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VIDEO


Generating traffic “Our videos obviously do help generate traffic because we post teasers on social media (YouTube, Pinterest, etc.) with the precise purpose of driving the viewer/ user back to our site,” says Evans. But it’s not all about generating traffic – video is a destination in its own right. IDG, features video on all its sites – Macworld, PCWorld, TechHive – but Michaels says it’s short-sighted to view video solely as a traffic generator. “I’d say it’s better to think of it as a way to get information to people who might not otherwise want to read a story. It helps build an audience and it helps establish a unique editorial voice.” There are clear other advantages too.


Like Dennis, IDG finds video effective in advertising: “Though I’m entirely concerned with editorial matters, there’s certainly an advertising component to videos that’s hard


to overlook. Between pre-roll and sponsorship opportunities, there are ways to bolster advertising with video content that traditional articles don’t allow,” says Michaels. Burda uses it as a visual aid, among other things. “It allows skills to be put into a context that can’t be done by an image or text alone,” says Evans. “It also allows the user to zoom, watch, pause, and re-watch the content until they feel they have mastered it. There is also more personality in the video since an expert is guiding the user in a more approachable manner.” For Burdastyle.com video is a key component in creating course content. “We tailor our choice of medium to their feedback, as well as to their purchasing and searching trends. We also tailor the medium itself to


THE SERVICE PROVIDER


Ollie James, SVP client services, Coull, UK “Video is an incredibly important and valuable part of a publisher’s digital content mix, both as a way of engaging audiences and driving revenue. Consumers have become content snackers, hungry for information but short on time. As a medium, video gives publishers a way to inform or entertain their audience in that short amount of time. If a


picture’s worth a 1,000 words, how many is a video worth? Video delivers a lot without asking much of the viewer.


“Consumers expect video content these days. If a digital publisher hasn’t incorporated it into their mix, it’s inevitable they will lose traffic to those with a richer, more dynamic content experience. That’s not to say that video on its own is the panacea for the challenges facing digital publishers, but it is certainly a very important part of any digital strategy in 2014.


“A key advantage of publisher video content is that it opens the door to a number of lucrative revenue streams. And at a time when traditional online advertising formats are seeing CPMs drop through the floor, online video is the format seeing year-on- year growth. Publishers can look at interstitial advertising (pre, mid and post-roll video) and in-video advertising. Brands and advertisers want to be where an audience is most engaged, and they’ll pay for the privilege. These days that means video.


“The great thing about video is that it travels well across different devices, consumption rates on mobile and tablet devices are seeing rapid growth and now you’ve got connected devices like gaming consoles being used as more of an all-round media centre than pure gaming machines. Video is also one of the most shared formats on social media networks, so for


digital publishers looking to capitalise on the extended reach social media offers, video is the way forward.


“Producing high-quality video content on a regular basis isn’t cheap, but it is an investment that pays off, engaging existing and new audiences alike. The interesting thing is that the smarter digital publishers are taking advantage of new video formats such as Vine and Instagram for Video to create short, snappy and highly engaging videos that audiences really enjoy. These videos are cheap to make (all you need is a phone), and perfectly complement longer, more polished video content as part of a video mix.


“The trend really is just towards more video. We’re at a point now where the old barriers have been knocked away. There’s high-speed mobile-internet, cheap data plans and smartphones and tablets are all great displays for viewing video. From a publishers’ perspective the focus for the last couple of years has been on developing a mobile-first strategy, video is a big part of that now.”


the skill or to the content, e.g. if we need to explain something very detailed and small, we would opt for providing a zoomed-in, high-


quality image or video. Our strategy is to always provide the user with a variety of media options to show them how to accomplish a specific skill so they feel they have accomplished success within the hobby they are so passionate about.”


Growing medium


“Video is certainly increasing in importance,” says Wootton. “If you go back seven or eight years, we had one videographer. Now we have six. And we use freelancers on top of that. However, it is still not as important as the written word. The written word still provides the vast majority of our turnover – it’s a complementary product.”


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issue 83_2014 | Magazine World |27


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