It is just over a week to go until the next EUFIC webinar on their pan-European research project into consumer behaviour and use of nutritional information on food labels.

So what has been the results so far? They have had almost 300 people register to listen on the 5th November.

The results of the September webinar have been amazing. As mentioned in an earlier post the 'listen again' using the recording of the live event has been listened to over 2600 times in just over a month. Considering we only had a specially invited audience of about 50 the post-broadcast version has been taken up fast, far and wide.

We are hoping with more people registering an interest the numbers listening after the event will be even higher.

Looking at budgets it means that cost per listener is now just over 70p. On some earlier podcast the cost has fallen to under the cost of a second class postage stamp. A great ROI.

Pictures of the camera and video mixing desk set up are on Flickr.

We had two crewed cameras and one locked off. The lock-off was a wide angle on the panel and off to the side. One of the operated ones focussed on the audience - using close ups as necessary - and the other did panel and audience close-ups. That way we were able to capture all the action with a mini crew of three. The third person was on the mixing desk switching between camera feeds and mixing and editing as they went along. The mixed feed was being recorded onto tape for later post-production editing and special effects. This meant that by early afternoon the next day the finished production could have been with the client.

Equally if they had wanted to they could have takedn the feed straight out onto the internet as a live webinar.

Corporations could use similar set-ups to capture team meetings and events where all employees would find it hard to attend.

The NHS are usinbg it as part of their public outreach and engagement programme. Not everyone could attend but now those that did not can see what happened and listen to both sides of the debate.

An interesting post on how a new company, Handbag Planet , used Twitter to promote their product and more inportantly engage with customers to help them as part of the launch promotion.

What I liked was the level of interaction and care that the online customer services person took and the fact that Twitter was being actively monitored to pick up on the customers initial frustration. This was done publicly and of course the satisfied customer would have told all their friends. As it was - the promotion rewarded 'friend recruitment' - in this case a negative situation was rescued, two sales were made and probably many extra visits (from customers friends) resulted. 

All I need to do is ensure my daughter does not discover the new site. At the last count she had over 30 bags. Can someone tell me why so many are needed?

As part of our ongoing video and communication services to the South Central NHS Trust Communication Group we have been asked to film the  Water Fluoridation Public Consultation programme that is happening in the Southampton area.

We initially produced an information video explaining the situation and possible action that could be taken. This was added to the NHS web site.

We have now been asked to film one of the public meetings in Southampton which is happening Monday 20th October. For details of the debate see the article from Dentistry.co.uk

On the 20th we will have a multi-camera crew with a vision mixer taking the feeds from the public meeting. A video editor/producer will mix the feeds in real time and so in effect reduce (or remove) the need for post-production editing. We do have the option to stream the whole event live to the internet but we are not doing it in this case. What we will do is produce the video from the event and help South Central to put it online for people to see who could not make the event. That way they can maximise the value of the event by increasing their outreach.

As we have seen from previous experience you can expect up to 20x the number who attended the event itself to watch the online version. This really starts to change the ROI calculations. For a public body like the NHS it is important that they maximise enagagement with the public to ensure that the consultation is as wide as possible.

It's Parents Week in the UK next week (October 20th - 26th) so it seems most apt to be launching a new internet TV channel - TV4Parents.

We are deep in planning the final details of the launch with the client. This is very much a community site with parents driving the content and acting as interviewers to the gurus and subject matter experts. The target is parents and carers of children aged up to 12.

The board of directors and advisors are ex-BBC childrens programming, educational specialists, medical professionals and people from the world of digital marketing and community building. The vision of supporting parents to help their children reach their full potential drives the editorial policy as does the interaction with parents for input on topics to cover.

Radio interviews are lined up from Monday 20th and there is a launch celebration on 23rd in London (e-mail me at adrian@tomorrowschild.co.uk if you want an invite)

The channel will launch with over 20 videos already available and be releasing them at the rate of 1 per week. Over time a large online video library will be available for parents to access for free. Each video will have supporting documents - hints, tips and advice - in a resources section. Parents will join the i-Parents Club to get free access to the documents.

In early focus group feedback parents were very clear that pre-roll and pop-up or in programme advertising was regarded as intrusive. Parents were happy to accept post-roll advisory and information type ads and programme or channel sponsorship so this is the model that will be used.

It has been great working with the TV4P team over the last few months as we completed the focus groups and field research and started planning and recording the programmes especially those directly involving kids.

(Disclosure: I am 'on secondment' from Focus while working as MD of TV4P for its development and launch phase. Focus are doing the web site build out and hosting of the video server)

We have now done 2 webinars for our client - the European Food Information Council (www.eufic.org).

A few months ago they asked us to help them with their communication outreach programmes. We have previously recorded a 2 day seminar for them and podcast that (almost 200 people attended the conference. Over 2k have listened to it since).

We have also podcast a number of round-table conferences and events for them. Over the last two years these podcasts have been listened to or watched by close on 50k people. That is big ROI in terms of numbers of people reached. Looking at all the project costs over that time the cost per listener is about £1 and of course is falling everytime a new person listens in. Now compare that to the costs of direct mail, newsletters or brochures or even a physical seminar!

What did we do?

We built them a customised webinar system so they could present to the world from their offices in Belgium (or anywhere with an VoIP or internet connection). They have a web based master control panel that they use to control the slides and talk into a microphone. Their 'desktop' and their audio line feed is fed into our studios in Southampton in real time and via us (we are recording it for later podcast) to a streaming server so anyone can listen and watch the slides at the same time via a web site. After it is over the recording is uploaded to a web site so that anyone who could not virtually attend live can listen whenever they want.

So what was the result of the last webinar?

We had a restricted invitation list and 48 people listened live. They were able to ask questions via an IM/e-mail button on the web site. The presenters read the questions to air and then answered them. We recorded the presentation and linked it to the PowerPoint slides. We also recorded the Q&A session. This was all then put on a microsite which we hosted but was linked through from the EUFIC site. (Check out the EUFIC link to listen to the webinar). The client notified a few e-mail lists but mainly it was left to 'word-of-mouth' marketing to promote the webinars availability.

The result? In just under three weeks a total of 889 people have listened in. That is an 18X multiple on the live audience.

Looking at the results of the Food In Action conference we did for EUFIC almost a year ago this result is very similar. For Food In Action we had just over 150 people physically attend the event. Over 2250 people have listeded to the podcast recordings of the 2 day event since. That is a 15x multiple.

Looking at all the webinar budgets the cost per 'listener' is just under £2.50. Everytime a new person listens this cost goes down! Compare that to the cost of organising a physical seminar or even doing direct mail or newsletters. Webinars are very cost effcetive.

So what does the client think?

They have just booked their next conference for November 5th!

They have also asked we look at creatively reducing the cost per person attending by another 20%. They do not want reduced budgets but more people listening!