Privideo - School of Computing

MSc in Electronic Commerce
PRIVIDEO PRACTICUM REPORT
Students:
Grace Kenny
Catherine Byrne
Graham O’Dowd
Arthur Cabeli
58448477
58412375
12211993
12212235
Advisors:
Prof. Alan Smeaton
Dr. Jean Cushen
Computing
Business
August 2013
PriVideo - Group N
Acknowledgements
Firstly, we would like to sincerely thank our Advisors, Prof. Alan Smeaton of the School of
Computing and Dr. Jean Cushen of the Business School. We are extremely grateful for the
time, knowledge and perspectives you both shared with us. Without this help, the project
would not have advanced to this stage.
We are also extremely grateful to all of the DCU Business and Computing School lecturers
who gave us advice throughout the course of the practicum, specifically Dr. Eric Clinton, Mr.
Jack Nagle and Dr. Cathal Gurrin.
We would also like to thank all of the industry professionals we spoke with, from Allianz,
Ernst & Young, KPMG, Arthur Cox, Crowley’s Solicitors, the Office of the Data Protection
Commissioner and the Irish Patents Office. The feedback we received helped us refine and
grow the concept to its current stage.
To all MECB lecturers, thank you for doing your part to share some of your knowledge with
us, we believe each module played a part in helping us to develop this concept and will
continue to help as we complete this year.
Finally, we have to thank all of our families and friends. We can’t begin to state how much
we appreciate your patience in listening to us discuss privacy at great lengths, your feedback
on all of our ideas and your support and understanding, which helped us greatly over the
course of the year.
Thank you all,
Grace, Catherine, Graham & Arthur
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 0
Section 1: Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 7
1.1 Introducing PriVideo ....................................................................................................... 8
1.2 PriVideo Solutions ........................................................................................................... 8
1.3 Why the Internet needs PriVideo ..................................................................................... 8
1.4 Why companies need PriVideo ........................................................................................ 8
1.5 PriVideo’s Target Market ................................................................................................ 9
1.6 Business & Revenue Models ........................................................................................... 9
1.7 Competition...................................................................................................................... 9
1.8 Current status of the project ........................................................................................... 10
1.9 Potential of PriVideo...................................................................................................... 10
1.10 Financial Projections for PriVideo............................................................................... 10
Section 2: PriVideo, the Concept .......................................................................................... 11
2.1 PriVideo, the Concept .................................................................................................... 11
2.2 Novelty of PriVideo ....................................................................................................... 11
2.3 Current Problems ........................................................................................................... 12
2.3.1 Extent of Customer Queries .................................................................................... 13
2.4 The Core Product ........................................................................................................... 14
2.5 The Overall PriVideo service......................................................................................... 15
2.6 Product Tiers .................................................................................................................. 16
2.7 Benefits of Product ........................................................................................................ 17
2.8 Motivation for the Product ............................................................................................. 19
2.9 Need for the Education of Users .................................................................................... 19
2.10 Why companies need our product................................................................................ 20
2.11 Potential of the Concept ............................................................................................... 22
Section 3: Video Content ....................................................................................................... 24
3.1 Why Video? ................................................................................................................... 24
3.2 Legal Requirements of our Videos ................................................................................ 24
3.2.1
The legal aspects of the PriVideo service .......................................................... 26
3.3 Video as a source of Learning ....................................................................................... 27
3.4 Video as a source of Entertainment ............................................................................... 27
3.5 Determining Video Length ............................................................................................ 27
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3.6 Information Recall ......................................................................................................... 28
3.6.1 Example of PriVideo Information Recall in action ................................................ 28
3.7 Icons used by PriVideo .................................................................................................. 28
3.8 Video Development ....................................................................................................... 30
3.9 Brand Incorporation & PriVideo ................................................................................... 30
3.10 Video Summary Table ................................................................................................. 31
Section 4: Primary Research................................................................................................. 32
4.1 Interviews Conducted .................................................................................................... 32
4.2 Questionnaire ................................................................................................................. 33
4.2.1 Questionnaire response tables ................................................................................. 33
4.2.2 Charts based on Questionnaire ................................................................................ 36
4.2.3 Questionnaire Comments ........................................................................................ 39
4.3 Focus Group ................................................................................................................... 41
4.3.1 Structure of the Focus Group .................................................................................. 41
4.3.2 Privacy Concerns of Participants ............................................................................ 42
4.3.3 Participants views on Privacy Policies ................................................................... 43
4.3.4 Focus Group Video Prototype Feedback ................................................................ 43
4.3.5 Focus Group Brand discussion ............................................................................... 44
4.3.6 Video as a source of Information ............................................................................ 45
4.4 Primary Research & PriVideo in the Future .................................................................. 45
4.4.1 Example of Future Research ................................................................................... 46
4.5 The applicability of PriVideo......................................................................................... 46
Section 5: Market & Industry Analysis ............................................................................... 50
5.1 Our Market ..................................................................................................................... 50
5.1.1 Our Target Market .................................................................................................. 50
5.1.2 Target Countries...................................................................................................... 51
5.1.3 Market Opportunity ................................................................................................ 53
5.1.4 Market Trends ......................................................................................................... 53
5.1.5 Targeted Industries.................................................................................................. 54
5.1.6 Distribution ............................................................................................................. 55
5.1.7 Future Market potential........................................................................................... 55
5.1.8 Market Value .......................................................................................................... 56
5.1.9 Targeted Market Share ............................................................................................ 57
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5.2 Industry & Internal Analysis .......................................................................................... 58
5.2.1 PESTLE Analysis ................................................................................................... 58
5.2.2 Porters 5 forces Analysis ........................................................................................ 62
5.2.3 SWOT Analysis ...................................................................................................... 65
5.3 Competitors .................................................................................................................... 69
5.3.1 Direct Competitors .................................................................................................. 69
5.3.2 Indirect Competitors ............................................................................................... 70
5.3.3 Other Competitors ................................................................................................... 71
5.3.4 Competitors Tables ................................................................................................. 73
5.3.5 Indirect competitors ................................................................................................ 74
Section 6: Our Business Strategy & Business Model .......................................................... 76
6.1 Our Business Strategy .................................................................................................... 76
6.1.1 Our Strategy: Background ...................................................................................... 77
6.1.2 Our Strategy: Differentiation .................................................................................. 78
6.1.2 Product Timeline ..................................................................................................... 79
6.1.3 Possible Exit Strategy ............................................................................................. 79
6.2 Business Model .............................................................................................................. 80
6.2.1 PriVideo Mission Statement ................................................................................... 80
6.2.2 Benefits Highlighted to Customers ......................................................................... 80
6.2.3 Business Model Canvas .......................................................................................... 81
6.3 Revenue Model .............................................................................................................. 88
6.3.1 Product Tiers & Price Bands................................................................................... 88
6.3.2 Challenges with this revenue model ....................................................................... 91
6.3.3 Revenue Sources for Year One ............................................................................... 91
6.4 PriVideo’s Target Customers ......................................................................................... 93
6.4.1 Who are our customers?.......................................................................................... 93
6.4.2 What can we offer our Customers? ......................................................................... 93
6.4.3 Our Industries.......................................................................................................... 94
6.4.4 Future Targeting of Customers ............................................................................... 98
6.5 Risk Assessment .......................................................................................................... 100
6.5.1 Technological Risks .............................................................................................. 100
6.5.2 Legal Risks: .......................................................................................................... 101
6.5.3 Internal Risks ........................................................................................................ 102
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6.5.4 Market Risks: ........................................................................................................ 103
Section 7: Our Marketing Strategy .................................................................................... 104
7.1 Branding ....................................................................................................................... 104
7.1.1 Brand Logo ........................................................................................................... 105
7.1.2 The significance of our Brand............................................................................... 105
7.1.3 Brand Equity ......................................................................................................... 106
7.2 SEO & Web Design ..................................................................................................... 107
7.2.1 Why SEO? ............................................................................................................ 107
7.2.2 New Age SEO ....................................................................................................... 107
7.2.3 Traditional SEO .................................................................................................... 108
7.3 Blogging & Public Relations ....................................................................................... 109
7.3.1 Benefits of Blogging for PriVideo ........................................................................ 109
7.3.2 Blog Approach ...................................................................................................... 110
7.3.3 Blog Engagement .................................................................................................. 110
7.3.4 Blog Promotion ..................................................................................................... 110
7.4 Pay-Per-Click Advertising ........................................................................................... 111
7.4.1 PPC Aims & Approach ......................................................................................... 111
7.4.2 Creating Brand Awareness using PPC .................................................................. 111
7.4.3 Generating Leads using PPC ................................................................................ 112
7.4.4 PPC Metrics .......................................................................................................... 112
7.5 Social Media Presence ................................................................................................. 113
7.5.1 Why will PriVideo utilise social media? .............................................................. 113
7.5.2 How will we engage in social media?................................................................... 113
7.5.3 Linking our Social Media Efforts ......................................................................... 115
7.6 Trade Shows................................................................................................................. 115
7.6.1 Developing Positive Brand Associations .............................................................. 115
7.6.2 Why Trade Shows? ............................................................................................... 115
7.6.3 Objectives for Trade Shows .................................................................................. 116
7.6.4 Sample Trade Shows............................................................................................. 116
7.6.5 Future Presence at Trade Shows ........................................................................... 117
7.6.6 Trade Show Requirements .................................................................................... 117
7.6.7. Trade Show Preparation ....................................................................................... 117
Section 8: The PriVideo Team & Company ...................................................................... 119
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8.1 The PriVideo Team ...................................................................................................... 119
8.1.1 The PriVideo Team ............................................................................................... 119
8.1.2 Collaboration among the team to date .................................................................. 122
8.1.2 Strengths and Weaknesses of the PriVideo Team ................................................ 123
8.1.3 Training ................................................................................................................. 125
8.2 IP, Trademark and Copyright ...................................................................................... 127
8.2.1 Protecting our Concept to date .............................................................................. 127
8.2.2 Protecting our concept Going Forward ................................................................. 128
8.3 Setting up PriVideo as an Operational Service ............................................................ 128
8.3.1 Partnership Agreement.......................................................................................... 128
8.3.2 Becoming a Private Limited Company ................................................................. 129
8.3.2 E- Commerce Act 2000 Table .............................................................................. 132
8.4 Operations & Employee Plans ..................................................................................... 133
8.4.1 Preparing for Market Launch ................................................................................ 133
8.4.2 Years 2 & 3 ........................................................................................................... 134
8.4.3 Employment Forecast ........................................................................................... 134
Section 9: Sales Projections ................................................................................................. 136
9.1 Sales Plan ..................................................................................................................... 136
9.1.1 How will we generate sales? ................................................................................. 136
9.1.2 Who will sell? ....................................................................................................... 136
9.1.2 Timeframe for Contacting Customers .................................................................. 138
Contact Timeframe ............................................................................................................ 138
9.2 Industry Contact Tables ............................................................................................... 139
9.2.1 Financial and Insurance Industry .......................................................................... 139
9.2.2 Telecommunications ............................................................................................. 139
9.2.3 Online Retail ......................................................................................................... 139
9.2.4 ICT ........................................................................................................................ 140
9.3 Projected Sales ............................................................................................................. 140
9.3.1 Financial and Insurance Industry Sales................................................................. 140
9.3.2 Telecommunications Sales.................................................................................... 140
9.3.3 Online Retail Sales ................................................................................................ 141
9.3.4 ICT Sales ............................................................................................................... 141
9.4 Contacting Firms in the Future .................................................................................... 141
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9.4.1 Future Projected Sales........................................................................................... 142
9.4.2 Year Two Projected Sales ..................................................................................... 142
9.4.3 Year Three Projected Sales ................................................................................... 142
Section 10: Financial Projections ....................................................................................... 143
10.1: Financial Implications of our Business Strategy ...................................................... 143
10.1.1 Key Costs of the Project ..................................................................................... 144
10.1.2 Cost of Sales ....................................................................................................... 145
10.1.3 Running Costs ..................................................................................................... 145
10.1.4 General Administration and Marketing .............................................................. 146
10.2 PriVideo Required Funding ....................................................................................... 147
10.3 Projected Sales and Profit and Loss Account ............................................................ 149
10.3.1 Year One ............................................................................................................. 150
10.3.2 Year Two ............................................................................................................ 150
10.3.3 Year Three: ......................................................................................................... 151
10.4 Cash Flow .................................................................................................................. 152
10.5 Balance Sheet ............................................................................................................. 152
10.5.1 Projected Three year Sales: ................................................................................. 153
10.5.2 Projected Three year Profits: .............................................................................. 154
10.5.3 Projected Sales and Profits.................................................................................. 154
10.6 Breakeven Analysis ................................................................................................... 155
10.7 Exit Strategy............................................................................................................... 155
10.8 Profit and Loss Account............................................................................................. 156
10.9 Three year Cash Flow Account.................................................................................. 157
10.10 Three year balance sheet .......................................................................................... 158
Section 11: The Technical Side of PriVideo ...................................................................... 159
11.1 Section Overview ....................................................................................................... 159
11.2 Technical Deliverables, Animated Videos ................................................................ 160
11.2.1 The Process ......................................................................................................... 160
11.2.1 Learning the Software ......................................................................................... 161
11.3 Technical Deliverables, the PriVideo Website .......................................................... 165
11.3.1 Website Goals ..................................................................................................... 165
11.3.2 Content ................................................................................................................ 165
11.3.4 Functionalities ..................................................................................................... 166
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11.3.5 Design ................................................................................................................. 167
11.3.6 Future design Challenges .................................................................................... 169
11.3.7 SEO considerations ............................................................................................. 169
11.3.8 Technical Elements of the PriVideo Website ..................................................... 173
11.4 Technical Requirements for PriVideo ........................................................................ 174
11.4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................. 174
11.4.2 Automated Video Generation ............................................................................. 179
11.4.3 Video production................................................................................................. 183
11.4.5 Video Storage and Delivery ................................................................................ 188
11.4.6 Initial Set-up........................................................................................................ 190
11.4.7 Architecture, Accounts and Payment .................................................................. 196
11.5 Technical Challenges ................................................................................................. 197
11.5.1 Implementation of human voice over ................................................................. 197
11.5.2 Viewership monitoring ....................................................................................... 198
11.5.3 Resolution and rendering time ............................................................................ 199
Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 200
Appendix A: Interviews ......................................................................................................... 207
Appendix B: Year One Sales Plan ......................................................................................... 222
Appendix C: Questionnaire................................................................................................... 236
Appendix D: Focus Group Moderator Guide ....................................................................... 240
Appendix E: Focus Group Consent Form .............................................................................. 245
Appendix F: Focus group video feedback sheet .................................................................... 246
Appendix G: Data Gathering, Tracking and usage methods Info-graphic ............................ 248
Appendix H: Year Two and Three Sales Plan ....................................................................... 249
Appendix I: PriVideo Facebook ............................................................................................ 251
Appendix J: Practicum Facebook Group ............................................................................... 252
Appendix K: Example Decision and information Sheets ...................................................... 253
Appendix L: Example Weekly Plans ..................................................................................... 254
Appendix M: PriVideo Non-Disclosure Agreement............................................................. 256
Appendix N: Partnership Agreement ..................................................................................... 258
Appendix O: Monthly Profit and Loss Account .................................................................... 261
Appendix P: Stupeflix API Sample Code .............................................................................. 262
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Section 1: Executive Summary
1.1 Introducing PriVideo
PriVideo Limited is a Dublin based start-up, offering privacy solutions to businesses across
Ireland. PriVideo’s core mission is to revolutionise how companies communicate with their
customers, regarding privacy and data protection issues.
1.2 PriVideo Solutions
At PriVideo, we specialise in privacy and video. Our core offering is a customised, animated
video, which represents a company’s privacy policy. These videos allow companies to
comply with EU data protection legislation and educate their customers on all elements of the
written privacy policy. In addition to the videos, we offer a number of services to meet the
privacy needs of our small and large customers. These services include; referrals to privacy
solicitors and consultants, access to generic written privacy policies, Data protection training
videos for employees and consultation and training sessions.
1.3 Why the Internet needs PriVideo
Internet users are becoming increasingly concerned about the privacy of their information
online, with 80% of our questionnaire respondents stating that they have some privacy
concerns. According to our secondary and primary research, this current lack of knowledge
causes Internet users’ to, abstain from using some websites, request their information from
either the company or the Data Protection Commissioner and opt-out of marketing. While the
privacy policy can educate users, the document length, legal jargon and difficult language
deters users from reading it and fails to effectively educate those that do read it. These
problems can be overcome, by utilising PriVideo animations to educate a company’s users.
1.4 Why companies need PriVideo
There many reasons why companies should utilise the PriVideo service. First and foremost,
PriVideo enables companies to comply with current EU data protection legislation. The use
of animated videos allows the company to communicate with their customers using clarity
and transparency, with regard to privacy and data protection issues. This education of users,
can strengthen the company’s relationship with their customers, foster trust, improve the
brand image and reduce the number of queries they receive on these issues.
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1.5 PriVideo’s Target Market
As the majority of companies operating online have a privacy policy available on their
website, PriVideo’s potential market is exponentially large. PriVideo will initially target four
industries in Ireland, which have been chosen due to the role of data in each industry, our
contacts in these industries and the large number of potential customers in each industry.
Telecommunications
Contacts with major
companies due to our
relationship with a
privacy consultant
20,000 employees in
Ireland
Turnover of €4billion
per annum
ICT
5,400 companies in
Ireland
Online Retail
87% of retail companies
have an online presence
Insurance
Over 5,200
companies in Ireland,
93,000 employees
9 of the 10 largest
global companies
have an Irish
presence
Many of these
companies are reliant
on UGC and thus
want to foster trust
Broad industry with
companies selling
anything from books to
car parts
Turnover expected to
reach to €21 billion by
2017
Accounted for 13.2%
of total turnover in
Ireland in 2012
Two members of the
PriVideo team have
Insurance experience
and contacts
Figure 1: Targeted Industries
1.6 Business & Revenue Models
PriVideo will be aimed at both SMEs and large global players in each industry. We will
target SMEs with our low cost Tier One offering, which ensures compliance. Tier one videos
can be generated in a number of minutes, using the Video Builder interface on the PriVideo
website. This video generation tool utilises pre-made animated video clips and is customised
based, both on the customer’s selection of information they want to include and the entering
of the company name and logo. We will target larger customers with our customised offers,
which can include collaborating with their branding department to create a unique video from
scratch. This approach ensures that the needs of companies of all sizes and budgets can be
met. Our mutually beneficial relationships with privacy solicitors and consultants will allow
us to access their clients and to refer our customers to them for services such as drafting of a
new privacy policy and developing a privacy strategy. Due to these relationships and our own
contacts, there are numerous potential customers PriVideo can reach within these industries.
1.7 Competition
There are currently no companies offering a service which converts a company’s privacy
policy into an animated video. Additionally, at present there are also no companies providing
a privacy communication solution, which is what PriVideo is. There are however, a number
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of global companies offering a range of privacy related products and services on both B2B
and B2C levels. This market could be very lucrative for PriVideo, with companies worldwide
spending over $6 billion on information security solutions (Orr 2011). PriVideo will
differentiate from competitors in a number of ways including; being the only company
offering a video representation of privacy policies, developing a network of industry experts
and continually introducing new ways to educate customers and employees on various topics.
1.8 Current status of the project
The PriVideo concept was born in March 2013 and has been developed over the past four
months. At present, the PriVideo interface and library of pre-made clips are being developed,
before the official product launch in January 2014.
1.9 Potential of PriVideo
PriVideo has great potential to enter new industries where data and information play a pivotal
role. Given the global relevance of privacy, we can also potentially launch our service in any
country worldwide. Our expansion plan will start with the UK in Year Two, before moving to
France and other European countries where companies are required to comply with the same
legislation. There is also great potential to develop the offering itself. We plan to expand into
offering more detailed videos, videos representing a company’s terms & conditions and
videos to represent terms of use for mobile applications. As compliance is core to our
offering, the imminent stringent changes to EU Data protection legislation will require
companies to be more transparent with users and will thus, create more opportunities for
PriVideo.
1.10 Financial Projections for PriVideo
The financial projections for PriVideo, while cautious are extremely positive. Our projected
customer numbers, sales and profit/loss for the first three years are illustrated below.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Customers #
67
1,615
€105,000
Sales Revenue
€117,948
€985,846
€2,146,875
Profit/Loss
-€86,974.12
€387,646.05
€1,055,667.94
Figure 2: Financial Projections for PriVideo
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Section 2: PriVideo, the Concept
2.1 PriVideo, the Concept
PriVideo converts a company’s privacy policy into a short, animated video
The PriVideo service offers companies an innovative, transparent way to communicate with
their customers, regarding privacy and data protection. Due to Internet users’ increasing
concerns regarding the privacy of their information online, many companies are beginning to
pay more attention to the area of privacy. While there are some companies in the market
offering privacy solutions, the majority of these are aimed at the Internet users themselves.
Furthermore, none of these companies use icons or video to represent a company’s privacy
policy or focus on improving communications with users, which is the core focus of
PriVideo. PriVideo on the other hand, is aimed at companies and strives to help them
communicate their compliance with data protection regulation and their respect for
customers’ privacy. PriVideo makes transparent communication between companies and their
customers a reality, which benefits both parties.
PriVideo is a B2B service, which will be aimed at the majority of companies operating in the
online space. The service essentially involves taking the company’s privacy policy and
converting it into a short, entertaining, animated video. This video can then be placed on the
company’s website to encourage customers to watch the video prior to signing up for a
service or buying a product online. The core aim of PriVideo is to overcome the
communication gap between companies and their customers regarding the privacy of their
information. Making this information available in a condensed, easy to understand format
enables customers to become more informed about the companies they use. Implementing
PriVideo versions of their privacy statements allows companies to reap the benefits
associated with transparency.
2.2 Novelty of PriVideo
The PriVideo concept is extremely unique when compared to other privacy solutions, as no
other company currently offers a service to convert a company’s privacy statement into video
format. Furthermore, no company has a video version of their privacy policy available on
their website, which they have internally developed. Despite the fact, that no company has
yet made the move to convert their privacy policy into video format, we believe that in the
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future companies will use video as a means to educate their users on issues such as this. This
assumption has been backed up by a number of interviews we have held and our focus group
with Internet users. Furthermore, legislation in Europe and America is becoming more
stringent and requiring companies to be more transparent in how they communicate their
privacy policy to their customers. PriVideo is extremely timely as it combines a number of
current trends to produce a unique privacy communication offering as outlined below.
Trend
Explanation
PriVideo Attributes
Increase in Internet
users’ privacy concerns
88-89% of people are concerned
about their online privacy (Truste
2013) 80% of our questionnaire
respondents expressed some
privacy concerns
The majority of companies now
have their privacy statement on
their website
Aims to educate users in order
to improve their understanding
and awareness
Companies making
efforts to be more
transparent
Growth of video
Used widely to communicate
messages and educate
New Proposed EU Data Will require companies to be
Regulation
more transparent at explicit about
how they use customers
information
FTC Recommendations Recommended that industries
come together to have simplified,
coherent privacy statements and
to use icons to increase
understanding
Remove communication gap
with customers through clear
illustration of the privacy
policy
Converts privacy policy into
animated videos to take
advantage of video as a
communication medium
PriVideo animations clearly
and explicitly outline the
company’s privacy policy
PriVideo is ahead of industries
in that it works to simplify
privacy policies in a
consistent, highly visual
animation
Figure 3: Trends relevant to PriVideo
2.3 Current Problems
There are a number of problems, which stem from the issue of digital privacy and customers’
lack of knowledge or understanding. As mentioned above, Internet users around the world are
becomingly increasingly concerned about their privacy online. Furthermore, citizens want to
become more informed about their rights online. In Ireland for example, queries from the
public regarding data protection issues have increased year on year and reached 9,500 last
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year (DPC 2012). The root of these privacy concerns is largely attributable to the lack of
knowledge customers have, which is due to a miscommunication between companies and
their customers.
There are many potential outcomes from this lack of knowledge ranging from customers not
fully immersing themselves in the online world to customers completely abstaining from
using particular services or websites. According to the European Commission (2011), 85% of
Irish citizens have altered their online behaviour due to concerns about the privacy of their
information. Through our extensive primary and secondary research (See Pg. 32), we have
ascertained the core, correlated problems companies face as a result of online privacy
concerns. These are as follows:
1. Customers are not aware of the extent of the information companies collect about them
and what they use if for
2. Companies are not aware that there is a miscommunication between them and their
customers
3. Customers are often surprised when they realise the quantity and variety of data collected
about them
This surprise leads customers to query or complain to the company, or to the Data Protection
Commissioner. These queries and complaints can result in large costs for companies such as
costs associated with answering calls in a call centre and ligation costs associated with
dealing with complaints made by customers. According to Cisco (2012), the average cost of a
call in a call centre is $5.05. Therefore, using the PriVideo service could reduce these costs.
2.3.1 Extent of Customer Queries
When meeting with Allianz Ireland’s Compliance Manager Susann Radach see Appendix A,
(Pg. 216), we discussed the current problems around privacy and educating customers.
Susann said that a lot of time is spent answering customer queries about their data. To
illustrate this she talked through the process of answering a data protection query as outlined
below. This example highlights that customers are not educated about these issues.
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Customer not
informed about
their rights and
Allianz practices
Customer rings
Underwriter to
query or complain
Underwriter
contacts
compliance
department
Compliance
replies to
Underwriter with
an explanation of
customer's rights
Underwriter
contacts customer
Customer either
A. continues with
access request or
compliant or B.
doesn't respond
Figure 4: Allianz process of answering a data query
A lot of time is spent dealing with customer data queries. I find that most of the time,
customers just aren’t informed. For example, customers think they can get all data we
have about them when they are only entitled to the personal information we store. Once
they are informed of this and the charge of €6.35 for receiving this information¸ I’d say
over 40% never get back to us. A product which could reduce the time spent on queries
resulting from lack of knowledge would be extremely useful and cost saving.
Susann Radach, Allianz Ireland
2.4 The Core Product
At the core of our service offering is the short animated video, which can be developed using
pre-made blocks of video and automatic voiceover. Videos call also be created using varying
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degrees of customisation, as discussed below under product Tiers. Our videos are animated
with icons developed and sketched by our team. Customised videos can be developed as a
collaborative effort between ourselves and the customer. Alternatively, our automated service
will allow smaller customers to sign on to our website and create a video in a number of steps
as illustrated below. This process is explained in detail in our technical section, see Pg. 179.
Customer
signs up to
PriVideo
Selects
relevant clips
in each section
of a privacy
policy
Inserts
company
name and
uploads logo
Customer
pays and
receives video
Figure 5: Customer Process
2.5 The Overall PriVideo service
In addition to the animated video, there are a number of other services we may offer
including:
1. Providing customers with generic industry specific privacy policies which have been
reviewed by our solicitor associates
2. Referring customers to specialist solicitors to develop their written privacy policy
3. Referring customers to a specialist consultant who can help the company shape their
privacy strategy
4. Providing customers with monthly reports with metrics on users viewing the video etc.
5. Including a customised voiceover on the video
6. Holding a storyboard session with branding department to review the privacy policy and
develop the video as collaborative effort
7. Creating custom characters for the video
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8. Designing a unique video format to address company issues or further personalise the
video
9. Offering service support on privacy and technical video issues via email or phone
10. Providing a complementary animated video to train employees on data protection issues
11. Offering a training session with employees or the Data Protection Officer (DPO)
12. Referring the customer to other contacts or offering general advice on broader issues such
as software to encrypt data for example
2.6 Product Tiers
The service offering can be divided into Tiers, which vary depending on the level of
customisation and consultation provided by the PriVideo team. The animated videos are
highly customisable depending on the legal requirements of each industry and the desires of
each company. The Tiers are briefly outlined below and discussed further in our revenue
model, see Pg. 88.
16
Service Offering
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 4
Tier 5
Automatic Voiceover
Video produced
immediately
Input of company logo
Manual voiceover
Privacy policy manually
processed by PriVideo
Referral to Privacy
solicitor or consultant
Custom characters created
Unique video format
Complementary training
video for employees
Service support
Figure 6: PriVideo Product Tiers
2.7 Benefits of Product
There are many benefits to be attained from using the PriVideo service. All of these benefits
have been developed in line with our aims as a company and are based on our research into
current problems companies have, what companies want and what their customers want.
Furthermore, all benefits have been backed up by our primary research, see Pg. 32. The
benefits associated with Tier One, the basic PriVideo offering are cost and time savings. As
17
our customers avail of more of our service offerings, they can realise more benefits. The
benefits can be divided into three sections which are as follows:
1. Monetary Savings derived from educating customers
2. Benefits related to the relationship with the customer
3. Information source for companies
If we look at the issues outlined above in Section 2.3, these issues would be alleviated by
PriVideo in the following ways: Customers would be more informed about what data the
company collects and how they use it. This would reduce the number queries to the DPC and
the company and the costs associated with answering these queries.
We believe that, the majority of companies aren’t taking advantage of the Internet as a
medium to communicate the trust message to customers. The education that PriVideo
animations can deliver to customers can lead to many benefits in terms of a company’s
relationship with their customers. The benefits found in our primary research include:

