Would you eat here?!

I love to surf YouTube for local videos. Type in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, or Luzerne County, and you’ll find a range of content from totally useless and a waste of time, to political opinions, and to highly polished informative viral videos. I wanted to see if any local pizza places were posting videos on YouTube, because if bloggers like to talk about any thing, it’s their favorite food.

I found this video, and I don’t know what to make of it. It is a “Banned” commercial for this pizza parlor complete with the F-bomb and several disturbing subliminal still shots throughout the video.



It is probably one of two things.
1. Someone hates this pizza place so much that they made faux commercial to discredit the pizza parlor.
2. Someone actually tried to make a commercial for this pizza place, and decided it would be a good idea to post this on the internet.

Judging by the comments left by people, I see I’m not the only one who thinks this is a marketing train wreck. Recently Domino’s Pizza was brought to its knees when two idiot employees posted a video of one of the cooks doing disgusting things with the food they were about to serve. Who’s knows how many dollars were lost because of this video.

With all the good that can come from internet marketing, it’s scary to think that your business could be in the hands of someone you don’t even know. So, go and Google your business, you might be surprised at what you find.

Local Political Commercials 101 - Your Good Image

What is the main reason for a local candidate to run TV commercial? Is it to express a certain issue? Is it to point out flaws in a competitor? Maybe, but the main reason to do local TV is about image. You are introducing yourself to people you don’t know and the best way to do that besides showing up at all the meet and greet events and shaking hands is a finely crafted TV commercial. I use the words finely crafted, because it takes a lot of skill from a TV commercial producer to make a good, effective commercial, where the candidate comes across as professional, caring, and knowledgeable about the position they’re running for. It’s easy to throw something together for a few hundred bucks, but if it doesn’t make the candidate look good, it’s a waste of money. It only takes one badly light scene to tarnish a good image.

Cost of Production

The cost a producing a good TV commercial has come down in price drastically over the past 10 years. I used to work on political spots in the 80’s and 90’s that cost upwards of $6,000 for a 30 second commercial. The same commercials today cost around $1,000, mostly because of the technology coming down in price. I shoot all of my spots in HD (High Definition) to give even more bang for the buck.

Beware of the free commercial giveaway! Some stations and cable outlets will offer you free commercial production if you spent over a certain amount on placement. I look at your commercial as a vehicle (It’s you and your messege, image, ideas, etc.) and the placement is the tires, the things that get your message out there and seen. So imagine going to a tire store and the salesman says, “If you buy 4 tires, we’ll throw in a car for free!”. Well tell me, just how good is that car going to be? It will most likely fail after a few miles on the road.

Cost of Placement

Placement is actually buying time to run the commercials on TV. There are only 2 outlets you can go to. Local network affiliates (WNEP, WBRE, FOX), and a cable insertion company, The latter can place the commercials in specific regions on cable networks like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

Spots that air on the local news can cost around a $1,000 dollars, and can reach lots of people throughout the entire county, while the cable insertion rates are only 5-10 dollars a pop, so $1000 and get you about 150 airs in a specific region of the county.

One service that Video Innovations offers to all clients free of charge is that we upload the all of our clients commercials to our YouTube Channel so people can see the spots at their convenience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We also give them an unloadable copy of the video so they can send it to their FaceBook, MySpace, and other social media accounts.

I wish all the local candidates well, and regardless of what common sense may tell us, image can be everything!

All the Neat Things you can do with a Marketing Video!

So you all know how important it is to have a video on your business website, right? A marketing video lets people who are surfing the internet for your products know what your business does, it lets them see and understand your products and services, and gives you instant credibility as an expert in your field far better than words and pictures.

So with that in mind, here are some not so obvious things you can do with a marketing video from Video Innovations:

1. Put it on your website to keep customers there. It gives them the “feeling” of your company better than words and pictures.

2. Upload it to any Facebook, MySpace, or other social medial accounts you have.

3. Play it on a TV in your office lobby to inform visitors about you.

4. Use it to grab attention at trade shows.

5. Give the video to your sales staff on DVD to use as a sales tool out in the field.

6. You can email the video to perspective clients and e-mailing lists.

7. The videos we produce are high definition and broadcast quality, so they can double as TV commercials.

IN YOUR FACE - A video of you on your website

Let’s say a friend of yours takes you to a business meet and greet. You walk in the room and you look around. You don’t see anyone you know. You do notice Josh Hodell, the local weatherman from WBRE TV standing there, chatting with a few people. You have to start mingling with people, so what do you do? Do you randomly pick someone out of the crowd and introduce yourself and hope they are interested in talking to you? Do you think to yourself, “That Josh Hodell guy seem approachable and friendly on the TV, and he certainly knows a lot about the weather. I could go up to him and ask him what the weather will be like tomorrow, and start a conversation.”

That is the power of video. People can get a sense of who you are and what you know, without ever meeting you in person. By having a video of YOU on your website, you will be showing potential customers who you are, your knowledge and expertise about your products and services, and maybe most importantly, your passion for your business.

Now some people were just born to be in front of the camera, other, not so. It’s my job as a video producer to educate my clients on the video process and to ease the nervous client into the on-camera process so they fell comfortable and confident in their presentation. Sometimes, a lot of effort goes into making the client look good. It’s an art, and something I take great pride in.

I can tell you first hand that this works. Since I put a video of me talking about my services on my website, perspective clients that call to inquire about my services tell me they saw my video on my website. So before they talk to me, they already know this:

1. They know what I look like
2. They know how I sound and act
3. They know exactly what I do
4. They know how much experience I have
5. They know that I am serious and passionate about producing videos

Website video is a very powerful tool, and you can do much more with the video than just put it on your website, but that will be in the next blog!

An Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog! Over the course of the year, I’d like to post some information on using video to market your business effectively through television and the internet.

I’ve been in the video business since 1986, working at local TV stations WBRE and WVIA in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market. I’ve seen the transition from 1 inch video tape costing $120 for a one hour reel to a mini DV tape costing $4. I’ve also used a “portable” Ikegami tube camera tethered to a Sony 1 inch “portable” recording deck (in those days, the camera and recording unit were 2 separate pieces) that totaled a whopping $130,000 dollars! Today, a $4,000 camera offers a much better picture and high resolution to boot.

While a lot changes, some things stay the same. Video’s role in marketing is to tell the story of your business, and to make people want to buy your services and products, regardless of whether it’s delivered on disc, television, or over the internet. I hope you will find this blog helpful and informative.