IKEA’s recent use of social media site Facebook to promote a new store opening is getting a bit of coverage (you can check out the campaign story in the video above).

Here’s my take:

• Absolutely a smart idea
• Partly because it leverages existing networks rather than trying to create their own
• Partly because it puts the product front and centre
• And partly because it could easily have failed and been no real disaster

I also like how the people behind the campaign put this nice little video piece together to showcase what they did – much better than a staid text-based case study and, of course, it helps spread the word even further.

Creating great web video

NewFangled are a web design company. More particularly they “help advertising agencies build better websites for the clients”.

Either way, there are LOTS of web design companies out there – and most of them work in more or less the same way. The same is true in a lot of industries – which means companies need to find interesting ways of showing how they are different.

While many might resort to the standard, cliched sales pitch, NewFangled have latched onto a real point of difference (how they work and communicate with clients) and then made that point tangible through the use of short videos and screencasts.

Grayscreen Prototyping video by Newfangled Web Factory.

The video here gives you a look at their prototype process and makes convincing case for why it’s a better approach – and hence why you should use them.

Even if you don’t watch the entire video (although it’s interesting enough in itself) you’ll get a sense of how giving away this information accomplishes a few goals:

• It creates a clear point of difference
• It demonstrates their expertise
• It shows NewFangled as an open and responsive organisation
• It paints a picture of what working with them would be like

These same keys can be seem through the NewFangled website in other videos, onsite text, blogs etc…

How Can You Use This in Your Business?

So what do your prospects want to know when they visit your site? There’s every chance that it’s as simple as knowing what you do and how you do it (and the price). Using short video pieces can be a great way of communicating this info quickly and distinctively.

We’ve already started work on our own videos and hope to begin offering video-based content development early next year. If this is something that might interest you, please get in touch.

Image: Flickr Creative Commons

Cooks Illustrated magazine features tried and tested recipes, equipment reviews and kitchen tips based on extensive real life testing in their 2,500 sq ft test kitchen. Completely free of advertising, it’s a little like Which for the kitchen.

As one reviewer said: “There’s no more authoritative food magazine. When Cook’s Illustrated endorses a cheesecake, it’s because its editors made 45 of them.”

Cracking the Paid Content Model Online

Clearly CI is a successful magazine built on unique, high-quality content. But what sets them apart for our pursposes is their ability to translate that success online.

Like Which.co.uk (a leading paid content website in the UK with over 200,000 subscribers), CooksIllustrated does not allow advertising – forcing them to focus on subscription sales to generate revenues.

And it’s working.

They launched video demonstrations of recipes in early 2007, combining some free content with access to the entire library available on a subscription basis. According to AudienceDevelopment.com, there are over 230,000 paid members, and roughly 40 percent of Web members subscribe to the magazine. At their advertised rate of $34.95 a year, that works out at a little over $8M in annual online revenues.

Lessons to Learn

So what are they doing right?

1. Focus on Content – High-quality, definitive and unique content is at the core of the business online and off.
2. Leverage Print – The website is a nice companion to the print edition and delivers real added value.
3. Repurposed Content – The online library includes 15 years worth of reviews, recipes and tips. As they produce new content for the print version, they can easily create video versions to continually add value to the online model.
   
   “With 15 years worth of recipes and techniques, the ability for a user to search through them with just the touch of a button is a huge value proposition … You just don’t want to have to thumb through all of your magazines at home.”
4. Use of Video – Recipes obviously lend themselves to video, CI has used this to its advantage, creating online content with a higher perceived value than simple text.

Even if you’re not in the publishing business, CI demonstrates clearly that people will pay for content online – provided they can’t get it free somewhere else.

This model could easily be adopted by any business that sells based on their ‘expertise’ – as either a new revenue stream or (by making it free) as a way of attracting potential clients and customers.

More: Article on AudienceDevelopment.com