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Marketing Services to and with Web Developers
I recently produced a 45 minute instructional drama on management/union cooperation that is integrated into four parts on a subscriber based e-learning web site. We simply produced the dramatic content and handed over the encoded flash files to the e-learning folks.
Its turned out very well and I’d like to do more of this kind of work. Because so much emphasis today is placed on an organization’s presence on the web I was wondering how often organizations turn to a web developer for a turn-key solution that includes video elements (promos, testimonials, product demos etc.) when they wish to revise their web site.
My question is how many of you see corporate work flowing through a relationship with a web developer. I would think that aligning oneself with a good quality web developer could be mutually beneficial. After all, good video drives more traffic to web sites.
I’d welcome your reflections on this.
Cheers,
Jim
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4 Replies
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Our experience with web developers and designers has been mixed. Virtual all web designers have been trained in traditional print graphic design, or specifically in web design. Few have much knowledge of video. Fewer still have a good understanding and grasp of designing with video as a key part of the page, including pixel resolution (meaning properly sizing an area for video elements), codecs, video players, skins, bufferlengths, javascript, embedding etc.
To make matters worse, there’s a tremendous amount of confusion and misinformation about how to best get video onto a website. Throw in the complexity of designing for mobile browsers…and well…it’s a mess out there.
I only think it would make sense if the web developer/designer had already designed, implemented and managed many sites that use a lot of video. And those resulting pages look good, work well, and the video works as it should.
Could it work to align yourself with a talented web guru. Yep. But good luck finding one that understands the complexities of video along with the ever-changing landscape of web development in general. We’ve found that we often know more about video for the web than web designers and web-based companies. Which is a little bit scary. But getting video onto a website that will load quickly, play smoothly, and mesh with the rest of the page design can be tricky. Lots of web folks can make the player interface look cool, but when it comes to function, it’s a mess. You’ll often find slow load times, buffering, or…the videos flat won’t play. They don’t understand codecs, often insist on building their own flash players (when half-a-dozen top-notch, proven commercial players are available for next to nothing), and build players that are odd sizes.
So as long as you were sure of the web person’s abilities, I think it would be a great way to offer a complete online solution to companies.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Jim –
Interesting idea. However we’ve been going in the other direction, hiring web developers for projects we sell and produce.
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Hi All:
We are in the same boat. We started developing some web video concepts and have had a mixed bag trying to create a partnership with a web company. Most of the companies we have spoken with have very little real experience with video.
RoyRoy Schneider
Long Live Da Cow! -
Thank you for your posts. As it turns out, two weeks after I posted this a prospect I’ve done some minor work for came to me with an RFP to rebrand their training website. When talking with their marketing head they said that they were seeking a web site designer to offer the full turn-key solution which included ten minutes of video clips! They preferred bringing the entire project to a web design company.
If this is what is happening more and more maybe we as video producers have to form closer alliances with other web developers. As much as we may or may not like it, the web and video have merged into one. Accessibility becomes more important than quality, just as the quality of music recording has been degraded by the ease of using mp3s and iTunes.
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