Generating Revenue with Dance Videos
Continuing my series of stories about dance and video, I'd like to devote this post to different ways to use online video to generate direct and indirect revenue. Some of the ideas I suggest below are more practical than others. I figured I'd try to come up with as many ideas as possible and then, later on, focus on those that seem the most feasible.
1) Sell More Tickets
The number one use of online dance video is to sell more tickets for upcoming dance performances. But I think that the dance community is at the very early stages of figuring out the optimal way to use online video to motivate viewers to buy tickets.
I start with a number of questions:
- What does an ideal promotional dance video look like? Do you show clips from the stage performance that you are promoting or from dress rehearsals? Do you include interviews with choreographers and dancers? How long should these videos be? And what type of promotional pitch should be made in these videos. Do you know I have never seen a performance dance video that had a voice over or a talking head actually encouraging video viewers to buy tickets.
- How do you integrate these videos into your website along with the text descriptions of your upcoming performances? Overall, I think most dance websites do not do justice to the performances that they promote. For starters, I usually do not find sufficient information about a performance on a website to even make a decision about whether to go or not. So part of the issue, from a marketing perspective, doesn't pertain to videos. It's simply making written information about performances at least as accessible and comprehensive as a program guide that is distributed to audience members at performances. Then, the next issue is how to go about integrating video with these enhanced online descriptions.
- The next issue has to do with video quality. If you want to include excerpts from a performance or dress rehearsal, how do you go about shooting a video when the lighting conditions, for one, are optimized for a live audience and not video viewers? I've seen a lot of dance videos where the lighting and other production elements were fairly poor. So it's important to figure out how to create compelling videos given some of the technical and production challenges that may be faced.
- Finally, why should dancers and dance companies spend time and money on producing good quality, promotional videos for the Internet when they may not have any financial incentive to do so? I do not know too much about the contracts entered into between dance companies and presenters, but my guess is that dance companies usually do not generate extra revenue by helping to promote a performance unless they are presenting their own work. So if there is no financial motivation, how can a dance company justify spending extra time and money on producing good quality videos for the Internet? Are there new ways that dance companies and presenters can collaborate so good quality online video can be produced that might help attract larger audiences?
- And finally, finally, video challenges are compounded both by contractual and intellectual property issues. For dancers who are part of a union, the contracts between dancers and dance companies tend to impose many limitations on how video can be used for promotional purposes. Essentially, these restrictions are so limiting that, I think, dance companies, dancers and everybody else involved in dance productions lose out on using the Internet as a powerful marketing platform. Then, there are additional issues relating to intellectual property. Many people contribute to a performance. There are many questions about how each artist or group of artists gets properly compensated for artistic output when video of a production is made available online. You have the choreography, the dancers, lighting, set design, costumes and music - that's a lot of people and interests to take into consideration.
2) Sell dance Videos and Dance Instruction
Theoretically, there is a huge untapped market for the online sale of downloadable dance performance videos, video dance/dance on camera works, and dance instruction.
I'm optimistic that there must be a way for dancers, instructors, dance companies and video dance directors/producers to generate modest to significant revenue through online sales even if we have no proven models to follow at this time and nobody has made any money at this to date. Of course, I'm happy to be proven wrong if you have success stories to share.
The reason why I'm optimistic is because there is a huge Internet audience and dance videos can be sold very inexpensively in order to generate decent revenue. If you produce an appealing video and sell it for something like $2.99 a copy, revenue can add-up if you can figure out how to target the right audience.
What will be the big sellers? I'd guess the number one seller will be dance instruction videos - if they are effective at teaching students what they want/need to learn. I've looked at many dance instruction DVDs, and, almost across the board, I have not liked them. So a lot of thought has to be given to how to create instructional videos that beginning to advanced students will really benefit from. And they have to be priced so that first-time buyers, in particular, will be encouraged to make an impulse purchasing decision.
