I took the opportunity to  survey some of the brands on parade:

Congratulations to GM. The GMC’s [...]]]> My daughter and I slipped out to meet a friend for coffee Thanksgiving morning. Serendipitously and inexplicably we ended up lost in the press section of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Talk about a wrong turn that turned out alright…

I took the opportunity to  survey some of the brands on parade:

Congratulations to GM. The GMC’s pulling the floats are a prominent presence:

Pillsbury made a big impression:

Energizer zinged by:

Toro Storr tractors anchored the balloons:

Delta presented a holiday theme:

And just because, a Kanye West shot:

Ending with the Macy’s holiday brand theme “Believe”:

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with 3.5 live spectators and 50 million more on television (at least), is an extremely effective marketing venue for brands. Here’s a typical face of delight:

Additional brand sponsors of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Homewood Suites, South Dakota Department of Tourism, Hamburger Helper, Build-a-Bear, Morton Salt, Office Max, NY Daily News, Hess, Disney, Pixar, Abrams Books, Twentieth Century Fox, Pillsbury, Dreamworks, McDonalds, Sony, Marvel Entertainment, Nickelodeon, Kool-Aid, Ocean Spray, Food Network, Toro, Remo Drum Heads, Timberland, and the Affinia Hotel.

When thinking about the content of your video, it is important to consider goals, the needs and interests of your audience, and your central theme: your main message. All communication has a purpose. In your video, make sure you tell [...]]]> Kayla Schwartz, speech and presentation coach, and media trainer, talks about preparing your web video message.

When thinking about the content of your video, it is important to consider goals, the needs and interests of your audience, and your central theme: your main message. All communication has a purpose. In your video, make sure you tell your audience what action you want them to take and why they should take it. You’ll need to involve your audience and speak to their values if you want to motivate. Be vivid, specific and personal.  Say “you”, not “they”. Remember, you are speaking directly to someone, not talking in the abstract. It pays to write your ideas down and spend time to distill them into the most concise and targeted form you can. That way, you’ll get the greatest possible benefit from your video statement.

While your message is the foundation of your communication, how you deliver it impacts its effectiveness. Here are five things to focus on when you deliver your message: 1. Connect with your audience. The person watching your video should [...]]]> Kayla Schwartz, speech and presentation coach, and media trainer, talks about preparing to deliver your web video message.

While your message is the foundation of your communication, how you deliver it impacts its effectiveness. Here are five things to focus on when you deliver your message:
1. Connect with your audience. The person watching your video should feel you’re speaking directly to them.
2. Body language counts. You always want your behaviors and your physical self to be consistent with your words. Be open, relaxed and natural, or you may appear dishonest. People will feel uncomfortable while they watch you.
3. Use your voice.  Vary pacing and tone.  Don’t speechify. Aim for a conversational, personal, direct style of speaking so your inflection naturally modulates according to how you feel about what you’re saying.

4. Don’t forget to breathe and pause. The first thing that goes when we’re nervous is our breathing. Speak slowly enough that you have time to breathe in between sentences. Pause in between ideas. It not only gives you a chance to breathe, but it adds weight to what you say, and provides structure to your talk.
5. Practice practice practice! You want to be entirely comfortable with what you’re saying so you can look and feel most confident.  If you do nothing else, run your communication by yourself or in front of someone else three times before you go to the shoot.

Once you’ve prepared your content, your physical self and your delivery, you can be your most effective, powerful communicator – in any setting.

TV vs. Web: The Differences 1.    Time [...]]]> With the growth of Web video, more and more companies are considering adding video content to their Web sites and using Web video in marketing.  Beware of charging blindly forward without a good understanding of what works on the Web and how Web video is different from video for television.

TV vs. Web: The Differences
1.    Time warps on the Web: Thirty seconds on TV translates to eight seconds of Web video. That means you have to be succinct—short beyond short. Make every second count.

2.    The Web is still technology constrained. TV producers often don’t understand the impact of file size and compression algorithms. Shooting busy backgrounds, pans and zooms increase your file size. They make it hard to compress your video without creating weird and undesirable visual effects.  Watch out for ISB standard sizes, too. You can end up with gorgeous cinematography that simply doesn’t work online. And by the time your video is shared, reposted and bounced around a few times, you’re footage will lose resolution any way.

3.    Welcome to the smallest screen. Web videos play on the tiny screen—especially on laptops and handheld devices. What is fine on a television is too busy for Web video.  Don’t try to cram too much eye candy into such a small space. Use simple shots.  Direct the attention of viewers to what is important. Zooming around and special effects will make your viewer queasy and confused.

4.    The finger is on the trigger. The computer mouse is dramatically faster than the TV remote. You have to grab attention fast.  And you have to keep grabbing it until the last frame is done.

5.    Web video is intimate. People are watching your video inches from their faces, not from across the room. TV is a guy shouting at you from a stage. Web video is a guy sitting right in front of you, talking directly to you.  Flashy production that breaks that intimacy is counter-productive.  Shoot close up and create a close feel.

6.    Content Trumps Glitz. Quality content doesn’t mean slick production—it means engaging and rewarding content. Slick production can sometimes come across as inauthentic, especially if you offer more glitz than content. If what you offer is relevant, entertaining or educational, you’ll get viewers—even if your production quality is mediocre.  That’s why the viewership* of  “Charlie Bit My Finger” dwarfs that of the 2010 Super Bowl—and is still growing. Viewership of “Charlie Bit My Finger” is even higher by tens of millions when you include re-posts and variations on the original.

7.    Web video is simple. One idea per video. Get to the punch line fast. If you have three ideas, do three videos. Three focused sixty-second videos are better than one three-minute video. People will check the length of your video before clicking on it to see how much time they have to invest to get your point.

8.    Web video is social. TV is all give and no take.  Web video should be part of the conversation. Allow comments. Let people share your content.  Make sure you have text to accompany the video to enhance search, to sell people on what your video is about, and to reinforce the points made in the video.

9.    Web video is non-linear and non-programmable.  Television producers and broadcasters have traditionally controlled, when, how, and in what order content is viewed.  Web video is non-linear—viewers can meander wherever they want, whenever they want.  Produce video that supports viewer wandering and doesn’t try to fence people in.

10.    Audio is more important than video. People accept, even expect low quality video on the Web.  They will not tolerate poor audio.  With high quality earphones on their heads, people will click away from poor sound far quicker than they will with blurry or low-resolution video.

Web Doesn’t Know TV; TV Doesn’t Know Web
In most cases, you’ll find limited resources to help you produce Web video.  You can hire television specialists who don’t understand the Web or Web specialists who can’t even white balance a video camera. Given the scarcity of specialists with mastery of both video and the Web, it helps to know some basics yourself.