A different sort of White House correspondents’ dinner

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“The Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj entertains the guests at the White House correspondents’ dinner. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Welcome to coverage of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. This year, it was different.

That was largely because President Trump declined to attend. Usually, a joke-filled speech by the commander-in-chief is a highlight of the evening, which helped make the dinner an A-list draw over the decades.

But even before Trump sent his regrets, it was clear that folks from Hollywood – a community vocally opposed to the president – were not interested in coming to Washington this year. Many corporate sponsors of the glitziest parties from past seasons also decided to stand down.

[‘We are not fake news’: At a Trump-free correspondents’ dinner, White House press has its say.]

There was also competition: Comedian Samantha Bee hosted her “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” Saturday afternoon in Washington, which also attracted an audience of celebrities and journalists.

In the president’s absence, the dinner refocused on the values of a free press. Association president Jeff Mason pointedly declared, “We are not fake news. We are not failing news organizations. And we are not the enemy of the American people.” Comedian Hasan Minhaj headlined the event, taking shots at the administration, and, of course, members of the media.

See our full coverage below.

Hasan Minhaj: “Don Rickles died just so you wouldn’t ask him to do this gig”

During his monologue, comedian and “The Daily Show” correspondent Hasan Minhaj said that he was explicitly told not to go after the absent President Trump or the administration – but if true, he certainly ignored the marching order. ( White House Correspondents’ Association president Jeff Mason could be heard saying off-screen, “You were not told that.”)

“I would say it’s an honor to be here, but that would be an alternative fact. No one wanted to do this, so of course it lands in the hands of an immigrant. No one wanted this gig,” said Minhaj. “Don Rickles died just so you wouldn’t ask him to do this gig.”

There were jokes about Russia: “The leader of our country is not here. That’s because he lives in Moscow, it’s a very long flight.” Jokes about how the press should hope Trump keeps golfing: “The longer you keep him distracted, the longer we’re not at war with North Korea.” Jokes about how it’s a good thing Trump didn’t attend the dinner: “He’s done far too much bombing this month.”

He also took some shots at the Trump administration, including Sean Spicer, whose “go-to move when you ask him a tough question is denying the Holocaust.” And Mike Pence, who wasn’t there because there were women in attendance who were ovulating. “Good job ladies, because of you, we couldn’t hang out with Mike Pence,” he said, mouthing “thank you.” He noted that Jeff Sessions RSVP’d “no,” which is “his second-favorite ‘n’ word.”

[The rise and fall — or maybe rebirth? — of the White House correspondents’ dinner]

There were also the requisite jokes about the media – how CNN calls everything “breaking news”; how if he bombs his monologue, MSNBC’s Brian Williams will say he did a stunning job; how Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly’s $25 million exit package is the “only package he won’t force a woman to touch.”

Toward the end, Minhaj’s tone changed – he reflected on the surreal feeling of the entire evening (“I feel like I’m a tribute in ‘The Hunger Games,’ and if this goes poorly, Steve Bannon gets to eat me.”) and turned serious, marveling that because we live in a democracy, a first generation Indian-American Muslim can get on the White House correspondents’ dinner stage and make fun of the president.

“Even the president is not beyond the reach of the First Amendment. But the president didn’t show up because Donald Trump doesn’t care about free speech,” Minhaj said. “The man who tweets everything that enters his head refuses to acknowledges the amendment that allows him to do it.”

He said that in all likelihood, in a few hours, “Donald Trump will be tweeting about how bad Nicki Minaj bombed at this dinner.”

“That’s his right,” Minhaj said. “And I’m proud that all of us are here tonight to defend that right, even if the man in the White House never would.”

“Mr. President, the media is not fake news.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had a message for President Trump, and it came from Bob Woodward: “Mr. President, the media is not fake news.”

Woodward and Carl Bernstein took the stage at the more subdued event, trading journalism lessons they learned from each other over the years — and addressing the current state of their profession.

Here was one of those lessons, from Bernstein: “Almost inevitably, unreasonable government secrecy is the enemy, and usually the giveaway about what the real story might be. And when lying is combined with secrecy, there’s usually a pretty good road map in front of us.”

And one, from Woodward: “Journalists should not have a dog in the political fight except to find that best obtainable version of the truth.” Another, after a retelling of some of the key moments from the pair’s Watergate reporting:”very aggressive reporting is often necessary.”

Trump’s absence was a constant yet mostly implicit thread through the evening’s first speeches. There was a reading of the text of the First Amendment. WHCA President Jeff Mason made sure to say the event was “sold out” in his opening remarks. There was lot of talk of threats to a free press, both abroad and at home.

Others were more overt: Alec Baldwin, in his Trump costume from SNL, gave an extremely brief word of encouragement via video (“keep up the good work”). And there was this line from Mason in his opening speech, directly addressing the way the sitting president speaks about the media: “We are not fake news, We are not failing news organizations, and we are not the enemy of the American people.” That line got a standing ovation.


