pm on ITV2, a fly-on-the wall reality show which follows the brothers as they leave home for the first time. 

Here's the original video, filmed in Studio (1). Please click here for further information about our film studios or call direct on 0203 405 2260.

Goldsmiths in south-east London is a globally-renowned arts institution, revered for its unconventionality, its high academic standards of teaching and for producing alumni who have changed the face of British art and design, such as Anthony Gormley and Damien Hirst.

Spectrecom recently delivered this student recruitment video to promote their prestigious Department of Art, which specialises in making, curating and writing about contemporary art and brings together students and researchers from all over the world.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

Take a look at the video below to see what happened!

The single is a cover of Blink 182's "All The Small Things" and is now available to purchase digitally in the UK.

It comes just ahead of the launch of their debut album 'PlanetJedward', due for release in the UK from July 26th.

It was a really fun day for everyone involved and we hope to see them here again soon. 

The Cumberland is renowned internationally for it's creativity, innovation and flair; and offers paying guests a hotel experience like no other. So ... to do the hotel justice, we knew we had to deliver a film with creativity and production values to match. 

Shot on a Canon 5D, the film we produced showcases many of the areas of the hotel including the lobby, which doubles up as one of London’s most exciting contemporary art galleries, the Michelin-starred Rhodes W1 Restaurant and the designer-industrial Carbon Bar. We hope you enjoy it! 

To discuss your hotel or resort's video production requirements or get a quotation, please contact Christiaan Harden at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

This video focuses on The Department of Media and Communications, one of the UK's leading institutions for both media theory and practice, offering a diverse range of undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. With over 700 students in the department, it's a lively and challenging place to study.

Having worked with over 30 institutions - from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities - Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producer of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260. 

To find out more about his amazing work and watch a whole range of other videos, you'll find his website here. 

Right ... now what I have done with my Etch-a-Sketch? 

Their aim is to provide one of the finest centres for the study and creation of theatre and drama in the country, through a reflective and critical contribution to innovation in contemporary production and performance practice.

Students come from a wide range of backgrounds and there are currently approximately 180 undergraduates, 80 MA and 30 research postgraduate students in the Department.

Here's Spectrecom's student recruitment video showcasing the popular department. 

Producing a series of student recruitment videos for Goldsmiths, University of London was always going to be a challenge.

Not because of a lack of content or great selling points - far from it - but due the fact that Goldsmiths is a globally-renowned arts institution, revered for its unconventionality, its high academic standards of teaching and for producing alumni who have changed the face of British art and design. Famous alumni include Lucien Freud, Damon Albarn, Anthony Gormley and Damien Hirst, to name but a few.  

We felt the best way to convey this would be with a high standard of individual video aesthetics. So ... the series of 6 student recruitment videos our creative team delivered feature rich and colourful HD imagery, imbued with a constant sense of movement and visual interest, in a way that we feel befits an institution that offers an unrivalled education in the creative industries.

Here's the first film, a short trailer showcasing student life at Goldsmiths. The remaining films focus on departments within the college and I'll be posting them to this blog over the next few weeks.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos. To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

Our Studio Manager, Jonny Franklin, chose Denis Bergkamp's last-minute winning goal for Holland against Argentina in the 1998 quarter-final and managed to bag himself and three mates tickets to the England vs Slovenia game in Port Elizabeth! This trip of a lifetime included flights, transfers, 4* accommodation, match-tickets, VIP hospitality; and fortunately a 1-0 win for England. Take a look a winning video above.

So ... even though England have now crashed so disastrously out of the tournament, there's still something to cheer about here in the Spectrecom offices!

He even brought me back a vuvezela, which I plan to inflict on friends and family for the 4 remaining matches. 

Fantasy Football with Baddiel, Franklin & Skinner

Sir Terry had been spending a week or so on board with his charity TOGs - Terry's Old Geezers & Gals. They managed to raise a staggering £83,000, which will all go to help children in the UK.

For more information about the voyage and Terry's Old Geezers & Gals, click here.

Spectrecom were asked by Infracharge Technologies Plc - the parent company behind the POD Point charging unit - to produce a short, presenter-led film to support their launch of two brand new electric vehicle charging products, FastCharge and HomeCharge. Here's the result. 

Here's a fantastic viral video created by Kamp Grizzly - a marketing studio in Portland, Oregon - for Johnny Cupcakes. Having built their own bespoke cupcake cannon (you can't get them in the shops), the team from Kamp Grizzly blasted cupcakes directly into volunteers faces and filmed the ensuing carnage at 700fps using the Phantom HD Gold. Enjoy!

Microsoft went back to basics and produced a video featuring a hidden camera prank. OK ... so there's nothing particularly original there, but it's actually pretty entertaining and certainly a far cry from some of Microsoft's other much-lamented efforts. It has absolutely nothing to do with the product that it's trying to promote, Microsoft Office Ultimate software since you ask, but it's engaging, funny and surprisingly watchable. No wonder it's doing so well.

Google has taken a different approach entirely to show us exactly how fast their new-web browser Chrome is. Their new video is slick, clever, beautiful and unique. There's even a bit of humour thrown in too. It features original, intriging and completely unexpected ways to show viewers just how quick the browser is, including comparing it against lightning and even a potato gun! A massive amount of work (and money) has clearly gone into producing this video, but the result is perfect! Something that you could watch again, again and again. No wonder it's had 1.5million views already

Filmed on location at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard in Italy, the video is presented by Alastair Greener, Entertainment Director for Cunard Line; and features the first half of ship's "Float-Out" ceremony

For CUNARD and the dedicated construction team involved, this freezing cold day in January was a truly momentous occasion.

To coincide with this release, Samsung is launching an £8m advertising campaign, combining TV, press, outdoor and online advertising over a three-month period. It will begin with advert below, due to receive its broadcast premiere the very next day during the Champion's League semi-final on ITV1.

Created by the ad agency CHI and masterminded by the electronics manufacturer's marketing director, Mikah Martin-Cruz, the advert "took eight months to produce, required 81 crew members and used 1,256 TV sets to create effects including a three-storey-high cat and what appears to be South America's Iguazu Falls plunging into a city centre".

"The campaign really captures the spirit of 3D TV and brings to life the amazing experience the technology can deliver," said Martin-Cruz. "The launch of the first 3D TV in the UK is such a culturally significant event, we needed to do it justice with a visually exciting campaign that captures the audience's imagination and feel we have done exactly that."

Take a look and see what you think.

Shot on location in New York, watch as the Big Apple is invaded and devoured by 8-bit video game creatures like Pacman, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong!

It's imaginative, well-conceived, brilliantly executed and won't fail to brighten up your day.

Broadcast live "from the top corner of Ealing Film Studios", the event attracted viewers from around the world including the UK, Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia, Spain and Mexico.

And judging by the feedback, it seems the inaugural show was a huge success, particularly the live chat window which incredibly hugely popular. Click on the video link below and you can watch the whole episode in full. 

To tune in for the next show, visit Guerilla Film on Live Stream on Thursday 22nd April @ 19.30 GMT.  

We have produced a wide variety of films and video projects for them including dramas, training films and music videos. Here's a short promo we've just delivered featuring material from many of these projects, showcasing the tremendous work they do, which touches and changes many people's lives.

Heart n Soul grew out of working together and experimenting. Musician Mark Williams, now Director, wanted to explore new ways of music making and using art to make a difference. In 1984, he started running creative sessions in a local music academy for a group of people with learning disabilities who went to the local day service, The Mulberry Centre. Once the group was given the chance to make music together with Mark, original songs flowed out. The Mulberry Crew moved into The Albany where it is still based today, re-naming itself Heart n Soul (the title of one of its new songs). 

Mark was recently awarded an MBE and we are very proud to support and promote the work that he and his dedicated team do.

Fortunately the good people at Blendtec have found out for us.

This video is just the latest release in arguably the most successful viral video marketing campaign of all time and has already generated over 5,000,000 views online.

But if you're one of those people who love Apple products more than your own friends and family, you might find it slightly uncomfortable viewing.

Well ... thanks to Samsung, who have created this fantastic advert for their new 3D TV ... your wait is finally over! 

The video also reveals some surprising "truths" about familiar old masters such as Seurats' Bathers at Asnieres, A Bar at the Follies-Bergère Édouard Manet and the Vitruvian Man (or men).

