Demand For Multimedia Within The E-Commerce World Is Growing And Market America Shows How Companies Can Keep Up

By Hayden McConnell, Market America | SHOP.COM

In a world that now revolves around the internet, it’s safe to say that if your business does not have an online presence, it might as well not exist. e-commerce companies know this especially well, being that the heart of their business is online. Nowadays, it’s not just about being interactive; that mindset alone is no longer going to keep you ahead of the game. It might have been 20-plus years ago when the internet first came around, but now (as most everyone knows), it’s about what best captures an audience’s attention. A large component of a company’s online success now falls within multimedia. Market America | SHOP.COM’s Director of Multimedia, Dave Liberstein, is here to give us a little insight into how he runs such a vital division of a thriving e-commerce company.

Liberstein’s team shoots, animates, designs, edits, and produces content for not just one but two distinct audiences – (1) global online shoppers from around the world who visit SHOP.COM and have millions of products and services to choose from daily and (2) Market America | SHOP.COM distributors, known as UnFranchise Owners (UFOs), who own their own SHOP.COM site and send their customers to purchase what they need and want so that these global UFOs can grow their own business.

With thousands of videos, more than 25 multimedia department Telly Awards, Communicator Awards, Videographer Awards, and close to 20 years building and leading the Market America | SHOP.COM multimedia department, Liberstein knows a thing or two about what it takes to assemble a great multimedia team. Having watched the online world progress to where it is today, he discusses the three most important components for businesses looking to build multimedia teams.

Starting with production, Liberstein stresses the importance of finding someone who can lead the team, help build scripts, and move ideas into the production process. Depending on the size of the company, this could be one producer or a whole production team. The pre-production stage is important because it’s where ideas get fine-tuned and ready to be made tangible. This leads us to the second component of production: a team to bring those ideas to life. From cameras and filming to lights/audio and directing talent, it’s important to put together a team whose job is to focus on executing those ideas. Last but not least is the post-production team, responsible for putting together what the first two teams created. From editing, 2D and 3D animations, motion graphics, and final touches, this is where it all comes together. Liberstein emphasizes that the process of creating videos is complex, therefore curating a well-rounded multimedia team is a must.

Liberstein also has worthy insight on the multimedia industry as a whole, knowing where a company should keep its focus to remain relevant in a world where it’s difficult to keep up. “In my mind, multimedia is one of the most important marketing tools you have at your disposal. It all works together with marketing across the board. It’s imagery, video, audio, everything you need to market your company,” he says. “In fact, my team works closely with the product managers, the marketing team, and the executive sales team almost every day. We partner with the product managers to develop all of the videos that showcase the groundbreaking Market America–exclusive products that are sold worldwide. We partner with the marketing team to produce holiday shopping videos and new product video content that is uploaded to the various consumer-facing websites and we partner with the executive sales team to produce new training videos and various sales aids that help our UFOs introduce entrepreneurs to the UnFranchise Business and the Shopping Annuity, a unique business model that helps smart shoppers supplement their income through SHOP.COM. While all of this is going on each week, my team is also producing an entirely different set of videos that will debut at either our World Conference in Miami, Florida, or our International Convention that’s held in Greensboro, North Carolina where our global headquarters is located,” says Liberstein.

Not only does Liberstein’s team provide all of this new video content that runs on mammoth-sized screens and monitors at each event, the team also shoots new content each day at each event that includes interviews and b-roll distributed to local and national media, daily recaps that act as visual experiences, allowing attendees to reminisce in the day’s key moments, while also building excitement for the next day. The final day of the event features Liberstein’s pièce de résistance — a video montage set to music that captures the entire four-day event, featuring speakers and attendees and the various magical moments that are brought to life once more onscreen to officially end each event. Then, with that event complete, Liberstein’s team will already be in the planning stages for the next event that will take place approximately six months later.

“When we roll the video that ends each event, I like to think that this particular video captures the emotion and excitement and shows the energy and passion that visually demonstrates a global event of that size. It’s important to me that this particular video act as each attendee’s recap of their experience that they can take home and share with others,” said Liberstein.

While the team produces hundreds of videos each year, Liberstein discusses how most audiences don’t want to watch videos longer than 30 seconds, saying “People don’t want to be overwhelmed, but you have to keep things streaming through their devices to let them know what’s out there,” reminding companies that while it’s important to get their content out there, they can’t expect their audience to want to engage with lengthy videos. “We’re always trying to come up with creative new concepts that we would want to watch,” Liberstein says, pointing out the importance of not only focusing on creating something the audience would want to watch but the creators as well.

Whether it’s for events, product advertising, or educating their UFOs, Market America | SHOP.COM knows how essential multimedia is to an e-commerce company. As Liberstein says, “It brings it to life,” and he couldn’t be more spot on. After all, what would e-commerce be without it?

About The Author

Hayden McConnell is the former Public Relations Assistant at Market America | SHOP.COM. She is an alumna of Elon University and her passions include writing, digital art, and creating.

About Market America

Market America | SHOP.COM is a global product brokerage and internet marketing company that specializes in one-to-one marketing and is the creator of The Shopping Annuity.