3 reasons your hospitality company needs travel videos right now
Travel videos are indispensable to your brand because tourism is one of the first expenses to get cut when the economy is rough and often doesn’t make it to the average consumers’ weekly savings budget. When people spend money on travel, it’s because they have invested emotionally in your hotel, travel destination, or tourism hot spot. A little disposable income never hurt either, but we have plenty of data to suggest a strong emotional connection to a vacation spot or hotel might even trump that weekly budget’s bottom line when consumers are planning their next family vacation. Because women account for 60% of all major tourism bookings and they are more inclined to respond to emotional marketing campaigns, travel videos are a perfect medium for your target audience. Travel, in and of itself, is almost exclusively an emotional, rather than pragmatic, purchase, so travel videos should always be one of your most trusted marketing tools. Here are the top three reasons your company needs travel videos to keep your brand healthy and your customers engaged. 1. Travel videos show rather than tell: To create an emotional connection that will entice and inspire prospective travelers to choose your destination or property over the many other options they have (including staying at home), you can’t simply say you have a beach front property in the Caribbean. Instead, show off your infinity pool suites overlooking the teal waters and white sand beaches of the Caribbean Sea in a fun, flirty video featuring real-life guests enjoying your swim-up bar and sensuous spa facilities. Let your travel videos tell your brand’s story rather than trying to describe it. As your prospective guests watch, they will project themselves into your brand and be more likely to want to visit. 2. Travel videos boost engagement: Seasoned travel pros AirBnB and Mexican-based restore chain Karisma Hotels & Resorts use video as the main image of their homepage background because studies have found that dreamy, silent videos running in the background boost time spent on site and customer engagement with your content by up to 25-percent. Travel videos are alluring, and they have the unbeatable power to drop your prospects into life in your travel destination. Even short, silent clips play a subliminal role in creating this emotional bond. Short of visiting your property, travel videos beat photos and written text hand over fist every time. 3. Travel videos give your brand credibility: Although videos can be edited and photoshopped, it’s a little more difficult to fake the look and feel of a tourism destination in a travel video compared to a print advertisement or digital banner. While many photo-based campaigns blend stock photography with proprietary content, most videos can’t risk using stock reel in a property tour video for risk of false advertisement. Users are more inclined to believe the size of your rooms or quality of your property is what you tell them if they have seen it in a video. It’s time to put your money – er, we mean camera – where your mouth is. Travel videos can be more inspiring than almost any other form of media. When an entire vacation is condensed into a 30 second commercial or social media video, you immediately take your brand to the next level. Since our team of marketing specialists live where many people vacation, we’re primed to help you craft the perfect video for your brand. Give us a call today.
Don’t be that brand: The ultimate video DON’T list
There is no question that video production can be a powerful marketing tool. Brands use video to educate consumers about new product types, walk prospects through a free trial experience, engage audiences, or showcase the features and benefits of a brand. Video can even simply be a way to delight, entertain, and reinforce brand imagery. There are so many great ways to use video that it’s hard for us to pick one handful of really amazing advice. Instead, we decided to share our ultimate “DON’T” list. Avoid these guaranteed video fails on your next project and you’ll be off to a good start. 1. Remember people’s attention spans are … what were we talking about again? People’s attention spans are shorter than ever. The average video watcher needs to be hooked within the first three seconds of watching or they are less than 15% likely to complete their viewing session. Similarly, even the most engaged users tend to drop off around the 30-second mark. When choosing a topic for your video – whether it’s product, brand, or education related – choose something that can be conveyed in under 30 seconds, or that can be split into a series of smaller videos. 2. SFW and being audio friendly: Some companies make the mistake of putting all their juiciest content into the audio portion of their 30 second commercial. While audio is indeed important, many viewers watching on their smart devices or at work may opt out of the sound on your video. If you’ve ever received an email with the subject line “Not SFW” you may understand why. Make sure that your video has elements that are clearly conveyed using visual cues, as well as sound, for maximum effect. For example, a 30-second spot with a man talking about your product behind a white background is only effective if that viewer has sound on. A more effective version would be him showcasing the product doing something amazing while talking about it. And don’t forget, a few strategically placed headlines can go a long way. 3. Boredom kills any 30 second commercial: If you don’t want to watch your video, neither do your customers. Even the most serious topics can be tastefully presented using a little personality and levity. Your local Orlando marketing agency can help you strike the perfect balance between entertainment and education so your customers enjoy watching your videos enough to remember the key messaging you planted inside that content. You can also tap into your own customer base by soliciting user-generated content about your brand. Testimonials and product DIYs are almost always more effective when coming from customers to help generate trust and authenticity, so this may be a great option for brands on a budget or those without a robust in-house creative team. 4. Location is everything, even in videos: Before you create a 30 second commercial, consider where you want to place it and what you want it to accomplish. A video focused on brand awareness would be shown in a different place than a product tutorial, for example. To help guide your video story boarding and production, make sure you know exactly where you’re going to put them. If you simply create videos to have them, you risk missing out on using this awesome resource or misusing it and losing critical engagement. Ready to get started? Get your camera ready, your creative team hyped, and your site primed. you’re next 30 second commercial is going to be a hit. And don’t worry, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.
