Using video online is an excellent way to capture the imagination of your readers and get your message across. I first used it on a Britsh Heart Foundation Fndraising campaign in 2002 and got some excellent results.
However, including any sort of gizmos in emails is fraught with problems, and many email clients and coprporate IT departments will block anything that isn’t just text or plain HTML.
This email (supposedly) from Canada Tourism Commission has a great approach.
(click to enlarge)
The ‘video’ is just an image with the familiar click-to-play arrow that we are all used to seeing from Youtube. Click on the video and you are taken through to a website with an awesome ski video. The landing page with the video also has links to a competition sign-up.
As well as getting over the problem of getting their emails through, they also get some valuable click-through data for the campaign.
Simple, but very effective, especially with the quality of the video on the landing page.
So good, I can almost forgive the spammers who set the campaign up. You’re clever boys, but very naughty boys.