Episode #22 – Feat. Vinit Mehta, Head of Sales, Indian SC, Brightcove
Here’s Pranav, co-founder at guch speaking to Vinit.
Pranav Chimulkar: Hey guys, welcome to the Mad Over Videos podcast by guch. On today’s episode, we will be joined by Vinit Mehta from Brightcove, who is the head of sales for the Indian subcontinent. Brightcove, for those who do not know, is a video tech company, which boasts of a family of products, from encoding to delivery of produce. That has revolutionized, how over 6000 companies deliver video experiences to their consumers. And I think before we get into anything, I think, we need to introduce him. So I expect to add Vinit to the screen. And please welcome.
Vinit Mehta: Hey guys. Thank you Pranav for having me on the show. You know, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Pranav Chimulkar: Thank you so much for joining us. It’s a pleasure to have you on because Brightcove, as a company has been in existence for about what 14-15-16 years, I guess. Yes, and it has very closely seen the evolution of audio and video tech, as we know it today. So it’s really great to have someone from a company like that, to discuss these points and for the benefit of all of our audience, to sort of touch upon various use cases, and also share some of the stats like that you guys have dug up from I think numerous data points I can collect from work. I think you boast up about 6000 plus customers. So I think the usage is that much and a source like that is so powerful when it comes to taking out trends, right. So, before session Vinit, I’d like you to give us a short introduction about you and your background. And then tell me a little bit about your current role and practice.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. So I have been a startup entrepreneur. So the first, I would say 10 years of my career was spent in different entrepreneurial roles. In the US, I co-founded our e-commerce company, where we were selling gemstone jewelry on the internet. And this was the early days of the e-commerce era in the US, starting in 2004, up to 2008 when I moved back to India, and I’m still a shareholder of that company. And, it was in New York City, a fantastic learning experience. Being in the Big Apple, and being a co-founder of a startup. Post that in India, I have also born different entrepreneurial roles. Being in New York City, we saw the tablets and taxis and how the computers were being engaged by content and advertisements and, location-based services for people on the move. And we thought we would do something similar in India, and we co-founded, a couple of companies with consulting element of the technologies, I exited both the companies successfully and we joined KPIT, which is a company famous for building infotainment systems and doing a lot of work in manufacturing, on the IT side. And there we built out a streaming service to entertain passengers who are commuting between cities across India. So the idea was that people will enter a bus, be able to switch on their cell phone, connect to the local wi-fi in the bus and watch content, and then get rewarded. And there are a whole bunch of resources around that, including showing advertisements. So sort of saw the evolution of e-commerce in the early days from an ad tech entrepreneur in India, to actually working for a large public company in KPIT. And building out a system for 17,000 buses. So we have become the first largest offline system for streaming content and the focus on the word offline. So you know, a lot of things were similar to online, but you know, it’s people who are very conscious of using data. And then in 2016, as we all know, the world changed, right? We saw the advent of, Jio and bandwidth costs crashing. You know, it’s a very interesting and exciting story. And early 2017 is when I was hired to kick start the India operations for Brightcove in Mumbai, so I’m based in the city of Mumbai, in India. And, yeah, so since then, it’s been close to four years, a very exciting journey. We’ve grown the business from, three customers when I joined to close to 40. Today, you know, build out a very good team across Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai. And we are excited to be part of the video journey of the customers in India across the board from, you know, OTT to enterprises, to brands to e-commerce companies, e-learning organizations. And now we are seeing events explode. So exciting times.
Pranav Chimulkar: Exactly. But but one of the important statistics that you missed out, there was the growth in ARR, that you are responsible for being the head of sales. So please, please share that figure as well.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, so I must thank, the bandwidth cost reduction was a big role to play. So I must give credit there as well. But yeah, we’ve done our job. I think we focus on building very good relationships with customers that we have. The first customer that I closed after joining the India team was Republic and it was just starting out. And, shout out to Arnab Goswami. You know, most people might not agree with the journalism but all the digital streaming is powered by Brightcove.
Pranav Chimulkar: Nice. I know, now, this question might sound like, a little ordinary, because it’s quite obvious that you’ve spent over 17 plus years in your journey. But I still go ahead and ask this question. Like, why is Vinit Mad Over Videos?
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, man, I mean, it’s a good question. I’ve seen you know, video from the early days of streaming, right. I’ve seen the evolution of video, and I’ve seen how it gets people excited. There’s an emotional aspect to videos, which is not possible to have a text or image. I’ve seen video touch lives in ways that people might not think of. For example, video today is being used or was being used also, but today it’s being used more and more for your healthcare, for example, you know, it’s being used to send messages to your loved ones. And clearly, you know, video is what gets us hooked, you know, cinema, and media, and entertainment is video, right? So it touches on the what, what gets me excited, is that I get the opportunity to touch lives, in ways that I would not have been able to otherwise. So I think video plays a critical role in in the excitement and the emotion of a human being. And that’s what’s really interesting and exciting.
