Video Apps Dazzle, But They're Just Another Channel to be Managed

As I work on more video projects, particularly for online, I am apt to track the interactive video platform providers. I have some experience from my days with Symbol Technologies and Motorola evaluating small, custom video platforms (sometimes with no CMS behind them, oy!) to larger, varied providers such as Accela, Vignette, WebCollage, Feedroom and Brightcove.

Interesting how in this marketing spot from Brightcove, they are positioning themselves as the Windows platform of video. Hundreds of developers, they claim, add additional value to the platform with bolt-on applications.



The applications allow things such as links to Wikipedia and related video (from an Apture application, for example) to embedded commentary and more.

All these apps make the front end look shiny.

My question is, however, based on my dreaded experience with CMS: What's the back end look like? How cumbersome does all this get?

My experience with integrated marketing leads me to ask: what do we do with these varied additional channels and how do we track their usefulness?

If it were just about delivering cool to the customer, then additional apps are a no-brainer. But you do have internal processes and internal resources to be mindful off.

Just something I like to keep in mind, to keep my app lust in check, during these dazzling presentations.