VideoVoo: Online Video Marketing

Being a regular reader of Fred Wilson’s blog I have many times found really valuable information on Musings of a VC in NYC. This time his post was about the simplified success story of how Wall Strip got purchased by CBS - including an open sourced recipe of making video shows that really rock.

First the team: the mover, organizer and motivator was Howard Lindzon. As Fred writes: “He got on a plane, came to NYC, hired a couple of awesome video producers named Adam and Jeff [Adam Elend and Jeff Marks], they hired a wonderful host named Lindsay [Lindsay Campbell], and Howard also roped me and a bunch of other bloggers into helping him fund the show.”
So, in recipe style, take a bunch of people, one leader, 1-2 excellent video producers, a two-in-one smart and pretty video host(ess), and a network of hubs that reach and influence other guys on the web - as an extra: if these bloggers also give the funding, it will keep them motivated to keep their readers abreast of how things are going on with Wallstrip. And, let’s add, Lindsay took on a low-paying job, according to Howard.

Content: here comes the mantra (content is king), make good and original content, and make it fun, and regular, and short. “He set out to make a funny short video about Wall Street five days a week… Adam and Jeff … have been online every work day since October 16th of last year.” Brevity, just like humor, appears twice as a key component: ” And most of all, how to keep it short, fun, and funny.”

Distribution channel: see above, the network of motivated bloggers. But more than that.

1, Wallstrip was also covered by mainstream media: “Aaron Pressman from Business Week, Michael Merced from The New York Times , sorry, Om Malik and Liz Gannes counts also as mainstream because of mainstream blogging on GigaOm.

2, And Fred points out that Adam and Jeff “figured out … how to get the show on every video service quickly and easily.

3, How to tag and promote the show on each and every service so it actually gets seen… How to get subscribers in iTunes, FeedBurner, and YouTube.” Proper, and seemingly abundant tagging is an essential element in getting seen. Just have a look at the following list of tags for Lindsey’s interview with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia:

Tags: jimmywales, wikipedia, wikia, google, search, kucinich, rocketboom, guncontrol, howardlindzon, closingbell, lindsaycampbell, wallstrip, wallstreet, stocks, stockmarket, stockexchange, money, finance, investing, invest, nasdaq, nyse, cash, business, warrenbuffet, berkshirehathaway, daytrade, trends, cnbc, trading, stock, market, thestreet, jimcramer, britney, lifelock

That’s no kidding! They are all tags: and clearly, they are aiming at long tail terms not just stock market related phrases. However, the description is very short, short enough to get into the wallstrip monitor box: “Description: He’s rewriting history, with a little help from his friends. Lindsay chats with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.” Strangely enough, they are a lot more sparing with tags on the youtube duplicates (e.g. the extended version of the Jimmy Wales interview is quite poor with “Tags: jimmywales wikipedia wikia google search kucinich rocketboom guncontrol howardlindzon closingbell lindsaycampbell ” Ideally, names, compounds should also be separately to rank them better (like ‘jimmy’ ‘wales’), especially now that youtube and other video appears integrated in organic search results. But, compared to other uploaders, shows, Wallstrip is still quite rich of folksonomy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXySePiXb3Y&mode=user&search=]

Measuring results was also part and parcel of making Wallstrip a real succes. They tracked all the views, plus they managed to reconcile all the different measurements. We can infer that the Key Performance Indicators were, among others, the number of subscribers in various high priority channels, like iTunes, FeedBurner, and YouTube. As for iTunes, Howard remarks that their “first big boost in viewership came from the good people at iTunes.”

A good web site, with simple navigation and clear messages: “[they also figured out] how to make a web site that communicates what the show is quickly and easily. How to do advertising in a way that doesn’t get in the way of the viewer. How to get the show indexed by ticker in the major finance portals.”

Count your eggs: “Just figuring out how to make a show on a cost basis that can make a profit is hard.” Hard, but not impossible. Adam and Jeff, the video producers figured out how to make a funny short video for less than $1000 per show. You need investors who truly recognize the importance of web-based communication and its genres, plus are able to promote the show in a meaningful and transparent way. As Howard Lindzon says “We cobbled together $600,000 from angels and friends and went to work. Lot’s of trust and latitude was given so it feels good to make good by them.” And the team is proud to have Wallstrip sold to CBS for $1.8 billion in Cash Flow to buy/own Wallstrip .

Keep on
Life does not stop, the series of clever founded and/or unfounded interpretations following the deal does not stop, blogging Wallstrip does not stop either. So here comes another chapter in the Wallstrip book, an entrance into another growth cycle. But that’s still part of the recipe, isn’t it?