So your crisp, high-quality video is ready, but what use is all that investment if it is not placed at the right place?

As I allegorically stated in a previous piece, commissioning a top quality video without having it distributed through the right channels is akin to a Hollywood star actress attending the premiere of her latest blockbuster movie in a beautiful gown but failing to use the red carpet where she can turn and twirl in front of the paparazzi and the cheering crowds clutching the barricades.

In the above referenced article, I noted the need for you to know where your audiences are, where they usually hang out in the digital world. Logically, where they are or hang out in digispace, that’s exactly where your video should be distributed. Again, this is an obvious thing to do but it’s often not effectively done to achieve appropriate and desired results.

With technology and technology adoption changing at a pace faster than fibre optic, brands and organisations have to be quick on the mark with how and where they reach and engage their audiences.

At this moment in marketing history, brand engagement is mostly through video content. Video content is now audiences’ main watering hole – in the Safari park sense. And with the widespread use of mobile devices, video is consumed on the go – wherever, whenever.

(Although TV has for long been nick-named the small screen - compared with the big screen of cinema, undoubtedly, in the truest sense in present times there is now the REAL small screen: mobile devices.)

So the point is that, increasingly, audiences are choosing to engage with brands through video content – a phenomenon catalysed by the proliferation of mobile devices, better internet connection and natural human preference.

According to research by YouTube (as retrieved from www.digitalsherpa.com):

  • 80% of online visitors will watch a video, while only 20 percent will actually read content in its entirety;
  • A website is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of a search engine results page if it includes video;
  • 90% of users say that seeing a video about a product is helpful in the decision process;
  • 75% of users visit the marketer’s website after viewing a video.

So where and how should you distribute your video?

Apart from the traditional video sharing and social destinations such as Vimeo, YouTube, Dailymotion, Brightcove, Viddler, Blinkx, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flikr, etc., videos can now be distributed on mobile messaging apps such as Snapchat, WeChat, KakaoTalk, WhatsApp and similar apps – for spot advertising, sharing with friends, family and loved ones. This is mainly for people to view, share fun moments and engage with your brand and thus positively influence themselves and their friends and family to engage with you.

You can also distribute your video for direct reach and impact through tie-ups with websites and online forums that have audiences relevant to your brand, product or service. For example, if you are marketing family products and services, you can collaborate with Mumsnet, Netmums and the like, to undertake well-targeted video marketing campaigns. If you are targeting young people, then distribute your video on social media sites and messaging apps patronised by young students and other youths, university and student union websites/micro-sites, youth clubs (through some form of organisational collaboration), etc.

And then, there are some great video distribution platforms you can use to make the job of distribution as easy as drinking water – if within your budget.

One such platform is OneLoad. This distribution platform aptly captures its service in a catchy tagline: “Upload once. Distribute anywhere.” And, as it states on its website, the platform takes the pain out of video distribution by delivering your videos and metadata to more than 20 of the most important video destinations on the web. Upload once and OneLoad will encode your video and deliver it everywhere at once.

The service also enables you to boost your video SEO and manage all your metadata in one place, and gain insight with video analytics (you see all of your video views across all sites in one place). And OneLoad even undertakes competitive intelligence for your online video – to keep an eye on any YouTube channel and get daily email reports on daily trends and performance.

Other distribution platforms in the market are StartCut and Hey!Spread.

The conclusion of the whole matter is: don’t produce a great video and leave it in an obscure place, or on your website and the oft-mentioned YouTube channel.

Put your video wherever your audience is.

 

By Jake Addison, Director of Strategy at Lighthouse 12. 

 

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