13 Appleby Avenue, South River, NJ 08882 (732) 613-1779 HIPVideo@aol.com
HIP VIDEO PROMO


FULL NATIONAL and REGIONAL MUSIC VIDEO PROMOTION
National and Regional Video Shows, Retail Pools, Clubs, Video On Demand and Internet Sites

Overview
Getting Started
Pricing and Dubbing Costs
Bi Weekly Tracking Reports

Overview:

HIP Video Promo is a full service music video promotion company with over nine years of experience. We work extensively with major labels (Sony, Universal, EMI) and labels with major distribution (Mute, Lost Highway, Tommy Boy), but we also specialize in helping smaller labels like Merge, Polyvinyl, Sub Pop, FatCat, and Side One Dummy get the word out about their artists and videos. We even help many independent artists with no label affiliation at all. We will promote your artist's music video to select national and regional video shows, retail video pools (outlets that provide in store music video reels to retailers, nightlife locations, fitness centers, cruise ships etc.), night clubs, video-on-demand providers, and various high-profile Internet outlets and blogs.

Special attention will be shown to the most high profile national outlets, such as: MTV Networks, Fuse, BET, Music Choice, MTV Latin America, Fuel TV, Havoc TV, and BPM, Aux TV and Much Music in Canada. The MTV Networks offer a very wide variety of programming opportunities for artists of all styles and size. Whether it be their specialty programming on MTV2 such as Subterranean, Rock The Deuce, Headbangers Ball, their ever-growing mtvU channel with their artist-breaking program The Freshmen, the extensive reach of the multiple MTV.com related websites and features, or their most recent success story, LOGO, we’ve got your submission covered. When applicable, we also work with the programmers at their other channels such as VH1, CMT, MTV Tre3 and others to make sure that your video is being pitched to all the right decision makers at these highly influential networks.

Regionally, our goal will be to achieve extensive and sustained airplay of your artist's video. Programmers will be made fully aware of your artist's video with promotional tracking calls, e-mail, contest information and tour itineraries of the artist. Your artist will also be featured on this site, as well as our HIP Video Promo blog and YouTube channel. A quick glance to your left will show you who we're working with right now, and we invite you to picture your artist's name on that list! Special promotions and contests will be pitched to many of the larger regional outlets including Video Hits, JBTV, New York Noise, and VidDream, while always trying to create a buzz at the large, multi-market shows like Power Play Music Television, Music Mix USA, Video Jam, and R&R TV.

On the Internet, we have long standing relationships with the established music video providers, like MTV.com, Fuse.tv, Yahoo Music, AOL Music, Billboard.com, MySpace.com, Blastro.com, Spike.com, SingingFool.com, and MTVu.com. A very popular addition to the HIP services is the creation of our YouTube page, HIP Video on YouTube, which we utilize to put our artist's videos on the popular website. One of the main benefits of this, apart from the considerable exposure it generates, is that you can be confident the quality of the video will be as high as possible, giving the viewer the chance to see it in it's best form (as opposed to the more maverick postings of excited fans, etc., who do not have the desired focus on quality). We launched our YouTube page in February of 2007, and to this date, we have accumulated close to five million views of the videos and original content on our page! You'll also notice an exclusive features of our page, the HIP Clip and HIP Spotlight, which is video-centric EPKs produced specially for your artist when they come to town. We also make this finely produced original content available to programmers all across the country to include in their own programming. We have learned from experience that if a video programmer uses a HIP Clip or HIP Spotlight, they usually will program the artist's video along with it, keeping sustained airplay at a maximum!

We don't neglect the personal touch, either. Andy and his staff maintain very friendly relations with all the important point people at the national outlets (MTV, Fuse etc.), but never take for granted the many video programmers and programming opportunities in all the little corners of the music video community. These secondary and tertiary markets are important, since this is where organic, grass roots support for a new and upcoming artist is many times originally generated. Each year in the month of March, Andy makes his cross-country pilgrimage (The HIP Video Promo Tour) to visit programmers all over the USA and spend quality face-time with them in their own market. With this kind of personal attention (from the founder of the company) you can be assured that your video won't be falling through any cracks. The HIP staff is also the best in the business, a combination of youthful exuberance and years of experience in the music industry. To check out the HIP staff, please visit our contact page.

