I stumbled across TurnHere in June of ‘06 and immediately connected with the high-quality production values of the local, local, local content. TurnHere offers more than just an online video ad - they present a picture of the business - the story behind the sales. And because it’s a story about a business in the community (and not some faceless corporation hawking goods) people are more willing to listen.
It seems that some of the major players in the industry have recognized the same.
Cory Bergman writes this morning on Lost Remote that
Superpages.com has inked a deal with TurnHere and Denver Multimedia to create video profiles of local businesses.
The plan is to leverage the Superpages sales force to upsell clients to the video packages, and the clips will appear alongside directory listings. Recently, Yellow Book and CitySearch have begun similar video efforts.
He goes on to say…
local TV stations aren’t players despite long track records of innovation in video advertising. And in some cases, it may already be too late. Why? Stations haven’t invested in building innovative local directory/search products that have succeeded in achieving a large enough audience.
Last week, I met with a former co-worker who now heads up the interactive media group at a television station in Richmond. One of the topics we discussed was the failure of local television (and most of the media outlets in town for that matter) to honestly engage the online community in storytelling.
By not finding and sharing the stories important to the community, they’re doing a disservice to their next generation of audience, they’re leaving a lot of money on the table and they’re opening the door for low-cost, high-return competition.
It’s time for TV to innovate or die with regard to their online operations. Tossing up a couple of paragraphs related to the broadcast and links to weather doesn’t cut it anymore. People can and do get that content elsewhere. Short-form video storytelling is an art though - one that’s been practiced for decades by the TV reporters. It’s time to leverage those strengths and engage the local online community—before Superpages or anyone else does.
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