[myNetWords.com] : Capsule Video

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Capsule Video

Updated : Wednesday 16 May 2012

For weeks now, we’ve been hearing a new phrase on the lips of the web marketers (specialists in marketing and communication on the web): capsule video. Video, we know. Capsule, we can figure out. The word comes from the Latin “capsula”, which means “little box”. But the use of the words in combination is not so obvious. My initial research led me down a blind alley (the discovery that a video capsule is also the term used for a new technique in endoscopy). On the internet, though, the word takes on a whole new meaning. It means a short video, less than one minute long, used by companies to promote themselves or a product or service online. The aim is to arouse the interest of internet users and create a real buzz that drives up the company’s sales. The use of the word “capsule” is presumably intended to show that the clip is short – a mini video, in the same way that a capsule in its original sense is a small box.

The video can be in a very basic form, with the entrepreneur using his webcam to film himself saying nice things about his product. This “face to face” version is mostly pretty uninspiring. But marketing and communications agencies have now started to jump on the capsule video bandwagon, and are producing high definition capsules every bit as polished as the best adverts. The capsule video is to web 2.0 what the advertising slot is to television.

Where price is concerned, the capsule video is a more accessible form of advertising than the traditional film. This explains why it has started to attract SMEs, boutiques and members of the professions who don’t have the advertising budgets to promote themselves in the mainstream media. On Youtube, though, you might find a capsule video by a nutritionist introducing a new slimming programme, or a winemaker singing the praises of his favourite grape variety. One jewellery shop has chosen this new marketing tool as a way of attracting customers online. There’s also the fact that the short format is very well suited to social networking sites: with microblogging, you are limited to 140 characters, and with the capsule video, you have less than a minute to tell your story in images.

Web specialists are predicting that 90% of online content will be in video form by 2013. If they are right, the capsule video has a bright future. That said, its success will depend on the quality of the content; I must say I have been underwhelmed by the capsules I’ve watched so far, and one minute seemed more than long enough. We’ll just have to hope that, like any new tool, its quality will improve as it matures. The capsule video is very much in tune with the mood of the moment as it saves time (you just zap), and the subject matter is very focused. Fashion has adopted the term capsule too, to mean a mini-collection, a special limited edition often produced by an outside designer, like the capsule collection created by Karl Lagerfeld for the US store, Macy’s. This gives the term capsule an upmarket feel, conveying the notion of something special or select. The capsule provides a way of reviving well-worn concepts that have lost their appeal: the good old advertising slot becomes a “capsule video” and a new clothing range is a “capsule collection”. Before very long, hard-pressed mothers will no longer be offering their kids a boring snack instead of a meal but “capsule dining” – much more fun. And the owner trying to rent a ridiculously small flat has a much better chance of finding a tenant by calling it a “capsule studio” than – well, a broom cupboard. We’ll soon get the hang of “encapsulating” everything.