Bob Woodward, left, Carl Bernstein, center, and White House Correspondents’ Association President Jeff Mason during the White House Correspondents’ dinner. (EPA/ASTRID RIECKEN)

Woodward and Bernstein also came with warnings, one against “self-satisfaction or smugness” in the current political climate. And Bernstein added that “the people with the information we want should not be pigeon holed or pre-judged by their ideology or their politics.”

“We’re reporters, not judges, not legislators,” Bernstein said. “Our job is to put the best obtainable version of the truth out there, period. Especially now.”

The refocus on, you know, journalism also came with a little bit more of an emphasis on students. The event, after all, is in part for giving out scholarships.

Student journalists hosted by CNN and Yahoo News also got a shoutout, as did the group of Kansas high school journalists hosted by HuffPost. Their student paper’s investigation into the school’s new principal led to her resignation.
Journalists are the celebrities at this year’s pre-parties and red carpet

The pared-down nature of this year’s event was obvious from the street outside the Washington Hilton. In previous years, a crowd of teens would be clustered outside the hotel as early as 5 p.m. to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars.

This year, there were no onlookers outside of the hotel. Traffic, usually snarled for blocks, was a breeze. Instead of gawking fans and paparazzi, the lobby was full of pilots and flight attendants, offloaded from an airport shuttle, checking into their rooms.

Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted . . . catching a flight out of DC earlier this afternoon. He was in town for the Peoples Climate March.

There were fewer cameras on the red carpet, although around 6 p.m., the crowd started to stream in. Washington chef Fabio Trabocchi and his wife, Maria, who own the restaurant Fiola, were some of the first people on the carpet. They were photographed by another, lingering couple — not the photojournalists.

Also spotted were former secretary of state Madeleine Albright; Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan and executive editor Martin Baron; CNN reporters Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter; CNN political commentator Van Jones; Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn; and veteran TV producer/professional Washington connector Tammy Haddad.

April Ryan, meanwhile, was pre-party royalty. American Urban Radio Networks White House correspondent wore a gown with a long train and fielded photo requests with Al Sharpton on her arm.

Sure, some of the media-sponsored receptions felt almost normal. Guests ate California rolls and bites of chicken pita in the packed Thomson Reuters party, where a DJ played soul music and twentysomethings lined up for a photo booth.

[How cable news juggled Trump’s rally and the White House correspondents’ dinner]

Actual journalists at the parties seemed to be pleased by the lack of celebrity overload, anyway. “These are people I actually know and want to talk to,” said one newspaper reporter. “No more making awkward small talk with the B-list celebrities.”

It’s worth noting that the pre-dinner events were not completely devoid of celebrities. Matthew Modine was spotted. And Kathrine Herzer, who plays the daughter on “Madame Secretary,” was pretty excited about one encounter before the dinner.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have to get my picture taken with Madeleine Albright,’” she said. “It was really cool to meet her.”

But don’t be fooled: when we said this year was “different,” we really, really meant it. The hallways were empty throughout the Hilton, compared to previous years. If this were any other year, you’d have to fight your way through the intersections pictured here:


The hallways inside the Washington Hilton before the White House correspondents’ dinner. (Maura Judkis/The Washington Post)

Would-be celebrity gawkers like Marjorie Jingo and Ann Hirsch, two retired doctor’s office employees from New Jersey, were reduced to trying — and failing — to name an attendee they swore they’d seen on MSNBC.

The friends were in town for the climate march, and they had no idea that an event was taking place at their hotel tonight. But they lingered because Marjorie’s grandson loves Anderson Cooper.

“I even had to go out and get him a purple tie,” said Jingo, 81.

Jingo and Hirsch were sure they’d see some famous TV personalities.

“Maybe Rachel Maddow?” said Jingo.

But soon, the pair gave up and headed to get a dinner of their own. Soon after, CNN’s Don Lemon arrived.

Red carpet at White House correspondents’ dinner

We’re at the White House correspondents’ dinner where guests are starting to arrive on the red carpet. One notable exception: President Trump will skip tonight’s event. Tonight will be the first time since 1981 that the U.S. president has not attended.

Posted by Washington Post on Saturday, April 29, 2017

“We have a whole table of fact checkers” at Samantha Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner”

Hours before the official correspondents’ dinner began, Samantha Bee’s “Full Frontal” team kicked off an alternative event at DAR Constitution Hall: “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.” Bee had touted her event as a place where “journalists and non-irritating celebrities from around the world” could mingle, in order to pay homage to a free and functional press.

[Samantha Bee got Will Ferrell to roast Donald Trump — in character as George W. Bush]

“We thought it behooved us to throw a party for people who don’t normally have parties thrown for them,” Bee told the Washington Post in an interview on the event’s red carpet earlier this afternoon (the “dinner” taped this afternoon; it will air tonight at 10 p.m. on TBS.)

“We have a whole table of fact checkers,” Bee added. “We’re so excited that they’re here.”

Our colleagues have a run-down from the actual “dinner“; the red carpet gave a good preview of Bee’s plans — and who was there to see it.

