Ever since Viddler announced that Tubemogul now supported Viddler as a distribution point, we’ve been seeing this more and more. People that upload their video to every single video sharing site in order to gain exposure for their show, product, etc. etc.
I get the point. I see the strategy. And, I can’t really blame anyone for spreading their work all over the place in order to get exposure from each of the communities (or audiences as some like to call them) that each of these services have worked very hard to foster.
But is this strategy a good one? Is the benefit great enough to actually recommend this type of marketing? I don’t believe it is, but I’m willing to learn otherwise.
WineLibraryTV is obviously one of the flagship video podcasts that uses the Viddler player. Each episode, since they are embedded on the show’s main Web site, get thousands if not tens of thousands of views. These numbers do not directly reflect the entire audience, since they offer their shows also in Quicktime format for playing within iTunes, iPod, etc. From what I’ve been able to research – the number of people that download the Quicktime format of the show far exceed the number of people that watch the show in the Viddler player.
All of that being said; WineLibraryTV still uploads their videos to YouTube (and maybe other sites too?). Perhaps the strategy here is to, hopefully, get some viewers through YouTube back to their main site. This strategy seems to make sense, but when you look at their YouTube account you see that most episodes only have around 100 views on them. In the realm of WineLibraryTV, that is nothing.
But, some may say “Why not? It doesn’t hurt!”. This might be true, and one could also argue that with services like TubeMogul, it is downright easy. But, one has to ask themselves if they’d rather spread themselves out all over the Internet, or be able to strictly control their brand.
As you know, I’ve been putting together a strategy of “Bringing it all together” wherein I’m starting to take much more control over what I “put out there” and how it is displayed, shared, etc. So perhaps my opinion is skewed and I’m missing something – but really – I feel that if someone’s content is good enough, it won’t matter where they put it. People will come, watch, and interact.
This post was prompted by my seeing this: “We just posted loads of clips all over the freakin’ place!“. When I loaded up the list of places and videos and the links to each, I was amazed (ok, I even LOLed a little). I’m sitting here wondering if this strategy has worked for them or not. Wondering if it was worth the effort or – if it diluted their brand at all.
Maybe I’ll have to do some further research through interviewing people that have done both. Ze Frank comes to mind as someone that has controlled his brand extremely well (in my opinion). Perhaps I’ll ask him and someone who has spread themselves all over to see if either strategy has its own set of benefits.
I’m eager to learn. Opinions?
27 Comments
Although a newb to the video arena, I’ll be sticking with Viddler for the moment. If the message is good enough, it’ll get around.
Yes I think it is a good strategy because this is the age of instant gratification, and mass customization. I don’t want to, need to, search for your stuff. It needs to be where I am, when I want it. Therefore, IMHO it’s best to put whatever I want people to see everywhere I can so they will see it when and where they want it.
Good Topic
Thanks,
Chris
I’ve wondered about this as well. I use TubeMogal and upload to a lot of sites, but it isn’t a perfect solution. For instance I shoot mostly HD, which looks best on Vimeo, but better on Viddler than YouTube (everywhere looks better than YouTube). Since there are different requirements for each site you end up having to go with the lowest, which is YouTube. That sacrifices quality on other sites. I let TubeMogal down convert of YouTube once and it was horrible.
OK, that was a side track.
On idea I’ve had is to create Trailers of my content and upload those to everywhere, and put a link in the description to the main site I want to use. Then you get the reach, but still have the control of the central point.
BTW: I had the idea to consolidate all my stuff into one site like you have right before SXSW. I like what you’ve done.
Stu: Thanks for that!
Chris Kieff: Excellent point. “Getting in front of your audience” is definitely a concern. Perhaps this could be a branch to a new topic of how to market to your audience. I think that while you might want to get in front of people where they are, there might be better ways to do it than to spread your content all over the place.
Ron: Really great idea. I love the idea of creating “trailers” for your content and posting those to various places online. That is the point of commercials, to advertising “something else”. Let me know if you do this, and how it works for you.
Ron’s idea is a really good one, though it adds a step (creating a separate video trailer) that I, unfortunately, don’t have time for.
I’ve been using TubeMogul to put the Geek Force FiveCast up in a number of different places. My hope is that I’ll draw people back to my main site, where I use the Viddler player exclusively, and that they’ll see how cool Viddler is, visit Viddler, and sign up.
Chris Clark: Of course I approve of this strategy.
But, my point goes beyond my affiliation with Viddler. I really do believe that whatever service you choose (as each of them has their own strong points), you should pick just one and really put a lot into that community.
I’ll have more thoughts after I get my interviews done, I’m sure.
When I first started doing video less than a year ago, I slathered the Internet with my content. The problem? I wasn’t reaching my “audience” that way. I had to decide who I wanted to view my content and cater to them. It’s still a work in progress as I am “re-branding” myself and narrowing my focus; in some respects, “bringing it all together” as you have done.
