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Video is the King

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine the worth of hundreds of pictures that make a video or a film. Forrester researcher Dr. James McQuivey estimates that one - minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words. There are many such statistics that prove that video is the king of content when it comes to marketing. Let us show you in pictures aka infographics, some reasons, that supports this fact.

1.      Everybody Loves Video

People prefer to spend 2-3 minutes watching a video than spending 15-20 minutes reading some text.

2.      Videos build trust

According to NIELSEN Wire, 36% of online consumers trust video ads.

3.      Videos enable Action

65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video according to Forbes.

4.      Recall Value

According to Online Publishers Association, 80% of users recall a video ad they viewed in the past 30 days.

 5.      Videos Boost SEO

Including video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80%

There are many more statistics that prove that videos are essential and a growing part of marketing. While we leave you with these to ponder upon, do remember that videos are not just on television, or cinemas, they are on the web, on the mobiles and tablets. They are a multi platform-marketing tool andhard to ignore.  In the next blog, we will share with you some interesting ways to integrate videos as a part of your marketing strategy. Stay tuned.

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WWF climate solver - Behind the Scenes

It was for the third year in a row that we got the chance to produce a winner film for WWF Climate Solver India. The category was Energy Access and we had to cover a Solar innovation that was helping villages in Uttar Pradesh get electricity.

The challenge was, that we had made films on similar innovations before. Out of the four films we had already made for Climate Solver, three were on solar technology. So how were we to make this film look and feel different while keeping in mind the true purpose of making these films?

The idea was simple. Go human. Base the film on someone, who truly benefitted from this. After all, that was exactly the reason why the innovation was a winner and because it affected people’s lives like no other innovation that year. 

We found our story in a lady named Sarla. She was someone who had lived with her family in darkness for years and had incidents, that she knew, could have been avoided, if she had access to electricity. And so, she was our hero.

When you watch the film, you will hear a line that says, “This is Sarla. Her story of darkness is not unique”. Those lines were not merely written for cinematic appeal. They were written because that is the truth. Let me tell you something. Each year when we go to these remote villages in India, we see people living in conditions that are beyond the scope of imagination, despite the Lagaan’s or the Mother India films . When you see it, is when you really believe it.

 

Shooting in Uttar Pradesh in July means you are in the midst of monsoons. Monsoons, that are erratic and monsoons on which all these villagers depend on. The villages that do not have pucca roads or drainage systems to say the least. Add to it, extreme humidity, and top it up with no electricity access.  Those are the tough conditions under which we shoot.

And while I list down all the difficulties, what I am really getting to is, how thankful I feel for the life I live, and how much we all take it for granted. What if I was Sarla of this small Para village in UP? Would I still cover my face everytime a man crossed my path? Would I have still felt the heat? Would I have still cringed my nose at the cow dung? Does she? Does Sarla do all this and yet live through because she perhaps knows nothing better or because she has calmed herself to everything. I do not know. And maybe will never know.

 

Almost 70 long years of independence and we have still not been able to provide the basic necessity to our people. Para village, where Sarla stays is just about an hour’s drive from Lucknow. It’s not too far. Last year, we went to Hathras. A major city in Uttar Pradesh. No electricity. Another village just 2 hours from Kolkata. No electricity. How? In 70 years our governments could not reach people just about 70 km away from them.

So who takes matter into their own hands? The people of India themselves. Private companies, who have found opportunity in Solar technology and each year they innovate in various ways to reach out to these underserved villages. Ofcourse there is a business model attached to all these companies, ofcourse they want to make profits and so they create technologies that help them earn and help people use their services effectively. This is where I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is incredible how people leave their city comforts and live in a small village to serve these people. For companies like Boond, Simpa, Onergy, Naturetech (whom we have shot the films with over the years) this is beyond just a business idea and you can see the passion even with the staff one interacts with. For us, for me, this is pure inspiration.

In our own way, in the language we know, we tell these stories year after year. Our contribution is in our storytelling that hopefully also inspires people the way, a Sarla or a Boond, inspires us. Our aim is to make our audience relive what we see. Even though there is technology that we must speak of, we try to underlay the humility and inspiration that we draw from each innovation, every year.

 

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Video Marketing is a crucial Tool for Business

Let me begin with a simple question. A 20 page manual explaining how to use your latest gadget, or a 1 minute video explaining the same thing. What would you prefer? 80% of you would choose the explainer video over the text manual. So if you have chosen the video, well, I am not surprised. That is exactly what videos do to you. They make you understand and connect better. Which is perhaps why 20% of users read text while 80% will watch a video with the same content which is exactly why you chose the explainer video in the first place.  

Every month, more than one billion people visit YouTube to watch more than six billion hours of video. 100 million internet users watch online video each day. Even if only 1% sees your video, that’s still 100,000 users that have become aware of your property.

By 2017, 74% of all internet traffic will be video. In two years, most of the people will be online to watch videos.

Still thinking of getting a video made for your product? Still thinking of the best way to market your product?

Grasshopper Media Provides all type of video production services.

https://vimeo.com/156378953

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