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Getting Started:

OK, you've got a great video in the can, now what? How many dubs do you need? In what tape formats? (Beta SP? Digi-beta? DV-CAM?) Where do you send them? Which outlets can receive the video via FTP, and which need a physical copy? What information do you need to provide? There are forms to be filled out?! It can be one headache after another, and we see our mission here as sparing you those headaches by taking care of all the details for you. We realize that our clients have very full plates on a daily basis. For them to have all of their music video duplication, closed captioning, servicing, and promotion needs taken care of by professionals can be very helpful.

HIP Video Promo will service all applicable video outlets with a video dub, along with an informative, concise one sheet. This is where we, as your promoter, argue the case of why your video is worthy of the programmer's attention. To see examples of one sheets, click on any artist among the "Current Priorities" on the left side of this page. Very often the video is timed to correspond with a CD Release or an artist's tour and we will always work with the client to time the video promotion for maximum impact and exposure.

We encourage our clients to send us copies of the artist's latest CD and other promotional items to include in the packages we service the video dub in. Our list of video shows and outlets is the most comprehensive and up to date list in the industry (at last count we have over 140 outlets on our servicing list). If the servicing list needs to be cut down due to budgetary constraints, HIP Video Promo will work very hard to create a servicing list within your budget, selecting just those outlets that have the highest profiles and the greatest likelihood of sharing your musical and visual aesthetic.

We spend a lot of time getting to know your artist's music prior to the campaign, and we are always equipped with all the information necessary to get programmers excited about your artist. Our goal is to keep the video included in each individual outlet's programming for as long as possible. Our promotional strategies most often include contest giveaways and sending out promotional items like autographed CDs, T-shirts and stickers. We have also found that video IDs by the artists ("Hi, we're of Montreal and you're watching VidDream") are very helpful to achieve sustained airplay. We will also coordinate ticket giveaways and setting up in person video interviews with programmers all across the country while your artist is on tour. These interviews usually take place at the venue the artist is playing, so the programmer very often gets to see your artist perform live as well. HIP Video Promo will also make every attempt to see your artist when performing in the NYC or Philadelphia areas and take photos with them and invited programmers. Check out the photo pages on this site for examples. These programmers are influential tastemakers and opinion leaders in their markets, and a favorable impression made on them can enhance a video's exposure and staying power in that market.

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Pricing and Dubbing Costs:

Contrary to popular belief, servicing and promoting a music video can be much less expensive than what one might imagine. In fact, usually the budget to promote a music video is just a small fraction of the production cost. Sadly, many videos that were professionally done (and costly to the client) never see the light of day because they are not serviced fully or promoted extensively. HIP Video Promo is very independent friendly and we realize that budgets are tighter than ever before. Our dubbing services are consummately professional, with prices that are very reasonable. We know that the less a client has to spend to have the video dubs made and serviced, the more money they will have to promote the video. Our services make it so easy for the client that all they have to do is send us the digi-beta or beta sp master, or even just deliver the video to our FTP server as an uncompressed file and e-mail us the lyrics and we can take it from there.

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Bi-Weekly Tracking Reports:

Video airplay results will be reflected through tracking reports listing all the outlets that have or are currently programming the video, all adds and air dates. The report will also include information on each show including how many potential viewers they reach, what markets they are aired in and when the program is aired. Tracking reports are provided to the label and management, every two weeks. These reports will be e-mailed, with hard copies sent to the client.

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Please call Andy Gesner at HIP Video Promo at 732-613-1779 or email HIPVideo@aol.com to inquire further about our services. We will be thrilled to tell you all about the different promotional packages we have available in all price categories. We are experts at creating a tailor made music video campaign that fits your artist and your budget. We have plenty of references, too. Many well respected music industry professionals and label managers have given us the heads up that if there is ever a potential client needing to find out if HIP Video Promo keeps their word, they are available to you for consultation.

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Check out HIP Video Promo's "Frequently Asked Questions" HERE