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TVNZ EXTENDS REACH WITH LAUNCH ON GOOGLE CHROMECAST

bsp-admin-1 on August 14, 2017

TAKING THE TVNZ APP TO MORE DEVICES AND SCREENS WITH LAUNCH ON GOOGLE CHROMECAST

There has been a huge spike in the adoption of OTT devices in the past few years as smart TVs, gaming consoles, and digital media players like Chromecast and Apple TV become our devices of choice for media consumption. Broadcasters need to rethink traditional methods of delivery to cater to the appetites of audiences who are increasingly consuming content across every type of screen.

Compromising quality viewing experiences is not an option — viewers expect the same experience regardless of how, when, and where they are watching content. That’s why TVNZ, New Zealand’s leading free-to-air broadcaster, has extended its partnership with Brightcove to make its video streaming service for the TVNZ app available on Google Chromecast. Brightcove already helps TVNZ deliver premium viewing experiences to devices including Android, iOS, Playstation, Xbox, and Samsung Smart TVs and is now providing the same quality experience for Google Chromecast.

TVNZ’s expansion means it can now leverage Brightcove’s server-side ad insertion technology (SSAI) to deliver superior TV-like digital video experiences to more viewers. With the addition of TVNZ for Google Chromecast, Brightcove’s SSAI is now used across all AVOD broadcasters in New Zealand, opening up a whole new world of commercial opportunities for broadcasters on more platforms.

For consumers, it means TVNZ viewers can now watch their favourite shows through the app via Chromecast with the same ease and superior experience as they would if watching it direct from their TV.

The revamped TVNZ app brings together Live TV and OnDemand viewing, making it a one-stop destination for all video content available across platforms and devices.

Brightcove is continuing to work with TVNZ to develop better video streaming solutions. Look out for the launch of an Apple TV app later this year!

5 OTT FEATURES THAT STAND OUT IN A CROWDED STREAMING MARKET

bsp-admin-1 on August 2, 2017

According to a recent Parks Associates whitepaper, two-thirds of the US broadband households have an OTT service and one-third have more than one subscription. As the OTT market continues to become more saturated each week, content owners are under more pressure than ever to get to market, stand out from the crowd, draw in viewers, and grow their subscriber base.

Launching an OTT service isn’t easy. Taking the time to research partners and the best course of action is a time commitment in itself, not to mention the effort that goes into developing and getting the service up and running. Depending on your budget and needs, we have seen companies employing two broad launch strategies. The first is a highly custom, highly differentiated product which seeks to to provide meaningful contrast to competitive services already in market. This approach tends to be on the more expensive end of the spectrum and makes sense for the major broadcasting companies or content distributors who already have a captive audience to draw from. The second approach allows for customers to launch as quickly as possible, allowing for only minor differentiations of the end user experience. This approach aims to succeed on content, pricing, and marketing while minimizing upfront costs. The latter turnkey approach is what we find is the best fit for the majority of companies looking to go OTT.  While there are a number of turkey OTT solutions in the marketplace, they are not all equal.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CUSTOMIZING YOUR TURNKEY SOLUTION

When researching the best partner to work with to launch an OTT service look for a partner whose platform is evolving and growing in the same manner as you expect your service to grow.  Taking a turnkey approach does not mean you need to compromise on delivering a premium experience. Consider the the five items below as examples of features that will help you stand out in the crowded marketplace.

A/B TESTING

A/B testing is crucial in determining the most intuitive and desirable user experience to attract and retain subscribers. With OTT Flow you can create multiple application profiles to test different UI elements including layouts, branding elements, menu structures, and fonts to determine the best possible experience for viewers. Employing multi-variate testing and taking a data driven approach will inform you on what is working and what isn’t. Delivering a user experience that maximizes engagement is a key element in reducing churn.

GEO-TARGETING

Geo-targeting refers to the practice of delivering different content to a viewer based on his or her geographic location. With OTT Flow, we provide multiple levels of managing content based on the geographic location of your viewers. At the base level, you can choose which individual videos are permitted or blocked for a specific location. This is a fairly common feature across OVPs. Moving up the technology stack, OTT Flow can also ensure that viewers in different locations receive a different user experience altogether. For example, in addition to protecting the rights of the content owner by blocking the ability to playback a video in a specific country, you may want to define a country specific profile that hides that content altogether (e.g, do not show the video thumbnails or poster or any associated metadata in the UI). This gives you the flexibility to have a single app in the app stores that delivers a different user experience depending on where the user is when they launch your OTT application.