Pranav Chimulkar: Absolutely. I’d like to talk about the evolution of video tech, from the times where I think goes back to the time in the first video was created, and the first maybe the first Hollywood film that came out, back in the days when you needed so many people to operate one camera to today, like, such a powerful tool, in the form of your smartphone is in your pocket. From the times when the delivery of content was only on mass media channels to today, you see personalized videos, and the experience that you might be getting would be totally different from the person sitting besides. Today, children are like I think I’ve seen Gen Z being born with a smartphone and a tablet in their hand. What has been the journey like from those times to today?
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, so you know, if I focus on say the online video streaming part of the story, the Internet was only the age of the online video world. So if I jog back, I’ve been hearing these stories from folks in the video tech industry in Brightcove and outside. So in 2004, when Brightcove was founded, it was primarily a flash world, right? The video tech industry was primarily architected, on flash-based technology. And Jeremy Allaire, who’s the founder of Brightcove, his vision was that video should be as simple to use as turning the page of a book. That was the vision, back in 2004. And, clearly, we have a long way. And today, Brightcove is looked up to as the innovator of choice, as the pioneer in the video space, so on and so forth. But back then he had the vision that the world is going to move towards web technologies or the HTML-ization of the world, so to say, and he saw that coming. And so he architected a video tech stack based on HTML, and web technologies and not on flash, right? So he was a proponent of flash, but then he architected it based on HTML and web technologies streaming. And that’s how the journey of Brightcove started. So to think about it is one year before YouTube, right so it’s literally, you know, and we have this thing internally that a few days or months in the video wall is like a year in any other industry. That’s how fast things are moving and turning. Different technologies, different operating systems, different devices, different internet connections, different audiences, so on and so forth. It’s exploding. So that’s where it started. It’s come a long way since then, and today, companies like Brightcove focusing on improving the economics and experience of video delivery. The things that are in video or, the user experience, the video should be fast, right? So we are laser-focused on making sure the video player is lightning fast and light. And second, with the economics, right. So the economics of consuming the content as well as for the content owner to deliver the content should make sense. Video, it has now become a business, right? So early days, it was the hobbyist trying to tinker with different things. And now, slowly over the last 5,6,7, and 8 years, as OTT and media entertainment explodes, the video has become mainstream. Video has become a thing. Right? So, you know, the economics of it has to make sense. So that’s what companies like Brightcove are trying to improve and impact significantly, by reducing the cost of delivery in different ways.
Pranav Chimulkar: Absolutely. Yeah. Like you said, this has been the process and the journey for the rest of the world. But India was late to the game. I remember, we’ve always been one generation behind when it comes to mobile data as well. And everything actually changed about four and a half years ago when Jio entered. Like it hit us. Right? It was the largest, I think, after the white revolution, this was the next big revolution that India saw. Everybody knows that we can attribute the success of a lot of digital first companies and brands today to revolution like that. But I think you guys have been seeing this from close quarters. What do you have to say about that? When Jio entered?
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, I mean, it was like, turning on a big lightbulb. And it was like one of the eureka moments I think for us in the video tech space. Clearly the opportunity starting almost from scratch. You know, the opportunities are immense across the board. You have YouTube but then you have the likes of Ico, etc. Where you have white label technologies, which can be utilized by companies so that the tech looks like say, Sony’s or say looks like it’s Manoramas, but it’s actually brightcove providing the tech but this is white label technology. So the opportunity was immense. We were starting from scratch almost. And, video is today everywhere, but it’s taken taken a while for different industries to fall in line, right. So he saw Hotstar launch in 2016. And that got on, thanks to cricket and the IPL. And then you have the likes of the other media companies such as, Zee and you know, Alt Balaji, the smaller guys and everyone come together. And when you saw obviously Netflix and Amazon Prime, the big guys from outside come in. And then so from a brighter perspective, we were trying to equip the other companies who were not as fortunate as, say, a Hotstar or a zee5, enable them to enter the OTT race or enable them to enter the E-learning race or enable them to enter the e-commerce race and use video, innovatively and effectively. So I think overall, the journey is that every few months we are seeing the intensifying of the video and so far with the last six months with COVID. We have seen that and we keep we kept saying this two years ago, you know that this is the year where it is tipping point. But now I think this point in time that we see in history will go back as the space of the point in time where it’s the revolution of video delivery and the video consumption is probably the biggest revolution since the advent of the color television. In terms of video becoming so mainstream, and if I say that, from primarily India’s point of view in video has become so mainstream, whether it’s work from home, whether it’s kids, whether it’s grandparents, whether it’s your parents, you know, it’s across generations, and across, enterprises brands, it’s becoming such a important part or important part of our own fabric as Indians that it’s something that we cannot ignore. And so I think each journey has been very interesting. You know, Jio started it. But every year, we have seen the growth to be 2x, 3x, and 4x and over the last six months, we have seen the growth faster. Right?