“Tonight is going to be a different kind of night,” said CNN’s Dana Bash, who is attending both of Saturday’s big events. “Why wouldn’t we have something that is equally different, like Samantha Bee?”

“Our role is to drink and celebrate with all the amazing journalists, who are doing great work in this terrifying time,” Tegan Quin of indie pop duo Tegan and Sara told the Washington Post.

Later, actor Matthew Modine spoke to reporters about how he felt humor could change politics. “Sean Spicer’s learned a lot about humor at his expense, and why it’s important to tell the truth,” he quipped.

Ana Gasteyer, who played Hillary Clinton during her time on SNL, said it was “very hard to go through a day without thinking about how thoughtful and insightful a leader she would have been.”
Gasteyer is a D.C. native, but some attendees less familiar with the District had some observations about what makes us, uh, special. When the Washington Post Facebook Live team asked “Full Frontal” correspondent and comedian Ashley Nicole Black what’s different about DC — maybe nerd capital of the country — from LA or New York, she responded: “Everyone in DC walks like ‘I am so important.’ Going to get a sandwich they are like ‘You know who is going to get a sandwich!’ I’ve never seen that in any other city.”

Attendees were no doubt expecting to hear plenty of jokes at the expense of President Trump. But the biggest surprise of the night came with surprise guest Will Ferrell, who reprised his infamous George W. Bush impersonation to roast Trump. “How do you like me now?” he said to a roaring audience.

Red carpet at Samantha Bee’s “Not the White House Corresponden…

We’re on the red carpet at Samantha Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.” The late-night host will tape a show that will air tonight as an episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

Posted by Washington Post on Saturday, April 29, 2017

A more muted party scene on Friday night

Several big-spending out-of-town companies that had, in recent years, thrown some of the more lavish parties (People magazine, Google, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair) took a pass on Washington this year.

Yes, there were still plenty of parties happening this weekend, but instead of gift bags and humble brags, now you get a lecture.

“We’re going to kick off the proceedings with me talking,” Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks announced at Voto Latino’s cocktail reception Friday. Much talk of the importance of a free press followed. Meanwhile, CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta, whom President Trump berated as “fake news” at a January presser, qualified as a celebrity, taking time to pose for photos with a group of fans.

[This year’s White House correspondents’ dinner weekend is really putting the ‘nerd’ back in ‘nerd prom’]

Across town, at Atlantic Media owner David Bradley’s home in Massachusetts Avenue Heights, the VIPs were senators, titans of industry and even a Trump Cabinet secretary — Gen. Jim Mattis, who mingled in a bipartisan and high-powered room with the likes of Richard Branson, Rajiv Shah, Susan Rice, Rep. Edward R. Royce and Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and Susan Collins.

A party hosted by Capitol File, which in previous years filled up with “Scandal” and “House of Cards” stars, was instead decorated with actual White House correspondents. Meanwhile, the celebrity arts-advocacy group the Creative Coalition easily had the highest density of Hollywood, with a collection of well-liked TV actors (Chad Lowe, Tim Daly, Alyssa Milano) but few who planned to attend the dinner Saturday night.

The United Talent Agency, which represents Samantha Bee and several broadcast news luminaries, threw a shindig at Georgetown’s posh Fiola Mare that drew actor (and former White House staffer) Kal Penn and Senator (and former bit-part player in “The Dark Knight”) Patrick J. Leahy.

By Saturday morning, when a cohort of well-connected Washingtonians hosted their annual Garden Brunch, in the Georgetown backyard of hotelier and Democratic fundraiser Connie Milstein, it was clear that this was the year that Washington took back the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Foreign policy wonk-about-town Steve Clemons, already in his tux, was air-kissing D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, as former protocol chief Capricia Marshall and Reps. Darrell Issa and Debbie Dingell mingled nearby. There were no Kardashians in a several-hour radius. White House reporter April Ryan was the star being asked to pose for selfies at the buffet.

“This is the way it used to be,” said veteran PR woman Janet Donovan. “Way back when.”

Staff writers Emily Heil, Maura Judkis, Ellen McCarthy, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Roxanne Roberts contributed to this report.

Premier League clubs to put a price on social media videos for sponsors

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The modern-day newsfeed is as stuffed with posts from wannabe stars and celebrity spats as it is with videos from training grounds and changing rooms. Yet many of those creating this content aren’t sure of its commercial worth as it becomes increasingly hard to ignore how much more exposure football teams can get on social media compared to TV.

But because it’s tricky to track the value a brand gets on social, it’s arguably been massively undervalued. No commercial chief can point to half a million Facebook views and say ‘that’s just helped secure my new partnership deal’ when measurement is so blunt. On the other hand, many would ask ‘what’s the cost of not doing it?’

Hundreds of millions in the case of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, whose social media accounts generated an eye-bulging $500m in value for Nike last year according to sponsorship analytics company Hookit.

