It's Alive! TurnHere launches the v2 of Bookvideos.tv

We are thrilled to announce that our new Bookvideos.tv site went live yesterday! Since its launch in November 2007, Bookvideos.tv has captured the attention of readers but we felt a little makeover couldn't hurt (or actually a huge makeover). The new version of the site offers a ton of new features; all the social tools you can think of, like Digg and Facebook posting, embedding and sharing options for the video, and publishers can create a customized page for each author, promote their leading books and link them to major online retailers.

From our press release on the launch:

Bookvideos.tv, which initially offered book and author videos exclusively from Simon & Schuster, now includes a range of leading publishers, delivering the most comprehensive book-centric content on the Web. The new site allows authors to have customized, individual pages on the network as well as to convey important book release and author-news items on their homepage. Bookvideos.tv also offers viewers more polished viewing, browsing and searching capabilities, expanded e-commerce functionality, and more engaging social networking features to promote sharing and discussion.

"Joining the Bookvideos.tv network was a natural extension of our marketing efforts and a unique way for us to reach more readers online," said Darcy Cohan, director of publicity, Chronicle Books. "Combining high-quality, narrative video with social media and e-commerce capabilities on a uniquely branded site is a compelling way for us to deliver more value-added content to our readers and build customer loyalty."

We'd love your feedback on the new features and how we can continue to improve the site.  Thanks to all the readers, viewers and folks who gave us feedback to help v2 a reality.

We highlighted one of the newer videos we've done - this one from the book The Garden of Last Days, by Andre Dubus III. 

TurnHere and Beet.TV partner to bring new media news from around the world

TurnHere and Beet.TV have partnered up to bring more new media news from around the world to Beet.TV viewers via spot-news segments shot by the TurnHere filmmaker network.  Beet.TV is a leading new media news blog and will use this new partnership to double the number of video segments produced each month.  TurnHere's global network will allow Beet.TV to shoot in far-flung places such as Toyko, Tel Aviv and London as well as cover more industry events across the country.

Here's TurnHere's CEO Brad Inman talking with Beet.TV founder Andy Plesser about the deal.

TurnHere is excited about this opportunity to work with Beet.TV to extend Beet.TV's innovative coverage of the movers and shakers in the new media space.

Read more from the press release:

Under terms of the agreement, TurnHere will create original video news content for Beet.TV on location in the United States, Europe and Asia. TurnHere will provide on-the-ground video production support to Beet.TV, enabling it to gather interviews and report news stories with digital influencers around the world. TurnHere’s distributed filmmaker network streamlines the production and distribution of news content around the world and decreases the costs typically associated with traditional broadcast film crews by spearheading a new form of online news reporting and content delivery.

The collaboration will double the video content on Beet.TV to approximately 60 segments per month. Beet.TV, a leading video blog and producer of technology and media news video, will tap into TurnHere’s global network of more than 3,500 independent filmmakers to shoot the original video news segments.

“Our relationship with TurnHere adds great value to our operation as it allows us to quickly scale the scope and depth of our online video content,” said Andy Plesser, founder and CEO, Beet Media LLC. “TurnHere’s proven approach to online video production and distribution will provide considerable value to our offering and help us widen the amount of informative video that we can deliver to viewers.”

Restaurants and Online Video are the Perfect Combination

Restaurants and other convivial establishments (bars, clubs, etc.) can all make great use of online video to help drive new business from online advertising.  That our partner Citysearch features video profiles on hundreds of local restaurants is a testament to its effectiveness for owners who want to reach the growing online audience searching for the best restaurants in their local area.

As more people go online to find out where to spend their entertainment dollars the restaurants that do the best job of informing the online audience and telling a compelling, authentic story about their establishment will be the most successful in converting online browsers in to in-restaurant customers. 

Nation's Restaurant News recently covered TurnHere's success in creating online video for restaurants in an article titled "Indies, chains broaden reach to guests with online videos".  You'll need a subscription to view the full article.  Here is the opening line:

A growing number of operators are producing short videos for the Internet in an effort to attract the throngs of potential customers surfing the Web for news and entertainment. 

We believe nothing makes a restaurant standout than by providing the online viewer the opportunity to get a sense of the restaurant in action with video of the food, atmosphere and staff that makes the restaurant a great place to eat.

Below is a video we shot for ChikaLicious Dessert Bar in New York.  This unique dessert-only restaurant leverages videos to show the incredible experience of coming to their location just for dessert. How can video help your restaurant showcase its unique attributes?

TurnHere Partners with Kudzu.com to Offer Online Video Services for Local Service Providers

We are very excited about our our new partnership with Kudzu.com, an interactive Web site that connects ready-to-buy consumers with local businesses. TurnHere will provide kudzu.com’s listing with videos to allow viewers to learn more about local merchants.

One of the great things about video for service providers is that it gives them an opportunity to demonstrate excellence in their service offering.  By using video to showcase the extra attention to detail, customer service and superior know-how and craftsmanship, service companies can differentiate themselves from their competition in the same field.

Imagine two cleaning companies with listings on the Web.  One company has a video showing them giving extra attention to oft-missed spots in the house, showing extra care around breakable items and providing a customer testimonial to their great work.  The other simply has text, contact information and a few photos.  Who gains more trust?  Who do consumers feel more connected with?  Who do those consumers call?  The one with the video.

That is the power of video for service providers.

From our press release announcing the partnership:

“By supplementing our Kudzu.com listing with video, we can really showcase the care and detail that goes into our cleaning service,” said Anna Zanthos, owner of Persnickety Cleaners. “Highlighting our business and the people that make it successful is a valuable marketing tool that helps potential customers make the decision to call on us ahead of our competitors.”

