promotional video quality - a balancing act

[basschick]

when it comes to promotional videos size and quality, there are at least two things to consider - keeping bandwidth costs low enough so you make a profit and offering big enough videos that are high enough quality to make sales. obviously not many people are going to be curious to check out a site if the promo video they just watched is 220x140 and blurry, but giving out 640x480 videos at 1.5 Mbps might cut severely into sales.

of course, sometimes there are also size and quality requirements if you post galleries to mgps or free sites to link lists.

what do you think is a happy medium to get good sales but keep bandwidth reasonable?

[Relentless]

What I have seen a few sites do (and seemed smart to me) is they offer 1 sample video in the quality of the members area and 30-45 seconds long. Then also several other trailers in lower quality and shorter versions (10-15 seconds long). The tour tells the surfer that in the members area all the movies are as clear and big as the Sample but 20-30 mins long etc...

[basschick]

i wasn't really thinking about trailers - there, if you have the skills to create a trailer that raises interest, quality counts more than gallery, freesite and tube videos.

[abostonboy]

Patti I am a strong believer that the promo materials should match the quality of the content inside the side.

Our highest res films are at 2500kps. Our high res at 1500kps. When we launch the FHGs it will be at 1500kbs.

We are waiting for the h264 codec to become more of a standard before we release flash videos as that offers amazing quality for flash videos.

I am of the belief that if you show the surfer the quality of what you have inside the members area, those who appreciate the quality and join will outweigh those that just get off to it.

Concerning trailers. Actually I am a little confused by exactly what is meant by trailers. But I have seen many successful 3-5 min flash videos in blogs make some very nice sales. Those don't need to be as high quality as "closing the sale" is all in the editing.

But, I would love to hear what others think as some affiliates like high quality videos while others have said to me go with a lower quality. Would sure help to get some opinions as it's a project I am working on. For us it not about bandwith but what affiliates feel comfortable with.

[basschick]

a fake tube site or video gallery couldn't make money putting up a full sized video at 1.5 Mbps - in fact, there's a good chance they could actively lose money. remember, blogs convert a lot better than galleries or tube sites.

a trailer is the video on a tour, and wouldn't be - imo - just a piece of one video but would be like a mainstream movie trailer, inasmuch as that it shows several pieces of the site in a way to create more interest than a single clip would.


Patti I am a strong believer that the promo materials should match the quality of the content inside the side.

Our highest res films are at 2500kps. Our high res at 1500kps. When we launch the FHGs it will be at 1500kbs.

We are waiting for the h264 codec to become more of a standard before we release flash videos as that offers amazing quality for flash videos.

I am of the belief that if you show the surfer the quality of what you have inside the members area, those who appreciate the quality and join will outweigh those that just get off to it.

Concerning trailers. Actually I am a little confused by exactly what is meant by trailers. But I have seen many successful 3-5 min flash videos in blogs make some very nice sales. Those don't need to be as high quality as "closing the sale" is all in the editing.

But, I would love to hear what others think as some affiliates like high quality videos while others have said to me go with a lower quality. Would sure help to get some opinions as it's a project I am working on. For us it not about bandwith but what affiliates feel comfortable with.

[abostonboy]

Oh. I am getting confused. I thought you meant the video is a TGP gallery.

[HunkMoneyLuke]

we use flash in all our tours and use it heavily to promote our sites because flash produces a very high quality video with a small footprint. Plus, we know that our market is generally broadband surfers, so a slightly larger video size is not that big of a deal.

[abostonboy]

we use flash in all our tours and use it heavily to promote our sites because flash produces a very high quality video with a small footprint. Plus, we know that our market is generally broadband surfers, so a slightly larger video size is not that big of a deal.

Are you looking at the h264 codec. It is very sweet!

[Hammerhead]

With the clips I cut for my galleries, I prefer to start with the highest quality the sponsor has available. If they have 1.5 Mbps then I will use that, even if it means keeping my clips short around 10 seconds.

If I can get surfers to click on my thumbs in TGPs, and keep their interest long enough to click on the video links in my gallery, then I don’t want them to be turned off in the end by poor quality in the video clips. I want to blow them away by showing them the same quality they will get if they sign up.

[xstr8guy]

We have 20 active tour videos of our most recent/better updates. They are 480x360 @ 768kbs and between 1 and 2 minutes long. They are comprised of the entire video edited into shorts clips... similar to a movie trailer.

20 preview videos is probably too many and quite a bandwidth drain. We've toyed with idea of having some of the video preview links go directly to the join page but have quit doing that. Does anyone think that might be a good idea to go back to doing that?

[basschick]

er... guys? i'm not talking about tour videos at all... what about your fhg videos?

[xstr8guy]

OOPS! My comprehension skills are usually much better, lol.

And to answer your question... I can't really, since we don't yet offer FHGs to affiliates. So I'll be reading responses here carefully now. ;)


er... guys? i'm not talking about tour videos at all... what about your fhg videos?