Check out this video;

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Pretty cool way to sell T-shirts, huh? A video can be seen as many things; something for entertainment purposes, a social media tool but, most importantly to businesses, as a sales tool. So lets say you’ve got your awesome video concept and it’s been produced to a quality standard, how do you now make the best of it? Essentially, how can you best place your video on your website to maximise views and conversion rates?

Considering that the average time that people spend on a web page is just over 30 seconds it can be pretty tough to grab their attention. The best way to keep your clientele on your site is to engage them with interactive widgets and not only is video such a widget but, if it’s good, it will actually drive extra traffic to your site through recommendations.

So what’s the best way to display your video? As a link? As an icon? Or embedded in the page? With every click it takes to reach something you will be statistically losing viewers so having a simple link isn’t the best option for getting people to engage. With a link you could be looking at a 5-15% view rate whereas with an embedded video you could be looking at a much more hearty 10-35% view rate. If you must link to your video then the best option is to use an icon and the more that it looks like a video player then the more clicks it will receive. Also, you will get more clicks by simply displaying the word “play” by the link – text really works and can be surprisingly effective within your video too.

The next decision is where to place your player on the page. Above the fold is best, with less views being recorded the further down the page your video is displayed. And finally, should the video play in response to user clicks or should it autoplay? You would think that autoplay would receive more views therefore higher conversion rates but some companies feel that the autoplay option is a bit too much of a hard sell. It ranges from client to client as to how beneficial autoplay is, some seeing great conversion rates whilst others see a negative impact. It comes down to how you want to present your company or if it is right for your particular video so it’s best judged on a case by case basis. Still not sure? Recruit some friendly guinea pigs and see what they think or try testing either way and stick with the one that increases your conversion rates the best.

The Sussex Safer Road Campaign video is having a massive impact on the public having received almost 700,000 views on Youtube since it’s launch in late January. Incidentally, that’s almost 200,000 more views than there are people living in East Sussex! And that’s not counting how many people have seen the video re-posted on other websites. The video has received views from 89 countries and not only has it garnered interest in the local press, having appeared on the local news on mainstream TV and in The Argus, but has been invited to appear on French national TV, at a California conference which promotes innovative ideas and in an article in the Norwegian press. So how can such simple idea reach so many people?

This was much more than just a video campaign. Promotion was done via the traditional billboards and the not so traditional spray painting of the logo and web address around different sites in Brighton. There’s even one just down the road from the Fat Sand office (see picture below). Sussex Road Safety have shown that they understand how people are using new media today. That people are using the internet and mobile phones to view and share ideas and campaigns should be designed to best target these behaviours.

The Facebook group for the film, which was set up by a fan rather than being an official page, has over 1480 members. The public have given 3,428 ratings on the SSRC Youtube channel awarding the video an average of 5 stars. This shows the quality of the film and it’s production, something that has made it stand out amongst the 100 million videos that are posted on Youtube. Yet this is a simple idea that wouldn’t have cost a bomb to make – certainly not in comparison to how many people it has ended up reaching.

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If you were wondering if your company really would benefit from having a video it might help to know that whether it is watched or not, your video will affect your clients and increase sales. Studies have shown that even if your video is not watched, it’s very presence on your site will increase conversion rates. So how does that all work then?

Your video will strengthen your brand and increase consumer confidence because it shows that you have the confidence to present yourself and your product in all your 3D, real time glory and also that you care enough to reach out to your customers in interesting ways. Interactivity is key in holding users attention and getting your ideas across – the more involved clients can become with your webpage the more they will understand your message. So it makes sense to make your webpage more interactive and encourage users to stay there a little longer.

But can video damage your message? A poor quality video can actually damage conversion rates.
Ok, so we’ve all heard the adage that “content is king,” and certainly an awesome concept will make people think you are clever and cool, but if the production quality is low your video will look unprofessional and even tacky. Poor lighting, bad acting and extra fuzzy background sounds will reflect on your company in a big, bad way. What is that saying about you?

Check out this perfect of example of how NOT to make a company video…

We started filming for the Brighton Festival promotional film this week and have just finished filming with the living legend that is Brian Eno. Check out these behind the scenes pix from our shoot at Fabrica in Brighton, stay tuned for the finished article.

Working with our friends at Qube and ZeroFiftyOne we produced this viral as part of a larger campaign to promote road safety in Sussex. It had been years since we had played with Scalextric but it’s just as fun as it was back in the 80s!

We’d like to welcome Sim Warren to our ever expanding team. Sim is joining us in early February and brings with him a wealth of video production experience and knowledge of the industry. To coincide with his interview at Fat Sand HQ, Sim shot this short film on the inline skaters who call Brighton home.

This was all shot on the Canon 7D using a variety of lenses and home made dollies. It’s amazing what can be done with the new range of SLR’s and we’re looking forward to passing on these skills to our clients.

We just chopped together a showreel for presenter extraordinaire Annelies Van De Velde. Not only is she an amazing presenter but she’s also the front woman for Brighton band, Kovak. Showreel features footage shot by us at the White Air Festival and some other bits and pieces from the Ripcurl Boardmasters.

Way back in September, Brighton played host to Europe’s largest extreme sports festival, White Air. Fat Sand covered the entire weekend which included a trip out with the Marines in their beach assault boats, stepping into the ring with UFC champ Sol Gilbert and getting in the thick of it during the Biffy Clyro gig.

Incase you missed it on BBC South Today, two guys 3x British Champion Lewis Crathern and Bir Air Master Jake Scrace jump over Worthing Pier, they’ve been planning this for 3 years waiting the the right conditions and it finally all came together.

So Ed and Jez were out in Boston and New York filming for one of our clients last week. Part of the job was to get some nice ‘location shots’ of each of the cities which basically involved an all expenses paid trip to each cities primo tourist spots.