Is this the right strategy? For most, probably. You will find that by strategically placing your content, your “brand” will be more valuable and people will come to you. That is my ultimate goal and probably the goal of many out there trying to establish brands.
However, your brand could have one of those big bang moments where it becomes so dense and so hot that it blows up and starts to take on a life of its own. When that happens it’s time to refocus and reevaluate where your expanded audience is and go there. Gary V. and WineLibraryTV does not have a YouTube audience and probably never will so I don’t think he’s serving his brand well by being there.
I suppose the gist of this comment is, serve your brand well by starting small, earning credibility and growing with your audience.
One possible motive for putting your videos everywhere is that this is the internet and you never know if the ultra cool startup will be here tomorrow. If you upload your videos on youtube, viddler, vimeo, and google video, you won’t feel too bad if a few of them have gone the way of the dinosaurs in a few years.
Similar to investing in all the top companies in one area(for example, in Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and AOL, back in 1998), you win regardless of who becomes the top dog.
Stimulating reading. I thought from my vantage point here at TubeMogul I could add a few humble insights. Many of our users utilize our tools as a means of research in finding an often elusive audience. Each video sharing site draws different (and often indeterminate) people, and we offer the perfect playground to test where your audience may be (which I hope might be on Viddler). Another point worth keeping in mind is that being ubiquitous can help in organic search rankings, hence the many agencies and seo experts that love TubeMogul. Incidentally, I embed Viddler’s player on our blog and love it!
David: Wow. Another excellent point. Trial periods for each service, using TubeMogul of course, sounds like a great way to “figure out” who your audience is. Awesome, and thanks for stopping by!
Daniel: If I were you, I’d bet on Viddler.
Hello! I’m happy to be a part of this discussion. I have many of the same concerns that you bring up. I agree that consolidation can be a good thing. But when I load up some vids on Revver and get 300+ hits in the first day, it adds to the pro side of the “upload everywhere” argument. No doubt about it that I probably wouldn’t have uploaded these clips to all of these sites if it weren’t for TubeMogul. But as a filmmaker, I WANT people to see my films. There doesn’t seem to be a point in making them, if they are not accessible.
And yes, maintaining a presence on all these sites is cumbersome. As it is, I have to maintain a web site for my production company (www.CrashCamFilms.com), the roller derby documentary that’s currently out on the fest circuit (www.HellOnWheelsTheMovie.com), the animated series I’m working on (www.ApeShitTheMovie.com) and my new, in-the-works animated project (www.CrashToons.com). Add to that the MySpace pages, the FaceBook pages and the four blogs, and it’s a ton of work. But making a film is no cakewalk either.
The bottom line for me is more exposure creates a wider fan base and is helpful to the films I make. Ideally, the flicks will get people interested in what I do and they will swing by my web site(s) and investigate a bit. Several of the clips I have uploaded are trailers for feature films (or music videos that support the feature), or are of a similar style and theme to some of my feature work.
The jury is still out on weather this strategy is worth the time, but I’d rather err on the safe side, work my ass off and see what happens.
Thanks for involving me in the conversation!
Cheers!
-bob ray
Also, I just started these blogs with the idea that they’d be more useful in promotion than the old text-only “news & updates” pages. I’m happy as hell that they seem to be working on getting the word out.
Peep this fresh and spiffy Hell on Wheels blog/update: http://www.hellonwheelsmovie.wordpress.com
Scope out the CrashCam Films blog for all the good it’s worth: http://crashcamfilms.wordpress.com/
Lay your I-hole on the far out APESH!T blog: http://apeshitcartoon.wordpress.com/
Check out the new CrashToons blog and news page:
http://crashtoons.wordpress.com/
Bob Ray: Thanks for being part of the conversation (and yes, I’ll leave your links in your comment!!). Obviously, speaking from experience as you are, I value your position on things.
Thanks so much for the feedback.
Interestingly enough, I’ve had this discussion with customers who got big someplace like Daily Motion but wants to take more control of their brand by creating http://theirown.com. They didn’t want to risk losing their DM audience, but they also wanted to start moving them over to their site. So they actually started offering additional specialized content on their own site and talking about it on their standard video feeds. Once the numbers at remote sites started to shift over to the new site, they could slowly turn off the remote sources and just focus on their personal site.
One of the key things to consider, though, is how well they market. People with charisma like @garyvee have no problem getting people excited about their content, but sometimes people with truly stellar content have a rough time “getting discovered”. I firmly believe that ideally, the branding should happen at your own personal site. But realistically, some people need the exposure.
Not only have we been able to extend our reach using Tubemogul, we’ve been able to determine which audience (depending on demographic of video site) is interested in which type of content be it racing, tennis or rugby.
I don’t see how distribution to multiple platforms can water down a brand… Exposure is exposure, right?
