Cheeze Blog

Using online video in ways which resemble more everyday communication has brought some key new players into the online world. Leading the way is Seesmic Inc. of San Francisco, which has been followed by Poodz, Viddyou, and the UK-based Phreadz. All of these sites offer “video conversation”.

In practice, this means that users get the facility to easily post video online - via webcam, mobile, upload, or by pasting in media from another site, like YouTube - and take part in threaded timelines, much like the old-fashioned bulletin board or forum. The addition of video to this kind of activity can be very addictive, and this group of new websites has quickly attracted a thriving community of members.

There are obvious benefits for brands in this new implementation of technology. Product promotion is the first and foremost activity which occurs to people when they see hundreds of ears and eyes, and this can certainly be achieved, but it must be both subtle and genuinely involving. After all, if you checked in at your local bar and the people there insisted on talking only about the beer they were drinking or the clothes they were wearing, the experience would rapidly get pretty boring and you probably wouldn’t return.

Seesmic has so far done the most to include brands, with varying degrees of success. They recently attracted criticism from their users when they ran an X-Files promotion with 20th Century Fox, which pushed video comments left on blogs into the general timeline and swamped organic conversation happening there. But when best-selling author Deepak Chopra showed up during his book tour for The Third Jesus, he understood completely how Seesmic’s community worked; he asked provocative questions, explaining that he was on a book tour and couldn’t immediately answer but would return. When he did return, he worked through all the responses and debated with individuals - great use of the platform, and very good promotion for his book, and for himself. He used the technology to engage rather than sell. And importantly, he still drops in from time to time, even though he is no longer promoting his book.

Aside from promotion another obvious route for brands to take is customer feedback. Some of the brightest stars of this new technology have taken this route to win gifts from grateful brands. Photographer and podcaster Christian Payne has been one of the most active - here is his spontaneous and very human video made from his car in which he describes his pleasure in finding the voice of actor John Cleese on his TomTom SatNav.

Full disclosure from the brand ambassador in order to maintain personal integrity, and the acceptance by the brand that honesty will win them new business and deepen customer loyalty are essential, but we’re a few small steps away from brands employing trusted online ambassadors to spread the word about their products and services. Creative professional fields such as photography and music have been doing this kind of thing for a long while. These new video networks open up the possibility for brands to create campaigns around contented users’ natural conversations, rather than relying on traditional, one-way only ad campaigns which carry the risk of provoking ever more jaded responses.