Video distribution?

[Craig Seeman]

[Branden Conejo] “The video would have fairly big mass appeal.”
You might need to define your target audience in more detail. There’s lots of competition out there.
You need to be able to answer “what makes my fitness video different.”

Depending the content it can range from Amazon to local cable “response” ads to targeted publications advertising. Then there’s the work of trying to get “media buzz” by getting reviews and interviews. If you seek a distributor they may need to be convinced this can make money or maybe they’ll simply take your money.

A good distributor might have a good marketing plan if they see it as profitable if it hits the target market. If you self distribute you’d need to consider your own marketing plan. Just posting it on the web or in Amazon won’t net much. Even a low budget viral marketing plan can help.

Basically in order for distribution to mean anything it must be coupled with marketing. Knowing the target market will help you decide the best distribution plan.

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One of my clients was an author who wrote a self published book for graduating college seniors. We created two marketing videos. One to get college speaking engagements, the other targeting morning talk shows. Eventually he got speaking engagements to graduating classes of some prestigious colleges. That was often coupled with a morning talk show interview in the same media market, extolling the book.

Eventually a publisher picked up the book, he wrote a second book. The publisher extended his market reach with their own resources.
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Personally I think “mass appeal” is much more difficult than “targeted appeal.” Mass might happen if there’s a celebrity attached or maybe it has some wide appeal aspect totally overlooked by others (extremely rare in an it’s all been done before world).

[Grinner Hester]

Maybe I’m, not quite sure what you are asking.
When making one of these for a fitness group, you’ll adhere to their marketing objectives while pretending to aid them. If venturing into a mon-ey sinking pesonal venture, just focus on your favorite things while wasting your money. It doesn’t really matter, your loss will be the same no matter what you focus on, really.

[Mick Haensler]

Are you a production company or a fitness expert?

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Bill Davis]

Doesn’t matter WHO you are.

Your program is going into a market next to sixteen dozen others. Most of which have huge competitive advantages.

The ONLY question left in this astonishingly overcrowded field is to figure out what possible motivation anyone would have to select YOUR tape over one of the zillions from Denise Austin, Chuck Norris, or the dozens of other established names working the field.

Those competitors have brand recognition, marketing savvy, and MASSIVE budgets. You probably don’t.

Interestingly, on the “rich investors look at possible products to back” program Shark Tank, there was an ex marine drill instructor type guy last season that had some rubber band gizmo he wanted one of the “sharks” to partner on. One particular Shark is a major infomercial guy who’s sold a zillion dollars worth of direct TV stuff. Clearly doing a promo video for the thing would have been incidental to a guy like him with a rolodex direct to every shopping channel boss. He asked a couple of pointed questions about whether the inventor had footage of “multiple personal success” stories? And upon finding out that this critical component didn’t exist – he lost interest instantly.

In short order, he (and all the other potential investors) passed. Why? The clear implication is that the fitness product market is so saturated that it’s nearly impossible to break through in an environment so cluttered with competition.

That seems to be the reality out there.

And I don’t think it’s changing anytime soon.

So be very careful about investing too much in pursuing this particular dream.

It’s a very, very, very, very common dream. And has been for so long that most of the needs in the market have been LONG AGO fully met.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Jonathan Ziegler]

I agree with the rest on the size of the market but not on your odds of making it. First, make a website featuring the video and a few short (30-90) clips you give away for free. Get ppl to subscribe to your site. Check out https://www.foolishadventure.com and izzyvideo.com – he’s made a living with subscription videos. Forget mass marketing DVDs – the future is in targeted, individual marketing. Read Punk Marketing by Laermer and Simmons – ISBN 0061151114. Also, DVDs and bluray could be dinosaurs in only a few years as the movie biz goes the way of the music biz.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293

[Branden Conejo]

Prod co

[Branden Conejo]

Let me rephrase… I have a great idea for an instructional video that’s never been done before (just take my word for it) and I have the know how to make the video, but from there I don’t really know where to go as far as selling it. Anyone have any advice?

[Mike Cohen]

Branden,
While we don’t expect you to post “I have produced a DVD showing how you can lose weight while juggling live chickens” – in other words you may have a never-been-seen-before idea that you do not wish to disclose – that is a tough sell. It’s like saying “I have a system that will let you quit your job and earn six figures a year” – in other words, you’re selling a dream. That comes across as a scam.

Heed the advice of others. In the current economy of free how-to videos on the internet, you’d better create an awesome website promoting your video – give away a taste and charge a fee to access it all – there are plenty of cheap ways to make a video-based website. And then you have to market it, starting in your own market and then moving outward.

There is no free lunch. Have you noticed all the DVD and books in the clearance bin at Walmart? $4 fitness DVD’s are not making much money for anyone. From Walmart’s point of view cheap DVD’s are loss leaders. I bought my wife a walking DVD for $10 at Target. Target probably has 10 copies per store times 5000 stores. They probably pay $5 per copy from the distributor. If the creator of that DVD makes 50 cents per unit sold that is probably a lot.

What’s your business plan?

You don’t have a business plan? Go to the library and get a book about this. You have to write up how you see yourself making money from the live chicken juggling diet, before you try to get instantly rich without a plan.

Next buy or borrow some of Seth Godin’s recent books.

And ask specific questions on this forum. We are not in the dream business – we are in the business business.

Good luck. Look at the big picture. Yeah, a great idea is potentially great, but an idea is not an island.

Mike Cohen

[Craig Seeman]

[Mike Cohen] “you may have a never-been-seen-before idea that you do not wish to disclose – that is a tough sell. I”

Mike is right but specific to the above, if your success is predicated on its uniqueness, that will fall quickly. It’s one thing to do if you have unique hardware (maybe there’s a fitness device tie in) but if it’s simply presentation related, someone with the presentation chops and marketing channel will have a similar product inside of a few months.

In short, secretiveness is generally not a great business model when it comes to presentation. Talent and creativeness are hard to reproduce. If what you do can be put into a formula (formulated?) it will be reproduced by some less and some with greater marketing skills and channels than you.

I know of some people who produce unique niche video that can make a decent living. For example, someone might do a video specific to “experimental” air planes. Few producers have that access and know how. The audience may be small but it’s easy to target so the “buy through” rate may be very hight. The subject is interesting enough that it might even travel into a general audience if it piques their curiosity.

The challenge/problem with mass appeal is you have to have both an attractive product which you must be able to sell to distributors with established channels in place, or know how to market, because within months they’ll be serious competition to your program. Basically your ROI is a very short lifespan.

[Jonathan Ziegler]

I saw sell it online. Your cpm is going to be much lower for advertising and you’ll have a better overall chance of success. You can start it off for not much money and find out pretty quick if your idea will work out for the long term.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293