While Ronaldo isn’t a club, he is a media owner like the Real Madrid team he plays for and, just like his employers, the Portuguese forward knows that content and platforms he owns are in high demand. The world’s most prolific athlete on social media had one post last year that was worth $5.8m after it racked up 1.7m ‘likes’ and nearly 13,000 comments due its timing with Portugal’s Euro 2016 victory.

Ronaldo’s post was worth $5.8m after racking up 1.7m ‘likes’

Valuations like these are frequent as they are rooted in the old media equivalency rules of sponsorship. Hookit’s methodology uses average number of impressions per interaction to come up with a monetary value when really sponsors want a clearer way to compare social media posts with TV inventory. What the likes of Hookit do prove, however, is just how much teams could be missing in the media valuations they currently conduct – especially as brands demand sharper measurement from all parts of the marketing mix.

“Some clubs are not doing it [measuring social video] right and those who aren’t need to change the way they are approaching brands,” says Jean-Pierre Diernaz, vice-president of marketing at Nissan Europe. The car maker, which sponsors Manchester City and the Uefa Champions League among others, sees a potential in a fast spinning sports industry and yet is perturbed by what it deems is an unwillingness to fix what has become a largely inefficient market.

The social video sports revolution

Pound-busting TV deals pushed the 20 top-flight English teams to post record revenues of £3.6bn between 2015 and 2016 and yet they still struggled to make a profit. Collectively, Premier League clubs made a pre-tax loss of £110m, according to Deloitte, stressing the need for additional revenue streams at a time when many commercial bosses are yet to properly monetise their online fanbases.

“Every club has a certain number of fans but what is important is those who are actively engaging with the club, » continues Diernaz. ”The clubs need to be actively showing on the platforms that here is the value. If you look at the top 20 YouTubers in the world they are getting a lot of business with what they are doing so why would you not be operating the same as a football club. It’s clearly a strategy that would accelerate this for clubs.”

Several Premier League clubs are wise to the opportunity, resolving to give brands what they want in the hope of extracting more money from sponsorships. When City Football Group’s (CFG) commercial boss Tom Glick says he can see a time when social video could help his team renegotiate deals, he’s actually talking about a point when he and his team understand the market value of every post and the revenues they generate.

Numbers like that could come in handy if City were to try to convince Nike to top the £60m a season, 15-year deal with Chelsea when it comes to renegotiations. A club like Manchester City could potentially command tens of millions in media value on TV coverage alone. Add social into a mix and that could significantly inflate the media value of said sponsorship deal. Placements that were once thought useless on TV such as those at the club’s training ground could be worth more to a sponsor looking to reach the growing number of younger fans who aren’t only concerned with what their club does on match days.

Training ground placements could prove valuable to City, with fans concerned with the club beyond match day

“Often what’s holding social video back is it is generally wrapped into a larger sponsorship deal which can undervalue what that media represents because its not pulled out or compared with other formats – like display advertising – that might be getting sold… to me social video is more valuable than a display ad on a club’s website and yet in many cases these things are not necessarily being valued in the same way,” suggests Gareth Capon, the chief executive at social video production business Grabyo.

“If you’re a training ground sponsor then you don’t get much TV presence on game day, it’s more the main kit and headline sponsors,” he continues. “But now with social video you suddenly have all these assets where fans who want to know what’s happening with their club each day get to see your brand and those posts are shared all around the world. That’s a real change and the value for that media is not well understood… but once it starts to get compared with traditional TV advertising or and other forms of advertising, or at least it’s valued as a component of an overall sponsors package, then I think its value will rocket.”

Being able to quantify the value of social media

Southampton, like City, have made strides in recent years to move away from being so reliant on broadcast, focusing on depth of engagement rather than mass exposure. WPP-owned sports marketing agency Two Circles is helping it make the transition, which is very much a work in progress. “It’s about how best to value the video so we’re not only doing it in a traditional sense,” says James Kennedy, Southampton FC’s head of marketing. “We’re going down much more of an impression-based route as oppose to a sales route.”

This means partnerships aren’t typically signed off with an agreed number of tweets and database blasts to feign brand activation. Rather, Southampton are focused less on selling price and impressions and much more on delivering engagement and value.

“The ‘impression-based route’ is about understanding a brand’s target audience and helping them reach this group (in a targeted, cost efficient way) across the club’s entire digital network – web, email and social,” adds Kennedy. “So while achieving mass brand exposure and positive affinity is one objective, Saints can help brands develop campaigns to achieve specific objectives because they can segment their entire digital fanbase.”

Methods like this are heavily reliant on equivalent media value measurement. In the case of Southampton, the club argues that it doesn’t apply an “equivalent” media value in the traditional sense. However, because they – along with Two Circles – eschew inflated media values, they have a more consistent benchmark for a marketer to compare the impact of a campaign with buying the media space elsewhere.

