Digital Media Buzz > Go Viral: How to Capitalize on Viral Marketing

Go Viral: How to Capitalize on Viral Marketing

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By Jon Donley

A generation ago, businesses understood that they must stake out turf on the Internet, even if they didn’t know what they’d do once they got there. Today’s corporate land rush is toward Internet video – and the generation of prospective customers nurtured on YouTube, viral video, high-powered mobile devices and almost universal broadband have high standards.

YouTube itself provides a quandary for businesses. Everyone needs to be there, because that’s where the crowd is gathered. And it’s free. No bandwidth limit, no storage limit, and it’s now available in high-definition. And almost by definition, a video has to go through YouTube to go viral.

But there’s a price to be paid. Every video seeded onto YouTube has the site’s ubiquitous “watermark” stamped across the image. And while there are growing advertising opportunities, at the moment ads must go through Google’s system.

Until the YouTube juggernaut shifts course, companies needing control over their brands, the look and feel of their video players, and especially control over their advertising destinies must look to video hosting and distribution services outside the free video-sharing networks.

Many large companies, in fact, have a dual strategy, posting material on YouTube to take advantage of the large organic audience, while using a so-called “white-label” video service provider for content in need of more brand or advertising control.
White-label services allow companies, organizations and web publishers to upload and distribute video that has the look-and-feel of their own brand, while freeing them from the technological and financial burden of running a high-capacity video server.
In looking for a video solution, content creators should consider, at minimum:

• The ability to customize the video player to match their own brand and needs, including watermarking, color palette and sizes.
• A user-friendly interface for uploading, managing, encoding and distributing videos.
• A distribution system that offers multiple ways to deliver videos, not only as site embeds (unless the videos are to be limited to certain viewers), but also in different file formats, to mobile devices, etc.
• Control over advertising, within the video (pre-, middle- and post-roll), overlays and popups, and ad insertions through third-party servers or ad networks.

Extra features might include traffic analytics, interactive enhancements, the ability to provide both video-on-demand and live event streaming, integration with social media sites, and mobile apps.

In comparing the cost of services, different providers use different benchmarks to determine fees. Almost all providers are Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors, using web-based production and administration panels. While terminology varies, factors considered in pricing include the computing resources – mainly for CPU-hogging encoding – Internet bandwidth for delivery to viewers, and storage space.

In describing their plans, some vendors express these charges as a set amount of streaming bandwidth a month (such as 200 gigs), a set number of user-hours a month (such as 1,500), and some by the number of user streams (such as 5,000). All of these allowances really measure the same thing – the amount of data moving from the host server to the end user.
Following are 15 white-label providers worth considering – from industry leaders to promising “new kids” to vendors offering special extras.

BrightCove
Generally considered to be the pinnacle of white-label hosts, BrightCove services a blue-chip list of clients, including major entertainment and broadcasting companies, scores of major corporations and major media groups.

BrightCove offers a full range of video uploading, processing, management and distribution services, as well as template and advertising management.

Price: Must get a sales quote. Free 30-day trial

LiveStream

This service started life as Mogulus, and was used heavily by Gannett for live high school football coverage by its media companies nationwide. The free service offered live webcasting through a sophisticated web-based studio that allowed on-the-fly or pre-scheduled programs that queued video clips, provided profession transitions, overlays and watermarks, and switching between multiple video sources across the Internet. This year, the now-seasoned company changed its name to LiveStream and rolled out a new business plan, maintaining the free service (which now includes LiveStream ads), but also offering two levels of premium memberships. Both offer full HD and 16:9 video at up to 1.7mbps, white-label players and advertising control. A favorite feature, carried over from the old Mogulus player, is the ability to have a live chat window alongside the viewer, enabling easy user participation in webcasts.

Streams are recorded as they are webcast, and can be linked or embedded as video on demand. Besides the Gannett media network, notable clients include NPR and 10 Downing Street, the web presence of the British Prime Minister’s office.

Price: Free (adware and SD quality only), and two levels of premium, at $350 and $1,250 monthly

Sorenson 360
The Sorenson Media Network offers video publishing and distribution services via its Sorenson 360 product. Of the products reviewed, Sorenson offers probably the greatest range of file input options. It also offers downloads as both Flash video and MP4.

Sorenson’s customers include Customers Akamai, many major universities, Blockbuster, National Geographic, Warner Brothers and HBO.

Price: Based on user streams, with monthly rates ranging from $99 for 10,000 streams to $999 for 150,000 streams on an annual contract. (Price based on 2-minute videos)

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