An expanded use of product videos played a big role in holiday results at fun-loving gadget site ThinkGeek.com. Vice president and general manager Caroline Offutt says that for one product alone, sales doubled from previous levels the day that a video demonstrating the product was selected as a featured video on YouTube’s home page.
While Offutt didn’t disclose numbers, she did note sales of the product, the battery-powered Fly Stick Van de Graff “levitation wand” that causes mylar shapes to float in air, received an added boost from the fact that the featured spot on YouTube.com resulted in huge views of the video. The boost in views then kept the video high on most-viewed and most commented-on lists on YouTube for a run of four to five days, ThinkGeek says.
“We can really say of the Fly Stick that it is because of the YouTube video that this became one of our Top 10 products for the holiday,” Offutt says. While ThinkGeek hasn’t correlated the effect of videos on YouTube to sales of other products, Offutt says all the retailer’s videos—whether on its retail site or on YouTube—boost brand image. The videos, all produced in-house by ThinkGeek staff, cover about 95 of the estimated 1,300 products the retailer offers and they generally feature the tongue-in-cheek overtone that’s become a big part of ThinkGeek.
“The videos we do really help get our brand identity out there. It’s a big part of who ThinkGeek is,” Offutt says.
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