Press Release: Show some love with Valentine’s video greetings

Valentine's video greetings theme

Valentine's video greetings theme

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Show some love with Stupeflix Valentine’s video greetings

SAN FRANCISCO, February 9th, 2010 – How to move your loved one with a simple yet meaningful gesture? Take pictures and video clips from the best memories of the past year and create a beautiful, romantic video filled with emotion on the Stupeflix Studio.

Use your pictures to tell your love story
The Stupeflix Studio, a newly released online application to easily create videos from your digital memories, is offering today a Valentine video theme to share heartfelt sentiments. “My hard drive is filled with beautiful personal pictures which never see the light of day”, says Sebastien Perier, creator of the Valentine theme. “I want people to use theirs to craft a personal message of love.”

Create, inspire, impress
The Studio puts you in control to easily tell your digital story in video in a few minutes. Upload pictures and videos from your hard drive, Flickr, or Picasa account. Arrange them, group them, add texts and soundtracks. Preview until you are happy with the result. You can then publish, download, or upload to Facebook or YouTube your video masterpiece. Free videos are limited to one minute, while full-length High Quality versions cost $3 and High Definition versions (720p) cost $5.

Save on paper, not on emotions
Email greetings cards lack sentiment. Paper greeting cards quickly end up in the bin. A Stupeflix Valentine’s video delivers a handcrafted, heartwarming message which will be kept and cherished for years to come.

About Stupeflix
Stupeflix turns digital content into wowing videos.
The Stupeflix Studio is an online tool to easily create custom videos with your pictures and videos.
Stupeflix.TV is a free web TV service to watch the latest real-time web updates (Twitter, Flickr) about anything you want.
The Stupeflix video production platform is the most powerful solution for classifieds, ecommerce, directories websites and video publishers to create high volume, high quality video applications.

Stupeflix is a French startup which developed a disruptive technology to render video orders of magnitude faster than currently available solutions. Stupeflix won the SeedCamp 2008 startup competition, was finalist of the TechCrunch Europe Awards 2009, and won the 2009 national innovation competition organized by France’s OSEO.

Share on Facebook, Upload to YouTube: Make your Videos Reach and Impress

Facebook YouTube upload

We make videos for a purpose. We make videos because we have stories to tell, memories to share.

After carefully choosing the pictures and videos to include in your Studio project, arranging them, grouping them, adding captions, messages, subtitles, a soundtrack maybe, after you’ve finally exported your work into a finalized video, you’re not going to just leave it there are you?
You are probably going to download it, and either send it to friends or publish it somewhere.

With the Studio you’ve been able to do all this, but really what most of us want to do is either post it on our Facebook profile, or upload it on YouTube for the whole world to be able to watch it. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that right after creating the video, without having to download, then upload the video again?

No need to wait, because we’ve already made it happen.

When exporting your video, whether it’s with a Free, High Quality or High Definition format, you have two free options to do just that: Share it on Facebook, and/or Upload to YouTube. Sign in to your Facebook and/or YouTube account right there, and we’ll upload it automatically for you.

Happy Sharing!

Play First, Register Later: Updated Studio Sign Up Process

Sign_Up_Update

Since we launched the new version of the Stupeflix Studio we enjoyed lots of feedback and great advice from our users. Thanks!

A popular request was to remove the sign in / sign up form so people can start making videos and testing the Studio before actually registering for an account.

We listened!

Now you don’t need to sign in or create an account before creating videos. You can even export your video creation to a Free, High Quality or High Definition version without signing in. If you want to save your work though, make sure to do so!

Happy 2010 in video from Stupeflix!

Happy 2010 from Stupeflix!

Happy 2010 from Stupeflix!

Stupeflix wishes you the best for 2010, in video!

We had a blast in 2009 and kept improving our products thanks to our users feedback. In September 2009 we launched Stupeflix.TV, a free web-TV service to watch the real-time web unfold in video with the latest updates from Twitter and Flickr.

And now we’re kicking off 2010 with a brand new Stupeflix Studio! Don’t miss out on the cool new features, and make your own video greeting cards with your personal pictures and videos!

Watch our 2010 video greeting, or create your own with the Stupeflix Studio

Video Increases Conversion, But How Much? eCommerce Roundup

DollarOnline video was a priority of digital marketing budgets for 67% of senior executives in 2009 (PermissionTV study). This strong focus is fueled by high expectations in conversion increases when offering product videos alongside descriptions.

Everybody agrees that video increases conversion rates. It is a major incentive for our customers when taking advantage of our automated video production platform. When we talk to people about the benefits of video, one question often comes back: How much exactly does video increase conversion?

