NY – A Storm Story Without Words

Okay, I’m a little late to the party on this gem of a short film by Filmmaker Jamie Stuart. He’s receiving national attention for this short film he made about the recent East Coast blizzard. Stuart shot “Idiot with a Tripod” on December 26th in New York. In this three minute film, Stuart is able to wonderfully capture the post-Christmas snowstorm.

Made as an homage, directly inspired by Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera,” it was shot and edited in a little over a 24 hour period. And, by later that following day, December 27th, links to the film were being passed around on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Strategically sent to film critic Roger Ebert making him one of the first to see “Idiot with a Tripod.” Ebert thinks the film should win an Academy Award for best live-action short subject. Enjoy …

It’s certainly impressive the way Stuart is able to tell a story without any words and pulls it together with an excellent choice of music. There are no spoken words, no graphics, not even any natural sound, yet the viewer sees a story through the images on the screen. We are able to follow the progression as the storm impacts life in New York. Nice work!

Here is a link to Vertov’s original 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera,” should you wish to watch.

Engage Your Audience With Stories

This post is a guest post by Roger Dooley, a writer, speaker and researcher in marketing, and in particular the use of neuroscience and behavioral research. This post was first published on PRSAY, the executive blog of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

By Roger Dooley
I tend to be more of a consumer of public relations than a creator. I’ve done my share of press releases and media interviews, but I’m bombarded with many times that quantity of public relations messages — news releases, book review requests, story suggestions and so on. Sadly, most of what I see is ineffective.

Want to craft a public relations message that engages the recipient? Use our understanding of the human brain to create that message. While there are many ways to play to brains of those readers, likely the most effective single technique is to tell a story.

Stories have a special appeal to human brains. The ability to process information from fellow humans was an important evolutionary advantage to our early ancestors. While they learned from direct experience like other creatures, they could also learn from the experiences of others. Whether this involved avoiding the lair of a dangerous animal, or locating a source of food, being able to readily absorb this second-hand information made these early communicators far more efficient than other species.

This preference for stories affects the way we process information, even in today’s high-tech environment. You can read statistics about the reliability of Toyota cars in reliable publications like Consumer Reports, but if your neighbor recounts a detailed horror story about a transmission problem and how he made three trips to the dealer to get it fixed, that one story will outweigh all the numeric data.

Our brains learn far better from specific examples than abstract information.

Brain scans show the potency of stories, even when they are merely text on a page. In a post about the efficacy of stories in advertising, I describe research showing that stories actually activate the parts of our brain related to the content. If we read about pedaling a bicycle up a hill, our brain will mimic that activity even if our legs remain still.

Never underestimate the power of text when it tells a story. One of the top-rated ads of this year’s Super Bowl was Google’s “Parisian Love” commercial. As I described in my post, “Power of Text,” there are no actors or CGI animation, no cute animals, no zooming cars, nothing but a series of words typed into a search boxes and their search results. A “neuro-engagement” study using EEG brain scans placed the Google ad in the top-five, ahead of almost all of the big-budget productions. This ad’s secret of success was that it told a compelling story.

One remarkable characteristic of spoken stories is that they actually synchronize the brains of the speaker and listener. If the listener is following the speaker’s story, his brain activity will become almost synchronous with that of the speaker.

In short, whether your goal is to inform or persuade, you first have to connect with your audience by engaging their brains. Statistics and dry facts won’t do that. There’s simply no better way to initiate and maintain that engagement than to present your message in the form of a story.

Tell Me A Story: How Video Ads Can Drive The Best Results Online

by Anupam Gupta

Successful online advertising isn’t just about the channel — from search to display to video — it’s about storytelling. When ads incorporate narrative elements, they increase interaction rates and the audience’s willingness to consider the product, react, or even move towards a purchase. Savvy advertisers know that nothing tells a story better than video. I would propose that the power of storytelling through sight, sound and motion is the reason why video is the fastest growing form of online advertising. eMarketer estimates that online video ad spending will grow 48% to $1.5 billion this year and hit $5.5 billion by 2014.

