In The
Beginning There Was Marketing
Anyone in business who has any interest in using the
Web to further his or her business is well aware of "search engine
optimization." Not a day goes by that my email in-box isn't loaded with
information on how to get the best search engine results, and not a week
goes by that a client or potential client doesn't request that their
website be not just search friendly but search engine fanatical.
For some time we have been preaching the importance of
delivering the marketing message and that your message should not be
corrupted or distorted by techniques aimed at attracting search engine
robots while driving away real people who may actually be potential
customers.
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Now I realize that in many circles this attitude is
considered outright heresy, but hopefully there are a few marketing
types around that understand websites have to deliver more than
miscellaneous random eyeballs; websites have to deliver a message that
is memorable, understandable, useable, and if you're really good at your
job, information that can be incorporated into your audiences' belief
system.
With that in mind we were pleasantly surprised when
Google the primary target of this SEO obsessive compulsive frenzy of
technical slight-of-hand announced that they were instituting Google
Video Ads and to add a little icing on the cake, they purchased YouTube
adding to their already considerable ínvestment in Google Video.
Somebody at the big "G" thinks video is a viable Web-medium even if the
purveyors of search engine fool's gold would have you believe otherwise.
The list of companies, including Forbes, Amazon,
Wyeth, and Ford, delivering Web-audio and Web-video grows daily and we
are not just talking about major corporations. Small companies are using
multimedia to get the edge on their largër competitors who still have
their heads buried in the search engine optimization sand.
Acknowledging All The Issues
In developing our campaign to promote the use of
Web-audio and Web-video as an effective method of delivering marketing
messages over the Web, we identified four key issues that would have to
be addressed:
(a) We had to demonstrate that website design
was about delivering the marketing message and not just search engine
optimization.
(b) We had to demonstrate that even small and
medium-sized companies could afford professional Web-audio and Web-video
and that it wasn't cost prohibitive.
(c) We had to demonstrate that professional
Web-audio and Web-video required more than just the ability to use a
video camera and that professional multimedia story-telling required a
unique set of creative skills and technical ability not often found
in-house in most businesses.
(d) We had to demonstrate that the development and
production of creative multimedia marketing and professional webmedia
content had to do with talent and experience, not size. These were the
challenges that informed all our subsequent decisions.
The
Concept
In order to make people pay attention to what we had
to say we needed a concept that was both familiar and edgy. Sure we were
sticking a finger in the eye of all the search engine optimizers but you
can't be afraid to make a strong statement if you want people to sit-up
and take notice, especially if you are fighting a tidal wave of
misconception.
The fact that we were telling people that delivering
your marketing message on the Web using multimedia was more important
than search engine optimization was enough to make what we were doing
controversial, but we also needed a vehicle that allowed us to present
the opposing point of view. What we needed was a recognizable style that
demonstrated our ability to deliver a memorable, comprehensible,
useable, belief-altering message in the medium we were promoting.
Since we primarily use Macintosh computers for all our
work and only use PCs to chëck for compatibility, we thought we would
pay homage to the brilliant Mac commercials running on television. The
format worked for us because it allowed us to create two characters of
our own that would present opposing points of view over a series of
videos that would comprise the campaign. We knew that some people would
react unfavorably to our using such a familiar format but we figured it
would demonstrate how even small but talented production companies can
deliver high quality multimedia Web-based marketing on tight budgets.
A Market
Primed and Ready
Our efforts in advocating the power of using the human
voice and image to deliver marketing stories over the Web was finally
getting through to companies who were fed-up with the cost and
ineffectiveness of continually chasing the holy grail of search engine
optimization. Company presidents and marketing managers were starting to
listen, starting to realize there was another way. This campaign was
aimed at pushing these business executives to act on what they already
knew: good marketing is about delivering the message, not keyword
density.
Preproduction, Production, and Post Production
We wanted to make sure we had a distinctive sound by
composing our own signature theme music and creating our own cast of
characters with a distinctive message promoting the concept of
multimedia. In fact these planned web-commercials really don't sell
anything, all they do is make people aware that search engine
optimization is not the only thing they should be thinking about when
they are developing a website or webmedia campaign. In short, the medium
was the message.
The use of Web-audio and Web-video is the best way to
implement this kind of marketing presentation. We sat down and started
to write and before we knew it we had eighteen scripts each featuring a
different issue in the search engine optimization versus multimedia
controversy.
The next step was finding the right actors to play the
part. Whereas Web-audio allows us to draw upon a vast number of voice
talents across North American, video is much more limiting, especially
if we wanted to keep the cost down to a reasonable amount. Even if we
were prepared to blow the budget on actors, we knew our clients
wouldn't, so it was important to demonstrate that we could get the job
cast at a sensible cost. The casting proved to be an interesting
exercise of frustration and humor. We had all types of applicants
ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous to the outright bizarre, but
ultimately we were able to find two fine young actors who understood
exactly what we were doing and who took to the parts as if they were
written specifically for them.
One of our greatest assets as a firm is that we do
everything from concept to implementation, including writing, videoing,
editing, graphic, motion, and website design; but if you want to produce
a campaign at a sensible price you still have to be careful you don't
write overly elaborate scripts that require multiple sets, locations or
hard to acquire props. That said we still had to find a cute dog we
could trust on set, links of various kinds of sausages, a hard to put
together toy, and best of all a real straightjacket from an interesting
website that specialized in rather strange items of clothing.
The shoot itself went extremely smoothly and we ended
up shooting all eighteen videos in less than two days. We assumed some
of the videos that looked good on paper just wouldn't translate to the
screen, but to our surprise every one of the scripts worked. We knew
what we wanted to say and weren't afraid to say it, even though we were
flying in the face of conventional wisdom.
While Josh Bader our Director of Photography was
digitizing, color correcting and editing the raw footage, Simon Bader
our Director of Audio composed a number of theme music compositions to
choose from for our signature sound. Once all the pieces were put
together into a series of finished videos, we were ready to implement
the campaign.
Implementation
The first set of
six videos were uploaded to
Google Video and YouTube as well as onto a
webpage that was created to
house the full campaign of eventually eighteen videos, each presenting a
different issue in the search engine optimization versus multimedia
controversy. Versions of the videos were also used to create a Google
Video Ad campaign.
Credits
Produced by MRPwebmedia
Executive Producer: Jerry Bader
Written By: Jerry and Josh Bader
Director of Photography and Visual Design: Josh Bader
Director of Audio and Music Composer: Simon Bader
SEO Guy: Sean Kaufmann
Multimedia Guy: Erez Bowers
About
The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRP webmedia, a website design firm
that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
www.mrp webmedia.com/ads,
www.136 words.com
www.sonic personality.com.
Contact at
info@mrp webmedia.com or
telephone (905) 764-1246.