Traffic

• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month

• Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube

• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

• 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US

• YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages

• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth

• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in — whether it’s a friend, or the NBA — and keep up on their activity on the site

Mobile and Devices

• Traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011

• More than 20% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices

• 3 hours of video is uploaded per minute to YouTube from mobile devices

• YouTube is available on 350 million devices

Social

• 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute

• 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc) every week

• More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community

• Millions of videos are favorited every day

• Clicks on the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ button on YouTube have doubled since the start of 2011. For every ‘dislike,’ YouTube gets 10 ‘likes’- people like to tell other people about the stuff they love.

Is video on the web going up? Again Nielsen, “In September 2012, 162 million Americans watched online video. They spent almost seven hours of the month viewing content, streaming nearly 26 billion videos. YouTube was the top online video destination, with more than three-quarters of total viewers streaming videos through their site during the month.” Looks like now is a good time to advance one’s video presence on the web. That is just what BCI Video Productions is here to help you do. Let us show you what a difference high quality video content can make for you in 2013.

What are some of the best ways businesses can be using video?

Good video tells a story very different from text. You can do a lot of things with a well filmed and well written video. Here is a short and quick list how video can be used to change your business landscape.

1. Shoot “behind the scenes” of what goes into making your product or service. Most customers have no idea what it takes to create the products we all depend on. Not only is it important to tell your story, it can be fascinating as well. We all love a well done and great story.

2. Interview your best customers and ask them about their success with your product or service.

3. Interview your employees who are the most passionate about your projects. Let their emotions and excitement pass over to your prospects. If I know you love what you are doing I am much more likely to watch, listen and consider your ideas.

4. Create educational content that helps people better use your product or service. Give them something that helps them with what your product or service can do. Help them to see what your ideas can add to their lives.

Those are just four potential things one can do with video inside business, video will only take on a more prominent rollin in the coming years for business, and I think that if you’ve not yet done some investigating into how it can help your company reach people in different, more engaging ways, then now’s the time to get thinking about it. That’s where we come into the picture. BCI Video is in the business of making you look good. Not because you need it, but because others need to see it!

Back in the seventies, DARPA (the military research people) was tasked with figuring out how to best to teach soldiers to remember what they had learned for longer periods of time. What DARPA discovered was that to execrate the viewers ability to understand and remember information for a longer period of time, it must be conveyed in an interactive audiovisual format. Why? Because it’s the way we all learned to do anything as a child.

Any message, whether it’s commercial, educational or political, that is presented in an interactive audiovisual format will generate among its viewers comprehension and retention rates well above 90%. Text by itself is in the low 40%.

It is interesting to note that the only media form that enable both audiovisual AND interactivity is the web!

Video on the web early on was too expensive to practically do. Most web designers were formally print designers and most webmasters felt that video would clog up their data networks. Today none of this is the case.

The digital piping of the web is wide and getting wider; video signals are tiny yet still deliver excellent image quality and the cost of high definition video production on a per minute basis is very low, much more affordable than a four color print ad of any size placed with any source.

Half the battle of making your website effective is getting it seen. Web search engines give preference to sites with video on them. Why? Because searches engines know that people prefer to watch video over reading text.

So they’ll list the sites that SHOW you how to make a cake above those that only tell you how. Attesting to this is the fact that YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the web.

The web has changed the marketing paradigm. We all hate commercials and advertisements because they interrupt us from what we were doing; watching our favorite program or listening to music or a discussion.

But the web enables us to pull to us the information we want about a product or service when we want it. We pay more attention to information we’ve asked for and ignore unrequested information pushed at us.

And because we have a natural inclination to pay attention to another human face talking to us, we create familiar trust relationships in our minds with the personalities we see/hear on the screen in front of us.

We’re five to six hundred percent more likely to do what a talking face tells us to do than we are to take action from print.

