By Paul Oddi

From time to time some of my students find themselves looking around at websites from other clubs and send me a link to information posted on these websites. One such link was to a local karate club and a lovely video presentation containing with a series of videos which out the different benefits of martial arts for children.

Clubs posting videos highlighting their programs are nothing new, but what drew my attention was that each of these videos was pre-empted with a testimonial  by a gentlemen named ‘Dave Kovar’ who as he states is a ‘Professional Martial Arts instructor’ who wants to introduce us to that club ‘…one of the top martial arts academies in Canada.’.  That’s quite an endorsement.

Of course I have personally never heard of Mr. Kovar, and being the curious person that I am decided to learn a little more about him by looking him up online.  I found that Mr. Kovar is a martial arts instructor who owns a chain of clubs in California and New Jersey. But it seems that Mr. Kovacs appears to have also have a second career as a ‘Professional Spokesman’ as he can be found in dozens of similar video presentations at schools across America.

Here are a few:

http://www.selectmartialarts.com/alpha/selectmovie.aspx

http://www.selectmartialarts.com/atlantic/selectmovie.aspx

http://www.selectmartialarts.com/karatefit/selectmovie.aspx

http://www.selectmartialarts.com/Ridgewood/selectmovie.aspx

or view dozens more:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=http://www.selectmartialarts.com/+site:selectmartialarts.com&hl=en&filter=0

This kind of online video advertising is known by names such as Spokesperson Video, Virtual Spokesperson, Web Commercials, Video Salesperson, Internet Spokesperson and Web Spokesperson, with the idea being that you capture your visitor’s attention, and deliver a professional message. No different than any other commercial.

If you’re going to deliver a message about your products, services or in this case your club, shouldn’t it be an authentic one, and not some ‘canned’ or ‘cookie-cutter’ message that is used over and over again by dozens of clubs? How much is such an endorsement really worth?