Recognize The Importance of Seeding A Branded Video
YouTube is a fascinating website. Make a hit, and you might have exposure to more than a billion people. But, make a dud (or even a good video that just doesn’t get any traction) and you may find yourself out thousands of dollars, with little to show. That’s because there’s a science to creating and seeding a digital video. It seems easy enough – make something hilarious, share it with your friends, and then they’ll share it with their friends – but unfortunately, that’s not actually the way it works in the real world. Successful videos reach viewers on an emotional level. When videos capture an emotion, people are more likely to share, comment and engage with the content. There are some exceptions – for example, how-to videos tend to be extremely popular ways to market technical devices – but the trends show that sharing behavior occurs when people feel more emotionally connected to a video. Humor is obviously a great reason to share a video. In fact, branded or not branded, most of the videos that come up in my Facebook feed are humorous. But, a recent white paper from Unruly Media shows that people are even more inclined to share uplifting videos – the types that make people feel happy or inspired. Also, another tip: if a video is good, the amount of branding doesn’t seem to matter. This popular video from Chipotle, a personal favorite of mine, lists the Chipotle brand only within the last 30 seconds of the video. Without that, you would never know it is a Chipotle video. But, it not just the content that helps sell the video… it’s also the way you seed it. In the days of YouTube, it’s hard to get any video seen through all the rest of the things that are out there. According to the most recent data from Google, more than 72 hours of video content are uploaded every minute. That is A LOT of video! And, let’s be honest… a lot of it is garbage. Because so much of it is trash, it’s hard to get the good stuff to the surface. But, there are strategies to help you seed your video. You can buy sponsored placement on YouTube, or, if you opt to house your video on a server outside YouTube, you may have even more authority to place it wherever you want. Advertisers can put video ads on a number of media sites, as companies such as AOL and Gawker Media have places for branded video content. Also, if your aim is to create content that people will share, then it is essential to make it easy to share. Top marketing executives know that they should put social share buttons right next to the video, as people are typically logged in to their social networks when viewing, and simplifying the sharing process makes it more likely that people will share the content. While you can’t make a viral video, you can use these tips to help seed a video for viral success. And, if you need a helping hand, the team at our Florida advertising agency is happy to assist you in creating a strategy to help your video go viral.
College grads entering music marketing: Looking past record labels
The record industry’s dead. That’s what the news reports and the numbers support. In the traditional sense it’s true. Music labels like Sony and Warner Music Group are like dial-up modems or skorts. Their model is broken, outdated and most likely never returning to its glory days. Thankfully though, the music itself isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s becoming more expansive and infiltrating more ear canals through the use of the latest and greatest marketing strategies employed by individuals and small firms who understand that success in the industry anymore is measured in Twitter followers and YouTube views. Artists no longer need to rely on major labels to push their work for them. It’s a beautiful thing, really. And it means a whole lot to youngsters trying to break into the competitive, relatively small field of music marketing. In the past, labels threw hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the anticipation of album launches months ahead of their release. Now, marketing lead-time is much more immediate. Take for example, Kanye West and his GOOD Fridays. GOOD Fridays were the rapper / producer’s ingenious marketing ploy in support of his LP album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. West released free singles on a weekly basis, generating 15 tracks in all. What makes this tactic so effective is West’s understanding of the fact that consumers no longer want to wait for the rigmarole of an album launch to subside. In fact, the album as a primary moneymaking unit for an artist is no more. It’s a relic left over by labels that require artists to meet Minimum Delivery and Release Commitments if they want to see their bonuses. [quote]Kanye may be a polarizing public figure; say what you will about him, but even Taylor Swift can’t argue that when it comes to self-promotion, the man is unmatched in his efforts. [/quote] Upstart company Fanbridge is at the forefront of the shifting world of music marketing. Based out of New York City, Fanbridge Co-Founder and President Noah Dinkin used to manage bands before launching the “leading fan management and marketing platform for email and social media.” Dinkin now helps artists, musicians, actors and athletes to grow their individual brand by growing their fan base. The site allows users to track and update Facebook, Myspace and Twitter pages all from a single location. Other sites like CD Baby allow independent artists to distribute their albums online without having to go through major distribution channels. At the end of the day, our Orlando video production company realizes that music has fallen back into the hands of its creators. Those creators need to be informed of the various simple yet effective outlets available to them online. That’s where the music marketer takes the reins. Marketers today must think on their feet. They need to help license material out to various commercials and television spots. Consider how helpful the MacBook Air ad was to Yael Naim’s “New Soul.” They need to ensure that an artist is continuously present in the eyes of his/ her fans. That can mean posting behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube or Tweeting links to new songs that can be previewed on Last.fm or SoundCloud. Mostly, it’s important to remember that a stodgy old print ad in Billboard Magazine only goes so far anymore. Live streaming, mobile applications, Tumblr, Do-It-Yourself (DIY); these are but a few of the buzzwords future music marketers would do well to familiarize themselves with. Want to learn how to implement the latests trends in music for your next Video Production Project? Contact us to get a free quote!
