The fact is, a clear, well thought out strategy with a defined target can deliver huge benefits. At markthree media we can work with you at every level to develop and implement a strategy that can work for you.

In February we worked with the charity, Relate, to design and manage a social media campaign to publicise new research findings and a campaign video concerning Relate’s counselling services for young people.

The markthree media team worked out a strategy, combining twitter, facebook and parent bloggers to maximise interest and publicity on social media. Once the strategy was approved by Relate, markthree media took over their twitter and facebook accounts, sending teasers leading questions on twitter and facebook during the week leading up to the launch of the research and the video, on Friday February 24th. Then, on the day itself, we tweeted hard and fast all day, sending out key facts from the research and requesting re-tweets to get the message out as far and as fast as possible.

The young people surveyed by Relate were asked what celebrity they would most like to be best friends with and, surprisingly, the number one choice was Stephen Fry. We contacted Stephen and asked him to support the release of this finding, as well as the more serious findings suggesting that more young people than ever were coming forward to Relate counsellors for help with mental health problems. Stephen Fry was only too happy to offer his support and tweeted for us, from New Zealand, at the end of the day.

Through twitter, we reached 3 million, two hundred thousand people. We had several thousand re-tweets that we were able to track.

To help get people behind the campaign and tweet for us, we invited parent bloggers to post about their own stories and concerns in connection with mental health issues and counselling for young people. This gave ownership of the campaign to a key group of bloggers who represent, and are read by, a target audience of the campaign and ensured tweets were sent and re-tweeted among this group throughout the day. Twelve people blogged for us. These were all from very different perspectives and were very moving. The combined readership of the blogs was around 5 000 and combined twitter followers of the bloggers, reached a further 20 000 people.

One of the bloggers was Pip, the Gypsy teenager who wrote an open letter to Channel 4 about Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. His blog receives around 1000 hits but the open letter post reached nearly 50 000. He told me his post had had over 500 unique readers in the first two hours and it is still being widely tweeted as he talked for the first time about the day his brother committed suicide and how difficult it is for the travelling community to access mental health support and counselling. His blog was tweeted and re-tweeted again on the following Tuesday evening, during the screening of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding to make use of the ‘BFGW’ hashtag leading the twitter trending topics. This blog is still being spread throughout the social networks.

Contact us to see how we can work with you.

With even a single video on YouTube, a search on Google for your product or brand will take prospective customers to what you want them to see. With a well-made video and a well-crafted channel, you can convert these interested potential clients and customers into buyers.

We’ve also mentioned before that online video isn’t just about viral. Driving traffic from a video to your site and converting that into sales can be far more effective than having millions of people seeing your content. Aiming for viral is like advertising men’s razors in Vogue; sure, you’ll make a few sales from gift-buyers who’ve stumbled across it, but most of the views will be wasted when it comes to totting up your sales figures.

Brand awareness and putting yourself on top of the search listings can be reason enough to put a video out there. Giving people a variety of ways to discover and engage with your brand can help not only your wider digital marketing strategy, but also your ultimate bottom line.

If you’d like to talk to us about how we can create a great YouTube channel with frequent, engaging content that connects with your audience, get in touch.

TimeScapes is a project that filmmaker Tom Lowe has been working on with numerous partners for the last few years, developing systems and technology to help him achieve his vision of startling images of things we rarely appreciate.

The live-action elements and slow-motion were shot with a Red Epic camera, with the timelapse sequences (the beautiful night skies you see in the trailer) shot on a Canon stills camera.

Here’s the trailer for the film. To get the best out of it, make sure HD is turned on and, if you can, watch it on a BIG monitor. Inspiring stuff.

TimeScapes 4K from Tom Lowe on Vimeo.

For more information on how it was shot (and the dramatic 4K resolution, if you’re a tech geek like me), click over to the video’s Vimeo Page. For more on the film itself, visit their website or Twitter page.

Video can encompass many different things from straight-forward, TV-style 30-second ad spots to fully-fictional worlds that highlight your brand ideals as opposed to a specific product. From viral ads to instructional videos, choosing the right video for your company and brand is crucial to its eventual success.

In addition to the benefits of having video on your website, having any kind of presence on YouTube can be a major boost for your brand. YouTube is now the second biggest search engine on the planet, after its parent company Google. That means more people search on YouTube than on Yahoo, Ask or anything else. Web video puts your brand front-and-centre and offers an extra layer of search engine optimisation, with great-quality content for people to discover, too.

Interesting, thought provoking or controversial video also offers a great opportunity to create an interaction with your fans on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. By posting a video and inviting comments, you’re creating a valuable opportunity for interaction with the people who matter most to your business: the people who will buy from you.

Video doesn’t have to be a standalone strategy for increasing brand – or product – awareness. As part of a sophisticated, focused digital marketing strategy, film and video can have an impact across all areas of your brand.

As more and more people turn to online video, here are a few things to remember when you’re planning video content for your site:

1. It’s not always about ‘viral’

Yes, funny, creative or controversial videos can potentially go viral and put your brand in front of millions of people, but that’s not always what online video should be about.

Online retailers have discovered that simply showcasing their products in a video – even as simply as holding up a pair of shoes and showing them off – can significantly increase sales.  Videos of products aren’t going to go viral, but they may make the difference between someone clicking on “Buy” or clicking off to another site.

2. Brevity is the soul of everything

With the exception of instructional videos, there is little point in having a video online that lasts longer than 3 minutes.  Studies have shown that average viewing times of online video are around 1min 30secs and that the number of people who view an entire video falls off exponentially over 1 minute in length.

If you can’t say all you need to say in three minutes consider breaking your message up into several “episodes” or re-thinking what you’re trying to communicate into a more simple form. Is your idea simply too complex to describe/explain in a three-minute video?

