As the number of RSS subscribers continues to grow and video content becomes more prevalent online, publishers are using different methods and formats to deliver video to their viewers.
RSS is emerging as an efficient content delivery method for video that provides easy publishing for video content producers and a simple, yet rich user experience for consumers.
RSS makes online video truly on-demand and puts the user in control. Unlike other online video distribution methods, RSS can automatically download videos as they are published — much like a DVR. But where RSS is different from DVR is that it works on an enclosure system. Videos come through RSS feeds somewhat like attachments in email, which reside in the inbox or hard drive depending on how the attachment is treated. Similarly, with RSS video, the user can specify in his RSS reader whether he wants the video enclosures to automatically download as they become available or if he would rather be able to select which ones to download manually — more options for the user, always a good thing.
Once downloaded, these videos then reside on the hard drive and do not require streaming capabilities or even an Internet connection to be viewed. Content such as the popular videoblog Rocketboom offer RSS feeds of their video content in which daily episodes can be automatically downloaded to subscribers’ RSS aggregators or iTunes. At this point, the delivery has been painlessly completed, and from here the user decides how and when she’ll interact with the video content.
With the user now in control, RSS opens up many options that other online video delivery methods do not offer. With the video residing on the user’s computer, she can decide to unsubscribe from that video feed, watch the video or save it for later, or even download it to an iPod for the morning’s commute. Even the most simple aspects of watching video (fast-forward, rewind, skipping) that are not available in some online video or involve video buffering in others, work in RSS video just as they do on your DVD player, iPod or Tivo.
Marketing and Advertising with RSS Video
Marketers are also starting to see the light when it comes to RSS and video. Purina PetCare Company, for example, has launched an iTunes portal site featuring several pet related video channels for animal lovers to subscribe to, via RSS technology, providing useful and entertaining content for pet owners. With each subscription to a Purina RSS channel, Purina creates a direct one-to-one relationship with a customer or potential customer. Through the informative videos, Purina becomes an expert and trusted resource for pet-owners, ultimately creating a positive image with customers and building loyalty.
With RSS video delivery, marketers not only know just what messages are downloaded; they also can determine if their messages are downloaded and actually watched – and if they are watched partially or in their entirety.
This becomes very important as advertisers begin to place various types of advertising messages in online video, or as with Purina, use RSS as a channel to deliver marketing-related content. Television ratings are based on a much less accurate sampling system that does not provide marketers and potential advertisers with solid data to accurately inform media buys and spending. RSS customer usage data can report actual numbers as well as the amount of programming actually viewed/downloaded.
With more accurate figures, advertisers have better confidence that they are buying the right spots and receiving the audience they actually paid for. And users can vote with their mouse buttons, if the advertising interferes with the overall viewing experience then it just takes one-click to delete the RSS feed.
These metrics enable advertisers and content providers to better tailor their messages to their audiences. If large numbers of viewers stop watching a video at the first advertising break, the publisher and advertiser immediately know that something is wrong with their advertising model or message and the appropriate changes can be made.
Online Video On the Rise
The Online Publisher’s Association recently released a report stating that a quarter of Internet users access online video at least once a week and that 44 percent of consumers who watch ads in online videos take action on those ads. These numbers show that the online video market is ripe for video content producers, marketers and advertisers. With the growing popularity of sites like YouTube, consumers are rapidly making online video part of their daily media consumption habits. The abundance of video online today allows consumers to literally create their own television network by picking and choosing what matters most to them.
Google took the significant step of recently adding video ads to its omnipresent AdSense network. eMarketer says that their prediction of $640 million in spending on online video for 2007 (predicted before the Google announcement) is now probably set too low as Google will bring a significant amount of additional revenue to the industry.
YouTube has already jumped into RSS . The online video sharing site offers standard RSS feeds for various categories of video, such as recently added,’ most viewed’ and most discussed’ videos and users can also create personalized RSS feeds based on specific tags or users. Again, the user is allowed to take control of their content. Bloglines, the most popular RSS reader recently added functionality to streamline YouTube video viewing within the aggregator.
Mobility, multiple devices and user control are all themes we are seeing in successful technologies today. Apple and Google are two innovative companies proving this point. As video becomes a main form of online content, publishers need to adapt their content distribution methods to these capabilities, and RSS is poised to be a leading enabler of getting video into the hands of the consumer.
While video is just another form of everyday media to the average consumer, the technology behind online video is anything but simple. The more content producers can hide this complex back-end, the easier it will be to use and the more consumers will be able to adopt it. Given the choice between static websites, podcasts and video, most consumers will choose to receive content through video. The demand is there and the supply is growing. The 500+ channels in the most premium packages offered by cable providers (for a very steep price) will soon pale in comparison to the amount of video channels available online (mostly for free) – and you don’t have to watch on their schedule.
RSS keeps distribution simple and makes the process of receiving and managing video easy for the user. Netscape brought the Internet to the mainstream by packaging it in a simple interface that hid the complexities and made Internet use intuitive. Similarly, RSS offers a distribution method for video, and other forms of online media, that takes the technology out of the process from the user’s perspective and delivers them content when they want it and how they want it.
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Bill Flitter is founder and VP of Marketing at Pheedo
(http://www.pheedo.com), an RSS marketing and analytics company. Prior to
Pheedo, Bill founded Email Shopping Network and directed its sales and
marketing activities until its acquisition by eUniverse in 2002.
