Destination Growth

Visiting EEDA's excellent Destination Growth Busines event yesterday, we were struck by the number of experts and entrepreneurs advocating innovation, especially in recessionary times, as the key to business success. Internet TV is nothing if not innovative, and definitely effective.

“Just as customer reviews became the online retail must-have in 2008 and 2009, interactive video is proving its worth and is set to take centre stage.”

• Sheila Dahlgren, senior director of marketing at Adobe Scene7, for Internet Retailing

“a fantastic communication tool. We are very excited to be able to broadcast media via the internet in such a user friendly and interactive format”

• Mark Overton, Arena Media Services

Have you heard the buzz? It’s interactive, it’s effective and achievable whatever the budget. Media savvy organisations are realising just how powerful a marketing and communications tool interactive video is.

Now organisations can enliven their web presence with a customised media player designed in the company’s livery to enhance their website and branded with their logo. Viewers can click straight through from the video to interactive surveys or e-commerce sites. It is also possible to replicate the branded player and its content on third party sites, further raising the company’s profile.

New figures out from M&S Direct show that since the launch of its online TV channel in April its online sales have been boosted by over 30%, and 90% on some products. Online retailer Ebags lifted its conversion rates by 50% among shoppers who pressed play, and as much as 139% for shoppers who watched the entire video – a powerful sales tool!

Add to that the option to charge for content (training films for example) through pay per view and subscription channels, the ability to stream live events, and it becomes an interesting tool for every organisation.

This doesn’t have to mean a lot of costly tv production. Sometimes the most simple videos can be most effective. But with the convergence of media and the use of set top boxes it is also an option to reach a wider audience watching on conventional tv’s and plasma screens.

StreamExchange Directors Fiona Ryder and Caroline Oldrey have over 20 years experience in digital media and television production and enjoyed meeting business delegates at the Destination Growth event to talk more about media streaming and the business solutions it offers.

Northants Tourism Forum

Tourism Forum, Kettering Conference Centre, Thursday 22nd October 2009


Stream Exchange Director, Caroline Oldrey will be delivering a presentation on Online Media Streaming to delegates at the Northamptonshire Tourism Forum at Kettering Conference Centre on Thursday.

Delegates will explore the effectiveness of video in getting a message across, and learn how to harness the power of the internet using video online to raise the profile, proactively market and increase the revenue of a tourist destination.

The event is being hosted by Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd.

Breakfast Event - Media Marketing Breakfast - Norwich 17th November

We are delighted to invite you to join Fiona Ryder, founder Director of StreamExchange, who will be guest speaker at the first of a series of new Media Marketing Breakfasts being hosted by Business Link East.

The Breakfast will be held on 17th November @ the Forum Norwich - early start 07.45hrs.

It is sponsored by Business Link East and aims to give an interesting introduction to the power of Internet Video - Using video & the web to get your message across. This event will show you ways to use this new media to enhance your message.

Fiona will be sharing her extensive knowledge of the the sector and will be joined by Mark Overton, Director of Arena Media Partnership who has just launched an internet TV channel from StreamExchange as a communication and marketing tool for Social Housing Organisations.

Places are limited so book now via http://www.bookevents.org/ or phone 0845 6011000

Grants may be available to develop interactive Internet TV channels

StreamExchange is involved in an exciting new project to create hyper-local TV. It was commissioned by Arena Media Services to develop an interactive internet TV service for UK Social Housing landlord organisations.

Mark Overton, founder of Arena Media Services took advantage of the TakeITon grant scheme available to eligible businesses in the East of England to part fund the project.

StreamExchange created the new channel and provided an end-to-end service from the creation of a branded web TV player to production of the media, complete with co-ordinated channel titles and stings. The brief was to create an engaging local TV style community service, addressing the issues of most importance and interest to residents, with the added benefit of easy to follow interactive surveys and subtitles in several languages.

Mark is delighted with the results of what he calls "a fantastic communication tool". "We are very excited to be able to broadcast media via the internet in such a user friendly and interactive format." he says, "StreamExchange offered us a professional service from start to finish, and continue to help us to explore new ways in which our client organisations can engage their residents".

Arena Media Services claimed 40% of the development costs through the TakeITon Scheme available to small to medium sized businesses in the East of England from Business Link East. Mark says the application process was "very straight forward", with his application being completed and approved within 10 days. "Business Link could not have been more supportive", he says.

TakeITon is a major initiative launched by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and designed to help boost the productivity of businesses in the region through improved use of IT. An awareness raising campaign running alongside the support programme aims to encourage SME's to think again about the way they use IT and to become more competitive, visible and profitable as a result.

Arena and StreamExchange are working in tandem to develop similar TV projects to serve more local social housing communities around the country.

For more information, please call StreamExchange on

0845 0508419 or email info@streamexchange.tv

Online video more popular than blogging and social networking

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 29-May-09, 11:40

LONDON - Over 70% of US web users watch video clips on the internet, making online video the leading social media platform, ahead of blogging and social networking, according to the Global Web Index.

The US data from the Global Web Index has been released ahead of the full report, which covers 16 countries. It is compiled by Lightspeed Research for social media research consultancy Trendstream.

