How Long Should Your Videos Be?

As soon as viewers click Play, the race is on. If your video takes too long to capture viewers’ interest or doesn’t know when to call it quits, you could lose more than viewers’ attention — you could lose their business.

Telestream’s blog, The Screening Room, points out that the length of your video should depend on your target viewer’s place in the buying cycle.

• 30-second videos have the greatest likelihood of being watched in their entirety. Shoot for this length when viewers are unfamiliar with your company or message.

• 1 to 2-minute videos work best when viewers know your company but need more information to pique interest. Tip: Create concise, focused overviews or high-level demos.

• 3 to 10-minute videos should be saved for viewers who are already aware of and interested in you or your product. At this point, you are either aiming to create a desire to act or promoting the action itself. Tip: Offer valuable content and make it easy for viewers to act (e.g., by embedding links, buttons or contact info) while viewing that content.

Narrow your focus — and your video’s length — and watch viewer engagement rise.

How Long Is Too Long?

Here are some general guidelines for length, depending on the type of video:

• Advertisement: 30 seconds to 1 minute
• Landing or intro page: 1 to 2 minutes
• Demo or Promo: 4 to 5 minutes (6 minutes at the absolute maximum)
• Training: 20 minutes per segment

As an agency, we will skip iBooks Author

Apart from the big EULA hubbub that broke out yesterday over Apple's restrictive End-User License Agreement terms for their newly released iBooks Author software, there's another reason why we cannot use it in our creative process.

From Darrell Etherington's post on GigaOm:

iBooks Author won’t be as appealing to those users since it creates a file that is not quite epub2, not quite epub3, and not quite XHTML5, according to Vook’s blog which makes it “one channel only,” or essentially proprietary.

Our customers always want our work in standard formats (PDF or epub), since they never know what their customers need.  Thus, they will have to cover their bases and make our work available on more than just Apple devices.  And that's the reason why, no matter how slick iBooks Author is, we cannot use it in our creative process.

Which Tool To Use?

Do you need to create something on your computer? Write a paper? Or do you want to edit gantt chart, but you don't know what software to use?

Why don't use ask your fellow computer users?

 

BestVendor.com keeps a list of the most popular software tools. Once you go there, simply name your top three software tools, then access their database to find out what others are using.  While their results might reflect certain biases, they will at least give you some starting point when picking a good tool for the job.

 

13 Technical Challenges for Enterprise Video

The following 13 technical issues related to the implementation of video were identified by enterprise-class corporations in a 2011 study conducted by Interactive Media Strategies. Below are their rankings in order of importance:

1. Network security
2. Content security
3. Ability to embed video
4. Search and discovery
5. LDAP Integration
6. Content workflow management
7. Transcoding to multiple devices
8. Ability to track viewership
9. Ability to edit content
10. Enable upload of self-produced videos
11. Ability to distribute to mobile devices
12. Automate search engine submissions
13. Social media integration

While the responsibility of addressing many of these rest squarely on the shoulders of the Enterprise, a good agency can help address some of these challenges during the video creation process.  The agency can:

• Transcode videos for you or set up profiles for video transcoding to different mobile devices;
• Include subsequent edits as part of the initial package;
• Setup automated search engine submissions; and
• Track viewership, depending on the hosting arrangement.

When you engage with an agency, inquire about these additional benefits during the initial agency selection process.

2011 Enterprise Video Statistics

A few quick statistics on Enterprise video: According to the 2011 Enterprise Web Communications Survey conducted by Interactive Media Strategies:

• One-third of all corporations polled said they produce at least one video per week.
• Two-thirds of the firms surveyed plan to increase their video production in the coming year.
• The number of companies with online video budgets of $500,000 or more increased by 20 percent since their 2010 survey.

Add Video Power to Your PowerPoint Presentations

A truly great presentation keeps viewers engaged by showing them your ideas. A fantastic way to do this is to embed video in your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Using video can serve a wealth of purposes — if it’s done right.

Action speaks louder than pictures

How does your organization use PowerPoint? Many organizations design presentations for multiple situations:

Just So You Know ...

According to Microsoft, Adobe Flash has some limitations in PowerPoint 2010 and cannot be played in PowerPoint 2011 on a Mac at all. You can’t use certain special effects (such as shadows or 3-D rotation) with Flash content, and you’ll lose the ability to compress these files for distribution. Thus, we don’t recommend using Flash for video playback in PowerPoint.