ADVANCED CASTING

The OTT Flow platform enables viewers to take advantage of popular casting technologies including Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Chromecast to stream video from their OTT web and mobile apps via their television using an Apple TV or a Chromecast receiver. OTT Flow has taken that to a new level by implementing a custom Chromecast sender experience for the web browser application. This allows your viewers to fully control the video stream that is seen on the connected TV while still having the ability to browse for more content on their PC. This is another way to keep your viewers engaged with a second screen experience while they are consuming your content.

LIVE CAPABILITIES

Adding live channels to an OTT service allows for viewers to take advantage of streaming events in real time. This helps to extend audience reach as well as revenue opportunities. The robust Brightcove Live product, available as an OTT Flow add-on, provides Cloud DVR, live clipping, and Live-to-VOD functionality that enables seamless distribution of the content for promotions and viewing at a later time. While live content may not be a priority at all times, having the option to turn on the feature for a specific sporting event or cultural event is a great way to reach new viewers and keep current viewers engaged and excited with new content.

SOCIAL INTEGRATION

Everyone knows that video is flooding social media channels and typically the most engaging content for users. According to recent Brightcove research, video is rising in popularity with consumers on social networks: 67 percent of users are increasing their consumption of social video and 75 percent make decisions based on the videos they watch. The challenge is to effectively engage with users and distribute engaging content that will drive users back to your OTT service. With the ability to edit and optimize videos for social networks, sharing highlights and clips from the newest show or event can catch the eye of potential subscribers. Integrating with a social tool, like Brightcove Social, to manage your presence across social channels is paramount in saving time, money, and resources so they can be redistributed to what matters most, curating content that viewers want.

The fact that the OTT market continues to get more competitive each day should inspire, not discourage, content owners from capitalizing on this exploding market. As mentioned above, there are multiple paths to take when developing a service. While you may think you want the complete custom service because the turnkey solution is too templated, remember there is a happy medium. All of these premium features and more are available with the turnkey solution provided by OTT Flow to help content owners of all sizes deliver amazing OTT experiences that attract and retain subscribers.

OFFLINE PLAYBACK SUPPORT IN NATIVE PLAYER SDKS

bsp-admin-1 on July 17, 2017

Customers leveraging the latest Brightcove Native Player SDKs for iOS and Android can now download, manage, and playback offline content through a set of out-of-the-box APIs. Brightcove takes on the heavy lifting for media download and playback, leaving developers free to focus on building out exceptional end user experiences. With support for industry-standard DRMs, such as Apple FairPlay Streaming and Google Widevine, publishers can rest assured that their content is safely following the rules defined by their unique business logic.

We’ve all seen how popular offline playback has been in some of our favourite applications and the benefits of allowing users to download content to watch on the go. Our goal with this release is to empower customers with the ability to provide a similar experience to their end-users without requiring the extensive investment behind it. To accomplish this, we took on the major components of the Offline Playback flow to expose as simplified and intuitive SDK APIs for developers to employ.

Digital Rights Management

DRM provides content protection that ensures your content can only be viewed when and where you have specified. DRM offers tamper protection, prevents sharing between devices and allows a publisher to set the exact duration over which downloaded content should be viewable through rental or purchase license types.

Download Management

The download manager provides an efficient and reliable way for fetching the content and metadata you need to create an awesome offline experience for your end users. Tell the SDK the rendition quality you want to download, the languages and captions you want, and we’ll handle the rest; We’ll even take care of queuing multiple downloads should a viewer be particularly hungry for content.

As a part of this process we’ll handle a variety of pause and resume scenarios that can be triggered by direct application actions such as exposing a “pause download” button, or by an error that might come up during the download process such as losing and regaining Wi-Fi connection.

