Contact us
|
+1 888 882-1880
M-F 8am to 8pm EST

STRATEGIES FOR INCORPORATING VIDEO INTO A SALES CYCLE

bsp-admin-1 on January 15, 2019

Video is a huge part of our customer journey here at Brightcove. From nurture emails to product pages, we leverage video content across a wide variety of channels. By doing so, we give prospects and current customers deeper, more personalized insight into our suite of product offerings—while also showcasing our company culture.

And we’re not the only ones who see the value of incorporating video into a sales strategy. According to Wyzowl’s recent research, The State of Video Marketing 2018, 76 percent of marketers say video helped them increase sales. And, on the buyer side, 81 percent of consumers have been convinced to purchase a service or product by watching a brand video.

It’s clear that video can be a powerful tool to drive buying decisions, but let’s dive a bit deeper into the types of video assets that your sales team can use to fuel their conversations with leads.

EMPLOYEE BIO VIDEOS

In a world where prospects and customers could be thousands of miles away, there’s something really valuable about putting a Brightcove face to a name. That’s one of the many reasons why we create Meet Your SDR (sales development rep) and Meet Your AM (account manager) videos, in which a team member introduces themselves and their role—and highlights some compelling ways they think brands can grow their businesses with our video suite.

We incorporate Meet Your SDR videos into our early-stage nurture campaigns as a way to introduce cold prospects to their sales rep. Our sales team also links to these assets in their signature lines and leverages them in their own outreach sequences to help warm current leads.

Similarly, we leverage Meet Your AM videos to introduce our customers to their account managers. These assets serve to nurture and expand our current customer base, and our team incorporates them into email sequences and their signature lines. We also use these videos in our ABM advertising campaigns targeted at our customer base.

Overall, these types of employee bio videos are really valuable because they help prospects and customers see the people behind the brand and become familiar with a specific point of contact. If you’re interested in setting a more casual, relaxed tone with your audience, this could be the perfect medium through which to do it. In these cases, you can forget the script and encourage your team to share fun facts and other interesting tidbits that help the prospect or customer feel like they’re really getting to know their rep or account manager.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY VIDEOS

In the B2B space, it’s important to remember that a prospect often need brands to provide specific proof points that they can leverage to justify a new purchase to their boss. Here’s where customer case studies can be extremely valuable when it comes to moving contacts along the sales funnel.

Of course, written case studies are valuable on their own, but adding a video into the equation ups the ante. When prospects see and hear your current customers talking about how your products have helped them achieve a particular goal or streamline a specific process, the message will resonate with the new contact on a more emotional level. These assets help sales teams establish trust with prospects—and convey the concept of “we’re not just tooting our own horn here.”

INTERACTIVE VIDEOS

Ready to take your sales videos to the next level? Consider incorporating interactivity. Interactive videos can help engagement rates soar, as you’ll be putting your prospect or customer in the driver’s seat—giving them the ultimate control over the content they’re viewing. Depending on your specific needs for the video in question, you can incorporate polling, quizzes, chaptering, and more.

When it comes to sales, interactive videos can be a great way to generate new leads or convert current ones. Your team can make these assets more personal, and have a rep or account manager guiding their audience through the interactive elements. For example, you can create an interactive quiz that helps prospects understand which product suite could be the right fit for their business. Or you could repackage some of your evergreen content as an interactive guide to help establish your industry expertise. No matter which path you choose, you can leverage in-video CTAs to encourage prospects or customers to take a next step, such as scheduling a meeting with a rep.

By introducing video assets into different stages of the customer conversation, you can increase engagement and encourage prospects to make their way through the funnel. How do you plan to make video a part of your sales strategy?

BRIGHTCOVE ACHIEVES DPP SECURITY BENCHMARKS

bsp-admin-1 on January 14, 2019

Brightcove is thrilled to announce that we have secured the Production and Broadcast marks within the Digital Production Partnership’s (DPP) Committed to Security program.

The DPP is a membership-based, not-for-profit organization, formed jointly by UK broadcasters BBC, Channel 4, and ITV.