Enjoy. 

Here's a great little video from Brian Stark which employs stop motion animation, cut to "Up the Spout" by Mateo Messina. Enjoy.

Google has just released a brand new App - Translate for Animals - which promises to "bridge the gap between animals and humans".

Translate for Animals is an application for Android phones that recognises and transcribes words and phrases that are common to a species, like cats for example. To develop Translate for Animals, Google worked closely with many of the world's top language synthesis teams, and with leaders in the field of animal cognitive linguistics, including senior fellows at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Watch the video above to find out all about the revolutionary App and take a tour about the product here.

An unnamed source at Google stated that "we've always been a pet-friendly company at Google, and we hope that Translate for Animals encourages greater interaction and understanding between animal and human".

If you haven't guessed already, this is of course an April's Fools prank from the guys at Google. And a pretty decent one too.

Inspired by "numbers, geometry and nature", I wasn't convinced by the film at first, but the beautiful motion graphics, accompanied by a perfect choice of music, soon drew me in until I was mesmerised.

Artists and architects have used geometrical and mathematical properties since ancient times, but these properties and sequences are also found in nature too - a phenomenon communicated brilliantly in Vila's short film.

For more information surrouding the theories - The Fibonacci Series & Spiral, The Golden & Angle Ratios, The Delaney Triangulation and Voronoi Tessselations - go to www.etereastudios.com. There are lots of free training materials and 3D workshops, too.

Mental health nursing courses are offered at BSc, diploma for graduates and diploma level. Further information can be found here and here. 

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

The Open Video Alliance - a “coalition of organisations and individuals committed to the idea that the power of moving image should belong to everyone” - has just launched a new online campaign to “bring video to Wikipedia”, the biggest site yet to implement fully open video.

They argue that although Wikipedia is a fantastic source of information, a text article can only convey so much; and that video can “explain, clarify, and engage like nothing else”.

As part of their campaign, run in conjunction with Miro and Mozilla Drumbeat, they’re providing support to both individuals and organisations who wish to contribute to their vision, including easy-to-follow tutorials on how to post a video, along with a number of community-based projects to support collaborative work.

Find out more about the Open Video Alliance. 

The Academy will provide access to relevant, industry-recognised development, covering the technical, business and interpersonal skills the IT and telecoms workforce needs now, and in the future.

Craig Wilson, Managing Director / Regional Vice President of HP Enterprise Services UK & Ireland, sees the new Academy as ...

     "playing a vital role in helping to create the skills environment the UK needs, particularly by enabling the recognition of skills and endorsement of training which is valued by the sector."

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

A successful video viral that captures people imagination can result in enormous commercial benefits, for even the smallest business or organisation. Take Blendtec. Their delightfully engrossing viral video series “Will It Blend?” did wonders for the manufacturer’s brand awareness and led directly to an increase the sales. There are however, a number of commercial marketing videos that have “gone viral” for completely the wrong the reasons, damaging well known brands.

Johnson & Johnson released this video to coincide with “International Baby Wearing Month” to promote Motrin pain relief capsules to mum’s suffering ache and pains, but the video also insinuated that many carry their baby’s in slings or pouches as fashion accessories. This implication, real or perceived, led to hundred’s of mums around the world flooding messages boards, social networks and blogs with their thoughts about the pharmaceutical giant. Spoof responses were posted to Youtube and angry mothers threatened boycotts. This was a huge PR disaster for the Motrin brand that seriously challenged the old adage - no such thing as bad publicity. They were ultimately forced to take the ads down and apologise. Here's just one of the re-edited responses;

Hong Kong’s Langham Hotel also fell victim to a very badly misguided viral video campaign. They created a series of three videos entitled “Visiting Hong Kong Is A Big Deal” which featured supposed tourists (actors) having an unpleasant time out-and-about in Hong Kong, returning the sanctuary of the lovely hotel, away from the locals and nasty food. The videos prompted almost instantaneous outrage online from hundreds of mainly Hong Kong based bloggers who found the series offensive. The videos were take down very quickly, but according to one of the actors her scenes “involved acting as a tourist new to Hong Kong, expressing distaste at being served chicken’s feet in a local “dai pai dong”, then eating a spring roll in the restaurant at the Eaton Hotel (part of the Langham group)”. It’s no wonder really then that this video also went “viral” for the wrong reasons. You can read the rest of her story here. This is part of the statement Langham Hotels reportedly released in the aftermath;

 “While we’re pleased that we’ve generated discussion in the forums with the videos we’ve created, we were disappointed that the satirical tone of the videos was misunderstood in some circles. As a result of the potential to magnify the tone in a direction that was not intended, we have decided not to continue with this campaign.”

Sony’s 2006 viral video campaign didn’t cause damage to Sony’s brand because it was misguided … the problem here was deception. In an attempt to sell their Playstation Portable (PSP), their hired viral marketing “specialists” in Zipatoni to produce a fake blog written by two imaginary teenagers, which featured a rap video about how much they wanted their parents to buy them Sony’s struggling product for Christmas. A shrewd blogger soon worked out it was fake and the backlash forced Sony to take the ad down. The dishonesty didn’t put the company out of business, but it certainly did a lot of damage to the Sony brand.

On Wednesday, Greenpeace re-released a pretty shocking video on Youtube attacking snack food manufacturing giant Nestle. The video is a high-production value parody of a well known Kit-Kat ad, but instead of a lovely piece of chocolaty, crispy goodness, an office worker finds an orangutan’s finger.  He then proceeds to chomp down it with a sickening crunch and dribble blood onto his keyboard. It’s pretty nasty.

The video is intended to draw attention to Nestle’s use of palm oil as a key ingredient in many of its products, destroying the rainforest habitat of some the world’s last orangutans in the process. Initially removed at the request of “Societe des Produits Nestlé S.A” due to a copyright complaint, the video has now been re-posted.  Interestingly though, a Nestle spokesperson has recently stated;

"We notified YouTube about the campaign video's infringement of the visual identity of our Kit Kat brand. The video is now back up and we will not submit the form again",

A smart move really. Even though it has an estimated 300,000 views so far, who knows how many people would have seen it if Nestle had come out all guns blazing against Greenpeace’s deliberately provocative stunt.

So … you came up with a great idea for a video to market your business, filmed it, edited it … but the internet has millions upon millions of videos vying for people’s attention, so how do you get your video noticed?

Here are a few tips and tricks to help your video “go viral”.

Video SEO / VSEO – Since Google’s introduction of Universal Search in 2007, which displays blended results from multiple databases, videos now appear prominently in standard Google searches. So make sure you incorporate a video site-map in your website’s HTML code and that you give your video an engaging, keyword rich title.

YouTube & Other Video-Sharing Sites – While Youtube remains the most popular video-sharing on the Internet by some way, there is a plethora of other increasingly popular video websites such as Vimeo and Daily Motion, so make sure you upload your video to as many of them as possible. To help create a buzz online, try to do this simultaneously and not over an extended period of time.

It’s also very important that you optimise your Youtube video correctly. Give it an attention-grabbing headline, include a description loaded with relevant keywords and choose the most relevant tags to your target audience.

An enticing thumbnail is also crucial! Youtube gives you the option of a frame at ¼, ½ and ¾ of the way through your video, so pick the best one. Or why not make sure that your editor places a shot you want use as a thumbnail at any one of these points?

Perhaps most importantly, make sure you check the videos settings, so sharing, downloading and embedding are allowed! The easier your video is to share, the more likely it will become popular. Sharing is what viral marketing is all about. Everything you do to make that easier is going to improve your campaign.

Get People Talking About It - E-mail a link to your video to as many relevant websites and blogs as you can. Sometimes all it takes is a single blogger to get your video moving.

Don’t just upload your video and forget it about it either. Comment on it yourself and start a conversation. Why not start new threads about the video on relevant forums too? You can also post the URL of your video as a response to other relevant videos that will be there for all visitors to see. Be as creative as like with the association.

Become part of the community.

Promote, Promote and Promote Some More – Send a good old-fashioned e-mail with a link to the video to everyone in your address book and encourage them to share it with their friends too.  Post a link to bookmarking sites like DIGG and promote it on your social networks like Facebook and Twitter. If you don’t have profiles on these sites, then sign up asap.