The business of social media: Do you still need a sales team?
With social media, individuals and small businesses have the power to reach thousands of people in mere seconds. Our smartphones and computers allow us to reach anyone in almost any part of the world in less time than it takes to warm a microwave burrito. Business contacts, colleagues, associates, consumers – they’re all right there at the tips of our fingertips. So that leaves some members of our Florida marketing agency wondering, what’s the point of your sales team if you can broker sales through effective use of social media? The “push” sales strategy may be losing its place in a “pull” culture, where people go online to seek out only the information that they need in order to formulate an opinion as to the products or services that they find valuable. [quote]Through social media, people can buy items with just a few clicks, which in some cases could virtually eliminate the need for a costly sales team. Like us. Follow Us. Tweet Us. Pin Us. Watch Us. While it may seem tempting to save thousands of dollars each year by pink-slipping your entire sales team, I’d instead argue that the role of the salesman has changed. Individuals have been very successful in pushing their products through online sales, so perhaps for companies such as cell phone retailers, the benefit to a so-called sales team is to offer potential consumers opportunities to demo products and explain services, and to provide customer service when people have issues. Sales teams will almost always remain important in fields where connecting online may not be the best or most practical option. Perhaps your desired audience may not be tech savvy, or isn’t as plugged in as most of the world. Though it seems as though everyone you know has a smartphone, as of a year ago, only ½ of the United States’ mobile phone owners had one. Your sales team can be beneficial if you arm them with the tools to properly use social media to their advantage. Video programs are offered by executive training companies such as McKinsey, as well as online courses from top continuing education institutes on how people can properly use social media in either a B to B or B to C sales capacity. These classes can teach about the benefits of using Facebook and Twitter to connect with people who may provide valuable resources for your company, and can teach your employees to seek out potential buyers and distributors through LinkedIn. Returning to the original question, does your company still need a sales team? Maybe not! Certainly, it’s contingent upon your industry. But, for those of you in fields reliant upon tech, it may be beneficial to hire a social media expert to help you master the art of sales through social media. Additionally, offering opportunities and incentives for social sharing may help drive your company’s bottom line through active use of social media. While our Florida advertising agency doesn’t suggest that you immediately get rid of your entire sales team, we do suggest that you teach them strategies to use social media in a professional capacity to help build sales and increase revenue through social media. We imagine a future where all business sales come from the relationships established and maintained through the use of social media. What does your sales team look like?
How advertising is like parenting pour three-year-old kid
When you’re three, you don’t know much. The world around you is an amazing stimulus of glittery, shiny and bright things, just waiting for you to touch them and explore them. As adults, when people are subject to advertisements and promotions, they experience marketing in the same way. Good marketing makes people impulsively want to reach out for things, try new products and seek new experiences. Like a good parent, the marketer’s goal is then to push the person in the right direction. We make hundreds of choices each day about where to eat, what fabric softener to use, and what type of chair looks best in the dining room. Though we may not realize it, it’s marketing exposure that allows us to make informed choices. But children are unpredictable sometimes, as are consumers. Ask a group of well-educated adults what they want in a smart phone, and you’ll get a host of complicated features. Apple’s Steve Jobs took it upon himself to dismiss focus groups and instead to create the features that people didn’t know they wanted yet… applications, web browsing features, music, video and, most importantly, efficient design. Around age three, a child learns how to identify with a group. While this tendency is most pronounced in young children, the fundamental learnings they take home during that time stay true well into adulthood. These attitudes are the same ones we fall back upon when we identify with groups as adults. Nike capitalizes on the people who identify as athletes, designing products suited toward athletic lifestyles and even engaging in content marketing directed toward that group. Throughout our lives, we’re constantly evolving and identifying with our favorite brands, purchasing Apple products or showing a preference for Pepsi over Coke. Our perceptions of our own identities evolve as we grow to learn more about the world around us. Advertisers can latch on to this concept to sell us their products at every stage of our lives. Parenting is hard, and in the way that children trust their parents, consumers trust advertisers and marketers to point them into the right direction. [quote]Marketers strive to make that meaningful connection to their consumers, much in the way that parents strive to see the world in the way that a child can understand. [/quote]Consumers reciprocate when they find brands reliable and trustworthy. For advertisers and marketers, the realization that our client base may not fully understand the science behind the marketing of the good or service means that we have the ability to teach them. We can also grow with them, and can learn from their mistakes. But, in any case, the brand is the guide – at our Florida advertising agency, we believe that a successful brand will teach consumers to comprehend new products or ways of thinking, or to experience existing products or services in an emotionally-connected way. The team at our Florida marketing agency wants to remind you that the next time you receive criticism from a client, or you experience surprising or even erratic behavior from consumers, it’s important to step back from your consumers and instead view them from a parental perspective. They trust you, and they’ll lash out against you, but if you’re able to build trust and respect within the relationship, you’re able to nurture a healthy, long-lasting relationship. To learn more about our advertising and marketing services, please contact BIGEYE today at 407-839-8599.
