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Qoof = Video Commerce

Type into Google "Video Commerce" with or without Quotes and you will see Qoof come up as the #1 result! From the beginning Qoof always positioned itself as the Video Commerce Company and we are happy that our friends at Google agree!

Videos + Email = Better Conversion Rates?

Every time I sit down to write this blog I start fumbling through different blogs to garner ideas about what to write about. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but every blog I read gets me excited about the industry. I see this new product and I think it’s the coolest thing ever and then I see that new product and I think it’s going to revolutionize the industry. I get excited. I know I do. It’s why I love the online marketing industry. It changes so quickly and there are always new products to improve the way we work.

And you know what, today is no different.

Since I’ve become involved with Qoof, I’ve seen the video marketing industry grow so much that I often forget about the non-video marketing activities that I engage in.

I’ve stopped building my email list and the lists that I do have, I haven’t been pitching to so hard. I mean, I get so excited about my Usermercials, that pitching with words and simple graphics seem so 2004.

I know in the back of my mind that I shouldn’t be ignoring this vital side of the industry, but it just seems too boring to me lately.

So you can imagine my glee when I saw a website called MyVideoWebMail.

MyVideoWebMail (http://www.myvideotalk.net/webmail-overview.asp) is the solution to the problem of boring emails. In a nutshell, MyVideoWebMail allows you to send a video email.

I was flabbergasted when I saw it.

Bells started ringing in my head and my mind started churning out more ideas than I could remember.

After I took a deep breath and calmed down, I realized that MyVideoWebMail isn’t better than sliced bread. But it could be very, very interesting.

Take your Usermercial and email it to your list. See what happens and let us here at Qoof know if it converts well.

What Did You Do This Summer?

It’s a commonly known fact that to launch a successful marketing campaign, you need to reach niche markets that aren’t yet saturated. In simple terms, to succeed you need to reach people who haven’t heard your message yet.

In affiliate marketing, this is a tough task. Thank god that in the video marketing realm, there are still huge markets that are completely untapped. In fact, I was surprised to find one just last week.

Since it’s the summertime and this country is REALLY hot during the summer months, I decided to get away and to take a much needed vacation. I was just looking to find a nice, quiet beach somewhere and spend four days lounging around, reading and napping. Sounds awesome, right?

I assumed that it would be easy to find a vacation spot that would fulfill this need of mine. Boy was I right. There are literally dozens of hotels in Israel that cater to the relaxing environment I was looking to pursue. My only problem was how do I go about picking a hotel when the only information I can find is solely based on travel agent websites and hotel websites? I knew what I needed, but no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find an online video touting the positive and negative features of the hotels I was looking at.

I was shocked to find this out, especially since the Israeli economy seems to live and die based on its tourism industry. You think a country as technologically advanced as Israel would have realized the tremendous marketing power that videos possess.

I eventually picked a hotel based on a friend’s recommendation and when I showed up at the hotel, I went to speak to the manager about this video problem. I explained to the manager about internet videos and then had to back up and explain to him about affiliate marketing and only when I compared it to a travel agent’s commission, did he start to understand what I was getting at.

I realized I was beating my head against a brick wall with the manager, so I decided to focus my attention on a different route. I called my trusty travel agent to tell her about my idea. She thought it was fantastic and she promised me she would look into it further and see what she could do about contributing to the idea.

If I owned a video camera, I would have taken it with me to the hotel and made my own Usermercial. But alas, I can’t do that. So I’m doing the next best thing, I’m telling you to do it. If you are going anywhere this summer, tape it and earn some affiliate commission from your vacation.

Watch What You Buy

I love going camping. I love pitching tents and making fires and sleeping on the ground. But the thing that I love most of all about camping is that you go out into the woods and live without technology. No computers, no cell phones, no television.  Just me and nature.

I’m not going to talk about how rustic I am and how my granola side likes to get up and stretch every so often, because that’s not true. I just love the solitude that camping provides.

So I go camping every couple of weeks, sometimes by myself, sometimes with a bunch of friends. This past weekend I went camping with a group of about 40 people. It was awesome. The reason for the large group of campers was due to the fact that it was someone’s birthday and he invited pretty much everyone he knew who would be interested in two days of dirt, bugs and eating food from a can.

Most of these people who showed up had never been camping before and thus, many of them had to go out and purchase things like tents, sleeping bags and coolers to come along.

Once we got to the camp site, they all took out their new equipment and proceeded to show it off. For most of them, this camping trip was an excuse to brag about the gear which was still in its original wrappings.

Here’s the funny thing though, shopping for camping gear is much like shopping for a health foods. You can buy it anywhere, but you’ll pay less and get better quality if you do your shopping at a specialty store.

So all these people (who am I kidding, it was mostly the girls) were talking about their gear as if it was the best purchase they’d ever bought. One girl said that the saleslady told her that her sleeping bag would keep you warm in -5 degree weather but still wouldn’t make you sweat in the summer time. Another girl said that the sales guy told her that her tent could hold 7 people, but would still be intimate enough for just two. 

