Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

“Unbranded” Video Player for Your Website

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on May 24, 2008

If you would like an easy way to avoid using the YouTube player to post your own videos to your website, this interview is for you.

Subject: Our guest today is Preetam Mukerjee who is the CEO of www.marcellus.tv. After working at the Center for New Media at the University of California at Berkeley, Preetam returned to India where he organized a company to provide “white label” video hosting, player, and networking services. His Software-as-a-Service enables you to post videos to your website and (html) emails as easily as if you were using YouTube. However, unlike the YouTube player, the marcellus player is unbranded which means that the video window looks like it “belongs” to your own website.

Additionally, marcellus.tv permits users to insert overlay ads into their videos. This provides an opportunity to generate revenues from non-disruptive ads. In time, overlays may largely displace pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and post-rolls for Internet video because overlays are non-disruptive. They enable the consumer to click-through to ads that are of interest on an opt-in basis.

Finally, marcellus.tv hosts the media files on the S3 platform of Amazon Web Services. Therefore, Amazon’s high speed delivery network supports the delivery of marcellus.tv videos. Moreover, S3 storage fees are aggressively priced relative to most competitors.

Phil’s Take: Marcellus.tv is a lightly funded new venture, so it remains to be seen how effective the service will be once a critical mass of clients get onboard. However, since an increasing number of companies discern the value of putting video on their own websites, marcellus.tv is addressing a potentially large latent market for “white label” Internet video services. Their choice of Amazon’s S3 storage appears to be a good one in terms of ease-of-use, reliability, and cost considerations.

Today’s Tip: Topics for Corporate Blogging

Branding is built upon trust and relationships.

Multimedia blogging amplifies trust and relationship. First, it enables direct consumer interaction. Second, authentic commentary encourages consumers to identify you as a steady source of new information germane to their interests. Third, video & audio podcasts enable you to regularly convey a personality to clients and prospects.

In short, it is crucial that your blog be genuine, periodic, and relevant. A good starting point for topics is a list of questions that your customers ask you every day.

Contact me to learn how Inside Digital Media can help you use blogs and podcasts to build the consumer trust and relationships needed for successful branding in the future.