Video marketing is a powerful tool. Viewers retain 95% of a video message, but only 10% of what they read.
But media professionals can’t just throw a video together and expect it to be effective. You still have to provide quality content. To do that, you have to know your audience.
In this episode of Identity Revolution, Andy Plesser, founder and CEO of Beet.TV talks with host Cory Davis about his experiences creating video series and other media specifically for media professionals. He shares why it’s crucial to identify an audience, the importance of growing and changing with your audience, and the power of video to make personal connections.
Beet.TV’s business model is based on sponsorship, but they focus on editorial content
“About 75% of the videos you see are associated with a sponsorship series or a sponsored event. By the same token, it’s not paid to play. We cover the industry. We cover what we find is important and compelling, which is on an editorial basis. […]
We work with a sponsor who wants a particular address, particular segment, whether that’s addressable or identity or data or programming on the sell side, the buy-side, whatever it might be. We formulate a series with thought leaders around that, and it’s not an endorsement of our sponsor, but the sponsor is associated with it, so it’s not custom content or video news releases or anything of that nature. It’s a strong editorial that’s sponsored.”
Video marketing can foster personal connections that forge meaningful relationships between stakeholders in your industry
“We have seen people have been interested in seeing what other people are doing, who they are, what they have to say up close and personal. That’s been the core of the form factor in the business. COVID has been extraordinary. People are alone. They want to know what’s going on. They want to see their buddies, or they want to see the next big thing. There are certainly trade publications where you can read about things, but I think to have that personal connection, to spend five or eight minutes [with someone] is unique.”
Video has revolutionized the way people came together in the time of COVID, and those changes will stick around
“As much as we hate Zoom, it’s been fantastic for me. We can do tapings in Los Angeles or Bangalore or London or Cape Town, Brooklyn or New Jersey, wherever [the subjects] are. It’s easy for us to cover breaking news and have access to more people more easily. From an operational standpoint, we’re definitely going to do more. We’re going back to in-person studio production, but we’re going to do remote stuff just like CNN does remote.”
Media marketing is an adventure, always going in new directions, and you have to scale and explore other areas continually
“We’re scaling quickly. There is a demand, and we can only manage so much. We also think there’s an opportunity to expand what we do a little in related areas – for example, Hollywood and entertainment. There’s a lot of innovation and interesting people who want to be on camera. So there are other subsets that we’re going to expand into.”
[13:18] “If you address a sector that is dynamic, that has interesting people, and you can get in the middle of it by reporting and pulling people together physically in person, that’s awesome.”
[14:56] “You have to keep up with what’s editorially relevant and where the dollars are going. Where an investment is right now is pretty insane in terms of investment around data, analytics, identity, and venture investment. As a result, there’s a lot of innovation that’s being funded.”
[19:18] “I think if you can do something to help people in your own way or to inspire other people to help, that’s awesome, and it’s one of the most beautiful parts of my life and what I do.”
