The Tendo View

I’m excited about the power of video this week. Maybe it was Gary Vay*ner*chuk that did it. But as my colleague Chris wrote in a blog post earlier this month, video’s an effective way to make a case for a product, oftentimes more effective than text.

Shortly after she wrote that post, I got an email from the Wall Street Journal online, promoting a new video series on Lessons in Leadership. What I find interesting about the Wall St. Journal series isn’t the video itself—they’re shot with a single camera, basic logo’d background, nothing fancy, etc.—but they’re packaged and edited effectively.  They’re cut to less than two minutes and accompanied by a compelling headline, informative teaser text, and the requisite data about the video’s length.

More and more, I believe the future of video as an effective medium on the Web isn’t in the event or subject being recorded itself; it’s in the packaging of that event, or how it’s contextualized and edited and marketed with great content. It’s that contextualization that’ll motivate the audience to click and play. I’ll be curious to see what Martha Stewart does with the paid download model for videos she’s planning.