The Use Of Web Video (Ed Whitby - Student)

Video content has had a big impact on people in recent years and it is often argued that it is a more effective way of displaying information about products, services and relevant information than text.

Websites often host an array of videos on their home page, which can be anything from a banner to a film trailer. Banners are usually no more than a glorified pop-up and often claim that you have won a product such as a laptop. Whilst most can be avoided, some are crafty and can often scam people out of money. Websites made specifically for a film often feature a teaser video on their homepage in a promotional build up to its release. This is one of many things that help film companies to push along with advertising and marketing. The videos will often feature on appropriate websites for the proposed target audience e.g. a video advertising the film, ‘Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li’ may feature on a video gaming website.

Video information is often sent by companies via e-mail in order to market their product or service. This is known a ‘direct marketing’. Companies often obtain your e-mail address via a mailing list and the content they send often ends up being filtered by your e-mail host as spam.  Direct marketing is often associated with Viral Marketing, a form of self-promotion. A well known form of viral marketing involved a 1980s music video starring Rick Astley, which was used as a fake link to variety of items such as news stories and downloads.

Websites such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook have seen a grown in popularity with video based content.

YouTube is well known for its user-generated content and can be used to promote items such as short films and promotional material. Whilst many people upload copyrighted material without consent, big media companies such as the BBC provide YouTube Channels with legal content such as archive footage.

People use social networks such as MySpace and Facebook consistently across the globe.
MySpace allows the embedding of video content on to your own personal page. People often use HTML embed links from YouTube to do this as well MySpace’s very own video sharing network, MySpace TV.