Since we launched our first customers back in 2006, Brightcove has been part of a huge number of successful online video operations, which affords a unique perspective on what works and what can be done better. Brightcove's Pro Services VP, Eric Elia, blogged about some of the key themes and tips for success. Enjoy the read and hope to see you in the discussion.  

Here's an excerpt from Eric's post today:

Over the past few years we've watched online video businesses mature from the hey-kids-let's-post-some-videos phase to video playing a central role in an online business. In the first year of the video adoption curve, we find our customers focused on production, basic user experience and general setup. By the 18-month mark or sooner, we see three main themes emerge. This is fairly consistent -  be it an enterprise, government agency or media company. 

-- Audience Growth
-- Measurement 
-- Return on Investment  

Depending on the kind of company or organization, these themes manifest themselves in a lot of ways. Here in Pro Serv land, we spend a lot of time working with clients on features that support these themes. If you are reading this post, it's likely you're already thinking about a few of them. And if you aren't thinking about the things below, you're leaving traffic or revenue on the table. 

Click here to continue reading "10 Tips" in Brightcove's Professional Services blog.

-- Josh Hawkins

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Brightcove is delighted to have helped bring to life a rich community for HBO's recent hit show, Tell Me You Love Me. Check it out at HBOTellus.com.  Together with the HBO team, we helped design an experience that kept the dialogue going with the show's fans between each episode.

• a player that takes advantage of the deep customization capabilities of Brightcove templates
• Beautiful (nice encoding, HBO), large videos that recap each week's action through the eyes of several real couples
• Brightcove white-label consumer media submission widget
• Text-based comment system from JS-Kit

It's been gratifying to see such a rich community develop around the show. This was an ideal project to work on from the perspective of the new Services team here at Brightcove - combining superb programming with Brightcove tools, third-party technology, and a deeply branded user experience.

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Red Sox fans will love this collection of video that Boston.com has pulled together in a new customized Brightcove experience. Check it out here.

As a Boston-area company, it's a real treat for Brightcove to see something like this come to life on our hometown homepage. We're delighted that our friends, colleagues and neighbors get to see what we do every time they visit the site. The video below has been a big hit here in the Brightcove offices.

It looks like the Boston.com team took advantage of a cool Brightcove feature - they branded the "viral" player, putting their stamp on the video wherever it shows up on the net, such as blogs like this one. We'll be looking forward to seeing video continue to as an important part of Boston.com.

- Eric Elia

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Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive has unveiled a completely new, redesigned Newsweek website that is chuck full of ad-supported video programming and rich media experiences, all powered by Brightcove. The new site, which has migrated from MSNBC.com to a standalone Newsweek.com website, features a number of video players of different sizes, with email and "get link" distribution options, and a full-screen feature (designed and fully customized using Brightcove's developer APIs). The new site also includes homepage promotions, photo flips and interactive maps, which were created using Brightcove Storymaker - a rich media publishing product that enables non-technical producers create, update and maintain Flash media experiences and editorial content without having to know any scripting language or Flash programming. We are thrilled about the launch and excited to be chosen as the Internet TV platform for such as popular and well-respected news magazine.

Other WPNI properties using Brightcove include The Washington Post and Slate V.

-- Josh Hawkins

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A number of major media trade publishers have signed up with Brightcove recently to extend their magazine websites with original, ad-supported broadband video content. These publishers include Nielsen Business Media (Hollywood Reporter, Billboard Magazine), Crain Communications (AdAge), and Reed Business Information (Variety). Other online trade outlets, such as MediaPost and iMedia Connection, have also launched extensive video content on their websites, including conference keynotes, panels and interviews. It has been incredibly exciting to see these publishers use Internet video to open new revenue opportunities through broadband advertising, drive traffic to their websites using viral promotion and video sharing, and grow their online communities. Be sure to check out Billboard Magazine's "Music Maven" campaign. They are using Brightcove's consumer media capability to recruit video uploads from music fans about their favorite, or least favorite, bands, songs and albums.

Media trade publishers have joined the ranks of a large number of consumer magazine publishers using Brightcove for Internet video and rich media, including Time, Inc. (People, TIME), Hachette Filipacchi (ELLE, Car & Driver, Women's Day, Road & Track), Rodale (Men's Health, Runner's World, Bicycling, Prevention), Meredith (Better TV), Washingtonpost.Newsweek (Newsweek, Slate), Wine Spectator, and National Geographic.

-- Josh Hawkins

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Fox has just rolled out an all new Internet TV channel for their hit animated comedy series, Family Guy. Now you can access classic clips, musical numbers, and full episodes online. Brightcove's APIs were used to customize the look and feel of the Internet video experience, integrating the player into the official Family Guy website and giving the online community an exiting new opportunity to access the television programming. Stay tuned - lots more irreverent humor on the way.

Family Guy joins a fast growing list of Internet TV channels to launch with Brightcove under the company-wide agreement with Fox Entertainment Group announced earlier this year, which include Fuel, Speed, Big10 Network, America's Most Wanted, Fox Searchlight, and FX.

-- Josh Hawkins

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This week we are really pleased to be confirming a new deal and our second major signing with a leading European newspaper publisher, the Guardian News & Media, which publishes UK national newspapers the Guardian and the Observer as well as the Guardian Unlimited network of websites. The corporate-wide deal enables any of the Guardian Unlimited online properties to launch ad-supported broadband video channels using the Brightcove Internet TV service. The implementation will allow Guardian journalists and producers to create original, made-for-web programming. The programming will also be integrated contextually with news stories and features throughout the website.

-- Josh Hawkins

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We are excited to announce that TheStreet.com, Inc. the leading independent multimedia provider of business, investment and financial ratings content, has teamed up with Brightcove to launch a new Internet video player. From commentary and executive interviews to market updates and business strategy sessions, this new ad-supported broadband initiative will provide TheStreet.com TV viewers with an enhanced, engaging online video resource. We're thrilled TheStreet.com has chosen Brightcove as its Internet video partner. Click here to visit TheStreet.com TV.

-- Josh Hawkins

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Today we moved our consumer video guide from the Brightcove.com domain to Brightcove.TV.

The growth of the guide in the last 8 months has been great, and it’s helping to bring audience and awareness to Brightcove partners. We made the domain shift so we could separate the consumer video guide from our publishing partner marketing and communication. You also may notice that we updated the information in our corporate site.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the move.

-- Adam Berrey, vice president, marketing and strategy

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We are excited to announce that two Brightcove customers have recently received high-profile recognition for rich media experiences created with Brightcove StoryMaker.  With StoryMaker, non-technical producers can enhance websites and Internet video channels with interactive photo galleries, audio tours, interactive maps and quizzes.

Discover Communications used StoryMaker to create and maintain a multi-media website for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, "Race to Replace." The site has won an Emmy Award in the Sports category. 

Another Brightcove customer, MediaStorm, has picked up a Webby Award in the Magazine category along with nominations in the Broadband category. MediaStorm also produced Never Coming Home for Slate Magazine which was nominated for a Webby in the News/Documentary/Public Service category.

-- Josh Hawkins

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