While there are no guarantees that your video will “go viral”, if you invest a bit of time and follow these steps, you give your video the very best chance possible.

Good luck! For a little inspiration, here's a great little video about "Extreme Recycling" currently do well online.

Produced by American comedy-duo BriTANicK - "Two Guys Wasting Thier Degrees" - this 3-minute video brilliantly sends up The Oscars, cliched movie trailers and the entire Hollywood film industry.

With nearly a million Youtube views and counting in just a week since its release, the video is currently riding high in every video viral chart. Click play to see why. 

To view some of their other funny videos and short films, click here. 

As discussed yesterday, a "viral video" is simply a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing. There are no silver bullets to ensure your marketing videos “go viral”, but there are definitely a few golden rules.  Here they are.

Target Audience – Think carefully about who you want to watch your video and what action you want them to take having done so.  It’s crucial that you tailor your video’s style and content to appeal to the right people.  Consider age group, gender, location and tastes of the audience you want your video to connect with. 

Keep it Short – Successful viral videos are almost always short, usually just 1 or 2 minutes in length, if that. Online viewers have notoriously short attention spans, so keep it punchy to grab their attention.  If you do, they are likely to share your video across multiple social networking sites, quickly generating good momentum and potentially millions of views for your video marketing campaign. 

Make It Funny – Humour is often key to a successful video viral. Many of the most effective video viral campaigns have been driven by making people laugh.  People like to be entertained. There’s only one thing they like more – entertaining their friends. Make somebody laugh and the chances are they’ll want to do the same for their friends and will share your video with them. 

Distribute it Properly – So … you’ve made your video, but how do make sure it gets noticed in a crowded online world? If you put the video on your own website, even on the homepage, the chances are that unless your site already has a loyal following of thousands, it probably won’t get picked up by the right people. What you need to do is propagate the video across the Internet’s many video-sharing platforms. There’s a lot more out there than Youtube you know! You should also be posting news of the video’s release to you or your company’s blog, twitter feed and social networking profiles like Facebook.

No Hard Sell  - People watch videos to be entertained, not to discover information about a company’s products and services. They have to want to watch the video for its own entertainment value. If you give them the hard sell and bombard them information, you might as well not bother. They probably won’t watch it to the end, and are very unlikely to share it. 

Production Values – Don’t worry too much about production values. Your video needs to been watchable, with decent sound, but a good idea far outweighs shooting on a REDONE.

You can never guarantee that a video will “go viral”, but if you follow these guidelines, you’ll give it every chance. If it does, viral video marketing can be one of the most cost-effective online marketing solutions around. But don’t put all your eggs in one basket though, viral videos should be one element of comprehensive marketing strategy, and not the main focus of it.

The real beauty is that viral videos mean that even the smallest business can compete online with the largest corporations. There are plenty of video production companies out there who will produce videos for you and many of them are worth working with, but if you have a good idea and video camera, you can do it yourself.

I hope you found this article useful, come back tomorrow for some top tips on how on how to get your video noticed online. In the meantime, here's a great video from BMW that's currently doing well very online. 

Commercial marketing videos that “go viral” can bring companies and organisations a huge amount of PR value, in the form of online visibility, brand recognition and website hits, often for a very small cost. But how does a marketing video “go viral” and why are some videos more successful than others?

A "viral video" is simply a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing and to understand how they work, it’s important to look at how they began.  Viral videos predate video sharing sites like Youtube that we are all now familiar with and began with inbox-to-inbox e-mail sharing. 

One of the first known examples was “Dancing Baby” (above), when in 1996 animator Ron Lussier forwarded a video he'd created around his workplace, which was then circulated widely across the Internet via e-mail. Today however, sharing videos via e-mail still happens, but it’s been dwarfed by the sharing of videos across social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter, and the many video-sharing sites that have sprung up since the inception of Youtube.

The fundamental premise of viral marketing has in fact been around for much longer than inbox-to-inbox sharing: word-of-mouth. All that’s changed is the conversations are now happening online and across a much larger geographical area. Every good marketer knows that word-of-mouth can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool and what the web does is amplify that power, potentially many times over. Videos are simply a strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence; and hopefully driving people to your website where they can learn more about what it is your offering.

If somebody enjoys watching your video, the chances are that they’ll immediately share it with their friends, who in turn, will share it with their friends too.  If the video really captures people’s imagination the process becomes self-perpetuating and creates a real buzz online, quickly becoming part of multiple online discussions. Here's a great example of marketing video that instantly went viral from Honda:

An integral element of the process is that when somebody shares a video, the people they share them with are usually part of a broadly similar demographic, in terms of age, gender, interests, purchasing power and taste. This means that the video is being seen by exactly the right people, who are also likely to have an interest in your company’s products or services.

Many videos will “go viral” unexpectedly and / or organically; and one video is usually more successful than another simply because it strikes a chord and captures people’s imaginations. However today, successful viral video marketing campaigns often rely upon a carefully planned distribution strategy too (something I'll be going into more about later in the week); and an entire industry has also evolved over the last few years, which produces and distributes “viral” videos on behalf of business and organisations.

It's a scene where a girl punk rock - played by Rachel Bright (Kelly), Victoria Gaskell-Watkins (Roxy), Eleanor Lawrence (Dixie) and Roxanne Saili (Trisky) - perform a song called "Woman Killer, recorded 'live' by the cast with a little help from Simon Duckworth.

Mark is a member of Spectrecom's creative team and has a fantastic track record in making highly original comedy films on a budget! He's been working on "Silly Billy" for the last couple of years. It's all in the can, editing is nearly complete and will be officially released at some point in 2010

Mark is currently selling credits and VIP perks on the film to raise some funds to complete the post-production.

To find out more check out www.sillybillymovie.com or take a look at his website: www.jacksonfilm.co.uk

York has established a national and international reputation for the quality of its academic programmes and its research since its foundation in 1963. The University ranked 9th in the 2008 Sunday Times University Guide, has been ranked in the top 10 for research in the recent 2008 RAE results, and has also been ranked in the top 100 of world universities by the QS - Times Higher Education Supplement rankings of the leading 500 world universities.

The overall strength of the University and the attractions of the City of York offer a strong incentive to choose York - one of Britain's most successful universities. 

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

Mark is a member of Spectrecom's creative team and has a fantastic track record in making highly original comedy films on a budget!

He's been working on "Silly Billy" for the last couple of years. It's all in the can, editing is nearly complete and will be officially released at some point in 2010

Mark is currently selling credits and VIP perks on the film to raise some funds to complete the post-production.

To find out more check out www.sillybillymovie.com or take a look at his website: www.jacksonfilm.co.uk

A slobby couch potato football fan runs all the way to South Africa - getting himself in shape on the way - ending up in Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium where he sprints onto the pitch and scores a winning goal.

The shoot took nine days across various locations in Morocco and South Africa - home country to both Smith and Santana; and the hero is actually played by three actors - one lead and two body doubles.

Apparently, the production team also had a movement specialist on set who taught the actors how to run correctly and in the same way to make it look seamless.

Take a look and see what you think.

LIQUID's brand new music video featuring female vocalist Meina Symone. Produced by DJ Naya, G.A.N.G Records UK & Flipside Inc, the track is due for release nationwide in Summer 2010.

You can forward your own instrumental to G.A.N.G Records, by submitting a contact via their website.

OK ... so it's dogs in slow-motion catching treats in mid-air, but what could be better on Friday afternoon!

Have a great weekend

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs, the video begins with the band member pushing a red truck into pile of dominoes, which starts off an incredible chain reaction of random objects hitting each other, until finally a cannon shoots paint at the group.

The video for "This Too Shall Pass", from the album "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky", was filmed in one take at a Los Angeles warehouse and took 60 attempts over two days to get it just right! 

Take a look and see what you think. 

Here's a link to the website where you can read all about it!

Mark's been working on the film for the last couple of years. It's all in the can, editing is nearly complete and will be officially released at some point in 2010. Check out this scene from the film entitled "Pulling", in which Billy hits the dance floor and tries to impress the ladies with his natural charm. 

Mark has fantastic track record in making highly original comedy films on a budget!