“Partnering with TurnHere adds another dimension to the breadth of services we offer to our listed companies,” said Edward Rosenfeld, director of business development for Kudzu.com. “Kudzu focuses on giving businesses the tools they need to tell their own stories. Consumers use this information to make important hiring decisions, and video provides a memorable and compelling addition to a robust business profile.”

Read the full press release here.

Chris Cassidy's Interviewed in FilmStew

Chris Cassidy is one of our NYC go-to-guys. He cranks out consistently great work from book videos to IFC segments. Check out this article in FilmStew about his feature length video in the works. Check it out. --Kelly Duane

EXCERPT:
“This will be Cassidy’s third feature-length documentary, an art form that famously does not pay the bills. So, in addition to continuing to support himself as a music and boxing photographer, Cassidy has for the past couple of years also been working as a videographer for TurnHere Inc., an Internet video production service that relies on a stable of thousands of filmmakers just like Cassidy.

The 40-year-old Long Island native has worked principally on short promotional videos for publishers Simon & Schuster and Random House, interviewing the likes of Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark. It is work that he thoroughly enjoys.

“For these three-minute book author web videos, you get to spend a few hours with these brilliant writers and then try to tell their stories," Cassidy explains. "It’s a fun challenge.” Given the fact that Vic Thrill himself has an autobiography in the works that will be published by Random House, Cassidy jokes that it would seem somehow fitting if he were the one recruited to shoot Thrill’s TurnHere promo.

Full Article.

Meaningful Media NOT Mass Media

Our CEO and Founder Brad Inman had a byline in MediaPost’s Online Media Daily yesterday.  His commentary on the state of online video and the trouble that traditional producers have had with the crossover from broadcast to online video outlines some of the many challenges that companies face as they try to understand and embrace this new advertising format.

The failed attempts of blockbuster online video campaigns by high-profile brands point to the unique challenges that a highly-fragmented, often cynical Internet audience presents to the old-fashioned advertising paradigm.

From Brad's commentary:

The Web is not about "aiming for the middle," a broad branding exercise seeking the lowest common denominator, big advertising themes and irrelevant emotional hooks. The control is no longer in the hands of the broadcasters; it is in the hands of the consumer. This shift in control changes the consumption of video from a "lean back" disengaged experience to a lean-forward, "I-need-relevant-information" experience, where the consumer determines when and how content is consumed. The world of permission-based, demand-driven advertising, prescribed by the ethos of the Web, offers a relevant ad model opportunity.

The Internet is a micro-media world in which millions of niche audiences with thousands of members make up the greater universe. This ultra-fragmented reality forces advertisers to adopt a new paradigm for reaching consumers in order to be relevant and meet the expectations of today's jaded online audience. Overly produced, generic or irrelevant advertisements fall on deaf ears. The new video ad creation needs to align production costs, content and quality to this new paradigm. It needs to connect with the audience and deliver the content that they want to see, where and when they want to see it.

The Internet is ushering out the age of mass media and heralding the new age of meaningful media. It is not campaign-driven, but relevance-driven.

This new paradigm calls for new thinking, new ways of packaging and delivering content.  And why shouldn't it be different?  The Internet and Television are completely different user-experiences.  The "lean forward" interaction of a typical Web experience stands in stark contrast to the "lean back" reality of watching television.

Advertisers that embrace these differences and leverage them will find their campaigns are more relevant, more engaging and more valuable than any attempt to simply cross-purpose video content from broadcast to the Web.

Video in Local Search

ComScore released an eye-opening report that shows that nearly 1 billion search results each and every month now contain an "Universal Search" result.  Universal Search results are defined as anything other than a standard web result or paid search result, such as video, maps, local information, news, weather, etc.  And its clear that video is playing a large part in those results.

From Small Business SEM:

• of 1.2 billion queries, 220 million contained a universal result
• 16% of total clicks involved a universal result
• 87 million people searched, 58% saw a Universal result (38% of people saw video, 34% news, 19% images, 10% maps/stocks/weather)

This change in search results bodes well for local advertisers that take advantage of video as part of their online marketing strategy.  By leveraging video local business has a better opportunity of appearing higher in universal search results.  Video can also be included in map results and local results making video a multi-faceted search improver.

In addition to inclusion in Universal Search video remains a powerful branding and direct response medium for the web for small businesses.  As Universal Search becomes more prominent video benefits will continue to grow as a vital part of online marketing for small businesses.

The Circles - an interesting spin on personal relationships

It seems that there is a new self-actualization book hitting the shelf every week following the wild success of The Secret, and The Circles is a strong entry in to the space.  It follows along the vein of taking control of your life by managing the relationships that impact your world on a regular basis.  The Circles is an intriguing concept and a book that makes great use of video to evoke the power of the concept and to demonstrate how the technique works.

Growing, Expanding and Looking for You

We keep growing here at TurnHere and we're constantly on the lookout for great people.  Right now we're looking for the following folks:

• Sales and business development
• Marketing coordinator
• Front-end Web programmers
• Technical product/project managers
• Quality assurance associate

If you're interested in one of these positions please visit our jobs page.  If you're passionate about work, thrive in a start-up environment and believe Web-video is a major force in the future of online marketing we want to talk to you.

TurnHere is an equal opportunity employer.

Talk about character - authors shine in book videos

If you've ever questioned the power of videos in promoting books you simply need to watch the video below for proof at how effective they can be. John Banville is a compelling interview subject and his insight in to his books penned under the name Benjamin Black is enough to make you race out to pick up Christine Falls and The Silver Swan.

The connection you build with Banville as you watch the video is filled with mystery and awe and makes you want to see how his personality is manifested in his writing.

Check the book video about The Silver Swan yourself, and if you agree that it is a powerful medium for promoting authors and books contact us to learn how we do it.