Taking videos of your vehicles

[Matt DoCampo]

We have the same issue. Unless I want to add Videographer to my job description I'll stick with our Dealer.Com CarFlix videos which, by the way, when shown to laymen like my wife can't be differentiated between live video and the SEO value is there!

We are transitioning away from photo slideshows and moving towards an actual video walkaround. The customer reaction has been fantastic. To the point that I was asked to implement them at two of our other speciality brand stores. Once eBizAutos works out a bug in their system we will be able to add voice narration from the inventory tool and then auto export to our third-party sites.

For now I am filiming with a FlipUltra and manually uploading to YouTube, then embedding it into our vehicle descriptions.

 

[joe.pistell]

My videos need help. I need a call to action. I'm fishing for ideas. I've got a video project in moth balls Welcome To The Used Car King TV.

We shoot a butt load of video every month. I've worked out all the mechanical issues, uploading/hosting and distribution, I've got videos embeded all over the home site, but, on the stand alone video site (Welcome To The Used Car King TV), the video player works, but, it needs help.

Any ideas and observations are welcome

 

[VaBeachVideoGuy]

I've noticed a lot of people are going to the flip cam solution for shooting videos for the web...walkarounds or whatever. Just a note on that...a lot of them are using mpeg4 as their native format, because it's very compressed and doesn't eat up your memory disc, and is quick for uploads. These are good things. If you have to edit the footage you're shooting however, and aren't doing a direct upload of the actual video you shot, many of the basic freebie or cheap editing systems don't work with mpeg4 format, so you'll have to convert the file type with a format converter, which is a pain, or probably spend a few more bucks for a nicer editing system to work with the format.

Just something to keep in mind.

Also, a tip when shopping for a flip cam, a lot of them have USB drives that flip out and are directly attached to the unit so you can plug the cam directly into your computer. These break easily and as soon as they do, your camera is useless!

I'd suggest getting a camera that simply has a USB output port and utilizes a 3rd party cable.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

Dealer Refresh Nation I'm going to give this old thread a karate kick. I know there is a few threads right now that are all closely related.

I have a Canadian dealership I've been following and am trying to give them some advice on how to improve their videos. This may seem like a dirty trick to plug my own blog but it would be great to see over time if the on-line dealer community can come together and watch this little Honda dealer grow.

They have 106 vids on their Youtube page and I think in the beginning it was quantity over quality.

I gave my thoughts in the blog review and would love to hear yours.

You can make comments on the video here --->Alex Bradshaw at Huntsville Honda knows how to use Video

Or just watch the video right here. First thought was "DO NOT PLAY 'LOSER' BY BECK FOR YOUR BACKGROUND TUNES"

 

[Lanecf]

We're currently creating some in-house videos for target vehicles, service demos, etc. but for our primary vehicle videos, we've had Fast Ads (AutoTrader's/United Media) for the past several months. We're currently analyzing CarFlix by Dealer.com vs. Fast Ads, anyone have any experience comparing the two?

Fast Ads seems to have better scripts/voice-overs, but we're looking for better SEO. It appears that CarFlix offers better onsite SEO. Any comments would be appreciated!