Now to tamper the optimism I just shared about selling performances and video dance productions. Will dance fans really buy these videos online? If more and more dance videos are made available for free on the Internet, why would people buy downloadable videos? I don't really have an answer to this question yet. I think we have to start by considering a number of different types of performances (including TV shows) to see what might sell. Are TV viewers going online and buying episodes of "Dancing with the Stars" - if they are available for sale? Would families buy downloadable versions of the "Nutcracker"? At what price would these videos sell?
On Google Video, I found some examples of dance videos that are available for sale. Take a look at "African Dance: Sand, Drum, and Shostakovich." You can watch a low-resolution version for free. A high-quality version is available for $19.95 and a day pass for the high-quality version is available for $9.95. I enjoyed watching the free version of this video. But why should I buy the high-quality one? Can I burn it to a DVD disk and watch it on my computer or TV? And if I can't, what's the motivation?
Even though I obviously don't know what will sell and not sell, I'm still surprised that video dance creators (also called dance on camera productions - I never know what to call these films) have not tried to sell their dance videos online. They already have the film or digital video versions of their work, which are often shown at dance film-specific festivals. So why not experiment with online sales to see if revenue can be generated? There are a number of e-commerce systems and it is not difficult to start selling digital work online. In the near future, I hope to explore various e-commerce options for digital video sales.
3) Creating Hybrid Sponsorship Revenue
One possible approach to increasing financial support from your larger corporate sponsors is to provide extended opportunities for online video exposure for these companies. This additional promotional opportunity would augment the coverage they already receive in program guides, from the stage and through traditional offline channels.
For example, if corporate sponsors are given recognition on your website, it is often in the form of short text descriptions and a corporate logo. I'm sure many companies would appreciate more exposure for their products and services, and they would like to share more background information about why they contribute to and support your programs.
The best way to provide this expanded coverage is through video. You could have a dedicated page on your website where visitors could learn about corporate supporters as well as watch videos of executives from these companies discussing why they support the performing arts and why they specifically contribute to your dance performances. This type of video would be compelling -- especially if it's done in a classy way that is not too promotional.
Once again I've never seen this done before. Most corporations have the resources to produce good quality videos and I'm sure they would be delighted to create such videos in which they discuss how they contribute to fostering the arts in their local communities.
So what I'm exploring in this section is whether financial contributions can be increased by providing supporters with enhanced multimedia opportunities to talk directly to your web visitors about how they support the arts. I think that there is a good chance this will work.
4) Using Video to Enhance Fundraising Efforts
There are an emerging crop of web-based applications that are designed to help not-for-profits generate contributions - often in small increments - from online donations.
You can read "How to Use the Internet for Group Fundraising," which provides links to a number of fundraising tools. [via NetSquared]
Another approach to online fundraising is to use your own account on PayPal or another service that makes it easy to process online payments. If you use PayPal instead of the applications listed in the above article, you don't have to pay a cut of contributed revenue to a third party. But these fundraising applications may be worth exploring if you think that they can help you reach a larger audience of potential donors.
I have come across some dance company websites that encourage visitors to make donations. Overall, I am not at all impressed with these solicitation efforts. If I did not otherwise know about the dance company, I would not make a contribution based on the provided information.
So I think that a first step to enhancing these online fundraising efforts is to consider adding video that features members of your dance company talking about your company, your upcoming performances, educational efforts, outreach initiatives and other activities as well as making specific requests for contributions. So far I have not seen video used in such a manner and I think it has the potential to be very helpful in increasing donations.
5) New Crop Video Applications Pay for Content
This suggestion may be a long-shot but it definitely points to an online trend.
On the Mashable, there is a December 14th post, "19 Ways to Make Social Sites Pay," that describes how content creators can get paid for their work by posting it to Web 2.0 applications.
The first part of this article, "Cash for Videos," explores which video hosting sites will pay for your videos. These video sites support a range of different financial models. Some will split advertising revenue. Others will pay a flat fee. And others will pay you based upon the number of views.
The big question is what type of interest is there in dance videos and what types of dance videos will prove to be the most popular - and thus most lucrative. Do you have to produce "An Evolution of Dance" video to generate revenue? Or, can other dance videos actually help you make money?
