The Challenge
Fuel Interactive needed a fast and flexible way to increase user engagement and revenue across 30 of their client websites. For some clients the results were measured by hotel bookings or golf reservations; others focused on increases in readership or developing a sense of community among end users. Increasing page views, return visitors, new inbound links, and direct bookings were all part of the mix, and video was seen as the ideal addition to meet these objectives.
The layout, styling, explicit goals and measurement differences all added to the complexity of the challenge. For example, one site would use video to deliver US, world and local news. Another would showcase Myrtle Beach golf courses, step-by-step golf tutorials and advertise nearby resort accommodations.
The challenge was to quickly deploy video on 30-plus unique sites in a way that was simple to implement and easy to maintain.
Objectives
To meet the needs of Fuel’s clients, VMIX needed to:
- Host and deliver crisp, high-quality video in a manner accessible to all end-users
- Provide simple tools for managing and sharing videos across related sites
- Enable customization of video players and video navigation components so that Fuel could integrate them seamlessly into the look and feel of each site
- Support embedding user generated content (UGC) uploaders on client sites to enable audience participation on each site
- Ensure video players and navigation components are easy to reconfigure and manage post-launch
The VMIX Solution
VMIX responded for most sites with a widget-based solution. Our widget-based applications stand apart in the industry as some of the most flexible and easy to implement.
Most widgets can be horizontally or vertically oriented, custom-sized and colored, and set to show or hide features and elements.
Widgets can be set to automatically publish videos classified by a certain genre or added to a specific media collection. Publishing new media is as simple as uploading and adding the video to a genre or collection.
The simplicity and flexibility of our media widgets allowed Fuel Interactive to address different needs on each site:
- On Myrtle Beach Golf, for example, a simple Playlist Player Widget showcases the area’s golf courses.
- WCLN TV uses a Mono Scroller Widget to display and scroll through viewer-submitted photos. Clicking on these images displays a full-page photo gallery (using our Image Gallery Widget) and encourages viewers to submit their own photos using a VMIX upload form.
- At On the Green Magazine a player embedded on the home page plays a video welcoming visitors to the Myrtle Beach area. At the site’s Video Center, a MultiView Widget presents videos under Golf, Lodging, Dining and other categories.
Success!
Fuel found that adding crisp, high-quality video has extended the length of visitor sessions on their client sites.
“If you can see the layout of the course and the breeze in the trees on the green from the perspective of someone walking it,” says Pete DiMaio, Director of Business Strategy at Fuel Interactive, “You can imagine yourself there!”
The use of MultiView and Playlist Player widgets, in particular, has increased user interaction in the form of video comments and ratings. And video embedded on tourism and leisure sites continues to drive conversions in the form of hotel and golf reservations.
Business Impact
- The flexibility of the widget solution allows Fuel Interactive to address unique needs of each site.
- Hosting and delivery of video to client sites managed by VMIX. No Fuel Interactive resources required.
- Simplicity of workflow and asset management through genres and collections allows non-technical clients to maintain their own sites post-launch.
- Simple customization and integration of widgets makes it easy for Fuel Interactive to implement video for additional clients.