Their vision was to help producers and broadcasters drive adoption of common standards for media interoperability, minimize the friction faced by content producers and distributors when working with broadcasters, and to create new market opportunities through cross-industry insight.

Since 2009, the DPP’s working groups, who draw from expertise across the broadcast, online media, and technology industries, have worked to include a common set of technical and metadata standards for digital TV production, share insight, and best practice methodologies for broadcast production across the industry.

The DPP has grown considerably, to over 400 company, organization, and individual members, and adoption of their programs and standards is widespread throughout the global industry.

In October 2017, following considerable effort within the security working group, the DPP launched the Committed to Security program, which is designed to help suppliers demonstrate their commitment to security best practices within their businesses. The program provides a standardized industry approach to cybersecurity, and participants are assessed against a rigorous set of controls, focussed on two distinct industry themes; Production, and Broadcast.

The types of issues that these controls are designed to prevent include security compromise by external and local actors, failure to detect and act upon incidents, and service risk in the event of a catastrophic event. A few examples of requirements in the programs are for Brightcove to adhere to internationally recognized standards for information assurance (such as SOX), to ensure all systems and services are subjected to (and pass) penetration testing, and that we have plans in place to maintain essential operations in case of an emergency

With broadcasters now adopting the controls within the DPP program, and many mandating supplier/vendor compliance, it is vital for technology providers in the online video industry to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to system, data, and content security.

VIDEO MONETIZATION 101: THE BASICS OF MONETIZING ONLINE VIDEO

bsp-admin-1 on January 11, 2019

Ad tech is a complex world, and video ads are their own country with their own unique language (all those acronyms!). Get a handle on the basics, and you’ll be speaking VAST, VMAP, and VPAID in no time. It’s worth the effort to get started now—video ad spending is expected to grow by double digits for the next three years.

VIDEO AD TYPES

  • VAST (Video Ad Serving Template). VAST is a set of instructions in code, which includes a link to the ad creative and tells the video player how to play it, how long it should last, and more. VAST ads work on the web, across devices, and in-app.
  • VMAP (Video Multiple Ad Playlist). VMAP is a playlist of VAST ads. This script tells the video player in which order the ads should play (ie preroll, mid-roll, post-roll) and specifies time slots for each of them.
  • VPAID (Video Player Ad-Serving Interface Definition). VPAID is another ad-serving format that allows JavaScript, hence allowing advertisers to introduce interactive features and track viewability. While VPAID is officially supported for desktop and mobile web, it often runs into issues on mobile web—and is not supported in-app.

UNDERSTANDING PLATFORMS

Speaking of desktop vs. mobile, knowing where your ads will be served is an important first step for publishers. Video ads require high internet speed for deliverability, and mobile’s limited bandwidth can introduce issues. Add in the fact that many video ads layer in their own tracking, impression beacons, and viewability solutions—which all use up bandwidth—and you’ve got a recipe for loading errors.

CHOOSING AD SERVERS

When it comes to how your ads will be served, you’ve got options. Ad Manager by Google (formerly known as DFP) is a common choice, but there’s also SpringServe, SpotX, and Freewheel, to name a few. The best choice for each publisher depends on ease of use, the revenue model (is it free? does it charge by impression? is the fee laid out in a contract?), and its unique capabilities. Perhaps the most crucial factor is support: if something goes wrong with your ad server, your ads won’t serve and you’ll start losing money right away. The sooner you can get in touch with support and fix the problem, the less money you’ll lose.

DIRECT VS. PROGRAMMATIC

Direct ad sales involve a publisher’s in-house team working *directly* with clients and agreeing on a contract. With this model, the publisher knows in advance exactly how many impressions they are filling, what the creative looks like, and how much they’re getting paid.

Programmatic advertising is an automated auction where advertisers bid on impressions and the highest bid wins. No internal ad sales team is involved; once the ad server is set up and connected to inventory, the ad operations team takes care of the rest. The downside is that there are no guarantees on fill rate, ad content or quality, or bids.

Most publishers use a combination of both approaches, filling as much inventory as possible with direct sales and making the leftover inventory available via programmatic auction.

