The SmartVideo Blog

I’m coming to you live from Spain, at day two of Mobile World Congress 2013, where senior mobile professionals and partners from around the global convene to explore the innovative horizon. Though the future looks bright for mobile carriers everywhere, there are a few obstacles that continue to characterize the industry: high churn, high customer care costs, complex billing, and minimal differentiation.

At SundaySky, we’ve cultivated the two unique ingredients which make SmartVideo more engaging and effective than traditional video -- personalization and relevance. By incorporating these elements into marketing strategies, brands are better able to target the right customers at the right time with highly relevant promotions, products and information.

This week, SundaySky released our annual State of Online Video Report, collective research from industry leaders and experts, as well as our own trend data and perspective. It will probably come as no surprise that 2012 was a record-breaking year for video: an all-time high of viewers (182 million), content videos consumed (456.6 million) and video ads viewed (105.4 billion). But my favorite finding from the report? Personally relevant video is fostering higher viewer engagement.

 “We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting, till the end”

I’d love to tell you our customers sing Queen to us in support of SmartVideo. (Maybe they do?!) Regardless, our customers not only support and root for SmartVideo programs within their organizations, they help educate their colleagues and cross-functional departments on how SmartVideo can be deployed across their brand through their customer’s lifecycle – from customer conversion and acquisition through customer care, support and retention.

Each year thousands of digital marketing mavens from the top 500 internet retailers in the world to entrepreneurs with startup fever in their blood, flock to the annual Shop.org summit to listen and learn to the latest and greatest the industry has to offer. This year was no different as over 4,500 professionals from the online retail industry gathered in Denver last week.

Before we discuss the future, let’s talk about the present. Today, 90% of online video ads have simply been repurposed from television campaigns. As online video advertising technology continues to evolve, it is expected that more unique online creative will be produced. If we fast forward into the future, will we expect the below type of advertising?

We recently named Toyota as one of our top 15 innovative and smart video players to follow due to the brand’s use of on-site videos, as well the recent launch of “ChooseControl” – a search tool delivering personalized video experiences showcasing a specific Toyota vehicle that best fits the online customer’s selected lifestyle attributes such as family size, occupation and hobbies. 

Relationship marketing strategies have permeated across all industry sectors. It is commonly accepted that fostering a better customer experience drives customer loyalty, which in turn increases a customer’s willingness to consider additional purchases and recommend the company to friends, as well as to build barriers against switching vendors. Satisfied customers help drive growth and, for customer retention-focused online businesses, satisfaction is critical.

At this point in the game, you are implementing video for your online marketing efforts. (At least you know you should be.) You’re following the industry blogosphere and keep hearing about videos leveraging big data, personalization, high volume and real-time content – the so-called “smart videos.” But how do you know what areas of your business offer the best opportunity for SmartVideo to provide the most incremental value?

I'm not referring to video player software, but the top participants driving online video innovation today. If you follow our blog regularly, are familiar with the online video industry, or are just a connected customer then you know that video is booming and will only continue to grow both in video consumption and video ad spending. Between brands, content sites and people, here is a round up of the 15 video players innovating the industry that you should be following today.