Does Business Video Quality Really Matter?
Some people say you can’t a judge a book by its cover. That’s a nice rule to live by, but what I want to know is how do you judge a piece of business video content.
When we’re all sitting in our living rooms watching TV after a long day of work, we all become pretty good critics of what constitutes quality video. But the world of business video can be quite a bit more hit and miss. Some companies have produced some great looking videos over the years. Others have created videos that are truly cringe-worthy.
But at the end of the day, does video quality really matter in the enterprise? The answer to this question may depend upon who you ask. It turns out that executives’ outlook on the importance of “video content quality” can hinge a lot on where they work.
In a survey of 1,002 executives conducted by Interactive Media Strategies in the first quarter of 2011, the issue of “price” was the factor most frequently cited as a “very important” issue influencing the video technology purchase decision. Behind that, ranking second in investment evaluation, was the issue of “ease of use.” Only when you got the third spot in the rankings of video investment factors did you see the issue of “quality of video content created” emerge as a frequently mentioned consideration driving the video purchase decision.
The story changes, though, when you look at executives from companies with more than 25,000 employees. At these very large companies that represent some of the most advanced implementers of business video technology, the issue of “quality of video content created” stands as the single pre-eminent factor influencing the video purchase decision. Sixty-eight percent of executives at these large companies with more than 25,000 workers say that video’s content quality is a very important factor influencing their investment decision. Lagging far behind in consideration among executives in this large company group was the issue of “ease of use,” cited as “very important” by only 57% of this segment’s respondents.
The story changes, though, among executives at companies with 1,000 or fewer employers. Among survey respondents at these smaller organizations, the emphasis on “ease of use” actually exceeds the concerns over video content quality.
Take these trends to heart when trying to decide where to allocate your video budget. At big companies where brand image and slick production skills have more impact, be sure to set aside enough product for quality video productions that can match the expectations of executives at large organizations that have high standards for video quality.
At smaller organizations where employees are more likely to be left to their own devices when trying to publish and distributed Web video content, different priorities are paramount. At these organizations, be sure to make the budget investments needed to acquire video management and distribution software that makes it simpler for executives to handle the technology used in making video accessible to target audiences. For this group of executives at smaller companies, it seems that getting decent quality video distributed successfully is more important than achieving video content of a pristine nature worth of broadcast TV.
The lesson here is to know the communications priorities of your own organization and allow that knowledge to steer your video investments in the right direction.
Steve Vonder Haar is Research Director of Interactive Media Strategies and can be reached at svonder@InteractiveMediaStrategies.com
