Commoncraft over het succes van hun prachtige instructiefilms
Monday, August 25, 2008 at 10:33PM Op 10 september ben ik dagvoorzitter van het congres Winnende Businessmodellen In (Nieuwe) Media (kom je ook? inschrijven kan hier). In het kader daarvan speur ik internet af opzoek naar voorbeelden van hedendaagse successen die tien jaar geleden niet gekund hadden.
Eén daarvan is het succes van Commoncraft. Het tweepersoons bedrijf maakt prachtige instructiefilms. Commoncraft legt aanstekelijk eenvoudig en op unieke wijze uit hoe wiki's werken, wat social media is, etcetera. Prachtig.
Dit is hun laatste werk over de Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen.
De filmpjes gingen op klassieke virale wijze het internet rond. Sinds kort hebben ze ook een betaald model. Wie de filmpjes in hoge kwaliteit voor eigen gebruik (les, opleiding, e.d.) wil hebben, betaalt een bedrag. Een andere optie is gebruik voor een complete site of intranet. Dan tel je meer neer. Ook maken ze tegen betaling bedrijfsfilms volgen hun bekende recept. Commoncraft gebruikte eerst het internet om naam te maken en probeert die naam nu ten gelde te maken.
Via e-mail stelde ik Lee LeFever van Commoncraft een aantal vragen. Ik heb het interview niet vertaald omdat ik er vanuit gaan dat Engels voor het gros van de lezers overkomelijk is.
The Commoncraft video's became a household name in a short time. How did they become a success?
I think a few things came together recently that enabled us to see some success. The first is demand. There is a lot of anxiety on the web about new tools and ideas. Nearly everyone feels that they're being left behind. I hope that our videos help people feel more comfortable with these changes by understanding them on a basic level. Of course, no one would know about us if bloggers and individuals didn't choose to share our videos with their peers, friends and family. Sites like You Tube have enabled this to happen through embeddable players. Lastly I'd say that we've worked to be different and not follow the same ideas as others.
How much was genius and how much was luck? And in what way?
I think our videos have been a product of our work. I've been writing "plain english" blog posts since 2004 and have always looked for unique ways to teach and inform. We're big believers that there is often a huge gap between how things are taught and how people really want to learn. I'd like to dedicate our videos to all the bad teachers I've had in the past who showed me that I don't learn like they think I should learn.
You decided to publish them for free. That's good for your name, for your brand. But you guys need to eat as well. How did you go from making a name to making money?
People often contact us and ask about using the videos for internal training, schools, presentations, etc. We decided to make versions of our videos that are presentation quality, higher resolution, downloadable and come with a license for workplace use. This gives people a higher quality than they find on YouTube and the confidence that they can use it at work. This way, we can put the videos out for free for bloggers, etc., but give people who want to use them for work an easy way to pay for a better product in our Store.
How difficult is it to let people pay in an environment where they are used to get things for free?
A big part of our philosophy is that people want to do the right thing as long as they know the rules. Our customers are often professionals and educators - they want to do the right thing and our challenge is to educate everyone on the rules so they can feel good participating. If we were trying to sell music to 19 year olds, it may be a different story.
It's possible to get licenses from you for individuals and sites. Then people need to pay. How succesful is that option? Can (or do you want to say) anything about the amount of succes your having with those options?
Yes, our videos can be licensed by individuals for presentations, etc. and by organizations of all types of internal training, awareness etc. Our goal is to make a living based on the Common Craft Store. If we can support ourselves with the Store, we can spend a lot more time making videos that have a positive impact in organizations and schools. So far things have gone better than expected, but we have a long way to go.
You must be an example of the idea of Free bij Chris Anderson. What are the pro's and what are the cons of this concept?
I do agree that "free" can be a path to success and it's really hard for organizations to take the risk. The US business culture is built around squeezing every penny out of every opportunity. It's an evironment where it's inconceivable that people may actually want to pay for something they can get for free. As I said before, we have faith in our customers. We have faith that they can see that we're offering a higher quality video and peace of mind in the form of licensing.
I hope this helps!
~Lee
Reader Comments (4)
Knap werk van Commoncraft. Een 'complex' systeem zo eenvoudig neerzetten is ontzettend knap. Laten we hopen dat deze manier van denken ook doorsijpelt in opleidingen en trainingen.
Succes trouwens op het congres, ziet er interessant uit. Eens kijken of ik er heen kan!
Groet
Job
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Prachtig die instructiefilmpjes... voor de gemeente Enschede hebben we het burgerjaarverslag op deze manier gepubliceerd. Zie http://burgerjaarverslag.enschede.nl
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