Transparency: Using an animated video shows that the company is open about how they
comply with legislation and proactive in terms of
how they communicate this compliance

Strengthened brand image

Trust: Transparency can in turn increase a
They show companies want to
communicate with customers and
educate them that they are open
Questionnaire respondent
customer’s trust in the company

Purchasing: As these videos become more
commonplace and customers are more empowered, companies using these videos will be
able to attract new customers.
In addition to these benefits, the videos can also act as an information source for companies.
Adding metrics to the videos and providing companies with reports will act as a repeated
justification for using the service. Metrics could also provide the company with evidence that
customers have viewed the video, which would be useful in dealing with complaints. The
videos can also be used in an effort to increase the number of customers opting in to
marketing, by educating them properly. According to Milne & Rohm (2000), customers are
18
less likely to opt-out of marketing activities if they are educated on how and what data is
collected. There are also the compliance benefits to consider, such as the fact that these
videos are fully compliant with EU data protection legislation.
2.8 Motivation for the Product
There are a number of factors, which led to our development of this concept. First and
foremost, over the past year or so, we’ve all developed an individual interest in the issues
surrounding digital privacy. As a group of individuals, we’re all interested in different aspects
of online privacy such as, the impact of legislation on companies and users alike. As a group
however, our main interest relates to developing a solution, which can effectively educate
users around the world about their privacy. We want to aid companies in being transparent,
which can enable them to realise many benefits. Educating users on privacy practices of
firms, we believe will increase their self-efficacy when operating online and empower them
to decide what services they wish to use.
2.9 Need for the Education of Users
In addition to the gap in the market, we strongly believe that there is a great need for the kind
of solution we aim to provide. With the growing prevalence of the Internet comes growing
concerns regarding the privacy of users’ information. In Ireland for example, 88% of citizens
view the protection of personal information as very important (DPC 2013). According to
Truste (2013), 89% of American adults and 88% of British adults are concerned about their
privacy. These figures show that the online privacy is a global issue affecting Internet users
and companies around the world. Companies are collecting more and more information on
their users and have a responsibility to conform to the necessary legislation as well as
communicating their compliance with their customers in the form of privacy statements.
It’s important to ascertain whether or not Internet users do read privacy policies. A recent
survey found that 58% of users attempt to read privacy policies, a mere 34% of whom
understand them (European Commission 2011). Furthermore, an average of 70% of users that
read privacy policies alter their online behaviour afterwards (European Commission 2011).
However, there are a number of challenges for increasing the number of users reading and
understanding these policies. The main three challenges according to participants in our focus
group and our questionnaire respondents are:
1. The legal and technical language used in privacy statements is difficult to understand
19
2. Privacy statements are extremely long
3. The language used is complicated and boring
There have been many calls by both the EU and the FTC in America to make privacy
statements easier to understand and more transparent. Some companies are making efforts to
do so by shortening their privacy statements. PriVideo goes one step further and uses the
medium of video to communicate with users. The majority of companies operating online are
required by European law to include a privacy statement on their website. These requirements
will become more stringent with the introduction of the proposed amendments to EU data
protection regulation. Some companies are being proactive to meet and exceed the current
requirements of EU Data Protection Regulation. These are the companies we will are
targeting either directly or through our relationships with privacy consultants, as outlined in
our extensive sales plan see Appendix B, (Pg. 222).
2.10 Why companies need our product
In addition to complying with the current law, there are a number of possible reasons as to
why customers may use our service which include:
1. The company wants to be proactive in terms of how they communicate with customers
about the privacy of their information. Many companies are beginning to be more
forthcoming in communicating their privacy compliance.
2. The company had a recent data breach.
Data
breaches across industries in Ireland are increasing
with 1,592 data breaches reported to the DPC in 2012,
an increase of over 400 from the previous year (DPC
2012). In this case, the company may want to repair
the damage their brand suffered following the breach.
Communicating
their
efforts
to
protect
their
customers’ privacy in a transparent way may aid in
this process. PriVideo animations could be customised
to explicitly state the improvements the company has
made.
20
In the past few months,
I’ve worked with at least 2
companies who wanted to
go beyond the legal
requirements associated
with data protection. Both
companies did this to
foster trust with their
customers John Boyd,
3. The company wants to develop trust and strengthen brand image. Companies are
increasingly using the Internet as a means of strengthening their relationship with
customers and communicating marketing messages. However, very few companies are
using this platform to communicate the trust message with regards to customers’ personal
information. PriVideo is a solution, which allows companies to communicate this
message effectively. Our focus group and questionnaire results showed that customers are
likely to trust companies more when they use videos like PriVideo animations.
4. Companies are preparing for the imminent amendments to European data
protection legislation. Through our extensive secondary research and numerous
interviews with privacy law specialists, we ascertained that companies will need to be far
more transparent in the near future about data protection issues. Smaller companies will
also have the same legal responsibilities as MNCs. PriVideo prepares companies and
enables them to future proof their business against theses increasingly stringent legal
requirements.
5. Companies want to increase the number of customers opting in to marketing
activities. The participants in our focus group expressed their desire to become more
informed online. However, one interesting
finding was that becoming more informed
wouldn’t deter users, it would empower
them and the majority said they may sign
up for more services if they knew exactly
what information was collected. Many
participants said they tend to opt out due to
Companies will be looking to
increase the numbers of customers
opting in to direct marketing. If
you can help them do that you can
bet they’ll be extremely interested
in the product. Susann Radach,
Allianz Ireland
their lack of understanding. Companies are
currently making efforts to increase the
number of customers opting in to marketing.
6. Saving Money: There are also monetary savings to be made from using this service. At
the most basic level of the service customers get a quick video, which saves them the time
and costs associated with developing their own. Cost savings associated with better
informed, loyal customers can also be gained.
21
2.11 Potential of the Concept
As mentioned above, our product is applicable across a number of industries. We have
chosen four industries to initially target, but
believe the product has great potential to move
both into other industries and other countries.
It is also important to consider the potential of
developing the product itself and branching
The concept is excellent. Customer
communication and ensuring
transparency and “understandability”
of privacy policies is a key problem
facing organisations. Daragh O’Brien
Castlebridge Associates
into different areas. We believe the concept
could be adapted to produce staff training
videos, company information videos, company
compliance training, terms and conditions and other videos. Additionally, we could expand to
offer a recommendations service and partner with many different consultants, advisors and
legal solicitors to offer a one stop privacy service. There are many possibilities which we
could exploit to expand and grow the current PriVideo concept. We have considered a
number of potential solutions that we could branch into, as detailed in the table below.
22
Solution
Problem it could
How it could
solve
work
Other Videos
for customers
ex. video
version of
Terms &
Conditions
Improve users
knowledge of T&Cs
involved in using a
service or buying a
product
Generate a similar
video to our
privacy policy
videos. Could be
automated based on
a database of
animated clips
Videos aimed
at employees
to educate
them on their
employer’s
surveillance of
them in the
workplace
Detailed video
on one
element of a
privacy policy
ex.how
information is
collected
Companies in Ireland
have a responsibility to
educate their
employees on how
they monitor their
online activities
B2C Offerings
This could include a
web service for
Internet users to enter
what information they
share on different
websites or their
privacy settings and
generate a video based
on their selection
Applications are
becoming more
popular but many
users are unaware of
how they collect data
Some industries which
are dependent on UGC
need users to
understand in detail all
elements of terms of
use and privacy
When employees
use the company
Intranet for training
on these policies,
they watch the
video as opposed to
reading a long
document
Could be available
on the website for
customers and
employees and
could address
company specific
information
collection methods
for example
Would allow
internet users to
find out
information for
themselves in an
understanding
format from a
neutral source
Short videos
explaining the
terms of use
for a mobile
application
Gamifying
elements of a
privacy policy
This would give
companies the
opportunity to
communicate detailed
messages with
customers
Short video when
an app is
downloaded before
giving the app
permission
Could be industry
specific or an
educational tool to
educate younger
users in an
immersive
environment
Figure 7: Potential of the Product
23
Source of idea
Challenges
The team envisioned
this as a possible
expansion plan when
the initial idea was
conceived. Susann
Radach of Allianz
also suggested this
idea
Telephone Interview
with Lucy of
Crowley solicitors