The truth is, as always, it depends. It depends of the relevance of the video content to the decision the user is trying to make. It depends of how well the video is integrated within the user workflow and pages. It depends of the video distribution strategy. So the best way to set expectations is probably to look around for real-life implementations and results.

We researched that million-dollar question and would like to share the results with you. We found 8 retailers who reported the performance of implementing video to their ecommerce site.
They tell us video works. With an average conversion bump in the range of 30%. And a surprising fact is that best-performing videos are not the most expensive to produce.

Zappos: 6% to 30% conversion increase for products with in-house video
A couple months ago Rico Nasol was interviewed in a panel at the Streaming Media West conference. Zappos is definitely leading the industry in its video efforts, on their way to 50,000 videos produced in-house by the end of 2010. Here’s Rico’s presentation, and a post on ReelSEO about the interview.

EyeBuyDirect.com: 30% conversion increase for products with automated video
Roy Hessel, CEO of EyeBuyDirect, reported a 30% conversion increase with video. What’s particularly interesting is that this performance has been achieved, unlike Zappos, with videos created automatically by animating available product content (images and data). In case you missed it, our automated video platform does just that.

PFI Western: 50% conversion increase for products with in-house video
Jason Arend was another panelist at Streaming Media West. With 2 people dedicated part time to in-house video production at PFI Western, they achieved commendable results with 50% conversion increase, plus multiple cherries on the cake: Video SEO boost, 27% returns reduction, average order value increase, average time on site increase, and return visit increase. Congrats Jason! You can watch his presentation here.

Onlineshoes.com: 19% to 45% conversion increase for products with video
When Onlineshoes.com started experimenting with product videos, they saw right away a conversion bump of 19%. They decided to go full throttle on video, and achieved up to 45% conversion increase with products like FitWiz, reports Peter Leech.

Ebags.com: 138% higher conversion rates on product detail pages when a customer clicks on the video
This stat can’t be compared with the other ones, but it is 1) impressive and 2) very interesting, because it tells us about the impact of product videos regardless of how visible, accessible the video is within the product page.

Clean Air Gardening: 20% conversion increase for products with in-house video
Lars Hundley, president of cleanairgardening.com, reports a 20% increase in conversion for products featuring video presentation, in addition to a reduction in product returns.

Ice.com: 40% conversion increase for products with automated video
Jewelry online retailer Ice.com reports a 40% increase for products featuring short videos generated automatically.

Sellpoint: 35% increase with rich-media products presentation
Sellpoint is one of the leaders of rich-media product showcases, with significant presence on amazon.com and other major retailers. Although not technically video based, the product tours show animated slideshows with voice-overs, with conversion benefits comparable to what can be achieved with video.

We hope these data points will help you get an idea of the returns one can expect using video to drive sales. What’s also interesting is to see how automatically generated video achieves comparable results to in-house produced videos featuring hosts showcasing products. The main difference is obviously production cost. Where ecommerce powerhouses like Zappos dedicate multi-million dollars video production budgets to create tens of thousands of videos, videos generated automatically with the Stupeflix platform cost $1.5 a piece.

Press Release: Stupeflix Studio Released, With HD and Video Greetings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New_Studio_Home

Stupeflix launches online video creation studio
with HD and free Holiday video greetings

SAN FRANCISCO, December 29th, 2009 – With cameras at our fingertips, digital memories overflow our hard drives. How can we share it in a meaningful way with friends and family? Launching today, the Stupeflix Studio allows you to create in a few clicks powerful videos to showcase your pictures and video clips.

Whether you have a story to tell, want to make a video scrapbook, or want to send Holiday video greetings to your loved ones, the Stupeflix Studio will reveal the awe-inspiring video producer in you.

Stunning videos in a few minutes: here’s how

Creating a video is a simple process. Start by choosing a video theme to insert your pictures and video clips into: the elegant Classic theme to showcase your artwork, the Scrapbook theme to share memories or the Holiday theme to send greetings. Upload and arrange your pictures and videos in the intuitive online editor interface. Add texts, music, transitions, oohs and aahs. Preview your video work until you are proud. Publish a short video for free to share with friends and family, or purchase a high definition version up to 720p to download for a few dollars.

Save on paper, not on emotions

Email greetings cards lack sentiment. Stupeflix video greetings show personal pictures and videos, so you can deliver a heartwarming, meaningful message that will move and impress.

About Stupeflix

Stupeflix turns digital content into wowing videos.

The Stupeflix Studio is an online tool to easily create custom videos with your pictures and videos.

Stupeflix.TV is a free web TV service to watch the latest real-time web updates (Twitter, Flickr) about anything you want.

