I don’t think anyone would argue that the newspaper industry is caught in a downward spiral they will be hard-pressed to recover from. According to Nielsen, U.S. ad spending dropped 12% in the 1st quarter of 2009 with the largest drop being Local Sunday Supplements at 37.7%. We have our own theory on how this decline will play out in the coming years, but retailers are scrambling to figure out how they supplement or replace those Sunday inserts. One such retailer is Office Depot.

Our V.P. of Media and Marketing Services, Tom Bolger, recently sent me an article from AdWeek titled Office Depot’s Sunday Circular Goes Digital. Office Depot is shifting dollars from their Sunday circular program to an online show that highlights weekly deals. At first glance, the idea is certainly intriguing with 70% of internet users and 44% of the general population viewing video in 2008. It’s more important than ever to connect with customers online and provide them with social tools to connect and share information with each other. But just creating video isn’t enough.

US Online Video Viewers and Penetration

Consumer expectations are high. Marketers must ENGAGE customers if they expect to capture and keep their attention. This means either providing a strong value or entertaining them in some way—or both if you really plan well. In the case of the Office Depot Survival of the Smartest series, they are providing value through the tips, products, promotions, and services they reveal throughout the videos, but is that enough?

A marketer must be able to answer the following questions when using online video:

  1. What will direct our customers’ attention to these videos in the first place? This is especially tricky for Office Depot given the general lack of excitement surrounding their products. Who wants to watch a video from an office supply store each week if they can thumb through a circular in 30 seconds?
  2. How will we keep their attention long enough to view a 3-4 minute video? If I had viewed the first video as a customer rather than a marketer, I would never have made it to the end. The humor, which includes one of the hosts hitting on a female counterpart, is completely scripted and generally just silly.
  3. How will we keep them coming back for more? See #2. If you don’t engage customers from the first viewing they won’t return.

Blendtec, on the other hand, is probably the most well known and most successful attempt at creating an ongoing series of videos to promote a product. On the Will It Blend website you can view over 85 different videos of Tom Dickson (now famous thanks to the successful campaign) blending everything from an iPhone to glow sticks. The Will It Blend series is engaging with its retro appearance and music, campy humor and shock value. And with over 83 million views on Facebook, they have clearly managed to engage their consumers.

What do you think? Is the Office Depot video series a hit or a miss? Are there other examples of retailers using online video successfully?