Need Some Opinions

astroanalyst

astroanalyst

Well-known member
I am working on a new site where video amateurs and semi pros can upload commercial spots to be viewed by industry people (we have industry connections). The name of the site is Commercial Pitch.com...

Questions that I need opinions on:
1) Is the site design too child like? Meaning would people take it seriously?
2) Do you think video professional like yourselves would participate in a site like this and upload 30sec and 60 sec spots? What would motivate you to make demo commercials for this site?


The site is NOT functional at all... it is in the EARLY development stage. Here is the link... I'm only looking for feedback on the opening page and the 'judging room'

http://www.commercialpitch.com/indextest.html

Thanks for you opinions!.... don't be too harsh... unless its justified...:)
 
1) Yes it is too child-like.
2) The only reason I would upload stuff here, is if you could guarantee that it is an industry destination. Otherwise, why not just put my reel on Mandy or whatever?

Those are my thoughts right off the top of my head.
 
I have to agree with Mark. One Baseball mascot is sort of cutesy, 4 or 5 of them is really bad. Between the baseball, the clap board, and the director's chair, there is no cohesive theme.
 
What's the benefit of uploading your video?
If you come up with a really inspired creative concept for a spot and upload it to the site everyone now has access to your concept. Creativity is a commodity. Giving it away for free is bad business. You're better off pitching that concept to a potential client.

If the long term goal is to create canned spots that can be custom branded for individual clients then you're behind the curve quite a bit. Spot Runner has a big head start on that business model.

http://www.spotrunner.com/ads/AdSearch.aspx

I'm not entirely clear on Spot Runners business model. But if I had to guess I would say it's similar to the Cable industry. They practically give the spots away because they make all their profits on the media buy.
 
milksac said:
I'm not entirely clear on Spot Runners business model. But if I had to guess I would say it's similar to the Cable industry. They practically give the spots away because they make all their profits on the media buy.
Click to expand...

Well it's twofold.
They practically give the spots away like many places practically give away royalty free music - because they sell the same spots to many many people. So while we may only make X amount on a commercial we sell, they can take a commercial and sell it 1,000 times with a new tag on it.

THen they buy airtime in bulk - so they get it dirt cheap.
Then they allow people to make these little microschedules that a cable or TV station would never allow because it's not worth their time.

Bascially - yeah - it's all about volume with them.

BUT - back on topic.
Yeah, looking at this 'commercial pitch' site - I don't really understand the concept.
 
Just to be clear the concept of Commercial Pitch.com is for amateurs and semi pros to participate in a pitch. The pitch can be in video format, audio format, or text. It is to entertain the viewing audience and to show ad execs.

So I do believe it is different from spotrunner
 
jdajda,

Everyday people have GREAT ideas. They may not be able to execute them in a professional format but that shouldn't take away from the ideas.
 
There is nothing to loose, give it a shot.
Personally I can't judge your site, it just an index page, I don't even know the level of interaction users will have.
Businesses on the web have low cost and grow slowly.
 
Purley on the design level; Nix the audio on the "buttons". Animated navigation is ok-ish, but the sound would drive me from the site in an instant.

- Mikko
 
I agree, get rid of the audio mouseovers. They scared me. Also, change all the buttons so that their graphic explains (visibly) where that button will take you (viewing room = tv set). Right now you have the same baseball icon for all the different sections of your site. People shouldn't have to move their mouse over a button to see what that button does.

Most importantly, and I say this for EVERY website review topic, you need to have some actual text on your site (not just flash/graphics) so search engines have something to crawl/fetch. As it is now nobody would ever find your site unless they just happen to search for "Commercial Pitch". You need to "cover your bases" (pun intended) and make sure that your content (actual text - not flash) has keywords that your audience will be searching for.

Content is king and, right now, your site doesn't have any content that a search engine can see.

Good luck with your site!
 
The success of this site is going to come down to two things, I think

1) How are you going to get Ad execs to come to the site to view the content?
Because without actual decision makers as an audience, pros (or semi-pros) won't have any incentive to upload quality work. So what you'll be left with is amateurish work. And without professional work, its even less likely to attract the ad execs you hope to reach...it becomes a vicious cycle. How do you get the audience if you don't have the content? And how do you get the content if you don't have an audience?

2) How are you going to protect the submitters content?
What is going to stop an ad exec from coming to your site, watching a spot and saying "hey, that's a great concept. Let's pitch that to Best Buy at our next meeting."
Without protection (which I have NO idea how you would handle something like this) pros are going to be pretty leary about submitting their best work....which leads back to problem #1


I'm not saying its not a good idea - just that there are a few obstacles that would need to be addressed to make this a successful venture.
Also - if you're hoping to attract the attention of ad execs in large agencies, I would spend some time looking at Ad Agency websites.
Look at how they present themsevles to the world - and do what you can to build a site that is more in tune with the industry.
As it looks now, yes, I do think its a bit too childish for agencies to take seriously.
I'm just trying to help with some feedback here - not trying to bring you down.

Best of luck with this.
:thumbsup:
 
Who are you targeting with this site? Ad agency folks? Production houses? If ad folks, well, you better be charging people just to look at stuff (and completely redesign the site to look very sophisticated) or the ideas are just going to get ripped off. Agency people aren't going to go to a client and say "we couldn't think of anything, but found this guy on this site." They'll take the idea and make it their own. Sorry to sound like a jade ad bastard, but, well, that's what I am. Sigh.

Maybe look at OpenAd.net. There, you pitch ideas and are guaranteed payment if your idea is used. I think it's based in Europe, so a US version would be nice. Just an idea. For free.
 
It renders as a big white space in a blue field, which says you need to intercept the variety of browser and flash variants that are out there and deal with them unless this is a hobby site.
 
1. it's too childlike AND it looks like it's closely related to baseball.
2. no, I wouldn't.

I think your problem is you are a little too "american" in your thinking. when you say pitch you obviously immediately think of baseball. that's not the case for me (and I produce a show for a sports TV network!). you are aiming for production professionals, not wannabe ballplayers. you need to focus on your target audience and they are usually not big baseball fans. the important point here is to make it obvious what the site is about, not make a funny statement about the name.

sorry for being so harsh but this is totally out of bounds

mor10
 
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