6) Jumping into User Generated Video
Instead of hosting videos on third-party sites in order to generate revenue, you can also host your videos and the video contributions of others to create a new revenue stream.
The latest hot trend on the Internet is the growth in the culture of participation and consumer generated media (CGM). Time Magazine recognized this trend by making their Person of the Year "You" - all of us, the power of everybody to contribute their own stories.
So if you are interested in creating opportunities for your website visitors to contribute their own stories and dance videos, there are ways to do this at no cost to you. Plus, you can generate revenue from this initiative as well.
The VideoEgg application allows users to edit and contribute video. You can create a customized version of VideoEgg that is accessible via your website so that users can contribute specific types of videos. VideoEgg than adds video ads to pay for this service and splits the ad revenue with you. You can read more about VideoEgg in a post "Behind the Scenes with VideoEgg" in The Next Net.
I see pros and cons with this VideoEgg revenue model. On the upside, you can enter the user-generated media revolution with no money and you can generate ad revenue at the same time. But on the downside, it does not appear that you have any control over what ads are played and how obtrusive these ads will be. I would find this approach more compelling if you had control over which ads played, how long the ads are and when the ads are played (pre-roll or post roll - before or after the videos run). Plus, it would be even better if there was a way to sell your own video ads and add them to the inventory as you choose.
7) The Future of Product Placement
Can dance harness the power of product placement in videos to create new revenue streams?
In October, ClickZ published an article, "Technology Enables Product Placement in CGM," (consumer generated media) that discusses a methodology for embedding links in videos - CGM videos. So, for example, you could be watching a music video and admire the shirt the lead singer is wearing. If the shirt is highlighted, you can click on it to be taken to an e-commerce site where you can learn about and buy the shirt of his back.
This ClickZ article specifically discusses Entertainment Media Works and an embedded product placement video technology called "plinking" (product linking). Unfortunately, there is just about no public description of "Plinking" on the Entertainment Media Works website - very strange.
So embedding product placement links in dance videos may not be around the corner, but it does strike me as offering intriguing possibilities when it does become mainstream. Advertisers need a way to move away from traditional advertising that many people just tune out. So the question is how do advertisers embed their products directly in entertainment content? This is exactly what sponsors have been doing with product placement in movies, TV shows and now computer games and virtual worlds.
Why not do it for dance where clothing and accessories seem like the most obvious possibilities for product placement? Take a look at the Hanes commercial featuring dancers from Momix. (Getting to this ad takes a little extra work because Hanes scrolls its ads across the screen too quickly. So you have to find the image of a dancer (I think there're two of them) and then click on the image to get to the ad.) These ads don't have embedded links. But I think it gives you an idea of what the possibilities might be. In an online video, Momix could be performing a dance wearing clothes from an advertiser. At any time you could click on any of the clothing items and purchase them in your choice of style and color. The dancers or dance company could receive a cut every time a purchase is made or simply receive a flat fee for the product placement.
8) Getting Booked by Presenters
There are presenter booking events where presenters and dance companies get together so that performing arts venues, dance festivals and others can meet with and book dance companies.
It seems to me that much of this process could move to the Internet if presenters could access better quality video of dance companies online. As things stand now, if I were a presenter I would not be able to make booking decisions via the web because of a lack of good quality video and the scarcity of video in general. I'd have to meet dance companies and/or their representatives face-to-face, and request DVD versions of their work.
I haven't spoken with presenters about what goes into the booking decision-making process, but I would like to know what they would want in terms of online video to help facilitate this process.
Maybe it would be beneficial if a password-protected site were created where presenters could access full-length, high-quality videos of the dance companies they were considering for possible bookings. This way dance companies would not have to make complete versions of their work available to the public. And presenters wouldn't have to spend a lot of time requesting DVDs from dance companies. How such an initiative would be supported from a financial standpoint, I'm not sure. But presenters and dance companies do spend money on attending presenter conferences and creating an online version would, overall, cost less money.