AD BLOCKERS VS. SERVER-SIDE AD INSERTION (SSAI)

Ad blockers detect VAST and VPAID ads within video content and block them from the viewer, which cuts down on publishers’ revenue. SSAI dynamically stitches ads and content together so they are delivered as a single stream. This solution cuts down on buffering for a better viewer experience, and bypasses ad blockers to help publishers’ bottom lines.

2019 OTT TV TRENDS IN ASIA AND INDIA

bsp-admin-1 on January 6, 2019

2018 wrapped up as a fascinating year for OTT TV in Asia, with global content owners, PayTV operators, and OTT players all ramping up their direct-to-consumer OTT offerings.

In a game-changing move, Disney acquired Fox mid year, and announced plans to launch its own OTT service, Disney+, in 2019/2020.

HOOQ, a highly sophisticated Netflix-like, multi-country OTT streaming service backed by Sony Pictures Television, Warner Media, and SingTel continued their aggressive moves in the Asia and India regions, and recently launched 50 free channels in Indonesia.

HBO GO Asia expanded its footprint with a launch in Indonesia, adding to its portfolio of OTT services in Singapore, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.

As content owners and PayTV operators launch — or even revamp — their direct-to-consumer OTT TV services, it’s an ongoing race to establish a business model that includes the right content, pricing, and user experience. Here’s my take on the top six trends that will shape OTT TV in Asia and India this year.

1. FOCUS ON THE VIEWING CUSTOMER

While previous years have been dominated by conversations about tech or monetization, 2019 will be dominated by a focus on the customer and enabling their access to great content. Disney’s Kevin Mayer puts this succinctly in a recent interview: “Having a better relationship with our consumer puts us in control of our own destiny.”

2. ENABLING ACCESS ON EVERY DEVICE

Consumption trends are plotting a chart upward and to the right. Not all of this consumption is sensitive to copyright ownership, but it’s clear that video viewers have multiple devices and an internet connection, which facilitates increasing consumption. However there’s a great deal of friction preventing these viewers from watching the content they want or even being offered the option of paying for the content they watch.

3. CONSUMERS WANT FLEXIBLE PAYMENT OPTIONS

According to our OTT research, consumers have varying views across the region about whether they’re willing and happy to pay with their time (through watching advertising) or their money (subscriptions).  In 2019, we’ll see platforms using their understanding of their consumers’ preferred content to deliver premium experiences. Business model choices also need to be flexible for the consumer. In India and Asia, OTT providers could take a cue from the FMCG marketing playbook by offering sachet pricing. OTT TV providers can also offer small, low-priced subscription plans that are valid for a weekend or a week. The aim here is to enable users to sample the content and eventually convert the consumer into a more long-term subscriber.

4. DOES OTT ADVERTIZING REMOVE FRICTION?

Advertising paying for TV content is a contract the viewer is already familiar with. The benefit for the viewer is that they ‘pay’ with their attention. And they should receive more relevant, well-targeted ads than they would on a broadcast channel.

Because of its highly targeted nature, ease of measurement, and tendency to have higher ad completion rates, OTT advertising is opening up new revenue streams for OTT TV providers — while also offering a highly engaging environment for brands. For advertizers, who tend to go where their audiences are, OTT TV is a beautiful mix of engaging content and addressability. It’s encouraging that agencies are seeing ad rates hit a plateau in the traditional, linear channels, while CMOs are excited by the high viewability of OTT TV services.

5. THE CONTENT VIEWING EXPERIENCE GUIDES OTT STRATEGY

According to Brightcove’s OTT TV research with YouGov, trials and promotions tend to drive users to sign up for OTT services, but it’s the content itself that drives retention. We see many OTT providers not just investing in content, but also making their content work harder with content discovery and recommendation features. The research also sheds light on the importance of accessing content on mobile, which forces OTT providers to consider how their mobile OTT app could or should enhance the viewing experience. Features like offline download, which allows users to watch content when they’re not on wifi or a mobile network, and video continuity, which allows users to continue where they left off or ‘travel’ in between devices, remain desirable. All of these features are designed to increase stickiness to the service, as they allow for increased view times and encourage binge-watching habits.