Pranav Chimulkar: Right, because you’ve touched upon OTT, I’d like to dive a little bit into that. The adoption was slow when they launched right? I think it’s been about four years. And it was always seen as a optional platform to consume your content. Because Indian families typically get hooked on to the daily soaps that they are used to watching on television. Same goes for matches, we can think of cricket matches, where the television was always an integral part of that experience. And I think if you go a little back in the day, when you had the Dish TV antennas that you had to climb and, rotate to ensure that you’ve got the signal, right? Yeah, I think even the content creators and the providers, the broadcasters have been also seeing this change pretty late. And especially in the last few months, right? This time, say for example, if you take the Indian Premier League that happened, I think a lot more people watched it on hotstar than on television, because again, of certain policy changes that you had to now purchase your TV channels separately. And those kinds of things that happened also led to people migrating from television to these digital platforms, right?
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. No, I think that’s a good point. Essentially, what we see is that, there is a piece of content online for every audience. I think what also happened is that, over the years, we had people experimenting with different types of content for different audiences. You obviously had the millennials who would took to this medium very easily, because they wanted the convenience of watching what they want to watch, when they want to watch, in their own privacy, maybe not along with their parents. And so on and so forth. But over the last one year, I think I’m seeing this trend emerge where we are seeing data points that people are watching content starting at 7am on their mobile phones, right?
Pranav Chimulkar: I think people were watching the Game of Thrones episodes. Haha!
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, it’s like you know, they’re watching GOT or you’re watching the latest soap opera. So 7am to 7pm is when we are seeing all this content consumption happened obviously, nighttime consumption, all that and now because of COVID this is all going to be the norm going forward. I think we are seeing this as work from home and as flexibilities of the working life also evolve and adapt. The consumption patterns are 24/7. That’s the other big thing, right? So I think two or three things. One is from a content owner a broadcaster point of view, the big change that happened is I had to think, like a b2c company overnight. I was already thinking like a b2b organization, where I would worry about the carriage fees, worry about the DTH providers worry about the advertisers. And that’s about it. I wouldn’t worry about a turnover, right. today. If I were to launch an OTT platform, I need to know who Pranav is. Who Vinit is, what are the demographics? What are they watching? What did they watch last? How do I personalize the content? How do I include a recommendation engine? Right, I want to talk about personalization and recommendation engines, you got to start talking about AI. Right. So all these concepts, which were alien, to some of the broadcaster’s because you know, they were getting disrupted overnight. So that is the other change that is happening. In fact, that change continues till today. It’s going to take two or three years more for steady state to happen. So a lot of the role that brightcove and myself plays the role of a trusted advisor, where we guide our customers and prospects who might not know about what all OTT or video contains, and then hold their hand to show them the light saying that- this is how you got to change your thinking.
Pranav Chimulkar: I think you were also mentioning the last time we chatted about one of your customers, that is Fish flicks, it’s become so easy to start your own OTT, in a niche that you’re passionate about, please tell me more about it.
Vinit Mehta: That was one of my favorite stories when I joined Brightcove. So Fishflicks is an Australian company, that is essentially an E learning platform for fishing. And that’s it, all they do is teach. And you know, being an Indian, maybe I was a little naive to know that okay, fishing can have such a strong following, right. And they are paying subscribers who are paying decent money every month to see videos and learn different techniques about fishing. They have these fishing in a lake versus fishing in a pond versus fishing in a remote versus fishing in an orchard versus fishing different rods different techniques. The winds blow in this direction, you go do this, you do that, and it was so exciting for me to see that a business can be actually made over video in such area as you say. So, that tells me that, for budding entrepreneurs in India, you know, e-learning is exploding sure, but, even within e-learning, there is so much more that can be done. In terms of you know, hobbies are beyond just academics, there is so much more that can be done and communicated and taught to the world in terms of using video in unique ways. So, you know, fixes are one example there are several others, which we can talk about, but the video use cases what what gets me really excited also pranaam is that the amount of video use cases that are emerging is just insane. Do you have your content, commerce becomes a thing, we see this thing in China where you have these live streaming stars, who are selling products, everything from flowers to mobile phones on a live stream. So effectively whether the use is people can actually interact also with that particular seller, and they have a fan following right. So I think now Instagram is doing this with their particular effort. And I know that they also are getting into now the whole commerce angle, but I think eventually and if I were to look at say 3, 4, 5 years down the line, the next evolution for the likes of even the Indian OTT or Netflix, etc, will be the merging of content and commerce. Tomorrow, you could be like saying amazon prime is an extension of an e-commerce company, right. So similarly, Netflix will try or the other oddities could potentially try and complete the loop of the user journey by offering products and services as part of the same platform, right? So what I wanted to comment on is very exciting.
