In an ongoing quest to learn more about video commerce, I spend a lot of time thinking about the ideas actually driving the industry forward. Through countless interactions with e-commerce professionals, business people and folks outside the industry, I’ve finally come to the conclusion these are the central “breakthrough ideas” behind video commerce. I’m curious to learn your thoughts, especially if you disagree with them or you believe there are others that should be on the list.
To understand the paradigms driving video commerce forward, I started looking at the central problems facing the industry today:
1) Obtaining/producing video content
2) Distributing video content
3) Making money from video
4) Figuring out the creative process behind video
On 1, the breakthrough idea is that video content can come from anywhere, capitalizing on the YouTube paradigm: “Everyone’s a Producer.”
- self-produced
- customers
- suppliers/partners
- from the community (YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc)
- from outsourced production (amateur, prosumer, professional, big agency)
On 2, the breakthrough idea is that video is a cross-channel media with falling distribution costs. Video can be published anywhere.
- on-site
- ad networks
- YouTube & video services
- affiliate networks
- social networks
- blogs and consumer sites
- mobile devices
- digital television
- net connected game consoles
- etc etc. The point is that as things accelerate this list will continue to grow.
On 3, the breakthrough idea is that video is not only an awareness tool but a tool that facilitates direct response.
- lift on product pages
- purchase in-video
- links in-video to brand experiences or product pages (doesn’t matter, as long as it moves the consumer closer to a transaction)
- feature related products in-video
On 4, the breakthrough idea is that video is a creative-agnostic media, and video commerce works as long as the content moves a consumer closer to the next transaction
- educational/how-to
- promotional
- commertainment
- entertainment
- etc - doesn’t matter as long as it moves the consumer closer to the next transaction
We are at the very very beginning of this market but trust me, within 12 months we’ll all be talking about video commerce. We’re far enough along on items 1, 2, 3, and 4 that it’s only a matter of time until it gets figured out.
Until then - Happy Selling!
January 25th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I agree that everyone is a video producer, potentially, but not necessarily of e-commerce type of content. I believe the only area where the masses can be expected to be a good source for video content would be video reviews.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:01 am
In the webinar “The ROI of Online Video,” we discussed the primary challenges of Video Commerce, described as Phases I - IV. Phase I centers on the challenge of Liberating Video Content. In this section, we talked about strategies for liberating video from four sources:
1) Video trapped within the enterprise
2) Video produced by suppliers
3) Video produced by consumers
4) Yet-to-be self produced video
For 1) The key strategy is “collaboration.” Partnering with internal stakeholders to create win/win outcomes can help increase the quantity of video content available for use in the e-commerce business.
For 2) The key strategy is “leverage.” By indicating to suppliers/manufacturers that video is a strategy the e-commerce business intends to pursue, merchants can exert the influence of their buying power to persuade manufacturers to create video content.
For 3) The key strategy is “incentive.” By enticing users to create content through offers, e-commerce businesses can increase the quality and availability of many types of user generated video content.
For 4) The key strategy is “education.” By sharing best practices, lessons learned, and case studies with others in the organization, evangelists can make the business case for video commerce and discover new applications for video from other stakeholders.