Comments on: iPhone 3G Shows How to Use Online Video to Sell Products

By: Mr Landlord

Mr Landlord — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:21:20 +0000

I think as usual, Apple leads the way with their release presence. They are extraordinarily good at ensuring the release of a product happens well. By releasing this video, especially how well it is done, brings a sense of confidence to the consumer. When you hear the trigger words that Apple placed in there very much on purpose (army, secret service, security, etc), most people are definitly going to think it is good enough for them if it is good enough for the service or the army.

And if I’m not mistaken, isn’t that President Roslin at ~1:40 and again at ~2:40?

By: Wholesale

Wholesale — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:47:30 +0000

I’ve also realized that a lot of companies are now targeting YouTube for product advertising. It seems that nowadays you can reach more potential buyers with a fraction of the budget if you take advantage of social networking and entertainment sites.

I prefer to watch videos over reading text.. and kids all over the nation spend hours every week just watching youtube videos!

-Jason

By: free iPhone wallpapers

free iPhone wallpapers — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:54:57 +0000

The update will be free to those who purchased it before (I have yet to find an iPhone App that does not give out free updates). It will also launch at a lower price fir new users of Byline for version 2.0 (I am keeping the new price a secret in order not to ruin the surprise for the developer)

By: Dave C

Dave C — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:51:08 +0000

When you have a product like the iPhone 3G that is packed with so many features, it’s much easier to “show” rather than “tell”. Imagine having to read a 500 word brochure itemizing all of the phone’s features and specific functions – that is essentially what the video accomplishes in just a couple of minutes.

For some of the same reasons, we decided to produce and post on our website a two-minute video of our organization’s member benefits at http://www.americasbestcompanies.com. The animated video has made it much easier for us to cover everything we do for our small business members – not to mention it’s quite entertaining to watch.

Great topic!

By: Ying Cheng

Ying Cheng — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:44:18 +0000

Hello Holly, great insights again!! This can be a good start point for us getting out a good video ads for the LA YIN products (store.la-yin.com). Do you have any special tips if the ads’ target audience are women?

By: Modular Buildings

Modular Buildings — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:54:05 +0000

I could not understand what I was supposed to do on the ebags page. There was no video except at the bottom of the page it had ‘additional videos’ and all I could see was a black screen with audio. Testing is key.

4Q was great, I actually signed up after watching 3/4 of the video. I did not plan to sign up before starting, the video persuaded me that I needed 4Q in a very comfortable and friendly way.

The Microsoft Dynamics videos are a great concept, but were so poorly executed. Take a tip from Apple Microsoft! Try to spend some time experimenting with video quality, and pay less on actors and maybe more on creative writing and video production.

Apple iPhone 3G – Excellent, makes me wish I did not renew my Verizon Wireless contract. I want it!

At my company, we have experimented a bit with video. We are a modular building manufacturer, so our target audience is architects, contractors, developers, government and education people. We did a time lapse of a building being installed, and also a sideshow of a project in progress. This post has been very inspiring on the possibilities I have with video and using it to build trust and appeal to the needs of the viewer.

By: Caspar ter Horst

Caspar ter Horst — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:49:33 +0000

I have founded asia-xl 4 years ago to create exactly these but then different. We don’t use video we use flash and we don’t use live people (to expensive) but we do use stock-photos of people. Animation is a very powerful and almost universal language to explain products, create a mood around a product or a service. The end product is used on internet but also for off-line sales presentations, trade-shows and the like. The key is that you control the message in the market. With flash we are also able to combine digital catalogues with animation, this as an advantage over PDF. Since the iPhone doesn’t support flash this moment we convert to MP4 for that platform which works very well. The great thing is that people watching an animation on a cool product like the iPhone or iPod Touch are as positive involved in the sales as if they would hold a sample. This because the “coolness” off the iPhone radiates on the actual product. We welcome your comments on our portfolio and we would be more then happy to add you to our client list.

By: Holly Buchanan

Holly Buchanan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:33:26 +0000

Stephane,

Great point about video as a customer support tool. Very powerful. And I love that you recognize some people don’t know how to copy and paste. Those of us in the industry sometimes forget how basic we need to make our instructions. Good reminder.

And yes, I like your use of video to show new features. One thing I might point out, if I may, is to make it more obvious the screenshots are clickable as videos. I had to search around for a while before I noticed the instructions above the fold that said they are clickable. I know you have the controls right there under the screenshot, but I thought it was a part of the screenshot itself.

For less observant visitors like myself it would be nice to have a “click the image to see the video” explanation right by the screenshot. There’s really good content there answering your visitors questions, and I want to make sure people are viewing it.

Great stuff!

By: Stephane Grenier

Stephane Grenier — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:03:37 +0000

Not only can videos better sell your product, but they can also be used for customer support. For example we have about 8 or so animated videos, of which about 2-3 often get referenced for support. It’s not that it can’t be described it’s just that it’s much easier to express in video format (and it’s more consistent)!

If you think about it some more, it will also reduce your support costs. Some people just have a more difficult time understanding computers than others. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s life.

For example, when someone buys a copy of our software they have to enter in a license code to activate it. We strongly recommend that the license code by copy/pasted because of potential data entry errors. Although this is a simple task for many people, it’s also a very complex task for others. And trying to describe how to copy and paste a license code into a software application to people who don’t understand how to copy and paste is difficult. An animated video in this case makes all the difference.

Of course this examples is very support oriented, but it can just as easily be done for the user manual, the “what’s new” page, etc. Actually we’ve been using video very effectively for our “What’s new” page: http://www.landlordmax.com/releaseNotes.html In some cases a good example can really help amplify the value of a new feature.

By: Netcan

Netcan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:36:57 +0000

You’re right the video is done well but, it is done well regardless of being online. It is an ad. It has a purpose: Get Corporate thinking “iphones work for corporates,” and it serves it well.

The primary difference between TV ads & online video is delivery. for tv ads, delivery is relatively straightforward.

Video ads may need to have delivery built in to the video itself (eg. will it blend) or have a more purpose specific goal (appear on product page of an ecommerce, communicate to fans/press/etc actively seeking info) relating to the context of where it appears.

I think context is the new key concept for online videos that we didn’t see so much with tv. A tv ad is usually just on tv, so it gets watched (like Seinfeld’s nothing show). Online videos get watched in context.

Apple has the (hard earned) luxury of directing at info seekers looking for ‘more info.’