Why Music on Business Web Video is a Bad Idea

The mistake that many web-based video productions make, is assuming that because music works so beautifully on film and television (and yes in commercials too) where it enhances the drama, deepens the emotion and generally transports us to un-dreamt of worlds (because it’s all about entertaining us) that by copying this formula to the web – the same dramatic results will occur to their sales figures. It seldom works. If somebody wants entertainment on the web they can use the BBC iPlayer or YouTube. If they come to your business website – they are not there to be entertained, they are there to learn about your product or service and unless your product or service is actually music or music related then using it (especially the cheesy library music on most web video) is annoying and disingenuous. Video can and does work brilliantly on the web – but don’t confuse corporate messages with award winning drama – they are different beasts entirely and music, most of the time, is entirely inappropriate for the business website video.

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A Christmas Video

Here's a little something we all need to see - the video they tried to ban....

The Caravan - 500th performance opens in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

You’re never going to be bored at a performance of The Caravan (Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury Fri 2nd Oct to Wed 7th Oct then Canterbury Festival Wed 21 Oct to Sat 24 Oct 2009) For one thing, at around 30 minutes, it doesn’t last long enough, but more importantly you are experiencing a piece of genuinely innovative theatre that keeps you spellbound for every one of those 30 minutes. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, the whole thing takes place inside a caravan in which you most certainly could not hope to swing a cat. In fact, so small is the performance space that by the time the full audience of 8 people (yes 8) is crammed in to one end and the four actors are literally nose to nose with you, a whole new meaning is given to the word intimacy. But that is exactly the point of The Caravan, a startling piece of documentary theatre from the Look Left Look Right company. The inspiration for The Caravan are the floods of summer 2007, that devastated large parts of the UK, and the stories of the thousands of real people that were left homeless by the deluge. Many of them ended up living in Caravans and this play uses their words verbatim, gathered in interviews conducted by the producers during research for the play. The Caravan was first performed to great acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival of 2008 then sold out at the Royal Court in London before going on this tour around England including visits to many of the flood affected areas. This was the opening night in Tewkesbury, a town that itself was ravaged by the floods of 2007. It was also the 500th performance of a show that the excellent cast must perform 5 times an evening to a maximum of 40 people a night. As with all good theatre the mood of the piece swings from amusement to pathos to exasperation and very effectively takes the miniscule audience with it. All the performances were excellent and it didn’t take long to believe that these actors were the real victims of the flood. This play strongly resembles a TV documentary without the camera and TV screen between you and the subjects. In fact there's virtually nothing between you and the characters apart from a few inches of stale caravan air. Like all good documentaries it weaves the narrative and the issues by jumping deftly between the victims contrasting stories. In the end the setting of The Caravan in a caravan is merely a device – the real meaning of this play is in the words – real words spoken by real people.

Web TV and Quilting

I've recently been privileged enough to enter the world of patchwork, quilting and textile art thanks to some very nice people who are setting up a new website called Justhands-on.tv. The site is still at the pilot stage but should launch officially around July 2009, and will be offering the vast numbers of quilters and textile artists out there a valuable new on line video resource. Here at BizView.tv we're delighted to have been appointed as the producers of much of this material and as a result found ourselves last week, filming at Quilts UK '09 at the 3 Counties Showground near beautiful Malvern. Not only did we see at first hand the stunning beauty of the quilts on show, but we were also lucky enough to meet many of the ladies (and it is mostly ladies) involved in this difficult and highly skilled process. If you are part of this world then you don't need me to tell you how amazing some of this stuff is, but if you're a quilting virgin like me, then make a start by checking out our friends at http://www.justhands-on.tv/. The picture above is of Justhands-on founder Valerie Nesbitt and myself at Quilts UK '09.