To find out more about him, take a look at his website: www.jacksonfilm.co.uk





Sussex are also determined that their UK students graduate with a world view, which is why one in seven of Sussex University's undergraduates spend part of their degree overseas.  

Here's a student recruitment video produced by Spectrecom showcasing what the University of Sussex has to offer international students. Click here for more information.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.

There's Rajeshwar Anand, the Operations Director at Kwiqq, a start-up social website builder company that provides online communities or "whitelabel Facebooks" to corporations and councils. Sussex provided Rajeshwar  with "the tools not only to programme software, but also to build a business"; and that "the University produces students with excellent degrees combined with the passion to make a differenc." 

Then there's Jeta Bejtullahu, a Communications Officer at the European Social Network (ESN), an NGO supported by the European commission.

As a former Sussex student you are automatically a member of the Alumni Network, and entitled to enjoy the benefits and services that this provides, including a subscription to the Alumni magazine.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260 

In this video Alastair Greener explores what will eventually be a magnificent theatre right at the heart of the ship, continuing a Cunard tradition that started on Queen Victoria. The theatre will feature art deco flourishes, signature theatre boxes and will play host to a brand new repertoire of shows. 

Find out more about Spectrecom's corporate video production work.

So .. instead of a predictable student recruitment film with cliched shots of bedrooms and common areas, Spectrecom delivered a video that takes inspiration from "Cribs", a franchise reality television program on the MTV Networks that features tours of the houses and mansions of celebrities. Here it is.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260 

Here's the 4th and final student recruitment video produced by Spectrecom showcasing courses, faculties and academic departments at the University of Sussex to prospective students.

Dr Graham McAllister is the Managing Director of Vertical Slice – the UK’s first video game usability user-experience company. He set the company up while studying Informatics at the University of Sussex and is building rich body of knowledge on how people interact with gaming technology.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260

Here's the 3rd student recruitment video produced by Spectrecom for the University of Sussex showcasing courses, faculties and academic departments to prospective students.  

The University of Sussex is world centre of expertise on energy policy research and the international politics of climate change. In this film we meet Dr David Ockwell - a member of the Sussex Energy Group – and find out about his work on the transfer of green technologies to poorer countries.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260

Here's the 2nd student recruitment video produced by Spectrecom for the University of Sussex showcasing courses, faculties and academic departments to prospective students. 

Francis Ratnieks is the only professor of apiculture in the UK. He’s based at the University of Sussex working on a 5-year-plan, compromising 4 separate projects, to help the reverse the decline in UK honeybees. In this film we find out about his fascinating and invaluable work.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260

In March 2009, Spectrecom was commissioned by the University of Sussex to produce a series of short student recruitment videos showcasing courses, faculties and academic departments to prospective students. The marketing department at Sussex knew they wanted to showcase the University’s prestigious doctoral research programmes, but were unsure about the most effective way to do this? 

The problem was that the research areas were often detailed, technical and complex, so to communicate the key messages in an engaging and accessible way, Spectrecom proposed producing a series of people-focused, story-based case studies – and not a series of films packed with facts, graphs and statistics.

Spectrecom researched a number of possible case studies, before settling on four stories. Each film was then shot in a distinct style to reflect the subject matter at hand.

Here's the first student recruitment video from the series. It's called "Happy Ever After" and features Dr Claire Langhammer, currently studying the history of love at Sussex using the internationally renowned Mass Observation Archive held at the University, which has allowed her to determine how conceptions of love change over time, depending on the historical context. 

This film features Gurmik Brainch, a BSC Information Technology student at the University of Kent, currently working as a Support Analysts at Select Software in Canterbury - a mid-market consulting, software and solutions provider.

To find out more about Spectrecom's work with E-Skills and view all 5 student recruitment videos, just click on the links.

Click on the link to find out more about Spectrecom's corporate video production work. 

The post included a short excerpt from the film, which features Chris Bonnington and gyro-stabilised aerial footage, however you now watch the entire 8-min film by clicking on the image above. Hope you enjoy it. 

"Spectrecom undertook a challenging brief for the University, to produce an anniversary film against demanding deadlines and a shifting perception of what was desired from the final product. The latter is illustrated by a storyboard which was still evolving a week before the film was premiered! Despite this, Andrew Greener and his team remained positive and highly responsive to our needs - both real and imagined.

It was a great pleasure to work with Spectrecom; I very much hope to have the chance to work with them again in the future. Apart from being highly professional and creative, they are a lot of fun and I developed a very good working relationship with them. The quality of their work speaks for itself. We felt we got extremely good value for our money."

Nick Fragel, Director of Alumni & Development, Lancaster University

Spectrecom are the UK's market leading producers of student recruitment videos. 

Here's the 4th student recruitment video of this series in which we meet Rob, a third year computing student at the University of Kent, who has been working at Kinetic Solutions, a UK based developer of event management and conference software, for over five months.

With centres based at King's College London, Imperial College London, Queen Mary and University College London, it is focused on supporting applications for funding from NHS researchers and those working in partnership with the NHS. Advice is provided free of charge and is available through use of online resource and consultations with experts. Click here to find out more.  

"From start to finish Spectrecom were a delight to work with their friendly yet professional attitude to work made the process easy and enjoyable. Creatively, I can't flaw them, we had a rough idea of what we wanted and they took that and made it into something that exceeded our expectations".

David Smith, Communications Manager, RDS London

Click here to view more of Spectrecom's corporate video production work.

Student recruitment videos are quickly becoming the most popular student recruitment tool among universities, colleges and training providers, not only across the UK, but around the world too.

Marketers understand that if you want to get your institution and its courses noticed, producing good student recruitment videos is the most powerful and cost effective way to do so. Video will engage prospective students far more than the written word ever can, helping you to compete in a highly competitive student marketplace and crowded online world.  

Thanks to falling video production costs, universities, colleges and training providers, large and small, can afford and benefit from creating student recruitment videos. Once produced, these videos can then be very easily incorporated into websites, propagated online via video-sharing sites and social-networks, and burnt onto DVDs for use at careers fairs and recruitment events.

However, it is a mistake to treat a student recruitment video, as you would a prospectus. That’s not to say that a printed or online prospectus isn’t a valuable tool. It is. But detailed information about an institution or its courses has very little place in a recruitment video.  Not if you want people to watch and remember it.

A video should be used to show prospective students what you have to offer, not just tell them about it. Prospective students want to see what the facilities, buildings and grounds look like; they want to meet the people they’ll be learning with, taught by and possibly living with; and they want get a feel for the place before applying. They might be seeking out information, but they don’t want to be bombarded with a list of statistics. 

Prospective students want the information to be presented to them in a way they can relate to and engage with. They have hundreds, possibly thousands of educational options to choose from and don’t have the time to be patronised or bored.  Also, as irritating as the saying might be, in this case it’s right. Less is definitely more. Online films over 5-minutes in length are very rarely watched all the way through, so it’s always better to produce shorter student recruitment videos.

Production values are important too. Amateurish videos suggest, well … amateurish institutions. A badly edited student recruitment video, packed with statistics, with no discernable narrative, poor direction and terrible sound quality, will always reflect badly. If the video is poor, prospective students will naturally expect the same of your institutions and courses. But producing student recruitment videos is a craft that requires experience, knowledge and technical expertise; so in most cases is best left to professional video production companies.

Long gone are the days when student recruitments videos took longer to load, than it did to read an entire prospectus. The vast majority of prospective students watch good quality online video everyday and their sophisticated tastes must be catered for. Just remember, the back button is not very far away.

Bad studio recruitment videos aren’t just a waste of time and money.  They can do serious damage to your reputation.

Spectrecom are the UK's leading producer of student recruitment videos.

Feel free to get in touch to discuss your ideas - christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260  

Here's his latest video for a new single by Hammer - a popular London-based rapper and grime artist. The track "Mic Check" ft. J-Swizzy is taken from the forthcoming "Confidence 10 Million Project" and will be available from 8th March 2010 through iTunes.

You can view more of Mark's work right here. I'll also be posting some very exciting news soon and about his feature-length comedy punk musical, currently in post-production.

In this video Alastair Greener explores the bow section, one of two sections which is yet to be attached to the rest of the ship and meets Queen Elizabeth's Outfitting Manager, Emmanuelle Etrouant, who describes how the massive sections will be fitted together.

