Tag Archives: marketing

The web browser has become the new TV set.

Get off the sidelines and get in the game. Video is no longer a luxury. It should be an important part of your PR/marketing strategy.

Why? People are watching. Strike that… millions of people are watching. Social Media Examiner blogged yesterday about tips for finding and engaging your target market. Number four on the list… video.

Actually, the headline reads, “#4: It’s Time to Take Video Seriously.”

I couldn’t agree more. Millions of people are watching online videos everyday. Just look at the stats in the post…

According to comScore, this number has jumped over 43% to 100 million daily views (that’s roughly one-third of the U.S. population watching a video online each day).

One third of the U.S. population is watching online videos… everyday. Wow!

There’s an audience out there waiting to see and hear what you have to say. You just need a PR/marketing strategy with clear goals and a video pro to help execute the plan.

–Tony Gnau

If you’re a regular reader here, you know I admire Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. I’m a proud Trojan, so it goes back to his time as the USC head coach.

My wife and I actually have a quote of his from a 60 Minutes story hanging in our home, “I keep thinking day-to-day that something good is just about to happen.”

Lately, I’ve needed a little attitude boost, so what pops up in my Facebook feed yesterday? A blog post from Pete Carroll entitled, Compete. It was just what I need to kick myself into gear.

One of the things I love about Pete is that his leadership goes beyond football. In the piece, he writes about competing in life. I read that post and thought about it as a husband, father, son, friend… and video storyteller.

T60 helps our clients compete. We help them by highlighting what they do best. We help them by showing people what they’re all about. We help them compete by telling their stories.

Something good is just about to happen.

–Tony Gnau

You have knowledge… share it. You have expertise… share it. You have information that will help prospects and customers… share it.

Take a cue from the Kansas City Police Department.

WHAT!? Yes… you read that right. The police department is doing a great job of sharing its expertise with the public. I got tuned into this through Ken Mueller at Inkling Media. He shared a post via Facebook about the KCPD’s social media efforts.

I checked out the department’s YouTube channel and it’s not bad. All the videos are clearly produced in-house, so they’re not exactly storytelling at its finest… but the videos work.

How-to’s, safety issues, public service announcements… they’re all there… and people are watching. 440,000 views in less than three years.

KCPD is sharing its expertise. You’re an expert too. Are you sharing your knowledge?

–Tony Gnau

Courtesy: Brompton Bicycle

Credit goes to my father-in-law today for posting this on his Facebook page… allowing me to spot it. It’s a video for the Bike Butterfly. Take one-minute to watch the video.

Okay… it’s seems to be a joke, but a good one and the source of a valuable lesson. That’s because this isn’t a video for the Bike Butterfly. It’s a video for the Brompton collapsible bicycle.

One of the things I occasionally blog about is that a video doesn’t have to be about your company, to be about your company. This is just another example… and a very creative one.

The bike isn’t mentioned once, but the video treats us to the bike’s versatility none the less. I don’t know about you, but as the video went along I was totally admiring the bike… thinking it was pretty cool… which is exactly what Brompton’s leaders were hoping.

The bike butterfly appears to be a joke, but Brompton’s marketing team is anything but.

–Tony Gnau

Gini Dietrich is an awesome blogger. If you’re looking for great information on marketing and/or public relations, spinsucks.com is for you.

She airs a vlog every Thursday answering her Facebook Question of the Week, and one day over lunch I told her T60 was going to take over production of the videos.

I didn’t ask. I pretty much insisted. Oh, she put up a valiant fight to continue to doing them on her own. The conversation went something like this…

Tony: I’ve been thinking… T60 is going to take over producing your Facebook Question of the Week videos.

Gini: Great! When can we start?

The videos weren’t bad, but they were just Gini looking into the camera. You’ve seen that type of thing before, but what I told Gini was that with a little professional polish… even those videos can have visual appeal.

If you have a small business, I’m all for people producing their own videos. It’s fun and certainly less expensive than paying a pro to do it.

Here’s the thing though, when you’ve reached a certain standing and built an impressive reputation… like Gini… your videos need to reflect that standing and reputation.

You’re not in the minors anymore. You’re in the big leagues. That means working with other pros… like those who’ll take your videos to the next level.

–Tony Gnau

FYI… you can see the first of the vlogs we’re producing for spinsucks.com at the link.