Southampton FC’s marketers have become smarter as to how they use their owned media to generate commercial value

Simply put, what Southampton et al are using involves reach and frequency measures of signage to determine the value of sponsors exposure. These are calculated in differing ways and to varying degrees of sophistication but every measure – or impression – is ascribed an equivalent media value that a marketer can compare with paid for advertising. Hence, the underlying assumption for any brand tracking social video this way is it keeps their sponsorship rooted in the value of logo exposure as well as brand equity.

“The way content is valued is media equivalency so if Chevrolet wanted to buy ad space from TV for millions of people then how much would that cost versus being on the front of the Manchester United jersey… it’s exactly the same premise for how we [Nielsen Sports] value digital and social content, » says Max Barnett, global head of digital at Nielsen Sports. The measurement firm is readying a product it claims brings social media and traditional media valuation together for the first time, meaning for every minute of brand exposure data collected, an average of 5,000 data points are input to algorithms to calculate qualitative and valuation based outputs. While similar tools exist, Barnett hopes Nielsen’s own alternative becomes a unified measurement of sponsorship across all media channels.

“We’re seeing more ​clients’ commercial teams target 15% to 20% ​share of ​media value through digital and social” he continues. “If you have declining TV audiences then that’s a really important gap ​to fill. The audiences are more than likely not leaving, but consuming the content in a different way. Likewise, you could see brands selecting properties with a more significant social footprint to align to their wider marketing channel objective. Could we also see brands go after digital and social assets in the not too distant future? That depends on how rights holders want to package and promote.”

Is it time for football clubs to think like media owners

Some Premier League bosses hope to do this using social metrics such as earned impressions, shares and followers. The Drum understands a number of commercial bosses have at least considered the possibility of adopting a cost per engagement as a new standard in ROI measurement. While these talks are yet to materialise into anything beyond speculation, that they are even happening is vindication enough of social video’s potential value.

Putting a price on social video has been a thorny subject for some time and it was a challenge we have been seeking to shine more light on with our research report series,” says Michael Litman, founder and chief executive at Burst Insights. For example, the social analytics firm found that of the top 20 best performing videos across each social video platform from last season only Manchester United and Chelsea saw exposure value within the set reach over 31m. Arsenal ranked third, Liverpool FC fourth, Manchester City were in fifth place and Tottenham Hotspur rounded out the top six.

“This shows that for example Arsenal are overachieving on social video performance versus actual player performance on the pitch,” adds Litman. “Spurs fans on the flip-side I think will prefer to be nearer the top of the table in real life. I think we will see in time real world performance, correlating more closely with digital performance as the clubs become more akin to global media broadcasters in their own rights.”

Sports sponsorship has become a new game stuck with old rules. No longer is it enough for rights holders to give sponsors the most media for their money. Instead, sponsors want to know how the rights they’re buying add value to their brands, a shift that’s forcing the likes of Manchester City and Southampton FC to behave more like media owners.

The global success of the top six [Premier League] clubs generates a constant demand for sponsorship assets,” says Tom McDonnell, chief executive at digital fan interaction specialists Monterosa. “Brands are looking for end-to-end solutions that entertain and engage. It’s not enough to count a ‘view’, which could be fleeting, but to also consider interaction and active conversation. If a club provides better assets via social video with proven engagement and interaction, it differentiates the club’s offering and that hits the bottom line. »

HTC teases its rumoured squeezable phone in new video ad

Video Marketing,

HTC is set to unveil its new flagship phone in around two weeks’ time, with a unique take on how to interact with the device at its centre – a frame you squeeze.

The Taiwanese firm has already made references to the “squeezable” phone in its marketing around the launch, and now a new video ad has hammered home that message.

While as an idea it sounds slightly outlandish, the concept of an interactive and squeezable frame on a smartphone isn’t completely new – a Japanese mobile carrier created a concept in a similar mould several years ago where touch sensors on the edge of the device could be used to open apps and perform searches.

HTC’s next flagship may well offer similar levels of interaction judging by the teasers we’ve seen so far, and leaked footage from the beginning of the year that appeared to show an unnamed HTC device being squeezed as a way of opening an app launcher menu.

What else the phone giant has planned for the device remains unknown, but we don’t have to wait too much longer to find out – HTC will unveil the device at a live show on May 16 – in the meantime, expect to see plenty more references to just how “squeezable” the phone will be.

5 Things You Need to Know About Video Marketing

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You have probably heard it everywhere: video marketing is the future — and the present. Hubspot claims that “video content in no longer an option, it’s a necessary component of any successful marketing strategy.”

Here’s the lowdown on video marketing:

So even if you’re not a big believer of video as the future, the statistics might convince you to dip your toe in the pool of marketing possibilities. Here are five things you need to know before you start producing videos.

1. Tell a story (not a sales pitch)

According to Digital Marketing Institute, the same rules that apply for your written marketing content apply for your video content: concentrate on the value you’re providing for your customers.  Do not annoy them by actively promoting your product or service, instead center your video around a story. Take the time to research your customers wants, needs and desires and appeal to them through visual narrative. After all, storytelling is the new sales pitch.