6. PAYTV OPERATORS EXPERIMENT WITH OTT SOLUTIONS

Asia Pacific PayTV annual growth is slowly grinding to a 2% compound annual growth rate — from 267 million subscribers in 2018 to 288 million subscribers by 2023. Such low growth means that PayTV operators need to adapt to changing viewer habits by exploring the extension of their PayTV service to OTT TV services. Skinny bundles are an emerging product offering in Asia, with HOOQ launching skinny bundles in Indonesia that are targeted to tap into the 90% of Indonesia’s population who do not already access PayTV services. These kind of content offerings acknowledge the difference between the buffet of the PayTV mega bundle and the a la carte personal choice of OTT TV. Understanding the context-driven difference in consumer preferences will allow PayTV operators to thrive in the OTT space.

Finding success in OTT TV services ultimately comes down to the viewing customer. For any global regional broadcaster or direct-to-consumer OTT service to thrive in this highly competitive environment, they must offer the desired elements to consumers.

Promoting Employee Behavior through Internal Communication – Interview with Professor Shimizu, author of “Internal Communication Management” (Part 1)

bsp-admin-1 on January 3, 2019

In recent years, internal communication (※1) has been attracting attention from the perspectives of corporate globalization, M&A, and work style reform. Many companies are probably facing the challenge of how to ensure that their overseas, regional and home-based employees understand and embrace their management philosophy and goals. In this two-part interview, we will be asking guest Shigemichi Shimizu, visiting professor at Tsukuba Gakuin University, who edited and authored the book “Internal Communication Management” in February 2019, why internal communication is attracting so much attention now and why it is so important.

Using videos to develop human resources and improve internal communication

bsp-admin-1 on December 18, 2018

On Sunday, December 12, 2018, we held a seminar on the use of videos in the workplace, with Ikue Morishita, editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine “Public Relations Conference”, as moderator. We invited Nobuyuki Yotsuya from the Technology Architecture & Service Management Department of the Operations & Technology Division of McDonald’s Japan Co., Ltd. as a guest speaker, who talked about how the company uses videos.

OTT BEST PRACTICES

bsp-admin-1 on December 7, 2018

As time has gone on, over-the-top (OTT) content has continued to change the media landscape. And in order to thrive in this increasingly crowded marketplace, you need to produce immersive digital experiences at scale. Here are some OTT best practices to keep in mind as you stake your claim in this space.

COMPARE DIFFERENT VENDORS STRATEGICALLY

Finding a vendor that meets your needs is crucial to the success of your OTT content. When choosing a provider, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do you have the required resources and skill sets in-house to create, and more importantly, manage your service and keep it current?

  • Do you have a large enough content library to attract viewers and keep them interested over time?

  • Do you plan to serve ads?

  • Do you plan to offer subscriptions?

  • Is your content best suited for a lean-forward or lean-back user experience?

CHOOSE THE RIGHT MONETIZATION MODEL

When choosing a monetization model, two significant factors to keep in mind are your audience size and addressable market. Ask yourself: Will you have enough viewers to justify a subscription service at the onset? If not, it may be better to start off with an AVOD model to attract viewers — and transition to a subscription model over time.

PROVIDE A HIGH-QUALITY STREAM

When creating your OTT model, your end goal shouldn’t simply be to present a powerful, engaging experience across native platforms — or to have your apps in the app store. While those are obviously important gains, your overall objective should be to acquire, engage, and minimize your churn. And this all begins with providing a high-quality stream.

A recent study by our friends over at Mux confirmed the importance of a solid playback experience. They found that U.S. viewers will stop watching a video when they encounter the following:

  • Slow load time (85.1 percent)

  • Stalling and rebuffering (85 percent)

  • Poor picture quality (57.3 percent)

  • Repeated playback errors (67.5 percent)

It’s clear that viewers have a low tolerance for poor video experiences, which can lead to dramatically high abandonment rates. While these could be isolated incidents that only affect a single viewing experience, in aggregate they will lead to churn.