Meeting with Susann
Radach of Allianz
Level of
customisatio
n required
would result
in pressure
when trying
to scale
Group meeting
Mentioned in focus
group with Internet
users
Revenue
Model
Group idea and
confirmed as
potentially viable
with Daragh of
Castlebridge
Second meeting with
Daragh O’Brien
Size and
length of
video
Legal
proofing
of video
content
 Develop
ing new
database
of clips
More
suitable for
large
companies
Suitability
for older
Internet
users
Section 3: Video Content
As video is central to our offering, it was important to conduct adequate research into video
as a means of communicating and educating users. We also needed to ascertain what each
video would contain and answer questions on issues such as, video length and structure.
3.1 Why Video?
Video appealed to us at PriVideo, predominately due to the fact that, video is a fast growing
form of communication. According to e-Marketer (2012), online video viewers accounted for
84% of internet users in 2011. We believe that video can provide a viable platform to
communicate a privacy policy in an understanding way. Video will continue to grow with
consumer Internet video traffic accounting for 69% of all Internet traffic by 2017 (Cisco
2012). Video in itself is a very powerful mechanism that allows the creator to convey a
message, whilst improving the customer’s understanding. Our focus group discussion found
that, all participants would prefer to watch a video than read a privacy policy. Furthermore, in
our survey, 88% of respondents stated that they would prefer to watch a video of a
company’s privacy policy, with 0% stating that they would refer to read the privacy policy
document.
3.2 Legal Requirements of our Videos
Due to the legal nature of privacy policies, it was important for us to ascertain what a
company is legally required to include in a video representation of their privacy policy. All
websites collecting personal data via forms, cookies or covertly collecting data like IP
addresses, must have a privacy statement on their website (DPC 2013). PriVideo’s animated
privacy policies will include all core elements highlighted by the Data Protection
Commissioner (DPC 2013) for mandatory inclusion in a privacy policy, which are as follows:
1. Identity: The name of the organisation and contact details must be included in the video.
2. Purpose: In order to lawfully process data, all purposes for data collection must be
referred to in the privacy statement / video.
3. Disclosure: Sharing of data with a third party other than an agent must be mentioned in
the Privacy statement / video, unless required by law.
4. Right of Access: The video / statement must detail that a request for access in writing
will be processed in 40 days and that the company can’t charge over €6.35. If email
requests are accepted, the policy must state this.
24
5. Right of rectification or erasure: The video / statement may also refer to the fact that a
person has a right to have his/her personal data corrected, if inaccurate, or erased, if there
is no legitimate reason for retaining the data. The company cannot charge for complying
with such a request and must comply within 40 calendar days.
6. Extent of data being processed: If different data is used for different purposes, this
should be clearly referred to in the Privacy Statement / video. This is even more important
in relation to the covert processing of data, such as the collection of IP addresses, use of
cookies or web beacons.
7. Cookies: The video / statement should also refer to how and what data the company
collects using cookies
There are a number of other elements recommended by the DPC that are not required under
European Law. PriVideo animations will have the capability to include all of these
recommended areas depending on what areas the company discusses in their privacy policy.
These additional recommendations are as follows:
• Security: A company needs adequate security measures, it is however not mandatory to
mention them. However, the company can state they have necessary physical and technical
measures to protect data without giving too much information away.
• Accurate, complete and up-to-date: A company may also make reference to the fact that
they to hold only accurate, complete and up-to-date data.
• Adequate, relevant, not excessive: Additionally, a company can state that they don’t hold
data longer than required and may refer to fact that all data which is no longer necessary is
deleted or reviewed.
• Retention: Data shouldn’t be held for longer than required, the company may have a
policy for deleting financial information or details about the different times different data is
held for.
• Complaint resolution mechanism: A company can refer to their means of dealing with
complaints received about data processing.
25
3.2.1 The legal aspects of the PriVideo service
As mentioned above, the video content must comply with EU data protection legislation.
Given the legal nature of our concept, it’s important to understand the legalities and other
roles involved in all aspects of our offering, as outlined in the table below.
Elements of Service
Legal & Other considerations
Provide company with a generic industry specific
privacy policies
Have generic privacy policies proofed by privacy
solicitor
Help company create their own privacy policy
Refer to specialist privacy solicitor / consultant
Help company shape privacy strategy
Refer to specialist privacy consultant
Metric on Video viewership
Provided if video hosted on YouTube account of
company & Access granted to PriVideo
Custom Voiceover
Manually recorded with Voice Actors
Storyboard Session
Refer privacy consultant to discuss and create in
compliance with company’s branding team
Custom Characters
Consultation with head of design
Video designed to address company issue or
deliver message
Consultation with head of design and privacy
consultant / solicitor were necessary
Service Support
PriVideo team first port of contact
Training Video
Consultation with head of design and privacy
consultant / solicitor
Training session with employees or DPO
Refer to specialist privacy solicitor / consultant
Advice on software or encryption issues
Consultation with technical lead and privacy
consultant / solicitor where necessary
Figure 8: Legalities to consider
26
3.3 Video as a source of Learning
Visuals play a large part in a person’s learning. When we read, our minds convert the words
we read into visuals. In order to successfully remember these words, we encode these visual
words with emotion (Pannunzio 2012). By providing information in the form of a visual such
as in video format, our minds circumvent the word-image translation process and can make
more connections with these images. According to Dr. James McQuivey (2013), one minute
of video can equate to 1.8 million words. In relation to PriVideo, a single frame could
therefore, deliver the same amount of information as pages and pages of text. A number of
learning professionals have stated that video is a vivid and entertaining way to stimulate a
learner’s interest and keep the viewer engaged, whilst communicating the intended message
(Pappas 2013).
3.4 Video as a source of Entertainment
In a bid to keep viewers entertained while educating them on privacy policies, we decided to
create animated videos. The inclusion of a voiceover or narrator will enable the viewer to
learn through both audio and visual stimulation (Mayer and Anderson 1992). An important
characteristic of informative animated videos is the temporal contiguity between animation
and narration. The contiguity between words and pictures throughout the video can
encourage the viewer to build connections between the verbal and visual representations of
the information given, which in turn helps to support problem-solving (Mayer and Anderson
1992). In our opinion, this serves as evidence that the concept can educate users and
introduce some enjoyment to this learning
3.5 Determining Video Length
Once we understood the elements that needed to be incorporated into a video version of a
privacy policy, we had to ascertain the appropriate length of our videos. To ensure that
viewers learn from our videos, we sought to determine what time users stop watching videos
at. The average length of video on YouTube is 3 minutes and 53 seconds (Journalism.org
2012). Additionally, through our focus group we determined that the majority of the group
would watch a 3-5 minute video, with the participants stating that they wouldn’t watch a
video which lasted over 10 minutes. It’s interesting to note that the most viewed YouTube
clips are 4 minutes 11 seconds or below in length (Waterhouse 2012). By combining these
facts with the feedback from our focus group, questionnaire and industry professionals, we
set a maximum of 3 minutes for our videos. Our current prototype is 2.05 minutes in length.
27
3.6 Information Recall
Information recall is also more substantial through the medium of video rather than text. A
number of studies have shown that participant recall is higher after watching videos, for
example a television advertisement has a higher recall rate than reading a magazine
advertisement (Farrelly et al. 2007). Additionally the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic
Media (2004) state that, audio is an imperative video metric and the correlation between
image and audio is essential in ensuring that video is the best mechanism for knowledge and
recall. The audio correlation was considered and made an essential design aspect of any
videos created by PriVideo to date.
3.6.1 Example of PriVideo Information Recall in action
In the focus group, we asked half the participants to read a condensed version of 02’s Privacy
policy and the other half to watch the video version we created. The participants that read the
privacy policy remembered very little of what they read. In some cases, the information they
remembered was actually incorrect. In stark contrast, the participants that viewed the video
remembered large amounts of the video correctly. This is detailed further in our Primary
research section, Pg. 32.
3.7 Icons used by PriVideo
We believe that by using icons, we can enhance viewers’ understanding of privacy policies.
According to Canning (2000), there is significant confidence attributed to audio-visual aids as
a method to enhance learning. Visual aids can be used to increase the depth of understanding
and knowledge gained by viewers, raise motivational levels among the viewers and make it
easier for the viewer to complete an exercise (Davis 1974). Additionally, visual aids can
enhance audience interest, focus the viewer’s attention on the topic and aid retention of key
content (Stoner 2009). When used correctly, icons or images can be used to guide action. A
more informed viewer may be guided towards clicking on the privacy policy icon and reading
more.
Icons are also used to support the viewer in linking an image with a concept and enhancing
understanding. They also allow the viewer interpret the meaning of the icons and increase
recall. The PriVideo library features a large library of icons, each of which was carefully
designed with the intention of providing a simple portrayal of the information it represents. In
our opinion, the icons created by PriVideo allow us to successfully convey the required
elements of a privacy policy in a clear, entertaining and informative manner. The icons used
28
in the PriVideo animated videos can help support user understanding with regards to
company’s privacy policy. When designing our own icons, we looked to other industries for
guidance and inspiration.
Example 1, Food label: This food label provides a lot of
information in a relatively small space. We can interpret the
amount of calories, fat sugars, salt and saturated fat. We can
determine that the company is using a traffic light system.
Example
2,
Game
Labels: Labels such as these appear on Xbox/ PlayStation games and detail the age group
suited to the game. These small icons convey a lot of information.
Example 3, Clothing Labels: Icons like these appear on clothing labels and detail the washing
procedures, whether or not the garments they relate to can be
tumble dried, put in the washing machine or ironed. These icons
convey a great deal of information and are universally understood.
These example icons highlight how a vast amount of information
can be presented in a simple manner. At PriVideo, we aim to create simple, detailed icons
that illustrate elements of privacy policies. We have created icons for aspects such as
personal information, contact information, cookies and data collection methods and believe
that these icons when teamed with animation and audio can help create an understanding of
what the privacy policy entails. When designing our icons, we tested them on numerous
people to ensure the message was clear and understandable. Some of our icons are illustrated
below, namely our icons for a privacy policy, safe, personal information and a new product.
29
3.8 Video Development
The PriVideo concept was refined numerous times. Any advice the team received from
advisors or contacts was considered and implemented if the team deemed it to be a valuable
and viable addition. The prototype video was also altered a number of times. Through testing
the video on participants in our focus group, our advisors, industry professionals and on our
questionnaire respondents, we were able to gain large amount of feedback. We implemented
this feedback to refine various elements of the video.
3.9 Brand Incorporation & PriVideo
We believe that the incorporation of our customer’s brand is an important element of each
video. As mentioned in the benefits section above, the brand incorporation is an incentive for
customers to use the service. The PriVideo service not only offers a means for companies to
appear transparent and informative to their customers, but also allows companies to promote
their brand in a sober way. The brand icon will appear numerous times in the animation as
indicated in the icon below, which was taken from our prototype video. This will allow the
viewers to identify with the brand and perhaps see the brand as an honest company without
actually directly advertising. Indirect marketing can also have a better effect on customers
than actually directly marketing to them (Nelson 2007).
Allowing companies to appear honest and transparent also helps build their
brand image and reputation. This building of an honest brand image may create an inherent
“promise” between the company and its customers and aid the company in building stronger
relationships (Davis 2013).
30
3.10 Video Summary Table
The table below outlines each element of the video, any changes we have made and our
reasoning behind these changes.
Video
Element
Description
Backed up by / Testing
Reasoning
Length
To establish ideal length of
video


To create a video which met the
times specified by respondents
with the aim of minimising the
amount of people who abandon
the video.

Legal
Determine the legal
requirements for the video
Icon Usage
Design and test icons to
determine which to include
in the privacy policy video
Voiceover
Final prototype version by
Michelle Farrelly an Irish
female. Changed from
original recorded voiceover
Brand
Inclusion
Considerations of the
amount of brand
representation in privacy
policy video