And of course no user wants to be stuck watching the progress bar so our download feature works whether the application is in the foreground or the background. We’ll provide status and progress updates throughout the download process that enable your application to keep the user informed at every turn.

Local Content Management

Android video player on smartphone

The offline catalog keeps track of where all the data has been stored locally and exposes the details needed to build rich user experiences including video metadata and images. Maintain control of your content using our APIs for monitoring the time remaining in the DRM licenses as well as for deleting content at any point.

Offline Playback

The player components of both SDKs have been enhanced to support playback of content stored in the offline catalog. Wickedly simple, any existing SDK user will instantly recognize the implementation, and new users will be able to get up and running with a high quality playback experience in a matter of just a few lines of code. Our out of the box player interface has been updated to support detection of multiple local audio tracks and captions for offline videos and is as flexible as ever for any custom design changes you’d like to make.

Analytics

We’ve added a whole new section of events to the SDKs designed specifically to track various aspects of the download process. Our goal is to empower publishers by providing insightful data on what the download experience is like for end viewers. Are people abandoning their downloads? What are their download times like? Are users in a particular region being affected more than elsewhere? We’re looking to address questions like these and more with a wealth of data collected and exposed through the Brightcove Analytics APIs.

With these tools, developers can now bring Offline Playback into their application in just a fraction of the time it would take to start from scratch. The Brightcove Native Player SDKs bring together a number of systems to provide the powerful features you need while maintaining flexibility for your application design and interface.

Sample Offline Experience

Customers looking to leverage Offline Playback in the Brightcove Native Player SDKs must be enabled. If you’d like to learn more, check out our feature level documentation, as well as our dev docs available for both iOS and Android. If you’re interested in signing up, please reach out to your account manager for more details.

12 WAYS TO USE LIVE VIDEO FOR MARKETING, SALES, AND IN THE WORKPLACE

bsp-admin-1 on June 22, 2017

More than any other communications tool, live streaming video has the power to convey messages faster and more effectively throughout your entire organization. For many top enterprise companies, the use of live video for marketing and sales, in conjunction with on-demand video, is a critical business differentiator. Meanwhile, internal live streams are becoming a necessity in corporate communications, inter-team collaboration and workforce development and efficiency.

This isn’t surprising. Video has the unique ability to win the hearts and minds of viewers, and live video is even more compelling. There’s an allure that surrounds live video because the audience can experience an event as it happens. Live streaming is on the rise; in fact, live video is fast becoming the fastest growing segment of internet traffic, totaling nearly 13% of all Internet video traffic by 2021.

Want to understand how you can best utilize this trend for maximum business impact? Here’s your guide to becoming a video-first organization, inspiring and delighting both customers and employees.

How to Livestream to Employees and Internal Audiences

1. Executive Communications

Corporate communications teams must disseminate information to employees so they can build relationships. A cadence of communication trickling down to all levels can help leadership build trust and commitment and maintain a vibrant corporate culture. Additionally, this ensures everyone is briefed on new policies or crucial organizational pivots, with the same messaging. Live streaming of “all-hands meetings” enables top executives to engage in two-way communication with employees in an authentic human way.

2. Internal Meetings

Live video enables dispersed teams to collaborate and share information as if everyone was in the same room. Project updates from co-workers lead to higher engagement and a better understanding of how everyone works together to achieve the “big picture.”

3. Employee Training

Training through video, either through live streaming or on-demand, allows you to impart large amounts of data quickly to hundreds or thousands of employees, while watching the bottom line. Live training sessions with video provide an immediacy that passive forms of training cannot compete with. The nature of live video allows for real-time interactions between instructors and participants no matter where they are.

4. Investor Relations

Streaming a shareholder meeting allows more investors to participate while saving money on travel. An incredible benefit of these videos is that they can later serve as a companion to earnings reports, breaking down complex issues into an easily-understood, succinct, form.

5. Franchise Communications

Live and on-demand video bridges the geographic gap between corporate staff and franchise owners. Business video users can communicate key business messages and complex information to dispersed networks of employees to ensure all franchisees implement programs and products consistently – the key to maintaining the strong brand image.

6. Human Resources

HR teams are using live video to attract and reduce the time it takes to recruit the best candidates across the globe. Once hired, video enables enterprises to reduce new employee onboarding time.