The Stupeflix API is the most affordable and scalable solution for content-rich web properties to automatically generate massive amounts of video content along custom-tailored templates.

Stupeflix is a French startup which developed a groundbreaking video production platform, unique for its speed of rendering (HD faster than real time), scalability (millions of videos), flexibility (video scenes described in XML, REST API available). Stupeflix won the SeedCamp 2008 startup competition and was finalist of the TechCrunch Europe Awards 2009.

Useful Links

Stupeflix logo (web or print)

Sample videos using the Classic theme, the Scrapbook theme, the Holiday greetings theme.

Screenshot of the Stupeflix Studio Home Page and online editor.

Video SEO Talk – Interview of Mark Robertson, ReelSEO

mark-headshotIf you ever wondered about Video SEO, or are interested in video as an online marketing tool, you probably came across Mark Robertson and ReelSEO. Mark is an authoritative expert and speaker on all things at the intersection of online video and search, and the founder of ReelSEO, an invaluable resource for online video professionals. We have been avid readers of the blog and are thrilled Mark was kind enough to answer our questions about Video SEO. Mark can be found on Twitter @markrrobertson.

Stupeflix-logo-tinyMark, when you founded ReelSEO back in 2007 it was the first blog focused on video SEO. Why did you think at the time this was a crucial subject?

mark-headshot-tiny

When I created ReelSEO.com, I really intended for it to be a platform for myself to learn more about online video and how it could be leveraged in the Search Engine Marketer’s world.
Up until recently, I was the Director of Search for a privately owned media company composed of more than 100 newspaper, magazine, broadcast television, and interactive properties throughout the US. I was responsible for overseeing our company’s national search and local search lines of business.  With that role, I developed a strong focus and passion towards search engine optimization.
In 2007, I began to see video thumbnails appearing within Google’s Universal search and I wanted to learn more about how to capitalize on what I perceived was an obvious opportunity.  It quickly became apparent to me that no one was focused on this, so I created ReelSEO as a source of information for anyone that may find this trend as interesting as I did.  Thankfully, quite a few people found this trend interesting and ReelSEO has somewhat taken-off as the #1 authority for video SEO and video marketing.

When I created ReelSEO.com, I really intended for it to be a platform for myself to learn more about online video and how it could be leveraged in the Search Engine Marketer’s world.

Up until recently, I was the Director of Search for a privately owned media company composed of more than 100 newspaper, magazine, broadcast television, and interactive properties throughout the US. I was responsible for overseeing our company’s national search and local search lines of business.  With that role, I developed a strong focus and passion towards search engine optimization.

In 2007, I began to see video thumbnails appearing within Google’s Universal search and I wanted to learn more about how to capitalize on what I perceived was an obvious opportunity.  It quickly became apparent to me that no one was focused on this, so I created ReelSEO as a source of information for anyone that may find this trend as interesting as I did.  Thankfully, quite a few people found this trend interesting and ReelSEO has somewhat taken-off as the #1 authority for video SEO and video marketing.

Stupeflix-logo-tinyWhen do you think will be the turning point in video SEO becoming mainstream for SMBs and online marketers?


mark-headshot-tinyI think that we are at that turning point.  More and more small and medium sized businesses are leveraging online video to promote their brands, products, and services.  Almost immediately after a business takes the dive into online video, one question becomes apparent – “How do I get more people to find my videos?”

Stupeflix-logo-tinyWhat does a business need to start doing video SEO?


mark-headshot-tinyProduce Video…  I know, it is an obvious answer to the question but the most difficult part of doing video SEO is to actually begin creating video content for the web.  Once you have video, the rest is quite simple.

Stupeflix-logo-tinyHow is practicing video SEO different from regular SEO?


mark-headshot-tiny

This is a great question.  In my opinion, being that I am a SEO professional with a background that pre-dates video SEO, I see very little difference in terms of best practices for video SEO.  In the end, video SEO is purely an extension of SEO and it is primarily about:

1.     Creating quality, engaging, and unique content.

2.     Publishing that content in a way that it can be easily indexed by search engines,

3.     And describing that content in a relevant manner that follows best practices for SEO.

The only differences at this point in time are that;

·         #2 is a bit more tricky with regard to video indexing as guidelines often change and search engines are still working to better understand Flash

·         #3 is primarily about on-page text and metadata

In the future, I see both of these differences becoming less and less relevant as search engines becoming more attuned to crawling and classifying multimedia content.  In the end, video SEO, much like traditional SEO, will be about creating great content, and publishing that content according to publishing best practices.

Stupeflix-logo-tinyWhat are the most common misconceptions about video SEO?


mark-headshot-tiny

I think there are a few common misconceptions about video SEO.

