Video on the rise

It was not very many days back Youtube rose to its high position, making Video as a dominating media on the web. People began sharing their personal videos on the internet , for their friends and families, budding artists uplodaed their personal charts and tapes for distribution and marketing, kids and teenagers ripped off movies and shared tv shows – eventually leading to several television channels to think of actually using video sites for promoting and attracting new viewers. Internet marketers and web companies found ways to attract new customers and showcase their talents and tutorials or guides using video.

All this is old news. As a matter of fact i know of very many sites and companies request their clients to give them testimonials over video .  Another nifty example you will see , websites also using talking characters – also using flash video . For Social media and social networking sites, it became almost mandatory to include a section for video uploads and sharing. A few months ago , we made a dating website , for which it was requested to include video profiles with options for payment. With the rise of use of Video on websites, hosting companies who existed had to upgrade or fine tune their service offerings.

But not to be left behind , general portals , newspaper websites and tv channels started telecasting their news and live schedules on video. Gone were the days when people had to refresh scorecards on Rediff.com or Crickinfo. Sites like www.ndtv.com , www.bbc.co.uk brought news telecasts live . To match Netflix and Blockbuster in India, Reliance has started Online DVD Rentals and Video On Demand in India . I have an account 🙂

But all these were on websites , which is a conventional platform . But the platform I am not used to see or was surprised to see more is the Digital signage ads in large street corners , departmental stores. Gone are the days of regular display ads and hoardings. Just a month ago , we started work for a vendor who offers the infrastructure them and his demand is no less.

But the real shocker …. I have just today come across a news, in USA , 2 companies have put videos inside print media ! Namely Entertainment Weekly , the magazine will come with thin video screen that actually play video of CBS program highlights and an advertisement campagin for Pepsi . Even though with all this video the costs are not coming down , people still feel this will be generating more buzz , more actual feel for the visitors or customers which a text or graphic ad can no longer deliver.