Start-Up Watch COD: Expo TV empowers people to make videos about products they love

People. VOLUNTEERING. To Endorse. Your Product. Sounds pretty good, huh? Well you can get it right now if your brand partners with EXPO TV.

I could bore you for thousands of words reviewing all the research. But we all know that personal endorsements are the most powerfully persuasive pieces of info for consumers considering a purchase. More powerful than those glitzy TV ads even. Actually, a lot more powerful than them.

EXPO has created a community of thousands of people that volunteer to make videos about products. And they do it largely because they love those products and want to spread the word.

EXPO TV is farther along than most of the brands I talk about here, but I really love their offering, and want to help them get the word out. EXPO TV has created a community of product fans and reviewers who volunteer to deliver their thoughts in stand-up-presenter videos. Consumers appear onscreen to discuss the merits (and issues) of products. Here’s a little example.

Herbal Essences Hydralicious Self Targeting Review from sarah heiman on Vimeo.

Millions of Americans have webcams and opinions. Lots of them already like your product. On EXPO, anyone can talk about any product that they choose, but brands can encourage consumers to rate their offerings in several ways:

• You can sponsor a contest offering a prize.
• You can get your brand featured on their site and in their newsletter.
• You can build dedicated brand pages on the site.
• You can also use their Tryology program to send out samples in exchange for honest reviews

Additionally, EXPO can distribute videos directly to retailers, who add them to product pages as a means of providing consumers endorsements that boost the trust factor and drive higher sales. Here’s an example from Amazon.

When you partner with EXPO, you work with them to pay a small fee to get the rights to use the endorsement videos anywhere you want, in any geography, for virtually any purpose. People who participate want to be seen discussing your brand. Since the videos tend to be a little longer than you might want for an online video ad or whatnot, you can also cut them down a bit.

This is a free community, so consumers that have issues with your brand can post negative or mixed reviews as well. But EXPO reports that more than 85% of the videos they get are positive. Brands that participate deeply can get hundreds of videos for use in marketing, on their brand websites, and in other places that can make a difference to their businesses.

There are a few other things to note. Videos are all transcribed by EXPO automatically, and indexed all the way down to the SKU. With all this rich metadata and the SEO appeal of video generally, EXPO vids often turn up in the top 5 or 10 results for Google brand searches. How cool is that?

I told you these folks are farther along than other companies I write about. Here’s a list of some of their recent clients. Is your competitor on this list? If so, you’d be well advised to check them out.

• aussie
• Braun
• Caress
• Cascade
• Cheer
• Clairol
• COVERGIRL
• Dawn
• DIGIORNO
• Dove Beauty Bar
• Febreze
• Gain
• Gillette Venus
• Head & Shoulders
• Herbal Essences
• Honey Bunches of Oats
• JELL-O
• KRAFT Macaroni and Cheese Dinners
• LG
• Olay
• Old Spice
• Ore-Ida
• Pantene
• Seagate
• Secret
• Starbucks
• Swiffer
• Tide
• Vaseline

You’d be well advised to check em out regardless, IMHO.

Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.