According to the data, in the US online video now rivals traditional broadcasting and is the fastest growing media platform in history.

In one week in January 2009, 97m people in the US viewed a clip online, as many as were tuning into any major network.

In contrast to some earlier predictions, Generation Y alone is not fuelling the growth. The survey revealed that over 80% of 16 and 17-year-olds watched video online compared with 65% of those aged 55 to 64.

Over 50% of 16 and 17-year-olds shared video clips online compared with 29% of 55 to 64-year-olds, and a further 46% and 21% respectively uploaded a video.

Trendstream said: "With users from across the age spectrum watching, creating and distributing video content online, the so called 'digital divide' is not as wide as might be expected."

YouTube dominates as the main platform for viewing video online (68% of US video watchers accessed content in this way) and other players fail to make an impact, with the second biggest point for accessing video online being via email (35%).

As such, user-generated and user-disseminated content dominates. Trendstream said: "It is clear that web users themselves will be the main determiners of the future of online video - both in terms of the type of content available and its distribution."

The survey also reveals that engagement levels vary significantly based on the origin of the content that web users are viewing.

Users have the highest attention span for clips that have been shared with them by a friend (rated 5.54 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is low attention and 10 is high). At 3.64, videos of ads command the least attention from viewers.

Although viral distribution dominates, the size of sharing networks varies greatly. The majority (72%) distribute content to fewer than three people, while 11% share with networks of at least six people.

Email is the preferred method of dissemination with nearly half (49.6%) using this process. Fewer than half that number (22.6%) shared video using a social network, the second most favoured distribution mechanism.

Tom Smith, managing director of Trendstream, said: "In just three years we've reached a real watershed in the way that consumers expect to watch, contribute and share video content.

"Web users do not want just to watch video: they want to participate at every stage including the creation and sharing of material. Broadcast mode is dead; now is the time for co-creation, user distribution and a true democratization of video content."

Full results from the first wave of The Global Web Index, a survey of 16,000 consumers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, China, South Korea, Australia and Japan will be published in June and then updated bi-annually. It is compiled by Lightspeed Research.

David Day, chief executive of Lightspeed Research Europe, said: "Active web users are driving this digital revolution and players at every step of the value chain need to take notice if they are to realise the opportunities that this explosion in online video consumption represents."

click here for the original story on Brand Republic
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/909094/Online-video-popular-blogging-social-networking/

Yours2share Interview

Click on the player above to see the interview with Sophie Garrett, founder of the innovative yours2share.com.

The film was shot at a StreamExchange filming day event in Norwich. To find out more about filming days - see the entry below or email us at info@streamexchange.tv

Call for Affiliates

If you are professional film or video producer, interviewer or media specialist and want to offer streaming, hosting and branded player provision to your clients we are actively seeking affiliate partners in all areas of the UK. This will enable you to plug into an end-to-end solution without the significant cost of set up. Contact info@streamexchange for more details.

Filming Day

The first filming day event took place in Norwich yesterday and there was a steady procession of business leaders interviewed on camera by TV presenters, Helen McDermott and Caroline Oldrey. Leading local film and video Director Tracy Williams, filmed the interviews and post production takes place today. By the end of the week these companies will be able broadcast their business message to the web, harnessing the considerable power of online video. If you missed the first one and want to sign up for the next event, please call 0845 0508419 or mail info@streamexchange.tv

Filming Day

StreamExchange is planning a series of filming days, from the end of April in the Norwich area. This is the place to start if you don't have video yet for your site. StreamExchange will produce a simple 1-2 minute video for you or your business, complete with graphics, publish it to StreamExchange and give you a player to paste into your own site. The video will be stored and streamed from our servers for 1 month as part of the package with the option to extend it. The cost is just £295.00 +vat. Book your place now! mail: sales@streamexchange.tv with Filming Day in the Subject and all usual contact details and we'll book you in.

Social Video Influence

Over the last few weeks the importance of viral video distribution has cropped up more in conversation with clients than almost any other topic. Getting your business video online is, as we all know, step one in the creation of a compelling video strategy. Distributing your content using highly portable video widgets is a pre-requisite for making sure that your message can be found. Viral video solutions form part of the wider revolution that is social media communication, which started out as a text based strategy and is rapidly expanding to embrace video. Video widgets and viral video solutions are undoubtably on the cusp of going mainstream. Their importance in the context of social media strategies for business is undeniable.

At the Social Media Influence Conference next week in London, some of the internet's leading figures will be discussing social media coming of age. I'm looking forward to understanding more about their views on the importance of viral video and how significant it will become in the next few years.

Silverlight chosen for Obama's inauguration

As a Silverlight evangelist, especially when it comes to video streaming, I was delighted to see that Silverlight was the technology of choice for Obama's inauguration - winning the bid over flash. Whilst b2b clients still seem to be wary of the penetration of Silverlight in the corporate sector they agree that the viewer experience is better and the streaming quality excellent. In the UK we now have three main broadcasters choosing Silverlight as the technology of choice for streaming their TV channels - Setanta, ITV and Sky. I'm sure that security and user experience played a significant part in these decisions. I look forward to seeing how the Flash vs Silverlight battle progresses amongst professional content owners and users.