One of the challenges of selling a product or service is convincing someone that your company can deliver results, satisfaction, and value. Beyond product specs, cost comparisons, feature lists and benefits bullet points, for many would-be consumers of your products or services, there still remains one crucial question that needs a concrete answer: What do other people think?

Testimonial videos, whether distributed via DVD marketing, online or broadcast TV, present a singularly unique opportunity. It is perhaps the only time in the marketing and sales cycle when you can step back and allow someone else to toot your horn for you.

Often video testimonials will close a deal or make a sale when nothing else seems to be able to move a person or company from being a prospect to a customer. And it makes sense. When evaluating any invitation, we instinctively want to know who else will be at the party, and we use that information to make our decision and even bolster our confidence and assuage any future doubts that we are making the right choice.

Most companies, if they really do provide value, results and satisfaction, will not have any trouble finding a happy customer or two that can articulate why they recommend you to everyone they know. In our experience, customers are flattered when they are asked to sit for a short video testimonial to be used in various marketing materials, and oftentimes it can be a way to soft-market their own company or brand.

The video recommendation can take the form of a short, 30 second bite, or even a longer story, where a customer has a chance to really talk about their needs before you entered their lives, and then explain the many ways you were able to meet those needs and solve their problems, and even exceed their expectations.

So step out of the way and let your happiest clients take a turn at telling the world why your company’s product or service is the best thing that’s ever happened to them!

Much speculation has flown in recent years and months about Google’s plan for world domination. Okay, maybe that’s overstating it a little, but only a little. And taking on a crowded and arguably entrenched marketplace of internet browsers is a clear signal that Google really does intend to move in and settle down in desktop software applications.

Google is calling it Chrome, and I’m sure this is seen as a shot across the bow for IE6 and Firefox (my personal favorite), although they do tip their hats in Mozilla’s direction, acknowledging that some of their horsepower found its way under the hood. Who the heck knows what this might do to smaller projects like Opera or Flock.

Personally, I drink the Google Kool-Aid. They have proven that, while they’ll never win any fashion awards, power, ubiquity and forward thinking are always front and center on their runway. Quietly, Google has for some time been acquiring startups with promise (something everybody else does, too) and assembling talent and ideas. Google likes the long play, so not every company it has snapped up has been an obvious choice. But the release of the new browser beta, followed by more mentions about its JavaScript engine called V8, they clearly have the next generation web squarely in its crosshairs, and fully intend to be the browser to bring it to us.

Of course I have already downloaded Chrome, and am testing it as I write this post. It is living up to its stripped down, severe aesthetic, but for once, I appreciate it immensely in a browser. The design choice really promotes the web site content, not the window through which it is delivered. Curiously, however, there is a startling lack of the elements that have found their way into nearly every other browser experience; namely the Google Toolbar and the Title Bar. The latter is so entrenched in SEO practices, specifically because of how Google uses and views them, it is a little unnerving not to see it at the top of the window. It makes me wonder if Google has plans to deprecate its importance in upcoming page rank algorithms…Nah…Right???

I think the browser community, and hopefully the open source community, will be taking notes for a long time to come.

Go Google.

Turn on the tv, and you will see no end of fancy spinning logos, scene transitions and lower thirds titles. You probably don’t notice them much they’re so common, but imagine a newscast without them, or an infomercial with nothing but a stationary camera, and you’ll soon see that modern visual production can’ t happen without motion graphics, and a lot of them.

When the job of video is to create effective branding, motion graphics use comes fully into its own. Tying together the corporate message and the brand conceptuals in a coherent and meaningful way is what motion graphics artists thrive on.

The advances in the software tools used to produce animated artwork and imagery has brought the cost of motion graphics work down to the point of being affordable for even the smallest businesses.

If you are considering using video as part of your brand messaging, whether online or in broadcast or DVD, plan on motion graphics design to factor heavily in the final professional product.