Focus group
Average YouTube
Video length
Opinion of
professionals and
advisors
FTC
DPC
Privacy Consultant
Solicitors
Focus Group
Secondary research
Testing
Focus group
Questionnaire
Advisors
Secondary Research
into indirect branding
Questionnaire
Figure 9: Video elements
31
To firmly establish what
elements must be included in a
privacy policy and thus the core
elements of the video
To ensure every representative
icon in the video is easily
interpreted
The voiceover is an essential
aspect of the video so ensuring
it is clear and was imperative.
The voiceover is a core
component of learning through
audio visual stimuli.
To offer an added benefit to
companies by allowing brand
representation in the video. It is
essential however not to overdo
the brand and in turn take away
from the core aim of the video.
Section 4: Primary Research
We have placed a great deal of emphasis on research as it enabled us to prove the potential of
our concept and answer the many questions and challenges we encountered.
4.1 Interviews Conducted
Core to our primary research was the numerous interviews we conducted which included;
interviews with industry professionals, privacy solicitors, a privacy consultant, the DPC and
the Irish Patent Office. These interviews are outlined in the table below and individually
discussed in detail in Appendix A, (Pg. 207).
Name
Susann
Radach
Daragh
O’ Brien
John
Boyd
Karl
Crowley
Stewart
Fennel
Lucy
Allen
David
Jack
Nagle
Prof.
Alan
Smeaton
Dr.
Cathal
Gurrin
Dr. Jean
Cushen
Profession
Type of
Interview
Allianz,
Compliance
Manager
Managing Director,
Castlebridge
associates
Data Protection
Solicitor
Web Developer
Face to Face
If the service could be used in
big companies like Allianz
Face to Face
Advice on concept, its potential
and possible development
arenas
Opinion and advice on concept
Office of Data
Commissioner
Crowley Solicitors
Email &
phone
Phone
interview
Phone
Interview
Face to face
Works in Irish
Patent Office
Risk Lecturer,
DCU
Phone
Face to Face
Advice on
Advice on API and coding
requirements for service
Relevancy and applicability of
our proposed service
Potential and scope of concept
and potential contacts
Trademarking, Copyrighting
and patents for PriVideo
Privacy aspects of the PriVideo
Service
Lecturer in
Information
Access, DCU
Web Design
Lecturer, DCU
Face to Face
Technical aspects of service
Face to Face
Technical Advice
Business Lecturer,
DCU
Face to Face
Advice on business and
branding elements of service
Figure 10: List of Interviews conducted
32
Demonstrated
Prototype
4.2 Questionnaire
We developed a questionnaire, as it gave us the opportunity to gather a large amount of
feedback on our prototype and a number of elements pertinent to our concept. A sample of
our questionnaire can be found in Appendix C, (Pg. 236). A summary of the PriVideo
questionnaire can be seen in the table below. The most beneficial responses in terms of
viability and benefits of the PriVideo service are detailed in the charts below the
questionnaire.
4.2.1 Questionnaire response tables
4.2.1.1 Section 1: Demographics
Question
Majority
Answer
Dominant
Answer
Why Q Asked
1. What gender are you?
Female
69%
To ensure we had a
representative sample and
ascertain our demographics.
2. What age category do you fit
into?
21-29
65%
To ensure we had a
representative sample and
ascertain our demographics.
3. What is the highest level of
education you have achieved?
Post Graduate
35%
Leaving Cert
31%
To ensure we had a
representative sample and
ascertain our demographics.
4. How often do you use the
internet?
More than
once a day
71%
To decipher the how often the
internet is used. As internet
usage increase it increases the
need for our service.
5. When using the Internet do
you have any concerns about
the privacy of your
information?
Yes, I have
some
Concerns
81%
To ascertain the rate of concern
of people using the internet.
Basis of our service.
6. Are you concerned about the
following when using the
Internet?
Who
companies
share this
information
with
68%
To establish the main concerns of
our users.
Figure 11: Questionnaire Demographic responses
33
4.2.1.2 Section 2: Privacy Questions
Question
Majority Answer
7. What behaviours
do you engage in to
protect your privacy
online?
Only give my information to reputable
companies/websites
8. Do you read the
privacy policies of
companies before
buying their
products or services?
I sometimes glance at privacy policies
but rarely read them
9. What difficulties
do you encounter
when reading
privacy policies?
Too long
81%
To establish the main
deterrent when reading
a privacy policy.
10. Have you ever
not used a website or
decided not to
purchase a product
online due to
concerns for your
privacy?
Yes
57%
To establish whether
privacy concerns affect
online sales.
I only use websites with certified
symbols such as secure payments
symbols
Dominant
Answer
Why Q Asked
46%
To establish how our
users attempt to
protect themselves
when using the
internet.
46%
52%
No
35%
Figure 12: Questionnaire Privacy responses
34
To establish whether
user take time to read
text versions of
privacy policies.
4.2.1.3 Section 3: Video Questions
Question
11. From watching
this video do you feel
more informed about
Majority Answer
Dominant Answer
Why Q Asked
What information the
company collects about
you
71%
How the company
collects your information
68%
How long the company
keeps your information
68%
12. What did you
think of the video?
Informative
78%
To gain feedback on
the service, to
ascertain if it does in
fact inform and
educate the users in
accordance with our
plan.
13. The
images/graphics in
this video improved
my understanding of
my privacy
Somewhat Agree
62%
To understand whether
the logos helped the
user understand the
privacy policy.
14. I could relate to
the character in the
video
Somewhat Agree
54%
To establish whether
the user could relate to
the character we
created.
15. Videos like this
make me feel more
aware of my privacy
online
Somewhat Agree
64%
To establish whether
the user felt more
aware of their privacy
when given the policy
in a different medium.
16. I would prefer to
watch videos like this
over reading a privacy
policy
Strongly Agree
64%
To ask the big
questions of whether
users would rather our
service.
17. Videos like this
would help alleviate
some of my privacy
concerns
Yes, To a degree
60%
To understand whether
a video would reduce
user concern re
privacy.
Figure 13: Questionnaire Video responses
35
To establish whether
the video conveys the
message and informs
the user and what is
the main thing the user
takes from the service.
4.2.1.4 Section 4: Brand Questions
Question
Majority Answer
Dominant Answer
Why Q Asked
18. How would you
describe your level of trust
in the company before
watching the video?
Moderate
65%
To establish the
relationship between
company and customer
before video.
19. How would you
describe your level of trust
in the company after
watching the video?
High
52%
To establish the
relationship between
company and customer
after video.
20. I feel that videos like
this strengthen the brand
image
Somewhat Agree
52%
To ascertain whether
the video increased the
customers view on the
company.
21. This video made me
more likely to buy this
company’s products and
services?
Maybe
52%
To discover if
customers would be
more likely to buy gifts
off companies with
privacy policy videos.
22. I would watch videos
like this when
contemplating what
products to buy or what
websites to use
Yes Sometimes for
example big
purchases
52%
To discover if people
would watch the video
when contemplating
buying goods off
websites.
Figure 14: Questionnaire Brand Questions
4.2.2 Charts based on Questionnaire
I would prefer to watch videos like this over
reading a privacy policy
Strongly Disagree
Somewhat disagree
neutral
somewhat agree
Strongly agree
36
Do you read privacy policies of companies
before buying their products / services
4%
Yes
8%
No
36%
52%
I sometimes glance at privacy
policies but rarely read them in
full
How often do you use the internet
25
20
15
Amount of Time
10
5
0
Once a month Once a week
2-3 times a
week
Everyday
More than
once a day
What difficulties do you encounter when reading a
privacy policy
25
20
Too Long
15
Too Much Technical Jargon
10
Boring
5
No Difficulties
0
Too Long
Too Much
Technical Jargon
Boring
No Difficulties
37
Are you concerned about the following when
using the internet?
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
How companies collect your
information
What information companies
collect about you
How companies use this
information
How companies
What
How companiesWho companies
collect your
information
use this
share this
information
companies
information
information
collect about
with
you
Who companies share this
information with
From watching this video do you feel more
informed about
25
20
15
10
5
0
How the
company
collects your
information
What
information the
company
collects about
you
Why the
company
collects this
information
What this
How long the
Who the
information is company keeps company shares
used for
your
your
information
information
with
38
What did you think of the video?
Unclear
Boring
Informative
Educational
Entertaining
0
5
10
15
20
25
4.2.3 Questionnaire Comments
Our questionnaire contained some questions which allowed us to collect further opinions or
feedback from the respondents. In order to be incorporate the feedback we received, we made
a number of changes to the video, as illustrated in the table below.
Comment
Changes Made
Voice / Accent hard to understand in places
Re-recorded voiceover with Female
Variation in the sound quality of the voice
Re-recorded voiceover in a more sound proof room
Voice quite quick
Slowed down speech in certain areas
Negative tone
Used a Irish female and encouraged a more up tempo
tone
Voice not commanding / robotic
Re-recorded voiceover
Icons moving to quick in places
Slowed down certain icons were possible
Slow down some areas of video
Reduced transition speed were possible
Figure 15: Questionnaire Video feedback
One core assumption we based our concept on, was the increasing privacy concerns of
Internet users. We believe that these concerns can led to Internet users to engage in a number
of protective behaviours such as, not opting in for marketing or abstaining from using certain
websites, which negatively impacts these companies. As outlined in the table below, the
39
questionnaire provided us with an insight into why customers engage in protective behaviours
and the potentially positive impact our videos could have on a brand.
Question
Comments
Not sure about their security level
If a company does not offer a variety of card
payment options or paypal I generally do not buy
from them
Have you ever not used a website or decided not to
purchase a product online due to concerns for your
privacy?
Policy was very long and small font seemed dodgy
so I looked elsewhere to find a similar product
Concerns personal identifiable information may not
be kept secure
They show that companies want to communicate
with customers and educate them that they are open
and have nothing to hide
using a character to explain rather than long-winded
legal jargon helps to humanise the company
Company seems open
Do you feel that videos like this strengthen the
brand image?
You feel as though the company is being clear and
upfront and honest. You know what info is taken
and how it’s used as such you can trust the company
more.
It makes their privacy policy seem more
personalised and tailored to the company, rather
than it being presented in the form of a generic
block of text.
Transparency plays an increasingly more important
role in today's society because of certain events/
info breaches etc. in the past
brand image is hugely related to trust in a brand
particularly online. If you trust a brand the image
will improve
Figure 16: Questionnaire brand comments
40
4.3 Focus Group
We conducted a Focus group on 3rd July 2013, in order to test a number of assumptions our
concept was based on. Our themes for the focus group were developed to coincide with the
areas of research we wanted to delve into over the course of this project namely;privacy
concerns, current status of privacy policies, the potential of video and of our solution and the
impact of our solution on educating users, brand image, trust and purchasing decisions. These
themes are also evident throughout our questionnaire. The main findings of the focus group
were very positive, both in terms of the fundamental assumptions the PriVideo concept is
based on and in terms of the prototype video itself. A copy of the moderator guide for the
focus group, feedback form and participant permission slip can be found in Appendix D, (Pg.
240). We chose a focus group due to the interaction among participants, as the ability to of
participants to both query and explain themselves to each other provided us with a deep
insight into the reasons for participants’ behaviour and opinions Morgan (1996). The focus
group consent form and video feedback sheet can be found in Appendix E, (Pg. 245) and
Appendix F, (Pg. 246) respectively. The table below briefly outlines the demographics of the
participants in our focus group.
Participant Name
Ruth O’B
Age
23
Nationality
Irish
Occupation
E-commerce Masters
Student
E-commerce Masters
Student
Cloud computing
Masters Student
Lab Assistant
Gender
Female
Amelie C
24
French
Michael H
24
Irish
Ciara B
22
Irish
Susan McA
23
Irish
E-commerce Masters
Student
Female
Baudin P
23
French
Marketing Masters
Student
Male
Female
Male
Female
Figure 17: Focus Group participants
4.3.1 Structure of the Focus Group
The focus group included participants from different academic backgrounds and of different
nationalities, in order to ascertain broad feedback. The focus group started by breaking the
participants into two groups. The first group read 02’s privacy policy, which was printed for
each of them and the second group watched our prototype video version of the privacy policy
with each participant having their own computer and earphones. The second group then all
41
filled out a short feedback form. A discussion across the themes outlined above then
followed.
4.3.2 Privacy Concerns of Participants
All six focus group participants expressed some concern for their privacy. The main concerns
discussed include; websites or companies using an email address without permission, who
can access information, what information companies collect, tracking with cookies and
targeted ads.
Yesterday I set up a LinkedIn
profile and my suggested friends
included people I had never emailed
or never friended on Facebook but I
still knew them like my housemates.
I don’t know how LinkedIn knew
this but it kind of made me
think..woah what else do they know
and I’m only a new user
Question
Privacy concerns
General
Consensus
All have
concerns
Protective
behaviours
All engage in
some
Is trust online a big
thing
Yes
If you were more
No just more
informed would you aware
be less likely to use a
service
It’s harder for me to differentiate between
trustworthy and non-trustworthy companies online.
Like in the real world or physical world ha I can tell
if a shop is trustworthy or not – online it’s such a
bigger place like I don’t even know where some
companies are located. So I kinda need something
to tell me what’s safe or not even that just explain to
me what’s going on with my information is it safe
Example
Example
I don’t know who has access
to that information which is
weird yano
Careful of Facebook posts
One participant was a victim
of a phishing attempt
I don’t think companies are
taking advantage of the
internet as a medium to build
trust like
then we can then
differentiate between
companies you can trust and
those you cant
Figure 18: Focus group Privacy concerns
42
Looking for visa secure
symbols to signify
trustworthiness
Ye now that you mention it I
agree like I like that
companies are more available
online we can talk to them
and get an answer and they
solve complaints but don’t
platform to foster trust I
definitely think that’s a
missed opportunity
No I just want to be in control
like I just think we need to
understand how everything
works online w
4.3.3 Participants views on Privacy Policies
A study commissioned by the FTC (2012), found that 31% of people spend no or little time
reading privacy policies with a further 33% of people glancing through privacy policies. As
discussed on Pg.19, there a number of reasons why people don’t read these policies with the
reasons discussed by our participants outlined below.
Question
General
Consensus
No
Example
Example
I just click the box and say
yes
Sometimes I look at the
length or glance at it
More likely to read
for big decisions?
Yes
Careful of Facebook posts
Why don’t people
read privacy policy?
Too long,
confusing,
language
Far too long and boring like I
haven’t got all day
Looking for visa secure
symbols to signify
trustworthiness
Sometimes the text is just so
small like if I need to zoom or
put on my glasses to read it its
automatically a turn off for
me ha
If you were more
informed would you
be less likely to use a
service
If they were easier to
understand would
you read them?
No just more
aware
Ye and as well as that we can
then differentiate between
companies you can trust and
those you cant
Definitely ye. I’d definitely
start them
Do you read privacy
policies
Yes or start
them
Definitely just be in control
like I just think we need to
understand how everything
works online w
Yeah clear sections which are
condensed but still cover
everything I suppose could
work
Figure 19: Focus group views on privacy policies
4.3.4 Focus Group Video Prototype Feedback
The focus group was also a great opportunity to test our prototype on potential viewers and
incorporate their feedback into developing our final prototype. It was also a chance to
conduct an experiment between text and video privacy policies to ascertain enjoyment,
viewer feelings and information retention. In terms of recall, it was interesting that those who
watched the video remembered the majority of the content, while those who read the written
document struggled to remember anything and things they did recall where either incorrect or
incomplete pieces of information. In one case, a participant who read the policy got confused
and another participant who watched the video was able to give them the correct information.
43
Question
Ease of understanding
Group 1 Example
The text was horrible
Recall from reading and
watching video
Was it something like they keep
your data for three years or if
your bill pay I donno like
No it was Far too long and
boring like I haven’t got all day
Anything else learnt
Preference of watching a
video vs. reading a
privacy policy
Yeah id have no problem once
the video was well under 5
minutes yano and cos the text
was just horrible
Group 2 Example
Oh yeah the video was really easy to
understand yeah even like if I
couldn’t hear the voiceover or
whatever I could understand from the
icons on the screen
Yeah billing and payment was the 6
years and location, text and
downloads was 2 years yeah.
I learnt about the data they take on me
my name, date of birth and address
etc which makes sense but was nice to
see it on the screen.
Well firstly once the video was like 3
minutes I’d have no problem
watching one for each website ha id
actually probably enjoy it
Figure 20: Focus group video vs. text
Yeah it was ha. I found myself
skimming and I found myself
reading a section and saying oh I
donno what that said at all and I had
to go back and read again to try
understand and it took so long and I
wasn’t even finished yano
Yeah I’m more likely to
remember it aswell like I think the
visual triggers something with you and
you just remember it. I’d say if I had to
read the policy it would take me far
more time to understand and grasp the
whole thing than watching the video
which I felt I could follow and actually
educate myself yano
4.3.5 Focus Group Brand discussion
At the outset of the discussion, we ascertained that all of the participants had a neutral feeling
towards the brand. We wanted to back up our assumption that better communication with
customers wouldn’t make them more concerned about their privacy, but would instead make
them more informed and empowered. This was evidenced in this discussion as shown in the
quotes below. The participants all agreed that they would feel companies with these videos
would seem more open and transparent to them and may help them differentiate between
companies offering similar products.
44
Ease of understanding
Group 1 Example
Group 2 Example
I didn’t really have an opinion Well like I said in France we don’t
before and after reading I still have 02 but the video made me think
don’t
they were open and a lot of the
reasons for information taking is to
improve the experience of the
customer which I don’t mind
Figure 21: Focus group impact of video
Reading it is kinda confusing in
itself doesn’t mean the company is
necessarily bad so it could
negatively impact how I feel about
the company just because of the
way its’ written.
But if there were two
companies offering similar
products I will maybe go for the
one I can trust more which may
be shown by this kind of video
4.3.6 Video as a source of Information
The increasing prevalence of video was highlighted in our focus group discussion, as all
participants stated that video plays a large role in their daily lives. We also wanted to
examine the length of time our participants would watch a privacy policy video for. In our
focus group the participant took between 8 and 12 minutes to read a condensed privacy
policy. Our prototype video is approximately 2 minutes 5 seconds. Our participants in the
focus group said they would spend between 3-5 minutes watching a video version of a
privacy policy.
4.4 Primary Research & PriVideo in the Future
To date, primary research enabled us answer a large number of questions about our concept,
back up our assumptions and adjust our prototype and offering based on the copious amount
of feedback we received. Our primary research also allowed us to establish consumers’
viewpoints on their online privacy, determine what exactly a company would want from the
PriVideo service and discover the efforts companies are currently making in relation to online
privacy. Going forward, we will continue to use primary research for testing our videos and
further proving the value of our concept. We believe this research will enable us to ascertain
the benefits in action of our service. We have apportioned a budget for this research in the
future, which will include competitions on social media websites and surveys.
45
4.4.1 Example of Future Research
One example of how we plan to continually research and prove the benefits of our service is a
social media competition. This competition will require Internet users to watch a sample
PriVideo animation and answer some privacy related questions approximately one week later.
This competition would offer a prize like an iPad as an incentive and provide us with
invaluable information on the information recall of our videos. This information will help us
change the product if required and sell the product to future customers.
4.5 The applicability of PriVideo
In addition to ascertaining the potential benefits of our service from our research, we were
aware that we needed to answer a number of questions about possible disadvantages
companies may experience from implementing a PriVideo privacy policy. These questions
arose when we initially conceived the concept and when we began speaking to industry
professionals and lecturers about the potential of the idea. Each question and or concern is
outlined below, along with the solution we developed or answer we found when conducting
our research.
Q1: If so few people read privacy policies, why do you think more people would be inclined
to watch a video version of a privacy policy?
A1: While research has found that only 3% of people read privacy policies in their entirety
(FTC 2012), it’s important to note that large numbers of users do start to read these policies.
According to the European Commission (2011), 58% of Internet users start to read privacy
policies. The fact that the majority of users don’t manage to read the policy fully says more
for the policy itself than the users. PriVideo makes use of video as a medium to convey the
message that users want to know and companies are trying to communicate. This was further
reinforced in our focus group where participants all said they would prefer to watch a video
version of a privacy policy, some would watch a video for each website they use and the
majority agreed they prefer video in general.
Q2: Privacy policies are merely a compliance box ticking exercise for companies why would
they want to make their data collection methods clearer to users?
A2: We accept that some companies may not want to be explicit with how they collect and
use customers’ information. It’s important to note that we don’t intend to actively target these
companies. Furthermore, the PriVideo service allows companies to be compliant in a quick
46
and costly way. These videos also allow companies to take advantage of the fact they have
nothing to hide in terms of data protection.
Q3: Are these videos legally compliant?
A3: All of the scripts we develop for our database of pre-made clips will be checked for
compliance by solicitors we have developed relationships with. Furthermore, each
customised video (Tier 4 offering) will be individually checked by one of these solicitors.
Following our conversations with the DPC, we have decided to advise our clients to keep the
written version of the privacy policy readily available on their website. Making this policy
easier to read may be an additional service we will offer.
Q4: If these videos aim to improve users’ understanding will that not make them more
sceptical about the company?
A4: No. We’ve in fact experienced the opposite response in our research. Our focus group
participants all stated that they merely want to understand more online and tend to opt out of
marketing due to a lack of knowledge.
Q5: Are users actually interested in privacy?
A5: Users are extremely concerned about their privacy and a large majority of users change
their behaviour after reading privacy statements by either not using the service or being more
careful about their personal information. The table below provides an example of the
percentage of Internet users in different countries altering their online behaviour upon reading
a company’s privacy policy.
Country
Malta
% Citizens altering behaviour due to privacy
concerns
91%
Cyprus
90%
Austria
87%
Slovenia
87%
Romania
86%
Ireland
85%
Figure 22: European Privacy Concerns Source: European Commission, 2011
47
Furthermore, internet users are actively seeking to become educated about their rights online.
This is illustrated by the year on year increase in customer information queries received by
the DPC, 55% of which pertained to access rights of citizens (DPC 2012).
Q6: Are any companies currently making efforts to be more transparent or proactive in
communicating with their customers about privacy?
A6: As mentioned above, many companies at present are predominately interested in
complying with legislation. However, if companies want to attain other benefits such as
fostering trust or increasing the numbers opting in to marketing, then they need to educate
their customers in a more effective way. According to Ackerman et al., (1999), while having
a privacy policy or statement available can enable compliance, it is not enough to alleviate
customer concerns.
Some companies are making active efforts at present to be more transparent and
communicate with customers. One example is shown below. We believe that these companies
are first movers as they realise the advantages that transparency can bring. We also believe
that more and more companies will begin to be proactive in terms of transparency and when
the amendments to EU data protection legislation come in, more transparent communications
will be a requirement.
48
Q7: Is there a market for privacy solutions
A7: As detailed in our Competitors section, while there are no companies offering the same
service as PriVideo, there are a small number of global players in this industry. Furthermore,
these companies have attracted huge interest and investments from venture capitalists with
Truste for example raising $12 million in funding recently (Tam & Worthen 2010). This
illustrates the relevancy of privacy solutions.
Q8: One of the cited benefits of PriVideo is fostering trust with customers. Is that really
important in the online space?
A8: Yes. According to Arcand et al. (2007, p662) revenue from online sales is largely
hindered due to customers perceived lack of control over ‘the privacy and the security of their
personal information when making purchases online.’ Trust is extremely important in the
online space especially as many companies are based purely online, they don’t have the
physical presence other companies have which can reassure customers. These companies
therefore, need to utilise the Internet as a medium to build trust. PriVideo aims to help
companies to build trust by educating their customers with regards to the privacy of their
information.
49
Section 5: Market & Industry Analysis
This section of the report includes an evaluation of our market, an analysis of the industry,
our competitor analysis and details our target industries and customers.
5.1 Our Market
The PriVideo service will be positioned within the privacy solutions market, which is a subsector within the global Information security market. This market concerns itself with
offering products and services that help appease the privacy concerns of Internet users. At
present, there are numerous companies in the market offering privacy solutions. These
privacy solutions can be broken up into two sectors, with one sector offering privacy
solutions for companies and the other offering privacy solutions for customers. While
PriVideo is a privacy communication solution aimed at companies, the service also considers
the needs of the customer. Therefore, PriVideo overlaps across both sides of the market as
shown in the Venn diagram below.
Figure 23: Positioning of PriVideo within the market
5.1.1 Our Target Market
The overall target market for PriVideo is essentially all companies that either collect or
process data online. The environment for these companies is about to change as strict
amendments to the EU Data Protection directive are imminent. These proposed amendments
50
will require all businesses keeping data on over 250 users to comply with the new data
protection regulations. This creates a large market for PriVideo to tap in to, as the majority of
SME’s operating in Ireland and the EU will be subject to the same laws as large multinational
companies such as Facebook or Microsoft. As an increasing number of companies are
making efforts to effectively communicate with their users, we believe PriVideo’s offering to
be timely. Additionally, PriVideo serves a niche within the privacy solutions market by
providing a privacy communication solution. As the companies we are targeting will range
from large multinational companies to smaller SME’s we have created different Tiers within
our service to meet our customers’ varying needs and budgets. These product Tiers are
outlined on Pg. 16.
5.1.1.1 Who collects data and why
The majority of websites collect information from users. The tracking practices of large
technology giants such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo
are frequently discussed in the media. These firms track and monitor users for a number of
reasons including to allow them to provide a tailored online experience. Date collected can
include ad clicks, browser and device information, email addresses, IP addresses, OS details,
personally identifiable information and search queries (Williams 2013). The image in
Appendix G, (Pg. 248) details the data gathering, tracking and usage methods of 5 of the top
technology companies and their privacy policy word count (Williams 2013).
It is essential to point out some industries rely on user information. Social media sites for
example, are dependent on user generated content. The data collected on these sites allows
companies to generate revenue through targeted advertisements. Other industries such as
Insurance and banking need to gather information in order to access risk. The proposed
amendments to EU Data regulation would affect the majority of companies dealing with
personal information.
5.1.2 Target Countries
Upon launching the PriVideo service, we will target the Irish market. The concept was
conceived and developed in Ireland and to date; we have formed numerous vital relationships
here. PriVideo’s contacts are based in several sectors and industries including insurance, risk,
web development, telecommunications and sectors such as privacy consulting and privacy
law.
51
Ireland: We decided to initially target Ireland as, Ireland is a country with a
young, well educated workforce, with many sources of investment and an attractive
corporation tax rate of 12.5% (Enterprise Ireland 2012). Additionally, Ireland was rated as
the best country for doing business in Europe (Forbes 2011). Furthermore, Ireland has been
described as a key gateway not only to Europe, but also to the Middle East and the Americas.
This is partially due to the fact Ireland is the only English speaking country in the Eurozone
(Enterprise Ireland 2012). Finally, Ireland is seen as one of Europe’s technical hubs (The
Examiner 2013). The majority of major technical companies have a base in Ireland, with
some choosing Ireland as their European hub such as eBay, Facebook and Google. Other
Electronics and technology giants which operate in Ireland include Amazon, Apple, Cisco,
Dell, Intel, LinkedIn and Microsoft.
The UK: We view the UK as our next target country. The UK are not only
Ireland’s closest neighbours but coined as the best major location for ‘ease of doing business’
in Europe (World Bank 2012). The UK also has a similar business focus to Ireland as well as
strong connections with the country. Additionally, the UK attracts more international
investment projects than anywhere else in Europe (Ernst and Young 2012). Many of the
large technology giants that have a presence in Ireland are also located in the UK. This could
further enable PriVideo’s ability to target both markets. The main reason why we aren’t
initially targeting the UK is due to the slight differences in how the current EU data
legislation was transposed into UK law. The data regulation remains extremely similar to
Irish regulations but in order to ensure our videos are compliant in the UK, we would need to
have slightly different voiceovers, develop relationships with legal professionals in the UK
and contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the equivalent to the DPC in
Ireland. We will begin the process of entering the British market in Year Two.
Further Opportunities: After the UK, we believe PriVideo has the potential to successfully
target the rest of Europe as the proposed new legislation is European wide. The regulations
that are due to be implemented would serve as the privacy law for every country within the
European Union (Kanter 2013). Within Europe, we have some contacts in the legal
profession in France and so view this as our next target country after the UK. Targeting
countries like France and Germany will begin in Year Three. We believe that once the new
legislation is finalised, PriVideo can scale massively in a short period of time. Looking
52
further into the future, the US and Canada also offers many potential opportunities. As we
plan to target American companies with a presence in Ireland or other European countries,
we believe this will aid us in unlocking the potential for PriVideo in other continents.
5.1.3 Market Opportunity
At present there is a huge communication gap between companies and customers in terms of
privacy. Individual users are becoming interested in and worried about the privacy of their
data online. Due to the miscommunication of privacy policies a mere 22% of Europeans trust
online companies (European Commission 2011). This creates an opportunity for PriVideo to
take advantage of the communication gap and deliver a service, which essentially bridges this
gap. By providing a video representation of the privacy policy, companies can allow
customers to gain the required information in a more entertaining and informative medium.
While we have identified a number of competitors on the market, we believe that we can
offer a differentiated service. We are both customer and company focused and so have
created a viable and timely business opportunity. We fulfil the consumers need to be more
informed about their online privacy whilst allowing companies be more transparent. The
proposed legislation has heightened our market opportunity with companies scrambling to
ensure they are compliant.
5.1.4 Market Trends
Privacy Concerns: The online arena has seen substantial growth in the past 5 years. As the
growth in users continues to rise, the concerns surrounding online privacy and safety also
increase. As mentioned above, 88% of UK internet users have some online privacy concerns
(Truste 2013). This was echoed among our focus group and questionnaire respondents with
over 80% stating they have some concerns. With this level of concern among users, trust in
companies operating online is feigning. If users aren’t given the relevant information to trust
companies on the internet, these online industries may begin to decline. PriVideo in our
opinion is a mechanism to provide users with the relevant information in an understandable
format.
The role of Legislation: Another positive trend for PriVideo relates to the fact that governing
bodies in Europe are placing great importance of introducing stringent data protection
guidelines within Europe. At present, companies are becoming increasingly aware of both
their users privacy concerns and the new proposed EU legislation. However at present, the
regulations that were proposed more than year ago are still in debate status. Kanter (2013)
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discusses how intense lobbying by certain Silicon Valley companies has impacted these
debates. Several of the legislative proposals are currently being scrutinised and the full terms
of agreement have yet to be confirmed. Country’s governments are openly sparring with one
another over how far to go in protecting the privacy of their users. The government’s role
whether increasing or decreasing will impact the success of PriVideo.
The Internet as a means to Communicate: Companies are trying to use the internet to reach
their customers in environments that were not previously utilised. One method of
communication companies are currently exploiting is social media networks. PriVideo gives
companies the option to expand on this communication trend and convey themselves as
transparent and honest. This may be an effective method of building trust in the brand
through open communication.
5.1.5 Targeted Industries
Whilst PriVideo is pertinent to any industry or company that utilises privacy policies, we
have outlined four target industries that we feel would specifically benefit from the PriVideo
service. These industries are briefly outlined below and discussed in detail in our Customers
section, see Pg. 93.
Insurance & Financial Services: This industry deals with large amounts of customer data on a
daily basis. PriVideo has established a number of connections within the industry and have
already met with Susann Radach, the head of compliance in Allianz. One of the most
beneficial pieces of information we took from this meeting, was the sheer cost and time it
takes to answer customer queries in relation to data access. Mrs Radach agreed that if
companies such as Allianz could convey the information in their privacy policy more
effectively using a service like PriVideo; their costs would be reduced. Additional
consultations with brokers further supported this statement.
Telecommunications: At PriVideo, we have also begun to form relationships in the
telecommunications industry. As mobile phones and the internet are seen as very personal
forms of communication, users worry what aspects of their communication is being collected
and analysed. PriVideo can help telecommunications companies alleviate some of these
concerns by informing users of the reasons they keep data and for how long in a clear and
concise manner. The main Telecommunication methods are mobile, internet, landline, radio
and broadband.
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ICT: As mentioned, Ireland is seen as a technological hub. Within the ICT industry, there are
a number of sectors including Social media, which has experienced exponential growth in
recent years. This industry in particular is largely dependent on user generated content.
However, if users don’t trust the social networking sites and limit the amount of information
they place on these sites the whole industry could suffer. Facebook for example, has
experienced numerous onslaughts by the media, due to poor compliance with privacy laws
and audits they received from the DPC in Ireland. PriVideo enables companies in this
industry to clearly communicate their compliance. Due to our relationships, we will start by
targeting social media companies or technology companies that are smaller in size than the
global players in this industry as illustrated in our sales plan, see Appendix B, (Pg. 222).
Online Retail: This industry includes companies born online and those with both an online
and physical presence. This industry enables consumers to source and buy goods that may not
be physically obtainable otherwise. However, many consumers are worried about the
trustworthiness and security of these online sites and there have been many cases of online
fraud in recent years. In a bid to increase user trust, companies could use PriVideo to detail
what they do with user’s personal and financial information and explain who has access to
this sensitive data.
5.1.6 Distribution
Online privacy solutions companies use numerous distribution channels such as software
downloads, paid subscription to software access, plugins and the ability to check a websites
credentials by typing in relevant information. For PriVideo, we would have slightly different
distribution channels depending on which Tier the product purchased resides in. Our basic
service would allow companies create their own video online and gain a link on our website
to download the completed video policy. A more customised video would involve input from
the PriVideo team prior to transferring the video to the company.
5.1.7 Future Market potential
A survey conducted by ComRes and Big Brother Watch (2013) detailed the attitudes of
global citizens toward online privacy. As illustrated below, Spanish and French citizens have
high levels of concern with regard to online privacy and thus, these countries could present a
viable opportunity for PriVideo in the future.
55
% of Population Concerned about Privacy
100
90
80
India
70
60
Spain
50
Brazil
40
France
30
UK
20
Germany
10
0
India
Spain
Brazil
France
UK
Germany
The table below details the countries that are most concerned with regards to online privacy
(Kugler 2013), the most proactive countries in terms of privacy (Anderson 2013) and the
countries who are most concerned about social media privacy (Schwartz 2010). This table
highlights 6 countries within Europe alone that appear in the top 8 most concerned countries.
As a result of this PriVideo can identify Spain France, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy
as future targets after the United Kingdom.
Most Privacy Concerned
Countries
Most Privacy Proactive
Countries
Countries specifically concerned
about social media privacy
India
France
United States (80%)
Spain
United Kingdom
Brazil (79%)
Brazil
Netherlands
Germany (71%)
France
Spain
UK (67%)
United Kingdom
Italy
Netherlands (63 %)
Germany
Germany
Italy (60%)
Spain (52%)
Figure 24: Global Privacy Attitudes
5.1.8 Market Value
The global information security market experienced growth of 11% in 2010, generating 6
billion dollars in revenue (Orr 2011). Due to the exceedingly high-demand for information
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security systems and solutions across governments, businesses and the private sector, this
industry is expected to be valued at $68.34bn by the end of 2013 (PR Newswire 2013). This
industry includes a number of sub-sectors or segments, such as anti-virus software,
encryption software and privacy solutions. PriVideo will be positioned within the privacy
solutions sub-sector of the information security market. We believe that PriVideo can exploit
the growth of this industry with our unique, timely offering.
5.1.9 Targeted Market Share
Within the privacy solutions sub-sector, there are companies offering solutions on both a B2B
and B2C level. We estimate that the spilt between B2B and B2C offerings is roughly 55% for
B2B and 45% for B2C offerings. We will aim to carve out a niche for B2B privacy
communication solutions like PriVideo. We believe that this niche can capture approximately
8-10% of the market segment, which offers B2B solutions. We believe that due to the
increased transparency required in the proposed amendments to EU regulation, our timely
offering, which makes data protection communication effective, will allow us to exploit this
untapped segment of the market.
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5.2 Industry & Internal Analysis
We conducted both Porters Five Forces and PESTLE analysis of our industry, to develop an
awareness and understanding of the impacting factors in our external environment. We also
conducted a SWOT analysis of our offering to understand our internal situation and elements
we needed to consider and improve on. This analysis combined with a detailed analysis of all
of our potential competitors provided us with the information necessary to develop our own
strategy, business model and revenue model.
5.2.1 PESTLE Analysis
P
• Government Involvement in privacy solutions industry and
online privacy
• Privacy Legislation
• Government reaction to new technologies
E
• Economic state of countries
• Growth industries
• Country tax rates
S
• Growth in internet
• Privacy concerns of users
• Internet becomming communication device
T
• Internet adaption
• Level of data collection
• Technology updates and improvements
L
• Legisaltion of countires
• EU directive
• Privacy solutions
E
• Electricy costs
• Moving from paper to computer based
Figure 25: PESTLE Analysis
Political: The level of involvement of government and government bodies is extremely
influential in the privacy solutions industry. However as this industry’s offering for the most
part focuses on the online arena, the industry like the Internet itself, spans across International
boundaries. As we will initially target Ireland and shortly afterward the UK, we are most
concerned by the involvement of these governments. However, given the global nature of
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most of our competitors, we must also be aware of the involvement of government in other
countries. It’s important to note that privacy is in many ways a legal issue and thus, will
always involve some government involvement. Generally speaking, European countries are
more stringent with regard to introducing laws related to privacy, but the degree of
involvement also varies across European countries. All countries in Europe will have to
enforce the new data protection regulations when they are finalised. This legislation as
discussed below will have an impact on companies across a range of different industries. In
terms of companies competing in the privacy solutions industry, the legislation will have a
positive impact. This is due to the fact that, our offerings provide companies with a means of
complying with the legislation by being explicit and transparent with their customers. The US
and Canada are also introducing similar laws or recommendations relating to transparency.
Other elements of government involvement, which can impact companies in our industry,
include the government’s reaction to new technology developments or changes. Some
countries are extremely proactive when it comes to the privacy concerns of their citizens.
Germany and the Czech Republic for example, banned Google street view cameras as they
raised substantial privacy concerns. In Ireland on the other hand, the government actively
seeks to attract global technology companies such as Facebook, Amazon and eBay. These
companies may have been enticed due to the tax incentives the Irish government offer. How
the government react to these companies in regards to privacy and data protection will impact
our industry. For example, if the government is extremely strict and implement fines for data
breaches, solutions like ours will become increasingly attractive.
There are particular government bodies responsible for protecting citizen privacy such as the
DPC in Ireland and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) in the UK. The role that
these bodies play will be a big influencer in the privacy solutions industry. For example, if we
engage with the DPC, they could potentially promote or utilise some of our services when
communicating their own data collection for example.
Economic: The global recession of recent years has impacted countries and industries across
the world. However, many countries are now coming out of the recession. Ireland
experienced positive GDP growth of 0.2% in 2012, while the UK experienced growth of
0.3% (Fontes 2013). Furthermore, industries experiencing growth in Ireland are
predominately technology related industries with many global technology companies like
Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Amazon locating in Ireland over the past number of years. The
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presence of these companies in Ireland makes them accessible to us and provides us with a
potential avenue to offer our service on a global scale. Furthermore, the mere presence
technology related companies can positively impact our industry given the data protection
requirements they must adhere too.
Social: There are a number of current social trends that influence the potential of our target
industry. The Internet is experiencing massive growth with a reported 2.4 billion Internet
users worldwide in 2012 (Internetworldstats.com).This growth directly impacts our industry
as when people begin to use the Internet more, they are exposing themselves more to data
collection from various companies. As people of all ages are beginning to use the Internet,
there has been a rise in privacy issues in terms of both the safety of minors online and the
privacy concerns of older citizens. According to Cheng (2011), Internet users over 55 are the
most concerned age group in terms of privacy. Additionally, the growth of mobile technology
which has been massive in recent years must be considered. Approximately 50-52% of
mobile users, have concerns about their privacy and therein lies an opportunity for the
privacy solutions industry (Cheng 2011).
Another impacting trend is the increasing privacy concern of internet users around the world.
These concerns pertain to what information companies are collecting and how they are using
it and can impact both companies offering similar services to us and the companies we are
targeting with these services. Increasing privacy concerns are expected to result in the loss of
billions in online sales (Moore 2005), which in itself gives companies an incentive to use
services like ours.
Future trends which pose opportunities for solutions like PriVideo include the utilisation of
the Internet as a vehicle to communicate with customers. Through the internet, companies
can inform their customers about their data protection practices and develop trust with them.
Companies are already communicating their policies with customers in the form of a privacy
policy, which can be found on the website of most companies. However, when companies
begin to either realise the opportunities in effectively communicating their policies or when
the amendments come into place in Europe as discussed below, our service will be seen by
companies across industries as an attractive, innovative means of being transparent and
communicating with their customers.
Technological: Our targeted industry is indubitably dependent on technology as all privacy
solutions are operational only on the Internet. This means that, as companies in this industry,
60
we are completely dependent the Internet. We are therefore impacted, first and foremost by
Internet adaption and the increasing number of companies using the Internet to collect
information from users. These are our target customers. The methods of data collection
online also must be considered when operating in the privacy solutions industry, such as new
Internet technologies used for data mining. These technologies and further technologies
which serve similar purposes can impact the services offered by companies in our industry.
The fast moving pace of the Internet and Internet technologies must be considered as we must
be aware of all new technologies and their privacy implications.
The improvements in various technologies can impact us as an organisation. For example as
animation technology improves our animation process will be quicker and easier. Any
advances in automation technology will also impact us, given that our basic offering is
automated.
Legal: There are a number of legal factors to consider within our targeted industry. These
factors all impact our target customers, in a way which makes our service attractive and we
must be aware of all of these legal factors when providing this service. The legal privacy
requirements imposed on companies across varies industries provide opportunities for
services like ours and similar offerings. Legal requirements include Stop Online Predator Act
and CANSPAM in the US for example, but the most important regulation pertains to data
protection. Online data protection regulation varies across Europe, Canada and the US but all
bare some similarities around issues of data collection and communicating with customers.
Within Europe, the EU Directive 94/96 EC, which has been transposed into law by each
European state stipulates the data protection requirements that companies must be comply
with. All companies with a presence in Ireland for example, must comply with this
legislation, which is detailed in the Data Protection Acts of 1988 and 2003.
In America, privacy is often referred to as less stringent than Europe. American companies
must comply with the recommendations made by the Federal Trade Commission or the FTC
who have developed the fair principles for data collection. In Canada, the Office of the
Information and Privacy Commissioner is responsible for ensuring all legislation is complied
with. Relevant acts that companies in Canada must comply with include; the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA, Personal Information
Protection Acts (PIPA).
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Legislation in this area is becoming more stringent especially in Europe with the proposed
Data Protection legislation imposing more stringent requirements on companies. The
proposed amendments will impact companies across all industries in a number of ways
including; requiring all companies who collect data on over 250 individuals to comply with
the same rules as Multinational companies, requiring the introduction of a data protection
officer and increasing the requirements for transparently communicating with their
customers. These amendments will impact almost all companies who collect data on
customers and will provide opportunities for solutions like PriVideo.
These stringent requirements make our solution an enabler for companies complying with
legislation and communicating this compliance. As a company offering a privacy solution on
a B2B level, we must also be aware of other European Acts such as the Cookies legislation
2012 and the Electronic Commerce Act 2000 as these are areas we may look to offer our
service to in the near future.
Environmental: Given the fact that we offer a service which is completely delivered in the
online space, there aren’t many environmental factors which influence us. As more services
which were once paper based move to electronic format, the privacy related aspects of these
services will impact our industry but we view this as more of a technological factor. Some
environmental aspects may impact our operations such as increases in electricity costs.
5.2.2 Porters 5 forces Analysis
The bargaining power of buyers: Within this industry, there are only a small number of
large companies offering privacy solutions. On the other hand, there are a large number of
buyers. For B2C products, buyers are essentially Internet users with privacy concerns, which
is a large majority. For B2B products, which are more dominating in this industry, there are
also an extremely large number of companies operating online. All companies involved in
some data collection will have a privacy policy on their website. According to Truste (2011),
almost 100% of websites have a privacy policy, which shows that there is a large amount of
buyers compared to the few companies offering solutions in this industry.
Furthermore, many of these companies offer different solutions. There are a number of
companies offering privacy certification services but companies in this industry tend to offer
a range of solutions. This allows the buyer to differentiate between companies based the
services offered. Buyers are empowered in the sense that, they can easily access a wealth of
information about each company and their offerings, but this information source isn’t enough
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to provide buyers with an influence. Given the range of companies and industries requiring
privacy solutions, the sensitivity of buyers varies but, again most companies in the industry
offer a range of services covering a range of budgets.
Considering these factors, we rate the bargaining power of buyers as Low.
The bargaining power of suppliers: As the industry offers online solutions, suppliers are
predominately online vendors of some sort too. The suppliers required will depend on the
company, but can include security service providers, Internet service providers, hardware
vendors and software developers. The power of these suppliers again varies depending on
what they offer, but generally speaking there are a large number of companies offering
software solutions. More specific offerings like voice recognition software providers have
some power as the quality of different companies’ offerings varies greatly. Other suppliers
include suppliers of labour such as staff, which depending on their skill level may have some
bargaining power and partners such as law specialists who work alongside the companies in
this industry. There is always a substitute or other supplier available but some suppliers offer
services which are extremely specialist.
Therefore we rate the power of suppliers as Moderate.
Threat of new entrants: There are a number of factors influencing the threat of new entrants
in this industry. Firstly, the industry is far from saturated with a small number of large
companies operating in this global industry. The sheer size of these companies does however,
result in some barriers to entry. The largest barrier is arguably the brand power of these
companies. This industry requires companies who are viewed as reliable and trustworthy and
new firms must compete with these established brands. This also leads to the issue of capital
while start-up costs aren’t extremely high, the costs associated with gaining brand awareness
would be considerably high in this industry.
However, this industry is young and growing with privacy becoming an increasingly
widespread issue. With imminent changes to data protection legislation, there are also a
number of opportunities opening up for companies to offer services which could be useful.
Furthermore, as this is a technology based industry, start-ups with a unique offering or smart
technical solution could prosper in this industry. There is potential for these companies to
succeed without needing to compete with the core services offered by major players in this
industry.
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Considering all of these factors, we view the threat of new entrants as Moderate.
Threat of Substitutes: Substitute products to privacy solutions are hard to identify given the
legal framework this industry is based on. Various laws require companies to utilise many of
the services offered by companies in this industry. There are potential alternatives to some
offerings. For example, B2C offerings which inform users of the privacy compliance of
different websites could be replaced by Ad blocker tools. B2B products have the advantage
of providing customers with a certification on their privacy, which they couldn’t provide
themselves without bias. However, some services offered by companies in this industry could
be done internally. For example, the legal or compliance departments in an organisation are
capable of drafting a privacy policy without requiring an external company.
As mentioned above the majority of companies in this industry offer a range of services and
have developed a strong brand and thus can be differentiated from their competitors within
the industry. Furthermore, as many of the services offered by companies in this industry are
not purchased on a frequent basis, buyers switching costs are high.
Considering all of these factors, we rank the threat of substitutes as Low.
Overall rivalry in the Industry: As mentioned, there are a small number of large firms
currently operating in this industry. The majority of these companies offer a range of services
on both a B2C level and a B2B level. Due to volume of these services offered, companies in
the industry often offer the same if not a similar service. The focus of most firms in this
industry is to continually innovate and offer new solutions. The companies are competitive in
the sense that, each company in the industry is continually offering new products and
expanding their capabilities. The industry is still young and evolving and due to the fact that
privacy is becoming a larger issue, the competition isn’t too intense because there are still
many avenues for companies to explore. As more companies enter, the rivalries will most
likely intensify, but there are still some niches within the industry that can be exploited.
After evaluating all of the factors discussed above, we believe that overall intensity of the
rivalry in this industry is Low to Moderate.
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Figure 26: Porters Five Forces Analysis
5.2.3 SWOT Analysis
Strengths