Video on the web will Capture your enthusiasm for your product or service. Display your expertise in easy to understand visual ways. Convey your message directly to your prospect’s desktop, tablet or smart phone.

Short, concise videos really help to extend your company’s corporate image directly to your client’s or prospects personal space. This is what I do here at BCI Video, assist you in communicating your message in ways that are remembered and thus acted upon.  We deliver your message both said and seen the right way every day.

Customer Reference Videos

1. Video Customer Testimonials
Nothing is more compelling than seeing and hearing your customer (ideally in their own environment) extol the virtues of your products and services or explaining how you helped them achieve their business goals. These videos usually run from fifteen-second snippets to a minute and are typically combined with or used to support other marketing material.

2. Video Success Stories Similar to a customer testimonial these videos run between one and two minutes and follow an interview format where the person on screen answers questions posed by an interviewer just off-camera. These videos are usually delivered as stand-alone marketing support materials and are often grouped with other customer success stories.

3. Video Case Study
A video case study combines customer testimonials with more a more in-depth explanation of how your company’s products and services helped your customer be successful. These case studies usually incorporate two voices—a narrator and the voice of your customer—and can run anywhere from two to five minutes. The video structure follows the same “Problem, Solution, Benefit” format found in a printed case study.

4. Man-on-the-street Interviews
These videos are typically done to promote events and to build buzz around coming events but can also be employed to capture “spontaneous” responses to targeted questions that help promote your product or service or to help differentiate the benefits of your brand compared to the real or imagined problems associated with your competitors. Soft drink companies, phone companies, fast food companies often use this format in advertising. Sometimes they are genuine. Sometimes they are completely staged. “Authenticity” is becoming a style.

5. Customer Presentations.
If one of your customers is presenting at a conference, trade show, event, or even in your offices and is talking about your products or services either directly with you or indirectly as part of a larger discussion this may be a perfect opportunity to capture the presentation of video (with permission, of course) to repurpose on your website and intranet.

Product and Service Promotion

6. Product Presentations
Product (or service) presentation videos are typically employed early in the buying cycle. Product or service presentations focus on benefits and talk from more from your customer’s perspective. They should speak clearly to how your product solves a specific business, personal or economic problem that your prospect is experiencing. They are used to help your customers and prospects differentiate between the benefits of your products and services to those of your competitors.

7. Product Demonstrations Product demos show how your product works and highlight the features that differentiate it from that of your competitors. Software screen captures, a 3D cut-away, or a high impact demo by a presenter are all excellent ways of showing how your product or service works. These videos are typically used to influence a prospect who is relatively far along in the sales cycle. In technology marketing these videos would be targeted at the technical approvers who need to understand how something works. In consumer marketing these would be targeted at buyers of larger ticket items who are further along the sales cycle.

8. Product Reviews
The best product reviews are trusted third party reviews. Video reviews can be found anywhere from YouTube to various business portals. To the extent they help you, they should be referenced. You can also partner with trusted third parties to create product reviews for your own products.

9. Visual Stories
Quickly rising in popularity, visual stories employ illustrations, animations and motion graphics with a voice-over to explain complex products or services in a simple and compelling manner.

There is a lot that can be done and there is a lot that is being done to make video an even more effective tool. Consider these ideas carefully and improve your business.

“This report provides one of the broadest looks at how consumers watch video, to date,” says Matt O’Grady, who oversees the integration of Nielsen’s TV, online and mobile audience measurement. “The research reveals how connected consumers all over the world are expanding their video experience across screens.”

