Here’s an extract from my interview at Streaming Media West about online video. September 24, 2008.
Alison van Diggelen: What is it about online video that’s making it so attractive these days? […] Can you expand a little bit on that and the kind of feedback you are getting from your customers?
Alison Jeske from drugstore.com: Definitely when people see products in action they get very excited about it. In the prestige beauty world we get to see exciting new designers like Vena Cava showcased in fashion week, we get to see Oscar Blandi doing “How can I get that second day hair look”,we have Tina Turnbow (our fabulous make-up artist that we work with) showing people how to take a day look to a night look. Those things on the prestige beauty site get our customers really excited. On the drugstore.com side, it’s very new for us. We have just been introducing some funnier videos showcasing toys and games for the holiday, so we’re definitely getting some wordings and interesting feedback from our customers on the drugstore.com side.
Alison: So you’re getting a lot of feedback from your customers?
AJ: It’s early launch, early indications are real positive but on the drugstore.com we’ve had videos for about 2 weeks now, and it’s still real early. We’re measuring impressions we’re getting from the customers and definitely some of the feedback. It’s early to tell on order impact and conversion but it looks promising.
Alison:That’s very exciting. Can you give an idea for how long these video clips are? Are we talking like 30 seconds, or longer than that?
AJ: Typically longer than that. We try to keep our clips to around 1 to 2 minutes but some of the ones we have from Fashion Week on our Beauty.com site can go between 3 and 4 minutes. You want it to be interesting enough to tell someone a story but not too long to where we lose people. So we try to balance that and that’s something we’re testing.
Alison: Do you feel you’re really on the cutting-edge of this, taking videos to the market?
AJ: I think we’re definitely in the early adopters – I think there is a lot of people doing it really well out there – eBags is a great example, REI is doing video. The real mavericks in this that have doing it for quite a while are QVC and the Home Shopping Network , they really kind of started translating their TV shows into the different medium. We’re excited to see where this can take us.
Alison: What are your expectations for this? Do you see being your main focus getting video streaming online?
AJ: We see this as mandatory going forward. Customers are demanding it, and we want to offer all the different ways to help a customer make a choice about a product that they want. We see this as a requirement to stay in the game.
Alison: What key message are you bringing today to the Video Commerce panel (you have a panel of four talking about the big picture)?
AJ: I think some of the key messages are that we still need to measure success. We’re excited about this opportunity but we still have to measure, and we’re still near the early stages. The other thing about video is that it’s that next evolution of going from product reviews where customers can describe right how they feel about a certain product and why they like it. Video brings reviews up to another level where we’re getting to the next evolution in the product life-cycle.
To find out more about the conference, and listen to the Fresh Dialogues interview click here
Fresh Dialogues talks to Alison Jeske of Beauty.com about the use of online video in marketing products to women. What is the optimum length of video and what gets women engaged and excited about their products?
Streaming Media Westarrived in Silicon Valley last week and assembled an impressive crowd of business and technology gurus. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the pioneers of new media production, including JD Lasica, Co-Founder of OurMedia.org, Sarah Szalavitz, Co-Founder & CEO of 7Robot, producer of Zaproot, a bite sized news show about the Green revolution. I was most impressed with Sarah’s savvy and her claim that her show is now more popular than Discovery and Treehugger. They even landed a deal last year to get paid for content. Sadly, she says, that window is now closed: the days of getting paid for content are over (for now at least).
So how can you make money on the web? The panel of New Media Production: Building an Independent Media Brand outlined two distinct business models. The first: find your niche, build your product with top quality content, grow your brand, build a community and get them involved: then you have a valuable community worth advertising to. OR, do like Will Coghlan, Co-Founder of Hudson Street Media use the web to showcase your work, build your reputation and use it as a calling card to open doors to sponsorship or VC funding. He’s still at it after 200 episodes of Political Lunch, a compelling lesson in tenacity right there.
Of special interest to Women’s Radio listeners was Adriana Gasgoigne, Director of Corporate Communications at hi5. and Co-Founder of Girls in Tech. This experienced host and vlogger (video blogger) can be found on Bubblicious, MeeVee, and TheWeakSpot. She emphasized the importance of networking and cultivating mentors for women working in new media technology.
I also spoke with Alison Jeske, Director of Product Management at Beauty.comand Drugstore.com where she’s using online video clips to drive traffic and conversion rates for her products. EBags and REI are already well in the game. Listen to this short interview to find out who is leading the field in this area; the optimum length of video clips and why she thinks this is a mandatory marketing tool for any business today.
Fun to see the Fresh Dialogues podcast picked up by the VideoRetailer website. Word certainly gets around fast!
Talking heads who shout and lie dominate television “news,” but after Alison van Diggelen gets a taste of civil discourse at a local debate, she sees politics as it should be.
The charismatic Judy Miner, President of Foothill was moderator and did an excellent job keeping the questions coming fast and furious. She jolly well had to because although Firoozeh is as funny as hell, she’s also pretty succinct with her answers, which had me a little anxious toward the end of the interview that Judy would actually run out of questions.
They quipped about how they both often get mistaken for one another since they share the same dark eyes, enthusiasm for life: and hang out at the same Writer’s Conferences! Firoozeh recounted a number of stories from her life that had the audience in hoots of laughter. My favorite one was how, as a newcomer to America (age 7), the boys in her class plagued her until she told them what she described as the WORST swear word she could think of, and begged them never to use it. Needless to say, within minutes they were blasting round the school screaming it at the top of their lungs. But what they were actually shouting was: I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot! Classy gal.
But beyond the hilarity, Firoozeh shared her deeper message: to concentrate on our common humanity, to change perceptions of Iranians, and counter the attitude that EVERYTHING in the Middle East is to do with war and hatred. Her book is now widely used in schools and she hopes that will help change the view of Iran for the Post 9/11 generation.
Her advice to parents to encourage reading: give them the gift of boredom – no TV. Smart mom. Unfortunately we’re a bit too late for that in this house. But thankfully JK Rowling has saved the day!
I ushered Firoozeh into a dark annexe at the back of the stage for a quick interview for my Women’s Radio show before the event started. She was very trusting and forthcoming! 🙂
We discussed how being in Silicon Valley influenced her writing and “go for it” attitude. She also shared with me that Alexander McCall Smith was staying with her this week. Hey! Now why didn’t she invite me over? I speak the same language after all. Och aye.
Took her book to bed and kept hubby awake with my guffaws of laughter. She really is hilarious you know!
I also spoke with Alison Jeske, Director of Product Management at 