Our Team: The PriVideo team is made up of 4 innovative, business graduates with
knowledge of technology and a huge interest in the area our service relates to.

The Product concept: The concept itself is completely unique with no other company
offering a similar service. This will provide us with a competitive advantage in terms of
being the first mover in offering a privacy communication solution.

Timeliness of the concept: Especially in Europe, companies are becoming more proactive
in terms of privacy and impending new legislation will require transparency, which our
product provides.

Solving problems: Our solution solves both a current problem, namely companies not
communicating effectively with customers and a predicted future problem, the
requirement for increased explicitness and transparency.
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
Our Partnerships and Contacts: So far, we are in contact with a number of different
solicitors who would recommend our service. We also have a privacy consultant on board
who could do the same for us.
Weaknesses:

Lack of Technical Expertise: While we all have some technical knowledge, none of us are
experts. Given that our product is a technical solution, we will need to utilise a developer
who we have been in contact with already.

Lack of Legal Expertise: Again, we all have knowledge of the law pertaining to privacy
and data protection but none of our team are experts in the field. For this reason, we have
begun developing relationships with a number of data protection solicitors.

Capital: In order to launch this service, we need to meet various funding requirements
and invest our own capital.

Competing against brands: The few companies currently operating in the industry are
large global companies. These are companies who have already established their brand.
As a new start-up we must develop a strategy to carve out our own brand.

Imitability of the concept: In the initial stages of launching the product, we do bare the
risk of someone copying the concept. We can copyright some elements of our service as
discussed in the IP section. This will give us some element of protection but we must also
have a successful launch and quickly develop our brand to reduce its imitability.
Opportunities

Concept Applicability across industries: Given the nature of our offering, it can be sold to
companies in almost every industry as most companies collect some sort of data or
information. This provides us with a great opportunity to branch out across varies
industries in a short space of time.

Concept Applicability in different domains: Our concept of educating users on privacy
issues can be applied to educate users on other issues like terms and conditions for
example. Furthermore, there is great scope within privacy itself to offer tailored videos to
a company and detailed videos on different issues. Furthermore, we could explore the
concept of creating videos to educate employees on their own data protection on
information, such as employer internet surveillance.
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
Developing Strong Partnerships: We have already developed a number of mutually
beneficial relationships, which can help us gain customers and vice versa. We plan to
eventually develop a privacy network through which we can refer customers to not only
solicitors but software vendors for example.

Global potential of concept: Privacy is a global issue and while our initial customers will
be based on our relationships, we have already spoke to some Multinational companies
and believe that we can attract companies from around the world once we start honing our
brand. This in turn can impact our relationships by developing relationships with
solicitors in other countries for example.

B2C Potential: Currently, our offering is completely targeted at companies but we also
consider the information and education needs of their customers with regards to privacy.
In the future, we could potentially branch into offering the service to customers by
allowing them to generate an automated video detailing what information is collected on
them based on the online services they use.
Threats

Balancing level of automation and customisation: Our most basic offering will be
completely automated utilising a library of pre-made animation clips. However, as
customers desire some customisation starting with small changes such as manual
voiceover, this requires more time and effort from our team. It’s important for us to
attract customers looking for both automatic and customised products, but we need to be
able to produce the customised versions without straining our resources. If we don’t
maintain a balance, we may experience a backlog.

Large companies producing their own video: Many large companies already have the
resources to create their own video, which could potentially hinder the growth of our
offering. We are however, targeting SMEs as well as global companies and believe we
will overcome this by carving out a brand, which is recognised by companies and their
users.

