Online corporate videos have been around for a while, but the production of thought leadership videos by Professional Service Firms (PSFs) that feature their clients and other business associates is a trend to watch.

Take a look at Govtube, an online (streaming) video by Bearing Point featuring US government officials and their thoughts on today’s political, economic and business issues.

It would be hard to differentiate Bearing Point’s videos from vignettes from CNN or CNBC.

We were suitably impressed.

Or take a look at the videos on Deloitte’s Leadership Academy portal featuring CEOs from around the world, as they talk about their leadership lessons.

As we have said previously, web2.0 (and streaming videos) has certainly invaded corporate communications.

We recently wrote about a “Face-book friendly” email we received. It’s not just Millennials who choose to communicate with photos and videos these days.

In the US, the top video streaming site after YouTube is hulu, a site set up as a joint venture between NBC Universal Inc. and News Corp. site that focuses exclusively on professional content.

We won’t be surprised if enterprising PSFs start to upload their video features on their own channels on Youtube or on hulu under “News and Information” or “Talk and Interview”.

Bearing Point has a page on Twitter for its Govtube videos, so that its followers can be alerted to each new upload.

Video production and editing has become very affordable and simple. You no longer need special editing suites or high-end equipment to do a commendable job. Much can be done with raw video footage within a day on an imac.

Increasingly, people are watching videos on their smartphones.

3G subscriptions in Asia Pacific for example, are relatively high and growing. Japan is the clear leader with 91 million subscribers. Over 30% of many Asian populations have 3G available on their phones.

To marketing managers for PSFs, we’d say it’s time to pick up some video editing best practices – look out for some tips in our next entry.

For more information, please contact Manifesto