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Marketers Ruin Everything.

Let me start with what annoys me about online video: commercials.

I went to Youtube recently to watch a commercial that someone in the office was talking about. Before the commercial came on, I had to watch another 30 second commercial. Watching a commercial in order to watch a commercial = one annoyed viewer.

But, I must get over it. With the rise in popularity of online video, companies everywhere are trying to “go viral” with their best sales pitches. Which means, other marketing companies will be placing their ads to catch your attention.

I tend to agree with Gary Vaynerchuck in that “Marketers ruin everything!” He said that, among many other outstanding things about social media and marketing, in his recent keynote address at the Digital Summit in Atlanta this week. #dsum11

It’s true though right? Great marketing gets your attention. From there, other marketers mimic the efforts. Which leads to more and more efforts that are similar (call it trends if you will). Eventually, the “market” is saturated with similar tactics and then the consumer chooses to ignore it. Let’s take a moment of silence for Banner Ads, Sponsored Search Results, and Direct Mail.

MATRIX is not immune to this thinking. We know that online video is popular, and we want a piece of it. However, rather than sitting around brainstorming the best way we can “go viral”, we’re evaluating the content that we currently have, and brainstorming ways we can simplify and put it on video.

Now, we’ve created video “case studies” for our Business Intelligence group, fun videos showcasing things about our corporate culture, and highlighting our true heart-felt importance of community service.

Have they gone viral? Hardly.  Do we want them to? Sure why not! Let’s make Kwesi Oseitutu the next Old Spice man!

The point is, MATRIX isn’t trying to spam, nor is our goal to win a Webby. We are trying to provide our customers another insight into our business and corporate culture.

Our most recent “video venture” is taking our technical jobs and putting them on video.  It’s not polished. It’s not over-produced. But it’s real. Real information about the opportunity, the work environment, and the skills needed to land the job.

In the end, we’ll keep testing out different forms of video that work for our business. Scratch the ones that fail, then saturate the streaming web with those that work.

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