MotionMasters Blog/News

Did you catch Betty White’s hilarious commercial for Snickers during the Super Bowl? It’s gone viral and there’s even talk about her hosting Saturday Night Live. She’s a hot commodity in the television world and she’s also one of the many talented superstars we’ve had the pleasure to work with over the years.

From the MotionMasters video vault, here are a couple of pro bono spots that we shot on our back porch. Betty did her usual great job and her co-stars in the spots are pretty cute, too. Take a look.

Are you interested in using video as part of your e-marketing plan? You’re not alone. A lot of our clients are calling with questions about it. With recent advances in technology, it is becoming more viable, but there are still some drawbacks. We thought it would be helpful to provide an update on the where things stand.

Video email always used to mean a message with a link to a site: click on link, wait a few seconds and then see the video referenced in the email. Roundabout, but industry norm, right?

Things are changing.

There are now two categories of video email: click-to-view video (as described above) and video in email (video is embedded to play within email; no click-through).

But, neither Flash, Java or any of the other traditional video-playing technologies work with video embedded in email. There are some alternatives, however.

An animated GIF sometimes approximates a video-like experience but without sound. Animated images/videos work everywhere except Outlook 2007; are subject to image blocking and are problematic when viewed on mobile devices.

For now, animated GIFs are the only realistic choice for getting videos to “play” in email. But new options are on the way. For example:

Google just announced a new feature in which Gmail identifies YouTube links to allow users to view the video without click-through. This suggests that inboxes may eventually open up to embedded video content where either the sender or the video source is clearly identifiable and trusted.

As certification and authentication processes evolve, we might soon see wider availability of “true” video email…But maybe the important question is not how to put videos in email, but whether you should put videos in email. We’ll discuss that topic in our next entry.

Did you see the Jan. 15 story in the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail about the filming of an educational video called “Deadly Driving Distractions”?

That’s Part Two. Here’s Part One: in mid-December, we set up and shot three student-discussion groups led by our former intern, Concord University student John Meadows.

We brought students from area high schools together and asked them about their driving habits. They were candid, sometimes shockingly so. When we asked them how often they checked their cell phones, the median answer was once every three minutes.

We asked the students to turn off their phones while the discussion group was in progress and then asked if it were difficult to be without instant-messaging. They all agreed that it was really hard and asked for a phone break! (Some of the students in our discussion group revealed that the average number of texts they send each day is anywhere from 200 to 400.)

Ward Hiney and Wesley Poole were each manning a camera to capture the fast-paced discussion. With the three discussion groups held in early December and an interview session (as reported in the Daily Mail on 1/15/10), the shooting for “Distracted Driving” is now moving into the expert interview stage and B-roll shooting. If you have stories or incidents involving distracted driving, send them to us via this Web site and let us contact you to talk about them.
Go to our Flickr site to see all of the pictures.

Want to maximize your online presence? Add video to your site. Not only will an online video draw more visitors to your site, it will keep them there longer and encourage return visits and sharing of your content.

Consider these stats:
- as a nation, we watch about 16 billion Web videos each month
- that’s up 25% from just a year ago
- 80% of online viewers recall seeing a video
- 52% take action and
- 16% of online video viewers make a purchase.

LET’S TALK TRANSMEDIA

Transmedia is using multiple platforms and adapting various productions to reach—and build—an aggregate audience.

Engaging in transmedia is simply a matter of telling your story and distributing your brand message via traditional and new media outlets: radio, blogs, earned media, TV, Twitter—and a video on your site!

VSEO

When you put a three-minute video on your site, you significantly improve your rankings on Google and other search engines. It’s also been reported that a video can raise response rates by more than 100%!

Companies of all sizes and types, with products or services to sell, or a B2B message to convey, are good candidates for online videos, including law offices, retail establishments, ad agencies or colleges, churches and universities.

“If you invest in just one new marketing effort before the year is out, make it an online video,” says Diana Sole Walko, CEO, MotionMasters.

It’s a good thing the MotionMasters crew is accustomed to shooting under rigorous and challenging conditions because the sight—and smell—of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s cooking is nothing short of torture. Tapped by ABC/Disney for another day of shooting Oliver’s upcoming TV shows, we stayed busy from the first rough chop of the vegetables to the final stir fry in an al fresco kitchen set up near Huntington’s Pullman Square.

According to MotionMasters Videographer Wesley Poole, “We got lots of great angles and close-ups of the food, but we never got to taste any of it because we were shooting 100 percent of the time. I was starving when we finished!”

MotionMasters also shot interviews and cover video for an EPK, an electronic press kit that will be used by ABC affiliates to promote “Jamie’s Food Revolution.”

One hundred woks were set up by Oliver’s student chefs and hundreds more of the local residents turned out to prepare a healthful, delicious meal—and see a TV show in the making.

“It’s a very big production,” said MM Executive Producer Brian Peterson of the ABC/Disney shoot. “Well coordinated and well executed. We’ve done two shoots for the ‘Food Revolution’ series. Maybe the third time will be the charm and we’ll finally get to taste something.”