Pranav Chimulkar: Correct. And I think a lot of these companies have been trying to solve this problem for a long time. I think Instagram has not successfully cracked it to date. I mean, I just read an article that they’re still working on it. And one of the recent updates said that we will very soon see a version where you’ll be able to buy products of the influencers’ post. But then I also remember that this has been a problem that a lot of people have gotten attracted to, like entrepreneurs, especially, I remember one of the episodes of Shark tank that is watching this founder come and pitch her product, which was, again, a content platform. Again, there was very little differentiation, compared to Instagram per se, but her main thing is that she made a statement very poorly saying that, it’s going to take Instagram, a lot of time to figure this out. And I’ve already built it. Unfortunately, she was not able to raise the money that she was looking to raise. But then I think this has been on the minds of a lot of entrepreneurs, but it makes it complete the loop like you said when you’re induced in that content, and sometimes you get so connected, and I will wear what that person is wearing, or I want to buy, what is there in that frame. And that looks great. So I think it didn’t make sense, an obvious choice to go after commerce and content.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. So I think you’re going after the commerce is something that I think will come to India, we already see the emergence and the sort of proliferation of short-form apps, short-form content apps, you have the global guys like now with the ban of Tic Tok. Right, you have some of the Indian players coming up. You know, I think Roscoe dramas, a company is coming out with a short-form content app. There’s Zee5 app, which is also short-form content, and a bunch of other startups. Right. So now MX also has, yeah, so MX has and the daily hunt has, so I think everyone’s trying to tap into this impulse buy, or this generation who are doing this, right, it’s about the combo, but right, and this sort of significant amount of things, in terms of the psyche of the person, and the kind of audience that the short-form content guys are going after. And these habits are also evolving, right? So sort of people who have grown up over the last, say, seven to eight years will take some a lot easier. But there are other people who also are seeing this around them. And they’re like, we don’t want to be, we don’t want to miss out on this, on this craze of short-form content. So let me download the app just to see what it’s like. And then you know, the excitement will be when those apps will have some sort of a commerce angle to it beyond ads, right? Because sure, you can have branded content, you can have sponsorships, you can have a 10-second video of an ad, but the real fun will be you know, when you can actually have influencers, like China, where you can actually interact and buy stuff. So that is a very exciting space to be in India. I just saw an article recently that Amazon is doing something similar in the US similar to what was happening with you know, Taobao and these guys in China. So, I think the US in some ways, a little late to the party, I think China was, what the pioneers and versus now catching onto it. Instagram’s trying it, Amazon’s trying it for it too. Imagine that the same logic and the same experience in terms of content, commerce will come to India.
Pranav Chimulkar: I think we’ve spoken enough about media and entertainment as space, so I’d like to go a little bit towards enterprise again, that also constitutes a large part of your customer base. So if you could walk us through a few of the cases that we’ve picked before that also touch upon common use cases of videos, right? It being awareness, or engagement or conversion, or advocacy. I think every brand today has to produce videos in different verticals and for different business outcomes that unlike the times where there’s a random say, Okay, if I had to create a video, it’s going to be that one video which either goes on the homepage of my website or as a TV commercial? Gonna those days and you possibly need business videos for every point in the customer journey?
Vinit Mehta: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know we power a lot of enterprises. I think a large percentage of the Fortune 500 companies are using Brightcove in some form or the other in the US. So enterprise video streaming, I would break it up into two parts. One is for internal communication. And the second is for external communication. For internal communication. Obviously, you have your, CEO townhalls, your employee onboarding, through video training through videos. There are some use cases emerging of HR teams using video resumes. That’s a very hot trend that’s going to happen soon. I think we are seeing a few companies where people, instead of sending it as you may know what doc, would just send clipping for two or three minutes about themselves. So it puts emotion and a face to the person that’s posing for a video use case you have employee-generated content. So there are some large IT giants who have their internal TV channels, where they are creating knowledge-sharing networks through video. Seeing that emerge as a strong thing, we have obviously virtual events, right. So because of Covid, all the events are moved online. The likes of Brightcove, zoom, etc. are playing a critical role in helping extremely large organizations manage their events, manage attendees efficiently, and online through a video.
Pranav Chimulkar: Yeah, yeah.
