Case Studies > City of Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro Drastically Increases Web Traffic and Online Media Viewership
City leverages Granicus' Digital Media Player and receives over 12,000 hits in one month
Problem
The Murfreesboro Cable TV department wanted stronger viewership numbers from meeting and non-meeting content and felt that many videos were lost in their online video library.
Solution
Using Granicus' new Digital Media Player, the Cable TV department was able to leverage the embed feature to post videos on several pages of their website.
Benefits
The city received more than 12,000 views to its media content, exceeding their annual goal in just one month. Murfreesboro was also able to drive the public to videos that had previously received low viewership numbers, helping the Cable TV department achieve immediate results.
Client Profile
Agency Type: Local Government
Population: 101,750
Client Since: 2008
Murfreesboro is located in the center of Tennessee, just 35 miles from Nashville, and is one of the nation’s fastest growing cities. The city was also ranked by Money magazine as one of the best places to live in the United States.
Murfreesboro wanted to increase web traffic and online media viewership
Like many government organizations today, Murfreesboro’s Cable TV department began to notice a rise in non-cable subscribers within their community. The city pushed government and educational programming through their cable channel however, non-cable subscribers were losing an opportunity to stay connected to their government. “We wanted to find another avenue for getting information out to those who didn’t have cable TV services, and we felt the Web was a good alternative,” recalls Alan Bozeman, Cable TV Coordinator for the City of Murfreesboro.
At the end of 2008, Murfreesboro contracted with Granicus to provide live and archived streaming media services through the city’s website. “We saw some immediate returns and Granicus turned out to be a really good solution for us,” says Bozeman.
While they received more than 8,000 archived views during the first year with Granicus, the Cable TV department felt that some programs and videos were not getting the traction they had hoped for. “We have a lot of content on our view page and noticed that some of it was getting lost,” says Bozeman. “It seemed that people didn’t know where to go to find our PSAs and non-meeting videos,” he continued.
The Cable TV department wanted to increase video visibility and control where they published media content on their website.
City implements a new, feature-rich video player
Bozeman and his team set a goal to increase their video hits from 8,000 to 10,000 in 2010 but were unsure what the next step would be. “I spoke to our Granicus Account Manager about some feature requests and ways we thought we could increase our viewership,” says Bozeman. “For example, the police department wanted to post a recruitment video online but wanted to embed the video in different locations and we struggled to make it work,” he continued.
Coincidentally, Granicus was developing a new media player with enhanced features and functionality to meet modern Web standards and empower customers do more with their video content. The new player allowed Murfreesboro to embed portions, or all of a video, on various web pages. It also gave viewers the option to share or embed video to websites and blogs. “Our Account Manager told us about a pilot group for a new video player which would help us meet some of our internal demands, so we agreed to be a part of it,” says Bozeman.
Murfreesboro receives more than 12,000 hits to its archived media within a month
When Murfreesboro implemented the Digital Media Player, the Cable TV department was curious to see what the new features could do for them. They took a City Council promotional video that was listed on their view page, copied the HTML code, and posted it to their homepage. In less than twenty-four hours the council video received over ninety hits.
In the first fifteen days of implementing the enhanced player, Murfreesboro’s viewership sky-rocketed and the city received more than 6,600 hits to their on-demand media content. Within a month, they had received 12,248 hits. “We had no idea what a success this would be. Last year we received 8,000 hits and in one month of going live with the new player we exceed that number,” says Bozeman. “I think it’s safe to say that we’ll reach our goal of 10,000 video hits this year,” he joked.
The embed feature allowed Murfreesboro to test which pages on their website were more popular for videos. The Cable department discovered that they could strategically place videos on pages that applied to a visitor’s interest, like the police recruitment video embedded on the police department’s page. “Embedding videos on various pages on our website has allowed us to reach more people and increase our website traffic,” says Bozeman. “We’ve also realized how important the image of a video is. People don’t always know to click on a link but they know to click on an image of a play button overlaying a video,” he continued.
Additional Benefits to the Granicus Solution:
- Decreased internal and public information requests
- Reduced the number of DVD copies and the production of meeting videos for staff and the public
- Won multiple awards for use of online video from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA)
- Upgraded to the Granicus Open Platform, allowing the city to archive all media content indefinitely
Murfreesboro's archive media viewership increased close to 2,000% in thirty days of implementing the Digital Media Player.