It’s now easier than ever for advertisers to choose online video, whether they’re national retailers or political candidates at the local level just beginning these efforts. The issue isn’t why use online video to tell your story, but how online video should tell your story. Even more important, how do you use online video to further your marketing strategy, tell a great story and generate concrete results? Let’s start by agreeing that not all online video advertising is created equal — or equal to every task — and start to build a holistic online video advertising strategy. Storytelling should move your audience emotionally and logically through the purchase funnel. Understanding how video works across that funnel and where to apply your resources at each stage is the key to unlocking that value.

Introduction – Create Awareness. The beginning of a story should grab viewers’ attention and introduce them to new places, characters, and concepts. At this stage, your video advertising must be disruptive and impactful. In-stream video is most effective in this case because it takes a short time to introduce and create awareness of your product or service. Much like television, the ad is presented in the course of viewing. So, if you are introducing a new product, then focus on driving awareness via broad in-stream buys. The goal is to disrupt, be brief, and be broad-based. And how do you know if you were successful? Research can clearly show when audiences exposed to your advertising have a higher awareness of your product than those who saw nothing.

For the rest of this article, click HERE.

Surging Forward When Times are Tough

Great tips from an article by Seth Kahan for not only surviving tough economic times, but thriving during them. Seth Kahan is the author of the Washington Post bestseller, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out.

What makes tough times a good time to surge forward in business? Here are six reasons:

1. When times are tough, your clients are looking for those who can make a real difference in their lives. Value is at a premium. People are desperate for real solutions and will pay accordingly.

2. While everyone is retreating, you can move forward just by holding your ground.

3. You have the most to gain, and can often count on a multiplier when the market comes back.

4. When everyone else is surging forward, your progress is minimized by the successes of the surrounding market. Similarly, your successes are much more noticeable in a difficult time.

5. When people are hunkering down, you can leverage your activity.

6. You are forced to focus, be selective in your investments. Your efforts tend to count more, to be more valuable to you.

So, how do you move forward decisively in tough times? Every surge has five components:

1. Timespan. Start with a launch and end with a deadline. Creating a solid beginning and end makes it possible to push hard, giving you the time boundaries you need to create leverage.

2. The anchor. Strong surges are connected to a real event such as a holiday, a news event, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

3. Bundles of value. Provide multiple ways for your clients to get in on the action and get the results they yearn for (e.g., a symposium, a webinar, a book, an engagement, a retail sale and a wholesale event).

4. Multiple media. Reach out to people through several channels: screen-to-screen, voice-to-voice and face-to-face.

5. Progressive calls to action. Make it clear what your clients can do to get access to the value they want, and if they like what they get provide them with a path that generates greater and greater reward.

Follow-through is particularly important. After your surge is launched, be ready to jump in when your clients respond. They expect immediate response and when you deliver it, they are in your hands.

The economy is coming back, but it’s not back yet. Use this opportunity to initiate new value. Surge forward aggressively, make your mark, and build your business.

Seth Kahan is the author of the Washington Post bestseller, Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out. He provides strategy consulting to business owners and mentoring to independent consultants. More information can be found on his website, VisionaryLeadership.com.

Ten compelling reasons to add video to your website and beyond.

Here at StoryFirst we share every day our belief that telling your story via web video makes a big difference in your business. It makes your website more human, more accessible, and more appealing. And, when engaged in your other communications channels your videos will improve the effectiveness of those as well.

However telling stories via video is what we do at StoryFirst, and you’d probably expect us to say that. So, to support our story of “the power of web video” – here are ten top statistics from research findings of recent industry studies. We think you’ll agree that these statistics make quite a compelling case for web video to tell your stories!