Vinit Mehta: And then for the external video streaming use case, marketing obviously is the strongest thing for video right in terms of external streaming use case. So you have your awareness, your engagement, your conversion, your advocacy, different stages of the video, journey. So my awareness point of view, they are, educational and brand videos, engagement, this product, and explainer videos. Conversion is your customer videos, some testimonials, advocacy, how-to videos, and UGC or user-generated content. So, that’s the use case for marketing. Now, we are seeing an interesting use case overlapping a little bit with content to commerce, but we see retailers and e-tailers use video to help increase conversion. So we have a very interesting use case of myntra, which is part of the Flipkart group and owned by Walmart, in Sydney, myntra and Walmart, both are customers of Brightcove. So myntra uses 20-seconds videos of the product on their product detail page to showcase the intricacies of the product, and that has helped them increase conversions, as well as reduce returns. Yeah, you have a video to show right.
Pranav Chimulkar: I mean, I like to play that video, like you mentioned before we get to discuss the use case and outcome that they were able to generate.
https://www.myntra.com/sports-shoes/adidas/adidas-men-black-solid-puaro-running-shoes/10394131/buy
Yeah, so I think typically when you land on the product page of any commerce, we’ve been used to seeing product images been taken in different angles, by product companies and then myntra and Amazon together or maybe with Flipkart constitute a large part of the business to those kinds of companies. But today I think we are seeing this adoption of video in this use case. So I if you could just tell me, how different are the conversion rates? How far apart are business outcomes they’ve seen after they have a video and in their product pages?
Vinit Mehta: Sure, so, without giving too much of the sensitive information away, I will say that the conversion rates have doubled in a few cases. And in a few cases, they have maintained the status quo. Maybe because of the video, you can see the product in action a lot better. So, it could work where you say, okay, I don’t particularly like this, because of this particular reason. So there are categories where the video usage has doubled the conversions, and also categories, fewer categories, not too many, but a few categories where it’s been status code. So a lot of the e-commerce folks need to do strong AB testing, with a wide variety of audiences to actually arrive at data to show that the video is working for a specific set of skills or expect a specific type of product. So for example, for jeans and shoes, video works really well, right, because you see the jeans, you see the texture shoes, as you saw the video you played, you can see the different angles, again, see the texture, as you have different viewpoints.
Pranav Chimulkar: Also, like a lot of times, and then since you mentioned shoes again. Because being into sports, I understand how the difference in the sole of the shoe can pack your game, right, and often buy the shoe online, it’s very difficult to understand the competition and things like that, the kind of comfort that you can get. But when you say that, I mean, if you see it in a 3D model image, I think that is not something that I would be confident of making a purchase. But then our live video would definitely make sense.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. So in e-commerce, the length of the video is also very important. I think what you show is important, and also the length of the video. I think anything more than 15 to 17 seconds, and you know, the people will just bounce. So, but I think the conversion rates have been very good. Overall, plus the returns are reduced. So, the people who tend to buy online, especially the fashion part online, there’s a tendency that you’re not sure, right? Sometimes you’re not sure, you want to try it on and see how it feels except, you know, slip it on and see how the shoe feels. Is it functional or not, I guess, but we see these interesting scenarios, where the returns have reduced have of products that have a video on them.
Pranav Chimulkar: Yeah, so I mean, this is one example. I mean, if you go deeper into this, I think if I see a person have the same body shape as mine, I’d be more confident of making an apparel purchase. But I think currently from what we’ve seen, eCommerce is just put out one video, but I think it can go to the extent where they show different sizes on different models, again, they could have multiple videos like that, etc. Again, that will increase the confidence level of the buyer who’s on that product page. As you said, it could look different when it is short on a white background, but when a person wears it, and if I can identify another person with a similar body shape like mine, and that will be much more, I think, reassuring for me to go ahead and click the Buy option.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, that’s a good idea. That’s a good idea. We will take that idea back to Myntra man, that’s a good one.
Pranav Chimulkar: I hope I’ll get the royalty. But understanding how videos can help you make a decision, I want to go to the next case, which is Home Depot. Say, for example, let us focus on one of the categories, say a vacuum cleaner. Again, there are different types of vacuum cleaners in the market, from the ones which are handed to the ones which like touch the ground and you have a long handle to it to the robotic ones. There are so many and often as a consumer, how do I know which one suits my needs. So I think creating content which is helpful, major and informative, in order to make that decision is something very important. And Home Depot has done it really well. I like to play the video and then.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, sure.
Pranav Chimulkar: Yeah Vinit, Please tell me how Home Depot would have benefited by putting out a simple video like this. This is a very basic video.