Dependence on Partners: As mentioned above, we are currently developing a number of
mutually beneficial relationships. These relationships enable us to broaden what we offer
to our customers. We must however continually develop our own solutions and skills so
as to not become too dependent on our relationships.
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Strengths
Weaknesses
- Our team
- Product concept
- Timeliness of offering
- Patnerships and
relationships
- Solves a problem
- Lack of technical expertise
- Lack of legal expertise
- Established Competitors
- Concept imitability
- Capital required
Opportunities
Threats
- Across industry
applicability
- Across domain applicability
- Global potential
- B2C potential
- Developing strong
partnerships
- Balancing automiation and
customisation
- Large companies producing
own videos
- Dependence on partners
Figure 27: SWOT Analysis
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5.3 Competitors
In order to understand and ascertain our potential position in the privacy solutions market, we
had to analyse the market to develop an understanding of who our competitors are, what
services they offer and how we could build our differentiation strategy based on our offering.
We have divided our competitors into direct competitors, indirect competitors and other.
5.3.1 Direct Competitors
While there are no companies currently offering our service, we must consider numerous
direct competitors, which are companies offering privacy solutions.
TRUSTe is one of the leading global Data Privacy Management companies and is
based in the United States with a European headquarters in London. For over a decade, the
company has been enabling businesses to safely collect and use customer data through many
platforms including web, mobile, cloud and advertising channels. Their core offering is a
website reviewer service based on their privacy guidelines, which award websites that are
deemed safe with the TRUSTe seal of approval. They also offers services aimed at both B2B
and B2C markets, including providing information about general privacy, children’s privacy,
trusted apps and trusted advertisements. Their strengths lie in their experience and established
brand name and the relationships they have developed with large multinational companies
such as Disney, Apple and eBay. One weakness for TRUSTe is the fact that some of their
offerings are free and frequently downloaded, while their more premium products are often
overlooked.
As well as TRUSTe there are numerous other trust seals operating online. These include
Verisign secured, Norton secured, MCAfee secure and Merchant secure. While these sites
provide a privacy solution, users are often confused by third party seals as it may not be clear
how the companies achieved the seal of approval. PriVideo alleviates privacy concerns by
educating the users on the privacy policy of the company they are interested in.
WOT: Web of Trust is a crowd-sourced website reputation rating and review tool,
set up in Finland in 2005. The website’s core offering is the WOT add-on, which can be used
with numerous different browsers. The WOT tool offers a service which displays a traffic
light style WOT reputation ranking beside website links. This enables users to see which sites
are safe and have a good reputation and which sites should be avoided. The WOT service
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ranks websites based on trustworthiness, vendor reliability, child safety and privacy. The core
strength of this service is the fact it gives users the ability to hover over a link and see the
sites rating before they proceed onto the webpage. Furthermore, the ratings are based on the
opinions of other Internet users thus, increasing the sense of trust. However, the need to
download plug in to use the service could be seen as a weakness as individuals are becoming
increasingly cautious over what they download. An additional service offered by WOT is
reputation data, this offers information on companies and deems whether the companies
abuse privacy or not. PriVideo goes beyond ranking websites and seeks to empower and
educate the user. The companies which use the PriVideo service are proactively promoting
privacy. Ranking sites don’t include company input.
PrivacyBird: Privacy Bird was set up in the United States in 2006 and is still currently
in beta. The core offering of the site involves taking the privacy policy of a company based
on the P3P XML requirements and converting it into machine readable format. Users that use
a P3P agent can customise their preferences and receive traffic light feedback on the websites
they visit. The core strength of this concept is the control and feedback afforded to Internet
users. Nevertheless, the website is still in beta and as this lack of progress can be seen as a
weakness. Our offering does not require the user to download any software in order to view
the privacy policy video. We also go beyond simply informing users on what information is
collected, by enabling users to understand the whole privacy policy in a simplified manner.
5.3.2 Indirect Competitors
As well as direct competitors, PriVideo must consider number of indirect competitors as
outlined below.
Vstream was setup in Dublin in 2008 and currently has offices in Dublin and
London. The company specialises in creating videos for companies for purposes such as,
marketing and training. The company could also potentially create any type of video and
could in theory create privacy based videos if the customer demand was identified. One of
VStream’s strengths is the relationships they have already built with companies such as
Cadbury, Jameson and Aviva. A weakness of VStream is that the company does not have any
staff with privacy experience or knowledge. PriVideo works solely in the privacy arena and
can therefore, encompass our experience and expertise into the service. Developing
recognisable characters and icons will also help build up awareness of the service.
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Common Sense Media was set up in 2003 and currently has offices in San
Francisco, New York, Los Angles and Washington. The company rates media based on age
appropriateness and learning potential. The ratings are presented in icons, similar to traffic
lights. The ON symbol is green and relates to age appropriate media, the PAUSE symbol is
yellow and states that the material is somewhat edgy for that age. The OFF symbol is orange
and states that the material is not age appropriate. There is also a NOT FOR KIDS symbol
which is grey and not appropriate for kids any age. Each media item is reviewed with
considerations given to areas such as Educational value, Positive messages, Violence and
scariness, Language and Online privacy and safety. Each of these areas is represented by a
symbol and by toggling the age of the potential viewer, the website informs the viewer of the
age appropriateness of the item.
Common sense media’s strengths lie in the company’s ability to utilise icons and symbols
and coloured ratings to protect children. A weakness in terms of viable revenue is the fact
that, the site is directed towards end users and not companies. The site relies on donations to
function. While Common sense media is not a direct competitor, this site demonstrates the
use and benefits of using icons to convey data in online privacy and security. PriVideo’s core
aim is turning privacy policies into an animated video representation but Common Sense
media’s privacy knowledge, icon usage and ability to create videos is a factor we must be
aware of.
VideoCrisp was set up in 2011 and is based in Dublin. The service is world's first
cloud based video software, which provides users with an easy to use video creation tool.
The strengths of VideoCrisp include the control the service offers users, the fact VideoCrisp
allows users to create whole videos on their website and the various templates, images and
audio stored in the VideoCrisp library. One weakness of VideoCrisp is the limits on audio,
editing and customisation of the videos. PriVideo will allow companies as much
customisation as required within the higher Tiers of our service.
5.3.3 Other Competitors
Additional competitors that must be considered are large marketing companies such as iCan
and One Productions, who have ties with our target customers and large multinational
corporations with the ability to create their own videos such as Google and Facebook.
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Google was founded in California, in 1998 and presently has 70 offices in 40
different countries. Google generated revenue of over $50 billion in 2012 alone. Due to its
massive scope, facilities and revenue, Google is a company that could successfully target any
market if the opportunity was deemed viable. Additionally, Google has created their own
videos explaining various aspects of their service and thus, has the potential and facilities to
create their own privacy videos. While Google’s sheer size and financial prowess can be seen
as strengths, they have had spin out ideas fail and these weaknesses can dint the company
financially and be a waste of manpower and time. Google may not deem the PriVideo service
as one which they could master enough to be financially beneficial.
Facebook was created in Harvard University, USA in 2004. With revenue of
over $3 billion in 2012 and offices all over the world, Facebook like Google, has the ability
to create privacy videos. While their strengths include financial prowess and global presence,
a weakness of Facebook could be the negative light they have been portrayed in the media
following their disregard for data protection regulation. Other companies or users may not
trust Facebook. PriVideo is focused on developing a trustworthy and recognised brand.
Ican is a digital media company based in Ireland since its founding in 2001. The
company creates dynamic and innovative advertisements for clients such as Paddy Power,
Facebook, Jameson Irish Whiskey and Setanta. With experience creating video
advertisements for both television and cinema, as well as numerous other promotional
advertisements, this company and others like it cannot be overlooked by PriVideo.
Companies with established client bases as well as the knowledge and facilities to make
videos could, in theory replicate PriVideo’s service. Ican’s strengths include its diverse
offerings and client base. They have worked on both the DBS student testimonials campaign
and the Bulmer’s new pear advertisement. However, Ican’s lack of experience or
relationships within the privacy industry could be seen as one weakness.
One Productions is a video production and marketing company which was
established in 2000. The company has offices in both Dublin and Belfast and creates
everything from TV advertisements to health videos, training videos, viral videos and
company promotions. One of the company’s core strengths is the relationships it has built up
with its clients including Guinness, General electric and Kodak. Additionally, its expertise in
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video production is a huge strength for them. As mentioned above, the main weakness for
One Productions is their lack of privacy relationships.
5.3.4 Competitors Tables
Company Name
Type of offering
TRUSTe
Privacy Seals
WOT
Reputation
Ranking
Privacy Bird
P3P Agent
Core Offering
How PriVideo Compares
TRUSTe review websites
based on privacy
guidelines and awards
TRUSTe seal of approval
if the site is deemed safe.
As well as TRUSTe there
are numerous additional
trust seal sites that are
used on websites in a bid
to portray the websites
safety credentials.
Web of trust is a
downloadable website add
on that ranks the safety
and security of websites
using a traffic light
system. The ranking is
based on trustworthiness,
vendor reliability, child
safety and privacy.
Whilst TRUSTe is an
established brand PriVideo
allows companies provide
their own privacy
communication solution.
PriVideo allow companies
educate their users on
privacy without reference
to a third party that may
confuse the user.
Customises the users
privacy preferences and
then gives users traffic
light feedback about
websites based on this.
Figure 28: Direct Competitors Table
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PriVideo bridges the
communication gap
between customers and
companies. It does not
advise users not to visit
sites it simply empowers
the user to make their own
decision by providing them
with the necessary
information. PriVideo
proactively promotes
privacy.
PriVideo exposes users to
the companies whole
privacy policies in a
simplified manner not just
certain areas. No download
necessary with PriVideo.
5.3.5 Indirect competitors
Company Name
Core Offering
How PriVideo
Compares
Video Creation
for companies.
Create marketing and training
videos for clients. Strong
relationships built with some large
multinationals.
Rates media
Rates media productions based on
number criteria including privacy
and safety. Has made their own
videos to explain their offering.
Not animated. Educates users on
aspects of certain media through
icons.
PriVideo specifically
offers privacy policy
videos. PriVideo also
focuses on animation as
opposed to other video
production mediums.
PriVideo focuses on
privacy policies and
turning these into
animated videos.
PriVideo educates users
on certain companies not
on privacy in general.
VideoCrisp
Online Video
creation.
Allows companies create videos
on the VideoCrisp website. Users
create whatever kind of video
they desire. Users can draw from
the VideoCrisp library for audio,
themes and images.
Google /
Facebook
Large
multinational
companies
Whilst Google’s core offering is a
search engine and advertising and
Facebook’s core offering is a
social media site they have the
relevant financials and experience
to create their own privacy
policies. Access to legal expertise.
ican / One
Productions
Advertising Digital media /
Video
production
companies.
Companies with the knowledge
on how to create videos, large
client bases and established
brands. Video expertise.
VStream
Type of
offering
Common Sense
Media:
Figure 29: Indirect Competitors table
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PriVideo has a core
focus and creates videos
for one reason. PriVideo
also has a library but the
clips in the library relate
to specific aspects that
are required inclusion in
privacy policies.
Design and market
PriVideo as a reliable
and relatable brand in
order to stop companies
with the facilities to
enter into competition
with PriVideo.
PriVideo has a core
market and at present
targets one industry, the
privacy industry so can
build up relationships
with experts and
advisors in order to offer
the best viable service.
Animated videos.
5.3.6 PriVideo V’s Competitors
The table below compares the core features of the PriVideo offering with the core features of
all competitors we have considered.
PriVideo Features
Competitors Features
Unique concept
Established industry relationship
One target industry
Trust Seals
Relationship with solicitors
Traffic light system
Relationship with privacy consultant
Privacy solutions downloads
Video Prototype
Legal expertise
Character - Sam
Video expertise
Brand to focus on
Financial prowess
First mover advantage
Brand establishment
Differentiated Strategy
Proven Track records
Production teams
Figure 30: Concept Feature comparison
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Section 6: Our Business Strategy & Business Model
This section includes a detailed description of our business strategy, business model and
revenue model, which have been developed following our extensive primary research and
market and industry analysis. This section also introduces the four industries we plan to
initially target, how we plan to target companies within these industries and some potential
future industries we may target.
6.1 Our Business Strategy
It’s important to first briefly outline our strategy for ensuring that we are market ready before
discussing our business and marketing strategies in detail. We hope to launch the PriVideo
service in January 2014.
The steps for ensuring PriVideo is market ready are outlined below:
1. Develop our library of animated clips to cover all possible aspects of a privacy policy.
2. Consult legal partners on library of developed clips
3. Build website fully and incorporate Stupeflix’s API which will complete automation
based on user’s selection of clips
4. Continue developing relationships with our contacts in various companies
5. Secure funding for the project or bank loan
Develop
library of
animated
clips
Check clips
for
compliance
Develop
Website
Develop
contacts
Secure
funding
Role
Team Members Responsible
External Assistance
Develop Library of clips
Graham
N/A
Check Compliance
Grace
Solicitors/Privacy consultant
Develop Website
Arthur
Web Developer (Karl Crowley)
Develop Contacts
Grace & Catherine
N/A
Secure Funding (Loan & Start
up Applications)
Catherine & Grace
N/A
Figure 31: Roles in taking product to market
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6.1.1 Our Strategy: Background
As outlined above, are many benefits associated with our product, there are also a number of
challenges we as a team must overcome and a number of barriers to overcome within our
industry. In order to successfully launch our product, there are two areas we see as crucial,
namely carving out a brand and continually developing our competitive advantage.
Brand: We’re placing great emphasis on building a strong brand in the privacy solutions
industry for a number of reasons, but predominately due to the strong global brands already
operating in the industry. Furthermore, we view brand as a means of reducing the imitability
of our product. Our brand message and strategy is discussed below.
Our competitive advantage: We believe that we have a number of advantages at present.
Firstly, we believe we can benefit from first mover advantage. We are the first company to
offer a solution which converts a privacy policy into an animated video. Therefore, we are the
first company enabling our customers to clearly communicate and educate their customers,
which can allow them to realise a number of benefits. There is also an advantage in the broad
scope of our concept. We can offer this service across industries, in various contexts, in
varying degrees of detail and to different audiences from customers to employees. We plan to
take advantage of this broad applicability by offering a range of services to meet the needs of
different companies and continually branching into new areas and new add-ons to the service.
This will allow us to maintain and build on our competitive advantage of being unique by
striving to maintain this unique, innovative element in all of our solutions. The broad nature
of our initial offering is illustrated in the scale below, which ranges from a completely
automated video with the inclusion of a company name and logo to a completely customised
solution which is developed in a collaborative effort with the company.
Video generated
automatically
with automated
voiceover
Referral to
privacy solicitor
Inclusion of video
for employees
Manual voiceover
Storyboard session to
develop video customised
format & characters
available
Figure 32: Product Customisation
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6.1.2 Our Strategy: Differentiation
The strategy we intend to pursue as defined by Porter, is a strategy of differentiation, as we
will aim to differentiate ourselves from other companies based on our competitive advantage,
the uniqueness of our idea, strength of our relationships and our skills. We are differentiating
from companies offering other privacy solutions to the mass market. Our differentiation
strategy will be of a broad focus scope, as we will aim our service at the mass market in terms
of companies of all sizes, positioned in a number of different industries. To be successful in
this strategy, we’re aware that we must consider the needs of the mass market that we serve.
The core needs of companies across industries that collect data, which are relevant to our
offering include:
1. Compliance needs: Many companies are still predominately concerned with ensuring that
they comply with data protection legislation.
2. Communication needs: There is a current miscommunication between companies
regarding data protection issues, which results in many problems for companies.
We aim to meet both of these needs by allowing companies to check the compliance box by
complying with legislation now and future proofing in preparation for the new legislation to
be introduced across Europe. This will require companies to be transparent with their users
about these issues. The PriVideo service allows companies to be transparent now and reap the
benefits associated with this transparency.
Companies Needs
Compliance
Communication
How PriVideo meets Further offering
these needs
Videos are compliant
 Can check the company’s privacy policy for
with EU legislation
compliance
 Can develop videos which meet the
expected amendments to EU legislation
Allows companies to
 More detailed videos to improve education
communicate clearly
 Incorporate a unique message into video that
with customers about
the company wants to communicate
data protection
Figure 33: Meeting Customers’ Needs
Once we have ascertained these needs, we will then evaluate the needs of companies in
different industries and the needs of companies of different sizes within these industries. For
example, in the insurance industry we will target large companies like Allianz and we will
also target the large number of smaller insurance brokers as these companies will be subject
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to the same legislative requirements as the larger firms. All firms, regardless of size want to
comply with legislation. Therefore, the smaller firms can avail of the more basic offerings we
provide to comply and do so in a way which isn’t too costly and is extremely quick. As small
firms are unlikely to have a compliance department, we can also refer them to a solicitor to
draft their privacy policy or provide them with a generic, industry relevant privacy policy.
Larger companies on the other hand, may also be concerned with the communication element
and building trust and rapport with their customers. Therefore, these companies may want to
avail of various customisation elements such as branding, unique messages or completely
new characters and story to fit in with their brand image.
6.1.2 Product Timeline
The development of PriVideo in line with our differentiation strategy is illustrated below.
Figure 33: Product Timeline
6.1.3 Possible Exit Strategy
We’re aware that we must also consider a potential exit strategy. One possible exit strategy
we have considered to date, involves being bought out. This could be done by a global player
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in the privacy solutions industry. Companies like Wot for example, offer a wide range of
services to companies and may seek to obtain our offering to add to their portfolio.
Alternatively, a global marketing company could also seek to buy us out. When conducting
our primary research, we became aware of the fact that many large companies use marketing
companies to develop all their ads both video and text ads and all our their campaigns. As our
customised videos may include brand messages of the company, they will be developed
following a consultation with the company’s branding department. Large marketing
companies may see this as an opportunity to add a specific compliance based offering to their
portfolio. In either case, we would need to ascertain whether the buyout offer was a
significant enough figure and whether a buyout was the best option for the company. If we
believe we have opportunities to continue to grow and expand our offering, we wouldn’t
accept buyout offers.
6.2 Business Model
This section outlines the various facets which when combined create the business model we
plan to pursue.
6.2.1 PriVideo Mission Statement
At PriVideo, we are driven by our desire to make online privacy and data protection more
transparent. Our goal of transparency drives our passion to not only meet our customers’
current needs but to aid them in future proofing their business through the use of truly unique,
innovative solutions.
6.2.2 Benefits Highlighted to Customers
As discussed in the Customer section of our plan, we will offer different services to our
customers according to the size of each enterprise. Therefore, we will approach the
relationship with enterprises differently and sell the service in a different way. The core
benefits of the PriVideo service which will be highlighted to our smaller customers and our
larger customers are illustrated in the table below.
Small to Medium Size Enterprises
Low cost service
Video produced in a matter of minutes
Compliance with EU legislation
Expert advice if required
Large Enterprises
Compliance with EU legislation (Current &
future)
Channel to communicate trust message to
customers
Improve brand image with customers
Increase opt-in marketing by educating users
Figure 34: Benefits for SME’s & Large Customers
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6.2.3 Business Model Canvas
The current status of our business model for PriVideo is best illustrated using the business
model canvas developed by Alex Osterwalder. The figure below depicts how we envisage the
various elements of our business model at present. We’re aware that this may change
somewhat as it has already been amended a number of times throughout the process of
conducting primary and secondary research.
SMEs: automated
service
Developing Library
Daragh O’Brien
Crowley Solicitors
Developing brand
Developing contacts
Stupeflix



Compliance
with Legislation
Customised videos
made as collaborative
effort
Speed & cost
effective
SMEs: Insurance,
Online retail, ICT
Customisation
& brand
incorporation
Large: Insurance,
Online retail, ICT
& Telecoms
Website
Our team
Videos
Brand
Legal & Brand
departments
Tier 1: Cost driven

Transaction revenue from videos
Tier 2-4: Value Driven – variable
costs depending on customisation

