Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

With the increasing penetration of broadband, more companies are increasing their online video campaigns.

One automobile giant, Mazda (MZDAF.PK), says that 80 percent of the visitors coming to their site arrive there through broadband connections. Before we go on I do want to say that when you visit Mazda's (world) site, it is slow-loading and has flash on its home page, which may account for the 80 percent number because dial-up visitors don't bother to come to it. I would have an alternative means of accessing the site for slower connected users; there are still millions of them. The numbers are still impressive though. 

One thing that their gearing up for next month is a virtual museum, which will reveal a lot of the company's history to its visitors. There will be pictures of classic cars along with concept automobiles. There will also be short clips of a number of Mazda designers.

Rudy Privitelli, Mazda's group manager of relationship marketing said that concerning the video additions: "We wanted give people a better idea of who we are and how we build our products."

Patrick Sarkissian, president of the agency that built the virtual museum for Mazda said concerning the reason for including more video was this: "I always find there's a limited effectiveness of online banners especially when you're talking to an audience this skeptical, they're as resistant to mainstream advertising as you get.

While banners do have some branding value in them, overall I agree that in the automobile industry, this is essential. They have as many people as anybody researching online before they ever step into dealerships to purchase. The auto industry must give consumers a virtual looking under-the-hood experience to be competitive.

Increasingly - in a number of industries - the inclusion of value-added video ... similar to special effects and behind-the-scenes additions to Hollywood DVD releases are what consumers are looking for as the price for just being in the game. We've got to provide it for them.