So, how can you avoid this scenario and provide the type of top-quality streams your audience is looking for? Work with proven streaming solutions that offer rich, high-performing players at scale.

GET THE WORD OUT

Once you’ve got all the technology in place to provide a top-notch OTT experience, you need to start thinking about how you can get your programming in front of the right audience. Here, it’s crucial to create content that piques your target viewer’s interest:

  • Build up your social media presence — and post regularly to keep your audience engaged and talking about your brand.

  • Think about what lingering questions your audience may have about OTT and create captivating blog posts to fill in the gaps.

  • Update your site landing pages on a frequent basis to ensure you’re giving the latest information about your programming.

Are you ready to capture a piece of the OTT market? By following the OTT best practices above, you can take your digital experiences to the next level.

LIVE STREAMS GONE WRONG

bsp-admin-1 on November 30, 2018

The world of live streaming is a little bit like the Wild West—an unpredictable frontier where the only law is Murphy’s Law. We’ve had our fair share of live streaming mistakes, but if you learn from our experience, maybe things can go a little more smoothly for you. Below, find our tales from the front, along with ways that you can avoid meeting the same fate.

WHEN THE ANTI-CATASTROPHE MACHINE FAILS…CATASTROPHICALLY

We like to think we’re a pretty prepared bunch. We know the rules of live streaming, and we prepare accordingly. So when we live streamed an event from Las Vegas using three different internet providers and a load balancer to ensure the connection would never fail, it came as a surprise when it did just that and the stream went down. Turns out, a backbone issue had taken down the internet across the entire state of Nevada. We got back online eventually, but the mobile hotspot we used was barely powerful enough for our purposes.

The solution: With a bonded cellular backup unit like LiveU or Dejero, our stream could have gone on without a hitch. The backpack-style units combine multiple cellular and satellite sources to create one reliable connection without relying on wired internet.

EVER WONDERED WHAT “TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” REALLY MEANS?

Another event, another live stream gone wrong—this time at Harvard Business School. In the middle of a panel called “TV, Disrupted” we got a bigger disruption than we bargained for—in the form of a fire alarm. Without a “technical difficulties” slate cued up and ready to go for just this situation, our stream showed utter pandemonium for a full minute: people panicking, fire alarm blaring, you get the picture. In the midst of the chaos, our live stream operator quickly typed up a slate in a Word doc and inserted it as a slide in the panel presentation.

technical-difficulties-screen

The solution: Even on a single-camera shoot, use a video switcher like Wirecast or OBS. That way, you can immediately cut to a technical difficulty slate or pre-recorded video as needed.

BABY’S FIRST LIVE STREAM—WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!

Ah, a company’s first live stream: what should be a blissful foray into the world of live is actually a situation rife with the potential for error. On this occasion, testing surfaced one weak spot. Presenters needed to switch slides, which were located on a computer in the control room, too far away for the clickers to reach. The solution is easy, right? Just move the computer controlling the presentation closer to the stage. Well, everything was going smoothly until that computer stopped working and all the live stream operators were holed up in the control room, too far away to do anything about it. While some poor soul ran over to troubleshoot, critical video and audio cues were missed.

The solution: Keep your hardware close enough to troubleshoot at all times. If you need to separate hardware across multiple locations, make sure every station is manned so that one issue doesn’t derail the entire production.

-Ian Servin, Video Production Manager

BOOM GOES THE AUDIO…OR NOT

Streaming with multiple cameras? Look at you, hot stuff…just make sure you’re taking the right audio. During a recent webinar, we had our boom mic positioned just so, out of frame right over our presenters’ heads. But when we went live, the audio came out surprisingly weak. Turns out, we were taking audio from the B Cam’s internal mic, rather than the A cam which was hooked up to the boom mic.

Solution: Test, re-test, and test again…and then triple-check that you’re taking the right audio source. Plus, make sure your boom mic is set to stereo, rather than mono (the traditional setting for capturing audio on-set).

