Video Series Natural Fit For Social Media

What works for the web doesn’t always work in a TV commercial. That’s my conclusion after viewing a series of videos produced by the NCAA.

The series is called, the Buick Human Highlight Reel. The videos feature former NCAA athletes who are now making a difference in their communities off the field.

I came across the series while watching last weekend’s Big 10 Football Championship game. There was a commercial promoting the series and encouraging people to go to the website to watch the videos.

I jumped right on it, but here’s the thing… there’s a bunch of videos… all of them about 5-minutes long. It was overwhelming. I didn’t know where to start, and I found myself only watching pieces of the videos.

Then I “liked” the NCAA on Facebook, which is ironic since I pretty much can’t stand the NCAA, but that’s another blog post. Once I started getting the NCAA on my Facebook Wall, the series started making sense.

I still think the videos are a tad too long.  Okay, way too long, but getting them sent to me in small doses via social media made the series much more manageable to watch.

TV sent me to the series, but it didn’t hold my attention. It took social media to really grab me and reel me in.

–Tony Gnau