If it walks and talks, it must be a ... video
Ottawa Business Journal
By Krystle Chow
Mon, Jun 30, 2008
Professional trainer, speaker and coach Ann Max shares a little something in common with Princess Leia, according to a friend of hers.
It's not a gold bikini or a croissant-like hairdo, but Ms. Max's friend has told her that the walking, talking, borderless video version of her appearing on her Productive to the Max website looks a lot like that famous scene in Star Wars where a tiny hologram of Princess Leia appears and asks for Obi-Wan's help.
The company behind the video spokesperson technology is local firm vdoLife, whose offering is an interactive video overlay which can be installed on a website with a single line of script.
VdoLife CEO Arash Mahin said the beauty of the company's offering is that it's unlike regular online videos which are usually large, cumbersome files that have to be embedded into a client's website, often requiring a rebuilding of already complex code to accommodate the video. VdoLife's hosts the Macromedia Flash overlays and streams the video into customers' websites, eliminating the need for clients to host the videos themselves.
All the client has to do, he said, is film the video spokesperson at a green-screen studio and send the raw footage to vdoLife.
As well, vdoLife's technology allows clients to add clickable functions to overlays to redirect visitors to specific areas of a website, or to survey and track visitors to eventually personalize their surfing experiences. Clients are able to view how often visitors click through the video, or how often they've replayed or stopped the video.
There's also an 'anti-annoyance' feature that allows visitors to turn off the video or play it on mute, and clients can easily determine how often the overlays appear on their websites.
"What I've heard over and over again from clients is that this is 'cool,' or 'Thanks for breathing life into our website,'" said Mr. Mahin.
"The timing is right for our product – there's a demand for more personalization, Internet speeds have increased and the tools are there (to build it), so it all glued together."
VdoLife is just starting to market its product, but already it's attracted the attention of clients such as Mayor Larry O'Brien, Alberta Premier El Stelmach, the Boston School Board and business writer Mark Yarnell. The company's clients have reported click-through rates and full video views of about 25 to 30 per cent, compared to the one- to two-per-cent returns usually seen from direct mail.
More than 20,000 people saw Mr. Stelmach's March election video, and 48 per cent of all visitors to his site viewed all 30 seconds of the clip, the company said.
The numbers appear to support the idea that it's prime time for the online video advertising market, with a 2007 eMarketer report noting that 50 per cent of the total U.S. population of 155.2 million will watch videos online this year. Companies are projected to spend $1.35 billion this year alone on online video advertising, a number that could grow to as much as $4.3 billion by 2011.
Ms. Max said the technology is especially good for someone in her line of work, and added click-throughs on her website have increased by about 50 per cent from the numbers on her previous site.
"For someone like me, it's important to get me in front of the public, and it's a leg up in a way because customers want to know who they're dealing with," she said. "It puts a personal spin on your website ... you're right there and people can get a glimpse of what you're like as an individual, which for a coach is very important. Instead of just a picture, you're saying things and it adds meaning and enforces the message you're trying to get across."
The ability to establish a relationship with visitors is a key benefit of the technology, said Katherine Fletcher, managing director of communications services company iStudio, who has recommended vdoLife to some of her clients.
"That personal user experience is part of everything online these days, which you see in the growth of social networking and YouTube, and with vdoLife you get a sense of the personality of the company, rather than it being a faceless organization ... it's a real person," Ms. Fletcher said. "It's also more than just a talking head in a video, since it encourages interaction and you can set it up so the video spokesperson invites you to take the next step, such as doing a poll, and the user is invited to enter into a conversation, putting control in the hands of the customers."
Ms. Fletcher noted that the "light footprint" of the technology is particularly attractive because it makes it easy to introduce without the need for massive hardware investments, and is therefore more accessible to a broader number and variety of organizations.
She said despite the richness of the offering, the price point of vdoLife's product is extremely affordable and comparable to that of an e-mail distribution service such as GOT Corp.'s Campaigner, with the company charging only a fraction of a cent per video view that lasts for a predetermined number of seconds.
"It's quite accessible, not just for large corporations with big budgets, but for small organizations such as non-profits, and it's a sexy way to get a similar level of engagement," Ms. Fletcher said.
As well, vdoLife's technology offers a variety of applications beyond simply selling a product, she added: customers can use the video spokesperson to recruit staff, or provide e-learning opportunities, or to broadcast a critical message urgently in emergency situations such as a flu epidemic, since it is relatively easy to change.
She noted that it isn't for every website, since some people may find the technology obtrusive or annoying if it always pops up automatically, and said the 'anti-annoyance' feature is a good idea. "It's a very fresh tool, but if we started to get every website adopting this, it might get old very quickly."