Three crews are a currently working around the clock to complete the ship on time.

View more of Spectrecom's corporate video production work here. 

The first Queen Elizabeth was one of Cunard’s greatest ships, and the new Queen Elizabeth will reflect her predecessor in interior grandeur, décor and style, but with a modern twist. She will depart for her Maiden Voyage on Tuesday 12 October 2010. This 13-night celebration will leave from the company’s home port, Southampton, and will call at Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz, Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (overnight call) and Funchal.

View more of Spectrecom's corporate video production work here. 

In this video blog, you can watch various sections of the ship start coming together and Entertainment Director for Cunard Line, Alastair Greener, become the first crew member to step on board.

Over the next weeks, I'll be posting a video blog produced by Spectrecom and hosted by the Entertainment Director for Cunard Line, Alastair Greener, charting the construction of the gigantic ship, which will be joining the fleet in October 2010. 

I hope you enjoy it.

View more of Spectrecom's corporate video production work.

The Fish Police are a 3-piece band hailing from South London, mixing funk, punk and hip-hop, whose influences include Japanese TV, fast food, games, cartoons, hip-hop, scratching, punk, funk and fake tans! Check out the video above, produced by Spectrecom, to see them in action.

Comprised of Matthew Howe, Charles Stewart and Dean Rodney, the trio got to know each other when Charles trained Dean and Matthew as part of Heart ‘n’ Soul Youth, a charity that provides a creative outlet for people with learning difficulties; and who continue to support the Fish Police so they can write new songs. You can join them on MySpace here.

The band will shortly be going into the studio to record their debut album CheeseBurger Man. Here’s a review of one of their performances by Bill Bragin and another by Jo Verrant at Disability Online.

Click on this link to view more of Spectrecom’s film and video production work with Heart ‘n’ Soul and other UK charities.

Well ... here's a great article from Peter Wylie at Social Media Examiner that tells you exactly how to do it!

Do you want to squeeze as much value as possible out of your corporate video? Do you want to reach more people? Generate more leads? If so, then you really need to read this video marketing article. Enjoy! 

View Spectrecom's corporate video production work.

In it, Johnson talks to Linda L Briggs from Campus Technology about new ways in which technologies such as online student recruitment videos are being used to connect with students and parents - and how students use technology to find colleges and universities. Johnson also discusses why putting excess effort into a school's home page isn't necessarily the best use of online marketing funds.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

Unfortunately, the 2' 17" second PowerPoint-style slide show of images around the University's campus, cut to an original song claiming that the school is "hot hot hot", inadvertently played into the stereotype that people from Appalachia are unsophisticated and out of touch. An editorial in the Appalachian State student newspaper criticised the video, calling it "so ridiculously tacky one cannot help but laugh when watching it," adding, "The jingle is horrible, the lyrics are absurd and the pictures make Appalachian seem like an institution stuck in the 1970s."

However, the video was not actually an official project and in the wake of the response is no longer used by the University. It was originally created for the Appalachian Family Caravan tour by Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock and then posted to the University's website. Peacock described the video's role in promotion:

"It was used primarily for the Appalachian Caravan, taking it out with us on the road to show that Appalachian is a great institution and it’s hot in many ways. So in order to understand fully that video, you almost had to be at one of those Caravan events. I think they took it off the Web site because, without it being a Caravan event, it’s confusing. People don’t really understand what the message is with the song. It was all done in fun, to go and energize our alumni and say here are some things that are happening on campus, holding up the highlights of faculty, programs, accomplishments of students, and say ‘You know why this is possible? It’s because Appalachian is hot. It builds all around that whole theme." 

Take a look at the video and see what you think?

For quality student recruitment films with proven results, get in touch with Spectrecom. Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, we are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

In 2009, one of the world’s foremost Universities, Yale in the United States, decided that it was high-time they replaced their decade-old student recruitment video, which had become stale and outdated. According to Andrew Johnson, a Yale graduate now working in the admissions office and the creator of “That’s Why I Chose Yale"; 

“Students in the previous video were rollerblading around campus, others were wearing baggy shirts and high-waisted jean shorts. The fashion sense of the people in the video was noticeably different, distractingly different. What’s more, three of the people interviewed in the video had died and some of the professors had left the university.”

“In creating the video, we hoped to showcase the energy and community on campus in a novel way,” said Johnson. “We decided on a musical because we felt it would be entertaining enough to keep people’s interest, while also showcasing the vast reserve of willing undergraduate talent on campus.”

But Johnson’s videos was met with a mixture of derision and acclaim. And the 17-minute continues to divide opinion - either people love it, or they hate it.

It’s definitely attention-grabbing and will undoubtedly go some way to eroding Yale’s perhaps undeserved stuffy image, but there’s a very fine between self-deprecating tongue-in-cheek satire and silliness, which isn’t always easy to get right. Take a look at the video and see what you think.

Our creative team have just delivered a new student recruitment video for The Institute of Psychiatry. Click on the image above to take a look.

Opened in 1923, The Institute of Psychiatry is the only postgraduate institution in the United Kingdom devoted solely to the study and practice of psychiatry and related disciplines. It became a school of King’s College London in August 1997 and currently shares the same site as the Maudsley Hospital. The Institute is “devoted to establish the best possible care for people who experience mental health problems.”

Click on this link to find out more about Spectrecom’s award-winning student recruitment films.

Click on the link above to watch a little behind-the-scenes "making-of" video showing Director Steve Lennon and two of Harlequins' players making sure they get the "Big-Hit" right.

You'll be pleased to hear (or maybe not) that no traffic wardens were injured in the making of this video.

On Spectrecom’s last day of work before the Christmas break, our creative team braved freezing cold conditions to shoot an amusing video viral for Harlequins Rugby League. Click on the image above to check it out.

The viral marks the start of Harlequins RL’s 'Look Who's Been Watching' video marketing campaign, designed to demonstrate that a) Quins RL fans aren't just your typical flat-cap-wearing Northern blokes and b) you can always spot them because they're the ones who, because they've been watching maybe a little too much RL action, are prone to delivering Quins-style Big Hits as part of their everyday life!

The viral was played at half-time on the big screen at Twickenham and now the Club are inviting fans and members of the public to get their creative juices flowing and pitch their own viral ideas. The lucky winner will have their concept made into a Harlequins Rugby League advert and might even get to star in it!

Because advertising is subject to the restrictions of good taste and the English legal system, there are certain rules you'll need to follow, so check them out here. Think you can tackle it? Click on this link to send them a basic scenario of your ideal online ad and they'll pick a winner by the end of March 2010.

These are some of the ideas that they've already seen – some are brilliant, some are usable, some are neither. Make sure you come up with something different. And better. And hilarious!

Bank Robber - We see a middle-aged school mum outside a bank. Alarm bells ring as the masked robber exits, she body checks him and brings him to the ground!

New Year Sales - Action takes place in a department store. A scrum occurs around a 'dump bin' in the cookware department. A big burly man manages to grab the last Le Creuset cookpot. As he makes for the till, a gaggle of fellow shoppers converge on him and bring him down!

The Wingman - 2 guys are hanging out in a trendy bar and spot 2 girls on the other side of the room. One of the guys turns to his friend and ask if he'll be his 'wingman' and distract the 'not so attractive girl' whilst he tries to chat up the other one. His mate agrees but gets the wrong end of the stick, runs across the bar and takes out the girl with a huge 'Big Hit'!

Good luck! 

Many people have found Mindfulness useful, whether they have used it to help them deal with recurrent depression or anxiety, or as a tool to improve their mental wellbeing and help them deal with stress.

Kathy Andrews finds mindfulness to be the "piece that was missing from other kinds of therapy", which allows her to "deal with what is going on in the present moment."

If you want to find out more about Mindfulness and the MHF's campaign, click here to be taken their brand new microsite. Click on these links to view more of Spectrecom's charity marketing and charity fundraising videos.

You can also view all six films from the Mindfulness project right here.

Ed is an independent health writer and practices in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition. He is the author of Up and Running: Exercise And The Treatment of Mild To Moderate Depression In Primary Care, as well of the MHF's report on Mindfulness. www.edhalliwell.com

"Mindfulness" offers people a way of working with their minds, which will not only benefit their mental health but physical health as well. To find out more, check out the MHF's Mindfulness Website.