• To propose a partnership or make a sale in client meetings.
• To introduce work concepts in internal meetings.
• To demonstrate products in the company kiosk at trade shows.
• To educate staff about a new product.

In each instance, a well-placed video clip is worth considering. Imagine how much more potent viewers’ experience — and your calls to action — could be if you use the full potential of PowerPoint.

• Add a demo or screencast that shows users interacting with the product.
• Present a clip that demonstrates what to do (or not to do) when implementing a new work policy or meeting with a client.
• Provide testimonials from satisfied customers.

Fortunately, the current version of PowerPoint provides support for incorporating video.

	PowerPoint 2010 (Windows)	PowerPoint 2011 (Mac)
Windows Media (WMV)	Yes	Needs Flip4Mac player
Quicktime or h.264	Needs Quicktime player	yes
AVI	Needs AVI player	Needs AVI player

To see what video formats you are able to play on your computer, download our PowerPoint Test Page.

Easier embedding — and linking

PowerPoint 2010 supports embedded video as QuickTime, Windows Media or AVI files (.mov, .mp4, .wmv or .avi file formats). On Windows, you’ll need to have the appropriate QuickTime and AVI players installed (64-bit versions if you run PowerPoint 2010 64-bit). On Macs, you need Flip4Mac or an AVI player. Embedding the video allows you to keep the media file with the presentation.

However, if you’re concerned about the size of your presentation files or have video content that might be changed or updated, PowerPoint 2010 also allows you to link to an external video file or a website. (Of course, you’ll need to be sure that viewers will have access to an Internet connection in the latter case.)

The process of embedding or linking a video from within a PowerPoint presentation is fairly straightforward:

• Embed a file — Go to the Insert tab in the Media Group, click Video, click Video from file, choose a file, and then click Insert.
• Link to a file — Follow the same steps as to embed a video, but instead of clicking Insert as a final step, click the down arrow on the Insert button and choose Link to file.
• Link to a video on a website — On the Insert tab, click Video, click Video from website, and paste the embed code (which you must retrieve from the website) into the Video from website dialog box. Click Insert.

Know Your Limits

Video can punch up a PowerPoint presentation, but beware of going overboard. Use only quality clips that serve a purpose. And if you’re sending the presentation as a packaged file, be sure that the recipient has the necessary devices or software to support multimedia elements.

Embedding or linking a video is simple but doesn’t, of course, guarantee the quality of the clip, its appropriateness for the task at hand, or the quality of the playback.

Start the show

When you’re ready to distribute your presentation, PowerPoint 2010 gives you numerous options. Before deciding which one to use, you need to ask two questions:

• Which systems will the finished product run on and what are their technological specifications?
• Will the presentation be given manually (with a live person running the show) or automatically (self-running).

Depending on your answers, you can decide which delivery approach to take:

• Broadcast the presentation over the Internet to a remote audience.
• Burn the presentation to CD or DVD.
• Set up a self-running package.
• Publish the presentation online.
• Convert the entire presentation to Windows Media Video or Quicktime.

Space Savers

Worried about video increasing the size of your presentations? Optimizing your media files for best compression without loss of quality can help. Plus, newer versions of PowerPoint offer the option to link to a video, rather than embedding it.

Each type of distribution requires its own preparations — anything from compressing files to burning disks to configuring automatic slide forwarding and locking down user controls. As with every aspect of successful PowerPoint design, it’s best to have at the helm someone who understands the ins and outs of the application.

A polished presentation, every time

Creating presentations that include video elements can be an amazingly effective way to generate excitement and persuade viewers to take action. (For more information about using the power of video to create energy and spur action, read the Communications and Connections article in this issue of News and Views.) Talented presentation specialists know how to create crisp, vivid and smooth-running packages that can deliver the promised punch.

Just be aware that — aside from the thought that should go into effective content — expertise is often a prerequisite for creating a high-quality, easily distributable presentation.

At Digital Dazzle, our experts can create and package powerful presentations that will inspire audiences to take action! Contact us for a no-cost consultation and to learn how our talented presentation specialists consistently deliver excellent corporate presentations, cost-effectively and on tight deadlines.