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an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph
November 2011
Business Technology
Audio visual communications
9
Give ‘em the old
razzle dazzle
Video’s potential in business is
so much broader than simply
replacing meetings with faceto-face
conferencing links
By Tracey Caldwell
Video has enormous potential to enrich
communications with employees and
customers, especially with the proliferation
of high-speed networks and affordable
video technology. So it’s somewhat puzzling
that videoconferencing – a straightforward
replacement for physical meetings – seems to
have hogged the limelight for so long.
Now that the quality of video and audio
is of a good standard, smart businesses are
exploiting the facilities more widely – in their
business presentations, at events, on the web
and beyond. So much so that technology
vendors have begun to talk about the videoready
business – an organisation that is
video-enabled to the point that it can apply
the medium wherever it has the potential to
add value. Any business that isn’t video-ready
is vulnerable competitively, they argue.
Richard Oliver, director of marketing
strategy at BT iNet, identifies culture as one of
the biggest barriers to broader video adoption
until now. “Skills around making video usable
can be brought to bear by a good supplier,”
he notes. “What can’t be brought is the
realisation that a company can’t keep doing
what it has always done once it has reached a
certain size.”
Video can have a powerful impact within
a company certainly, for keeping a highly
dispersed workforce engaged and aligned
to company messaging. A succinct weekly
broadcast by the CEO can be much more
powerful and effective than a company
newsletter or email circular.
Once the business has experimented with
the medium internally, it can turn its attention
outwards. Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets
uses a service provided by Kulu Valley to
deliver on-demand video-based presentations
with a twist to its business customers. The
proposition differs from straightforward
video in that it blends video content with
standard presentation features to deliver a
succinct yet rounded message to the target
audience. Via the web, viewers see a video of
the bank’s chief economist Trevor Williams
speaking, while the slides or graphs he refers
to change in line with what he is saying.
“It is getting our commentary on to a wider
platform,” Williams explains. “There are
people who don’t typically look at our material
who may well look at it now because it is on
platforms they’re used to.”
For Williams, the Kulu-based presentation
Taking stock of video
As further evidence that video is becoming
a mainstream communications vehicle for
business, stock video (pre-recorded content
that businesses can reuse in their own
communications) is growing in popularity.
iStockphoto’s video arm is already five years
old and its library contains some 400,000 files,
which are used in everything from national
news programmes, documentaries and films to
web-based advertising.
According to Jim Goertz, director of video
content development at the company, demand
is currently particularly strong for authentic
reality TV-styled scenes and fully edited mini
films.
Meanwhile, content is being uploaded
increasingly from modern DSLR cameras (often
with stills and video shot simultaneously),
and from large-format high-definition video
cameras.
has a higher impact than a fixed-time
teleconference, a medium the bank used
previously. “With the video, people can open
it at their convenience or listen to it at their
convenience. Whereas we used to get 20 or
30 people dialling in each month, now it’s
more like 270 people opening the video and
watching it,” he says.
Video can transform the impact and feel of
events, too. Take the example of a major ball
hosted by the British Olympic Association
recently. Video technology was used to add
the wow factor to what chief commercial
officer Hugh Chambers describes as “the
biggest and the most ambitious Olympic ball in
this country”. The organisation relies entirely
on commercial funding to field Team GB; in
2012 this will amount to 550 athletes at a cost
of £10m.
“As well as raising money, of equal
importance is to reflect the Olympic values
and the quality of the Olympic brand. We
needed to put on a show that was really going
to dazzle people,” he says.
The BOA used technology from Crystal CG
to mount an enormous, high-impact video
display all around the Grand Hall Olympia in
London. The video culminated in the British
team’s symbolic lion racing around the venue’s
video screens before roaring onto a main
screen that was the size of those providing the
backdrop to major festivals like Glastonbury.
In a retail environment, video is being used
as a means of interacting with customers at
the point of sale, via video chat with product
experts on websites or using in-store kiosks.
This has been found to encourage sales
conversion, especially for high-value items.
In future, IPTV (internet protocol television)
viewers will be able to click through from
Wow factor: video used at the Olympic ball
adverts to a video link to a sales assistant.
A major driver in using video is the
need to respond to heightened customer
expectations. Today, consumers will settle for
nothing less than high-quality, compelling
communications on demand.
”In the same way that businesses have
accepted social media, they are going to need
to accept some level of video as part of that
conversation,” says Simon Hathaway, CEO
of Saatchi & Saatchi X, which specialises in
shopper marketing. “Video personalises the
shopping experience. The technology is there
– the big barrier is pinpointing the cost, and
the return.”
One company that has done the maths
and sees real benefit in video is Renault in
the UK. This month the company launched
its futuristic range of zero emissions (ZE)
electric vehicles. In parallel it is piloting an
online video-based customer service channel
for customers and for dealers that take on the
new range. The video technology is provided
by Vee24.
Renault can now explain the technology
behind its ZE range by showing it to customers
during video conversations over the web
with product experts. Noting that telephone
contact to Renault is in decline, Peter Tilbury,
front-office customer
relations manager
at Renault UK, says:
“Customers are on our
website; let’s talk to them.”
Hathaway: barrier
is pinpointing cost
and return