New ideas are attracting new eyes
CTV News
By Paul Brent
Mon Mar. 03 2008
- Next up, vdoLife. This Ottawa company is the brainchild of two men who saw an opportunity in the web world by offering a better kind of video. They want to personalize websites and they do so by posting video of you or a vdoLife staffer onto your website to pitch your product, your company, your website, or you. You have to see how the video is laid over the site to appreciate how it grabs eyeballs. Eighty per cent of current sales are in the U.S., where web designers seem to appreciate a good idea a little more than Canadians. Go to www.vdolife.com to get more information.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQPehwMfx_s
OTTAWA SOFTWARE BRINGS POLITICS TO NEW LEVEL
Ottawa, January 28, 2008
A small firm has created a unique online software that will help politicians reach out to constituents like never before. Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa Macleod is the first in the world to use the technology.
vdoLife, the brainchild of Ottawa-based vdoDesign Ltd., is an easy-to-use Flash™-based online software that creates a borderless video overlay of a spokesperson without interfering with the normal operation of the website or having to redesign a site. “In this video-obsessed world, it’s a great tool for elected officials and political candidates,” says vdoDesign co-founder Arash Mahin. “It gives constituents a better sense of their personality and helps reach out to the people they represent, all for only a fraction of a cent per online viewer. It also creates an intimacy with constituents that traditional video can’t deliver.”
“I am honoured to be the first elected official to use this breakthrough technology,” says MacLeod. “Regardless of how hard you work, you never get to meet every one of your constituents face to face. Now, when they go to my website, www.lisamacleod.com, we’ll be able to connect on a more personal basis. I love the idea that I can solicit feedback and interact with them too.”
vdoLife helps personalize the web, allowing spokespersons to greet, guide and educate visitors. It grabs viewers by the hand and takes them directly to where the website owner wants them to be.
The online software has only been actively marketed for a few months, but the company already has clients from California, where a major financial services company is using it as a sales tool, to Boston, where the local school board is using the software as a training vehicle. Eighty percent of its business is coming from California, Florida, Texas and New York.
California-based XXtreme Measures (www.xxtrememeasures.com), a global digital distribution wireless marketing company providing new media marketing solutions, has just signed on as a vdoLife reseller, a major boost for the technology. Jerald Cavitt, its CEO, explains “Adding vdoLife to our suite of applications just seemed to make sense. We believe the product affords us a fantastic opportunity to create new paradigms of interactivity between the application and the end user.” Vdo Life resellers will actively pursue elected officials and candidates.
MacLeod plans to film several other videos relating to various issues in her riding. “The reaction so far has been very enthusiastic,” she says.
View how the online software works at www.vdoLife.com.
OTTAWA SOFTWARE HELPS INTERNET MOVE TO NEW LEVEL
Ottawa, February 5, 2007
A small Ottawa firm has created a unique, online software that is enabling web sites to come alive like never before and helping people retain more of what they read on screen.
The online software has only been actively marketed for a few months, but the company already has clients from California, where a major financial services company is using it as a sales tool, to Boston, where the local school board is using the software as a training vehicle. Eighty percent of its business is coming from California, Florida, Texas and New York.
The brainchild of Ottawa-based vdoLife, the technology is an easy-to-use, Flash™-based online software that allows you to place a moving spokesperson onto a website without interfering with the site’s normal operations or making any changes to it.
“As internet usage explodes, so too are demands for improved internet services,” says vdoLife co-founder Arash Mahin.
vdoLife helps personalize the web, allowing spokespersons to greet, guide and educate visitors. It grabs viewers by the hand and leads them directly to where the website owner wants them to be led.
“It’s a proven fact that people remember a much larger percentage of what they read and hear versus only what they read,” says Mahin. “vdoLife now enables internet users to retain more information and personalize the process at the same time.”
California-based XXtreme Measures (www.xxtrememeasures.com), a global digital distribution wireless marketing company providing new media marketing solutions, has just signed on as a reseller, a major boost for the technology. Jerald Cavitt, its CEO, explains “Adding vdoLife to our suite of applications just seemed to make sense. We believe the product affords us a fantastic opportunity to create new paradigms of interactivity between the application and the end user. The vdoLife product integrates well into several of our current applications and we are looking forward to working with our clients to deploy the technology across multiple platforms.”
Vancouver-based Mark Yarnell, multi-million selling author and network marketing guru, is using vdoLife to help promote his products and drive traffic to his site by cross-promoting with other sites using personalized vdo ‘tips’. “As an author”, says Yarnell, “I've been privileged to interview many of the leading experts in business, science and technology on every continent. I can count on one hand those who consistently under-promise and over-deliver. Such individuals are indeed rare in a brave new world of hype, spin and quasi-experts who can slap up a fancy website and pretend to be competent and ethical. From the very beginning, vdoLife has exceeded my expectations.”
View how the online software works at www.vdoLife.com. You can also overlay a demo vdoLife spokesperson on your own site without interfering with its operation or anyone other than you seeing it by following. Simply follow the instructions on the site for the free demo.