One of the great things about editing SleepMonsters is that on any given day I never know what is going to happen, not until I switch the computer on in the morning. I wasn't exactly expecting the news of a World Series Race Director absconding for example (more to come on that shortly), but it’s generally more mundane than that.One thing I can be sure of these days however it that there are a lot of great videos which are just a click away. It is part of the job to watch them and choose the best ones to feature on SleepMonsters (or so I tell myself). I’m on YouTube more than my teenagers!
I try to feature the videos on the home page for a day at least (we always show the latest one there), but yesterday I gave up and put up half a dozen great videos that all came in at once.
So now is a really good time to visit the Video page and I’d recommend looking in there regularly as it changes rapidly.
Settle down for 20 minutes with a coffee and you’ll find some really inspirational viewing. You’ll see mountain biking in Nepal and Vancouver Island, adventure racing in the Philippines and South Africa and clips from the European Outdoor Film Tour, but the overall theme is inspiration – a call to get out there and to keep going. Give them a watch and you’ll see what I mean.
A few years ago we held back from putting video on the site, partly for technical reasons, but mostly because there were not enough good videos out there. Now there are so many good ones it’s hard to keep up, which is the best kind of problem to have!
One reason is that companies have realised the commercial marketing opportunities of making professional videos to promote their brands. The best are not presented in an overly commercial way, but by associating themselves with inspirational footage (something Red Bull have done for more than a decade).
Again, watch the videos and you’ll see what I mean, but presenting commercial videos doesn't worry me – if they are prepared to put in the effort and to do a good job, then we’ll happily feature them on SleepMonsters.
