He might have a “face for radio,” but John Smith, producer and owner of Media Resources also has an eye for video. Smith’s Colorado-based company specializes in producing video presentations that capture the very essence of a resort, allowing the property to “speak for itself.” These videos are featured on the resort’s website, as well as on Media Resources’ www.OutToFind.com.
“Media Resources was founded in 1982, and early on I had worked in radio and really saw the need for a service that would provide quality video marketing production,” said Smith. “We fortunately were in a market that a large portion of the outside revenue coming in was from tourism. So I like being a tourist, I love going on vacation, and our first customers happened to be in the resort industry.”
John says one thing he was able to bring to the table almost immediately was the fact that he never thought solely in terms of just producing great art. “What I looked for was the commerce side of it. I think great art is fine. It should be a part of the package no matter who you retain if you are thinking of doing a video. But I think you really need to be sure the person who is orchestrating your presentation has a firm eye on the fact that this needs to accomplish something, “Smith continued.
“I see a lot of videos today that are well shot and crafted, but it’s almost like the person doing the video was doing it to impress somebody else in the video business instead of looking at what the return will be,” said Smith. “I really think that in a lot of cases the working title of the video presentations as far as the marketing goes should be along the lines of ‘You don’t want no resort experience today do you?’ And I think the biggest mistake a lot of people make is that they are really good at asking for a call to action at the closing table, or however you are consummating the arrangement between you and your client. But there’s no call to action in the video.”
Smith says he approaches the business a little differently. “It has served us well over the years to make sure that the sales aspect is a part of your video presentation, and that the video really should drive people toward an action. And in this case what we are looking for is getting people to book a vacation, book a tour, or whatever the needs are for respective clients,” said Smith.
Media Resources has been producing web video for about 10 years now. “One of the things we looked at was, doing videos for clients, how could we do a better job of helping the client get the most return out of the video? What I found was that although we were doing the best job we conceivably could – and again factor in all the sales things that need to be in one of these videos – the video would be turned over to someone in the IT department and it would just get slapped up on the website,” said Smith. “In some cases the video would get totally buried, and in other cases the IT person would just compress it down to the size of a postage stamp.”
John tells us that the OutToFind.com concept is basically built around doing a better job on his end to assist clients in doing a better job on their end. “We cast an extremely large net to go after people that may not be, on a one to one basis, worth the time or effort for the individual client. But, I don’t think there are many people out there that we’ve worked with that would turn down traffic. So OutToFind.com is really a destination for a person who likes to vacation, and for people who would just like to sit down in the comfort of their home and computer, maybe at lunch while brown bagging it, and go on three to five minute vacations,” said Smith.
OutToFind.com features several categories. “So if the viewer is into historical travel for instance, how does that help the resort operator? If the property happens to be close to a historical destination, and you happen to be on OutToFind.com, choosing your resort is an easy decision for the viewer. So in an Orbitz business model, if someone goes there they are going in because they have a date certain that they’re leaving, date certain they’re returning,” said John. “So for the most part they’re shopping price, as well as a certain amount of convenience.”
Media Resources provides streaming video and they work with IT departments, but John says he emphasizes that the most important placement for a client is at their website. “Working to make sure the video is done correctly and above the fold is very important. When somebody visits the resort’s website they can get a lot more than just here are the particulars and here is what a room looks like. High quality video really gets people’s juices flowing because they were able to step on the property.”
An eye for video