Key Findings

• Online Video: approximately 70% of global online consumers watch online video; but North Americans and Europeans lag in adoption. More than half of global online consumers watch online video in the workplace.
• Mobile Video: is already used by 11% of global online consumers: penetration is highest in Asia-Pacific and among consumers in their late 20s.
• Tablet PCs: are expanding the definition of mobile video. Globally, 11% of online consumers already own or plan to purchase a tablet PC (such as an iPad) in the next year.
• Television: is a universally important platform for video consumption, with connected consumers in many markets spending 4+ hours per day watching television.
• HDTV (High-Definition TV): is improving the TV viewing experience for as many as 30% of global online consumers. Adoption is highest among older consumers and in North America, where HD content has proliferated.
• 3DTV (Three-Dimensional TV): will have a small but important audience: 12% of global online consumers own or have definite intent to purchase a 3DTV in the next year.
• “Over the Top” TV: televisions with Internet connections are gaining interest. About one in five (22%) global online consumers owns or has definite interest in buying a television with Internet connection in the next year.

For the first time, this report identifies important differences in cross-platform video behavior by region and country:

• Claimed TV viewership is higher than average in the emerging BRIC economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China, and lower than average in many developed European markets
• North America and Europe appear to lag slightly behind other regions in the use of online and mobile video
• Connected consumers in Asia-Pacific are 45 percent more likely to use mobile video than the global average
• Claimed interest for Tablet PCs is highest in MEAP markets: Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. Connected Pakistanis are twice as likely as the global population to say they own or are interested in a Tablet PC.
• Connected Latin American consumers express above average interest in TVs with Internet connections. Online Consumers in Colombia, in particular, are very interested in acquiring this technology.

Now is a good time to use video as a integral part of any web page. BCI Video can help you define the  right approach, then video can work its magic.

1. Video to Enhance Your Website

Use video to turn a static website into a dynamic, interactive destination. You may consider a variety of  video approaches to enhance your website, including: Creating a promotional video that explains who you are and what you do. Consider a  website tour that tells visitors what they can find on the website, and where it is. Invite people in through a virtual tour that lets web visitors see what your physical location is like.

2. Video to Demonstrate a Product or Activity

How-to videos are some of the most popular videos on the web, and businesses can use them to educate customers. There are many ways to use video to educate customers on how to use your product, and also save time and money on customer service. Use video to demonstrate how to install or set up your product. Use video to show your product in action. Use video to train clients and staff remotely.

3. Video to Share Your Expertise

Many businesses have created a marketing niche for themselves by using video to establish their expertise on a particular topic. Create educational videos that provide visitors with in-depth information related to your industry. Produce a video newscast updating viewers on the latest headlines in your field of work. Aggregate and publish other expert videos related to your topic.

4. Video to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Search engines love video, and with proper video SEO, you can use video to drive traffic to your website. Use targeted keywords when titling and tagging your videos. Create a variety of videos, each focusing on a different search term. Use multiple video sharing sites to increase links back to your main website

5. Video to Earn Money

If you have the right content and access to the right audience, you can use video to earn substantial money from your website. Some ways to use video to earn money include: Charge visitors to download informational or entertainment videos. Place advertising on video pages. Sell sponsorship for a popular video podcast.

6. Video to Promote a Sale or Special Event

Many companies create a special video ad to let customers know about an upcoming sale, you can use video to advertise specials on your website: Use video to show off new products you’re selling. Include promo codes within videos to reward viewers. Use video to notify customers of upcoming specials.

7. Video to Give Your Business a Personal Look

It’s easy to use video to give a personal look to your corporate website. Some ways to use video to communicate with web viewers include: A short video welcoming visitors to your website. Profile videos that introduce your executives and employees. Customer testimonial videos that communicate your company’s value.

8. Video to Engage Customers With Your Brand

You can use video as an interactive medium to get consumers engaged with and excited about your brand. After all, you don’t have to be the one producing the videos we are here to do it with you! Consider starting a video contest to promote your brand. create videos of your customers using your product. Invite your customers to embed your videos on their own web pages.