Jesse Gardner: I have seen the same thing, especially when we have success stories like Ze and Gary to look at. We get a lot of requests at Viddler of people wanting to bring everything over onto their own sites and they ask how best to do it. I might just forward them to your comment from now on!
Gfox: Perhaps “watering down” a brand isn’t the best way to describe my thoughts. Maybe the brand doesn’t take a hit as much as having all of these smaller, less connected, communities that are surviving in their own little areas on each service. When, in reality, they could all be brought together with the right tools.
Got here via @garyvee and am thrilled that you’re hosting this conversation. This is a hard question to answer for your own brand, let alone a client’s brand. I think we might have to try using TubeMogul as a means of finding where the audience is, as suggested by David.
What do you think about this question re: bringing people along and drawing them in when they aren’t already part of one of the video communities? People who aren’t tech tend to think video=YouTube, even though the sort of content they’re actually looking for (business-related content, anyway) would probably be on one of the other services. Are trailers the way to go to bring them over? This is part of the larger issue of helping people learn to use the next generation of interactive effectively…
Good post
Click to play this video.
I wanted to add that, like a movie release (i.e. film fests, theatrical, dvd, on-demand, broadcast, etc.), most folks have different preferences as to how, when and where they view something. I figure that allowing people to choose the site that they are most comfortable with to view a clip gives the viewer more control and allows for interaction. If someone already has a YouTube account and they like that platform, we will oblige. And It allows them to add comments and rate the clip if they already have an account set up there.
Jim Kukral: I think you make a point, that may have already been made, that brand dillution may not happen because you upload all of your videos everywhere – but that your conversations happen in more places than one, and that having your community in one place is “better control” in that regard.
Sorry if I didn’t explain it better than I have!
Click to play this video.
I think I misunderstood. Why? Because I’m already controlling my brand at my own domain/blog at jimkukral.com, and you’re talking about focusing a brand into a site community like Viddler.
I post videos into multiple different communities to drive eyeballs to focus back on my brand/blog for rss subscribers and to promote my consulting and speaking stuff, etc… That’s what I value the most.
So, I guess my home base is my blog. I don’t necessarily believe that any video community, in the short term, can overpower my blog in terms of building a fan base. I think in the long run, maybe, eh, but not yet.
However, this did get me thinking today, and the fact that I was recently declined from the YouTube partner program while other lame and unworthy people are getting accepted, that I may just abandon YouTube completely and pick a player like Viddler. Thanks for the good discussion.
What is Viddler’s stance on business type content like mine? I get the feeling from YouTube that the don’t want my content. I’m not preaching MLM crap or anything like that. My content is very similar to Gary V’s personal blog stuff. Entrepreneurial and motivational stories stuff.
I don’t think YouTube wants my content? Does Viddler?
Hi all. We actually don’t encourage people to deploy their video to every site possible – and for the record, most people only deploy to 4 or 5 sites. Instead, we try to direct the right content to the right sites. In the near future, you’ll see some changes within TubeMogul that will emphasize this point. Of course, whatever site(s) you fancy, Viddler should be included
Jim: Yes – Viddler definitely does. I’ve run through a few of your videos on Viddler so far. Looking forward to more!
TubeMogul (whoever you are
) Thanks!
@Tubemogul. Where exactly is that discouragement on your site in the upload process? lol.
@Colin, I’m giving serious thought to dumping using Tubemogul all together and just picking a player as you say. Need time to think about it.
Jim: I think it is less a decision of “choosing a player” than it is “choosing a community”. If you build your own community on your site, that would be my strongest suggestion, and you seem to already be doing that.
As far as how you pull that off – I’m all ears. Because I’m learning as I go here.
Let’s be honest Colin, aside from YouTube, in terms of size and reach, nobody else has a community that can match. Frankly, that’s the only reason why YouTube has value. The player is, blah, and it’s full of all kinds of non related content to mine and my customers. Case in point, I have a customer who doesn’t want a semi porn video to appear next to his in the related videos, but… they cannot “not” put their videos up on YouTube as it would be foolish to miss out on the reach.
I guess I’m not a big believer just yet that a video sharing portal can actively provide real value to me in terms of subscribers and new viewers, simply because the numbers (example, people using Viddler or Blip) just aren’t there yet. They just aren’t. If they were, I would promote it in a heartbeat. I hope you get what I’m saying… from a marketing standpoint, I’m just not buying that video player communities are much more than just “players” of my content… yet, and I’m much better of focusing on driving viewers to my own site for now.
Of course, I’d like to be wrong. I’d like to have my own site viewers, AND have a home like Viddler where I could count on a community as well that meets my branding and marketing goals.
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[...] still unsure whether this makes sense as a choice or not yet. Colin wrote up a nice piece that is very relevant to my dilemma. The comments are full of good insight as well. I don’t [...]