American Greetings did exactly that with their extremely successful video “World’s Toughest Job. » The company puts their product in the background, focusing on human emotion instead (with a surprise twist). American Greetings builds a story around their product, allowing people to feel connected with the brand.

2. Create how-to videos

If you are launching a new product or service this year, create a video to demonstrate how it works. Video has the power to explain everything. In fact, viewers retain 95 percent of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10 percent when reading it in text. In addition, 30 percent of people’s YouTube searches are for how-to queries. Remember, YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google (who owns YouTube). And to top it all off,  73 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after watching how-to videos explaining a product or service.

BuzzFeed’s Tasty is the master of how-to videos, often producing viral content. “How to Cook Perfect Pasta” is a good example of a how-to video that explains a mundane subject matter step-by-step in a capturing way. Tasty uses hyperlapse to speed up the demonstration, so that viewers receive the information as quick as possible. People’s attention spans are getting shorter, therefore videos up to 2 minutes long get the most engagement. Keep it short and sweet!

3. Deliver in the first 10 seconds

10 seconds — that’s how long you have to grab the viewer’s attention, before they move on to the next best thing online. Research shows that you’ll lose 1/3 of your viewers by 30 seconds, and 60 percent of them by two minutes. So, you have a very short window to get the point across and convince viewers that your video is worth watching. Similar to blog posts or presentations, start your video with a hook to grab their attention. Then, immediately convey why viewers should keep watching. A great example is “SIRIS Pancakes, » a video that immediately piques the viewer’s interest.

4. Don’t be discouraged

You probably come across hundreds of videos a day, some of them extremely well scripted and expensively produced. Even though we would all love to make ultra-professional videos, many small to medium sized businesses do not have the budget or manpower for this. But don’t be discouraged! You don’t need expensive video equipment to make good videos. Video quality is actually not the most important thing when it comes to video marketing. Thirty-seven percent of viewers are put off by a video that doesn’t explain the product or service clearly enough (versus 25 percent of people discouraged by a video’s low quality). Content is the most important qualifier in successful video marketing.

So, don’t get bogged down by the fact that you don’t have a professional video studio. Smartphones are capable of taking amazing videos now. If you’re budget is limited, you can start small by purchasing semi-professional lighting and backgrounds on Amazon — that’s how we did it at Bizness Apps. You can also turn to animated videos, which have proven to be very effective. For instance, “Dumb Ways to Die, » a simple animation video, has gathered over 68 million views in its mission to educate people about rail safety. Now that’s a bang for your buck!

5. Don’t be boring

A boring video can do more harm than good. Make your viewers laugh, teach them something new or transport them into another world. The most popular form of online video content is comedy, as you might have guessed, closely followed by news and music. 

Chatbooks took all of this to heart in their “Stop Wasting Hours Making Photo Books” video. As you may notice, this video tops at 3:50min, which goes against the engagement statistics. But with its perfect combination of wit, charm, product description and honesty, people didn’t mind its lengthier format. With 10 million views, this video proves that it pays off to be original.

Even if you are in a “boring” business, videos can still be a great way to attract and close customers. The most dull subjects can become highly engaging with video. We all know “Jake from State Farm”, putting a boring insurance company in an entertaining light.

Video is here to stay! If you want to beat the competition and stand out in the crowd, video marketing might be your holy grail. 

More from Bizness Apps

North Korea defies Trump

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Hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for tough new action towards North Korea on Friday, the nuclear-armed dictatorship thumbed its nose at the Trump administration with the latest in a series of missile tests that Trump officials say could provoke a military conflict.

The test’s timing implied an act of calculated defiance by North Korea’s 33-year-old leader Kim Jong Un. It came a day before President Donald Trump’s 100-day mark and less than 24 hours after Trump warned of the potential for a “major, major conflict” over Kim’s expanding nuclear capability.

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The message seemed to be that two weeks of saber-rattling — which included military deployments and a visit by Vice President Mike Pence to the North Korean border “so they can see our resolve in my face” — had failed to intimidate Kim.

The test, which was North Korea’s ninth since Trump took office, also underscores for Trump officials how hard it will be to halt and then reverse North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs before they can threaten the U.S. mainland. Despite the talk of potential U.S. military action against Pyongyang in recent days, Tillerson finished the week with an emphasis on diplomatic and economic efforts similar in kind to ones pursued by the Obama administration.

Presiding over a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Tillerson called for “a new approach” to the nuclear-armed dictatorship.

“In light of the growing threat, the time has come for all of us to put new pressure on North Korea to abandon its dangerous path,” Tillerson said.

But in broad strokes, much of what Tillerson said was familiar.

U.S. officials have long advanced a policy similar to Tillerson’s call for “increased diplomatic and economic pressure on the North Korean regime” paired with the promise of negotiations. Last February, then-U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power told the same body that forthcoming U.N. sanctions backed by Washington “would constitute a major increase in pressure” on Pyongyang.

Tillerson also asserted a “willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action if necessary,” while adding that “we much prefer a negotiated solution to this problem.”