Click on these links to find out more about Spectrecom's charity marketing and charity fundraising videos. 

Today, even the smallest businesses can afford and benefit from commissioning a corporate video to promote their products or services. Here’s why:

Corporate videos mean that you can actually show potential customers your product or service in action, not just tell them about it

Corporate videos can be easily and inexpensively propagated online, enabling any business to reach large audiences at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. If consumers like what they see, corporate videos can also be easily, and very quickly shared via online social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

For a relatively small cost, corporate videos can be easily updated at a later date to reflect changes in a company’s products, services or brand.

Print brochures cannot.By eliminating inefficiencies and reducing errors, corporate videos can greatly improve the productivity and therefore the profit margins of any business. 

The bottom line is that a well-produced corporate video can be highly cost-effective tool in any organisation’s armory – delivering enormous commercial benefits, at a very low price.

As websites without video content begin to look increasingly archaic and the Internet continues to replace traditional advertising media, organisations across the public, private and charity sectors are falling over themselves to produce videos about what they do and who they are.

However, as the saying goes, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. That’s not to say that corporate video production isn’t important. It is. Extremely. In fact in 2010, if you want to compete (particularly online), a corporate video has become a virtual commercial necessity. But if you really want your video to be effective, it’s crucial that you get in right. 

A badly constructed corporate video with no discernable narrative, poor direction, terrible sound quality, mixed messages and amateurish production values will always reflect badly on an organisation. If the video is poor, prospective customers or clients will naturally expect the same of your products or services.

Despite what seems very obvious, from time-to-time people will tell me that they have decided to go “in-house” for their corporate video, which more-often-than-not means purchasing a cheap camcorder and a basic editing package. But good corporate video production is a craft that requires experience, knowledge and technical expertise; and in most cases is best left to professional video production companies.

Would you hand out a tatty, photocopied leaflet to promote your product or services? Or would you prefer a glossy, attractive, professional-looking document? Which one do you think is most likely to be effective? Which one would you be embarrassed to hand out?

Long gone are the days when watching video online was a frustrating, time-consuming experience. Today, consumers on the web are bombarded with information, they’re used to watching good quality video content and expect well-crafted films with decent resolution. If not, the back button, or a competitor’s website, is not very far away.

A bad corporate video isn’t just throwing away money. Much more is potentially at stake. 

You risk throwing away your reputation.

This video features US comedian Ruby Wax - a well known sufferer from depression - talk about how 'Mindfulness' helps her cool down when she is feeling pressured or anxious, describing the technique as "by far the best tool I have to calm me down and take the heat out of my thoughts and feelings". 

Click on the link for more information about Spectrecom's charity marketing work and charity fundraising videos.

Thanks the rise of the Internet, particularly the revolution of social media networks and online video marketing, consumer interaction has changed drastically over the past few years.

Here's a brilliant animation from Michael Reissinger that illustrates exactly how this relationship has changed.

In this video you can watch Dr Andrew McCulloch, CEO of the Mental Health Foundation, talk about the research that his Foundation has undertaken around Mindfulness as a treatment for recurrent depression and the campaign to increase availability of mindfulness treatments on the NHS. 

To find out more about the MHF's Mindfulness campaign click here: http://www.bemindful.co.uk/

Continuing our video production work with the charity sector, the Mental Health Foundation has just released a series of short films produced by Spectrecom to help promote it's "Mindfulness" campaign and raise awareness about its benefits. 

"Mindfulness" helps people change the way they think, feel and act. It helps them to break free from a downward spiral of negative thought and action, and make positive choices that support their wellbeing. It can also help with recurrent depression, anxiety disorders and addictive behaviour – and other mental and physical problems including stress and chronic pain. Anyone can learn Mindfulness. It’s simple, you can practice it anywhere and its effects can be life changing.

The full series of videos can be found here on the MHF's Mindfulness Microsite and in the video above, you can watch Professor Mark Williams talk about mindfulness meditation as an alternative treatment for depression.

I'll also be posting a video from the series right here on Spectrecom's blog everyday this week.

If businesses want to compete in 2010, they will have to do so online. And to do so effectively, they will have to settle their prospective customers’ and clients’ increasingly huge appetites for online video. While print and television advertising are on the wane, corporate video production and online video marketing are on the rise.

No longer is corporate video seen as mere frippery or regarded with disdain, nor is it reserved for only the largest corporations. Today, businesses large and small, are benefiting enormously from good corporate videos and online video marketing. They’re enjoying greater reach and better margins; and advertising research suggests that they will commission more corporate video in than 2010, than ever before.

As a result, companies without video content on their website this year will soon find themselves behind the competition and struggle to get noticed. It is said that a company’s website has become its shop-front. Would you enter a shop with nothing in the window?

A good corporate video, formatted for viewing online, showcasing who you are and what you do, is fast becoming integral to commercial success - but bad corporate video, should never be a substitute for none. A badly produced video sends out completely the wrong messages about any organisation, its service and its products; and can destroy a company’s hard-earned reputation.

Internet users are also extremely fickle and poor quality material with low production values will soon have them tuning out, reaching for the back button and most-worryingly browsing a competitor’s website. As camera technologies and Internet bandwidth continue to improve, so too will the importance of quality, watchable, engaging, well-crafted video content, which is why in most cases it’s best left to professional video production companies.

In the right hands, corporate video production can be a very powerful tool in today’s marketing arsenal, so make sure your business has a clear video marketing strategy in place for 2010.

Your prospective clients and customers are demanding video.

You must supply it. 

These awards are Europe’s largest and most prestigious celebration of the best in corporate video production and public sector communication, and winning an IVCA Award brings with it national and international recognition. There is simply no higher corporate video production accolade for creativity, originality, production expertise and sheer effectiveness in communication!

The gala Awards Ceremony will be held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, on the evening of Friday 26th March 2010. Tickets will be made available soon.

A percentage this high clearly suggests that online video marketing is here to stay and that the reluctance of smaller companies to embrace video technologies is futile. It's also reflects a renewed sense of optimism among small business owners about the direction of the global economy, combined with the increased affordability of corporate video production and video adverts. There is nothing to suggest that this trend won't continue apace. 

Here's a video that Spectrecom produced nearly three years ago for Coleshill Organics, who were clearly well ahead of the game.

Here's a link to a brilliant illustration on the Alfa Bravo blog - an online media consultancy & business development company in Stockholm, Sweden, founded by Henrik Ahlen - that lays out the many, many applications of corporate video production, from glossy commercials and large company presentations at one end, to video blogs and customer testimonials on the other. Enjoy.

So, 2009 is over and a new decade is finally upon us, but what will 2010 mean for corporate video production and online video marketing? Well … all the signs suggest that it looks set to explode! Here’s why.

Long gone are the days when watching video online was a frustrating, heavily-pixellated experience. Thanks to the ubiquity of the Internet and ever-increasing bandwidths, we are all watching more online video than ever before. Youtube has become the 2^nd biggest search engine, Google now incorporates video directly into its search results and websites that don’t contain video are beginning to look positively archaic.

As a result, businesses (large and small), charities and public sector organisations in 2009, began to really embrace corporate video production and online video marketing.

In the cluttered, information-overload world of the Internet, they realised that not only does a well-produced short film or video advert have a much better chance of being watched, than long pages of static text do of being read, but also that people tend to believe what they can see and hear, far more than what they read. They also understood that video can have an emotional impact with a viewer way beyond that of the written word.

In 2009, even the smallest local businesses started to commission video production companies to produce short promotional films and online video adverts. And with more and more online business directories incorporating videos into their listings, corporate video production becoming more accessible, social networking becoming more popular and search engines becoming more sophisticated, there is simply no reason to think that this trend won’t continue apace.

However, businesses in 2010 won’t just be using video online. The effectiveness, versatility and most importantly the increased affordability of corporate video production means that more and more businesses will start or continue to use video for an increasingly wide range of applications, from training staff and sales presentations, to recruitment, internal communications, video conferencing and even the promotion of CSR credentials.

It was not so long ago when corporate video and corporate video production was frowned upon by many, but thanks to the continued development and expansion of the Internet, it has become a commercial necessity. The future of corporate video production and online video advertising looks very bright indeed!

