Tasmania has some of the biggest cold water surf breaks in the world. I visit Marrawah on the north west corner, a location renowned for it’s year round surf. I interview 16 yr old local Zak Grey.

*Prepare some notes:
A video ad should differentiate your business from your competitors. Write down some key points you would like to cover in the video (3-4 points). What does your business represent? eg unique products or services, great customer service? Think about what shots will best represent your business, eg showing products you sell, a customer receiving good service

The video below is a good example of strong pre production scripting. Every sentence differentiates the Winery featured from it’s competitors. In a short space, the viewer knows who the winemaker is, what his region is famous for and what makes his cellar door unique

*Your Vision:
Tell the videographer your ideas, and listen to their suggestions. A good videographer will know the language of filmmaking. A camera doesn’t behave like a human eye. There are certain rules that need to be followed to ensure stunning shots. Trust your filmmaker and allow them to creatively bring your vision to fruition.

*Tidy up and think visually
On the day of the shoot, ensure all areas that are to be filmed are clean and all staff are dressed appropriately. Recruiting friends and family to represent customers is a good way to control the production process. Make sure you think through what you want covered in the video and inform the videographer. Making a checklist is a good way to ensure nothing is missed. Be aware that the interview and voiceover needs to be filmed in a quiet location.

The video below featuring an Irish Pub was filmed over one Sunday session. The owner wished to convey what a night out at the pub entailed. In certain parts, staff and friends were recruited to have a meal and drinks. They chose Sunday night because it is their busiest night, having an empty business doesn’t make good footage!

Preparation before your video shoot, will ensure all goes well and your business is represented in the best light. For more information on our Online Video Business Profile Service.

Article by Mark Shea of Overlander Multimedia. Mark is a video producer and trainer and specializes in documentary and travel/tourism related content. His youtube channel is one of youtube’s most successful travel partner channels

Fishing for Trout in Tasmania offers anglers some of the most remote Lake Fishing in the world. I interview Janice Spencer about the Land of 3,000 Lakes. Janice was the first women angler ever accepted for an Australian competition Fly Fishing Team.

Local’s Rob and Brooke, hosted the series of video vignettes, with the script being provided by Camden and Campbelltown tourism officers.

Media Partners

Travel Sponsors

Business Video Marketing

Everything is in place – the equipment needed to produce broadcast quality videos is cheap and readily available, social networking sites like facebook and couchsurfing help develop international connections, and the internet provides a worldwide broadcast platform. Youtube really is to world’s largest television station.

Where to start
First you need a good lightweight backpack filmmaking kit, then you need to set up a successful youtube travel channel and work hard on both developing your style and getting both subscribers and views of your videos.

Numerous studies point to video as the best online marketing tool available and clever venture capitalists, such as turnhere, have already realized the huge potential of online video.

You need to be able to tell tour operators, hostel owners, bus companies etc why online video is of value to their business. Here are some key points:

* YouTube is now the second most popular search engine in the world and is owned by Google, which is the most popular. This means youtube videos are highly placed in google search.

* “Streaming video delivers nearly three times higher brand awareness and message association, and more than 100% higher purchase intent and online ad awareness than non-rich media ads.”

* More than 83% of travelers in the U.S. use the Internet to research or book travel, according to Prospectiv’s 2006 nationwide Travel Poll.

* 62% of adult Internet users surveyed in April 2009 have watched a video on sites like YouTube (up from 33% in 2006). In contrast, 46% of adult Internet users are active on social networking sites, 19% download podcasts, and 11% use sites like Twitter.

Get free Trips, Accommodation, Transport
Once you have developed a popular travel video channel on youtube there is no reason why you should ever pay for a tour, accommodation or transport again. Inform tourism businesses that you will make a video of their product and put it on your youtube channel. But remember, they have a brand they have worked hard to develop, if your videos are sloppy and boring, don’t expect success. Also, take into account cultural differences – some countries will be more open to having videos made than others.

Produce business profile videos
Another option is to actually get paid to produce an online video for a tourism business. Look at working with local travel companies or chains that have overseas ventures. This way you are not breaking any international labor laws.

Online video marketing, presents a huge opportunity for traveling videographers and some clever companies and individuals have already seized on this new opening.