1. “Brands using online video have seen lifts of 20% to 40% in terms of incremental buying, with conversions that are twice the rate of other media.” (1)
2. 21% of retail web video viewers make a purchase online. (1)
3. 26% of retail web video viewers visit a store. (2)
4. 21% of retail web video viewers request more information. (1)
5. Video landing pages generate four to seven times higher engagement and response rates than static image and text landing pages. (3)
6. Well-optimized video is fifty-three times more likely than text to appear on the front page of Google. (4)
7. 68% of the top 50 Internet retailers use web video. (5)
8. 71% of Internet users watch video. (1)
9. 65% of all videos are viewed between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. (1)
10. 33% of middle managers under 50 view work-related videos every day. (1)

SOURCES:
(1) Chris Crafton, CMO, eCorpTV.com, reported by Target Marketing at a Philadelphia
Direct Marketing Association networking and breakfast meeting.
(2) BIA/Kelsey User View study data, February 2010, reported by Turnhere.com.
(3) SearchEngineWatch, February 2010.
(4) Forrester Research, January 2010.
(5) Internet Retailer, July 2010.

What are your experiences with using video on your website and to tell your stories? Please share with us!
And, if you’d like to talk further about how web video can help you or your organization in Madison, give us a call – In Madison, WI 608-576-0174 or Austin, TX 512-782-9992.

Mad Men’s Don Draper Would Be Dead Well Before The Online Video Era, Says Show Creator

Love this column by Grant Crowell over at REELSEO. If you enjoy Mad Men as much as we do at StoryFirst, you’ll love this read as well!

By Grant Crowell at REELSEO …
I was the first reporter to gleam this information from Matt Weiner, creator of the critically acclaimed TV show Mad Men at the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas, as part of the 2nd day opening session titled “In Conversation With: Matthew Weiner.” Read about what Matt says are the parallels, and differences, with the 1960’s Madison Avenue age depicted in the popular show, to 2010’s “online video age.”

Yes, I admit it… MAD MEN is a show I’ve watched on a near-religious basis, since being introduced to it during the beginning of its 2nd season on television (and rented all the back episodes on Netflix since). I’ve even watched all of the video parodies of the show online. You probably already know about the SNL clips, and the Sesame Street and Simpsons parodies, but I actually find the Mad Women parody to be my fav.

For the rest of this great read, click here.

Mobile Video to Double Reach by 2013

$1.34 billion in revenues predicted by 2014

The population of mobile video viewers in the US will grow nearly 30% in 2010 to reach 23.9 million, according to eMarketer’s forecasts. The still represents a reach of only 7.7% of the total population and less than 10% of mobile phone users, but those numbers are set to double by 2013 and increase still further in 2014.

The number of mobile video viewers, which includes people of any age who watch video content on mobile phones through mobile browser, subscriptions, downloads or applications at least once per month, will continue growing in the double digits for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8% from 2009 through 2014.

“Video is in many ways the most fragmented of the three primary mobile content categories,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst. “Video consumption on mobile phones can take place through various channels, including paid and free applications, mobile websites, pay-per-view downloads and subscriptions through mobile carriers.”

To read the rest please click here.

Establish Trust With A Front Page Web Video

Putting a web video on page one of your website is not about information, it is not about product presentation, it is about trust establishment. As this article will explain, giving visitors to your website a chance to see you the owner – face-to-face in a web video – will immediately begin to establish trust in you and facilitate their decision to want to do business with you.

It may be a surprise to realize that people can have trust in someone who is unethical or even criminal. Having trust is more about believing in another person. However, the degree to which one person trusts another is a reflection of belief in the other person’s honesty, fairness, and benevolence. Important for establishing initial trust in business is that fact that a failure in trust is more easily forgiven if it is due to a failure in competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. As a result, sometimes a business providing inferior services may fare better with their customers than a company providing superior services – at least temporarily – if people feel the first company is honest and means well.

The phenomenon of trust is summed up in the following definition. It is described as a “heuristic decision rule, allowing the human to deal with complexities that would require unrealistic effort in rational reasoning.” Lets break this definition down. Heuristic processes are trial and error approaches to problem solving which begin with the most accessible solution and go on to another solution, only if the first solution doesn’t solve the problem. In terms of business, if a customer finds himself interacting with a business owner that he intrinsically wishes to trust because the owner appears benevolent, good-natured, and well meaning – then the customer will prefer to trust the owner and do business rather than get involved into complex rational thought about what might go wrong in the business relationship.

