Ideally, your videos and website layout should be as in sync as China’s divers, so we’re pleased to have made an update this week which ensures that vzaar videos will now scale perfectly along with your site’s responsive design.

Take a look at client BSL Zone‘s site to see this in action.

When is the right time to watermark your videos, and when is the right time to use Brand Overlay?

A watermark is a security feature. It’s there to ensure that no one can steal your content and pass it off as their own. This may be a concern of yours if you are producing original content, particularly if charging a fee for access it. Watermarks make that theft tough to do because they’re directly onto your source file, so even if someone pulls your file from the player, it follows the video wherever it’s played.

Brand Overlay is a marketing feature. It’s primary purpose is to promote your brand.  Brand Overlay is visually very similar to a watermark, in that it’s a small image, typically a logo, that appears on the video.  The difference lies in the fact that we stamp the brand overlay on the player, not the video files itself.  Why does that matter?  Because it actually allows for greater customization, meaning you may adjust the transparency levels to achieve a more subtle effect, but more importantly, it’s linkable. You can link your brand overlay to your homepage, to a product page, to anywhere you like.  Brand Overlay is actually more similar to other marketing features like End Text and Brand Text than watermarks.

Now that you know, go forth and watermark and brand overlay wherever and whenever appropriate!

Guest Post by Neil Davidson

Businesses cannot just broadcast out a message and expect it to be accepted at face value. If you expect to be trusted in your industry, you must establish your brand as an authority.  Here’s a few ways you can use video to do so.

1. Showcase your company “heroes”

Within every good business there are passionate people.  People who care deeply about what they are doing and who sincerely believe that the companies products/services are the best there are in the market.  Don’t keep these employees to yourself, give them a more public platform to share their passion.

Find the truly passionate employees and film them giving a demo, in the process of working, or offering a behind the scenes look at the work they put into providing your customers with a better experience.

2. Interview industry experts

This is a fantastic way to get your business noticed. In most industries there are a number of well-known and respected thought leaders who already hold authority. There is a way that you can slipstream (in the same that Olympic cyclists do) this authority to bring yourself to the foreground.

If have not already, cultivate a relationship with these people. Read their blogs, comment thoughtfully, and initiate conversations with them.  Contribute information and articles they might be interested in.

Once you have a genuinely reciprocal relationship established, ask them to participate in a Q&A.  Be fully prepared before you do this so you can tell them exactly what you’ll be covering, how long it will take, and how, when, and where you’ll be filming.  Most people will be flattered by the request and accept; if not then move on to the next expert on your list, but keep the relationship going as the no may become a yes later on.

3. Founders Corporate Story

The founder of a company is often the person with the most drive and passion for as it is their idea, their dream. If you are the founder of a business then you are the perfect person to explain the blood, sweat, and tears that you have put into it.

This can be as simple or elaborate as you like. It can be a basic interview, or you can add clips of your products, your office, and your team whilst you tell your story.  Showcasing the person(s) behind your business will help build trust by reminding your clients your business is more than just a faceless corporate.

4. Speaking at Industry Events

Speaking at industry events will help establish your reputation as an authority either way, but recording your talk will allow you to reach to an audience much larger than at the event itself.  Many events are recorded anyway, so ask the event organizer if you can have a copy of your session to share with customers and contacts.

So that’s my list done, I am sure that you can think of plenty more opportunities too. Just be creative, have fun and be yourself.

Author bio

Neil Davidson is the Founder of My Web Presenters, who are a leading Corporate Video Production specialist. They work with businesses of all sizes to create and market compelling and emotive video that helps them to communicate with their specific audience. They also write a Video Production Blog regularly.

We’ve added a few new Advanced Settings this week.  These settings may come in handy in very particular video scenarios:

Why? This is sometimes requested by users who have created playlists with videos of different aspect ratios.

All these controls can be turned on globally from the settings area of your account, or on a per-video basis.

We’ve also made the bandwidth bar on your account dashboard a bit clearer, plus worked some magic to speed up the transition between uploading and encoding your videos.  Let us know if you notice the difference!

This week we put a new notification system in place to remind you to update your billing information before your card expires, plus we have a new Facebook page. Here’s Aaron to tell us all about it!