Continuing our blog series about the benefits of video marketing, this week we focus on how to boost enrollment or participation in your live event by broadcasting it via professionally shot video. As always, the statistics add up in support of video’s current reign over other marketing media. Rather than rely on those numbers, we asked Josh Crosby, owner of Josh Crosby Fitness and co-creator of rowing-based fitness programs, Indo-Row and ShockWave, as well as a rowing advisor to Orangetheory Fitness, about why he values videos with respect to his annual live event, the Misery Challenge.
Video Marketing the Misery Challenge
For those who don’t know, the Misery Challenge is a race that starts and ends at Tuck’s Point Park, located in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Competitors can opt to swim, kayak, sup (stand-up paddleboard), or row, with the course measured at three miles for swimmers and four miles for rowers/SUPs.
Designed for serious competitors, teams of friends, and families looking for a fun adventure, registration for the Misery Challenge starts in January, with the event hosted in July.
There you go. The definitive information surrounding the Misery Challenge. You can picture it, right? The landscape, the competitors, the energy… crystal clear, thanks to those two mini-paragraphs above. Who are we kidding? Unless you’ve participated or witnessed it yourself, you have no idea what the Misery Challenge is about.
So, we’ll just leave this here…
Betting on a Winner
Josh hired videographer Eddie Frateschi to create a video for the Misery Challenge. And he was smart to do so.
According to research completed by the team at Eventbrite, “Video is vital for events. From growing your audience to marketing and promoting your event, it’s one of the most engaging and cost-effective tools you can use. In fact, 52% of marketers worldwide name it as the content type with the best ROI.”
A successful entrepreneur, Josh has witnessed the power of video, first hand, “Especially if you’re a new business or new event — that’s where the video totally does it. I could write about it all day long or tell someone about it, but when you can see and feel the energy around the event, that’s really, in a nutshell, what the value of Eddie’s work has been for the Misery Challenge.”
There is a reality regarding video marketing’s efficacy over time, as well. Josh isolated this reality by acknowledging that a video is key to promoting an event like the Misery Challenge, but also sustains the momentum and his efforts between each event. Remember, the Misery Challenge is an annual opportunity, which could wind up lost in the shuffle of other area events and activities.
Josh has been able to keep the energy up surrounding the Misery Challenge, by leveraging video. “It gave me content and another reason to reach out to my customer base or social media base that wasn’t just fluff. It was a legit reason to engage and encourage people to share and remind them how awesome the event was.”
More research from Eventbrite supports Josh’s experience because video “holds people’s attention 5x longer than still images, making it a fantastic medium for marketing and engaging attendees long after your event is over.”
Broadcast Your Brand and Better Yet, Your Bottom Line
One of the challenges Josh believes video can help business owners overcome is the inability to authentically communicate what they are about. “The number one thing a lot of brands have a hard time expressing to the public is who they are, what they are all about, and why they exist.”
Rather than waste time teaching prospective participants about the Misery Challenge or attempting to convince someone in a 30-second elevator pitch why it’s worth their time, Josh continues to use video to take care of the heavy lifting.
Even better, he says, “It also helped me with sponsorship.” Josh announced that Barefoot Wine will sponsor the 2018 Misery Challenge, joining the lineup of impressive local and national sponsors that have already jumped on board.
Of course, small businesses, start-ups, and fledging events are often bound to barebones budgets. Josh recognizes that “it can be hard when you’re running a business to justify spending money on video but you can’t always line up smart investments with ROI. But, the video is your selling point, and the energy it can create on the website, social media pitches, all that stuff…being able to see it from video is just huge.”
Convinced? Ready to seriously consider how a video could better promote your brand or event? Contact the team at Waypoint Writing and put your video marketing into action.