7. Sales Enablement

Live and on-demand video provides field sales teams with immediate access to business intelligence and content that allows them to react appropriately to buyer inquiries. This in turn, allows enterprises to reduce costs, increase employee productivity, and capture lost revenue.

How to Use Live Video for More Effective Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support

8. Marketing

Live streaming video allows brands to engage with current or potential customers in a more human, accessible way. It’s ideal for behind the scenes views into your brand, product introductions and demonstrations, capturing and sharing live events or Q&As, and holding live press interviews for international media outlets.

9. Event Coverage

Brands can live stream their events, from fashion shows to factory tours, or make the most of their sponsorship or attendance at events by going live at sporting events, concerts, or awards shows. They can also stream behind-the-scenes views and host interviews with participants. Both are good ways for brands to connect with viewers who can comment real-time about what they’d like to see, what they want to learn, or who they want to hear from next.

SXSW Live Stream

10. Conferences

For enterprises that host their own conferences or trade shows, live streaming is an easy way to extend the keynote and panel sessions to larger audiences of prospects, customers, and partners who didn’t attend in person. Videos can be made available on-demand immediately afterward to further extend audience reach.

Oracle Live Stream Keynote

11. Sales

Live streaming video is a useful tool that enables sales reps to support different conversations during the buyer’s decision-making process. It allows sales reps to pull in technical experts and take conversations to the next level by easily explaining complex topics.

12. Customer Support

Brands can use live video streaming to host interactive “office hours” to answer customer and prospect questions and demonstrate how to use products. When you use video for customer support, service agents can get in front of customers for face-to-face conversations. Unlike live chats without video, conversations are real-time and there’s no delay waiting for messages to appear, or risk of mistakes due to typos. Additionally, issues can be explained more easily verbally, for both parties.

Enterprises are using live streaming in new ways to drive business results. More frequent video communications means more efficient and cost-effective interactions with both internal and external audiences. Live video works across a multitude of enterprise teams- marketing, sales, customer success, HR, PR, corporate communications and leadership- no matter where they’re located. Get creative and consider which use cases make the most sense for your business. The future is going Live. Are you and your team (camera) ready?

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF LIVE BROADCASTING

bsp-admin-1 on June 14, 2017

Many marketers aspire to broadcast live events—and for good reason. Live video captures audiences’ attention by giving them the opportunity to be “first to know.” However, what was once a privilege is now seen as a right by your audience. Popular platforms like Periscope and Facebook Live have caused demand for live video to surge.

The future of communication is not just video, but live video. Companies must deliver high-quality, responsive video formats while building online destinations that foster audience loyalty. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a technical expert to achieve this. Live streaming can be straightforward and resource-efficient, with minimal risk. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not, and here’s why you should consider live streaming your next event.

BENEFITS OF LIVE STREAMING YOUR ROI-GENERATING EVENT

  • Expand your brand’s audience: Live video grabs attention, boosting brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.
  • Enhance your brand’s authenticity: Live video enables face-to-face communication in digital spaces, offering authentic, unedited interactions that build credibility.
  • Maximize your video investment: Repurpose live video into short-form content or video-on-demand (VOD) to extend the value of your event for weeks, months, or years.

B2C and B2B brands are using live streaming to craft unique business models and digital experiences. With user-friendly video platform tools and repeatable workflows, live events are easy to stream and monetize—before, during, and after the event.

HOW TO MANAGE A LIVE EVENT VIDEO STREAM

1. BUILD ANTICIPATION WITH A PRE-EVENT PAGE

How to manage a live event video stream - for the uninitiated marketer

A pre-event page creates a destination for your live broadcast in advance, and allows you to promote your event early and regularly. So, at the time of the event, there’s no confusion about where to go. Even for the tech-savvy, setting up a web page on the day of the event and managing the live feed turnover can be taxing. Instead, create a space to interact with your audience before the event and streamline your event workflow. You’ve probably created a hashtag, now it’s time to liven up the conversation and animation around the event. Use this space to gather your audience’s views on social networks and observe in real time how your brand’s story is being told.

