Pssst, the password is: Joshua

Do you remember when the word “viral” only conjured up images of fluish passengers on a commuter train?  Nowadays, we aspire to it.  Every new website, application, and tool promises to make your content viral, particularly when it comes to video.  The problem is, there are still many instances when you don’t want every Tom, Francois, and Shin Sung in the world viewing your videos.

Maybe your project is still in the collaboration stage.  Maybe your tutorial is only intended to be viewed by paid subscribers.  Maybe your message is targeted to a very specific demographic.  Or, maybe you’re recruiting for the Stone Masons. Whatever the reasons may be, sometimes your content requires a bit of crowd control.  That’s where password protection comes in.

Passwords ensure your videos reach your intended audience, and no one else.  Think of them as your video’s own personal bouncer, ushering VIPs towards your content while keeping out the riffraff.  You can assign  passwords to individual videos, or apply a global password to your entire video library.  Learn how in our help documentation.

Keep in mind that Password Protection is part of vzaar’s Pro Toolkit, which means it is only available to Professional, Business, and Enterprise subscribers.  Basic subscribers interested in password protection and the other advanced features like Playlists, White Label Embed Codes, and Podcasts can  upgrade to the Professional from their account page .

While we’re on the topic of paywalls this week, let’s take a look at how vzaar client Dr. Najeeb has built a million dollar business selling subscriptions to his online lectures.  Armed with a Sony HXR-MC5ON, a whiteboard, and no marketing budget to speak of, Dr. Najeeb is proof that content really is king.  After spending two decades teaching students basic medical science, Dr. Najeeb realized the potential for a comprehensive collection of medical concepts accessible from all over the world.   Just over a year later, he’s assembled the largest library of basic medical videos available online and built a massive following of med students preparing for their Boards.

Read more about how he’s managed to do so in our latest case study.

We love speaking with  different businesses about their online video strategies and how they’re making use of their vzaar accounts, and recently we had a chance to do just that with Arena Flowers.  Arena has managed to become one the UK’s leading florists by doing things a little differently–from the way they source flowers direct from suppliers across the world, to the professional writer they’ve hired to build up a following of thousands on Twitter.  At the moment they’re A/B testing how different promotional videos perform on their homepage, but that just cracks the surface of the creative use of video on their site.

Once Arena began integrating video into their marketing, it didn’t take long for CEO Will Wynne to realize they could make much greater use of vzaar’s technology.  Will conceived of a video messaging service customers could opt in on while in the checkout phase of their flower order.  Arena’s team came to vzaar with their idea, and a few days later, Arena Flowers became the first florist in the world to offer a video message accompaniment with flower delivery, and their customers couldn’t be more delighted.  Video messaging gives them a unique opportunity to truly personalize gifts the gifts they send loved ones.

Read more about how Will and his team are using vzaar to offer their customers a truly special flower delivery experience in our latest video case study.

There is no right way to share a video.  Some videos were born to be embedded directly on your site, while others were created to stand on their own.  Which is why we’ve designed Branded Video Pages:

Embeds allow your videos to roam free across the internet, but Branded Video Pages serve as a home base – a totally customizable home base designed to do nothing but showcase your video content.   You don’t need to build an entirely new page on your own site to deliver cuts to clients for approval, share content on Twitter and Facebook, or circulate company training videos internally.  Just grab the your video’s public URL and starting sharing.

There has always been a public video page for every video marked as “public” in your account, but now with a few clicks you can transform your public vzaar video pages into a slick, branded environment of your own design – no coding necessary.  Check out these examples.  The Branded Video Pages help doc has the full rundown on how you can brand your own video pages with a few clicks.

Are “a few clicks” a few too many clicks for you?  What about one click?  If you’ve already spent time developing a custom design for your Twitter,  you can also reskin your vzaar pages with the very same logos, and colors saved in your Twitter account – with a single click!  How’s that for brand consistency?

As long as you have at least one video in your account marked as public, you can start branding your video pages now.  The sooner you setup your branded video pages, the sooner you can share them with us.  We’re very excited to see what you come up with, so get started!

Maybe you saw the link first on Twitter?  Or when it was emailed around your office?  Or perhaps you noticed a sudden influx of shaving discussions in your Facebook newsfeed.  Wherever you first encountered the Dollar Shave Club video, chances are you also noticed that it was frequently accompanied by comments like “Just signed up!” and “Had to get on board.  The marketing is just too good.”

That’s when you realized you were dealing with one of those wildly successful, frustratingly elusive viral marketing videos.  So it probably came as little surprise to you when Dollar Shave Club  revealed  they had more than 12,000 new signups in less than a week.  While it would be an exercise in futility to attempt to duplicate such massive viral success, there are some lessons to be found in the DSC video that all marketers can use to great, albeit less explosive, effect:

1. Embrace your personality. Every brand has a personality, and it is often a reflection of the personalities of the real people in the company.  Dollar Shave Club CEO and video star Michael Dubin used to do improv comedy with the Upright Citizens Brigade.  Of course, then, the video embraced his(and the company’s) sense of humor.  It worked because it was real.  That’s who Michael Dubin is, and Dollar Shave Club is Michael Dubin’s company.

2. Use the resources available to you. Dollar Shave Club is a startup, which means they don’t have an Old Spice sized budget to make videos.  In fact, their video only cost $4,500.  When it came time to produce a viral video for his company, did Michael hire an expensive production company?  No, he worked with a friend.  When he was in the UCB, he befriended a young lady by the name of Lucia Aniello.  Since that time, Lucia has been making digital shorts for the Emmys and Audi as one half of the comedy duo Paulilu.  Did Lucia need a bunch of “camera tech” and a 10 person crew to get the job done?  No, she just used a Canon 5D and a steadicam.  And she has polio. Ok, maybe she doesn’t have polio, but she did use equipment that, while not exactly cheap, is completely attainable even on a small budget.

Don’t have the budget to hire Terry Crews to be your spokesman?   Very few companies do.  So Dollar Shave Club used their own employees.  I don’t know what Alejandra’s day rate is, but I’m guessing it’s less than what Isaiah Mustafa gets.

3. Play up what makes you different. Dollar Shave Club sells razors, but there is nothing special about the razors they sell.  That’s why you barely even get a look at them in their video.  The premise of the video is that a razor’s features won’t improve your shaving experience, but a better value and convenience will. This is so radically different from any other razor commercial you’ve ever seen, that even if the video weren’t hilarious, it would stand out.

4. Keep it brief. The video clocks in at a minute and a half, but in that time they’ve managed to communicate to you that (a)Their blades are f***ing great, (b) Their blades cost only $1, (c) they’re a subscription service that will save you time by delivering their product to you every month automatically.  All that, and they made you laugh.  On that note…

5. People love to laugh. Ok, so this is something we all knew before.  Doesn’t make it any less true.  People love to share funny videos.  That will never change.