VBrick Streamed a live video program to my desktop today. I must say, hats off to this company for doing a great job of demonstrating their exciting new streaming video capability in a program they called, "The World is Flat". The picture and sound were clear and the content discussed strategies and the benefits of using "Enterprise Video Communication".
"The World Is Flat" is also the name of Thomas L. Freidman's touchstone for the modern media world. His definition of "Globlaization 3.0" has caught the attention of corporate leaders and media technology innovators. Incorporating Freidman was a good use of associative branding. "Hey I've heard of that", helps clients identify VBrick as a "fellow traveller" and opens the door to recieving information.
VBrick has packaged thechnology into a turnkey application that companies can use to deliver their video communications for various valuable and strategic purposes.
Whether intentional or not, the program was exceedingly well focused on white male corporate IT professionals. The language of the presentation was very corporate and very technical which helped me see who the intended target was and illustrated how rarified the air is in America's corporate enterprises. Is the language of IT really becoming a secret code for communicating within the sacred brotherhod of the net?
The email invitation I received to register was brilliant, the embeded video clip that encouraged me to participate and the mechanics of the registration process were well written, well built and easy to use.
The program itself featured a moderator and three panelists seated on stools in front of a three camera setup. Information was presented in an interview format like a talk show and the resulting program was dry, corporate and cold.
I spoke to an advertising agency about on-line media yesterday. One of the owning partners said that talking to young IT professionals left her with the impression that they were intentionally using technical jargon to talk over her head and impress her with their knowledge of things that she couldn't possibly understand.
I watched today's program with a documentary film maker, a visual communications artist and a marketing strategist. All of us are entrepreneurs who deal with businesses that need to communicate more effectively. Our focus is on creating the messages companies need to communicate. Our harshest critique of VBrick and it's partners is that they were totally inept in this area. Now that critique may be unfair. As I said, it appears that the target was corporate IT, and what would they know about creating media? But the implied benefit of this technology was that companies can create and deliver their own media using this system. At one point a suggestion was made that companies could just shoot a bunch of rough / raw video and distribute it through their system.
Huh? You mean you want me to buy a gazillion dollar system so I can deliver the equivalent of Uncle Ed's digitally compressed home movies to my regional office in Kansas City? Dude, FedEx is plenty fast enough for that.
The fault lies with MTV and some brilliant film makers who make professional style look easy and natural. I like BB King too. He makes playing just the right note on the guitar sound so easy don't you think?
To break it down further - and put in OUR terminolgy, the program contained solid technical information but totally lacked a sense of inspiration and human warmth.
It was as if you had walked into Sears and told a salesmean that you wanted to buy a refrigerator. Instead of showing you a gleaming side by side with freezer below and ice water in the door, he hands you a glossy technical manual and tells you his refrigerator can reduce the ambient internal air temperature to a degree that is optimal for 89% of Americans. You see?
These guys were pitching raw meat. I like a nice juicy steak.
But that's okay. What VBrick is selling is my next opportunity. Once "Enterprise" finds out that nobody in house can produce anything that their media savvy emlpoyees will watch, I'll be getting email at
record@prodroom.com.