That echoed remarks from his predecessor, John Kerry, who said in October that sanctions and diplomacy “are entirely preferable, obviously, to the military choice, which … is a last resort and only as a matter of defensive measure to protect our nations.”

Former Obama officials say the main difference in Trump’s approach so far is largely a matter of stagecraft. Trump summoned the entire U.S. Senate to the White House on Thursday, for example, for a briefing on North Korea that many senators called uninformative but which commanded media attention.

Underlying the theatrics, though, Trump’s strategy is mainly based on pressuring China to further constrict North Korea’s economy, something Obama also did — albeit cautiously, for fear of poisoning the U.S.-China relationship. (Beijing fears a sudden collapse of Kim’s neighboring regime and prefers negotiations to extreme pressure.)

« It appears from their more formal moves that the official strategy on [North Korea] is not all that different from the one pursued late in the Obama administration,” said Laura Rosenberger, a former Obama White House and State Department official who has worked closely on North Korea policy.

A Trump official said Thursday that the biggest shift is a change in priority for the issue: “Is it different from the Obama administration’s policy? I think it is in the sense that it’s the number one security challenge that we’re facing right now, according to the administration and the president,” said Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, at a Thursday Foundation for Defense of Democracies event.

But even a shift in rhetoric is a meaningful change, say Trump’s defenders.

“The effectiveness of some of the hard instruments of American power depend on its credibility — and that’s where the theatrics of the Trump administration in can be very useful in sending a message to Pyongyang,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told POLITICO after interviewing Thornton.

“So much of this is about psychology, not just diplomacy and sanctions and the use of other instruments of American power,” he added.

Skeptics say the rhetoric and actions of Trump officials has been too scattershot to intimidate Kim and may create an impression of strategic confusion in Washington.

“Their apparently uncoordinated blustery rhetoric, not attached to specific actions, raises questions about their ability to executed a coordinated strategy,” Rosenberg said.

It’s hardly a surprise that North Korea has moved up on President Donald Trump’s agenda. Outgoing President Barack Obama warned Trump in November that the country’s growing nuclear program should be his top national security priority.

Obama White House officials also handed off detailed options for Trump to address the North Korean crisis, though they are unsure whether top Trump aides—including Matt Pottinger and Alison Hooker, the national security council’s top aides for Asia and Korea respectively—have relied on them.

Despite Trump’s saber rattling — including his recent declaration that he had sent a naval “armada” towards North Korea (a statement that proved misleading) — the risks of even a precision strike on Pyongyang render it unlikely for now.

“People who are writing headlines about war have it wrong,” said Patrick Cronin, an Asia security expert at the Center for a New American Security. “Kim Jong Un would see any attack on him as a regime-change strategy, and he would respond to an unacceptable degree.”

North Korea has the world’s fourth-largest military and is capable of devastating the South Korean capital of Seoul with a cross-border artillery bombardment. Even an all-out surprise U.S. attack on the North might not be able to prevent a catastrophic counterattack — including, possibly, a nuclear one — that could kill tens of thousands of South Koreans, and many of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country.

« If you are going to do a pre-emptive strike, you’d better get it all,” said a former senior Obama Pentagon official.

Despite occasional reports of planning for a so-called “decapitation,” any strike that could take out Kim and his inner circle would have dangerously unpredictable consequences. Kim’s survival would guarantee all-out war, and his death would touch off a wild scramble for power.

“You could easily end up with a civil war on the inside,” Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said in a Thursday talk at at the Center for the National Interest. “We’ll take our side and the Chinese will take their side, and that’s a scenario where the two could start fighting.”

Allison added that a military official in the region had told him Kim’s overthrow or demise would touch off a “vertical track meet” between U.S. and Chinese forces racing to secure the country’s nuclear weapons.

Obama officials studied the military option thoroughly, but concluded it to be impractical short of a dire situation like an imminent North Korean attack. These officials believe that Trump’s team has inevitably reached the same conclusion.

« This is getting hyped up to look like the prelude to the Iraq war,” said Jon Wolfsthal, a former national security council director for non-proliferation in the Obama White House. “People are over-interpreting the language from the Trump administration. »

Some former Obama officials were struck by Tillerson’s acknowledging in Thursday NPR interview that he would consider direct talks with Kim’s government.

Tillerson was responding to a question and it was not clear whether he was reflecting considered policy.

Even if it did represent policy, it would not be unprecedented: An Obama administration special enjoy, Stephen Bosworth, held three rounds of talks with North Korean officials in Obama’s first term.

Trump really needs an economic boom. So far, he’s not getting one.

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President Trump came into office promising to make the economy grow at rates the United States hasn’t seen for decades. On Friday, as the government reported that the U.S. economy expanded in the first quarter at its slowest pace in three years, he got a glimpse of just how far he has to go.

In the first official growth estimates of Trump’s presidency, federal economists reported gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic growth, grew at an annualized rate of just 0.7 percent in the year’s first quarter, down from 2.1 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2016.

