Web TV & The Squamish Oceanfront
With people turning to the internet for entertainment more as time goes on—whether it be to socialize, look at photos, read articles or to watch 'TV' (as we will discuss in this article)—the role of an online marketer continues to change. Simple blog posts or, even more recently, a short wall post or tweet, are quite often not enough to engage and retain the targeted audience.
Content is king and when combined with a platform that delivers such fantastic rich media, it is only natural to see an increase in people choosing to watch 'TV' online. However, rather than TV of the traditional variety, including soap operas, full length movies and reality programs (how is Big Brother even still being watched??), more and more viewers are enjoying online television in the form of 'webisodes' (a.k.a. podcasts). These 'webisodes' can either be informative of a product or service, document an event or tell a short story (or combine all of the above).
Webisodes are a great method of engaging people for a short period of time. Generally from 1:30 to 3:00 minutes, the goal is to have a video that gets people fired up about what an organization is doing, generates brand awareness and excels in the search engines—yes, the search engines scan video sites like Youtube and Vimeo as well.
We recently began filming a web series for our client, the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation, focusing on interviews with user groups that currently use the land at the Squamish Oceanfront. The goal, aside from the positives of webisodes mentioned above, is to showcase just how people currently use this magnificent natural amenity, whilst getting their opinions on the progression of the oceanfront and informing fellow Squamish residents of each user group's stance and aspirations for the lands.
Our first filming session was intended to be used as action shots for our interview with Jen Segger, local endurance athlete and Norm Hann of Mountain Surf Adventures. Jen, Norm and a group of paddleboarders, 'Stand Up 4 Coffee' on Friday mornings, throughout the summer, as a great way to start their weekends off on the right foot. The filming went quite well and we thought, 'why not put together a webisode just on that itself?' This is our first in a series of webisodes, showcasing the different user groups of the Squamish Oceanfront.
Rich media on the web continues to take off and media such as short videos are proving very positive for companies and organizations, whether within their social media campaigns or simply to build upon brand awareness. Give it a try, portray your company's style in the video, show people behind the scenes of an organization, provide an entertaining source of information or just provide entertainment. Once a webisode is peppered throughout your social media avenues, or simply on a blog, more brand awareness can be gained, a larger following can be created and these result in a more committed and informed, customer base. Follow this up with somewhat of a regular series and watch the retention rate of customers and 'followers' stay remarkably high, while still engaging new viewers. It is a great method of reaching out to people and generating a solid following in an industry.
Paddle board the Squamish Oceanfront to Britannia Beach from SODC on Vimeo.
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