Vinit Mehta: This is a very exciting use case. I mean, essentially, you know what Home Depot sells, right? They sell Home Improvement tools. So it’s your neighborhood hardware store. But Home Depot has the branding behind it. Also stores etc. So, it’s a very dry subject, right. When you are buying a vacuum or buying a screwdriver or buying a power tool, it’s dry, right? And so they have added this element of excitement, engagement storytelling, with music, right? You saw the video sort of engaged, it immediately hooked on to you immediately, there were music behind it very good production values. So, it’s like, when I look at a vacuum, I look at a vacuum, I know it does its job, but then sort of I dig deeper, there are so many layers to it. And as you said, similarly, if I have a power tool or something to fix something in the house, maybe it’s paint, or maybe it’s a paintbrush, but how do I use it, right? So they actually will do a 15-second video or a second video, and show you how that tool will be used to create something or fix something or do something better. Now, it really impacts the buying process, because I would look at what this tool does. And this might not make sense for me. But this tool, if I buy this tool on top of that and do it together, I can create magic. So I think the use is it’s a DIY kind of environment where, unlike India, the labor is slightly expensive there. Right, so it’s a DIY store. So videos are a very crucial part of the Home Depot selling process. And I think over the last few months, because of COVID people are increasingly turning to the Home Depot website and the e-commerce site to transact versus where you’re going to a store. So it’s one of my favorite stories, actually, in terms of how video is being used by someone like Home Depot.
Pranav Chimulkar: Make sense! I think as you said, it also lets you cross-sell and upsell a lot of products there. And even if I’m on the fence, putting myself in the shoes of a right buyer on that beach, I’m not a hundred percent sure whether I need to make that purchase or not, I might identify a certain use case, while the demo video could be showing a lot of things, I might identify a use case, which I might have not thought of, and then say that hey, this is going to make my life much easier. Let me know.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely!
Pranav Chimulkar: So I mean, I love this use case. But again, these are again, brands that have traditionally or not even brands, other categories have known or been known to invest in videos, right from the types of Telly brands right. But what is very interesting is the next use case, and that is a company called Xero. It is happy to be accounting SAS software. Again, traditionally, if you look at b2b videos, they are either animation in nature, like you see the 2d animated characters, like demonstrating, and what can be done through product features, etc. But very few brands out there really push the boundaries of storytelling when it comes to the b2b space. And again, Xero has been, I think one of those bands who have done it really well again, have watched a bunch of their commercials. Some of them were produced by this production, like a creative agency called sandwich. Adam Lisagor is the CEO and founder of sandwich again, somebody who’s known to be the face of like commercials featuring tech products in the US, right? It’s got some magic in him that attracts like a lot of tech companies, whether it is the Bay Area or otherwise, to come to sandwich to get their commercials short. And again, it’s great storytelling, it’s the high production value, the post of shooting the commercial in the same equipment as your favorite Hollywood movie shot again, some being in LA will have access to those production crews as well. So I think it is beautiful. I like to play a video and then maybe you can talk me through that!
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely!
Awesome video.
Pranav Chimulkar: Yeah. So what do you like about their approach? And I think this approach, I mean, typically trickles down to the leadership, right from the leadership, it has to do with somebody who’s passionate about investing in producing, right. Like I said, typically these videos, if you go to the website of sandwich, and you go to the About Us section, and this was, I think one version prior to their current website, and they had put out an average figure of $150,000 for the production cost of one commission. So, it is quite some money. But then I think you need that kind of commitment to go ahead with something next.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, I think what I like about Xero is, one of my top three favorites, you’ve already played Home Depot. And the Brightcove team in Sydney, who I know pretty well, are the ones who got Xero on board as a company headquartered in New Zealand. It’s a b2b accountancy software. And they only use video, to sell and to market. And they use video across the marketing and customer lifecycle journey very effectively, as you can see, but I think what’s also very exciting about them is that they use data behind the video to engage and re-engage their customer base. So they’ll have different campaigns running on their website, running on email, which has video. And then they’ll create personas of the user’s basis, the kind of videos that they have watched, to know what kind of products that that particular prospect, I’d be interested to purchase. Right? So and then basis that persona, engage that person with the right pitch, right. So it’s not like spray and prays, there is a total method to the madness. Sure, the production values are high. But if you dig deeper, I think they utilize the data behind the video very, very effectively. So they actually integrate the data from the video into a marketing automation platform or a map, right, and also a CRM. So they will actually keep track of the entire life cycle. So they will know Okay, Pranav has watched these videos, these genres, this is the kind of user Pranav is, you know, so, I mean, that’s very powerful information. Yeah, just beyond you know, when you look at a video, a video is just a piece of video. But when you dig deeper, and, turn the layers, remove the layers out, and look deeper, there is powerful information that marketers, as well as CEOs of these companies, use effectively.
