One of the biggest recurring questions I am getting from clients is how to post their corporate videos on the company website. This has become a complicated decision for small and mid-sized businesses who want to have some cool video and multi-media on their websites but start running into the pitfalls that can crop up with some video delivery systems. Let me help with some advice.
First thing to know is that putting any multi-media on any website generally involves some tradeoffs and there will always be someone with an older computer or browser with a weak connection for whom the mutimedia loads poorly or not at all. No matter how small you make a video there will be someone out there who has trouble playing it, so you should not try and reach every lousy system out there but create something that can be seen well on most systems and for people who have decent connections and are used to watching video they can access it with small load times. You also need to know you audience... does your customer tend to have home computer or is your target customer tech companies in a Biz to Biz setting. Is seeing the video on a cellphone important to your target customer? This may alter your delivery choices. There may also be a trial and error test period where you weigh these options and see what works best for your company.
There are basically two categories of web delivery on your website--- 1) Using a third party WEB HOST or 2) POSTING A WEB READY VIDEO DIRECTLY on your own website. Let's look at the Pros and Cons of each.
OPTION 1- THIRD PARTY WEB HOSTS (YOUTUBE, VIMEO, FLOWPLAYER)--I cannot tell you how many complaints I get from my clients whose web designers are choosing to use the third party delivery systems as the only web delivery option. YouTube is a favorite and is wonderful because it is universally seen by many people with ease and can be shared and passed around on facebook. I do suggest all my clients post a YouTube page with their videos so people can do this, but I advise against YouTube on your own webpage. This is because on your own private real estate, your webpage, it looks unprofessional to have both the YouTube logo all over your product and because it is hard to eliminate the ads for related YouTube videos at the end of your video. I have had clients complain that their competitor's product came on their webpage after the YouTube video played. Other clients have had inappropriate material come up after their video. YouTube has a preference to shut this off, but it doesn't work 100%, so this is too much of a risk to most of my clients. I do not like getting a panicked call about a client feeling they have just advertised for their competition after the competitor's video gets advertised on their webpage! Use YouTube on your website at your own risk.
The other web hosts like FLOWPLAYER and VIMEO also have drawbacks. Much like YOUTUBE when you use these you basically send the video to a virtual machine out there in webspace that makes a copy of the video which you cannot control and regurgitates it back to your website. In doing this your video may lose vibrancy in color or have motion issues in playback. Or it may look pretty decent, but you cannot control how it comes out. I have had clients complain how it looks after this process and I have also been asked to send larger and larger files to try and give these processors huge and better images to degrade and the problem isn't the input but the uncontrolled output. Sometimes they do look decent but then you run into the issue of iphones and ipads which historically do not tend to play these. I am willing to suggest to my clients that some customers might have to wait for videos to load or a few behind the curve customers might not see the video at all, but I have trouble telling a client that customers who bought high end technology cannot get the video at all.
2) CUSTOM WEB READY VIDEOS DIRECTLY ON YOUR WEBSITE - This is an option that I recommend to most of my clients. It may not be for everyone but my clients presumably got me, a professional filmmaker to do their videos because they wanted polished videos to be a significant part of their campaign. Therefore they have made an investment and this work should be put out there in a polished presentation, or they may diminish the power of the investment they already made. It would be akin to getting a top photographer to take your family's portrait. Since this is a nice photo you don't want to present it like a snapshot on your refridgerator with a magnet. Rather, you probably want to have a custom frame shop do a nice job and hang it on the wall or on a desk. Once you have it displayed nicely you can ALSO throw one on the refrigerator too! (YouTube).
Some web designers these days seem to only want to offer the third party options and I generally see this with web designers who do less custom work in general and more use of templates and open web architecture. But even these systems CAN be customized to some degree and I become concerned for my clients when the web company seems unable to deliver video options. It tells me that video presentation is an afterthought to this web company and they are not striving for creative forward thinking use of video. It is one option but should be no means be the only option.
In selecting a web designer these days it is important to take a look at whether they use multi-media a lot or not. Look at the web designer's website--- do they have video on their own site, if so how is it presented and is the presentation creative and polished? Take a look at the sample sites on their list and see if they have much video content on websites they deliver. How do those look? Do they rely on Youtube? If their client base uses very little or poor looking videos or only handles YouTube that tells you something.
Obviously these third party programs and templates are becoming common because they have brought down costs, after all YouTube is free! And it is so easy to throw on a website or blog that laypeople can do it! No wonder you have to watch ads at the end, how else can YouTube exist? They need to get you off your website and clicking on their YouTube site for more videos and more ads. Also, let's look at what kinds of videos are tremendously successful on YouTube... "cute fuzzy animals falling asleep"... "dramatic prairie dog"... These things go viral, product videos do not tend to but are much more tailored to people who are visiting your site interested in what you offer.
Custom web placement on your website is not rocket science. I am not a web designer but I am able to place custom videos on my own website almost as easily as dropping in a photo. A better web designer than me will probably set up some code for different browsers and different ways the video can be seen on phones and devices, but this code is available for free on the web and any competent web designer should be able to install it. Altering a website to show a custom video instead of a Youtube video should not be extra thousands of dollars, but it may be several hundred. In my book that is money well spent to have more control of your video and avoid the pitfalls that cause the panicked calls I get when third party providers go wrong.
Remember, no video will play on every system out there and you will have trade-offs. Your web designer is correct in telling you this and to expect it to run on every mobile device or home system may be too much to ask. In some cases where you are looking for extensive websharing, YouTube may be the right choice for your product. But when it comes to what you put on your real estate, your web page , I do recommend presenting with as much control as you can. If your web designer cannot even present to you a simple cost effective option to eliminate the third party providers you should probably look for a company who can at least offer that service. If they make it sound like it's really really hard to do, then you can figure that for them it may be really really hard, but it won't be for everyone. Third party providers do have their plusses and should be fully considered, but if you intend to make video a significant part of your web outreach strategy you should be working with people who are very comfortable working with video in many different ways.
Hope this helps! ;)
Mary
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