Interactive Media Strategies

Enhancing Productivity With Web Video

by Isaiah Wells and Mark Irving


Video is everywhere so why are clients often reluctant or resistant to having video created for online outlets?  These are often the same clients who understand the effectiveness and necessity of promoting products and services via traditional media outlets and have realized the benefits of such exposure. As circulation and expense numbers for traditional outlets continue to decline, internet and portable device media are demonstrating effectiveness at reaching the segmented audiences that will respond more positively and in greater numbers then the broader audiences that consume traditional media.  The flip side of this promotion equation is the contention that, when on-line viewing numbers fall short of expectations, the value of the media production is suspect instead of what is usually the real culprit: absent or ineffective promotion? These are familiar questions to those of us engaged in creating on-line, multimedia content.  Steve Vonder Haar, Research Director, Interactive Media Strategies, focuses on the first question in his four part report on business communication and efficiency as related to online multimedia.  Part One of this report is excerpted below. Part Two will be posted on this blog next week.

I. Leveraging Video to Streamline Your Business

"Video is changing right before our eyes. No longer can it be thought of simply as the couch potato’s venue of choice for movies and television programming. Indeed, as technology advances make it possible to digitize and share video online, executives are finding an array of ways to put multimedia to work in their day-to-day business activities.

In this emerging world of corporate multimedia, think of Web video as a new type of data that can be integrated into a range of applications capable of enhancing an organization’s productivity. Presentations by executives can be distributed in real-time to hundreds – or even thousands – of employees and customers across the globe. Training sessions can be captured, stored and made accessible on an on-demand basis, giving workers the means to engage in on-the-job learning when and where they want. And even companies that cannot afford expensive primetime television commercials can employ the Web to deliver powerful, engaging video marketing messages directly to their target prospects.

Many companies still are experimenting with different ways to use Web video in order to squeeze more efficiency out of their on-going operations. New, creative applications of the technology are emerging every day, helping organizations achieve high returns on investment from their spending on the technology. Perhaps the only constant is that the longer executives are exposed to online multimedia and its capabilities, the more likely they are to view the technology as a platform for improving their organization’s productivity. In a survey of 1,212 corporate executives fielded by Interactive Media Strategies in the second quarter of 2008, executives were asked to “agree or disagree” with a statement describing expanded use of  Web communications technology as a development that helps a company become more efficient and productive.

Clearly, long-term familiarity with Web video fosters positive perceptions of its productivity potential. Fifty-five percent of executives at organizations that have deployed online multimedia for more than five years say they “strongly agree” with the notion that Web communications enhances productivity and creates efficiencies that boost the return on investment recognized from the deployment of Web video. At companies deploying the technology for less than a year, only 26% say they “strongly agree” that Web communications can promote greater efficiency. 

These results highlight a trend that is growing increasingly clear as adoption of online multimedia expands in the corporate sector. Web video is not a novelty technology that will fade in the years after its first implementation. Indeed, the opposite is true. As executives become more aware of the capabilities of Web video, they find new ways to leverage the technology to help them succeed in communicating in a richer – yet more cost-effective – way than was possible before."
____________________________________

Steve Vonder Haar, "How Online Multimedia Improves Communications and Fosters Business Efficiency," April, 2009