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Videos in Press Releases are Cool – If They Provide Meaningful Content

July 30, 2009 by Adam Sherk

Executive quotes in press releases are notorious for lacking any kind of substantial information. It’s the most common place to find fluff in a release, and they tend to be largely ignored.

Yesterday’s Microsoft – Yahoo press release featured video quotes from both Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, partially shown in this screenshot:

Steve Ballmer video in Microsoft Yahoo press release

On the surface this seems pretty cool, and the press release even includes links to additional video clips for broadcast media:

Video links in Microsoft Yahoo press release

But unfortunately these videos offer little more than a multimedia version of the typical executive fluff.

I commend Microsoft’s PR firm Waggener Edstrom for incorporating video content into the release, but it would have been great if the videos had been more substantial.

They can probably counter that both videos have had a significant number of views. But that’s all the more reason to make the most of the opportunity.

Do the videos add value or are they more executive fluff? Watch and judge for yourself.

Related posts:

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  3. Press Releases Do Get Shared on Google News
  4. The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases
  5. A Look at Muck Rack’s Twitter Press Release Service, 51 Releases Later

Comments

  1. Jamie Favreau says

    July 31, 2009 at 1:29 am

    They sound too formal. If they would have been informative but NOT like they were reading a press release and had graphics it might be more innovative and well people might want to watch it.

  2. Greg Jarboe says

    July 31, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    Great example, Adam. And you are absolutely right. When videos contain actual news instead of corporate boilerplate, then they get watch and shared.

  3. Daniel Prager says

    August 3, 2009 at 11:50 am

    A great example of Video adding to a press release is Jeff Bezos’ speech about the Zappos and Amazon merger.

    This video really gets across the thoughts behind the merger better than any traditional press release could.

    Great article!

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About Adam Sherk

Adam Sherk is an SEO and PR consultant helping publishers with digital strategy and audience development, including enterprise SEO, public relations and social media marketing.

Adam is VP SEO and Digital Strategy for Define Media Group.

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