The final action before the event is to create templates of your live stream in a simple, repeatable process. A branded landing page on your domain, which includes features like conversation, social network sharing prompts and real-time hashtag control centralizes pre-event audience communications and quality assurance. In this way, you also avoid an empty, uninteresting video stream. By using a live event video template, you also spend less time and effort on it, so you can concentrate on coordinating a successful event. Synchronize with other members of your marketing team about pre-event promotions to brainstorm other creative ways to use the page.

For example, demand gen will want to know how to attract potential customers through this video site. Of course, provide something useful! You could simply offer to send an alert to your visitors when the next live broadcast takes place. If your schedule is confusing, you understand this added value. People are afraid of missing out, so a friendly reminder from a company is often a welcome communication, and a way to lead to more engagement.

2. ENSURE A QUALITY EXPERIENCE DURING THE EVENT

It’s time to move on to the event itself.  Live streams can attract visitors who may not be able to physically attend the event. In the past, the audience had to be content with watching a video, a rather passive experience. Today, the modern content consumer wants to interact. Your audience expects to have an experience as pleasant as the live one.

  • Furnish an optimal video experience: our attention span is short – infinitesimally small. As a result, visitors are unlikely to enjoy a poor-quality video experience. Make sure that the attention of interested parties doesn’t wane. Be sure to evaluate your live streaming environment to ensure that your live stream is responsive on mobile devices and delivers high-quality video. Broadcast your live event stream over the internet and on iOS and Android devices. Don’t be afraid to be bold about the size of your video: it hooks audiences, who stay focused on the live stream.
  • “Broadcast to a second screen” your experience: what does this mean? Basically, put your social media team, or delegate in-house representatives, in charge of following the conversation and interacting with the audience. As the event is broadcast, the audience will naturally switch between widgets on social networks and the live event. You don’t slip away – you take an audience’s natural inclination for the second screen (or distracted nature) and use it as a way of bringing attention back to you. Visitors can continue to watch the video via a minilector, even if they’re busy on other features of the page broadcasting the live event. So keep adding video content that may be associated, advertising for partners or long-term resources, and even event calendar downloads. When they scroll down to see the rest of the content, the live stream will follow. 

Ensuring a quality experience with a live event page

3. REPURPOSE AND PROMOTE POST-EVENT CONTENT

You’ve spent time organizing your event, promoting it and making sure it runs smoothly. Make sure your event continues to attract attention once it’s over. The best way to do this is with a post-event video landing page. This page allows you to add clips of the event’s highlights, and set features to engage new visitors who would have liked to attend, but weren’t able to.

Continuous promotion and repurposing of your live video content1

Continuous promotion and repurposing of your live video content2

The marketing results of a live event are not limited to the number of visitors. With a live event video template, archiving event video is quick and easy. It’s done seamlessly, so the event is never really over, even once it’s finished. The live stream is on-demand, so it’s omnipresent and always relevant! Also consider creating clips of your video content on the most interesting or striking topics so that visitors can be drawn back in when they visit the site. As with any content, a video can and should be repurposed, when appropriate for your audience.

DESIGNING A CAMPAIGN AROUND VOD CONTENT

Everyone will want to get in on the action. Give your team access to video content and design a multi-channel plan around live video content. Where can you place your live video content? 

  • Landing pages: Live events or content series (think podcast or webcast) contribute to the success of your thought leadership efforts. Encourage visitors to register for your next event using previously recorded live content. Consider breaking your video content into chapters  and placing them in a playlist. A lead form can be activated once the visitor has watched several videos and shows great interest. 
  • Blog: Transcribe your video content and create blog summaries. Use a tool like Storyify to add value to the story by integrating reactions on social networks. You can also use the same selection mentioned above, open, and integrate interactive elements that ask visitors to “choose their own adventure.”
  • Emails: Your live event has been appreciated. Don’t lose the essential information shared by your speakers. Integrate these e-mail excerpts into pre-existing relationship-building campaigns, or create an entirely new campaign.
  • Websites: Integrate your page into an event resource and video platform right up to the launch of the next event, be it annually, quarterly, or monthly. Potential attendees can learn so much through video. Use this platform to drive engagement, with email sign-ups for example. In addition, encourage attendees to interact after the event by soliciting user-generated content and placing it on your platform as well.
  • Social networks: Social video is increasingly used and, when well targeted, can generate a more positive brand experience (organic or paid). Live video streams can be trimmed and then, using an online video platform with a social video distribution tool, you can trim them back into clip lengths optimized for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Multiple sets of video assets are created to be used in a variety of ways.

