Storybids is a (relatively) simple and useful web service for video producers and media ad buyers. They connect those with creative ideas for product placement with advertisers who want to place their products in user generated videos, mini-dramas, and webisodes, music videos, and online commercials.
How does it work for us, video producers? Using Storybids' powerful creative and auction house tools, you can sell your creative ideas, embodied in your videos, to advertisers who want to place their products. You get your work noticed, the advertiser gets product placement and you get paid for your work. Pretty cool, huh?
How does it work for your prospective advertiser? Storybids enables ad buyers to review the videos you upload and make available for bidding. This minimizes their risk and maximizes their ads’ potential impact, when it comes to distribution online through social networks, viral marketing, and video sites such as YouTube, MySpaceTV, and Facebook.
Automatic distribution and traffic tracking Storybids provides distribution and video analytics measurement by optimizing finalized video for search engines and submitting to several video hosting sites such as YouTube, MySpaceTV, Veoh, Metacafe, DailyMotion and others simultaneously allowing dashboard reporting on the video’s performance via views, comments and ratings aggregated across the various video sites.
I produced and uploaded a new into video for CarbonTicker’s Carbon Savings Account through TubeMogul, on November 9 around 10 PM. (Yes, I work (some) Sunday nights…). I then decided to compare the transmission and service quality one can expect from these sites today. I collected data between November 10 and November 12. Must say this exercise has turned out to be a real eye-opener - literally.
Obviously, all of these video sharing services are free, so this is definitely NOT a “gripe-fest.” What you have here is a “quick and dirty” look at the state of web video today, based on the following criteria:
Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes = 10, No = 0 Image clarity: Download speed: Ease of obtaining embed code: Pre-roll ad tagged-on: Yes = 0, No = 10 Points: 0 - 10, 10 being best for image clarity, download speed, and
Here we go:
YouTube upload: Success
Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10 Image clarity: 5 Download speed: 10 Ease of obtaining embed code: 10 Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10
Yahoo upload: Success
Video availability 24 hours after upload: Yes - 10 Image clarity: 7 Download speed: 10 Ease of obtaining embed code: 10 Pre-roll ad tagged-on: No - 10
There are plenty of aggregated video sites...don't even get me started.
This one, however, pulls from the best (Break.com, Dailymotion, Veoh, and others) to make their editors' created channels filled with stuff you'll love.
The channels feature the latest episodes of shows like Will It Blend? and Chad Vader, as well as channels for news, cute stuff, extreme sports, technology, and about 20 more -- including stuff from the network TV sites.
It might seem a little odd when you could just visit the sites, but think of Chime.TV as the site that provides the constant background video comfort we use TVs for. Actually I don't, but I know a lot of you do. Enjoy.
For about a year now TubeMogul’s beta site has empowered online video publishers, advertisers, and the online video industry with its “Universal Upload” video distribution, publishing, and analytical tools.
While we signed up a good while ago, we have been waiting for them to shed the not-so-distinctive beta status before actually using the service. They seem to be getting close, so here is their pitch, in their own words:
There are a growing number of independent content producers like us, looking to build their brands on the path to stardom. Some you may already now: Average Betty, the comedy chef, magician Brian Brushwood, or Charles Trippy, one of the top video bloggers. Perhaps even more than the internet media companies producing content for the Web, we are hurt by the time spent with day-to-day "technology administration," such as file uploading and viewership measurement. Many of us spend up to 20% of our time in these activities, time away from the creative work needed to produce great content.
So what do you get with a free account?
• One-step upload to a growing number of sites: YouTube, Metacafe, Myspace, Yahoo, Revver, AOL Video, DailyMotion, and Brightcove at present.
• Increased reach: With your videos on more sites at no extra effort, your opportunity to gain viewers multiplies. TubeMogul claims that beta users of Universal Upload have witnessed up to 3x more views per video.
• Track Trends & Buzz: Create groups of videos important to you or your industry and track spikes in viewership to identify trends and monitor the pulse of online video viewers.
• Assess Marketing Efforts - assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts by analyzing spikes and trends in viewership across any range of time.
• Competitive Intelligence - see what's working for your counterparts and competition and compare and contrast viewership trends with your own.
• Share the Intelligence - send and share data and charts with colleagues or friends.
As the title says ... but there is more to WeShow than self promotion. The, by now obligatory, "Beta" sign for example....
They actually have live editors who choose what makes it to the site's three sections from YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion, MySpace, and many other websites:
WeShow Videos
"Selecting and organizing the best videos worldwide for your entertainment" is the subtitle. You will find really cool stuff here, despite the hype.
WeShow Awards
Okay, they call it the "world's biggest online video contest." Choose your favorite videos among more than 200 channels. There is a new competition every month. Voting your favorite the "WeShow Video of the Month" is cool, if you have a lot of time. Otherwise I don't see the point.
WeShow TV
22 channels, from Autos, through TV. There are four, specifically, nor found on a lot of other sites:
* Commercials * Games & Toys * Learning * People & Vlogs
I can see me suggesting our video commercials and this blog for inclusion. As a member, I'll also receive a weekly selection, defined by me, by email.
Interestingly, the site has British and Brazilian editions, just a click away. Find the flags (in the upper right corner)
You can, as I just did, create your own branded player, video-on-demand (VOD) feed, video roll, etc., etc. I'm evaluating the branded player to replace vSocial's, which is a real pain to use, as it has to be set up for every clip and its quality varies too. Here it is:
So, in 2 steps, I'll be able to syndicate to most of the web video sphere, spread the word through del.icio.us, Digg, PopCurrent, FeedBurner, and just have a blast doing it all!
Now you can monitor the success of your videos for free on:
- YouTube - MySpaceTV - wouldn't work with my URL: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6569195 (probably still looking for video.myspace.com URL) - Revver - iFilm - Dailymotion
and these German video sites:
- Clipfish - Sevenload - Videotube
with VideoCounter for an unlimited period. Sign up free to add up to five links of your videos or up to five video sharing sites they are on. Log in daily to check your report like the one below.
A great service, developed by Dr. Robert Biermann. Read why he developed this site on the "About Us" page:
"I run VideoCounter.com together with VCTech. I am fascinated by the possibilities offered by video portals. In my professional capacity for the company Webeffekt AG, which specializes in search engines, I use video portals and video communities to provide information about internet marketing topics. You can look for my contributions by searching for the keyword 'webeffekt' on the portals. I was very interested to find out how often my videos were watched in different video communities and how this developed over the course of time. Even though increasing viewing numbers are great it did take me some time to collect the data manually on a regular basis. This is the idea behind VideoCounter.com, which regularly performs this task for me. Free online tools that I am also involved with are:
- AdLog24.com allows checking the success rate of online-advertising - Termprofile.com helps translators with quality control - Komerca.tv is an editorial video search service for significant videos - Linkpartner.de is a platform for exchanging links between websites - VideoOnlineMarketing.de offers systematic video online advertising"
