Company: Vidyard
Industry: Video Marketing & Analytics Technology
Co-Founder & CEO: Michael Litt & Co-Founder & CTO: Devon Galloway
In light of Canada’s Birthday, I thought it appropriate to write about Vidyard, one of “Canada’s most successful ad tech startups“. After a great day of celebrating Canada with friends and family, and shaking hands with the possible future Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, I had the pleasure of communicating with some of Vidyards’ amazing team members. That’s right, they had no issue on their holiday taking time to provide me with information to share with you. Now that’s service, and one of the many reasons Vidyard has earned “Rock Star” status in the video marketing world!
A Little Ditty About Vidyard
Co-founders Michael Litt and Devon Galloway started out making video experiences for businesses under their original company Redwoods Media in 2009. Over time, Litt and Galloway realized their clients interests lay in the metrics, and that they were actually better at analyzing videos, so they shifted gears and in true entrepreneurial fashion, built an integrated video marketing platform for recording, distributing and analyzing marketing videos.
Waterloo based company Vidyard was conceived in 2011, but it took Litt and Galloway until the spring of 2012 to fully transform Redwoods Media into Vidyard.
In a nutshell, Vidyard is a “one stop shop” creating video marketing strategies for clients, with real-time analytics, providing their clients the tools and ability to host, track, analyze, and improve the performance of their video content online. They also help clients track their prospects video viewing activities and use the data to enhance lead scoring, segmentation and sales enablement programs.
Today Vidyard is considered a global leader in video marketing, analytics technology and sales enablement solutions. They started out with 28 team members and have almost tripled in size. They have become the talk of the tech world with their recent win, raising $18 Million in capital to further enhance their video marketing platform. In an article on betakit.com, Michael Litt reveals, “The infusion of the capital means we can provide innovative solutions to customers to solve their problems, deliver better experience and technology. Our customer network tells us what they want, and we will take the feedback, analyze it and build it into the product and the company.”
“The Play Button is the Most Compelling Call to Action on the Web”
– Michael Litt, CEO & Co-Founder of Vidyard
Vidyard Video Tour
It seems fitting to introduce Vidyards’ platform by way of a Video Tour, shared and presented by the Vidyard team. These short video clips explain exactly how their platform works and also demonstrates its effectiveness (hint: secret weapon – strong analytics). So grab some popcorn, a drink, sit back and enjoy the Vidyard show!
Overview
Click on Michael Litt to hear him and Blake Smith describe, in under a minute, Vidyards’ platform and how they can help companies make informed video marketing decisions resulting in measurable results.
Analytics
Would you like to know who’s watching your videos and how to measure performance through real-time analytics? Cody Wright is here to tell you how Vidyard can make it happen!
I asked Jon Spenceley, Community Marketing Manager, Vidyard to expand on this and describe how Vidyard is able to track real-time analytics and stand out from competitors. He responded with this:
“Vidyard’s real-time analytics are provided through our player, which allows us to track not only who’s watching a particular video for our clients, but how much of that content they have consumed, and whether they have re-watched portions of that video. We display this data in a comprehensive reporting dashboard within Vidyard, and integrate with major Marketing Automation and CRM platforms to give marketers access to real-time video viewing data in the systems they already know and trust.”
Vidyards’ sophisticated software has the ability to break down the analytics to let clients know which parts of their online videos viewers are watching, what they’re rewatching, which parts they fast-forward through and where they pause or stop, having lost interest. Pretty impressive stuff and invaluable information for companies big and small!
Click here to check out the Vidyard Analytics Center
Lead Generation
Watch this next clip to find out what “Pop-Ups & Email Gates” are, and how you can use them to generate leads and drive sales.
Vidyard can show you exactly how viewers interact with your videos, allowing clients to evolve their marketing strategies based on measurable results.
Map & CRM
Not sure what to do with your data? In this clip Jon & Dan share how Vidyard can help you identify your “hottest prospects, score leads in your CRM, and automate targeted email campaigns by connecting video viewing data to your MAP and CRM systems.”
“Our platform tracks the exact amount of a video that a prospect watches, and ties this to their email address using a tracking cookie. If the viewer has not viewed a video before, we still track their viewing behaviour anonymously, and fill in the tracked data later if they submit their contact details. Our integrations with Marketing Automation and CRM systems allow us to match viewing behaviour to leads and contacts within our clients databases, so we can provide a comprehensive picture of how prospects interact with video.” – Jon Spenceley, Vidyard
Vidyard Featured on YouTube Developers Live
Test & Share
Are you tired of spending money on video creation and not knowing the impact the videos have on your target audience? Check out the clip below to hear Nina & Patrick discuss how you can “optimize and share videos to accelerate ROI.”
Vidyard + Social Media
Social Media plays an important role in Vidyard’s platform and strategy. They use various social media channels to showcase their clients video campaigns and connect them with their target audiences, and also to share content about their company, its culture, and team members.
