The Marketing Technology Blog

Today I was introduced to Cantaloupe TV by one of the Jo DiGregory, one of the founding partners. The story behind Cantaloupe is a compelling one and it’s worth taking a look at. The team at Cantaloupe has their own take on what they are trying to achieve, but I would liken it to video replicating the blogging phenomenon.

Cantaloupe isn’t video that’s built on a fancy user interface or awesome video mixing and effects. Instead, Cantaloupe’s model is to ensure that content and conversation is key - building credibility and ‘the story’ to link videos together and bring people back. Cantaloupe has their own ‘videosphere’ model.

Sites can be constructed that aggregate the video content (’channels’), this way unique but similar audiences from each site can be exposed to each other. Cantaloupe promotes the series of videos, not just one off videos. Again, the goal is to keep the audience in the conversation, not just show some high-tech production that baffles the mind rather than engaging it.

Take a look at the Understanding Cantaloupe TV page on their site. As they put it:

Stories about you, your business and your industry.
Cantaloupe uses the power of video to capture engaging serendipitous, “as it happens” stories about you while using the power of the internet to pass them around…

Content can be targeted and measured to the audience. Each video’s ‘readership’ can be monitored and measured to see if people are watching the entire thing or bailing out early. It’s really cool stuff. The team is also bringing in some Search Engine resources to ensure using the technology will also get the attention it deserves from search engines. If you’d like, you can check out some of their Video Magazines as well.

The technology is incredibly affordable as well. I’m always amazed at how expensive you’ll find these services online, Cantaloupe has an opportunity to change the business and drive these costs into the ground - without sacrificing anything in between. As Jon put it, it’s not about “How cool the spinning Flash button is on the site, it’s about the message!”.

Be sure to check out the Reality Series that Cantaloupe did on itself, it’s really intriguing.

I’ll be getting more exposure to Cantaloupe TV soon, since there will be an upcoming Indianapolis Technology Conference that I’m speaking that will use the technology (more to come on this… early December). Cantaloupe TV is like many of the businesses I see sprouting here in Indianapolis.

The common thread appears to be that Indianapolis Technology businesses are about solving the problem and not worrying about the fluff. We’ll leave that to our cousins in San Jose. The technology sector is really growing into a thriving community here and we’re beginning to organize ourselves. It’s great to be a part of it!

As for the name, Cantaloupe, it’s one of those cool names that just happened… as Jon was digging into a cantaloupe, of course.