With accessible tools and consumer-friendly technology, live streaming is no longer limited to companies with large budgets. Marketers can create interactive live video experiences that meet both audience expectations and business goals. By using live event templates and optimized workflows, you can achieve high-quality results without needing an IT team.

In conclusion, live streaming offers endless possibilities for marketers. From pre-event promotion to post-event engagement, live video allows you to connect with audiences in real-time and create lasting impressions. Now is the time to plan your next live event and start reaping the benefits of live broadcasting.

GOOGLE’S UPDATED DFP INTEGRATION FOR BRIGHTCOVE VIDEO CLOUD

bsp-admin-1 on June 12, 2017

If you’re a Brightcove customer who uses DFP Premium as your primary ad server, we have good news.

As most of you know, Google offers an integration that enables DFP to access metadata about videos that are managed in Brightcove. The integration is used for advanced ad targeting and is a feature available in DFP to DFP Premium customers.

The good news is that Google has updated the integration so that for read access, it no longer leverages Brightcove’s deprecated Media API and it now uses Brightcove’s CMS API, which is faster, easier to use, and more powerful than the legacy Media API.

What this means for you: You can continue to sync your video metadata between Brightcove and DFP. However, we need you to go through the steps below in order to migrate to Google’s new integration. In a nutshell, for each account that is currently set up as a “content source” in DFP, you need to generate CMS API credentials in Brightcove and update your content source settings in DFP to include the new credentials.

The read methods of Brightcove’s deprecated Media API are available until December 31, 2017, but Google has stated that they’d like all joint customers to migrate by July 1, 2017.

Specific steps:

  • Log in to your DFP account and navigate to your content sources by clicking “Video” in the top navigation bar, followed by “Content sources” in the left sidebar.

  • For each Brightcove content source within the network, click “Migrate this source,” as indicated in the following diagram:

Click 'Migrate this source'

  • You will notice that you are asked to complete the form by providing your Brightcove Account ID and CMS API credentials, i.e., Client ID and Client secret.

Complete the form

  • In a new browser tab, log into your Brightcove account.

  • In order to find your Account ID, click “ADMIN” in the header and then click “Account Information.”

  • In order to generate your Brightcove CMS API credentials, follow these steps, registering DFP as a new application with CMS “Video Read” access. Note: If you currently have multiple accounts set up as content sources in DFP, you have two options:

    1. You can create a unique Client ID and Client secret for each account that’s set up as a content source in DFP. For example, if you have 10 accounts, you’d have 10 applications named DFP in your API Authentication settings in Brightcove.

    2. You can can create a single Client ID and Client secret for all accounts that have been set up as content sources in DFP. For example, if you have 10 accounts, you’d have 1 application named DFP in your API Authentication settings in Brightcove.

    Regardless of whether you chose option #1 or #2, for each content source that you set up in DFP, you need to provide a unique Account ID. So, you are not reducing the number of content sources that are currently set up in DFP; you’re just replacing the read token with the Client ID and Client secret, which can either be the same across content sources or unique for each.

    Option #1 takes more time upfront. However, if the Client ID and Client secret are the same across all content sources (as with option #2), it will be a burden to add a new content source because you will need to generate a new Client ID and Client secret and update all of content sources in DFP. So, Brightcove recommends option #1.

  • Once you’ve copied/pasted your Brightcove Account ID, Client ID and Client secret into the form in DFP, click “Validate” to double-check the credentials.

  • Click “Migrate and Save.”

Please archive any content sources that you are no longer using and therefore not migrating.

If you have questions, feel free to contact your Brightcove account manager. Know that Google owns the integration and has been taking the lead on communication to joint customers about the migration, but Brightcove’s team is available to help.