But as with most things, a combination of a password-protected website for previewing dance videos as well as an opportunity to meet face-to-face would probably be the optimal approach.
9) Dance Videos Go Mobile
What are the prospects for mobile video as it relates to dance?
Will students download dance instructions videos to their mobile devices? Will dancers in different cities download choreography to their cell phones in order to collaborate on dance works at a distance? Will dance fans watch dance performances on their iPods? Will anybody make any money at this?
I have absolutely no idea. But the wireless market for video is growing and there is a lot of hype about the possibilities. So, at some point, mobile phone users will start to create, distribute, sell and share all types of dance videos. The challenge, as always, will be to create an economic model that actually makes sense for dancers, instructors and dance companies or there won't be a lot of activity in the mobile video arena except for sharing and collaboration (non-revenue generating activities), which is not a bad thing.
As I write this, the only possibility that makes sense to me is that the dance videos that people do buy can be viewed on multiple platforms. So maybe I would buy dance instruction videos via my mobile device and then watch them on the small screen. But at any time, I could watch a better quality version of the same video on my PC or TV. I could not see buying dance videos that could only be played back on a mobile device - it would seem pointless to be limited to such a tiny screen.
10) Dance Video Aggregation and Distribution
I've always been intrigued by Brightcove, a video hosting and syndication service that enables video producers to create a TV-like station for the web. If you set-up a video channel on Brightcove, you can also use their ad network to generate revenue and bloggers and website owners can take your videos and place them on their own sites.
Mashable has a good article, "Brightcove Launches YouTube-Style Video Marketplace," that provides more background about this service.
About a month ago, I came across Dance Channel TV, a video site that uses the Brightcove infrastructure for hosting videos and selling pre-roll ads.
You can either access Dance Channel TV on its own website or you can watch the same video content directly on Brightcove.
If you go back to the Dance Channel TV site, you'll notice that dance videos are broken down by style and that ads run before each video. So far, except for the home page which runs an AOL ad, every time I visit a different channel I'm presented with the same Sheraton hotel ad, which I must have seen about 5 times by now. I'm guessing that Brightcove is not selling a lot of ads to run on its network or this would not have happened. I don't know all the details, but it appears that each time that an ad runs Dance Channel TV gets a cut.
There is also a "trailers" section of the site that appears to provide links to only YouTube dance videos. The YouTube videos are separate from the Brightcove video ad network.
I'm intrigued by Dance Channel TV, but I think that there are limitations with this site. First, there are very few videos. The video quality is not very good. And there is no background description about the uploaded videos or links to websites to learn more about the videos. Plus, I don't understand why creators of dance videos should upload their videos to this site. Why provide your own videos so that Dance Channel TV will generate revenue from ads while you will not get paid anything? But I do like the fact that using Brightcove, unlike VideoEgg above, Dance Channel TV can sell video ads directly to sponsors.
11) Licensing Choreography Online
For the past few months, I've been wondering if there is a way to create an online marketplace for the inexpensive licensing of dance choreography.
Except for a limited number of classic ballet and modern works and maybe some popular Broadway shows, there is very little licensing of dance choreography. (I'm guessing here a bit about what is actually licensed today - I have to learn more about this topic).
Why not create an online service where choreographers could upload videos of their work along with the types of licenses that are available for reproducing this work. A slight variation of this service would be that all choreography would first be evaluated to ensure that it met certain standards - however these standards are determined.
Then, dance companies, teachers (of children, teens and adults) and anybody else could search and review the choreography to find dance pieces that they wanted to produce. It would probably make sense for the video clips to be a couple of minutes in length to give a solid flavor for the work without giving everything away. If a person expressed interest in licensing the work, then they would be given full access to the video upon request.
The advantage with this type of licensing marketplace for dance choreography is that the fees are low so that anybody involved in dance can afford to license the choreography while choreographers and dance companies can generate an additional revenue stream.
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Posted by Doug Fox on December 18, 2006 07:04 AM
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