Archives par mot-clé : video

Quaker State Launches Branded Content With ‘The Onion’

Video Marketing,

  • by Tanya Gazdik
    ,

    over 1 hour ago


Quaker State and digital media company,
Onion, Inc. are continuing their partnership and launching a new video series. The brand first started working with The Onion in 2016 with the launch of six satirical videos poking fun at marketing
fads such as commercial jingles and VR technology.

The new series of videos focus on two pseudo Quaker State marketing interns trying to come up with the next big idea for the brand. It was
developed by Onion Inc.’s creative services division, Onion Labs. 

“The Interns” will roll out beginning today featuring
hidden camera-style footage, says Nancy Salazar, Quaker State brand manager. The series’ eight installments and accompanying social content will run throughout the rest of 2017. 

“Humor is in Quaker State’s DNA as part of our no-nonsense marketing approach,” Salazar tells Marketing Daily. “We want to give the people what they want which is
good quality motor oil at a reasonable price, we don’t need to utilize gimmicky marketing tactics. Making people laugh will help them remember the Quaker State brand when it comes time for their
next oil change.”

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The content series is aimed at the general population, and not a particular demographic, she says.

“Quaker State is aware that motor oil is a crowded,
traditionally low interest category,” Salazar says. “By joining forces with an unexpected but widely-known partner, like The Onion, Quaker State is able to stop interrupting
consumers with claim-based content and start developing content consumers can appreciate and relate to. We think the best way to reach people is not by using jargon-heavy or claim based product
messaging but through creative humor.

Why Video is Your Safest Platform to Increase B2B Sales Opportunities

Video Marketing,

Building the first video marketing strategy for B2B customers is akin to baking your first cake! Nobody gets it right the first time but you need to start somewhere.

A lot has changed in the market, but the art of sales continues to be the most arduous task. Buyers whether in the B2C or B2B markets, trust sellers who listen to them, engage them and deliver great value in time. While trust remains critical to every sales success story, credible information delivered with flawless customer experience is an invincible combination that every marketer wishes to achieve. A picture speaks a thousand words; a video turns into an engaging story. Therefore, every B2B marketer is trying to move beyond the illusion of invincibility by leveraging competent video marketing platforms. Brave marketers do video marketing in 2017 to increase B2B sales opportunities.

Video has become the most engaging form of content marketing and digital advertising, thanks to the lucrative proposition they offer as sales initiation and enablement assets. The most enticing aspect of having video at the core of your marketing campaigns is its flexibility and perennial brand value—they never get old or boring.

Digital marketers attribute the positive effects of video content on Quality of Experience (QoE) to build more enterprising connections with the audience. 

To succeed in 2017, marketers must be able to speak ‘video’ trends fluently with customers across the web, mobile, app, and social media. Here are 5 legitimate examples that show video is the safest B2B engagement platform for maximum sales returns in the shortest time.

Video Makes your CRM edgier for B2B sales

Video has come a long way from being a source of entertainment to becoming a reliable sales conversion tool. Currently, marketers can efficiently queue in their video data directly into existing CRM using premium integrations. Marketo, Salesforce, Hubspot and other marketing automation platforms offer add-on capabilities. Leading video marketing platforms like Wistia, Brightcove, Vidyard, and uStudio allow marketers to leverage CRM data, driving sales momentum and resolving customer service issues quickly.

By adding video, marketers can actually build a stronger CRM model, enabling salespersons with the luxury of a highly persuasive content-based sales pitch.

Michael Litt, CEO and Co-Founder of Vidyard, acknowledges the power of video marketing linked to CRM. In his blog, Michael mentions, “By following up with high-interest leads through email and responding to incoming requests for demos, we were able to track and account for well over $3,200,000 in the pipeline – all based on one highly targeted video marketing campaign connected to our CRM.”

Reading is time-consuming! Videos, on the other hand, make an empathetic connection with humans with a trail of immersive thoughts and emotions. Customers want marketers to address their demand — “Show me, don’t tell me“. 

Replicate B2C e-commerce Success

If you find your text-based web content doing great, adding video to the campaigns will make you invincible. Videolicious claims that Top Fortune 500 retailers manage to lift their e-commerce product detail page conversions by over 90% when they add a product video. While it’s a momentous endeavor for B2B marketers to replicate the successful model of B2C e-commerce, inserting video campaigns is the best way to start informing, engaging, and converting your visitors into buyers.

70% of US marketers plan to use social video ads in the next 12 months. (eMarketer, 2016)

According to Forbes Insights, video is the most critical source of information for senior executives. A sales prospect is more likely to watch a product-related video over the week than searching for relevant information elsewhere. Offering a palatable, engaging and informative video reduces the ambiguity and redundancy of text.

Giving customer the Power to “Play”

The “play” button is among the most ubiquitous things in our lives. By virtue of the ever-growing popularity of social media platforms, most B2B prospects feel empowered while watching videos online. Most publishers have figured out the formula to build a rapport with customers with omnichannel marketing content. For the obvious reasons, videos fare well on social and mobile, resonating best with their targeted audiences.

According to Twitter, 82% users watch video content on Twitter and most watch on a hand-held screen. Moreover, Twitter users are almost twice as more likely to have uploaded a video online (anywhere) than the average US internet user.

Handing your customers the power of play is technically the most desirable way to engage them—allowing your content analytics efforts to sink in to measure what content has the highest impact. For example, adding video posts to online marketing display platforms can significantly improve a key metric to measure social media engagement — Dwell Time (DT). A respectable DT means that the viewer has consumed most part of the content on a page before performing any other task on the site. In short, the video makes any content “sticky” enough to retain the customer’s attention for longer.

A Chance to Pull Creativity out of Your Hat

I have some personal favorites in picking video content that have significantly high B2B engagement. While you may not have a very high audience traffic coming your way through the video, every viewer is your potential prospect. Some of the best video content in MarTech has been created by Demandbase, Madison Logic, Marketo and Oracle.

While they may all look very theoretical, the creativity and collaboration required to create the final video is a great engagement opportunity in itself for generating B2B sales leads.

Time-Savers with Live Video and Messaging

When an online B2B customer asks you, “What is the next thing that I should do?” Grab the opportunity to create shared experiences with the customer on how the product works and what value it brings to the buyer. Live video marketing is going social with engaging live content that builds intimacy instantly. Creating a free live broadcast for your press release is the next level in reaching out to your target audience. Unlike static, pre-recorded content, live video messages take customers straight into the heart of the action.

I found out the best way B2B marketers actually do it by participating in marquee events like Rev Summit 2017, Marketing Nation Summit, SiriusDecisions 2017 Summit, Adobe Symposium, and Oracle’s Modern Customer Experience.

Ready for the Video Revolution in MarTech

Video marketing is a beautiful extension of MarTech—and Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite explains how “video selfies” are the safest B2B trend-setters among customers and employees. Ryan says –

“…it feels like people are more connected than before. The video serves as a kind of real-time window into the challenges and triumphs of everyone from the customer success team to the sales squad and the engineers working behind-the-scenes.”

The video perfectly amplifies the need to embrace technologies that deliver great omnichannel customer experience. A key piece of the content marketing puzzle, the video is more than just a specific tactic. It is set to be the real star of the B2B sales storytelling that best fits the brand’s top-of-funnel marketing introductions. And, then you have the magic of programmatic and retargeting coming your way once your initial video marketing campaigns start delivering results – genuine B2B sales conversions.



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Afghan war faces flurry of setbacks as new US military policy nears

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ISLAMABAD — As American military officials complete plans that are likely to send several thousand additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, a flurry of setbacks in the war have underscored both the imperative of action and the pitfalls of various approaches.

Further complicating the picture are questions about how to deal with neighboring Pakistan and balance separate fights against Afghan and foreign-based insurgents.

In the latest attack Sunday morning, Taliban fighters stormed a police base in southeastern Paktia province after detonating a suicide car bomb outside. At least five members of security forces and several civilians were killed, officials said. The attack came one day after an Afghan army commando shot and wounded seven U.S. troops inside an army base in northern Balkh province.

Almost every week seems to bring alarming and embarrassing developments that cast doubt on the ability of Afghan security forces to protect the public and make headway against the domestic Taliban insurgency and the more ruthless Islamic State.

From the powerful truck bomb that decimated a high-security district of Kabul on May 31, killing more than 150 people and sparking days of protests, to the Saturday shooting at the same base in Balkh where Taliban infiltrators killed more than 140 Afghan soldiers April 21, a spate of attacks from various sources is inflicting blow after blow on the nation’s battered psyche.

The Saturday shooting was one of several recent insider attacks that are raising new concerns about poor vetting and conflicting loyalties, even among the elite Afghan special operations forces that the U.S. military sees as crucial to boosting the war effort. Experts said such attacks would be likely to increase if more U.S. troops arrive. 

In eastern Nangahar province, where Afghan and U.S. special operations forces have been waging a joint campaign against Islamic State fighters, another Afghan army commando — reportedly a Taliban sympathizer or member — fatally shot three U.S. troops June 10. 

U.S. military officials have claimed to be making steady progress in that fight. In April, the United States dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on a complex of caves and tunnels used by Islamic State fighters, reportedly killing 92. 

But last week, in an equally dramatic response, hundreds of Islamic State fighters captured Tora Bora, the underground labyrinth that was once the redoubt of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Underscoring the confused battlefield situation, it was the Taliban that Islamic State forces fought and drove out of the area. 

U.S. military officials have expressed growing concern about the war and urged that several thousand more U.S. troops be sent to shore up Afghan forces. Fewer than half of the country’s 407 districts are under full government control, and Taliban forces have come close to occupying several provincial capitals. 

But no new U.S. policy or troop numbers have yet been announced, reportedly because of disagreements within the Trump administration. They include arguments over whether sending more troops would make a decisive difference, how much NATO allies should contribute and whether the United States should pressure Pakistan to rein in Taliban insurgents believed to be operating from safe havens there. 

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who was recently given authority by President Trump to set troop levels in the Afghan conflict, said last week that the United States is “not winning” in Afghanistan and that the Pentagon will present its strategy plan next month. “We will correct this as soon as possible,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Both Afghan and American analysts, however, doubt that adding several thousand more troops to the 8,400 currently here will make much difference in a war that at one point involved 140,000 U.S. and NATO forces. They stress that U.S. policy also needs a strong political component to strengthen the government and push for reconciliation.

“It’s clear that the U.S. cannot win this war militarily,” said Michael Kugelman at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “The Taliban insurgency seems to strengthen by the day, the Islamic State remains resilient, public anger is building” and “Afghan troops are turning on their American trainers.”

He said the new U.S. policy “can’t come soon enough, but deploying a few thousand new troops will do little to shift the calculus on the ground.” 

Afghan analysts and officials argue that the top U.S. priority should be pressing Pakistan to cease harboring anti-Afghan militants. A spokesman for the defense ministry said Sunday that the U.S. government needs to put “real pressure on Pakistan to make it drop its support for terrorists.”

Atiqullah Amarkhel, a retired Afghan army general, said that the government is facing an agile guerrilla enemy and that United States needs to focus on cutting its “lines of supply and support and training” in Pakistan. Sending more U.S. troops, he added, will “give more ammunition” for insurgents to attract recruits among young and jobless Afghans.   

Mattis said the Pentagon plans to take a “regional approach” to the war and address “where this enemy is fighting from,” which is “not just Afghanistan.” Afghan officials have been more blunt, accusing Pakistan of harboring a violent Taliban branch called the Haqqani Network.

At a conference this month, President Ashraf Ghani charged that Pakistan is waging an “undeclared war of aggression” on Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military commanders bristled at the “unwarranted accusations” and said Afghans should “look inward” to solve their insurgent problems.

Some members of Congress and U.S. think tanks have urged the Trump administration to crack down heavily on Pakistan, a former Cold War ally and a major recipient of U.S. aid. Clearly worried, Pakistani officials have denounced recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and have strongly denied backing the Haqqani Network.

But other voices have argued against putting excess pressure on Pakistan, saying it could risk political instability and religious unrest. Pakistan has suffered from years of militant attacks, most recently a spate of suicide bombings at Sufi shrines and other civilian targets in February.

 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a congressional hearing last week that the United States has “very complex relations” with Pakistan, but Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) insisted that “if we don’t succeed in Afghanistan,” it is because of Pakistan’s military-run intelligence service.

On the problem of insider attacks, Amarkhel said it is easy for anti-government sympathizers to “penetrate the ranks” of the security forces, because poor security and vetting make it difficult to assess recruits.

“It is hard to find the enemy within yourself,” he said, adding that the Afghan military leadership is weak and politicized. “The recent insider attacks are not the first ones and will not be the last.”

U.S. watchdog agencies have noted that corruption and nepotism within the Afghan military leadership have undermined the capacity of its forces, but changes in top officials appear to have made little difference. After the April 21 attack on the base in Balkh, Ghani dismissed both the defense and interior ministers. 

Salahuddin reported from Kabul. Sharif Walid in Kabul and Haq Nawaz Khan and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report. 

Read more:

Taliban attacks key Afghan police base, killing at least five officers

A U.S. troop increase would aim to double the size of Afghanistan’s special operations unit

Massive blast in the heart of Kabul’s diplomatic quarter kills at least 80

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

US aircraft shoots down a Syrian government jet over northern Syria, Pentagon says

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A formation of U.S. Navy F-18s leaves after receiving fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker over northern Iraq. (Staff Sgt. Shawn Nickel/U.S. Air Force)

A U.S. strike aircraft shot down a Syrian government fighter jet Sunday shortly after the Syrians bombed U.S.-backed fighters in northern Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Pentagon said the downing of the aircraft came hours after Syrian loyalist forces attacked U.S.-backed fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the village of Ja’Din, southwest of Raqqa. The rare attack was the first time a U.S. jet has shot down a manned hostile aircraft in more than a decade, and it signaled the United States’ sharply intensifying role in Syria’s war.

The incident is the fourth time within a month that the U.S. military has attacked pro-Syrian government forces.

A statement distributed by the Syrian military said that the aircraft’s lone pilot was killed in the attack and that the jet was carrying out a mission against the Islamic State.

“The attack stresses coordination between the US and ISIS, and it reveals the evil intentions of the US in administrating terrorism and investing it to pass the US-Zionist project in the region,” the Syrian statement said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Before it downed the Syrian plane, the U.S. military used a “deconfliction” channel to communicate with Russia, Syria’s main ally, to prevent the situation from escalating, the Pentagon said.

U.S.-led jets stopped the fighting by flying close to the ground and at a low speed in what is called a “show of force,” the Pentagon said.

About two hours later, despite the calls to stand down and the U.S. presence overhead, a Syrian Su-22 jet attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces, dropping an unknown number of munitions on the U.S.-backed force. Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said that the Syrian aircraft arrived with little warning and that U.S. aircraft nearby tried to hail the Syrian jet after it had dropped its bombs. Thomas also said U.S. forces were in the area but were not directly threatened.

After the hailing attempts, a U.S. F/A-18 shot down the Syrian aircraft “in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defense of coalition partnered forces,” the Pentagon said.

Thomas rejected the Syrian government’s claims that the aircraft was bombing the Islamic State, adding that Ja’Din is controlled by Syrian Democratic Forces and that the militant group had not been in the area for some time.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of predominantly Arab and Kurdish fighters, is a key proxy force for the U.S.-led coalition in Syria. The fighters were instrumental in retaking towns and villages from the Islamic State in recent months and are fighting to retake the group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa.

Also on Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had launched a rare cross-border missile attack against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria. The missile strikes, launched from Iran, were in retaliation for twin Islamic State attacks earlier this month in Tehran on the parliament and the tomb of the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution that killed 18 people, according to a statement carried by Iran’s official news agency.

The missile attacks had targeted a militant command center and other facilities in Deir Ez-Zour, a contested region in eastern Syria, where the United States, Iran and other powers and proxy forces are fighting for control. The strikes had killed “a large number” of militants and destroyed equipment and weapons, the statement said.

Earlier this month, a U.S. jet downed a pro-Syrian government drone that dropped an apparent dud munition near U.S.-led coalition forces near the southern Syrian town of At Tanf. U.S.-led forces have increased their presence in Tanf to deter pro-Syrian government forces in the area. Iran-backed Shiite militias, along with other pro-Syrian government forces, have steadily advanced around At Tanf despite repeated warnings from the U.S. military.

At Tanf is a key town on the Iraq-Syrian border that has been home to a U.S. special operations training outpost for months.

“The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon’s statement said. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian, or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend coalition or partner forces from any threat.”

Fahim reported from Istanbul. Louisa Loveluck contributed to this report from Beirut.

This article is developing and will be updated.

SVG College Sports Summit: In-Venue Entertainment and the Synergy Between Marketing and Video Departments

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Nebraska, Washington, South Carolina, and Temple share tips for balancing content and marketing

As collegiate stadiums and arenas become more technologically advanced, athletic departments and brands are looking for new ways to better engage with fans in the stadium or arena. At the SVG College Sports Summit, professionals in the field of in-venue fan engagement shared how they meet a growing list of challenges and opportunities.

A panel featuring Temple University Assistant Athletic Director, Video Services, Kevin Copp; University of Washington Design Director of Digital Media Content Trenton Cotten; University of Nebraska Executive Director of Video Production Kirk Hartman; and University of South Carolina Senior Associate AD, Marketing and Branding/CMO Eric Nichols addressed such topics as strategies for managing relationships within an athletic department and creating content that meets the needs of both marketing and entertainment.

