How My Parents Learned About the Benefits of Online Video
When we first launched Jippidy back in 2009, we had nothing more than a catchy domain name and a mostly blank website. There was little content, and even less of a reason for people to visit our site. We were left with a typical Catch-22 dilemma — we didn’t have the content to attract users, but we couldn’t generate content without users visiting us and contributing to the site. How were we to generate demand for a product — online video — that had little to none at the time? YouTube had only been acquired by Google a couple years earlier (2007), so online video was truly still in its infancy. Compounding that challenge were the facts that hosting, streaming and watching video online consumed a significant amount of bandwidth AND smartphones were not yet widely adopted.
We figured it would be easier to produce our own content rather than convince users to give us a try. So we decided we’d film free business videos for our favorite bars and restaurants, figuring we could leverage their popularity into a reason people would visit our site — to watch a video of their favorite establishment. We didn’t have to pay for a storefront or invest a ton of capital in equipment, so our sunk cost of starting a business took the form of us financing online videos for businesses that didn’t really know if they needed or even wanted one. Most business owners just figured it was free marketing, so there was no real gamble or potential for loss, so why not? (Note to self: NEVER offer any product or service completely FREE, as “free” anything tends to lead abuse or neglect. Instead, assign a minimal financial commitment — require a credit card or charge $5, something to psychologically instill buy-in from the customer.)
One of the first businesses I had Jippidy film was my parents’ mobile windshield repair business, SuperGlass Windshield Repair. At the time, my parents (no, not those people in this blog’s image!) didn’t really understand what Jippidy’s business model was — in my dad’s words, an online video was merely a “luxury” item, i.e. a nice toy to have but definitely not a necessity. But since I told them I would pay for this video out of my personal pocket as a gift to them and their business (Jippidy’s first paid video shoot!), there was no real risk on their part. So again, why not?
Since SuperGlass doesn’t have a brick & mortar presence, with no door through which customers walk and make a purchase, we had to get creative when it came time to film. So I scheduled a date and time for my mom to meet our video crew near the Embarcadero so that we could interview her with the Bay Bridge as her backdrop. We weren’t really sure what the B-roll footage should show to highlight the business. So we decided to emphasize the mobile aspect of the business and accompanied her and her technician to the San Francisco Airport for a service call. In the end, we decided to film the technician as he performed a windshield repair, ending with a before & after shot. Scroll to the very end of this post to see the finished product (keep in mind, this is one of our earliest works!).
Once the video was finished, I presented my parents with the final cut. I tried to educate them about the benefits of online video and advised them to use it in their marketing efforts. Our team posted it to Jippidy’s YouTube channel, and I created a SuperGlass profile on Jippidy and embedded the video. They didn’t have an official website, so I couldn’t ask them to embed it to their homepage. And since they didn’t really want a video in the first place and didn’t see the need for one, their video went mostly unused.
Fast forward almost two years later to 2011, and it was though a light bulb had suddenly gone off in my parents’ head. It all started when my mom received calls from friends and colleagues who stumbled upon her video by chance while surfing YouTube. Then SuperGlass’ corporate office in Florida randomly happened upon her video and called to ask about it — they told her she was a celebrity! Now my parents finally started to see the benefits of online video. The ways in which they may be able to incorporate it into their marketing campaign and day-to-day operations finally started to materialize for them.
Part of SuperGlass’ new business development requires their technician to schedule onsite meetings with prospective clients in order to give them a demonstration of how the process works and its results. But this can be a logistical headache, since the technician must make time in his work schedule to meet with business owners, who often times forget that they scheduled the demonstration or get called out last minute on more urgent business. So, the demo is never done, the technician’s time is wasted, and the business owner never gets to see the before & after. BING (light bulb going off)!! In lieu of a demo, my mom started thinking that maybe she can just send the owner a link to her video, which has footage of the technician doing a repair from start to finish. Voila! Now she doesn’t even need to meet in person — there’s no need to worry about scheduling a time to do the demo. Why not just watch the video?!
She asked about putting it on her business cards — “Maybe I can put the link to my video and say something like, Watch my video online!” BING, voila! Instead of telling prospective customers what you do and how you do it, why not just have them watch the video and answer any questions they may have after that?!
The point is, I tried educating them when we initially produced their video years ago (!), but it’s as though the need for the video had to reveal itself to them organically. No matter what I said or how I pitched it, they needed to arrive at the conclusion that an online video was good for business on their own. And this is a microcosm of the light bulb going off in business owners’ brains as we speak (BING!). As more and more businesses adopt online video, the need to have a video is rapidly being developed and quantified.
Online video is following the trajectory of business websites circa 10–12 years ago. Back then, only a handful of “cutting edge” businesses had an online presence. Those businesses that didn’t have a website wondered why they even needed one — our customers know us, they know where to find us, they aren’t on the web. Nowadays, if a business doesn’t have a website, something seems wrong (Really?! You don’t have a website?! What’s wrong with you?! You want me to CALL to find out more information?!). Well the same thing is happening with video today. Sure, not everyone necessarily NEEDS a video just yet — your customers know you, they know where to find you, they aren’t watching videos online. Oh, but they are! Online video consumption is beginning to surpass TV. And as it becomes the rule rather than the exception, for those businesses that don’t have a video, people will think “What the heck is wrong with this business?! They don’t have an online video?! They expect me to READ text?! Forget that!” And the consumer will move onto the next business that has a video.
Your customers all gravitated towards the Internet, so you eventually put up a website. Now your customers have all gravitated towards Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Snapchat and video verticals— so why not jump on the online video bandwagon already? No really, why not?!
Editor’s note: this post was originally written for the official company blog for Jippidy.com in 2010 — the links within the article are now a few years old, but the information contained within this blog post are still highly relevant today in 2016. If anything, now that I’m re-reading this post, I realize I underestimated how ubiquitous online video would become in our daily existence and how crucial online video would grow to be as a marketing tool for today’s modern multi-channel marketing strategy. Our Jippidy brand was just a half a decade too early in its development…
