This week’s iSPOT of the Week is a video from the current IBM series that documents how clients use IBM technology. This week’s iChat features a conversation with Richard Toranzo, IBM’s Global Program Manager, Branded Entertainment, who explains the significance of the campaign. We’re excited to have a client perspective on broadband video advertising and we’re also excited to link this week’s iChat and iSPOT of the Week. It’s a new form of convergence we hope readers will enjoy!
iSPOT: What’s the name of your new video campaign?
Toranzo: What Makes You Special videos. They’re a new thing for us.
iSPOT: They haven’t been done before?
Toranzo: Right.
iSPOT: How did you develop the idea for the videos?
Toranzo: We as an advertiser have the same issue or challenge that any advertiser has with technology, creating all sorts of video channels be it traditional TV channels, print, out of home, the web, the web exploding with video and web 2.0 options. Increasingly the viewer has control over what they choose to see, be it on TV or the web. With that landscape in mind, we took a step back and said we need to change with the times, so the idea came about to entertain or engage the target audience. That’s where the idea of storytelling came about.
iSPOT: Where do the videos run?
Toranzo: We’re not just going to run them on the web. We think of them as content. The idea is we need to be more in storytelling as a content creator. We created content for a long time, ads and promo videos, but this concept of engaging someone in a story line is new content. We think of it as digital content and secondly think of the media we want to be in, which is not normally how you plan. Traditionally, you plan media first and plug in the right message depending on the length you have. This has turned everything on its ear. Shorter versions of the videos run on TV, we’re also looking at digital out of home. American Airlines is going to convert their business class section into a video based experience, so were going to run them there. We have conversations going on with providers of DVR and TiVo where users have a choice to pick and choose what they want to watch with suggested content based on their behavior. On the web we have them on our media buy, exploiting web 2.0 with YouTube, Google, iTunes putting them out there and seeing what traffic is like. It’s storytelling as opposed to an ad.
iSPOT: Do the videos promote IBM products or services or are they branding messages?
Toranzo: There’s no specific products placed within them, it’s more of a branding message. It’s the opportunity to allow our clients who are our biggest advocates to tell their stories. It’s not to talk about technology; Ray Kelly from the NYPD is not a tech person. They tell us their business problems, they talk about the partnership, they talk about the end value to society or their clients. That’s what makes these stories interesting. People can connect with crime and health care because it impacts their lives. The storytelling angle and the authenticity is different and engaging; it’s what we’re looking to do.
iSPOT: How do you get clients to participate?
Toranzo: It’s an interesting process. We explain to them the idea of the changed landscape and the fact that we’ve changed with becoming a more services oriented company. It’s hard to show people what that means. The best way to do that is allowing our partners to become the hero. When someone understands how crime is being affected, people can connect to that; in the meantime the client gets to tell their part of story. The hardest part was the shift of putting the story first and our brand second. We shifted our thinking and the clients got that and jumped on the bandwagon. Imagine getting Ray Kelly to say yes to anything.
iSPOT: Some famous directors were used to produce the videos. How did you get them involved?
Toranzo: The creation of the stories was not like a :30 TV spot. We worked hard with Ogilvy to find new collaborations. We wanted to go out and do it right, so some of the collaborations we worked with were very well known, including Sundance award-winning filmmakers. It was a different set of individuals who think differently and go into settings unscripted. They have an understanding of the stories but being documentary filmmakers they understand the story may change based on what people tell you. It’s amazing how they can think on their feet. It’s a very different creative process than shooting a scripted :30 TV spot.
iSPOT: How do the videos benefit your sales force?
Toranzo: One purpose of the videos is using the stories to get people to understand what IBM is doing in the world. Internally, our sales force can use them at client meetings and events. Some of the videos might be seen as a government type of innovation like the NYPD video, but our sales force across industries can use them because of their story telling nature. They can use them as ice breakers to better explain what IBM is doing in the world and taking on problems that are pivotal to people and business.
iSPOT: In the beginning, you said how the videos fit in with other advertising you do. Exactly how do they fit in and will they be used instead of other forms of advertising?
Toranzo: The overall arching message we need to get out is IBM is the right partner for innovation within a business setting. The stories we tell in our advertising proves that statement, because you can’t make a statement that broad and not have proof. Our :30 TV, print, web ads and long-form videos all talk to that point. That’s how the videos fit in. The reality in terms of traditional and long-form advertising is that there are budgets and they are what they are, so it’s unavoidable to make some trade offs. That’s the economic reality. That said, traditional advertising is key and still very important. We’ve learned through years of designing web content that you can’t build it and people will come. You have to promote it so traditional advertising is still the best vehicle to reach the target audience and get the quantity and quality of eyeballs we want for the videos.
iSPOT: You use traditional advertising to promote the videos?
Toranzo: Definitely. One example is we ran full page ads in the Wall Street Journal to promote the videos. The ads had a question in the middle that was answered with the web address that took readers to the long form videos. We also use out-of-home media and outdoor signage that tells people how to download videos onto their phones or Palms. It’s a mix of traditional driving to the videos and distributing them digitally.
iSPOT: How are you using banners to promote the videos?
Toranzo: Instead of driving people to content we like to deliver content out to people. So if you’re on the websites we run banners on, instead of sending users to the website we feed the video into the site. You’ll be seeing a video player that will live on third party sites where people can choose what video they want and what length. Any one of the videos we have, we shot between 30 and 40 hours of footage. The interactive web allows us to play many clips. We can edit out what Ray Kelly said and give end users the choice between the five-minute version and longer form versions. You can get more content than you’d get from TV or the more traditional media where there isn’t the interactivity. We give them the story line and they can go deeper. It’s a whole different way of doing things. Not only did we want to involve the different storytellers, we offer many ways to enter and get a story. How do you blend the worlds of interactivity and storytelling? That’s the next frontier of what we’re doing next with the videos.