Arora said that although "advertisers are still figuring out how to take advantage of the online video phenomenon, many companies are already shifting ads made for TV to the Web. And as marketers become more sophisticated at targeting consumers interactively,  ad formats for online video will inevitably evolve and improve, making video a more attractive way for brands to pitch their products." 

Google made a big bet on online video with its 2006 acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion. If currents trends continue, it looks like that bet will have paid off!

Visibility is absolutely crucial to the travel industry and if a hotel really want to get their messages across to as wide an audience as possible, video needs to be an integral component of its online marketing strategy. If not, even good quality hotels will struggle to get noticed online and soon find themselves behind the competition. Here’s why;

(1) Internet shoppers are becoming increasingly savvy and have come to expect an abundance of information about a hotel before making a booking. Video is the perfect medium to deliver this information because it allows potential guests to view a hotel’s rooms and facilities in action, providing much greater insight than still photos and / or static text, greatly increasing the possibility of a booking. 

(2) By featuring its staff, video offers a fantastic opportunity to provide any hotel with a much-needed human face. People connect with people. 

(3) By providing an authentic, engaging and realistic portrayal of hotel, video can have an emotional impact that the written word struggles to match.

(4) Videos are far more authoritative than the written word. People tend believe what they can see, far more than what they read.

(5) The human mind is programmed to remember pictures and images far better than the things we hear or read.

(6) Video improves the 'stickiness' of a website and increases conversion rates.

(7) Video streamed online is an environmentally friendly communications tool. It reduces paper usage, as well as the enormous carbon footprint associated with large scale mail-shots.

(8) Videos are great for SEO. They can be repurposed and propagated online, driving highly-targeted traffic to a hotel's website.

(9) Video production is increasingly affordable and accessible. A high quality video can be made for a relatively small amount of money



(10) Videos are incredibly versatile and therefore highly cost-effective, allowing any hotel to make its marketing budget go further. Videos, for example, can be streamed online, included on e-mail signatures, duplicated onto DVDs, used in one-on-one meetings or at large scale events. The right video can serve a hotel's needs for a long period of time and the footage can also be easily re-edited for use in future productions. 

    

(11) Free hosting websites continue to emerge and when used in tandem with these sites, videos can become even more powerful marketing tools. 

(12) The viral potential of videos means that information can be distributed much quicker and much farther than conventional methods. 

(13) Videos can be specifically tailored to appeal to hard-to-reach demographics.

However, to capture the attention of an online audience notorious for its short attention span, it is very important to produce unique and creative videos with production values that mirror the standards of service on offer. That's why it’s usually a job best left to the professionals.

Spectrecom produce videos for a wide range of hotels right across the budget spectrum; and our clients include SAGA, Cunard and Best Western.

To find out more about our work with hotels and view a selection of videos produced by Spectrecom, please click on this link. You can also view a film about SAGA's Coastline Hotel in Malta by clicking on the link above.
 

Shot over two days in Antony's home kitchen, the videos are currently being hosted on a specially created Youtube Channel - "Cook at home with Antony Worrall Thompson & Breville" - and show viewers "how to carve turkey like a pro", "the secret to perfect roast potatos" and reveal Antony's "ultimate stuffing recipe".

For more information about Antony Worrall Thompson's range of Breville products, just click on this link.

And good luck for Christmas dinner this year! Hope these videos help.

]]> http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/114 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:24:10 GMT http://www.spectrecom.co.uk/newsblog/entry/114 Here's the third and final CHANGEit Awards film produced by Spectrecom for Common Purpose.

Christina, 16, has been volunteering in Sheffield with the Action for Stannington group since the age of 12 and has revolutionised the way young people perceive their surrounding environment. Zumming up and down Stannington on her 50cc scooter, Christina helps organise activities and tasks, keeping her peers out of boredom.  Jobs such as gardening for older residents, looking after the local park, art and craft, recycling or simply chill out afternoons are often led by Christina and her dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed!  Christina has had the opportunity to meet every Sheffield’s Lord Mayor for the last four years, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, Nick Clegg MP, South Yorkshire’s  Lord Lieutenant, South Yorkshire’s High Sheriff and HRH The Duke of York.

Same as any other young volunteer in Action for Stannington, Christina comes from a socially disadvantaged background, yet she has been able to put her energies and enthusiasm to good use.  The photograph submitted to CHANGEit was taken, alongside others, to prove to anybody that the work in Action for Stannington is real, truly grassrooted and task focussed.  Christina was the winner in this year's Photography category.

They're a group of young people, aged 13-18 from York, with varying special needs. Though many go to special schools, some have attended mainstream schools in the past and felt that there are a number of very small changes schools can make to ensure that there is better access and inclusion in the school atmosphere. They toured a number of schools and created a DVD and booklet to help schools think about simple, inexpensive changes they can make, from changing paint colour to putting in ramps.

Here's a video showcasing their brilliant and inspirational work.

The Friends of Heriot Grange are six year nine pupils - Ami, Jamie-lee, Jayde, Danielle, Jake and Callum - from Manor College of Technology in Hartlepool. After their school sponsored a visit to a local home for the elderly, the 14 year-old school students decided that they wanted to visit the home more often and help bridge the gap between young and old.

They now visit Heriot Grange once a month to share stories, play games and have fun with the residents, and are hoping to start organising trips out as well. They also want the elderly residents to visit their school to help younger students with their reading and are trying to establish a group so when they leave, each year other students form the College will carry on the visiting the home.


They were declared winners in 2009 CHANGEit Innovation category!

In collaboration with Deutsche Bank, Common Purpose also run the the CHANGEit awards, designed to recognise the achievements and ambitions of young people, between the ages of 11-18, who want to speak out and create positive change. The awards have nothing to do with academic achievement or exam grades, but everything to do with good citizenship and positive action.

Spectrecom were delighted to be asked by Common Purpose to produce series of short films showcasing some of this years winners in the "Innovation", "Performance" and "Photography" categories. Everyday this week I'll be posting one of the films to this blog, but for now, here's an overview film about the awards with Ben Shepherd. 

This one focuses on post-graduate study, showcasing Sussex's dynamic and thriving research culture, it's superb resources and it's unique, award-winning faculties.

For further information about postgraduate study at the University of Sussex, please click on this link.

Nestling between the South Downs & the sea on Britain's stunning south coast, Brighton is one of the most vibrant, colourful, creative cities in Europe and a fantastic place to study.  Cosmopolitan, compact, energetic, unique, fun, lively, historic, young, exotic and free-spirited - it's a city like no other.

This film showcases some of the key attractions popular with students, such as the easy-going vibrant culture, local entertainment and events, the seafront and the City's legendary night life.

In April 09', Spectrecom was commissioned by the University to produce a series of films to communicate and celebrate University achievements to a wide internal and external audience including potential undergraduate and post-graduate students, at home and abroad. Almost all of the films are now complete, so I'll be posting one to the blog everyday this week. Today, it's the Founder's Day Film.

Shot in full HD on a Sony EX3, the film combines the glossy high production values of a commercial with a more conventional corporate communication. It celebrates the important achievements and events of the academic year, focusing on key areas of research, sports and student life. It also includes a few remarks from University Vice-Chancellor, Sanjeev Baskar.

The track was a cover version of The Beatles classic "All You Need Is Love"; and was performed and recorded live by the great and the good of the music, radio and TV industries at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.

On Friday, clips from the video were broadcast during the 30th Children in Need Appeal, which is now well on the way to beating the record-breaking total of £38 million raised last year.  

Here's a clip of Lee Mead and Sharon Corr, two of the celebrities who collaborated on the track, discussing the recording on GMTV.

The University of York commissioned Spectrecom before the summer to create "a series of films to help improve and sustain student recruitment and to attract corporate interest". They also wanted to "make an impact on a wide-ranging audience with a short overview film to be shown on the home page of the website".

Working on the assumption that a highly polished and expensive looking film would be needed to reflect York's position as a top ten UK university and connect emotionally with viewers, our creative team produced a film that combines strong story telling, bold music and striking cinematography; and draws upon iconic scenery and key aspirational events, with the sum of the whole communicating York's rightful place as one of Europe's most successful modern universities.

