Video commerce is a challenge because it’s equal parts art and science. The art vs. science debate is one of the longest running conversations in marketing – and today’s video commerce programs sits smack dab in the middle of it.

Those that think art is more important say that branding is about creating an emotional connection with the consumer. The customer has to believe in the product before they buy the product. Therefore, the customer needs marketing to contextualize products and build that emotional bond.

That’s why Coke runs ads in theaters before the movies – they want you to…

A significant piece of new legislation, affecting all online video producers and creators, was signed in to law in October. The result could be added cost, legal exposure, and liability for online video creators.

The 21^st Century Communication and Video Accessibility Act requires that producers and content creators of online video must provide closed captioning. This has significant implications for e-commerce video, as these legal requirements will apply to all content producers, not just traditional television networks. While there is discussion of only requiring television producers to comply, the wording in the bill could be interpreted to mean any video…

Marketers need to understand basic storytelling skills in order to feature effective online video. You don’t need to be an expert, but a quick overview of the importance of storytelling goes a long way to finding and creating effective video.

To understand a bit more about why storytelling is important, check out this clip from a Beet.tv interview with Chris Anderson, where he describes online video as a reinvention of the spoken word.

Basically, storytelling is so crucial because it’s how people relate to each other. For thousands of years, people have shared their experiences through telling stories. That’s…

What were you doing in 2006?

It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it was a lifetime ago for online video. YouTube had just recently been sold to Google. Its monetization strategy was nonexistent. The general consensus was that it was significantly overvalued (now, it seems like a bargain – the $1.65B acquisition brings in $1B in revenue annually). In the wake of YouTube’s acquisition, a number of other video competitors reinvented themselves to stay relevant: Brightcove and Ooyala started building custom players, and Joost ramped up their original content (before flaming out in 2009).

Back…

Welcome to the first days of fall. For most e-commerce marketers, fall means finalizing budget requests for 2011, before the full-tilt holiday shopping season.

In comparing 2010 budget planning to 2011, there are some stark contrasts. First, and most importantly, the tight budget conversations from 2009 have loosened up, as the economy starts to show the smallest of green shoots.
But, more dramatic is the continued shift in user behavior on the internet – away from consuming more text content, and dramatically toward time spent on social networking and video.

In fact, bandwidth for online video now accounts for…

So, you’ve decided that it’s important to get some video on to your website. Now, the question quickly turns to content. How to get it? What should it do? And most importantly, how will we get it?

It’s natural for many online marketing teams to take stock of the skills and abilities of their existing resources to create original videos. The benefits are obvious: your staff knows the products already, it doesn’t cost much to get a Flip Mino, and you can bribe your staff to talk into the mic with little more than donuts.

But, there are…

There is a wave of interactive video shopping experiments running across the web. Retailers are looking for ways to differentiate their online presence and create a more compelling shopping experience online.  Interactive video ads fit the bill.

But, as marketers, how useful is this technology in achieving business objectives?

Quick quiz: what encoding standard do your online videos have? Don’t know? Well, until recently, that could have cost you – to the tune of 6 figures or more.

Few marketers have time to worry about the backend technologies that drive video on your site. But, these protocols could have had large impacts on your bottom line. Imagine getting an invoice for tens of thousands of dollars from MPEG-LA or Google, owner of On2.