The major oil and gas companies have been battling the public's perception of their industry as gritty, fast-paced, reckless and cut throat for quite some time now. As Sarah Edman of ConocoPhillips points out in her contribution to SPE International's whitepaper, "Public Perception of the Oil and Gas Industry", it's working, but only moderately. She writes, "Public trust in the oil and natural gas industry has continuously increased from a low of 38.6% in 2006 to 48.5% in 2012." Those numbers show good progress but more can be done.
The prevailing attitude of major oil and gas brands, until recently, has been that big TV ads are the most effective in boosting their public image. While these have certainly helped, more and more oil and gas companies are looking to more affordable alternatives that are capable of reaching a wider audience. The answer has been and will continue to be, undoubtably, the internet. Video continues to be the fastest growing marketing medium and the internet continues to be the top place for people to consume video. As comScore points out in their video, The Future of Online Video, "89 million people in the United States are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today." We've collectively decided that the internet is where we'll get our content and that video is the most important content to us.
The online real estate where people are being presented with video content is growing rapidly as well. YouTube is definitely the dominant player; ranked as the #2 search engine in the world and the #1 channel for video content. For example, Shell has over 500 videos on their YouTube channel ranging from corporate profile videos, TV spots and career videos to community outreach videos, continued industry eduction videos and more. A quick search will find other companies with a strong YouTube presence such as BP, Chevron, Marathon Oil, etc. But YouTube isn't the only player. More and more oil and gas companies are adding video to their website. Some good examples are HESS, Anadarko and Tenaris. Professional social media sites like OilPro, Linkedin, Rigzone, and many others are pushing the use of video on company pages by making designated places for videos prevalent. On these sites, videos are just another part of your profile to upload. With the increasing demand for increased interconnectedness, these types of sites are here to stay. As retired offshore drilling consultant Stephen Peterson points out, "...[V]ideo channels within social media as well as social media adoption by the industry may lead to the rise of more O&G video..." Stephen is right. These kinds of sites are the most direct interface to the public, and oil and gas companies cannot afford to miss out on valuable public image enhancing opportunities through the use of the most widely accepted and sought after medium.
The bottom line is that facing down a poor public image is one battle that oil and gas companies are starting to win through video across a variety of different channels. But public perception is only one battle. How do you talk to the most promising recruits of the next generation? How do you most effectively train employees and implement internal initiatives? How do you explain to a potential customer who isn't able to make a site visit that you're fully capable of handling their business? How do you dynamically and accurately showcase your products and new technologies to the masses at trade shows? These are all challenges faced by the oil and gas industry and are all able to be solved with a singular solution: Video. At POP Video, we feel the same way as the major oil and gas companies in that a move away from blow out TV productions toward more affordable video alternatives is beneficial. Since there are so many different channels for content distribution, what's needed in today's video landscape is a portfolio of diverse, malleable video products as well as a video partner who understands your industry specific challenges and needs.
If you're looking to utilize video at your company, give us a call at POP Video today at let us help you Market With Motion.
Cheers,
Houston's Premier Video Marketing Company
Post photo courtesy of POP Video
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