Electronic Retailer - April 2012 - 33

economic climate. He even cited an example of a client who produced a spot that didn’t initially work on television, so they made some changes to the spot and are testing it online.

Only The Positive
Levy sees no drawbacks to creating online video and says it’s definitely worth the cost. She sees just as many people get frustrated and hang up or not place an order by phone as get lost online. As a producer, Levy feels more in control of sales online than with television spots that drive the consumer to place an order by phone. “I don’t have control of the telemarketing side. I don’t know if the telemarketer is even reading the script right,” she says. “But if they go to the website and they want to learn more, now I have the ability to be precise, to give accurate answers to questions that stopped them before. Those videos and anything dynamic to a website is helping to get a sale.” Beyond cost and the amount of eyes that can potentially see an online video, another benefit is that a video online is up on the Web forever. “If it’s Googled or searched, anything related to the product, chances are people are seeing the video,” says Dworsky. Plus, with the invention of DVRs, many people can choose to skip over commercials and are doing a lot less channel surfing then they used to do on television. Therefore, the longevity and accessibility of a spot or long-form commercial online becomes that much more important. “Between 40 and 60 percent of the DR business is now coming from online,” says Dworsky. “Therefore, you must have an online presence to make a campaign work. And the more you enhance your online, the better off you will be.”

budget. “There’s not a ton of content. If you’re shooting for television for five to seven days for an infomercial, you can work it in. Or if you’re shooting a short-form that takes about two days, it might put you into a third day, but usually you can scale down the crew and it should be less expensive,” she adds. “It’s a small, incremental cost to edit a show into online video if you plan

it up front,” says Fay. “The writer can create a version online that takes out phone numbers and replaces it with a different call to action.” Dworsky does recommend putting enough funds into the online video to make the channel worth the effort. He says that a lot of marketers want to go the inexpensive route to keep costs low and then post low-quality video. “But

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Pricing Realities
While there is a cost involved in creating online video, Levy says there is no way a campaign can work without it, so plan for online in the original media budget. Plus, she does not see video as a substantial increase in a campaign
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April 2012 | electronicRETAILER

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Electronic Retailer - April 2012

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