The film - a short excerpt of which can be viewed by clicking the image above - was commissioned to demonstrate to King's medical students how to perform a technique known as wound "debridement", which is the "medical removal of a patient's dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue".

Sounds a little gruesome doesn't it?

Well, if you're faint-hearted, don't worry ...  the clip above is just the introduction.

Here's a link to an exellent article on the Wistia blog detailing five separate applications for "corporate" video. It details how video can be used for product demonstrations, customer testimonials, training purposes, help & support in the form or video FAQ answers, and even as alternative to cold-calling!

As the price of high quality video to fall and distribution technology advances, this trend looks set to continue apace.

In this video, we meet Thomas Coles, who is currently working at Network Rail, inbetween studying for a BSC in Information Management & Business Studies at Loughborough University.

If you would like to learn more about the progarmme, you can contact the e-skills internship team by email at internship@e-skills.com or by phone on 020 7963 8920. 

This is the second in a series of 3 videos produced by Spectrecom for E-Skills UK. The final film about a placement at Netrail will follow tomorrow

The target audience are prospective undergraduate students and the videos will soon be made available through the BigAmbition website, as well as other online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

Here's a sneak preview of the film about the taking the internship at IBM. 

The track was performed and recorded live by the great and the good of the music, radio and TV industries at Abbey Road Studios and is part of the album BANDAGED TOGETHER.

Due for release on November 9th, the album will be available through the Charity Goods website and will retail for £12.00 (inc p&p) - £6.50 of which will benefit The BBC Children in Need Appeal. You'll also be able to buy the single from HMV and Tescos from same date. 

Here's a link to the video on Youtube: 

All of them are valued, respected and supported, and offer a chance for people with learning difficulties to develop skills, confidence and careers. For some people they also a way of moving towards independence – off benefits and into a job.

Spectrecom were asked to produce a film to raise awareness of the initiative and communicate the benefits of employing somebody with a learning disability, to both the employee and the employer.

The launch was hosted by The Beautiful Octopus Club, which is a major arts and cultural event run by Heart'n'Soul that showcases music, theatre and dance by artists with learning disabilities. The club has become something of an institution in the learning disability calendar and Spectrecom were there to film the evening's proceeding, including a stunning performance by Lizzie herself.

On Wednesday July 8th,  APU (American Public University) - an accredited higher-education institution in the US offering undergraduate and graduate degrees online - hosted hundreds of prospective students in a cutting-edge virtual reality environment.

At APU’s EduFair, the first-ever virtual university admissions event, students discussed academic and career plans with faculty members in real-time; explored financial aid options and transfer credits with admissions representatives; and were able to access a library of rich media aimed at helping them take the next step in their education. This innovative event not only allowed perspective students to gather relevant information, but also to get a real feel for the University without ever having to visit.

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace for the best and brightest students, I can see many other institutions following their lead, particularly as high-quality promotional videos become even more accessible.

The film was recently screened at the University's 45th Anniversary Dinner on September 21st to a large crowd of dignitaries, with guests of honour including past and present Chancellors, HRH Princess Alexandra and Sir Christian Bonington CBE DL. For the full story, please click here: and to view a 5-minute excerpt from the film, please click on the image above.

The full 8-minute film will be made available shortly.

The article describes how video production can be used to enhance a company's branding and visibility in an engaging way; how video production can  generate interest in products and services; and finally how longer form videos can be used to "support prospects at the evaluation stage by offering more in-depth information and emphasising the real-world applicability of a product".

In its recent B2B Technology Collateral Survey, analysts at Eccolo Media point out that that the selection of video as a form of collateral nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009!

Lizzie is a member of the arts charity Heart n Soul, which gives a creative outlet for people with learning difficulties and the event on the South Bank is the culmination of 10 years hard work. Sponsors attracted 700 people to witness Lizzie perform live and the premier of hew new video "Hard Love". The video, which can be viewed by clicking on the image above, showcases one of Lizzie's finest songs and is testament to her drive to overcome huge personal difficulties to enter the UK music mainstream.

Produced by Spectrecom and directed by Jonny Franklin, the video was sponsored by the Deptford Challenge Trust as the conduit for a valuable training project run in partnership between Spectrecom and Heart n Soul. Last week, Lizzie also featured on Radio 4's Today programme and you can also watch a video of her on the BBC website.

Spectrecom has been supporting Heart n Soul since 2006. You can find out more about them here - www.heartnsoul.co.uk

He made the comment as the DMA launched a new report which highlighted new trends and advances in online video and said: "As digital TV and online converge we are able to use the assets of each channel to produce adverts that use full audio visual stimulus to engage audiences, with the added ability to target, personalise and, importantly, track audience behaviour with online metrics". 

His comments back up research released last week by comScore, which revealed that more than 25 billion videos were viewed online in the US during August, with Google sites accounting for around ten billion. 

Online video is clearly here to stay.

Take a look at this interview with Kevin Ryan, CMO of WebVisible, in which he talks about the importance of branded Youtube Channels, controlling your video messages and maintaining control over your videos by hosting on your own site. Ryan still refers to the space as the “Wild Wild West” but says we are starting to see inklings of what it could look like in the future.

The entire series can be found here on Best Western's YouTube page. And here's a film of Ste Myers, head chef at Best Western Walworth Castle Hotel in Darlington, showing us how to make his signature dish - cinder toffee and ginger cheesecake with cracked black pepper ice cream.

It will soon be auctioned off on eBay with a reserve price of £1,000 and was commissioned by the Dr. Beckmann cleaning company in response to research that found that more than a third of women would toss a stained clothing garment away, without even trying to clean it. 

Spectrecom were asked by Brazen PR to produce a short promotional film about the shirt and here it is;

Post-production was completed in the US and the result is a highly imaginative video that has entered MTV's music video Top 40 at number 18.

Here's a link to an article about the video in Rolling Stone magazine; "Muse Nod to “Ghostbusters” in Explosive “Uprising” Video" 

He was in shooting an advert to promote the special limited edition Dizzee Rascal Air Max 90 'Tongue N' Cheek' trainer and his new album Toungue N Cheek.

The advert features the new track 'Chillin Wiv Da Man Dem'; and the trainer was created in collaboration with Ben Drury a designer at Nike and Dizzee Rascal's long time creative director.

Here's the result; 

Businesses, large and small, must take advantage of this increasing propensity for sharing by leveraging online video opportunities properly. If not, they'll soon find themselves behind the competition.

Their study, in association with advertising measurement firm Vizu, found that while "viewers need to be exposed to an internet video advert for a certain amount of time to be effective, exposing the viewer to the same ad for too long turns viewers away from the brand advertised."

The study showed that "a measurable increase in a person's intent to view begins after 17 seconds of exposure to an ad, peaks at 76 seconds, and significantly degrades after 225 seconds". For any single ad, the "impact is felt after 2.4 seconds of exposure, reaches its peak at 40 seconds, and degrades after 113 seconds".

Here's some pictures from the day;

Compared to the United States, only a relatively small minority of UK law firms currently host video on their website, but with statistics emerging like these, firms who continue to rely on traditional marketing methods alone will be missing out on a proven, high-impact marketing tool and will soon find themselves behind the competition. But why is video so persuasive and such an effective conversion tool for law firms?

Primarily, it's because a well-crafted, professional video, which captures the true character of a law firm and its people, enables potential clients to get to know a firm's staff in person, prior to making any commitment. Visitors want information before they pick up the phone or fill out a form and if done correctly, video is by far the most compelling and efficient way to do this. Videos can also help inexperienced prospective clients overcome the intimidation factor of contacting a law firm by taking some of the mystery out of the legal process. In an increasingly crowded online marketplace for legal services - where hundred's of websites are vieing for people's attention - video is also a great way for any law firm to stand out from the crowd.

However video marketing also offers a number of other benefits. In addition to providing information for your site visitors and adding a human face to a website, videos can also be optimised for high visibility on video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo Video. The content will then be viewed by a multitude of online viewers and can act as an extremely powerful element of any marketing strategy. Also with the introduction of “Universal Search”, videos rank consistantly high in normal Google search results, as well as Yahoo, AOL and Ask, whose searches also now incorporate video.

Put simply, video can deliver a level of confidence in any law firm, large or small, to trump any other marketing effort and it should always be considered for inclusion in any firm’s marketing plan. 

 christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk