Archives par mot-clé : video

Mobile video is taking over — can your video marketing strategy keep up?

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It’s no secret mobile video is beginning to dominate digital content. According to Animoto, four times as many consumers prefer to watch a video about a product rather than read descriptive content — and social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram have been very open about their “video-first” approach. Developing a strategy based on stories in motion opens up exciting new opportunities for brands, as video has an unparalleled ability to promote brand awareness and recall, go viral and directly affect sales.

However, according to WireBuzz, almost one-third of marketers admitted that a lack of an effective video marketing strategy prevented them from seeing more return on investment (ROI). So, what makes a successful video marketing strategy?

Video marketing effectiveness by channelInvest in 360-degree videos and virtual reality

Digital marketing is a technological arms race, so it’s crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest developments. Both 360-degree videos and virtual reality (VR) offer new opportunities to turn consumers into brand advocates.

In a case study conducted by digital marketing agency Magnifyre, 360-degree video outperformed traditional video in terms of views, completion, cost per impression (CPM) and click-through rate (CTR). Average percentage viewed for these videos was 28.81 percent higher, and twice as many viewers watched the video to completion, despite the same copy, ad spend and content produced.

This trend is set to continue, with forward-thinking brands such as Audi, McDonald’s and the Marriott Hotel all leveraging VR to inspire consumers.

Be in the moment

Live video tends to demonstrate higher engagement than traditional video and social media networks have been quick to react accordingly. Facebook noted that people spend three times as long watching Facebook Live videos compared to recorded video, so the company updated its algorithm in March 2016 to prioritize live content. As a result, live-streaming provides brands with a unique level of organic reach on social networks.

Similarly, temporary content encourages consumers to engage with your brand right now or miss out. It is particularly popular with millennials and younger audiences.

Keep it short and sweet

Research shows a correlation between video length and engagement — according to Invisia, 45 percent of viewers will stop watching a video after 1 minute, and 60 percent will stop after 2 minutes. These findings align with what is likely a strategic move from major social media networks that encourage shorter videos, with a time limit of 60 seconds for Instagram and 10 seconds for Snapchat.

According to Anand Madhavan from the IBM Digital Analytics Group, “Supplemental videos that are about 30 seconds long which show high-level use of the product or a how-to of the product add to the conversion rate of that product being purchased.”

However, the rules are more flexible with live content, where viewers are inclined to tune in for a longer period of time. This is true particularly in the case of webinars and high-value content.

Optimize for busy, on-the-go smartphone users

As more brands embrace mobile video, consumers are becoming increasingly selective — rewarding brands who offer them a high-quality experience, and dismissing those who don’t. Consequently, videos need to be optimized for real-life user experience and not-ideal viewing conditions. Busy consumers on public transport, who quickly check their social media feeds before they do something else, are unlikely to turn on sound just to watch your video. In fact, research from HubSpot shows 85 percent of videos on Facebook are played without sound. Additionally, because smartphone users hold their phones vertically about 94 percent of the time, vertical video is key to both attract and hold the attention of smartphone users.

Incorporate a data-driven approach

Smart marketers will rely on data to drive their video marketing strategy. Experimentation and data crunching can go a long way toward boosting key performance indicators (KPIs) for landing pages and emails. Just like with traditional content marketing, A/B test your videos to optimize and refine the content that provides the best results. Video marketing agency Wirebuzz recommends experimenting with length, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, animated versus talking-head styles and varying hooks in introductions.

Video marketing analytics can be challenging, since different social networks rely on different metrics. For example, one view is counted after three seconds on Facebook and Instagram, compared to 30 seconds on YouTube. Another key challenge is linking video analytics metrics, such as views and audience retention, to bottom-line business metrics. Ask yourself: Which videos generate the most sales? Do viewers who watch certain videos buy more often? How does their buying behavior change if they only view part of a video?

These questions are well worth finding the answers to, since 51.9 percent of marketers report that video marketing generates the best ROI, according to eMarketer. When leveraged correctly, video content combined with data-driven decision making can be hugely impactful at all stages of the marketing funnel, from raising brand awareness to driving sales.

Pope Francis will visit Colombia in September

Video Marketing,

ROME—Finally putting an end to rumors and speculations, the Vatican confirmed today that Pope Francis will be going to Colombia in September, to help the country further cement the peace accords signed by the government and the FARC rebel group, a further step in putting to rest a five-decade old civil conflict.

“Accepting the invitation of the President of the Republic and the Colombian bishops, His Holiness the Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Trip to Colombia from 6 to 11 September 2017, visiting the cities of Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín and Cartagena,” a Vatican statement released on Friday said.

Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, papal representative in Colombia and Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez of Bogota, together with President Juan Manuel Santos, held a press conference in Colombia as the news was being announced in Rome.

“The pope wants to come to the encounter with Colombians, he’s coming for those who are in the cities and in the countryside and who have a different culture and needs; for the rich and the poor, for the young and the elderly,” Balestrero said.

“Undoubtedly, these will be days of grace, salvation for the country,” Salazar Gómez said. “The motto of the visit will be ‘Let us take the first step’.”

Official logo of Pope Francis' visit to Colombia, presented on March 10. (Credit: Colombian bishops' conference.)

Official logo of Pope Francis’ visit to Colombia, presented on March 10. (Credit: Colombian bishops’ conference.)

The country, the cardinal said, will leave behind all its history of “violence, war, fighting [behind], to start walking together.”

“Knowing that he’s coming exclusively to Colombia, and that he’ll do so to bring us a voice of support to Colombians is a privilege that fills us with gratitude,” Santos said. “Those of us Colombians who profess the Catholic faith rejoice, but so do those who see in him and his words the spiritual leader of our time.”

Francis, Santos said, pushed the country to persevere in the search for peace, and he’ll arrive in a unique moment in the country’s history, to appeal for “unity, reconciliation, forgiveness, and above all, encounter.”

Encounter with “the teachings of Jesus,” and among Colombians, “as a society, as humans, as children of God.”

Pope Francis has spoken about wanting to visit this country since early on in his pontificate. Last year, coming back from his trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan, he said that he’d visit Colombia only when the peace process is complete.

“I said that when the peace process in Colombia is complete, I want to go, when everything is ‘bulletproof,’ that is – if the plebiscite succeeds – when everything is for sure, when there’s no turning back, that is, when the international world, all the nations, are in agreement that there’s no appeal, that everything is finished, I could go,” the pontiff said.

The plebiscite, in which the Colombian people had to vote yes or no to the original arrangement signed by the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, failed with the “no” winning. Since then, a new agreement has been signed, and was approved by Colombia’s Congress on November 30.

Negotiations with the country’s second largest guerrilla group, the ELN, are still ongoing.

On December 16, Santos and former president Alvaro Uribe, the leader of the Colombian opposition who didn’t agree with the peace treaty, met with Francis at the Vatican, in a mediation effort from history’s first Latin American pope.

In what was his third visit to the Vatican, Santos appealed to the Pope for support in ending a 52-year war that has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions.

According to Human Rights Watch, Colombia has the world’s second largest population of internally displaced people, with Syria heading the list. An estimated 6.8 million people have been forcibly displaced in the past decades.

“We need your help,” Santos said back in December. On the occasion, the president gave the pope a gift of a pen made from a machine gun bullet.

It seems the help will arrive in the form of a visit on September.

This will be the third time a pope visits Colombia, after Paul VI did so in 1968 and John Paul II in 1986.

After impeachment, South Korea may reset relations with China and North Korea

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SEOUL — The historic ouster of President Park Geun-hye on Friday means that South Korea will hold elections within 60 days to elect a new leader. That will come as a relief for South Koreans, exhausted by months of scandal and impeachment proceedings, but it should also assuage U.S. policymakers. 

In the three months since Park was suspended over corruption allegations, plunging the country into limbo, the regime in North Korea has launched five ballistic missiles and a volley of threats, and is accused of ordering the assassination of the leader’s half brother. 

Add to that China’s anger over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system to South Korea and uncertainty about the change in administration in Washington, and the lack of leadership in South Korea could hardly have come at a more sensitive time. 

[ China’s anger over U.S. antimissile system poses challenge to Trump ]

“A political vacuum like this in a key ally that borders a major nuclear threat is not good for the U.S.,” said John Delury, an American political scientist in Seoul. “I think it’s been underestimated as a danger and as a destabilizing factor.” 

A protester wearing electric lights attached attends a rally in Seoul calling for impeached President Park Geun-hye’s arrest , Friday, March 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will encounter this problem firsthand when he arrives in Seoul next week for discussions about North Korea with a South Korean counterpart who is on the way out. Tillerson will also hear about the rise of a progressive candidate who could take a sharply different approach toward China and North Korea from the impeached president — and from the United States.

The Trump administration is now conducting a policy review to decide how to deal with North Korea’s threats, and there is plenty of talk in Washington about “kinetic options” — a euphemism for some kind of military action. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, some ruling party lawmakers are now openly pushing for Japan to develop the capacity to preemptively strike North Korea. 

That’s the kind of talk that South Korea should be shutting down, Delury said. In addition to its nuclear and missile programs, North Korea has conventional artillery lined up along the demilitarized zone and aimed at Seoul, a city of 25 million people. 

“The role of a South Korean president, whether liberal or conservative, is to be the person who gently takes that option off the table,” Delury said, referring to a preemptive strike. “The South Korean president has to be saying, ‘If you take out their missile pad, they take out our capital.’ But that hasn’t been happening.” 

Park was immediately dismissed from office Friday after South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld a legislative impeachment motion, ruling unanimously that she had “continuously” broken the law.  

[Presidential scandal shows that ‘Korean disease’ of corruption is far from cured]

Elections will now be held in early May, and the latest opinion polls show Moon Jae-in, a progressive who unsuccessfully challenged Park for the presidency in 2012, holding a strong lead. 

Moon is a proponent of the “sunshine policy” of engagement with North Korea — the liberal idea from the late 1990s that engagement can help open up the closed state and narrow the gap between the two Koreas.  

This sunshine policy came to an end in 2008 with the election of a conservative president who took a tough approach toward North Korea, a stance maintained by Park.  

Following North Korea’s nuclear test at the beginning of last year, Park’s government closed the inter-Korean industrial complex that was the linchpin of the sunshine policy, unequivocally stating that South Korean cash was going through economic engagement projects directly to weapons programs. 

Moon, however, has said he would like to resume engagement with North Korea and would go to Pyongyang for talks with its leader.  

“If Moon wins the general election, he will emphasize South Korea’s alliance with the U.S. and a strong defense posture,” said Lee Chung-min, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University. “But his heart will lie in fostering deeper engagement with the North and negotiating an early summit with Kim Jong Un.” 

Moon has also signaled an openness to reviewing the Park government’s agreement to host the United States’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antimissile battery. 

[ U.S. military deploys advanced defensive missile system to South Korea, citing North Korean threat ]

The agreement was reached last year to protect against North Korean missiles, and the system was due to arrive in South Korea this summer. But in a surprise announcement, the Pentagon said the first shipment arrived in South Korea on Monday. 

This has sparked widespread speculation in South Korea that the United States expected Park to be impeached and wanted to make the deployment more difficult to reverse. The U.S. military command in South Korea said the deployment was being carried out according to schedule. 

China has vehemently objected to the arrival of THAAD in the region, viewing its deployment as an American attempt to keep China, not just North Korea, in check. To try to coerce South Korea to change its mind, Beijing has imposed painful restrictions on South Korean imports of everything from toilet seats to pop music. 

“We are all very clear that the crux of the problem between China and South Korea is that South Korea is ignoring China’s concerns and is deploying the THAAD antimissile system with the United States,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Friday.

“We once again urge South Korea to focus on the interests of the Chinese and Korean people,” he said.  

But analysts say that even if the progressive Moon becomes South Korea’s next president, he will face difficulties in backtracking on THAAD or returning to the sunshine policy. 

“While China might expect a U-turn over THAAD if Moon becomes president, it will be extremely difficult for Moon to do that, since THAAD is being placed primarily for the defense of the United States Forces in Korea,” said Lee, the Yonsei professor. 

Trump could seek to dissuade Moon by making South Korea pay more for its defense costs and speeding up efforts to renegotiate the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. “Despite Moon’s inclination to oppose THAAD deployment, he will not undo it at the expense of worsening ties with Trump just as Moon begins his term in office,” Lee said.

Likewise, it would be difficult to go back to the kind of sunshine policy of previous liberal presidents, said Robert Kelly of Pusan National University. “I don’t think there is much support for major engagement any more,” he said. 

This is partly because public opinion has changed dramatically thanks to two North Korean attacks in 2010 that left more than 50 South Koreans dead, as well as the Park government’s assertion that engagement money was funding weapons development. 

“I think Moon would have to fight hard to get that kind of engagement off the ground — he’d be pushing against the Americans and against his own people,” Kelly said. 

But for South Koreans who wanted Park out, there is a sense of opportunity. 

“Today is just the beginning,” said Kim Kyoung, a housewife who attended every rally against the impeached president and returned to central Seoul on Friday night to celebrate Park’s departure. “South Korea developed very quickly, but now we have an opportunity to move slowly and help our democracy mature.”  

Congcong Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report. 

 Read more

The South Korean political scandal started with a card game in Macau

Little-known governor runs as the hope and change candidate in South Korea

China tried to get the U.S. to negotiation with North Korea. The U.S. declined.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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GOP health-care plan: House leaders meet with Trump as they defend overhaul effort

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FROM LEFT: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) hold a news conference on the American Health Care Act on Capitol Hill on Mar. 7. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)

President Trump met Friday with House Republican leaders to discuss their effort to pass a sweeping overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, amid mounting criticism from conservatives urging them to go further.

In brief comments to reporters at the start of the meeting, Trump congratulated the leaders for advancing their legislation through two committees this week and voiced optimism about the road ahead.

“This is the time we’re going to get it done,” said Trump. “We’re working together. We have some great results. We have tremendous spirit. And I think it’s something that’s just going to happen very shortly.”

But there were fresh signs of discord earlier Friday when House GOP leaders dismissed the suggestion from conservative members that their proposed phaseout of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion should be moved up by two years — from 2020 to 2018.

“I think right now that would be very difficult to do,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

The White House meeting came at the end of a week in which a showdown quickly erupted between the most conservative members of Congress and House GOP leaders. Both sides have been speaking to Trump and hoping he will help them wear down the other side, putting the president at the center of a fierce intraparty clash.

McCarthy was joined at his news conference by the House GOP lawmakers taking the lead on shepherding the bill through the lower chamber, some of whom took part in Friday’s White House meeting. They outlined their next steps in repealing and replacing key parts of the ACA. Their attempt has come under attack from both ends of the political spectrum.

“Some have said that this legislation doesn’t do enough,” said Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), who chairs the House Budget Committee. The panel is expected to work on the bill next week. She added, “It zeros out the mandate, it repeals the taxes, it repeals the subsidies, and it rolls back some of the regulations.”

[GOP health-care bill would drop addiction treatment mandate covering 1.3 million Americans]

McCarthy argued that because of the power the minority party holds in the Senate, the American Health Care Act, as the GOP bill is known, is the most aggressive plan Republicans can spearhead right now. He said that it was just one of three phases in reshaping health-care laws that will also later involve Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price taking actions from the executive branch.

In a Friday radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) warned that any deviation from the plan set in motion would be “momentum killing.”

The notion of accelerating the Medicaid expansion phaseout was formally recommended Thursday by the Republican Study Committee, an influential conservative caucus. Leaders of the House Freedom Caucus, another conservative group, discussed it in a White House meeting with Trump and other senior administration officials.

[Analysis: Donald Trump’s promises are taking a beating in GOP’s Obamacare replacement]

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said changing the phaseout date would upset a carefully crafted bill that was negotiated with key parties off Capitol Hill.

“I’ve had discussions all along about different dates, different timelines with governors, with insurance commissioners, with leaders of each of these different groups,” Walden said. “What we want to make sure is that we don’t create a gap. . . . Our best effort is what you see before us.”

McCarthy also said Friday that other pieces of health-care legislation — bills that aren’t constrained by special Senate budget rules and thus will need some Democratic support in that chamber — could also move through the House at about the same time as the broader package.

Friday’s White House meeting came the day after the House GOP proposal to ­revise the ACA claimed its first major victories. The bill cleared the Ways and Means and the Energy and Commerce committees on party-line votes after lengthy sessions that lasted through Wednesday night and into Thursday.

During their Thursday meeting with Trump and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, Freedom Caucus members Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) expressed concerns about the current House plan, including how it addresses the Medicaid, said a person familiar with the gathering, speaking anonymously to reveal details of a private conversation.

Trump expressed an openness, this person said, to moving the Medicaid rollback earlier than the 2020 date in the current bill, but did not offer a “hard and fast” commitment.

Under the ACA, 31 states and the District of Columbia accepted an expansion of Medicaid to cover more people. The House GOP proposal would administer Medicaid by giving per capita funding to states, instead of offering it as an open-ended program. The plan would also replace federal insurance subsidies in the ACA with age- and income-based tax credits.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, offered an amendment at the marathon panel meeting Thursday that would speed up the Medicaid expansion phaseout. He ultimately withdrew it but said Friday he expected to offer a similar amendment to the bill when it reaches the floor.

“He didn’t say it would be impossible,” Barton said, responding to McCarthy’s suggestion that moving the date would be difficult. The White House, he said, is “studying it.”

Conservatives remained split Friday over which element of the bill needed to change to win their vote. Some focused on rolling back Medicaid while others insisted the legislation must roll back requirements that insurers provide basic benefits, like pre-natal and maternity care.

“The number one priority, you can throw everything else away, is getting premiums down,” Meadows said.

Ryan and other leaders have often spoken about the GOP repeal and replace effort as happening in three phases — the special “reconciliation” bill that can pass the Senate with a simple majority, administrative actions by the Trump administration and traditional bills that will require 60 votes to pass the Senate.

“There’s other pieces of legislation that, yes, we will move during that third phase, and some of that phase can start during the week that we bring this to the floor,” McCarthy said. “Some bills can be on in the same week, and some won’t be prepared yet, and some bills will be after.”

Several conservatives, including Meadows and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said they shouldn’t rely on Price to mandate some changes through regulations because they could easily be undone by future administrations.

“We can’t depend on a particular person to be in office for our laws to work,” Amash told reporters on Thursday. “If you are relying on the current HHS secretary to ensure that certain aspects of a country’s health-care law are being implemented, then you are making a mistake.”

[Obamacare revision clears first major committee hurdles as Trump, others try to tamp down backlash]

Trump’s meetings with conservative critics of the plan this week — which have included leaders of acitivst groups who oppose the House bill — has signaled a willingness to negotiate its details and indicating that it does not yet have enough votes to emerge from the House.

More acknowledgment of the proposal’s problems has come this week from Senate Republicans, who have that the measure is moving too quickly through the House and in a form unlikely to succeed if it gets to the upper chamber.

The proposal also faces resistance from GOP moderates and Democrats who have expressed concerns that the bill would strip coverage and benefits from those who need it most.

Ashley Parker contributed to this story.

Read more at PowerPost

Vidyard Integrates with Salesloft for Increasing Sales Effectiveness

Video Marketing,

Vidyard, a provider of tools for helping businesses leverage video abilities, has announced that it is integrating with Salesloft as a means to expand its ecosystem. With the help of this integration, the sales team can conveniently record, track, and share personalized videos from the platform of Salesloft.

Michael Litt, Co-founder and CEO at Vidyard, stated in a company release, “At a time when businesses and brands are looking to connect with customers with authenticity, video allows sales teams to rehumanize selling by quickly communicating complex ideas using simple video messages. Videos are easy for buyers to digest, and simple for sales reps to create. No one has to worry about spelling, grammar, or typos, they just speak into their webcams and share their thoughts. This humanizes the information, brings it to life, and differentiates you from the competition.”


The release will enable incorporation of video easy to any marketing strategy, thereby humanizing the selling process and building a better relationship with the consumers. The addition of a highly-engaging video to sales emails will help the sales reps to get their response rates boosted eight times more.

Vidyard for Salesloft integration enables the sales teams to track what prospective clients are watching down to the second. This helps them to reach them at the right time with the relevant message. The integration will allow inside sales to record a webcam video to humanize and personalize the prospecting mails they send out. It also helps field sales to send curated testimonial videos, campaigning videos, and demos with a personalized introduction after the initial meeting has been carried out. In addition, the integration will also facilitate solutions consultants to design and share custom product demos to consumers by using on-demand product videos or screen recordings.

The integration community of Vidyard includes Eloqua, HubSpot, Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce.com, ExactTarget, Kapost, Act-On, and more.

Mobile Marketing Association Announces Industry’s First Mobile Video Leadership Forum

Video Marketing,

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today announces the Mobile Video Leadership Forum: Sight, Sound and Storytelling, the first industry event focused on mobile video as the ultimate engagement and storytelling tool. Brands whose executives will be sharing their experiences include Choice Hotels, Dunkin’ Brands, Samsung, Target, The Coca-Cola Company and XO Group.

Mobile is quickly ascending as the dominant screen for video consumption. It’s nuanced and intimate and proven to yield impressive results for both direct response metrics (e.g., CTR or CTA) and indirect metrics (e.g., brand awareness or purchase intent). However, the formula for success is far more complicated than it is for a 30-second TV spot. This conference will address the opportunities mobile video offers marketers and provide best practices on creating customized, interactive brand experiences to get the best return on investment from the evolving medium.

“Video’s rich ability to convey sight and sound together with mobile’s intimacy and insights positions mobile video as one of the most effective storytelling vehicles in the marketer’s arsenal. Our SMoX research indicates that mobile video is more efficient than TV especially when applying best practices like multiple creatives and rotation,” stated Sheryl Daija, Chief Strategy Officer, MMA. “The cardinal rule is to understand the medium and context and to mold strategy around both. We’re thrilled to have so many impressive marketers on our line-up to present their success stories and inspire our audience with tangible and implementable strategies.”

The one-day event, programmed by marketers for marketers, will feature in-depth discussions of mobile video’s transformative role in the customer journey. Confirmed speakers to date include:

• Opening Keynote: Kristi Argyilan, Senior Vice President, Media and Guest Engagement, Target;
• Julie Blanche, SVP/Group Account Director, DigitasLBi;
• Bruce Dincin, Senior Director, Media Strategy and Analytics, Choice Hotels;
• Jarrett Dube, Senior Director Head of Creative Brand Marketing: VR/ Content/ Services/ Partnerships, Samsung;
• Kyle Lebet, Senior Connections Planning Manager, The Coca-Cola Company;
• Dhanusha Sivajee, EVP of Marketing, XO Group;
• Rahul Telang, Professor of Information Systems, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University.

The MMA leadership will also present the latest results from Allstate’s SMoX research study, revealing insights about targeting, formats and the potential for huge swings in ROI, as well as details regarding the next phase of the MMA’s MATT initiative around MTA.

MMA members and non-members are welcome to register for Mobile Video Leadership Forum at mmaglobal.com/mobile-video-leadership-forum-2017/register (special rates available for members). The Rubicon Project supports this MMA by serving as the Forum’s presenting sponsor.

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The MMA (mmaglobal.com) is the world’s leading global non-profit trade mobile marketing association comprised of more than 800 member companies, from nearly fifty countries around the world. Our members hail from every faction of the mobile marketing ecosystem, including brand marketers, agencies, mobile technology platforms, media companies, operators and others. The MMA’s mission is to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile, driving business growth with closer and stronger consumer engagement. Anchoring the MMA’s mission are four core pillars; to cultivate inspiration by driving innovation for the Chief Marketing Officer; to build the mobile marketing capabilities for marketing organizations through fostering know-how and confidence; to champion the effectiveness and impact of mobile through research providing tangible ROI measurement; and to advocate for mobile marketers. Additionally, MMA industry-wide committees work collaboratively to develop and advocate global best practices and lead standards development.

Members include: 1-800-Flowers.com, Allstate, American Express, Bank Of America, Campbell’s, Chase, Chobani, Choice Hotels, Citi, Colgate-Palmolive, DataXu, Dunkin’ Brands, E*TRADE, Electronic Arts, ESPN, Facebook, Ford, Foursquare, Google, Havas, Hilton, iHeartMedia, InMobi, Johnson Johnson, Krux, Marriott, MasterCard, McDonald’s, Mondelez, Nestle, OpenMarket, Pandora, Pfizer, Pinterest, PlaceIQ, Procter Gamble, R/GA, RadiumOne, Razorfish, Samsung, SAP, Sears, Spotify, Starcom, The Coca-Cola Company, The Rubicon Project, The Weather Company, T-Mobile, TUNE, Ubimo, Unilever, Verve, VEVO, Vibes, Visa, Walmart, Wendy’s, xAd, Zurich and many more. The MMA’s global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM).

Shoot melons, kill bugs: How businesses make creative videos

Video Marketing,

NEW YORK (AP) — Melons going splat in slow motion. Drawn-as-you-go animation about machines. A behind-the-scenes look at winery operations. Not the usual viral videos, but small business owners have realized offering something to watch and having a sense of humor about themselves can help grab customers’ attention.

In more than a hundred videos he’s posted on YouTube, Tom Nardone takes aim at racks of ribs, laptop computers and tires to illustrate what a bulletproof vest can do. A Valentine’s Day-timed video sacrificed several boxes of candy. The videos can be graphic, with items exploding at slow speed and Nardone splattered with barbecue sauce or peanut butter.

Nardone, owner of Troy, Michigan-based PriveCo, began making the videos in 2013, less than a year after he began selling the vests. While he advertised in magazines and went to gun shows, he realized that to reach a wider audience he needed to be online. And he didn’t want a demonstration of just the vests.

« It does its job, but it’s nothing to look at, » Nardone says. « We said, uh oh, we’ve got to come up with something good. »

PriveCo’s videos have collected a following; the melon video has nearly a million views since it was posted more than 2½ years ago. Nardone gets recognized at gun shows, and has gotten compliments from people who like to watch him shoot items from gravel to boxed wine.

It’s natural for some small businesses like real estate brokers to use videos in marketing campaigns for houses and other properties; for others, it can take some brainstorming and perhaps even an offbeat sense of humor to come up with something compelling. But more businesses are getting on board — Facebook counted more than 3 million small business videos posted in September, up 50 percent from 2 million six months earlier, according to the company’s most recent published figures.

Arlington Machinery, which sells, repairs and appraises used plastic-making machines, began posting videos on YouTube nine years ago with several objectives. One was to raise the company’s rank in internet search results, and another was to display machines for prospective buyers. Or, if equipment was sent to the company for repair, videos could show the owners that the machines were ready to be sent back.

But more recently, Arlington realized videos were also a way to market itself to different kinds of customers. The Elk Grove, Illinois-based company decided to have a little fun, and commissioned the whimsical animated video that explains the company’s services.

« Used machinery is not all that exciting to most people, » says David Pietig, a general manager at the company. « What we’re trying to do is make people interested in what we do. »

Thinking about what customers want to see is the best way to get inspired, marketing experts say.

« Good ideas can come from everywhere. If there is an old-school mentality at a company, they should get a pool of 21-year-olds that are more digitally and socially media savvy, » suggests Brian Metcalf, CEO of GreenRoom, a digital marketing company based in Miami.

Making videos can cost almost nothing or run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Arlington Machinery says its animation cost only about $100, but Nardone paid more than $15,000 to produce a series of videos last summer. At Mountain View Vineyard, a Pennsylvania winery that began making videos in the past year, a smartphone and a still camera have kept the costs minimal.

When marketing director Laurie Monteforte started working at Mountain View a year ago, she made it a priority to create a campaign that included videos. But the standard way of selling wine — showing smiling people gathered around a food-laden table and lifting their glasses in a toast — won’t work in a video, she says.

« Today’s audience doesn’t want commercials, where we try to sell you something, » Monteforte says.

Mountain View’s videos teach viewers how to make something with wine, such as red wine hot chocolate, or show some aspect of the winery’s operations. Last summer, owner Linda Rice demonstrated how she hand-picks Japanese beetles off of plants and drops them into soapy water, killing them without chemical pesticides.

Mountain View says its revenue is up about 30 percent in the past year, and credits about three-quarters of that gain to video and social media.

« There are so many options where people can go for wine and spirits, » Rice says. « Video and social media set us apart because people get to know us. »

Some of the videos small business owners have made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzOSnwNDLBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFfMptOnWGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0j0h3u6eEs

Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joyce-m-rosenberg