9. Video to Encourage Regular Visits to Your Website

You can use video to get people to come back to your website over and over again. By providing regular, quality content, visitors will come back again and again to see what new videos you’re offering. Try this, produce daily (or weekly) video podcasts with timely information. Use a RSS feed to update visitors about new videos. Use videos to promote events and recent activities at your business

10. Video to Stand Out From the Competition

Web video is becoming more and more widespread, but there are still many industries that don’t use video as a common practice. If your competitors don’t yet use video, you’ll be able to set yourself apart by using video on your website.

This certainly is not an exhaustive list of ways that video can be applied to hold your audiences attention. If any of these ideas sound interesting to you give us a call or shoot us an email and we will assist you in every way possible.

My job was to create a video that helped New Dawn Technologies educate its viewers and create a warm persona at the same time. Filming and directing this video was easy, because New Dawn is a great company. Take a look at this video by going to my Gallery page and clicking on the same picture you see above.

For over 15 years, New Dawn Technologies has served communities worldwide by providing leading edge web-based, on-premise, and cloud-based case management solutions for governments. They offer case management software, data sharing, e-filing, e-payment, e-discovery, and public access solutions for every type of government agency—from criminal courts to specialty, civil, and municipal courts; attorney generals and county prosecutors to public defenders; community corrections and probation to child, family, and health services.

I have been privileged to work with Emmy award winning director Lee Groberg on this Utah video production.

It was my job to film (in HD) the making of Sweetwater Rescue along with doing the commercial photography for the project. After all the filming and interviews were done, my job continued as editor for the TV program introducing the Sweetwater Rescue.

Preview my work on this show by going to my Gallery page and click on the same picture as you see above.

One of the hardships for me was filming in temperatures that reached minus 40 degrees F. It was a real eye opener to actually feel the effect of nature as the 1856 pioneers felt. Our hardships were nothing compared to theirs in recreating the events of history…yet it was more than enough!

The following is a historical perspective regarding what the documentary is about. This is a fascinating tale of dedication and poor decision making, hardship, death, sacrifice, and love. It’s all in Sweetwater Rescue.

Historical Perspective

Utah Territory 1855. Church and Territory leader Brigham Young instructed the immigrants bound from Liverpool England to the Salt Lake Valley to “walk and draw their luggage” overland to Utah. In 1856 five such Mormon pioneer handcart companies were organized to make the 1,300-mile trip on foot from Iowa City to Salt Lake City.

All went well for the first two companies, totaling 486 immigrants pulling 96 handcarts, who arrived safely in Salt Lake City on September 26, 1856. They accomplished the trek in under sixteen weeks. The third company, and presumably the last of the season, made up of 320 persons pulling 64 handcarts, arrived on October 2 1856. There were other immigrants who’s decision to  start out late in the season would require hundreds of lives as a payment for their short sighted thinking. One of these companies, under James G. Willie, left Iowa City on July 15, crossed Iowa to Florence (Omaha), Nebraska, then, after a week in Florence, headed out onto the plains. The last company, under Edward Martin, departed Florence on August 25 1856. Three independent wagon companies, carrying 390 more immigrants also started late.

A week after the departure of the Martin Company, Franklin D. Richards, a Mormon apostle who had organized the handcart effort also departed Florence with sixteen other in his group. Richards party, on horseback and in fast carriages, passed the Martin Company on September 7, the Willie Company on September 12, and arrived in Salt Lake City on October 4, 1856.

Richards’s report that many more immigrants were coming must have been a shock to Brigham Young. Young mobilized men and women gathered in Salt Lake City and immediately ordered a massive rescue effort. A party of twenty-seven men, led by George D. Grant, left on October 7 with the first sixteen of what ultimately amounted to 200 wagons and teams.

Two weeks later, one of the earliest blizzards on record struck just as both the handcart companies and the independent wagon companies were entering the Rocky Mountains in central Wyoming. After several days of being lashed by the fierce blizzard, people in the exposed handcart companies began to die.