So, what does this have to do with putting a video on page ONE of your website have to do with trust?. When a surfer goes onto your website and thinks about doing business with you – someone he’s never met – he can rapidly be won over by a short online video of you talking with him. If he is engaged by your story and connects with your personality then he will immediately wish to trust you and do business you – because that will be the easiest solution for him to take.

And this leaves us with one more important take-away lesson. A front page video needn’t trouble itself with a description of company features and benefits. It simply needs to provide a relevant reason for the user to trust the owner / business. A short 1 to 2 minute story, passionately told by the owner saying that he established the family potato chip business 30 years ago because he wanted to provide people with a crispy chip that wouldn’t lose its favor in the package is a fine example that will win trust right away.

16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing

By Amy Porterfield
Social Media Examiner

There’s no doubt that online video marketing is on the rise. Numerous studies and statistics prove that video works. In fact, Forrester Research found that videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages. That’s a pretty impressive stat!

Online video marketing is attractive to many businesses today for numerous reasons. Making videos and posting them online is fairly inexpensive. Plus, online videos stay online forever. If you spend the money to record once, your video could still be getting views a year from now.

In addition, social media sites and video go hand in hand and most sites encourage video posting and sharing. The viral video opportunities are endless when you use the right strategies to create and post your videos online.

If you’re new to video, or have been thinking about flipping on your camera for the first time, here are some tips and strategies to get you going.
Six Quick Tips to Optimize Your Videos

Once you record your video, follow these tips to make sure it reaches your core audience and gets the views it deserves.

#1: Make your title count

Just like a headline to a blog post, video titles can pull powerful traffic. There are two main reasons why the title is so important. One, a great title can instantly grab a viewer’s attention. Two, when you use the appropriate keywords in your title, you are more likely to show up on search engines when people are searching for your topic. And remember Google owns YouTube, so there’s a story connection between video and searching.

#2: Provide excellent content

Take some time to think about your ideal viewer. What do you know that they’ll find valuable? What can you teach them? “How-to” videos are extremely successful because not only do they offer great value to your viewer, but also you’re able to showcase your knowledge and skill, thus positioning yourself as an expert. This is key as you continue to grow your brand.

Also, no matter how good your content is, it won’t matter if your video is too long and you lose your viewer’s attention. Try to keep them short.

In late 2009, ComScore reported that the average video was 3.8 minutes in length.

#3: Include your URL in your video

When you edit your video, take advantage of the different editing features. One easy feature is to add a text box to your video. This is where you can display your website address and it’s a great way to get exposure.

Here’s a screen shot of Mari Smith’s YouTube channel. Notice how she used a text box in her video to display key information, including her website URL at the end of her video. Smart move!

For the remainder of the article click here.

Storytelling remains Cosby’s foundation | The Augusta Chronicle

Whether writing, acting or performing his legendary standup material, Bill Cosby’s goals are always the same — he wants to communicate, educate and, most importantly, connect.

By to the gospel of Cosby, when you connect, people listen, and when they listen, they can learn. They also, in his experience, will listen better while laughing.

Cosby was born and raised in Philadelphia, received a degree in education from Temple University, and broke into the business at a time when a black comic was an anomaly. He said that desire to connect drew him to comedy from an early age.

“Where did it start?” he asked rhetorically in a recent telephone interview promoting his two stand-up performances on Sunday at Bell Auditorium. “Where did this understanding, this desire to be funny, come from? It’s certainly not something I understood growing up, but I loved hearing it. I studied it, studied how to make people laugh. It was the same as a kid playing a violin or acting or working to become a doctor. I was drawn.”

Conversationally, Bill Cosby the man is similar to Bill Cosby the performer. He’s a natural storyteller, letting information spill into tangents, sometimes seeming to meander and yet always managing to circle the narrative wagons around his point.

He said early professional inspiration came from Bob Newhart, Mel Brooks’ and Carl Reiner’s 2,000-Year-Old Man sketch, and Dick Gregory. He said he also owes a lot to an anonymous stranger encountered at a Chinese restaurant.

Click here to continue reading: Storytelling remains Cosby’s foundation | The Augusta Chronicle.