Looking at Video on the Web with Ken McCarthy » Selling Physical Products http://systemvideoblog.com Video, filmmaking, marketing and the web Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:03:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Video and eCommerce http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/11/video-and-ecommerce/ http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/11/video-and-ecommerce/#comments Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:56:48 +0000 Ken McCarthy http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/11/video-and-ecommerce/ You read it on this blog first (over the past twelve months), but the industry magazines are starting to catch on.

Here’s an excellent article on video and eCommerce in "Internet Retailing."

Click here for the article: Blending Video and eCommerce.

Enjoy!

Ken

]]> http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/11/video-and-ecommerce/feed/ 5 Tell and Sell http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/02/tell-and-sell/ http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/02/tell-and-sell/#comments Tue, 02 Jan 2007 01:55:00 +0000 Ken McCarthy http://systemvideoblog.com/2007/01/02/tell-and-sell/ A year and a half ago, Mike Stewart and I were on the phone talking about possible business uses for Internet video.

He pointed out that by simply using an online video to demonstrate how to set up a phone-recording unit he sells, he got a huge boost in his conversion rates.

Makes sense, right?

How many times have you shied away from a purchase, especially in the realm of consumer electronics, where you had the money and the desire, but just couldn’t figure out which model to buy?

I don’t know about you, but it happens to me all the time.

"Why don’t the consumer electronics companies train prospects to use their products with Internet video? Talk about a slam dunk and a massive ROI," I blurted out.

Well, either they were listening in on our conversation or great minds think alike.

Sony tried it (with help from a Austin-based company called Powered.) The result? Visitors to Sony’s online customer training site convert to buyers at the rate of 25%.

Now Sony is starting to syndicate this content to its retail partners like Circuit City.

Not all multi-billion dollar ideas need to be rocket science.

Hwo can YOU use this?

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They signed humorist Bill Maher to host a soon-to-be launched Internet TV program called "Amazon Fishbowl."

The launch date is still several weeks away, but you can take a sneak peak here:

Fishbowl preview

Let me know what you think…

]]> http://systemvideoblog.com/2006/04/17/amazon-steps-up/feed/ 8 The one I’ve been waiting for http://systemvideoblog.com/2006/03/25/the-one-ive-been-waiting-for/ http://systemvideoblog.com/2006/03/25/the-one-ive-been-waiting-for/#comments Sat, 25 Mar 2006 08:52:29 +0000 Ken McCarthy http://systemvideoblog.com/2006/03/25/the-one-ive-been-waiting-for/ In 1994, when I lived in San Francisco, I published a little
eight-page newspaper called the Internet Gazette.

My friend Jim Warren, founder of the Computer Faire,
the original consumer PC show, gave me the idea
and it worked like crazy for my then-fledgling Internet
consulting business.

I had two stories on the front page of the first issue…

On the right hand side, an article about the Internet
Music Underground, a group that proposed to revolutionize
music by making music downloadable off of the Internet.

On the left hand side of the front page, I commissioned
Hank Duderstadt, a multimedia pioneer, to write an
article about what I thought was right around the corner:
video on the Internet. 

In both cases, I guess I jumped the gun a bit, but back in
1994 putting text and pictures on the Internet was already
a snap and I wanted to get to the good stuff.

— Fast forward to Halloween, 2005

Sometimes you can wait so long for something, you
forget what you’re waiting for.

That was the case with me and Internet video.

I wouldn’t exactly say I lost patiences. Ten plus years is a long
time to be patient about anything, but I did get distracted.

Then, in the early fall of 2005, I got my wake-up call.

Brad Fallon phoned me and asked me if I was online.
I said I was and he pointed me to a web site that sold
Halloween costumes,.

But they didn’t just sell them any old way…

They sold them with a full blown QVC-style program
which they streamed to personal computers from the
Internet.

Two skilled hosts and a parade of models displaying
the various offerings and highlighting their unique
features.

I was mesmerized.

Brad and I talked about ways the program could be
improved.  For one thing, the costume merchant
transferred the QVC concept a little too literally.

The web site was exactly like an old-style TV program that
didn’t allow you to stop it, pause, or jump to the exact item
you were interested in.

But hey. for a first try it was brilliant.

—  Refining the concept

Brad’s not the kind of guy to let grass grow under
his feet.

Even though he had no experience with video,
let alone TV merchandising, he set to work to
apply the idea to his thriving wedding party favors
business.

In his usual modest, matter-of-fact way, he sent me
this link a few weeks ago, when his experiment
was still in beta.

Now it’s ready for public viewing.

Here’s the deal (as I see it)…

TV didn’t obliterate print, but it sure did upset the
apple cart and TV networks quickly eclipsed the
power and influence of the print world.

Internet video, I believe, has the potential to do the
same thing on the Internet.

There will still be a huge demand for text and picture
pages, but in certain categories, video will have
the effect of a marketing sledge hammer.

I’m sure glad I’m not competing with Brad Fallon
selling wedding party favors online.

When you see this site, you’ll instantly know what
I’m talking about.

The world of merchandising physical products
will never be the same… This is history folks.

http://www.myweddingfavors.tv

Enjoy!

Ken

P.S. Share this letter with your friends. It’s too good
to keep under a bushel.

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