3. Treat it like TV

You may not have the marketing budget to pay for a multi-million pound commercial, but you should treat everything you put online as a piece of broadcast television. It’s a theory that underlines everything we do at markthree and something we believe in strongly.

Online video represents your brand and you want it to reflect the qualities you believe in. Treating your films like TV will make sure you’re presenting yourself to your customers and clients in the very best way possible.

Above all, talk about what you want to achieve with your production company and never be afraid to ask for more.

Web video is huge right now. If you read our last post, you’ll know the top 3 ways in which it can help enhance and promote your brand, but how do you, as the client, get what you want from the video you’re paying for? Well, with our expertise of working on both sides of the fence, here’s a brief guide to what you can do to get the most you can from your vision, and ultimately, your money.

Be Clear About Its Purpose

Like any marketing or advertising, you have to know who you’re aiming the campaign at. Are you trying to hook customers directly, or is your target audience other professionals who will refer their business to you?

While this may sound obvious, it’s surprising how easy it can be to get so focused on style that you lose sight of who your viewers are going to be. If that happens, your film will never fulfil its true potential. Being clear on the purpose of the video from the outset will ensure the production company makes something that fits with the market it’s aimed at. Always keep your audience at the core of everything you do.

Help Us Understand Your Company

Quite simply, the more we know about your company, your organisation or your brand, the better we can help represent you in the right way! And we’re not just talking about brand guidelines and dry marketing speak – tell us who you are, really. People are engaged by other people, and by stories. Talk to people – what’s unique about you? What do you really want to shout about with your video?

Know What Video Can and Can’t Do

We’ll do everything we can to create the perfect video for you, and, if you understand the capabilities of web video and what they do best, it’ll help make the process a lot smoother.

Of course, we’ll talk you through what we think works and what is better communicated using other media, but the more knowledge you have going into production, the more likely we are to be able to match your ideas and vision.

Production companies are fuelled by creative people, and we’re no exception. At markthree we work with a number of highly skilled, brilliant creative minds and we take pride in all the work we do. We want to make the very best videos every single time and working with your brand is no exception. The best stories come from conversations, not from briefs. So talk to us. We’re a friendly bunch. Who knows, it may just be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Your website is brilliant. Your social media strategy is firmly in place and attracting followers, fans and engagement. What’s missing from your brand’s online presence?  Web video.

Here are the top three things online video can do for your brand:

Show What You Do

Elements of your business that may take 1,500 words to describe on your website can often be explained and shown in a matters of seconds with video.  Difficult concept? Lengthy instructions? A picture may say a thousand words, but moving images can speak even louder.

Show Who You Are

In an age of individuality where companies and brands are trying to connect on a more individual level, by representing your brand in person, or using brand representatives, you can connect to your audience and customers in a much more personal way. 

Let Your Audience In

In the arts and entertainment business online video can be a great way of offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the world beyond the stage and screen.  Offering a peek at the creative process, gig and shoot preparations alongside other things that fans, viewers and followers wouldn’t normally see can lead engagement and help draw them in to your world.

Oli has a great track record as a film maker and an editor, and is an all-round nice guy to boot. Which is nice. He also makes a mean cup of coffee. Joking aside, it works out as a pretty perfect fit on both sides, and we’re all really excited at having him on board.

Paul

So, much to our surprise, last week we were nominated for the RTS North East Award for Best Drama / Entertainment programme in 2010. We were up against some stiffcompetition, including the massively popular CBBC’s Tracey Beaker and BBC One’s George Gently.

Our programme ‘Are You Having a Laugh – TV & Disability’ was on BBC Two in June last year, and despite playing against football (the World Cup was on don’t you know) and lots of other programmes in the much-coveted Friday night 9pm slot, our programme was the most watched programme on the channel of the day. It even beat off highlights from Wimbledon and Glastonbury that played before and after our show.

Every year in recent memory the winner of the award has been a drama programme, so knowing which category we were in we really didn’t think we’d stand a chance, especially when we saw the other incredible talent on show in the superb dramas currently being made in the North East.

However, we were incredibly surprised and honoured when it was our name called out from the podium. The RTS Awards themselves are a real honour in our industry, and it is a massive achievement for our first broadcast commission to have won such a big award. I am so proud of the team that made the programme, and we want to thank the RTS judges for having such great taste!

The evening was quite a swanky affair (I was able to justify buying myself a new dress for it!) and when we arrived we were on a table with Lisa Campbell from Broadcast Magazine, Roy Ackerman from Fresh One Productions and the lovely guys from Bwark Productions. There were also quite a selection of celebrities there, from the very funny Lenny Henry to Sir Trevor Philips – it was great to see a room filled with such diversity and talent.

The awards were hosted by the gorgeous Gok Wan, and had I known I was going to have to get up on a stage with him I think I would have chosen to wear a different pair of shoes… but never mind! Our award was in the second half of the evening and again, had I known I was going to be getting up on stage I may have also stopped my wine glass being topped up quite so frequently. The award we were up for was Special Mentoring Recognition. As a company who prides itself on inclusivity this means a great deal to us and we were incredibly chuffed to be called up as winners of the award. We are such a small company that our staff mean everything to us, and for one of our staff members, Paul Carter, to have nominated us for this really is something special.

When I first started in television, I was lucky enough to be mentored by the wonderful Kez Margrie who was the Series Producer of Blue Peter at the time. Being mentored by someone who understood the challenges and differences that a young person with a disability has was invaluable to my career and development and I will forever be grateful to her for everything she did for me. And now I feel honoured that I am in a position to try to do the same for others.

Diversity is something that we as a company want to champion and mentoring people and helping them into the industry is an important part of that. We want to say a huge thank you to Paul for nominating us, and to CDN for a wonderful evening (and for the very pretty award!)

-Kate