-Jason Oliveira, Video Producer

A COMMON NEAR-MISS: GOING FOR THAT NO-FILTER LOOK

Usually, video pros shoot in a “flat” profile which gives them the most information to work with in post-production color grading. Since a live stream is *live* (no post-production needed), make sure your camera is set to a broadcast-safe, or standard, profile.  Otherwise, your picture runs the risk of looking washed-out—a good look for Instagram, maybe, but not for your live stream.

-Jason Oliveira, Video Producer

Ready to go forth and live stream confidently? Make sure you’re using the right platform. Brightcove’s live solution is the gold standard, and our industry-leading support team will help your next live stream go off without a hitch.

E-LEARNING BRANDS CAN TRANSFORM THEIR BUSINESSES WITH VIDEO

bsp-admin-1 on November 22, 2018

Video is modernizing the way e-learning businesses deliver their core product offerings.

Driven by high speed broadband internet access, high mobile penetration rate, and the average consumers’ hunger for video content, educational organizations are capitalizing on video to attract, engage and monetise their customer base.

Here are the top five tips on how e-learning businesses can transform the way they deliver their product.

1. THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE MATTERS

User experience is critical for e-learning students, because if students are paying for online content they expect content to be served seamlessly, with a fast video playback and no buffering. Even in rural areas where the bandwidth tends to be low, an online video platform platform like Brightcove supports adaptive bitrate streaming to stream the best quality online video every time. Adaptive bitrate streaming creates multiple renditions for each video uploaded, automatically detects user bandwidth, and dynamically switches between renditions mid-stream to ensure smooth playback at the highest quality possible.

Once the basics of user experience are nailed down, it’s time to bring features into play. If you use a  fully customizable HTML5 player, incorporate interactivity elements like content chapters, quizzes, polls, surveys and feedback forms to engage student during their learning experience.

2. LIVESTREAMING OR ON DEMAND? OFFER BOTH

For busy students, organizations can choose to offer the option of live streaming the content as well as offering on demand options once the stream is over. Live assets can be clipped and turned into a series quickly, using a feature-rich live streaming platform like Brightcove Live.

3. KEEP A LID ON COSTS

By using Context Aware Encoding, Brightcove’s award winning video compression technology, organisations lower the cost of storing and streaming videos. CAE takes into account the broader context of the video experience by creating a custom encoding profile tailored to the combination of each individual video’s content complexity and predicted viewing environment. The result: higher quality video that starts up faster and buffers less – a critical factor for students who want get the most of out of their studying hours.

4. SECURE AND PROTECT YOUR CONTENT

Content security and piracy are the topmost concern for e-learning businesses, given that the content is the actual premium product. Content security and piracy can be managed with two of the most widely used industry technologies, such as Encrypted HTTP Live Streaming (also known as encrypted HLS and Digital Rights Management). With these two technologies built into the Brightcove video platform, educational organizations can easily secure their content with watermarks, token protection, restrict access by geography, domain, IP address or publication date, so that  content is accessible only from within approved networks and meets specific security obligations for distribution.

5. CREATE ENGAGING, IMMERSIVE AND INTERACTIVE E-LEARNING EXPERIENCES

At a time where just delivering a video is no longer enough, how can savvy e-learning organizations stand apart and utilize video to surprise and delight prospective and existing students? Video at its core is about personal, human connections. Providing an experience that engages audiences matters, and motivates them to take that next step. Both Brightcove Gallery and In-Page can allow businesses to create customized live and on-demand video experiences—within minutes—to encourage deeper and more meaningful levels of engagement. Layouts like carousels, grids, and playlists, plus interactive elements both inside and outside the video player, encourage students to interact, mention, share, recommend or refer.

THE NEW E-LEARNING LANDSCAPE

From livestreaming to on demand, educational institutions are capitalizing on the power of video technology to reach and engage with students. The once highly manual process of uploading slideware with no live commentary can now be replaced with lecturers uploading and publishing their lessons in video format in just a few clicks—then streamed across various devices and browsers. The advances in video streaming technologies can help educational institutions to go to market quickly, launch and scale as they grow their business, and streamline their processes.