Pranav Chimulkar: Yeah, I think I’ve got this question a lot of times, in meetings with brands, while I was pitching creative to a few of them, I’ve always got this question is, how do you define the ROI behind this video? You’re pitching me a great idea? I know I’m sold on the creative button, how am I going to get the returns? I think you answered that. If you have the right set of tools and the mindset to break it down, I think you can get away with the madness as you said, and this kind of behavior analysis is far more interesting than I think any other medium because I think the interaction with the current technology, like probably the tools that Brightcove offers and the kind of data points that you can capture and sort of analyze and they are really powerful like I said, the personas that you can pay are going to be far more accurate than any other model that you might be building.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So yeah, I think you know, a great example of a very small company, making a big thanks to the power of video.
Pranav Chimulkar: Right! Then the event, we’ve spoken about a small company, let’s talk about other big companies. I love this section of the How-To Videos by Ford, again, I think in today’s world, you cannot really have in-person demos, you cannot have a salesperson demonstrating various features of a car, even if you need help, in trying to understand how to use those features, even. But this section on their website is dedicated to understanding every aspect of your car, and how to utilize it to the best potential. It is beautiful. I like to show this, section first. And this is how it looks. Right? You have a bunch of videos, it’s not one or two videos, and I couldn’t show the entire folds of the web page. But I have the first poll and you can see, that there are things about steering wheel wellness, we’re talking about tires, how to ensure the health of your car is proper. Next MCI rotation, fuel efficiencies. I think a bunch of those, I have picked up one video from the series that I want to play, which is about your power windows. And I could play that before this use case.
Vinit Mehta: Sure.
https://www.india.ford.com/owner/how-to-videos/
Pranav Chimulkar: Right. So Vinit please tell me what are the outcomes that they have been able to drive because of this webpage, in particular, like they have a repository of over 50 to 60 videos in that section.
Vinit Mehta: A lot of people across the world, including India, including the US, will research vehicles online before they go to the dealership and purchase the car. And there are people who are very particular about a lot of things they get into the nitty gritty. There are different kind of buyers if we’re going to buyer personas. So these videos tailor to a wide variety of users. From the first time buyers who are evaluating buying a car to people who already have a car or a Ford and they want to go online and you know once you buy a car and there are certain things, you open the car glove compartment and there’s a big fat manual of different things have and read through like an encyclopedia print is very fine. There are times it gets lost. We all have experienced this in our lives at one point or the other. So these videos also serve the purpose of helping car buyers understand different aspects of the car. Whether it’s the dealership, whether it’s different features, functionalities, product upgrades, the list goes on and on. So, I think the outcome that Ford is trying to drive is basically efficiencies, effectiveness and at the end of the day customer satisfaction.
Pranav Chimulkar: True. True. Again like you said it makes it very easy for the customer to now like make-believe when you actually see that product in action because when he sees a commercial, five to six top features get more pointed out. But you cannot see them in action, right? Basically, because of the nature of advertisements and the constraint of duration, as much as the marketing team would like to show everything in action, but they are not able to. I think making a car purchase is one of, the biggest decisions, financial decisions that one makes. And for a bunch of us, it’s just the one car that you purchase in the lifetime. So you want to be efficient. And I think videos like this can help you understand and make it before you actually. Yeah, and in today’s world, I think is the best way to actually do it when you cannot have a lot of people walking into your showrooms or, or having people to like face-to-face demos. So I think brilliant use case here. The next thing I would like to touch upon the use case of real estate clients that use videos, as you said real estate is again, a clean, tidy one, you should. But one of the videos that we’ve picked out to analyze is from Afcon. Again, I’d like to play it before we talk a little bit about that.
https://www.afcons.com/en/bu/urban-infrastructure
Vinit Mehta: Sure.
Pranav Chimulkar: I’m sorry, that is some sort of issue where I’m not able to play that video right now. But I think if you could walk me through it, I think the video that I was planning to play was a video that shows the journey of 16 years of PR, building marketing real estate presence in India. And encompassing the entire journey within two minutes for a new consumer to watch and believe in it.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah. Yeah, so I’ve gone to a large infrastructure development company, part of the Shapoorji Pallonji group. They have built complex projects, which take years to make and develop and they will, in the metro in different parts of the country. They do projects in Africa, Middle East, and when they try and attract new customers, it was difficult for them to sort of show what they have done, because how do you capture what you have made in 16 years in terms of process in the people in the resources, so they captured all those things in two or three-minute videos to highlight their strengths, their USP. And as you said, a 16-year endeavor is minimized in two minutes. And that was powerful for them to attract and market to different prospects around the world. Also, during COVID, they have used video to communicate with different parts of their communities, stakeholders, and employees. Because infrastructure projects were stalled for many months because of COVID. So, I think this was also a very interesting and strong way of engagement with their employees.