CRAFTING 1:1 CONVERSATIONS WITH VIDEO MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

bsp-admin-1 on June 12, 2017

Marketers are responsible for warming up conversations with prospects, but according to SiriusDecisions, 67% of the buyer’s journey is done via digital channels before intent is demonstrated. Even more frustrating, sometimes it feels like these leads are languishing in the funnel somewhere between MQL and SAL.

Digital marketers can implement a potent combination of technology to solve this problem. Marketing automation, interactive video, and personalized content empower 1:1 conversations, while tech integrations between an online video platform (OVP), marketing automation platform (MAP), and customer relationship management (CRM) tool provide the back-end support for marketers to create visionary video marketing campaigns.

Keep reading to learn how to optimize your marketing campaigns and accelerate sales velocity.

How Video Analytics Power Marketing Automation 

Using marketing automation to expedite communications and test interest is invaluable to a marketer tasked with touching thousands upon thousands of leads. Marketing automation compiles information about an individual’s interactions with your brand. A MAP collects blogs read, white papers downloaded, webinar registrations, and even, videos watched. The marketing automation platform then uses this information to construct a picture of the individual, including industry, company, position, and specific business needs.

Marketing automation reduces sales inefficiencies. When we add video analytics to this, that data becomes actionable, layering more information within campaigns.

  • Impressions. How many times the video player loads for the visitor.

  • Total views. How many times the viewer clicked play.

  • Play rates. How many views happened per total impressions.

  • Device types. Which devices your viewer is using.

  • Operating systems. What operating system your viewer is using.

  • Referral source. Where the viewer was before coming to your site.

  • Engagement score. How engaged the viewer is with the video. A low engagement score reveals the viewer abandoned the video without watching much. High engagement scores mean the video message aligned with the viewer’s need.

Interactivity allows you to expand the scope a single video, anticipating and reacting to various audience needs. In fact, 60% of interactive video users believe their content engages well or very well. These interactions create touch points which we can analyze and act on. Interactive video’s deeper analytics give us additional video data points to segment leads and customers more effectively.

Why Interactive Video Aides Audience Identification

Video interactivity can supplement the identity work you are conducting with your marketing automation platform while making videos even more engaging. When marketers remove the passive element of “watching a video” and put the audience in control through interactivity, they create a wealth of opportunities. And lucky for marketers, each of these elements helps to further define viewers and their needs. Well-defined prospect information fuels sophisticated campaigns.

What Content Creates Stronger Audience Engagement

In marketing, knowing the wants and needs of your audience is paramount for two reasons.

  • First, we desire to create content assets that will pull in interested parties during the awareness and engagement stages.
  • Second, we want to build campaigns that resonate with our audiences. Respecting the user experience builds brand affinity and loyalty quicker.

Some examples of superior content experiences are curated video playlists, customized web experiences, suggested blogs, or individually personalized content hubs. There are varying levels of personalization, and interactive videos work in all.

3 Methods to Personalize Video Content

1. Hyper-Personalization

Video marketers already enjoy the “wow” factor of stitching information—often the person’s name—into the video itself. Hyper-personalized video content can make a good introduction, but should be followed by a selection of curated content. For example, why not send a welcome video after a blog subscription? Use hyper-personalization with caution, however, as it can seem gimmicky, or lack authenticity if inaccurate data is pulled through.

2. Curated Content

Using content efficiently means understanding when to send the right content. Of course, this can be automated through logic—think, emailing a customer a specific white paper. In some cases, however, this curated content can take on more interesting forms. Imagine content hubs with pieces pulled in through intelligent tagging or video gallery collections created by a marketing or sales rep.

3. Website Personalization

Advanced digital marketers are creating video-rich, personalized experiences on their sites. These are effective for both the visitor and the marketer. With website personalization, each site visit is different, and visitors can quickly and easily find the right content to meet their interests. Interactive video content can supplement and add to this experience in a layered, multi-dimensional approach. This is because as your viewer continues to interact with this personalized video, s/he adds even more data to an individual profile. This continues the feedback loop on which we can add even more personalized experiences.