Grant’s rescue party found the Willie Company on October 21—in a blinding snowstorm one day after they had run out of food. But the worst still lay ahead, when after a day of rest and replenishment, the company had to struggle over the long and steep eastern approach to South Pass in a fierce northerly gale. Beyond the pass, the company, now amply fed and free to climb aboard empty supply wagons as they became available, moved quickly, arriving in Salt Lake City on November 9. Of the 404 still with the company, 68 died and many others suffered from severe frostbite and near starvation.

Those of the Martin Company, three-fourths of them women, children, and the elderly suffered even more. When the storm hit on October 19, they made camp and spent nine days on reduced rations waiting out the storm. Grant’s party, after leaving men and supplies with the Willie Company, plunged farther east through the snow with eight wagons in search of the Martin Company. A scouting party sent out ahead of the wagons found them 150 miles east of South Pass.

The company, already in a desperate condition, was ordered to break camp immediately. The supply wagons met them on the trail, but the provisions were not nearly enough and, after struggling 55 miles farther, the company once again set up camp near Devil’s Gate to await the arrival of supplies.

In the meantime, the rescue effort began to disintegrate. Rescue teams held up several days by the raging storm turned back, fearing to go on and rationalizing that the immigrant trains and Grant’s advance party had either decided to winter over or had perished in the storm.

The Martin Company remained in camp for five days. When no supplies came, the company now deplorably weakened was again forced out on the trail. It had suffered fifty-six deaths before being found and it was now losing people at an appalling rate.

Relief came barely in time. A messenger ordered back west by Grant reached and turned around some of the teams that had abandoned the rescue. At least thirty wagons reached the Martin Company just as it was about to attempt the same climb to South Pass that had so sorely tested the Willie Company. Starving, frozen, spent, their spirits crushed, and many unable to walk, the people had reached the breaking point.

But now warmed and fed and with those unable to walk riding in the wagons, the company moved rapidly on. The Martin Company, in a train of 104 wagons, finally arrived in Salt Lake City on November 30. Out of 576 people, at least 145 had died and like the Willie Company, many were severely afflicted by frostbite and starvation.

Elements of the three independent wagon companies and the rescue effort straggled into Salt Lake City until mid-December—except for twenty men under Daniel W. Jones. These men remained for the winter at Devil’s Gate to guard freight unloaded there by the independent wagon companies. They also remained behind to make room for exhausted members of the Martin Company. The Jones party suffered cold and starvation at Devil’s Gate. At one point they were reduced to eating rawhide until friendly Indians gave them some buffalo meat.

The decision to send out the Willie and Martin companies so late in the season was extremely reckless. In mid-November Brigham Young angrily reprimanded those who had authorized the late start or who had not ordered the several parties back to Florence when they still had the opportunity, charging “ignorance,” “mismanagement,” and “misconduct.” Though terrible, the suffering could have been far worse. Had the rescue effort not been launched immediately—well before the storm struck—the handcart companies would probably have been totally destroyed.

It is interesting to note that the original immigrants to the Salt Lake Valley had arrived only 9 years earlier on July 24,1847. The heroic rescue effort of 1856 was made by people who could barely take care of their own needs, yet they gave up all to assist their fellow Americans.

Originally a Loreena Mckennitt song, the Cedar Breaks version is now brought to life by lead vocalist Rebecca Croft and Diana Glissmeyer.

It’s always a pleasure for me to work with a group of talented musicians like Cedar Breaks. Directing, filming and editing “Snow” has been a privilege indeed.

This was an interesting music video to film and direct. The group was filmed on location in the Rocky Mountains. The snow scenes required some hiking trips in the Rockies to get the right snow storms and maintain the look needed for the music video. On went the snow shoes and up the mountain I went equipped with a camera and filming gear. I was worried most about the wet weather on equipment. Everything worked out just great and I got the footage needed to work with the verses in the song.

Take a minute and give the Music video a listen. The song is very beautiful and Cedar Breaks have done a remarkable job. Just click on the same picture you see above after going to the Gallery page on this site.