This is the final post in a series exploring interactive video integration online.  Read the full article here.

Experience Brand/Theme Pages

An experience page is a dedicated area of the site associated with a brand or theme. On this page consumers get to experience the brand's “feel-good” factor or theme that the retailer is trying to convey. This is achieved by mixing a collection of premium video with both semi-professional and user generated testimonials. Consumers get to experience the brand through video while still allowing the retailer to build the direct calls to action into the video. An experience page can be expanded to included competitions and consumer feedback mechanisms.

If you'd like to know more about how you can use interactive video on your eCommerce site please contact us at info@overlay.tv.

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This is part five in an ongoing series exploring interactive video integration online.  Read parts one through four here.

How-To Videos, Style Guides and Advice

For a number of products that are best explained through video, a how-to video can be a great way of demystifying a potential purchaser and also gives the retailer an idea opportunity to cross-sell. Recent discussions include a cosmetic company looking to demonstrate to women how to apply eye make-up to achieve certain look and a DIY retailer demonstrating how to construct a free floating wall shelf.

In each case, as the products are used within the video, product links are directly provided to enable the user to immediately add to basket. Moving this call to action directly into the video at the point at which a product is shown has demonstrated an increase in conversion rate. This can also help the consumer feel more confident in their abilities, reducing return rates.  Surveys have shown the consumer feels a closer relationship with the retailer resulting in higher sales.

Next: Brand expereince/theme pages.

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This is part four in an ongoing series exploring interactive video integration online.  Read parts one, two and three here.

Repurposing Celebrity Videos

This is very similar effort to repurposing television commercials. Many brands, especially in the area of fashion retail, use celebrities to endorse products through video. These videos often include multiple products, and hence do not often fit on the product pages of the website. This means that although the consumer can get the “warm glow” and celebrity appeal, they often are left with the need to navigate around the site to find the products mentions. By adding an overlay to the celebrity video, you can create a direct link between multiple products in the video and multi-product landing pages where the video can be purchased.

The call to action is moved within the video rather than expecting the viewer to navigate after watching the video. There are also a number of successful experiments being undertaken in video by adding overlays that allow the user to “buy the look” from within the video. This can significantly increase the average order basket for the retailer.

Up next: How-to Videos.

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This is part three in an ongoing series exploring interactive video integration online.  Read part one and two.

User Generated Content

Much has been written about the challenges of User Generated Content (UGC). While we agree that it needs to be moderated and is not suitable for some applications, many companies are using UGC to great effect as a way of engaging their customers in community applications. After all, one of the key objectives of an eCommerce website is to keep user loyalty rather than constantly spending on acquiring new customers.

Hopefully, as a business you have customers that actually like your products and care about your services. UGC can be a great way to allow them to share their experiences with other potential shoppers and allows the retailer to increase their library of video content.

There are many examples of this, which includes genuine consumer reports of how a product performs in the case of electronic goods, usage experiences in the case of footwear and clothing and cooking experiments for grocery retailers.

Up Next:  Repurposing Celebrity Videos.

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This is part two in an ongoing series exploring interactive video integration online. Click here for part one.

Repurposing TV Commercials

Many companies as part of a new product launch or range produce a very polished commercial for TV. Since this is often an incredibly expensive endeavor, why not take this commercial and repurpose it for the website.  By creating an “invisible” overlay, products in the video can be directly linked to places on the website where they can be purchased. The underlying video does not need to be reproduced, just reformatted for the web.

Next: User Generated Content

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This is part one in an ongoing series exploring interactive video integration online.   

Over the recent months we have held many discussions with retailers on both sides of the Atlantic that are looking to add video to their websites. One of the issues that inevitably arises is “We have video but are not sure where to start. How do we make this interesting without incurring high production costs?”

Given that this is very much a common theme from prospective user, we thought we would compile a collection of the most popular uses. The list is not meant to be exhaustive, rather a list of practical ideas that retailers are considering.

6 Ideas to get you started:

1. Product page video
2. Repurposing TV commercials
3. User generated content
4. Repurposing celebrity videos
5. How-to videos, style guides and advice
6. Experience brand/theme pages

Product Page Video

Over the last few years images have brought eCommerce websites to life, often with clever zoom capabilities. While this is a good first step, the benefits of many products cannot be demonstrated effectively with static images.  For instance, how do you show the unique flexibility of a new footwear sole design with a static photo?  Video adds a dimension that allows the user to interact with and gain a far greater understanding of the product. Both have been demonstrated to increase conversion and, just as importantly, reduce return rates.

Intermix Product Page

 Up next: Repurposing TV commercials.

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It’s been a few months since we launched Overlay.TV for Retail, and we’ve undergone some major changes since then.  Obviously, our goal is make shopping within video the norm – it is, after all, what we do.  But in talking to clients, analysts and media about our retail product, the opportunity for it to change the way we shop – even in some small way – is very real.

That’s why we’re very excited to announce the roll-out we’ve been hard at work on since the summer – Zappos.com.  For us, Zappos is a dream client – one with a huge fan base, and one that understands the role of new media channels and user-generated content in marketing.

Zappos is rolling out the video eCommerce integration in two phases, starting with “engagement pages” for specific brands like Nike (http://www.zappos.com/nike), and eventually incorporating video into every aspect of the site, allowing users to see the product from all angles and outside of a simple catalogue image.