While a powerful lead generator alone, video, when paired with marketing automation and other tools can provide even more robust data for marketers. Technology has enabled us to push our campaigns to new heights, but we have to use these tools to create fantastic brand experiences and replicate authentic conversations. The end result is the ability to hold 1:1 conversations with prospects and customers and create true video experiences that raise awareness, engagement, and conversions.

This blog was originally published on May 24, 2016. It has been updated with additional information.

About Gallery In-Page (1)

bsp-admin-1 on June 6, 2017

This time, we would like to introduce a new feature of our Gallery, “In-Page”. Gallery is a CMS function that allows you to easily create a video portal site based on a GUI.

IAS PARTNERSHIP TACKLES VIEWABILITY MEASUREMENT

bsp-admin-1 on June 2, 2017

It’s 2017 — brands already know they need to have a cross-screen strategy in place to deliver effective advertising campaigns. In fact, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s latest 2016 Video Advertising Spend Study revealed that 72% of marketing and media buying professionals intend to reallocate their budget away from TV and increase spend on digital video advertising.

But for digital ads to make an impact, they need to have high ad viewability, a metric that defines whether or not an ad is “in view” or visible during playback. And, according to global technology and data company, Integral Ad Science (IAS), an alarming number of ads are going unseen — in fact, 46% of display ads and 60% of video ads were out of view in 2016 alone.

The problem is, all digital ads have different viewability metrics, and viewability measurement has become hard to scale and even harder to implement.

That’s why Brightcove has partnered with IAS to standardise viewability measurement and ensure transparency for video publishers and broadcasters using Brightcove so they can encourage digital ad spend by brands, and easily measure campaign success.

How long is a piece of string?

The latest Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings Benchmarks Report identified the number of impressions delivered to the target audience as a key indicator of determining the success of a digital ad campaign.  But “delivery” alone of an ad to a target segment is not necessarily sufficient to drive the desired outcome for an advertiser – that’s where viewability comes in.  IAS’s Dave Marquard shared some data to this effect at the Brightcove PLAY conference in Boston in May, showing how the amount of an ad that is in view and the amount of time the ad is in view directly impact the efficacy of the ad.

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The Media Rating Council (MRC) defines an in-stream video ad as viewable if more than 50% of the ad’s pixels are in view for at least two consecutive seconds. This is the dominant definition, but advertisers and agencies are calling for stricter definitions of viewability in the digital sphere to gain much-needed clarity. Given recent news about some platforms failing to deliver clear, accurate metrics on ad success, these calls are not surprising.

The proliferation of digital and mobile devices has made it even harder to track viewability, with audiences consuming ad content at an unprecedented rate across a number of different platforms and formats. This poses a distinct challenge for digital advertisers when justifying digital ad spend — how do you demonstrate your content is driving high rates of engagement within target audiences when there is no accountability or industry-wide standardised unit of measurement?

Digital ad fraud from bots, criminal syndicates, fraudulent URLs, ad blockers, and specific page-level fraud also pose a significant set of challenges for those working in the digital media space.

To simplify the complexity of viewability measurement, IAS has developed a plugin for the Brightcove Player. Implemented alongside several of Brightcove’s ad integrations, including Google’s IMA and FreeWheel, IAS’ plugin captures and reports on a host of metrics, including viewability, progress and ad interactions, during ad playback. The plugin works so that when an ad loads in a player, it fetches IAS’ standards measurement software development kit (SDK) and libraries, so it can track viewability, progress and any ad interactions. Running within the player itself also means it can measure viewability regardless of the ad creative served and where it was delivered from.

“Our partnership with Brightcove is important to our customers, providing them with accurate insights to make more informed decisions. For example, some of the world’s largest online news publishers and media networks are already using the plugin and are reporting huge benefits. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we hope other brands can leverage the feature to improve the way they measure and report on viewability,” said David Hahn, Chief Product Officer, Integral Ad Science.

The availability of the IAS plugin marks an important point in Brightcove’s continued effort to work  with industry leaders, like IAS, to help alleviate complexity for publishers.  This collaboration gives publishers access to data that will help them with understanding more about how campaigns are being viewed on their properties, better equipping them for conversations with their advertisers. Publishers looking to access the plugin should contact their IAS rep or email [email protected] for more information, including corresponding documentation.