Category Archives: About

After 21 months traveling Asia and Central America I am now back in Melbourne, Australia. Available for

*Business profile video production, specialising in the tourism industry.

*Training in how to produce online business profile videos for business wishing to do their production in house.

*Reviews of tourism products, places and business (accommodation, restaurants and tours) for overlander.tv, Australia’s biggest travel channel on youtube.

Mark can be contacted on 045 883 8204 or via email.

I recently received a pair of Blundstone hiking boots to wear in my travel videos. Blundstone have a long history in Australia of producing tough work boots. Although they did not request me to make a video about their new hikers, I decided to have a bit of fun and put together a short video.

Unfortunately, my attempt at humour bombed! The video has received only a handful of views.

Having this video fail made me think about online video marketing strategies for business.

I think there is too much emphasis on a video ‘going viral’ and business should instead concentrate on establishing an ongoing dialogue with their customers with videos that provide customers with straight forward honest information about their products.

Most business don’t have the large marketing budgets of multinationals and would be surprised to know that a lot of marketing videos that do go viral, get a large helping hand by unscrupulous methods such as purchased views.

I think a better strategy for business is to not rely on the success of just one video, but instead, to make a series of videos informing customers about such things as new products and upcoming events.

One company that is doing things well with video is Caribee. They make luggage and camping accessories.

I use Caribee backpacks and did a product review of their wheeled backpack while I was travelling. The video has done well and it is great to see that Caribee have started doing their own ‘in house’ videos.

I spoke with Managing Director Matthew Seve about Caribee’s online video marketing strategy.

1) Have you had an increase in sales due to your video marketing?

We haven’t noticed much change yet, but we are certainly getting a lot of positive feedback from our customers/retailers saying that it is helpful with sales and the consumer education of Caribee products. This is especially so with the online retailers, who say that the products with videos definitely sell better. (this still relies heavily on the brand/product though – as a crap product will still be crap no matter what you do to sell it.)

2) What made you decide to produce your own videos?

The increased amount of product reviews showing up on line for all types of products made us feel we need to put forward an official version highlighting the facts, before a backyard review gets posted claiming the product is made from something that it is not, does something it can’t, etc. We also feel it gives a starting point for independent reviews, once consumers see the manufactures “base line” claims and features., they can them make their own judgment.

3) How did you go about making your own videos, did you do it in house or did you hire production staff?

All in house – you will notice that we have played around with the back grounds, lighting and sound etc. There are quite a number of different quality levels, but we now feel we are getting to a level that is acceptable to be shown as “official”. Sound quality was the biggest struggle for us.

4) Do you view the exercise as a marketing success? Will you continue making videos?

Whilst we have no data on whether this is a success, online is not going away, and we feel that we need to keep advancing with the way people research their products. These product reviews will receive more focus from us as the year progresses.

Caribee are not after a one off ‘viral’ video hit! Their aim is to provide clear and concise information about their products. They are aware that over time, their catalogue of online videos will help position them as an innovator in their industry.

They provide a great example to business of how to use video to help promote products.

No not birds, the islands. This group of thirteen islands with seven main ones is off the North West Coast of Africa and is part of Spain. Holiday makers flock here for the weather – warm all year – for the beaches, the water sports, the nightlife and the scenery. An added bonus for some is the many nature reserves. Here’s a brief idea of what you might encounter on a holiday to the Canaries, it is just a case of finding the cheapest deals and getting on that plane.

Tenerife

The biggest of the islands and is also home to Mount Teide, Spain’s highest mountain at 3,178m above sea level. Teide is a National Heritage site as is San Cristobel de la Laguna, the second largest city. Tenerife is a favourite destination for holiday makers who spend their time on the beaches or surfing.

Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura is a Biosphere Reserve and is both the oldest and the second biggest of the islands. Perfect if you want to be at one with nature as you’ll find turtles, sperm whales and dolphins off the coast. There is some interesting marine life generally.

Gran Canaria

It’s the most populated island and one of the most popular with tourists. It has a good party vibe and the Maspalomas sand dunes in the south are a big beach attraction.

Lanzarote

Lanzarote is the island closest to Africa and is one of the oldest. It’s also volcanic, which explains why much of the island is covered in black dust. Despite this it is a thriving holiday destination with beautiful beaches, water sports, golf and more. Local artist Cesar Manrique had a big influence on architecture on the island, so you will see no high-rise hotels here. What you will see is Manrique’s symbolic sculptures everywhere.

