This week, Small Business editor Caitlin Sykes talks to business owners about video.
Animal behaviourist and star of the TV show Purina Pound Pups to Dog Stars Mark Vette has launched a new venture called Dog Zen - a video-based online training programme for dogs.
What was the idea behind Dog Zen?
We're on our second series of Purina Pound Pups to Dog Stars, which is now shown in more than 150 countries, and when we did the first series last year our business went nuts. We just couldn't service the demand at our animal behaviour clinic by any means, so that was really the driver for producing an online training programme. It was a way for anyone, anywhere in the world to access our skills and experience.
I've been working as an animal behaviourist for 40 years, so the programme is based on my years of research, study and work with the thousands of dogs I've treated. It's our unique approach to treating, training and rearing dogs. At the moment there are 30 videos in the series, and each are 15 to 20 minutes long. On the TV show I show my techniques for working with dogs, but in that format you don't have the scope to explain them fully and in a way that people can master them with their own dog. It takes a series like this to explain it bit by bit, and we're doing it in a medium that's accessible thanks to modern technology.
What was the production process like?
I did my first TV series, called Funny Farm, 20 years ago and we've worked behind the camera with animals on big movies like the Narnia series, The Last Samurai and The Lord of the Rings. So we have experience on both sides of the camera and working closely with production teams. But when it came to doing our own thing, and with this kind of product, it was quite a different animal.
Mark Vette.
I went to a number of production companies and talked to them about what we wanted to do, and how we wanted similar production values to Purina Pound Pups to Dog Stars. We went with a company called Thievery Studios in the end, and the director of photography from our TV show became the principal cameraman. He had experience with us, so it was great to have someone on board who knew how we worked with high quality camera skills.
And because we'd never done something like this before we talked early on with digital strategists and brought a whole marketing team in behind us. We've been building an online community as part of our strategy who we launch to first, and that's been incredibly successful. It's been a big production, and cost us a quarter of a million dollars to produce, so the best thing I think we did was bring in professionals.
How long did it take?
The creation of the Dog Zen programme has taken over three years, but we started the formal project a year ago. About eight months ago we got a digital strategist on board, the production team came on soon after that and it launches on 24 November.
How are you monetising the content?
We're launching it first in the New Zealand market, but it will be available around the world. Because it's a system, people purchase the series as a package. But it's just one part of a bigger picture and the programme will be ongoing. I'm writing the next series at the moment, which is called 'prevention is better than cure' and that will be the puppy-focused part of the series that will come out early next year. Then we'll do another series called 'old dog, new tricks', and the final series will focus on teaching kids how to train and work with their dog. Once those series are done, we'll start to offer individual videos and other things for sale, and we'll have our YouTube channel humming by then, so viewers can follow what we're up to each week.
What's been a key lesson you've learnt about creating video content?
While there's been an education component to what we do on TV, that medium is really driven by entertainment. But when you're actually servicing a direct educational need you have to go back into educational models to make sure you're focusing on making your product much more informative. The product does need to be entertaining so people will engaged by it, but none of that matters if the client can't put what you're showing them into practice with their own dog. You need the skills and ability to translate education messages in ways that are directly available and relevant.
