Our CEO Silvia Pfeiffer gave a presentation about “ICT Innovation is easy – Commercialisation is hard”. It summarises some of the experiences made in Vquence with creating a Web 2.0 business in Australia and also addresses more generally the situation Australian ICT startups find themselves in after the GFC (global financial crisis). Slides and video below, as well as a playlist of all the videos from the Public Sphere event.

The complete stats are listed in the YouTube blog post about the YouTube Generation.

One important outcome is that people consider brands that advertise on YouTube to be more current, innovative and dynamic. And 3 in 5 users say YouTube influences their purchase decisions.

With the help of Australian video company Vquence, Senator Kate Lundy started a YouTube and a Vimeo channel in June this year as part of a new effort in using social networking technology – also known as Web 2.0 technology – to better communicate with her constituency.

Many of her federal colleagues have started using YouTube for publishing videos. The success of the Obama campaign has impressed many politicians and encouraged trying out the new approach – in particular to connect better with the younger generations. However, the majority of YouTube channels of Australian politicians are barely more than “Trophy channels” – they just republish TV appearances and best speeches from parliamentary recordings of the particular politician. But there is so much more to be done with video.

A YouTube channel that follows the Obama example needs to be part of a well thought out strategy. According to Maxwell Harper, Obama’s video strategist during the 2008 campaign, “Video is an investment and if you think about it really strategically it’ll pay for itself through the impact it has.”

Senator Lundy made her YouTube and Vimeo channels an integral part of a wider campaign to improve her own communication with citizens and to allow citizens to have more input into government decisions. Her twitter presence, her blogging site, as well as her consultative Public Sphere events are other parts of the picture that forms a complete, modern communication strategy for a politician.

The strategy is paying off. According to video metrics prepared by Vquence, the more than 50 videos posted since June have seen more than 3000 views by the beginning of August. More importantly, the time that people spend on her website has increased by 45% because of the videos. Clearly, visitors are finding the videos a valuable addition to her communication mix.

The videos that are showing the most impact are the vodcasts or video blogs. “Vodcasts are regularly produced short pieces of video that provide a focused message, similar to a blog post but in video format.” says Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, Vquence CEO. “Senator Lundy’s first three vodcasts have achieved more than 1000 views within the first month – more than any other videos on her channels. Clearly, people like the direct way in which the Senator tries to communicate with them.”

“One of the concerns often expressed when considering video amongst a range of Web 2.0 strategies is the perceived complexities of recording, posting and assessing the effectiveness.” Senator Lundy says. “I was aware of the success other politicians were having with their video and You Tube channels but had always presumed the need for resources would put video beyond me. The good news is it is indeed possible!”

“If you are not publishing video online, you are missing out on an opportunity.” states Dr Pfeiffer. ” YouTube is now the second biggest search engine on the Web and that means visitors are trying to find you there. If all they can find are fake channels about you or your brand, your reputation may suffer.”

Vquence is now helping Senator Lundy with video search engine optimisation, seeding, daily metrics, and quarterly comprehensive reporting. Senator Lundy and her team have become self-proficient in video production and are continuing to try out new production styles, trying to provide even more value to her constituency.

Senator Lundy YouTube Channel

The graph shows the development of the cumulative view count of the videos that were published by the main political parties in Australia over the last 2.5 months before the election in 2007.

At first you will notice that Labor started far above everyone else. Unfortunately we didn’t start recording view counts that early, but we assume it is due to the Kevin07 website that was launched on 7th August.

In the graph, you will notice a first increase on the coalition’s view count on the 2nd September – that’s when Howard published the video for the APEC meeting 2-9 Sept 2007.

Then there’s another bend on the 14th September, when Google launched it’s federal election site and we saw first videos of the Nationals going up on YouTube.

The dip in the curve of the Nationals a little after that is due to a software bug withe some of YouTube’s data.

Then on the 14th October the Federal Election was actually announced and you can see the massive increase in view count from there on for all parties, ending with a huge advantage of Labor over everybody else.

Interestingly enough, this also mirrors the actual outcome of the election.