[U.S. economy grew at sluggish 0.7 percent in first quarter of 2017]

The report underscored the challenge the White House faces in reaching its target of 3 percent growth, an expansion Trump not only promised on the campaign but is counting on to fuel his broader economic agenda. The administration is proposing steep tax cuts, and top Trump officials argue those policies will deliver enough economic growth to essentially pay for themselves, with new activity allowing the government to collect the same amount in taxes despite the reduced rates.

But if that growth fails to materialize, the tax cuts would lead to a massive and potentially destabilizing increase in the national debt as the federal government borrows to make up the gap between elevated spending and falling revenue.

“Tax cuts are a good idea — they help growth — but only if they’re paid for,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The proposal the president put forward on Wednesday would blow a big hole in the budget, and that won’t help the economy.”

[Trump, in new tax plan, promises to do what Reagan couldn’t]

Friday’s report also noted that consumer spending grew at just 0.3 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace since 2009.

Reduced spending at all levels of government weighed on GDP, as did a strong dollar that lowered exports and increased imports.

Asked for comment on the report, the White House pointed to a statement from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said it demonstrated why the president’s agenda was needed “to overcome the dismal economy inherited by the Trump Administration.”

Yet Trump has not shied from taking credit for positive economic news early in his administration. Following the release of strong February job-growth numbers, Trump retweeted this from the conservative Drudge Report: “GREAT AGAIN: +235,000.”

Economists caution that it is probably too soon for Trump to have exerted much influence over the economy either way. He has not had a chance yet to put many policies in place, and if he does, they will take time to yield results.

The first-quarter report may have also painted an overly negative portrait of the economy. Because of measurement complications, first-quarter economic growth is often underestimated in government reports. Additionally, one-time events such as unseasonably warm weather in January and February dragged down the reported growth rate, since Americans ended up purchasing significantly less electricity and gas to heat their homes.

“I don’t think there’s real cause for alarm, because there were a lot of temporary factors that were hurting growth in the first quarter,” said Leslie Preston, a senior economist at TD Economics.

Many economists expect U.S. growth to rebound in the second quarter of 2017, and they believe it to be on solid footing in general, especially as it is bolstered by the improving economic situation abroad.

Still, in the long term, they expect GDP growth to hover around 2 percent. They argue that the economy Trump has promised — one in which GDP is expanding at a pace of 3 percent a year or more and 25 million new jobs are created in the next 10 years — is probably unattainable.

Long-term changes in the economy, including demographic trends such as the aging U.S. labor force, will also complicate Trump’s bid for rapid economic growth, the experts say. Although more Americans have gone back to work since the financial crisis nearly nine years ago, the percentage of the population that is working has declined in recent years as baby boomers retire, limiting how much the economy can produce. At the beginning of 2000, 67.3 percent of the adult population was working or looking for work. As of last month, that figure was 63 percent.

In defending Trump’s growth targets, many administration officials point to the economy’s performance under President Ronald Reagan. After an initial recession during the Reagan administration, GDP skyrocketed 7.3 percent in 1984 and continued at a rapid clip for the rest of his term.

Reagan, however, had advantages that Trump will not have. In the 1980s, women were swelling the ranks of the labor force and the economy was on the verge of a technological boom. Today, growth in productivity — an important measure of how much the American economy can produce — has stalled, for reasons economists do not well understand.

And while Trump hopes to boost growth through his proposed tax cuts and large-scale investments in infrastructure, the administration is considering other policies that economists say could weigh on growth. Trump plans to clamp down on immigration, which would further reduce the U.S. labor force. He has also entertained measures to protect U.S. industry from foreign competition that could start a trade war. This week, Trump threatened to pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He later backed off, saying he would instead try first to renegotiate the pact.

The Trump economy could be further complicated by the Federal Reserve, which after nearly a decade of propping up the economy is now trying to make sure it doesn’t run too hot. At their meeting last month, Fed officials said that the economy was performing according to expectations and that they plan additional interest-rate hikes if the current trend continues. Investors are expecting another increase in June.

The Trump administration is not alone in its enthusiastic expectations for the economy. Surveys show that consumer and business confidence have soared since the November election, creating one of the biggest divergences in recent memory between soft data — measurements of how people feel about the economy and their future — and the hard data that government statisticians release each month.

Hard data has painted a more mixed picture. In the first two months of the year, the number of jobs added to the U.S. economy surpassed expectations. But the number of new jobs created slumped in March, partly because of a snowstorm that prevented some Americans from working.

Diane Swonk, a Chicago-based economist, took a dim view of Trump’s proposal to create 25 million jobs in the next decade.

“That’s more than we generated in the 1990s, the longest expansion in the post-World War II period, which is significantly more robust than what we have now — mostly because we had a lot more people to employ,” she said. “Are you going to have 80-year-olds working at McDonald’s now? What are we talking about?”

“There’s been a resistance to deal within the constructs of mathematical reality,” she said.