1.     First off, being that my background is in website SEO, I feel that video SEO should be focused more so on driving organic traffic back to the source of the video content.  As a result of this, my passion resides more so with hosted video SEO, i.e., search engine optimization of video that resides on the company’s website.  I find it odd that video distribution is often lumped within the definition of Video SEO.  Certainly, distributing video to video sharing website like YouTube is a simple and effective way to get video assets placed within search results pages.  However, to me the strategic advantage of distribution has much more to do with branding and does not as easily result in an increase of traffic to the original source.  I do think that distribution is an important consideration for increased visibility of online video content, but I hesitate to call it video SEO.

2.     Secondly, I see blog posts across the internet on a daily basis that seem to point to video SEO as a unique and almost magical way to get great rankings within search engines and generate business.  At this point in time, while it may be easy to distribute a video asset and gain high ranking in the SERPS (search engine results pages), purely ranking in search engines for a set of keywords does not always translate to an increase in business.  Additionally, as search engines mature and as more and more video content is added to the web, those that excel with video SEO will be those that create great, informative content that is relevant to their business, product, or service.


Stupeflix-logo-tinyWhich features would you like to see as a video SEO expert in the Stupeflix API (for developers to automatically generate large quantities of videos) and in the Stupeflix Editor (for people to easily create a video from their media files)?

mark-headshot-tinyThe most useful functionality that I could see for those that generate large quantities of video would be to make it as easy as possible for those users to generate relevant metadata for their video content.  With this, developers will have an easier time creating video sitemaps/MRSS feeds/Playlists that properly categorize their video assets and leverage accurate and relevant data.

New feature: Dailymotion upload from the Stupeflix API

dailymotion-logo-june08

The Stupeflix API is a unique tool for developers to create massive amounts of videos upon fully customized templates.

An eCommerce site catalog can be transformed into as many videos as there are products. A classifieds website can add to each listing a video based on the listings information. Real-time information can be rendered into a customized video report.

The Stupeflix API takes as input a XML video description file and outputs a video rendered in the desired resolution and encoded with the chosen codec. But where does the video content go from there?

Today, a new option is available to our API users, and we are happy to announce that videos created with the Stupeflix API can now be directly uploaded to a Dailymotion account.

In addition to the new Dailymotion upload feature, current available options include uploading to a YouTube account, an Amazon S3 account, and via http. Practical information about how to implement these options is available with the Stupeflix SDK.

Is there another online video platform you would like to be able to upload your videos to?

Advertisers: Forget About Flash, Focus on Video

Back in June 2009, Google’s Double Click and Dynamic Logic published a groundbreaking report revealing the comparative performance of ad formats in online branding campaigns: The Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads. The bottom line: while simple Flash is currently the preferred format for online ads, it is largely outperformed by video ads.

The Research Report compares the performance of the four leading formats for online advertising: Image (GIF or JPG), Simple Flash, Rich Media Without Video and Rich Media With Video. For each of these formats, analysts dissected 4,000 online campaigns and rated them along five result-oriented metrics relevant to marketers and brand managers: Online Ad Awareness, Message Association, Aided Brand Awareness, Brand Favorability and Purchase Intent.

Results are loud and clear: if you are trying to promote your brand or sell a product, video beats Flash 5 to 15 fold.

Source and Copyright Double Click and Dynamic Logic, The Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads

Source and Copyright Double Click and Dynamic Logic, The Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads

With this in mind, expect a shift of online marketing budgets from Flash ads to video in the near future.

Historic and status-quo reasons aside, the current predominance of Flash ads has probably something to do with longer delivery time and higher costs of production for video. But here’s the good news: Stupeflix is here to change that!

With Flickr Pictures Import, Creating Videos Is Faster and Easier than Ever

When creating a new video with the Stupeflix Editor, the first thing to do is to gather and upload images and videos to be included in your glorious project. But what if you’re missing a nice picture to illustrate your message? What if you don’t have pictures at all? What if you’d like to use an already created album on Flickr.com?

Stress not: the new Flickr pictures import is the solution to all your problems. It lets you search Flickr for pictures directly within the Editor, or select an already created picture Set:

screenshot-Flickr1The upload wizard then retrieves the images on Flickr matching your query. You can now select the images you want to include in your video by clicking on their thumbnail. You can also select all the pictures you see with the “Select All” link, or request to see more images matching your query if you haven’t found the perfect match just yet:

screenshot-Flickr2Once ready, your images are directly imported in your video project, so you can group them, order them, add effects, transitions, musics, texts, and all that great stuff.

Creating killer videos is faster and easier than ever. Don’t forget to thank the Flickr photographers for their good work!