www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20100910tbf
Handbook Live changes advertising with interactive how-tos
By ELIZABETH MALLOY , The Daily Transcript
Friday, September 10, 2010
The idea for Handbook Live came to Beken and Smith two years ago after they had trouble with a cell phone. They couldn't get a certain feature to work, and were having trouble figuring it out from the handbook. They wanted someone to show them. A woman working at the store told them to read the handbook. The very first video they made as an example for customers was a video about that cell phone.
When the company first started, Smith would film videos for companies, and Beken edited them together. Now, they hire a videographer to shoot some videos, and in other cases the companies make their videos themselves.
Handbook Live has about 300 customers. Some only take advantage of the company's free service, in which a business can shoot a video and air it on Handbook Live's website. Then there are pay service levels in which companies can post a Handbook Live video on their own websites. The paid service levels range from $8.25 a month to $36.85 a month, offering varying levels of autonomy over the video.
Handbook Live also offers certain levels of privacy. If a property management company, for example, only wants its managers to view its videos, that setting can be arranged.
Instructional videos might seem like a natural fit for difficult technical devices, but Beken said sometimes even the simplest products can benefit from what Handbook Live offers -- even if it's just to convince people how simple it is. She mentioned Cake Vase, a product that helps nonprofessional bakers stylize cakes with flowers.
"It's just a little plastic tray that you put flowers in and then put on the cake," she said. "It's so simple, but you actually have to see it."
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