If you’re in PR, you probably read the blog spinsucks.com. If you don’t, start. If you’re not in the biz but want to learn a little something about PR or marketing, start reading it. It’s the first blog I read everyday.

Gini Dietrich is the CEO of Arment Dietrich and the woman behind spinsucks.com. She’s a real pro and I’m happy to announce that T60 is going to be working with her and her team on a regular basis.

Gini and I met via her blog. I started making regular comments… she kept responding… next think you know we’re trading emails and bouncing ideas off one another. It led to me basically insisting that she let T60 upgrade the vlog portion of spinsuck.com.

Every Thursday, Gini answers her Facebook Question of the Week using a FlipCam video (see past videos). Nothing was wrong with the videos, but there was definitely some room for improvement. She didn’t need much convincing.

Starting tomorrow you can see what we came up with… changing focal lengths, a few graphics, add some music… upgrade complete!

Why should you care? It’s a great example of how you can transform a “simple” talk-to-camera vlog into a visually interesting video (read more about that).

So… tomorrow… head over to spinsucks.com to see our handy work. We’ll be continuing to produce her Facebook Question of the Week vlogs for the foreseeable future.

–Tony Gnau

Vlogs are simple videos that do a great job of getting a message out to the masses. It’s one of the easiest things businesses can do to establish themselves as experts, and something I especially recommend to CEOs.

All they have to do is sit down in front of the camera… and talk from the heart. Whether it’s about something their company is doing, or something that’s affecting their industry. Creating a vlog is a great way to talk directly to customers, prospects, employees and peers in your field.

The key is to produce them on a regular basis. Once a month, once a week, whatever you choose… just do it on a consistence basis. The payoff is that the more people see you, the more they’ll begin to trust you. That’s the power of video.

A lot of people produce these videos themselves using the camera on their computer, a FlipCam or the camera on their mobile phone. I’m here to tell you though, even a vlog can use a professional touch. A pro can take a boring vlog and turn it into a polished message befitting the reputation your company.

Even better… a professionally produced vlog won’t cost you much.

T60 is working on a vlog series as we speak… for a very popular PR pro… but more on that tomorrow.

–Tony Gnau

I did something last week that a lot of people might think is a bit crazy. While bidding on a project, I also recommended a competitor.

The project in question is not the typical video we produce, as a matter of fact I wasn’t sure it was even something we wanted to do. After talking about it a bit, we decided it would be fun so we gave the client a quote.

She thanked us and basically told us she’s shopping around and would let us know. Once I found that out, I recommended she get in touch with a competitor I e-met through a business acquaintance.

The reason is simple. I want her to find the right person for the project. If that’s T60, great! If it’s someone else, that’s fine too. We just want to be a service.

The person we recommended specializes in the type of video the client would like to do. We might not get this particular job, but if we can still provide a service, i.e. a good recommendation, then I’m confident we’ll here from this client again.

Sometimes things that are bad for the bottom line in the short-term end up being a boom in the long run.

–Tony Gnau

The big news here in Chicago? Former Governor Rod Blagojevich is headed to the big house today. Anyone who blogs on a regular basis knows how the news of the day can drive traffic, and that’s something businesses should think about when it comes to their online content.

For example, right now every Illinois politician should be vlogging about Blagojevich going away. Assuring constituents they’re working to make Springfield a more ethical capital.

Business leaders should do the same thing. They should follow the news of the day, and anytime something relevant pops up… they should go on-camera and tell customers and prospects how their company is responding.

Sure, they could do the same thing in writing, but it carries much more weight when someone looks into the camera and speaks from the heart.

–Tony Gnau

Access to the world of video has never been more abundant. The video camera on your iPhone produces a better image than professional cameras did just 10 years ago.

Maybe this fact is tempting you to produce your own company videos? I’m not going to try and talk you out of it. Go for it. Keep something in mind though… this is your company’s reputation you’re putting out there.

I’m frequently surprised by how willing business owners are to turn over their company’s image to an amateur. Whether it’s themselves, or someone else on their team.

They’ll hire a graphic designer and go over several proofs before approving as much as a business card design, but the company video… we can have Ted in accounting do it.

What!? Video is an art. Storytelling is a skill. Ted might be a wiz with numbers, but there’s little chance he’s going to create a video that captures an audience and leaves them feeling good about your company.

There might be small video projects you can create on your own, but it’s better to turn to a pro when your company’s reputation and professionalism is on the line.

–Tony Gnau