The Aftermath

So the pitch did not go very well. Some of the group did not turn up and others turned up with no contribution and not knowing what to say. After the 5 minutes we were cut off and we hadn't finished the pitch.

I think we took this project at the wrong angle. We were focused on how to use Brainient to sell books rather than how to sell Brainient to book companies. I was just about to say how we could market Brainient and about advert placement when we were cut off.

The feedback was fair. We had done a lot of research and underlying work but had not thought long enough about how to market Braininet to other book stores.

If we could do this pitch again I would make it from the right angle and explain how we were using Waterstones to market Brainient. I would also expect members of the group to turn up more and offer more of a contribution as it seemed only me, Sam, Bex and Natasha did any work.

Pitch time

Today is the pitch and we have used all the stuff that we have researched to create the presentation. We now need to rehearse and then pitch the idea.

The ad

So I have finished the ad and sent some screenshots to Bex, the group leader. These have been put into the presentation and these are the screenshots:

This acts as a storyboard for the video. The book opens from the bookshelf and then all of the text provides links to the website. As the video goes on, hotspots appear showing info bubbles about the books and what features the website has to offer. These also give links to the different sections of the website. 

As I am in charge of social media I have been thinking about where to put this. I thought about putting it on blogging sites as many working mothers will use the internet and some may blog. This will attract custom. I have also thought about putting it on and around mothering sites such as Mothercare as this will attract our target audience. 

I put the different parts of the website in hotspots on the video so if people would like to go directly to the area which the info bubble tells them about, then the link will take them straight there. 

Brainient offers a lot to book sites as it can attract large audiences through it's videos and add direct links to the websites. Brainient could also offer videos and clips of different stories wither for the mothers or for the kids which then entices them to go further into the book and purchase the ebooks of the hard copy for them or their child. 

The good thing about Brainient is that it is diverse so that many different types of video can use it allowing the different books and genres of books to still have a use for Brainient. 

Putting into Brainient

Sam has made a little, few seconds long animation which I have now got and have taken it into Brainient.

I am having a few issues with Brainient as I cannot get it to look how I would like it to. The hotspots that I have created cover most of the video up with the info bubble and you cannot resize this bubble. The Survey and questions part also takes up almost the whole video and looks horrible. There is no way to change the size of the text to make it any smaller and the themes are not very nice.

I am having big trouble with it but I am persevering with it as it is something we have to use. I would not use this software if I was making my own interactive video ad.

Target research

I have been doing some market research about the project and also about our target market. These are some of my findings.

1 eBook costs the same to make as 20000 eBooks so there are bigger profit margins compared to printed books. This makes it more beneficial for publishers as there is more room to make money. eBooks can also be charged at lower prices as they cost less to make as a bundle. 

In 2008 more people are buying eBooks. eBooks represented 3%of the total book sales but the rise of kindles and ipads will make this figure grow rapidly.

The top hits of books on Google are amazon.co.uk, Waterstones and Tesco. Bookbrain and bookfinder are search engines specifically targeted at finding books in shops on the web. Their top hits include amazon.co.uk,  Waterstones and thebookdepository.co.uk.

Google AdSense is a good place to join to get the ad out there. It puts your  ad on relevant sites aimed at google and for every click and sale the site gets, google gets a percentage. This scheme costs to join but it means your ad could get good coverage on the web.

The target audience for the ad is working mothers 25-40. The ad can show what parts of the website can benefit them by directing them to areas such as the search engine, getting genres of books quickly for them to download. It can also show them how to go directly to areas such as health and beauty, self help and pregnancy sectors.

Brainient

I have been researching about Brainient and this is what I found.

Research

(From brainient.com/about-us/company)

“At Brainient, we focus on helping advertisers increase the ROI (return on investment) of their advertising campaigns. BrainStudio is an interactive advertising platform created with three things in mind: speed, simplicity and compatibility. In just a few minutes, you can create a beautiful, fully interactive video ad and run it through your current infrastructure.”

Competitors:

VideoClix – Interactive video production

(From www.videoclix.tv/pages/about/index.php)

“Clickable videos in record time. Simple provide the source video and tracking instructions and the VideoClix soundtrack technology adds all the relevant hotspots to the video.”

Media Mind – Provide digital advertising solutions that include search advertising, dynamic ads, mobile and video advertising.

(From www.mediamind.com/content.aspx?page=about_us)

“This provides the marketers a cross channel view of ad campaigns.”

Mixpo – Leading provider of dynamic video advertising solution.

(From www.dynamicvideoad.mixpo.com/about)

“Mixpo’s dynamic video advertising platform consists of an interactive VideoAd creation studio, a powerful ad delivery engine, and easy to use campaign management and analytics console.”

Making sense of it all

There are companies that offer interactive video advertising similar to Brainient and these are:

·      VideoClix  which offer interactive video production that tracks the footage and adds hotspots that, when clicked, lead elsewhere.

·      Media Mind which offer lots of different types of digital advertising which includes video advertising but also cover things like search advertising and mobile advertising

·      Google are currently developing some interactive video advertising that is set to make a big impression on their website.

The most similar and biggest competitor is a company called Mixpo which allows the user to create their own dynamic video advertising, using their creation studio in a short space of time.  It also allows the user to track their ad so it provides analytical information and manage their campaign.

The advantages of Brainient are that it is simple to use and you could have an interactive video ad up and running in a short space of time. Another advantage is that it provides analytical information allowing you to create an effective marketing strategy and manage the campaigns that you have created.

Another good advantage is that if the videos are similar and needs the same interactivity; it allows you to add the same interactivity to several videos rather than just one.

Ideas

So the main idea is to promote and advertise books and publishers. We had an idea of creating a banner or advert with an interactive bookshelf. When you select the different books or part of the books, then different areas become selectable and can take you to a website.

We have all been given different roles within the team.

Me and Sam are both animators so Sam is going to create a bookshelf where the book will open to reveal its insides. My part is to then add the hotspots and the interactivity. To do this I will use Brainient. This means learning about Brainient and what it can do and what it does.

We will all be helping out to research and putting our ideas together to create the ad.

E and E

So this term we have to use Brainient to promote a product and pitch the idea.

As a group we have come up with some initial ideas.

The main ideas have been about publishing and books. We are looking to create an advert and banner to put on relevant websites to attract people to our website.

We are planning to aim our audience at 25 to 40 year old mothers that work or commute. This age group tends to read during commutes and any spare time.

The website we are looking to promote is Waterstones. The ad is only aimed at a certain audience but the website offers a lot more to different markets.