Connect the dot-coms

Live Link Video in Lyndhurst adds hyperlinks to Web clips, making them fully interactive
Brandon Baker - bbaker@news-herald.com

Adam Marino isn't too different than those who find online video as a sales tool to be a helpful, revolutionary development. He just thinks his company, Lyndhurst-based FlipSeek LLC, can be the one to take the medium to the next level.

Shortly after the new year the online media firm introduced Live Link Video, a video format with hyperlink technology and an aim to connect the viewer with the items in the video. Marino and his vice president of sales, Ken Adamic, said they think Live Link gives retailers and other businesses a way to cash in on the YouTube/embedded video craze that has swept Web sites and blogs during the last two years.

The proximity of the user-product connection depends on the viewer's wishes.

FlipSeek's pilot video for the technology, found on its Web site (www.livelinkvideo.com), is a Gap commercial that advertises sweaters, jackets and hats. If one hovers the mouse over an item, a small bubble appears, providing the product name and price. Marino and staff also throw in some humorous captions like "Bad dancing, $0.00" for good measure.

Clicking on a clothing article brings the user to the garment's page on the Gap Web site. The Gap is not an actual client of FlipSeek, but Marino hopes to land them and thousands more.

"The technology can go in so many different directions," Marino said. "It's a pretty straightforward concept, but its uses are kind of across the board."

While a clothing or electronics retailer could use the medium to influence an immediate purchase, Greg Pawluk, operating partner for the Saturn dealerships of the Sunnyside Automotive Group, said he thinks the video could be used as a virtual tour of a dealership.

Those dealerships, including the Mentor location, are in talks with FlipSeek to implement the videos on their Web sites.

Pawluk can vision the mouse-hovering effect giving the consumer more information about a particular car, available colors and other features.

"I'm always looking for a way to make our Web sites more interesting," Pawluk said.

"It would differentiate our Web site to have someone watch a video on Saturn products - I just think it's a great concept."

Marino said FlipSeek is also hoping Marc's Deep Discount Stores will add the technology to its Web site, possibly through commercials featuring produce and other products.

"From or research, video is the new wave of the Internet," Adamic said. "Now, with interactive video, it's going to be almost a must."

Marino hopes the idea, thought of by his wife Kendra, also will lead the company to television networks as clients. The Food Network, for example, would be ideal with its recipe and program archives.

Adam said neither he nor Kendra can take credit for inventing the technology but the company can advance it. Industry types have been researching hyperlink video for years without any widespread application of it.

"We thought, 'We're smart business guys. We'll figure out something to do with this,' " Marino said. "Let's make it better, faster and easier to deploy.... Let's make a business model and target some markets."