What Video Player is This?

Below I will tell you my thoughts on the strategy, some times and cautions about its implementation... and at the bottom I tell you exactly what players are used in your two examples.

Many are using it for the first time and most of them have not likely split tested other strategies against it.

My first impression of this approach left me never wanting to watch another one again because the video was around 45 minutes long and at least 30 minutes of which was story/filler with no "get to the point" stuff... then I had to take a pee and when I returned I discovered the video had finished some sort of count down timer had expired an offer so I had no clue what was being offered which I had wasted so much time sitting around to find out... and the player would force me to watch again the half hour of fluff or more that I had already watched just to get to the end where a count down timer might pop up again with the offer button...

Fail... at least for me. And this is a permanent fail because I am now unwilling to sit through any presentation using this approach and have my time wasted... unless of course they hit me hard with something so compelling in the video that kept me glued hanging on every word...

But how many videos have you seen lately that have presenters, content and production quality powerful enough to accomplish that?

In an episode of the pitchmen Billy Mays turned down a 30 minute production with top celebrity appearances refusing to do it because he knew that a 2 minute to the point infomercial was the only way to sell the product.

If you have not watched the pitchmen I think it contains some great nuggets that can help anyone producing direct response video for the web:


I left to do something else and let it play hoping to catch the offer at the end it counted down and expired while I was away leaving me with the prospect of sitting through the original 30-45 minutes of boring time wasting unnecessary story that I had already sat through which was not a very desirable option.

The approach those videos are using was recently promoted in Keith Wellman's easy sales formula that couples a player with other features like count down offer etc.

Count down timers on offers to simulate urgency is now prohibited by Visa and MasterCard due to recent changes in merchant account provider processing policies pushed forth by the card brands:

Some of the technology concept is interesting but just be cautioned to do your own testing... ie split testing against other methods before just assuming because you see big names using it its the gospel ;-)

Just because someone says "I made this much $$ using it" does not mean that they have split tested against other methods and does not mean that they have tested in your specific market and strategy.

There are too many variables involved to assume its viability in all situations so be careful.

If all you are looking for is a player that can hide controls and show an offer only after a video is viewed...

My own Transparent Player can display a player with no controls and trigger the offer to appear only after the video is completed as well.

However, in the case of the two examples you provided above...

You can find out what player they use easily.

Just right click right on the video and it says.

The first example link you posted uses JW Player and maybe some custom scripting... I did not hang around long enough to find out.

The second example link you posted uses EZS3.

Yes I do agree with JOSH.

In my opinion too it is a failure method to hide the controls of a player. I dont like to Load or Play any video that doesn't let me to control it.

Yep I think that they should be banned or I suppose that I could just close the page :-) that would do it.

Hi Josh

The aim of removing the player toolbar is to stop viewers skipping key parts of the presentation (Ryan asked me to specifically develop it for this purpose)

As Derek pointed out at the start of the thread, you can pause playback and re-start, by simply clicking in the video frame

Regards

TomC