Video Marketing

I received an e-mail today offering some advice about on-line marketing. One of the suggestions, which of course as a video producer I was delighted to see, was to use more video on the web. However, where I felt less inclined to agree was in the suggestion that "With a digital camera, it is easy to shoot, edit and upload the content". On the face of it this statement is true - cameras are cheap and readily available, editing software is also easy to install and use, and anyone can upload a video to Youtube, Vimeo or other such sites. However, this is not the whole story. It's a big mistake to just use video for the sake of it. Like all creative content, the more thought and effort that goes into the process, the more watchable the outcome. The same with technical quality - anyone can point a camera and edit a simple sequence but it takes experience and patience to create that broadcast style professional look. If you go down the point and shoot, amateur route, you run a serious risk of damaging or undermining your brand's hard won professional image by associating it with very obviously homemade video. There are circumstances where user generated content can work, but for most businesses it's a serious mistake to attempt the DIY approach with video marketing. Please, at least talk to a professional and get some advice, even if you don't end up using them.

Empathy Training

We discovered a very interesting training method the other day. It's called "Empathy" training and it basically teaches you to treat people (your potential customers, fellow workers, associates etc) in a way that they will respond well to. In other words to be empathetic towards them. The technique introduces you to about 6 or 7 basic personality types, of which we are all a combination, so that when dealing with someone in person or over the phone, you can form a judgement as to the way you should treat them to get the most positive response. It's a fascinating idea, and one that many skilled salespeople, for example, will already use unconsciously. As a professional interviewer I think it's something I have unknowingly developed over many years in order to do my job properly, but I'm very keen to attend a course and refine and develop the ideas further. If you want to know more then check out the film we made for the Empathy Training Company at http://www.bizview.tv/examples/bv081-empathy.php

Becoming an Exhibitor

We attended our first two exhibitions as actual exhibitors in the last 3 weeks. The first was the Best of Bristol event at the beautiful Lakewood Centre at Blagdon and the second was the Andover Business Expo held at The Lights in Andover. These were both quite small events but still professionally run and excellent for dipping toes in exhibition waters. For a young company like BizView.tv, the expense of exhibiting can be daunting, and a stand at the NEC or Earls Court would blow our current marketing budget to smithereens. These smaller local events though are a great way of meeting a lot of new people very quickly and they do give you a chance to show off that spanking new pop up banner. Of course in our case we have to show some moving pictures as well, so a decent sized flat screen TV must be hauled onto the stand as well. One area in which these small exhibitions are identical to their larger cousins is in the effect they have on your feet. At least these local events last only a day. My feet were seriously aching by the end of my measly 8 hours on the stand. One interesting point of contention was the claim of one of the exhibition organisers that many of the best visitors/prospects will visit your stand in the last hour of the show (between 5 and 6pm in this case). This turned our to be nonsense as there were virtually no visitors left by that time and most of the other exhibitors had voted with their very sore feet and packed up and gone by 5.15. You live and learn.

Presentations - That's Snow Business

Has the snow scuppered any of your plans recently? I naturally chose last week and this to give a number of presentations to various fellow business people in Bristol and Swindon. Alas the weather had other ideas. On Friday I struggled into Bristol (actually the struggle was out of my drive, Bristol was fine and virtually traffic free because of the snow) to give a seminar on the power of the broadcast interview at a posh hotel in the centre. The rather low attendance at the meeting (7 including me) was of course a result of the weather not a comment on the quality of my presentation skills - that's what I'm telling myself anyway. Unfortunately, it happened again this morning in Swindon. After horrendous forecasts for winter storms bringing blizzards, snowdrifts and flooding, I found, after my relatively easy journey in, that others had heeded the forecasts and attendance was once again a lot lower than expected. I have another one tomorrow and if the same thing happens I might start to take it personally - especially if it's a sunny day.

My Very First Blog

Well here I am at last - blogging - whatever that means - still not sure why anyone will be remotely interested in my posts, but I've been persuaded by the wiser members of my circle that blogging is THE thing and if you're not doing it then what are you doing? - The reply "working" or "trying to earn money" cuts no ice with the modern web aware business community - if you're not in cyber space telling the world you've just cut your toe nails or taken the cat for a walk, then you might as well give up and go home. So what, I asked them, should I write about? - I'm not a journalist or an opinion former. - Keep it real, they said. OK, so no fiction then. Talk about your own experience as it relates to your industry they said - well OK, I will and don't blame me if nobody reads it - they assured me they wouldn't. So that's settled then - over the coming months I will write about.... well something.... anything and I promise I will try and keep it interesting... if only to me and the cat.