Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 24th January 2008
The rise and rise of online video
With
over 88% of all UK internet connections now running broadband, the number of consumers able to enjoy online video has never been greater. The major British broadcasters are betting big that consumers will want to watch videos online in ever greater numbers. They all launched their own video on-demand services in 2007 (Channel 4 launched
4oD in late 2006) and BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 joined forces to announce the launch of
Kangaroo, which will aggregate videos from third parties.
Compared to this time last year, consumers not only have better broadband connections through which to access video, but they have a greater choice of content to watch. YouTube is the market leader with over
6.2 million global visitors every day but the world’s big media companies will be making a serious challenge for consumer eyeballs this year.
Give consumers what they want
Consumers will get increasingly used to watching videos online and in many cases will come to expect it. Penny Beeston, MD of
Property Clip believes that “websites without video are increasingly looking old-fashioned.”
According to Angela Coyle, Marketing Manager at Bulgarian developer
Britannia Overseas Property, the primary benefit of using video is to demonstrate credibility: “It’s an excellent way of demonstrating track record to both consumers and the trade.”
This introductory video from
Viva Estates is an excellent example of how to create a good first impression and position yourself as an authority.
Using video to sell property
Done right, video is arguably the best tool available to agents and developers looking to sell the dream of buying a home abroad. Emotions play a large part in decision making and according to Penny “a great video will create a mood and invoke an emotional reaction which has a huge impact on conversion rates”. This video by
Sambala does the job well.
Paying for professional production
If you have the budget, paying a production company such as
Pixel Circus or Property Clip will produce the best results. You should budget on around £1000 a minute. At the bottom of the scale, Penny says agents could get a good company profile for £2000, which includes a day of filming onsite and a day’s editing. DVD production is extra.
Do it yourself
If your budget does not stretch to this, then it is possible to produce property videos yourself. It is difficult to match the high production values of a professional operation but beginners can start by joining still property images together and setting them to music, like
this.
Be warned though, there are plenty of examples on the internet of how not to do it. I particularly like this one which sets a Turkish building site to
Enrique Iglesias.
If you haven’t done it before, all you need is a standard digital camera (a camcorder is better) and a PC with a software package installed, such as Windows Movie Maker, which comes as standard on PCs running XP and Vista. It’s very intuitive to use, you can join pictures or video shots together on a simple timeline and you can add text over the top in your company colours and fonts.
Once you have made the video, you can host it on YouTube. Upload the video and they provide a code for you to paste into your own website. To the user, it looks like it’s on your own site. It’s not that difficult and if you have an office junior, setting up your first video could be a great project for them.
User Comments
Not only have Real Estate TV be offering its clients video production and television advertising, but since 2005 we have also delivered all of clients advertsing online' with an award winning video service
Mark Dodd,
Real Estate TV