Additional services

Updates to videos or new videos
Figure 35: Business model canvas
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Customer Segments: While our concept is applicable to the mass market
in terms of companies operating online, we have chosen to segment our business model. This
segmentation will allow us to understand the needs of different customers and work to best
meet these needs. Different customer segments can be defined based either on their different
needs, varying channels to reach them, different relationships with the company and based on
the varying costs they will be charged (Osterwalder & Pigneur 2009). Based on this, we have
decided to divide our customer segments based on company size, as SMEs and global
customers will vary across these metrics as shown in the table below.
Metrics
Needs
Large Customers (>250 Employees)
More customised service offering
Channels
Directly or through Privacy
consultants or solicitors
Collaborative effort to develop
product
Vary depending on rate of
customisation required
Relationship with
PriVideo
Costs
SMEs
Most companies will utilise
basic services offered
Online
Minimal interaction unless
additional services required
Range from basic video cost to
additional costs for add ons
Figure 36: Customer Segments
Our two core customer segments of SMEs and Large organisations have similar needs in
terms of the end product but where larger companies value customisation, smaller companies
seek our quick, low costing solution. These core segments can also be broken down further in
sub-segments, which will receive similar products but the content of videos will vary slightly
according to industry. Large Companies sub-segments include large companies in the
Insurance and financial service, telecommunications, online retail and ICT sectors. SME subsegments
include
small
companies
in
the
Insurance
and
financial
service,
telecommunications, online retail and ICT sectors.
Value Proposition: Our value proposition varies for both of our core customer
segments. For our customers who are large companies, the PriVideo value proposition is
based on customisation, design and brand. On the other hand, for our smaller customers, our
value proposition relates to the price and convenience of the service.
Customisation, design and brand: For our larger customers, the PriVideo service will offer
varying degrees of customisation ranging from altering the format of the video to
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highlighting a specific message or a complete storyboard session with the company’s internal
marketing team to generate a completely unique video. This customisation offering allows
these companies to use the video as a means of communicating the trust message with their
customers. Furthermore, the videos can be designed in line with the company’s brand image.
Lastly, as PriVideo grows as a brand, the company can benefit from utilising a trusted
service.
Price and Convenience: For our smaller customers, PriVideo is an opportunity to comply
with current EU data protection legislation in a way which is convenient for them, with a
fully compliant video being produced in a number of minutes. Furthermore, the cost of this
service is significantly lower than the cost for the company to produce a similar video
themselves or hire a video production company to do so.
The Value Proposition of the service which applies to both SME and Large companies is
outlined below.
PriVideo Proposition
Compliance with EU legislation
Innovative way to communicate with customers regarding data protection
Benefits of transparency such as trust
Figure 37: PriVideo Value Proposition
Channels: There are various channels we have to consider including channels for
reaching customers, channels for delivering our product, channels for raising awareness about
the product and after-sales channels.
Channels for Reaching Customers: We have identified and evaluated two main channels for
reaching customers upon initial entry to the market. The first channel is through relationships
we have already developed. We have already developed a relationship with a privacy
consultant and are in the early stages of developing a relationship with two solicitor firms
who specialise in data protection. These relationships have allowed us to contact a number of
potential customers already and will continue to provide us with referrals to their clients. The
second channel is directly contacting customers ourselves, which we have also begun to do
using our own contacts from previous work experience. Upon launching the product and
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securing a number of customers, the other channel which will open up to us is our website.
This will be the main port of call for smaller companies who want to generate the video in a
number of minutes.
Channels for delivering our product: Again we have two core channels for delivering our
product. The first channel is our website which is where customers can generate a video in a
number of minutes by following our video generation process. The second channel is
physical and will involve at the least interaction between the PriVideo team and the
customer’s marketing department and at the most involve collaboration and a storyboard
session before the video is developed manually by our team and sent on to the customer.
Channels for raising awareness: Again our marketing channels are both physical and online.
Online channels for generating awareness include our own website which will act as a hub of
information on the service for potential customers and privacy issues in general for Internet
users. Physical channels include appearances at trade shows.
Channels after-sales channels:
In order to offer support to customers generating an
automated video, we will be available via phone or email for consultation. For customers who
utilise our more customised offerings we will also be available via phone, video or email as
well as in person for required consultants in order to build a rapport with them. We may also
train the DPO within the organisation on the issues or all employees if required.
Customer Relationships: Customer relationships are an important element of
PriVideo. Our relationship with customers will vary based on what offering they avail of.
Smaller Customers: Some customers will avail of our automated video offering which will
limit to degree of interaction we have with the customer and make the majority of the
experience self-service. We will however, offer some personal assistance if required, in the
form of email or phone support to these customers:
Larger Customers: The degree of customisation required will vary from customer to
customer. Once a certain degree of customisation is required the customer will receive
dedicated customer service from a PriVideo team member to discuss their requirements.
Moving further up the customisation scale, some customers will reach a level of almost cocreation with PriVideo, which would involve a storyboard session to develop ideas and plans
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for their video. After-sales support in terms of evaluating video metrics and training
employees will also be offered.
Cost Structure: Our Cost structure varies across the product Tiers we offer. On
the automated video side, our focus is on offering a service which is low cost and quick and
thus, operates on a low cost structure. These products carry fixed costs for PriVideo as we
have developed the library of pre-made clips and have a set fee we pay Stupeflix for
automating each video. On the other hand, we offer customised videos. The costs associated
with these videos are variable for PriVideo depending on the level of customisation, as this
impacts the time spent by our team animating and putting the video together, as well as
getting the video checked for legal compliance. Cost structure in terms of the customised
offering is very much value driven as the customer gains a unique video, which is
representative of their brand.
Revenue Streams
Transaction Revenue: Each video we sell will provide us with transaction revenue. This will
be our core source of revenue and will be derived from automated videos the customer can
generate themselves and customised videos developed by the PriVideo team.
Revenue from Add-on services: As illustrated in our Product section (Pg.15), we offer a
number of additional services such as privacy policy templates for the customer’s written
policy and consultation services. These services will generate revenue also.
Recurring Revenue: One question we encountered was how do we get customers to come
back to us? While there are enough potential customers to keep us in business we wanted to
build a reputable brand. We have identified four occasions which will cause companies to
return to us which are as follows:
1. Introduction of new legislation which requires changes in their privacy policy
2. Desire to purchase more detailed videos or videos on different areas such as terms and
conditions
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3.
Desire to obtain market research we have conducted or to avail of metrics or monitoring
services we may offer which will assess the impact of their videos on the customer’s
perception of the brand, trust and understanding of privacy.
4. Supplying video metric reports to companies
Key Resources: PriVideo is reliant on of a number of core resources, which can be
divided as follows:
Human: The PriVideo team consists of members with all skills necessary from design and
marketing, to sales, finances and technical. We also have strong relationships with legal
professionals and will recruit team members with sales and technical expertise. This core
team is driven to make PriVideo a success.
Intellectual: The PriVideo service isn’t currently offered by any company and thus needs to
be protected. We plan to secure copyright protection for our characters, trademarks for our
brand name and logo and copyright each video to protect our brand.
Brand: Due to the potential imitability of our concept, we are placing a great deal of
emphasis on carving out a brand for PriVideoThis brand will enable us to scale globally and
differentiate ourselves from any potential competitors who may begin to offer a similar
service.
Key Activities: The activities which are imperative to taking PriVideo to market
and making it a success include:
Developing Relationships:
We have already begun developing a number of mutually
beneficial relationships with privacy solicitors, consultants and technical professionals. These
relationships help us ensure that our offering isn’t just a video automation tool but an allencompassing privacy solution. Developing these relationships is a crucial step in making our
service market ready as we need to have these connections to offer all services we plan to
offer.
Developing a Library of clips: We plan to initially target four industries and thus, need to
develop a library of animated clips to cover all potential privacy policy variations. This is
86
crucial in ensuring we are market ready. After the product launch, we will continue to add to
this library to meet the needs of new industries or new products we want to offer.
Carving out a brand: Our brand will be our key differentiating factor. For this reason we are
placing great time and effort on developing this brand.
Key Partners
Privacy Consultant: We have developed a relationship with a privacy consultant, Daragh
O’Brien of Castlebridge Associates. This relationship is mutually beneficial as with his
contacts Daragh can recommend our service to his clients. Furthermore, we may refer our
clients to Daragh for advice in developing a privacy strategy for example.
Privacy solicitors: Compliance is core to our offering. Therefore, it is essential for us to
develop and maintain strong relationships with solicitors. These solicitors can review our
initial library of clips for compliance, review each customised video individually and refer
their customers to us. We can also refer customers to them for help in drafting a privacy
policy. At present, we have developed a relationship with Crowley’s solicitors and have
begun talks with a solicitor in the largest law firm in Ireland. Going forward, we have another
potential solicitor contact in Limerick and further into the future we have some contacts in
the legal profession in France.
Stupeflix: We outsource the automation of our videos to a company called Stupeflix. The
services they will provide us with such as storing all our clips, are core to our success. We are
to a degree, dependant on Stupeflix’s automation software and server reliability and security.
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6.3 Revenue Model
This section outlines the revenue model we plan to pursue when we launch our PriVideo
service. It also details our price bands for each Tier of our service and the reasoning behind
each price band. It’s important to clearly establish that our revenue model is a hybrid model
as we aim to generate revenue streams from a number of sources. Our core revenue source is
based on a transaction revenue model, which essentially is when revenue is generated from
the sale of products or services. As illustrated below, for each PriVideo animation sold the
customer receives an end product of a video and we in turn receive revenue.
.Figure 38: Transaction process of PriVideo
6.3.1 Product Tiers & Price Bands
Other sources of revenue for PriVideo will be generated from our additional offerings such as
customisation and consultation. Our various offerings are divided across Tiers with a
different price band charged for each Tier, as illustrated below.
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Service Offering
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 4
Tier 5
€249
€1,500
€4,000
€7,000
Automatic Voiceover
Video produced
immediately
Input of company logo
Manual voiceover
Privacy policy manually
processed by PriVideo
Referral to Privacy
solicitor or consultant
Custom characters created
Unique video format
Complementary training
video for employees
Service support
Price Band
Figure 39: Tiers with price bands
The price for each Tier has been decided based on research into the pricing of similar
services, the costs of developing these videos and other costs such as ensuring the legal
compliance of each video. The price for each Tier is explained below.
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Tier 1, Price €249: This Tier is the most basic PriVideo offering. The end product of an
animated video, is the same as other Tiers however, the interaction between PriVideo and the
customer is minimised. Videos bought using this Tier are generated automatically with the
customer selecting what clips they want to include from our library of pre-made clips.
Customers can also input the company name and logo to the video. The price of €249 is
based on our costs for animating our library of pre-made clips, the costs associated with using
Stupeflix for automation, the legal costs of checking all videos. We also considered the cost a
company would incur when getting a solicitor to draft a privacy policy on their behalf which
was €500-€2000 according to an interview with a solicitor from Crowley Solicitors (see
Appendix A, Pg.221).
Target customers: Small companies including one man operations. These companies collect
data and need a cheap, quick solution.
Tier 2, Price €1,500: The core differentiating factor between Tier 2 and Tier 1, is the fact
that Tier 2 is not automated. This happens when the customer requests a manual voiceover as
opposed to the text to speech technology used in our automatic videos. This means we need
to utilise our voice actors and put the video together ourselves. The price increase accounts
for the cost of voice actors (just to say the company name as they have already recorded for
our pre-made clips) and the cost of the PriVideo team manually putting the video together.
The cost is still within the average costs charged for drafting a privacy policy.
Target customers: Small companies again with a small number of employees who prefer a
voice actor on the video.
Tier 3, Price €4,000: This Tier includes a referral to either a privacy consultant or privacy
solicitor we have developed relationships with. Companies availing of this service want to
draft a privacy policy from scratch or develop an internal strategy to for privacy. We will also
offer a complementary training video for employees which will be based on the data
collection practices of the company.
Target companies: Larger SMEs who need or want to pay more attention to privacy
Tier 4, Price €7,000: This Tier is aimed almost exclusively at large companies and involves
a great deal of customisation. The video will be developed following a storyboard session
with the company’s branding team. The video may include new characters, more brand
elements and may have a unique message or format. Each video in this Tier will be
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individually checked by our solicitors for compliance. This service also comes with a
complementary training video for employees. This Tier therefore, accounts for the cost of
animating each video from scratch and utilising a legal expert to check for compliance.
Target customers: Large companies who want to benefit from communicating in a more
transparent way.
6.3.2 Challenges with this revenue model
There are challenges associated with utilising a revenue model which is largely dependent on
transactions. These challenges include ensuring that revenue streams continually flow. As our
concept is applicable to so many industries and companies, we believe that there are enough
companies to keep PriVideo in business for many years. We do plan to offer additional
services as listed above which would lead to customers using our service for more than a
source of video. As we continue to offer more products and services, we believe we can
attract new companies, as well as returning customers. Many large companies have different
privacy policies for different products and countries. We could potentially service all of these
policies. Other sources of recurring revenue will come in the form of updates to the video due
to legislation or company changes and requests for more detailed or customised videos.
6.3.3 Revenue Sources for Year One
As we can’t accurately predict what companies will avail of additional services offered in
Tier 2 and 3, we’ve focused our sales predictions on anticipated Tier 1 and Tier 4 sales.
Year One Customers
Year One Revenue
Sources
12,948
15
Tier 4
Customers
Tier 4 Sales
Tier 1
Customers
Tier 1 Sales
115000
52
Figure 40: Year One Revenue Sources
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As shown above, the revenue generated in Year One, despite our cautious projections is quite
impressive. This increases in Years 2 & 3 based on obtaining more customers, introducing
new products and servicing different departments or locations of large companies. The
quarterly breakdown for Year One sales can be found on Pg. 140 and serves as an illustration
on the steady, continual flow of revenue we expect to generate.
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6.4 PriVideo’s Target Customers
This section outlines in detail, the industries we have chosen to target when the PriVideo
service is first launched. We will detail the reasoning behind targeting each of these
industries, list some of our target customers and discuss the industries and companies we may
target over the first three years of the PriVideo service.
6.4.1 Who are our customers?
It’s important to note that the PriVideo service is applicable in virtually any industry. There
are a number of basic elements, which can be used to evaluate whether a company could be a
future customer of PriVideo as summarised in the table below.
Company Attributes suitable for PriVideo
Online Presence
Collects data on customers/website visitors
Privacy Policy available on company website
EU Presence (company must comply with EU data protection legislation)
Figure 41: Attributes of PriVideo’s Customers
The majority of companies today have these attributes, which makes our target market quite
vast. Furthermore as discussed in the Product section, the PriVideo offering includes a
number of additional services or levels of customisation in order to make the service
desirable to companies of all sizes.
6.4.2 What can we offer our Customers?
We plan to target small to medium size enterprises with our core offering of the animated
privacy policy and some additional features such as the use of generic industry privacy
policies or referrals to privacy solicitors and consultants we have relationships with. We also
plan to target larger global companies with a presence in Ireland, as these companies have all
of the attributes listed above. Our service offering to these companies will vary slightly in
that we will offer a large degree of customisation and brand incorporation into the video. The
use of our privacy consultant may also be desirable to help larger companies work on their
overall privacy consultant. While some of our offerings will be offered to both SMEs and
large enterprises, the table below illustrates the main offerings for the varying size of
companies we can target.
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Small to Medium Size Enterprises
Automated generation of video
Generic industry privacy policies as a guide to
work from
Some customisation elements – input of company
logo, manual voiceover etc
Referral to privacy solicitors
Training session with employees or data
protection officer
Large Enterprises
Varying degrees of customisation from
incorporation of brand, to unique characters or
unique format
Video developed in collaboration with branding
department with storyboard session
Custom videos aimed at training employees on
these data protection issues
Referral to privacy consultant to craft privacy
strategy
Training session with employees or data
protection officer
Figure 42: Services offered to different customers
Given that we are targeting companies of all sizes and aiming to meet the needs of all
companies, our potential target market is exponentially large. As shown below the number of
Enterprises residing in Ireland is extremely high. This is before we account for the number of
companies in the UK, which we plan to enter at the beginning of Year Two. Due to this
quantity issue and the fact the privacy policies can vary significantly from industry to
industry, we have decided to focus on targeting four industries initially, all of which have a
large number of customers we can potentially target.
6.4.3 Our Industries
6.4.3.1 The Financial services and Insurance industry
The Financial services industry is one of the largest industries in Ireland representing
approximately 13.2% of total turnover in Ireland (CSO 2012). Furthermore, the Industry has
5,282 enterprises in Ireland, employing over 93,000 people (CSO 2012). This Industry
therefore, provides us with a large volume of potential customers. With regard to the views of
citizens, 89% of Irish people view financial information as personal (Eurobarameter 2012).
Reasons for Targeting the Financial Services & Insurance Industry
Over 5,800 companies in Ireland
Data & Personal Information play a core role in this industry
Two members of the PriVideo team have Insurance experience and contacts
Legislation plays a core role in the running of these companies and thus PriVideo may appeal
to many of the Enterprises
Figure 43: Reasons for targeting the financial services industry
This Industry also provides us with plentiful opportunities to target companies of all sizes as
illustrated below.
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Enterprise Size
Micro (<10 Employees)
Small (10-49 Employees)
Medium (50-249 Employees)
Large (250+ Employees)
Total Enterprises in Industry
Number of Enterprises in the Industry
4,615
510
95
62
5,282
Figure 44: Companies in the Financial Industry Source: CSO, 2012
The number of small companies in this Industry is a positive factor for PriVideo, due to the
fact that data plays a central role in all of these companies’ operations. PriVideo services,
such as our core offering of an animated privacy policy will enable these companies comply
with current legislation and the future legislation which requires more transparency. PriVideo
will allow these companies to do this in a way which is quick and costly.
Target Customers within this Industry
Given the size of this Industry, we have decided to break the industry into two parts and will
initially target Insurance companies before quickly moving on to target financial institutions.
The two core reasons for this choice are the fact we have already established contacts with
Insurance companies and the content of privacy policies for financial companies will vary
with them perhaps choosing to highlight different areas. The table below illustrates some of
our initial target customers within this industry which is explained in further detail in our
sales strategy.
Company Size
SME
Large (250+ Employees)
Initial Targets
Arachas, Marsh, Willis, McCarthys Insurance Group, CFM Group,
Cotter Insurance, Sheridan Insurance, Marine & General, Kinane
Insurance, North County Brokers, Hastings, Prestige, O'Shea Insurance,
The Brook Insurance Brokers, Acorn Brokerage, Abington Insurance,
Wright Group, Barrington Insurance
Allianz Ireland, Zurich, Aviva, RSA, AXA, Liberty Insurance, FBD,
JLT, AON, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche. AIB
PwC, AA, Campion Insurance, Chill
Figure 45: Target Customers in Financial Services Industry
6.4.3.2 Telecommunications Industry
The telecommunications industry in Ireland is home to many global players and contributes
largely to the economy and of course provides Internet connectivity to citizens and customers
in the country. The industry employs over 20,000 people in Ireland (IBEC 2011) and
generates turnover exceeding €4 billion per annum (TIF 2009).
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Reasons for Targeting the Telecommunications Industry
Data & Personal Information play a core role in this industry
Contacts with major companies due to our relationship with a privacy consultant
Legislation plays a core role in this industry with new Cookie Directive for example
We’re aware of some companies in this industry making moves to be more proactive in terms
of privacy and data protection
Figure 46: Reasons for Targeting Telecommunications
It’s difficult to answer the number of telecommunications companies currently located in
Ireland as there are no figures available on same. However, there a large number of global
telecommunications companies are present in Ireland, these companies are also investing
largely in Ireland with annual investments of approximately €730 million per year (TIF
2009).
Target Customers within this Industry
As mentioned above, due to our relationship with a privacy consultant we can directly target
two of the major players in this Industry namely, O2 and Vodafone. Due to the
competitiveness of this industry, it is our expectation that the majority of companies will be
interested in our offering as a form of competition with other firms in the industry.
Additionally, due to the number of products these companies offer, they tend to have a
number of privacy policies with one representing each product. This balances the smaller
number of companies in the industry by providing us with many opportunities within each
company. The table below outlines our initial target customers in this Industry in Ireland, we
then plan to move very quickly to targeting UK companies due to similarities in the
legislation.
Company Size
Initial Targets
SME
Magnet Entertainment, Netshare
Large
02, Vodafone, 3, Carphone Warehouse, Meteor,
Eircom, BT Ireland, UPC, Indigio Ireland, Ireland
Online, Smart Telecom, Blueface, Digiweb,
Ericsson
Figure 47: Target Telecommunications Customers
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6.4.3.3 ICT Industry
This industry is one of largest industries in Ireland and is home to 9 of the 10 largest global
ICT companies. The industry can be divided into subsectors namely; hardware, software,
support services, digital content and cloud computing (Enterprise Europe Network 2010).
Reasons for Targeting the ICT Industry
Over 5,400 companies in Ireland
Technical nature of these companies
Many of these companies are reliant on UGC and thus want to foster trust
Some of these companies have been in trouble with the DPC in the past and therefore may
want to redeem themselves with customers
New legislation will impact these companies in terms of transparency in communicating with
customers
Figure 48: Reasons for Targeting ICT
Target Customers within this Industry
Due to the subsectors within this Industry, we have broken down our target customers based
on these subsectors. It is important to note that some of these companies operate in a number
of the subsectors. The majority of the companies listed below are large, established global
players but we are also targeting some smaller, new up and coming companies. Our initial
targets our briefly outlined below with a more detailed breakdown in our sales strategy, Pg.
139.
Industry Subsector
Hardware
Software
Digital Content
Services
Cloud Computing
Example Targeted Companies
HP, Intel, Dell
SAP, Symantec, Verizon, Microsoft, Curam
Software, Redwind Software, Newbay software
Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Twitter,
digitgaming.com, adverts.ie, CarCompare.ie,
thejournal.ie
IBM, Microsoft, Norkom Technologies,
Logitech, EMC Ireland
Salesforce, EMC2, Cisco, Vmware, Dropbox,
Etraining.ie
Figure 49: Target ICT Customers
6.4.3.4 Online Retail Industry
This industry includes all retail companies with a presence in Ireland, that are either based
completely online or operate via a bricks and clicks business model. This means that we are
essentially targeting the majority of retail companies in Ireland, as 84% of retailers in Ireland
have an online presence (IBEC 2013). The online retail market in Ireland is worth
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approximately €4.1 billion in sales and this is expected to rise to €21 billion by 2017 (Digital
Hub 2011).
Reasons for Targeting the Online Retail Industry
Majority of retail companies have an online presence
Projected growth of this industry
New legislation will require companies to be more transparent and some companies are new to
online so PriVideo can be an easy solution
Need to inform customers: 55% of Europeans fear becoming a victim of fraud when shopping
online
Figure 50: Reasons for Targeting Online Retail
Target Customers within this Industry
Our target customers within this industry include smaller companies who we will target with
our more basic packages and larger companies who are reliant on user trust and security. We
have broken our initial target companies into those based purely online and those with both
an online and offline presence.
Companies based purely Online
Large Companies: Amazon, eBay, Littlewoods,
Donedeal, Gumtree,
SMEs: I Love Shopping, elara.ie,
Schoolbookstore.ie, Simply Be, BuyandSell.ie,
micksgarage.ie, CelebBoutique, GrabOne,
Textagift
Bricks-and-Clicks Companies
Large Companies: M&S, Dunnes Stores, Tesco,
River Island, Topshop, , Tesco Ireland
Superquinn, Arnotts, Irish Books direct
Figure 51: Online Retail Target Customers
6.4.4 Future Targeting of Customers
This section has served as a brief introduction into the four industries we plan to initially
target when launching the PriVideo service. We have further plans to target more companies
within these industries, as well as moving to other industries and other countries. Due to the
applicability of our service across industries, it is important for us to plan in advance how and
when we will target each industry in order to incorporate these expansion plans into our
product development and organisation plans. A table of large companies within our four
initial industries can be found in (Appendix B, Pg. 222). We have also included a table with a
list of potential targets for Years Two and Three in Appendix H, (Pg. 249).
As mentioned our product is extremely applicable across a range of industries. Before
entering any further industries, we will attempt to ascertain what the opportunities in this
industry are, potential customers and reasons why our product will succeed in this industry.
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We are yet to decide on which industries we will enter in Year Two and Three but we plan to
enter at least two further industries over these two years. The industries we are currently
considering are outlined in the table below.
Industry
Example
companies
Role of data
Reason for
Targeting
Large amount of
companies
operating in this
industry of all
sizes
Considerations
Online
Hospitality
Collect a great
deal of
information when
customers are
making bookings
for example
Airline
Industry
Financial
information &
other personal
information is
collected when
booking a flight
Risk of identity
theft often leads to
customers not
using an online
service. This
industry is
dependent on
online bookings
Industry known for
excessive regulation
involved –
complicates our
development process
Medical
Industry
Medical
information is
considered
extremely
sensitive &
personal
Sensitivity of the
information
Recent breaches in
the HSE & other
medical
institutions caused
concern
Due to sensitivity of
information data
protection is more
complicated – may
make video longer
Great deal of
information is
collected from
online gaming via
console games or
virtual games
Recent Sony
breach left 77
million Playstation
users’ information
exposed
Can companies
members of gaming
standards association
(GSA)
Dental practices
Public Hospitals
Private Hospitals
GP Practices
Games
Industry
Figure 52: Future Industries
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Videos in this
industry more
suitable to attempt to
increase opt-in
marketing
6.5 Risk Assessment
This section focuses on outlining the core risks we face at present and the risks we are likely
to face in the future. In the interest of clarity, we have broken these risks down into different
areas namely; technological risks, internal risks, legal risks and external market risks. Each
section includes an outline of the main risks we have identified, an explanation of why they
pose a risk and our plan to mitigate each risk.
6.5.1 Technological Risks relate to all technological advances or factors which could impact
PriVideo.
Risk Category
Factor
How does it pose a risk?
Mitigation strategy
Technological
Server
Server downtime can lead
We are outsourcing a lot of the
Downtime
to loss in revenue or
storage responsibilities to Stupeflix as
damage to our brand
they have the server power to handle
large amounts of processing
simultaneously.
Technological
Security
Data breaches are always
We won’t store any financial
a concern to any website.
information as we use PayPal as a
Given the importance of
payment method.
privacy to our brand, we
Any PriVideo account passwords or
place great emphasis for
information will be encrypted within
securing any information
our database using hashing algorithms
we do store
Technological
Advances in
A company could invent a
We were aware of this possibility and
automation
technology that
decided that instead of developing our
tools
automatically generates
own program, we’d outsource the
video quickly
automated generation of video to
Stupeflix given their expertise &
speed
Technological
Video formats
Various devices can only
We will have to ensure that our
view certain formats
videos are compatible with as many
devices as possible
.
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6.5.2 Legal Risks: Given the legal nature of our offering, it’s important to be aware of how
legislation could impact PriVideo as a company and a product. While clients utilising our
automated offering are responsible for correct interpretation of their privacy policy in the
animated version, we will ensure that any templates provided by PriVideo are legally
compliant. Furthermore, any customised videos will be individual checked for compliance.
Risk Category
Legal
Factor
Data
Protection
legislation
Amendments
How does it pose a risk?
Any lag in transposing
these amendments into
law may impact us
negatively
Legal
Uncertainty
surrounding
legislation
Legal
Differences
between
legislation in
different
countries or
continents
Legal
Working with
companies
who aren’t
legally
compliant
Uncertainty around data
protection in the past has
led to companies often
infringing on users’
rights. Users at times can
believe they have more
rights to privacy than they
do
If different countries
introduce legislation
which varies largely this
could increase our
development time for new
library content and lead to
lags
This could negatively
impact our brand if we are
seen to develop videos for
companies that don’t
comply
Legal
Ensuring legal If our videos aren’t
compliance of legally compliant that
our offering
could lead to legal action
against our customers and
us
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Mitigation strategy
While we have no control over the
law, we can be prepared by keeping
informed on the proposed
amendments and begin preparing new
content almost immediately after
entering the market
Each video will aim to educate users
with clarity about a company’s
practices.
Our website will contain an
information corner to educate users’
on what companies should do, we will
also link to information sources
provided by the DPC
Be aware in advance of all current
differences between countries &
likely amendments being discussed
Develop legal contacts in different
countries who can help check new
content for compliance
We offer a range of services including
generic privacy policies for a
company to base their policy on and
solicitor referrals if required.
As mentioned below we ensure our
offering is legally compliant but we
can’t ensure that the company’s
policy is compliant nor their practices
Recommend customers have written
policy on website too,
Remain informed on all amendments
All pre-made clips will be reviewed
by a solicitor
Customised videos will also be
reviewed individually
6.5.3 Internal Risks: pertain to all factors internal to PriVideo both as a product and an
organisation and how these factors may impact our performance and progression.
Risk Category
Internal
Factor
Finances
How does it pose a risk?
Underestimating the
financial requirements of
operations could
adversely impact our
success and lead to
ultimate failure
Internal
Scalability
The pace of video
requests if too fast could
led to a backlog if we
aren’t prepared
Internal
Limitations of
solution
The concept is very
specific and niche at
present which could
hinder our growth
Internal
Limitations of
the core team
Our lack of technical
expertise could lead to
time lags if we can’t solve
a problem we encounter
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Mitigation strategy
Our current financials are based on
cautious sales projections and our
own investment. We will apply for
funding programmes but in order to
be realistic haven’t included this
funding in our projections. We’ve
also been thorough in estimating our
costs so we believe our current
projections are accurate
Our Tier One videos are generated
automatically based on a library of
pre-made clips we will develop before
launching. Many of these clips can be
used in customised videos with some
input from the team. We believe that
completely customised videos will be
rare and so we can handle the
demand. However we will expand our
team as we grow
We need to become experts at
offering video privacy policies which
we believe we can do by developing a
network of contacts such as solicitors.
We also have a number of potential
options to branch into in the near
future which we believe will enable
us to become dynamic
We do have a relationship with a
developer who we can utilise at any
time. We will also hire another
technical staff member in the near
future
6.5.4 Market Risks: include the core risks facing PriVideo from the external environment.
Risk Category
External
Factor
Competitors
How does it pose a risk?
There are a small number
of large global companies
operating in this industry
with a great deal of brand
recognition and capital
External
Privacy
attitudes of
customers
Our concept hinges on the
fact that customers are
interested and want to
learn about privacy. If
customers don’t show this
interest by watching the
video this could hinder
the success of our concept
especially our customised
offering
External
Companies
resistance
against
privacy
solutions
At times large companies
resist privacy regulation
with companies like
Facebook saying it stifles
innovation. This could
impact the success of our
offering in some
industries
External
Role of
bodies like
the DPC
The role of these bodies
can positively or
negatively impact us. If
they play an active role,
we could benefit from
this. If they don’t play an
active role in fining
companies for noncompliance, the
likelihood of larger
companies being
proactive decreases
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Mitigation strategy
As we aren’t trying to directly
compete with these companies such
as the privacy seals, we believe we
will gain a strong position in the
industry as we are targeting a niche
within this market which is currently
empty. We are placing great emphasis
on developing a brand so we can
become a competitor within this
industry
We conducted extensive research both
primary and secondary and found that
internet users are watching more
video lately and large majority of our
focus group & questionnaire
respondents said they’d watch such a
video. Going forward we will
continue to research into the success
of our videos in educating users in the
form of competitions and may
incorporate metrics to measure
number of users watching the video
As shown in our sales plan, we have
an extensive list of companies we will
contact in Year One. We are
beginning by contacting companies
we who are more proactive in terms
of privacy. Once we have developed a
strong position in the market, we
believe other companies will be
attracted to our service
Again we can’t control the role the
DPC plays in Ireland but we have
been in contact with their offices and
discussed the idea. We hope to
develop some relationship with them
were they might recommend our
service to companies trying to recover
from breaches
Section 7: Our Marketing Strategy
This section discusses all elements of our marketing strategy including; how we will develop
and promote our brand and the various marketing activities we plan to engage in.
7.1 Branding
We have chosen PriVideo as the brand name for our company, as it concisely represents our
core offering, which involves converting privacy policies into video format. Our goal of
becoming trusted specialists in the field of privacy and compliance is reliant on being able to
provide sound business solutions in an increasingly stringent online environment. West et al.
(2010), state that today’s corporations are surrounded by an all-seeing digital world and thus,
must behave accordingly. They also assert that future brands will be expected to represent not
only the product, but the company’s efforts in areas such as social responsibility. For these
reasons, the PriVideo brand will represent transparency and education of users.
According to West et al. (2010), the best brand strategy for B2B companies, involves
developing a corporate brand and combining this brand with a number of smaller, individual
brands. In the near future, we will ensure that each of our specialised services will be
positioned under a distinct, separate brand but still remain within the main corporate brand.
However when launching the service, we will promote PriVideo as both our corporate brand
and our core offering. Going forward, the PriVideo brand will remain relevant as we will
continue to specialise in the areas of privacy and video animation. The PriVideo brand name
will be accompanied by our corporate slogan for our business customers, which is quite
simply: ‘future proofing your business’. This combination allows us to have a brand name,
which signifies our main offering and a slogan which reinforces the brand. The slogan is
deliberately generic and was chosen for the reasons outlined below.
Reasons for our slogan of ‘Future proofing your business’
Nicely communicates our ultimate selling proposition in a broad way
Supports the development of future products and services planned for business expansion
Resonates with all businesses, as every business plans ahead and looks to minimise the risks
they face
Memorable and concise
Figure 53: Reasoning behind our slogan
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7.1.1 Brand Logo
When designing our PriVideo logo, we considered many variations of colours, fonts and
shapes. The chosen font aims to signify professionalism, while a subtle reflection beneath the
text illustrates the transparency of our service. Additionally, we feel that the chosen colours
and the oval frame make the brand logo easy on the eye and memorable. Our specialism in
video is denoted by the inclusion of a play button above the centre of our brand name, serving
as the logo’s focal point. The play button is also creatively utilised at the start and end of our
animated videos, in an effort to link all video content we create to our brand. We believe that
the finalised PriVideo logo will allow us to develop a strong and distinctive brand image.
7.1.2 The significance of our Brand
As mentioned above, while there are no companies currently offering the same solution, there
are numerous successful privacy solutions companies in the market. Furthermore, our
concept is, to a degree, imitable. Therefore, to compete with these global players, we must
take appropriate strategic measures to capitalise on our first mover advantage and turn it into
a sustainable advantage. Our competitive strengths lie in the timeliness of our innovative
services, the quality of the service we provide, our developing network of industry specialists
and eventually a credible reputation and strong brand. We are placing great emphasis on our
brand, as our brand will, in essence reflect our identity. The PriVideo brand will serve as our
biggest asset, as everything we do, the expectations we set and the quality we deliver will be
projected from our brand and must be safeguarded.
Figure 54: The significance of our brand
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Another dimension of our brand, which must be considered, is public visibility. As mentioned
above, while PriVideo provides solutions on a B2B level, we also consider the general public.
This consideration can be linked to our desire to build a sustainable competitive advantage by
becoming a reputable brand in the eyes of the user. We believe this would enhance our brand
image and consequently, our selling proposition. Taking PayPal as a B2B example, we can
identify the advantages of being perceived by the public as a trustworthy brand. We plan to
establish the PriVideo brand in a similar light, by developing a brand which represents
business integrity, transparency and consumer education.
7.1.3 Brand Equity
Our brand is imperative to achieving sustained success and requires a marketing
communication plan which will effectively communicate our brand to right people. The
overarching aim of our marketing strategy is to engage in the activities necessary to create
brand equity for PriVideo. Brand Equity is essentially a brand’s power which is derived from
the recognition and goodwill the brand has earned over time. We aim to develop brand equity
for PriVideo through strategic investments in a number of communication channels and
market education. This development of brand equity can yield many benefits such as
improving profit margins, market share and critical associations. Kotler & Pfoertsch (2006)
defined the concept of brand equity as a set of assets including; brand awareness, perceived
brand quality and brand associations. These constructs of brand equity can be used to
describe the core objectives of our marketing communication plan.
Figure 55: Brand Equity Constructs
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Our marketing communication plan consists of a number of important channels, which we
will utilise to develop the various constructs of brand equity. These channels include our
website, our blog, social media, PR and Trade shows. Each channel will be utilised in line
with individual objectives and our overall aim of developing brand equity.
7.2 SEO & Web Design
As our website is one of the core channels for both reaching customers and creating
awareness of our brand, we must consider the role of SEO and Web Design in developing
brand equity.
Brand Equity Constructs
Brand Awareness
Perceived Brand Quality
Figure 56: SEO & Web Design Brand Equity
7.2.1 Why SEO?
As customers can purchase our core offering on the website, this channel is essential both for
securing sales and developing brand awareness. Siu (2012), states that SEO leads have a
14.6% close rate, while outbound leads such as direct mail or print advertising are as low as
1.7%. This success rate and the relevance of SEO to PriVideo, reinforces our decision to
focus on online channels. Our website will also serve as a knowledge hub to inform Internet
users on issues surrounding privacy, which in turn makes SEO an imperative aspect of our
marketing strategy. A recent study conducted by Enquiro and Marketing Sherpa found that
64% of business customers use Search Engines when searching for business products with,
70% clicking on organic links over paid links (Proteus 2013). This evidences the importance
of SEO on a B2B level. We believe that by considering various SEO best practices when
designing our website, we can optimise our visibility in search queries. This visibility can
increase the awareness of our brand and perceived brand quality.
7.2.2 New Age SEO
7.2.2.1 Panda
Following the introduction of Google Panda in 2011, there has been more emphasis placed on
high quality websites and user experience than other ranking factors. Google Panda uses
machine learning to assess aspects of a website such as how the content engages and educates
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the user, the design and overall feel of the website. These are the attributes we have
considered when designing our website to increase perceived brand quality.
7.2.2.2 Web Design & Usability
As our core communication channel, the design and usability of the website is imperative to
developing our brand and user experience. Our brand logo is placed in the top left corner of
every page and also serves as a convenient link to the home page. The overall design of the
website is influenced by our brand logo, colours and the image of transparency and trust we
aim to portray. For effective usability, we organised all website content into appropriate
sections, each of which can be accessed using the tabs on our navigation bar. The Blog and
Privacy sections will be frequently updated with fresh and diverse content.
7.2.2.3 Meta Descriptions
While Meta descriptions do not influence search engine rankings, they are important in
gaining click-through on results as they display a snippets of information from the webpage.
We have included Meta description attributes in our HTML code to provide concise
descriptions of each webpage. We made sure to employ the major keywords within the
pages’ content so that these snippets display a compelling description that searchers will want
to click, while also adhering to Google’s recommended sizes of 150-160 characters.
7.2.3 Traditional SEO
7.2.3.1 Crawlability - Sitemap
We included an XML Sitemap file to improve our website’s crawlability. This creates easier
navigation and better visibility for crawlers, allowing them to crawl our site more efficiently
and based on where we’d like them to go. Our Sitemap will be kept regularly up-to-date as
our website continues to grow and as new fresh content is uploaded. By immediately
informing search engines about such changes and developments to our site means that our
pages will be indexed quicker, benefiting the relevance and quality of our results.
7.2.3.2 Keywords & Links
The written content on our website is important on many levels. When developing our
website we ensured that we included keywords in our page titles, page headers and text,
which are relevant to our brand. We carefully chose relevant keywords and placed them into
heading and title tags as well as throughout the content on each page. We did so in the hope
of increasing the visibility of our website based on the user searching for these keywords or
search terms. to be triggered by user search terms. Our incorporation of keywords throughout
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the website, is discussed further in our technical delivery section, see Pg. 171. Our site is
linked to our various social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to give
users access to more videos on YouTube or competitions on Facebook for example. We also
aim to continually develop relationships with various specialists in the field and will link to
their websites. As our brand begins to gain recognition, we believe that various reputable
websites in the area of privacy will link to the PriVideo website.
7.2.3.3 Videos
At present, we have included both our prototype product video and company video on our
website to illustrate our product offering and to introduce our company. Furthermore, the
inclusion of video content on a webpage can act as positive ranking factor in SE’s. This is
due to the rich content videos can convey on a webpage, which improves the viewer’s
experience when using the website.
7.3 Blogging & Public Relations
Brand Equity Constructs
Perceived Brand Quality
Brand Awareness
Figure 57: Blogging & PR Brand Equity Constructs
7.3.1 Benefits of Blogging for PriVideo
Blogging provides a platform for PriVideo to discuss many current issues surrounding
privacy such as new research, trends or legislation. Our website contains a blog section,
which aims to educate users on these issues and provide them with a neutral source of
information. The PriVideo team will contribute to the blog and we will also utilise guest
bloggers in the form of privacy professionals and technical professionals, who can share their
perspective on these current issues. This blog will allow us build a brand image of credibility
and transparency.
Public Relations is deemed as an effective way to build brand awareness and strengthen
brand image (Ries and Laura Ries 2002). One of the main objectives for our blog is to
incorporate an element of public relations by publishing credible content with the help of our
respected industry contacts.
Our other objectives for the PriVideo blog are as follows:
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
Enhance perceived brand quality and public relations by creating high quality, relevant
and engaging blog content.