It’s early days for video eCommerce, but you can expect to see some big things coming over the horizon.  Together with Zappos.com, we look forward to bringling online retail into the video age. 

Rob

Read full Press Release: http://www.overlay.tv/press_release.html

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One of the joys of a startup is that it's a continuously evolving process, one that's always adapting to market conditions and the needs of customers.  We've changed a lot over the past two years, from a focus on building our player, to working with Disney to help them build a massive interactive UGC campaign.

Now, we're evolving even further, and we wanted to make sure that this redesign better illustrates who we are as a company, and what Overlay.TV is as a product.  We wanted to show Overlay.TV as more than just a player, but as a business solution for many types of organizations.

Our course now is still true to what we set out to do at the beginning - to bring interactive, clickable and revenue-generating video to market in a way that is simple to create, manage and explore.

I hope you like the new site - and would love to hear your comments.  Feel free to leave them here, or message me on Twitter @RobLane.

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Over the holidays one has time to think about things. Looking back on social media trends of the past year, such as increasing Twitter usage, and the current economic situation, one finds one’s self asking the following question:

Can companies afford to use Twitter?

In situations like the current economic downturn companies are looking to reduce cost and/or increase productivity. We’ve all heard that social media is being touted as a low cost means of establishing an online presence. Company profiles are showing up on Facebook and executives are communicating with customers on Twitter. Services like Twitter are free to use. Free is good. But how much does it really cost the company when corporate executives use Twitter?

Before I start on the analysis, let me say we love Twitter. Having said that, I took a look at the Twitter usage of three executives: a light Twitter user with an average of 20 tweets per month; a moderate Twitter user with an average of 110 tweets per month; and one heavy Twitter user with, on average, over 500 tweets per month (names withheld to protect the guilty).

Now let’s assume that it takes one minute to post a tweet. Let’s also assume that for each tweet we post we read five others. Each tweet we read is not going to have the same response time.  If we read five tweets for every one we post, one tweet may take three minutes to read if, for instance, we are directed to external items, another may take one minute, and the other three may take thirty seconds. For arguments sake, let’s say that for each tweet we post we spend about 5.5 minutes reading other tweets.

Therefore each tweet posted is equivalent to 6.5 minutes of one’s time. For the light user that translates to 70 minutes of Twitter usage a month. For the moderate user that’s 385 minutes and the heavy user it is 1,750 minutes per month.

All of these executives work at the same company yielding 4095 minutes, or 63.25 hours a month on Twitter-related activities. That is 819 hours a year. If each executive has a loaded cost base of, on average, $88/hour that’s an investment of $6006 per month or $72,072 per annum.

That is a significant investment in a “free” service.

That’s not close to the total investment either. If you have an environment where the executives are using Twitter the employees of that company are likely following them on Twitter as well. If the executives are accessing Twitter at work, so are the employees. The cost of using Twitter is thus even higher than $72,072 for the company.

There are lots of arguments in favor of using Twitter. Companies can track what people are saying about their product and respond in real time. It provides branding and PR opportunities as well as the ability to track trends. Twitter also allows corporations to put a professional yet human face on their company, be it through customer service representative or an executive. It is another opportunity to build relationships. The list of great things that Twitter provides goes on and on.

Twitter definitely has value, I’m not questioning that. Rather, I’m questioning whether or not Twitter provides the best value in time and money spent for your company. What could those executives do with their 819 hours a year to build the business? What could your employees be doing in those untold hours they spend tracking the executives on Twitter? If you had $72,000 to invest in your business what would you do with it?

corporations · economy · Facebook · online presence · PR · social media · twitter · value

If my memory serves me correctly, this time of year used to mean slowing down, long lunches to celebrate the year, and taking games into school. Well this has been one crazy great year at Overlay.TV, and as we approach the holidays we have no intention of slowing down!

All we seem to read about is how bad things are getting. Well let me re-iterate "things are what you make 'em." Over here we are seeing acceleration across all areas of our business, but there is one main area of change. Rather than chasing new dollars for campaigns and promotions, we are increasingly working to maximize the returns on the limited dollars that already exist.

Overlay.TV's business sits at the intersection of video, advertising and eCommerce, and I believe most people would agree that these are pretty large areas. Our second round a financing gives us the fire power to scale into our partnerships and form new one's along the way. Engagement metrics from initiatives like the Jonas Brothers Sing Along have been, quite frankly, off the charts, but more of that in the New Year.

So with that at the end of a great Q4, I want to say thank you to an amazing team, to investors that believe in us, and to you, the community that help us build a company. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.

And thanks for all the great coverage we received today:

Overlay.tv raises $4.6m in backing

Overlay.TV gets boost to push overlay technology in video

Video Ad Provider Overlay.TV Raises $3.8 Million Second Round

Overlay.tv Gets Another $4.6 Million

Tech Capital doubles bets on Overlay.TV and PostRank

Overlay.TV closes 2nd round financing with $4.6 Million

Overlay.TV Closes Second Round Financing

Ottawa-based Overlay.tv closes 4.6 million in second round financing

Overlay.tv secures some more cash, second financing round nets $4.7M

Video Ad Provider Overlay.TV Raises $3.8 Million Second Round

Overlay.TV Secures $4.6 Million Funding

Overlay.TV scores second round of financing

Overlay.TV Lands $3.7 Million for Interactive Video Platform

· advertising · financing · Jonas Brothers · Overlay.TV · PR Release