Here are a few highlights:

Nichols said that aligning goals and setting expectations are crucial to an athletic department’s various divisions working together.

Copp discussed the challenges of managing relationships between departments and creating a collaborative working environment.

Hartman said that the videoboard arms race is a product of recruiting.

Copp outlined why relationships with professional sports team in your given market are invaluable to crafting a strong in-stadium show.

Cotten opined that, in sports media, content creators should be taking other’s ideas and making them their own.

Watch the discussion in its entirety:

For more video interviews and coverage from the 2017 SVG College Sports Summit and other other events, visit SVG On Demand.

Leadership in Focus Gets You Ready to Get In Front of the Camera

Video Marketing,

As the world becomes more video-focused, there is increasing pressure for leaders to present themselves on camera. Whether you’re doing an interview, training, or public relations event, being comfortable in front of the camera is a skill that will keep your marketing skills sharp. If you’re are looking for tips on how to deliver your message from an experienced filmmaker, the “Leadership in Focus: Bringing Out Your Best on Camera” may be right for you.

Leadership in Focus Gets You Ready to Get In Front of the CameraLeadership in Focus Gets You Ready to Get In Front of the Camera

Whether it’s a theater trailer on YouTube or an amateur video on Snapchat, the world of marketing is becoming more video-oriented. Experts suggest that video content will dominate the Internet within a few years. Because of that trend, business leaders may find themselves in front of the camera more often than they expected. Leadership in Focus: Bringing Out Your Best on Camera is about helping leaders jump ahead of the curve so they can make authentic and engaging videos when it’s time for the digital spotlight.

What is Leadership in Focus About?

As a small business owner, you might wonder why you would even consider a book like Leadership in Focus, which emphasizes helping executive leaders gain more confidence in front of the camera.

The answer is, you might find yourself in front of the camera as a leader.

As discussed above, the Internet will become an increasingly video-oriented place. This means the opportunities for business leaders to be in front of the camera will increase, whether it’s an employee orientation video, marketing video or public relations event.

For most small business owners, media training (which the author Vern Oakley has some issues with) isn’t an option. Preparation, however, is still needed because once the camera is on you, instincts take over. For many leaders, these instincts can make you appear formal, guarded and stiff. This is the exact opposite of how you want to appear.

Leadership in Focus was written to help leaders gain confidence so they can present their message with authenticity and transparency. That is the key point, not a list of speaking “to-do’s” that you might have learned from your communications course in college. Being authentic and transparent is important because, as a business owner, you are the face of the business.

As the face of the business, you are responsible for the message (what you say) and delivery (how you say it). While any leader can memorize the message and say it on camera, only a leader with good communication skills can deliver this message with the right amount of emotion to motivate people to action. Leadership in Focus offers several strategies to achieve this higher level of communication in case the opportunity to get in front of the camera ever presents itself.

Oakley aka “Business Artist” is an expert filmmaker, teacher, speaker and adjunct professor. Oakley founded his own production company, Tribe Pictures, which went on to win over 150 industry awards. Oakley’s projects have helped Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and various institutions. One notable project was the award-winning children’s TV series “Reading Rainbow”.

What Was Best About Leadership in Focus?

Leadership in Focus is different from other books in the speech and presentation category because of its hyper-specific topic and laid-back approach to giving speeches. Most “speech books for leaders” focus on static rules for communicating as a leader: Dress nicely. Keep it formal. Oakley counters this. His emphasis is on comfort and authenticity. He argues that comfort and authenticity deliver a more impactful message to the audience than formally sticking to a script.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

Having a book with a limited perspective (video communication tips for business owners) can definitely have its downsides. Leadership In Focus observes how average small business owners won’t have easy access to a production team, makeup people or video editors. That said, the book’s unique advice on delivering a message with authenticity and conviction are helpful in almost every context where leadership needs to communicate.

Why Read Leadership in Focus?

Leadership In Focus is a book with a very specific purpose aimed at a very specific audience. If you happen to be a CEO or other executive who needs help feeling more comfortable in front of the camera, this book will definitely be for you. If you are not in this category, this book may still help you improve your confidence in front of the camera, something that every leader may have to face in a world increasingly depending on video messages. If you are looking for a book to help you address the delivery of a message using video, this book, written by an award-winning and experienced filmmaker, might provide the answer.


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