La Palma

Its capital city is Santa Cruz de La Palma but is known locally just as La Palma. This island’s volcano was last active in 1971 and currently shows no signs of coming to life again. Beautiful beaches are the main attraction.

La Gomera

La Gomera has a Unesco World Heritage site, the Garanjonay National Park. This island is very much about nature and is not your typical tourist destination. All the beaches have black sand thanks to its volcano and there’s a deeply forested area in the centre of the island.

El Hierro

This island is the furthest West and also the smallest of the seven islands in this group. El Hierro is a Biosphere Reserve and has been for more than 12 years. It’s popular with those interested in nature, rather than more traditional tourist-type things. Its rugged coast equals great diving.

All the islands have their own beauty and charm.

Deserted beach on one of the islands

I normally don’t enter contest, but this one was too good to refuse (6 mths travel, all expenses paid and $50,000)

VOTE FOR ME HERE

The winner is determined by how many people vote for their entry…so if you like mine, add this code to your website

or vote using social media here

Here is my video entry

A huge big JACK SHIT, we just hit 20,000 subscribers on youtube! I don’t think I even know 20,000 people!

Anyway just giving you a heads up on how things work now

Overlander.tv is the place for travel videos

2minprofile is where I will post my commercial tourism work

and

barefootmystic is where you get the shit on real travel, the behind the scenes stuff the advertisers don’t like

Anyway, leave a message, it’s an exciting but lonely road doing this alone. So I’m always happy to hear from people who appreciate what I do.

I used to enjoy watching Ian Wright on Globe Trekker. He was always enthusiastic about the locations he visited and respectful to the people he met along the way.

There is one telling line Ian says in the video above, ‘We don’t stitch people up’

I think it is important as a travel video producer to not be too critical and sensationalist with regard to the countries one visits. I think it is also important to try and avoid comparisons between one’s own country and the countries one visits.
Previously we relied on television stations to give us our news of the world. Now anyone can be a citizen reporter, giving their slant on the countries they visit. I’m always aware that in some countries, local people can get in trouble with local authorities, or victimised by their own people for things they say on camera. And I always make people aware of the possible repercussions of discussing any negative aspects of their own country. The last thing I want as a travel video producer is to have someone’s death or imprisonment occur because of something they say to me.

I was recently criticised in many comments, mainly from American’s, about my North Korea video. Before visiting North Korea I read a lot of books about recent events such as the 1990′s famine and the prison camps. I think anyone can watch the footage and see from the lack of cars and lack of farm machinery, that North Korea is not exactly booming! It seems that because I didn’t criticise the North Korean government, and only reported on what I saw, I was some how encouraging the dictatorship! The reality was, I was well aware that if I did a beat up story, criticising the government, based on 2nd hand information, people I’d met in Korea, could suffer the repercussions. I went in there telling people I would do a story on the fledgling tourism industry, and that is what I did!

I’ve read a bit about war correspondents, I find it fascinating that people risk their own lives to bring us such stories. It seems their biggest disappointment is that despite showing the world the atrocity of war, their reporting generally has little effect in bringing about change. Despite the lessons of the past, wars still happen!

So I think it is important for anyone wishing to produce travel videos to be well aware that there stories can lead to problems for local people, even if it just means online bullying! I interviewed a young man recently about outsourcing to the Philippines. I felt it was important to mention corruption. Even though Darby wasn’t really qualified to answer the question, and skilfully avoided so, he was attacked in the comments as unpatriotic by faceless pinoys! I don’t think there could be anymore more proud of their homeland than Darby, and he wasn’t expecting a backlash for what was essentially a harmless interview.

There are 25 hours of video uploaded to youtube every minute. That works out to be 600+ new videos. The competition to get found is intense and there is the temptation to sensationalise stories in order to capture eyeballs. I think it is important to practise some ethics in one’s work and to be honest in your dealings with local people.

I’ve managed to travel the world interviewing local people where ever I go, many who have never been in front of a camera before, many speaking in their 2nd language!

And a lot of this rests on my reputation, people can watch my videos and understand I am not out to make people look like fools, or do a beat up on their country. One can be honest about a countries problems without being sensationalist. And by doing things this way, people are more likely to open up to you and show you the best their countries have to offer, and also be honest in discussing any problems.

The video below represents a meeting of old and new journalism, New York Times vs Vice. David Carr is crushing in his regard for the shock tactics of ‘new journalism’ but it does remind one that one must at least try and be impartial in how one presents stories.