The GigantiCo Online Video Guide

Chris Grayson is the creator of the GigantiCo Online Video Guide which he describes as "a two part resource— It is one part consumer video directory, and it is one part B2B video development and marketing resource (please see the text links in the right margin)." Chris is an Art Director/Creative Director who lives and works in New York City. He recently linked to this blog Online Video Publishing [dot] com and when I linked back I found an incredible catalog of links to a wealth of online video resources that more of start page for online video. While it's not a complete list he says, "at this date, there is more video content on the web than could ever be compiled into one page. When a site was considered for inclusion, I relied on my own subjective opinions and biases." I conducted an email interview with Chris to get some background on his Online Video Guide and he published the interview on his website here. I've included some excerpts below.

Larry Kless: How and when did you start the OV Guide (big idea, fill niche, etc)?

Chris Grayson: This was originally a page I built just for myself. I kept it buried in a hidden directory and set it as my browser start page on both my home machine and my computer at the office. Around that time I'd also been considering creating some kind of online video directory. Since the early days of AdCritic and iFilm, I'd been toying with the idea. Video content on the web was somewhat scarce and a directory page would have been tasked with scouring the internet, collecting obscure links to content. It was an idea I had put on the back burner. Today the web offers a near inexhaustible variety of video. So the need for a directory became quite different— a filter to quality content in the deluge of online video. Over the last few years broadband has reached into more and more homes and online video content has continued to grow. When and where appropriate, it is something I encourage my clients to incorporate. In the last few months the Interactive Advertising Bureau has attempted to establish guidelines for online video ad units. This will make it easier for marketers to develop for this media channel without the production issues involved in developing for many different proprietary standards. A recent study by Integrated Media Measurement has found that Americans do 20% of their episodic video content viewing online. While overall US advertising spending is expected to fall anywhere from 35% or worse in 2009, digital marketing is projected to have continued growth, with a healthy portion of that to be in online video based ad units (up to $1.9B in 2009 from $1B in 2008, according to Forrester Research). While print media, especially newspapers, cannot pull enough ad revenue to cover their operating costs, online media outlets can barely develop video content fast enough to accommodate the demands of advertisers. This past week The New York Times did a story on the Discovery Channel's ramped up online video efforts that gives a perfect anecdotal example (the irony of the source is not lost on me).

LK: How did you collect all the resources?

CG: I had a bookmark folder I continued adding video links to. Because of my work, I stumble across these things all the time. I just kept collecting them— both online video sites and companies that offered products or services for producing, distributing, marketing or in some way managing online video content. It was really about two years ago that I began to actively organize links.

LK: Who are you targeting with the OV Guide?

CG: The site has two targets:

Consumers of online video— People looking for quality content.

Professional video developers— This includes both producers of online video content, and advertisers who wish to use online video as a media marketing channel.

The professional video resources directory runs down the right margin, and is actually a much lengthier directory than the consumer video links in the body of the page. The expectation is that the consolidation of the consumer content will bring traffic, but that the professionals will return for the industry links.

LK: What is the overall purpose of the OV Guide?

CG: I hope to provide a quality resource for online video marketing, video content and video development. There is, of course, a bit of self interest— As an advertising professional who develops both online advertising campaigns and websites, I hope to get some exposure out of this as well. I will concede that this is not a completely altruistic effort.

On a personal level, I also have great interest in the internet as a distance-learning medium, a tool I feel the educational sector has been slow to leverage to its full potential. Online video, and live streaming video offer huge opportunities in the field of education that have barely been tapped. I'm especially enthusiastic about the potential of resources like EduFire, which offers live one-on-one video tutoring. I dedicate a large part of the consumer directory to educational programming. Schools like Harvard, Yale and especially MIT should really be commended for making so much of their lecture content available free on the internet. And TED is probably my favorite site on the web.

LK: What's in store for the future?

CG: My realistic expectation is to update the directory at least quarterly. On the consumer side I hope to expand the Arts & Culture listings. Otherwise much of my focus will be on the professional links down the margin.

Thank you so much for taking an interest in the directory. Whether online viewers or professional developers, hopefully others will find that it a valuable resource.]

Check out the GigantiCo - Online Video Guide

Follow Chris Grayson on Twitter

Posted by larrykless at 2/2/2009 9:17 PM
Categories: Online Video, streaming media, Web video, Online Video Publishing, Marketing, Monetization, Video, Distribution, Syndication, Content Creation

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