These girls just kept talking about how great there stuff was, but a funny thing happened the next morning. When we all woke up at the crack of dawn (as you do when you go camping), they all had the worst night sleep of their lives. They couldn’t understand it. Their salespeople told them over and over again how great their equipment was, how could they have slept so badly?

Well, I tried not to rub it in their faces, but it seems like they all got duped by clever salespeople.  It just goes to show you, the way you sell a product is infinitely more important than the quality of a product.

Also shows that watching a Usermercial from someone you know or even someone you don't know (as long as it's not a salesperson) is more believable. So why not create a Usermercial for a product you own and let people know how you really feel.

A Story Is A Story

  There are a lot of things you still don’t know about me, but don’t worry, over time you’ll learn them. You’ll learn that I love Funk music, that I root hard for the New Jersey Nets and that I love scaring myself silly watching horror movies.  One thing that I love more than anything though, is a good story.

I love stories and thank G-D, you can find stories pretty much anywhere you look. Whether it’s in the form of my friend Mike telling me his latest job escalade, a half an hour sitcom or a well written French novel, stories are stories and I find them all entertaining.

I’m not sure why, but I love short stories more than anything. I’m an avid short story reader and I think it’s because I love the brief glimpses into a different world that short stories provide. A good short story starts in the middle and finishes before it’s done. It doesn’t bother with explanations or character development. We see a moment in time, but are never really sure what the situation is fully about until it’s just about over. Short stories are fueled by curiosity and shrouded in mysteries. They are the equivalent of coming late to a movie and asking the guy behind you to catch you up.

Recently, I’ve discovered a whole new breed of short stories and it’s in one of the most unlikely of places.

As you could well imagine, those of us here at Qoof watch a lot of commercials. We discuss them and analyze them and dissect them until they are nothing more than figments of our imagination. We hold them up to the light to see if they are transparent and we soak them in water to see if they float. We live and breathe by commercials. Sometimes it seems like we’d die if we were ever without them.

I’m always asked how I can spend my time watching an endless stream of commercials, but I was never really as bugged by them as everyone else is. I never realized why until I started working here. Commercials are nothing but 30 second stories.

With 30 seconds you need to introduce characters, create a mood, develop a scene, introduce friction, spark drama, solicit a smile AND sell a product. Seems like a lot to pack into just 30 seconds, but that’s the average time span of a TV watcher. You can tell a good story in 30 seconds, but to tell a great story, therein lays the beauty. The good ones are ok, but the great ones make you reach for your wallet.

Next time you’re watching a commercial, whether it’s on the TV or online, take a second to note the story that they are telling. It might be a familiar situation or it could be something completely new. But either way, it’s a story. And stories are meant to be told.

How Fast Can Cars Really Go?

For anyone who’s wondering what the next generation of online video watchers will watch, DaimlerChrysler announced today that they are launching a Mercedes-Benz channel appropriately called Mercedes-Benz TV.

The bi-lingual Mercedes-Benz TV will officially launch tomorrow with round the clock programming in both English and German aimed at showcasing classy cars. Other than videos of cars driving fast, Mercedes-Benz TV will feature a weekly 20 minute news show that will no doubt feature 20 minutes worth of Mercedes-Benz news. I can’t even begin to imagine what they will fill those 20 minutes with. Probably more footage of cars driving fast.

DaimlerChrysler has said that the goal of the channel isn’t to promote the cars, but to promote “new standards in terms of content and design, while using video images to convey the fascination and legends that surround the brand”.

I might be too young to appreciate the fascination and legends that surround Mercedes-Benz, but I’m not too young to appreciate an interesting marketing concept when I see one.

The aspect of Mercedes-Benz TV that makes it so interesting to me is that it’s a perfect example of one of the world’s most well-known brands branching out in a direction that they have no business being in, and using it for a very experimental usage.

Although we won’t really know until they launch, but all the material I’ve read about Mercedes-Benz TV says that DaimlerChrysler isn’t using their 24-Hour Infomercial channel to sell cars, but to sell a lifestyle. We all know that in places of the world that live without running water and electricity, there is often a Mercedes-Benz dealership. Mercedes-Benz isn’t hoping to sell more cars with their channel, they are hoping that those who are currently buying their cars will realize who the family is that they are buying into.

You can almost call it reverse advertising, instead of Mercedes-Benz convincing people to buy their cars, they are using the power of video to influence their purchasers to live be a part of a certain lifestyle.

This all goes to show you how powerful videos really are. You might not think that uploading a quick little Usermercial can make a difference, but if it’s done right, it can.

Never underestimate the power that you possess when you broadcast. Take your videos and use them to promote to the entire world. If Mercedes-Benz can do it, that means you can as well.