For those with a bit of video production experience, there are also websites that will actually pay for you to produce a video for them eg turnhere, geobeats, tripfilms

Get paid for your videos

If you are not keen to produce video advertisements for travel business, there is a great alternative. Certain sites will pay you for your videos. Youtube is the most lucrative whereby when you become a youtube partner you share in any ad revenue for ads surrounding your videos. The more times your videos are watched, the more chance there is someone will click on an ad and you make a nice passive income stream that allows you to keep traveling.

Other sites like lonelyplanet.tv and tripfilms may also pay or offer rewards for premium content. And when you develop a real internet presence you will be surprised the number of sites that may approach you looking for quality video content eg. ninemsn, compulsive traveler, blinkx.

Stock footage can also be sold on sites like istockvideo and revostock for a nice passive income, while you travel.

So as you can see, there are numerous ways to use your video camera to travel the world for free, and the exciting thing is, the gold rush has only just begun. Online video is still in its infancy and we are yet to see its full potential.

So get out there and start making vids. Everything is in its place for you to have your own travel show.

*Find an Audience
People who subscribe to other travel channels will most likely be interested in travel videos. Do them a favor and tell them about your channel, send them a message, add them as a friend. Who knows, they might even subscribe to you.

*Get Involved
Youtube is a community – a lot of youtubers visit the site regularly and have favorite channels they follow. Be involved, watch other travel videos, rate them, comment on them and reply to comments on your own videos

*Post regularly
Posting videos at regular intervals helps new people become aware of your channel, it helps place your videos in daily, weekly, monthly statistics such as most viewed, most favorite and most commented. Posting regularly also shows other youtubers you are a serious youtuber and not just a ‘johnny come lately’

*The power of the thumbnail
Believe it or not, both your channel icon and video thumbnail can influence views. One of my most popular videos has a thumbnail of a buxom blonde in a bikini and has been viewed over one million times. Go figure! Also, my channel icon leaves no doubt about what viewers will find on my channel.

*Video responses
If you make a video about a particular location, do a video search for this location, find the most viewed video, and post your video as a video response. This can help people looking for information about this location to find your video.

*Cross post to other social network sites
Spread the love; set up a twitter account, a facebook account, a myspace account, a digg account and cross promote your videos. On facebook for example, there is a travel video group where you can embed your videos and maybe increase your exposure to a whole new audience.

So there you go, seven ways to help develop your youtube travel channel. Some youtubers manage to produce a huge viral video hit and become overnight sensations, but for most, developing a following takes time. Support other travel channels, help develop a network. Viewers love travel related content and by supporting each other we help share culture.

Finally I would like to add a video made by popular comic youtuber, Nalts. He sums up better than anyone, what one needs to do to develop a following on youtube.

This action packed video is three stories packed into one. First I feature archival footage from the seminal Franklin River campaign, then I investigate the Facial Tumor Disease effecting the wild Tasmanian Devil Population, and finally I do a story on Port Arthur, an historic convict colony where I interview guide Laura Leeworthy, do their ghost tour and film a Ghost!!

Grampians Tourism wanted to highlight visitor activities within their region, by populating a map with 30 second teaser videos.

To measure the effectiveness of these short videos, a ‘call to action’ web link was used to provide further information, pointing people towards the visitgrampians.com.au website.

Each video also ends with visitgrampians.com.au branding so as to maximize exposure to the Grampians Tourism website.

Online Tools used to accomplish this project

Videos were loaded to tubemogul.com where they could be syndicated across various online video channels.

The videos featured on the map, and thus promoted the most, are from the world’s largest video website, Youtube.

Youtube is part of the google stable, which means, with the clever use of keywords, can place videos high in google search.

Zeemaps.com provided a mapping solution that allowed markers to be placed at various locations and provide video, text and further external web link information.

On completion of this project, a regional map of the Grampians will be populated with 30+ short videos featuring a diverse range of activities from horse riding to rock climbing, wine tasting to family camping.

Grampians Tourism will further promote their video map on social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and myspace. This will also improve search engine optimization for this campaign.

The beauty of this marketing campaign is that Grampians Tourism can measure the effectiveness of each video, from both the internal and external visitor site statistics for their visitgrampians.com.au website.

I take a flight to the South West Wilderness area of Tasmania, learning about Critchley Parker Junior, an ill fated explorer who hoped to form a new Jewish State in the region. I also interview Bob Brown, leader of the world’s first Greens Political Party.
Thanks to Par Avion for flight, Bob Brown and Wilderness Society for archival material, and Pete Foley for fantastic soundtrack.