Jon Spenceley says “Social is a huge driver of awareness and leads for our campaigns and content programs. We share all of our blog content regularly on our social channels, and make extensive use of paid social media to put our lead generation campaigns in front of the right audience at the right time. Our Facebook and Instagram accounts also provide a glimpse into the day-to-day life at Vidyard HQ, and are a great place to highlight company milestones and new hires as well!”
Vidyard recommends sharing your videos in the following places to get the most mileage: (Vidyard video checklist):
Sales Assets (where applicable)
Email Campaigns
Your Email Signature
Your Blog
Partner Blogs
Press Releases
Social Networks
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
Pintrest
YouTube
SlideShare
G+
Vidyard + Social Media Metrics
What use is a well-made video with tons of views or likes if you can’t tie its performance to ROI? “Although more than 70% of marketers report that video converts better than other content types, fewer than 10% are actually using video analytics to enhance lead qualification and customer insights.” One of the most important things to consider, if video is part of your marketing strategy, is the need to measure its impact on revenue.
Here are some tips from Jon Spenceley to help achieve just that:
Decide the outcome you wish to achieve from your video, and build your script to support this goal.
Define what metrics you are using to track the success of your campaign – if it’s lead generation, define success by the number of leads, if it’s awareness, use view counts and engagement, etc.
Evaluate which channels will provide the most relevant audience – should the video live on your website, is it built for social channels, etc.? This will help define the length and tone of your video.
Develop a creative brief and ensure everyone involved in your video project is up to speed on the goals, purpose, and creative style of your video.
Make your video, and deploy your campaign. Measure, test, and evaluate as the campaign continues!
“At Vidyard, we go beyond just the number of followers we have, and look at how our audiences are interacting with our social campaigns. All of our channels have goals, and we never deploy a social campaign without understanding what success looks like. We use social metrics to define what content works for what audiences, and to develop social campaigns that convert!” – Jon Spenceley, Vidyard
Vidyard collaborates with the following platforms to give clients even more of a measurable boost:
Act-On
Eloqua
Salesforce
Salesforce Chatter
Salesforce Pardot
Marketo
Exact Target
Mail Chimp
Kapost
Hootsuite
YouTube
Become an Agent of ROI
Click here to view another great infograph explaining more ways Social Media Can Amplify Your Video Marketing.
Why Vidyard is So Hot Right Now?!
“Video is emerging as the most powerful medium to drive increased engagement and conversion rates.” In a recent benchmark report by Demand Metric, results indicated that more than 70% of marketers reported that video converts better than other content types, but less than 10% are using video analytics to help qualify leads and improve the results of demand generation programs.” Results also indicated that almost “70% of B2B marketers are using video in their mix, budgets are increasing”, and “82% of B2B marketers reported success with video marketing initiatives.”
Based on a recent article published by Sally Hooton, in GMA (Global Marketing Alliance), “Marketers are predicted to spend $11.5 billion on data and related solutions across the three most prominent channels (email, direct mail and display advertising) in 2015, according to recent research by Winterberry Group and the USA DMA (The World’s Leading Independent Organization for Data-Driven Marketers), demonstrating data’s increasing value in today’s marketplace.”
Vidyard is the first company to combine video encoding, hosting, analytics, split testing and marketing automation integration, helping marketers to generate more revenue through optimized use of online video.
Business Insider deemed Vidyard’s CEO & Co-founder, Michael Litt, the “Mark Zuckerberg’ of Canada, so they must be good!
2015 Will Be the Year for Video Marketing – Tyler Lessard, CMO of Vidyard
1. The play button will take center stage as the most compelling call to action on the Web
2. Video analytics and attribution will take the lead
3. Video will become a strategic tool for lead generation and qualification
4. YouTube will be a complement, not the focus
5. Use of video analytics as part of marketing automation and CRM will increase
Read more at: MarketingProfs.com
Tyler Lessard Interview
Lessons Learned
Vidyard is a cutting edge company providing kick ass products, services and real-time analytics so their clients can better evaluate their ROI. From my personal experience, their attention to detail (check out their website – vidyard.com) and level of customer service (employees helping me out on Canada Day), are phenomenal.
It’s not surprising that Vidyard, has attracted nearly $30 million in venture capital and more than 1,000 global customers. Or the fact that its become one of “Canada’s most successful ad tech startups“, attracting some of the best with its hip culture and “word hard play hard” mentality focusing on innovation and collaboration. Having a great team in place, dedicated to the success of the company and a CEO who believes you should “Listen to your customers and don’t be afraid to try something new.” – Michael Litt, has put them on Centre Stage… keep rocking Vidyard!
Web References:
Vidyard
MarketingMag
BusinessInsider
BetaKit
MarketWired
TheRecord
YouTube,
TheNextMillion
fslocal
Linkedin
MarketingProfs
GMA
Submitted By: KellyBlack, SMBP Student, University of Waterloo
To contact the author of this entry please email at: k8black@uwaterloo.ca
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.