Pranav Chimulkar: Got it! Got it! The next use case, that I like to move on to is of Suzlon. Again, they use videos to like establish thought leadership, positioning for the brand, in influencing policymaking meeting at large, possibly, because they are talking about past problems and you’re talking about wind energy, and talking about rainwater harvesting and things like that, and one video from them that I’d like to show to the audience before you talk to us.
Vinit Mehta: Sure. Sure.
https://www.suzlon.com/in-en/media-room/video-gallery
So Suzlon is another interesting use case. These guys came to us a few years ago saying that- we want to influence the Government of India to have policies that are friendly to renewable energy companies like Suzlon. And a bunch of passionate folks, pretty well when the energy had taken off, and the Down period announced and taken off, but, essentially, we found a very interesting that a company like Suzlon would think of using video to influence the government of India to have policies which are friendly. And also in many ways, they also are using this video for advocacy of wind energy itself, beyond the lawn, so being more friendly towards the environment, greener environment, and stuff like that. So, I think they will continue, I believe they will continue this. This endeavor is good to see.
Pranav Chimulkar: Absolutely. That brings me to the end of the case studies that we wanted to talk about, job, but interestingly, I want to now talk about your peers that you really admire, because we’ve spoken about so many brands, and the kind of relationships that you enjoy with them. I like to hear who are the, say top three folks that you really admire for their work. Again, could be any of your colleagues. But again, if there are people outside of Brightcove that you want to give a shout out to this the right time.
Vinit Mehta: Sure man. Um, so one possible Brightcove that I would like to talk about really briefly is Greg Armshaw, Sr. Director Solution Sales for Brightcove in Asia so he is ex, McCann. So he brings an advertising background to a video tech company. So we know he was viewed as a trusted advisor, by brands, by odd companies, and even though, we sell technology, but he plays the role of an advisor and handles them so it does a great job. In fact, the term FMCV or you know, fast-moving consumer video, so we have this internal comment, where we feel, you think like an FMCG company today. FMCG companies are great at marketing, right? So, similarly, companies who are producing videos, whether it’s an enterprise or a media organization, have to think like an FMCG company, and therefore, the word FMCV or fast-moving consumer video. So we are in the world of fast-moving consumer video and that credit goes to Greg Armshaw. So that’s someone on the Brightcove side. Second is, there’s a friend, and a customer of Brightcove, Malayala Manorama. So headed by Mariam Mammen Matthew, and she’s a very good advocate of Brightcove. And I admire the way the brand has been built over the years as one of the pioneers of a regional newspaper company primarily moving to television moving to OTT and using the cutting edge technologies has to offer. So I admire her, how she has grown that organization over the years. Third, I would say is Dream 11. And Fan Code, I think, amazed that the growth that the Dream 11 guys have seen, they also use Brightcove for their video streaming. So sports is a very exciting use case anymore, because of COVID. I think for the foreseeable future, at least in Asia, maybe sports will be primarily online versus us going to the stadiums to watch the sport. So I see how Yannick is the CEO of Fan Code. He was the ex-head of the NBA in India, and I like the fact that they are trying to create a single destination for sports fans online as an extension of the Dream 11 brand. So while you create your fantasy teams or driven level, you can actually watch the content live streaming on Fan Code. So I love that story as well, in terms of support. So yeah, I mean, those would be the top three folks that I would like to talk about.
Pranav Chimulkar: Awesome. I think we’ve had an amazing time chatting with you. I personally enjoyed some of the insights that came from real-life experiences of dealing with these brands and working very closely with their teams, so that they could deliver high-quality video experiences for your consumer, I think it goes really closely with the basic statement of guch, which is to provide high-quality video content at speed and scale. We take care of the production and a company like us takes care of the delivery. Hope to see a very cordial relationship between the two brands, that is such pride as well. It has been an absolute honor and pleasure to have you on the Mad over videos podcast. And I hope you stick around with the Mad over videos community at large because we have a lot of initiatives coming up very soon.
Vinit Mehta: Yeah, Thanks for having me. I think this is a great initiative, I must say. I think I also felt in some way that I could give back to the community, which I’ve always wanted to do. So this gives me a good voice or a good medium to do that. So thanks for having me.
Pranav Chimulkar: Awesome. So with that, we come to the end of this episode for everybody else was watching. We’ll be back with another episode tomorrow. At the same time, we will be hosting Doug Tidwell, the senior marketing tech manager at Redis Labs. So if you’re still here, and you want to like tune in tomorrow, it’s the same time you can come to the guch YouTube channel. If you haven’t subscribed, please subscribe to the channel so that you get a notification when we are live. And with that, we come to the end. So thank you so much again and we will be back soon.
Vinit Mehta: Thank you. Bye