Contribute to creating brand awareness from improved SEO performance.

Generate leads for the purposes of securing sales and gathering feedback.
7.3.2 Blog Approach
We will write relevant and educational content on a regular basis. We believe that due to our
interest in the area of online privacy, we can develop educational, interesting blogs covering
relevant issues, while displaying our brand personality. The PriVideo brand represents
transparency and user education. Therefore, each blog post will be written in a manner that is
easily understood, using a neutral, unbiased tone. We may also include some videos to
illustrate current issues and keep readers engaged. We will also have blog posts which are
tailored to our business customers. These posts will focus more on the impact of legislation
on customers, the expectations of their customers and the benefits the PriVideo service can
help them achieve.
7.3.3 Blog Engagement
We also plan to engage users and business people alike and get them involved in
conversations about privacy. We believe that the privacy issue is one that can and should be
discussed by all parties operating online. This angle again relates to our brand image, which
promotes transparency and the education of Internet users. We will increase engagement and
participation in a number of ways including posing thought provoking questions in our blog
posts.
7.3.4 Blog Promotion
Our blog will be promoted predominately on our website in the following ways; the inclusion
of a blog tab on the navigation bar and incorporating an RSS feed for the blog on our
website’s homepage. We will also promote our blog by including links to each blog post on
our social media profiles
7.3.4 Blogging & SEO
The inclusion of a blog could in turn boost our SEO performance. This is due to the fact that
blogging involves updating the website with new, diverse content and can improve the user’s
experience on the website. Liubarets (2013) stated that the use of blogs in B2B marketing can
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generate 67% increase in leads. In order to increase our awareness of our brand among
Internet users and to increase leads among businesses, we will include calls-to-action in every
blog post. The calls-to-action in our business blogs, will be aimed towards generating sales
leads among potential customers. On the other hand, the calls-to-action included in our public
blogs will be geared towards getting customers engaged and participating in the privacy
conversation, thus increasing awareness of the PriVideo brand.
7.4 Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Brand Equity Constructs
Brand Awareness
Figure 58: PPC Brand Equity Constructs
While we intend to place a greater emphasis on SEO, we still believe that PPC advertising
could be beneficial for PriVideo. Therefore, we aim to incorporate both of these online
channels in our Marketing Communication Plan.
7.4.1 PPC Aims & Approach
Our PPC advertising will include various Google AdWord campaigns. We believe the use of
PPC supports our Search Engine Optimisation efforts of promoting brand awareness and
maximising lead potential. The analytical tools offered by Google will allow us to refine our
keywords, ads and aspects of our website if necessary.
7.4.2 Creating Brand Awareness using PPC
7.4.2.1 Image and Video Ad Campaigns
We will utilise image and video ad campaigns to visually incorporate our brand into targeted
advertising campaigns. We will design our ads in coherence with our brand logo, website
design and animated videos. These image and video ads will also seek to convey the
transparent and trustworthy of the PriVideo brand. These ads will be run on Google’s
Display Network, which offers two types of campaigns, both of which we will explore in the
in order ascertain what the most effective avenue for creating brand awareness is.
1.
We will run a Keyword-targeted campaign, using cost-per-click bidding. This
campaign will require careful selection of keywords pertaining to our offering such as
privacy policies, for example. Google then uses these keywords to identify relevant
websites in which to place our targeted image and video ads on.
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2.
We will also run a Placement-targeted campaign, using cost-per-click or cost-perimpression bidding. This campaign will allow us to specifically choose relevant
websites within Google’s display network to show our image and video ads. This
campaign will give us more control over the websites to show our ads but will require
a lot of time to monitor the success of the campaign and make relevant changes. The
websites chosen will include websites which either discuss data protection issues or
sell products related to privacy.
7.4.3 Generating Leads using PPC
7.4.3.1 Text Ad Campaigns
In terms of generating leads, text ad campaigns will be used to convey strong calls-to-action
on Google’s Search Network. This campaign will allow us to ensure we appear in the first
page of results on relevant queries. The impact of SEO on website visibility can take time,
which makes text ads a great way to appear at the top of a search query immediately.
Example side and top ads are shown below to illustrate how our text ads may appear.
Side Ad
Top Ad
7.4.3.2 Location Targeting
Our Adwords campaigns will specifically target the countries we have a presence in. As
outlined in our Business Strategy, we are beginning by targeting a number of industries in the
Irish market. Companies in these industries are located all over the country and thus, we will
target our campaign to the whole country. In line with our projected business expansion, we
will expand the targeting of our Adwords campaigns to the UK at the start of Year Two and
further afield as required.
7.4.4 PPC Metrics
In order to successfully run the various ad campaigns discussed, we must measure the success
of all elements within each campaign. As we are investing in 3 different types of ad
campaigns namely; image, video and text, we must quantify the return on investment (ROI)
generated from each ad type. For PriVideo, sales generated from our ads will be the main
indicator of success for each campaign. However, more generic metrics such as CTR, page
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views, bounce rate and time spent on the website are important to consider as we are
attempting to build brand awareness. These metrics indicate whether we are effectively
communicating our brand message and moving towards building brand equity.
We will utilise Google Conversion Tracking as a means of measuring what happens after a
potential customer clicks on our ad. We can therefore, ascertain what keywords result in
conversion and if any elements of the website cause confusion or result in the loss of
potential customers. Google Analytics will also be used for conversion reports and
conversion funnel analysis. This will allow us to, not only identify our successful ads and
keywords, but to identify the unprofitable ones, which we can then alter or delete. Google
Analytics will also give us a deeper insight into how users navigated through our site and
what pages they explored, which will give us information on what aspects our website can be
redesigned refine to enhance user experience and usability.
7.5 Social Media Presence
Brand Equity Constructs
Brand Awareness
Figure 59: Social Media Brand Equity Constructs
7.5.1 Why will PriVideo utilise social media?
As mentioned, PriVideo is a B2B service which is based on meeting a need of our customers’
customers, or Internet users in general. While, most of our marketing efforts are geared
towards converting leads from ads, developing the various constructs of brand equity plays a
large role too. These constructs such as brand awareness must be developed among our target
customers and Internet users. Social media provides us with a channel to develop awareness
among Internet users and engage with them with regard to the privacy conversation. The
main aim for our social media presence will thus relate to generating brand awareness among
the masses.
7.5.2 How will we engage in social media?
The growing prevalence of social media sites and their dependence on user generated content
is a contributing factor to many users’ online privacy concerns and in some part influenced
the generation of our concept. These sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn
provide companies across all industries with opportunities to engage with customers in a way
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which wasn’t previously possible. We will operate a PriVideo Facebook page, Twitter
account and YouTube account. This will allow us to engage with customers in a number of
different ways.
7.5.2.1 Facebook Page
As shown in Appendix I, (Pg. 251), we recently set up a Facebook Page for the PriVideo
brand. The main aim of this page is to create awareness of our brand and start a conversation
about our solutions and about the issues surrounding privacy in general. The page is in the
early stages of development but will be used to pose questions to users about their privacy
concerns, tell them about our solution and refer to our blogs, twitter and other accounts. The
main aim however, of our Facebook page will be as a source of market research. As detailed
above on Pg. 45, we plan to continually refine our product and test the design aspects, the
information recall and how successful our videos are at educating users. We will hold
Facebook competitions, which will require the user to watch a sample video and answer some
questions a short time afterwards. The user will be in with a chance to win a prize and we will
create more awareness of our brand and gain invaluable insights, which can be used to further
refine our product and prove the benefits we believe the product has.
7.5.2.2 Twitter Account
We have also set up a Twitter Account which can also be used to promote and link users to
the competitions we plan to run for market research purposes. We will also be able to enter
the privacy conversation with specialists and experts in the area by following their Twitter
accounts. We can also post quick short updates on privacy issues and legislation, which may
be discussed in further on our blog.
7.5.2.3 YouTube Account
The main purpose of our YouTube account is to embed videos into our website and Facebook
account. Embedding YouTube videos will allow us to access metrics on the videos, which
can be used to refine the videos. The account will also contain a number of sample videos
that don’t feature on our website due the clear, clean feel we want the website to have.
7.5.2.5 Future Social Media Accounts
There are a number of other social media sites we will utilise. These include LinkedIn which
we will use on a more professional level to allow companies to find more information about
PriVideo. We will also link our own personal LinkedIn profiles to our website to allow
people to find out more about the people behind the PriVideo service. We will also set up a
Google+ account and are considering Tumblr and interest focused sites such as Reddit. All of
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our current and future social media profiles share the overarching aim of creating brand
awareness for PriVideo, either among Internet users or companies who may utilise our
service.
7.5.3 Linking our Social Media Efforts
All of our social media profiles will be linked to each other in some way to communicate a
cohesive message on behalf of the PriVideo brand. We will link to each profile from our
website and will link from these profiles back to our website or blog. This will allow
customers to gain information on privacy and PriVideo in a number of places. While we aim
to create brand awareness using this social media presence, our brand messages will be subtle
and we will focus on engaging users and educating them on privacy awareness. Furthermore,
in all posts and communications we will remain honest, transparent and stay true to the
elements which inspire the PriVideo offering namely; clear communication and education.
7.6 Trade Shows
Brand Equity Constructs
Brand Associations
Brand Awareness
Figure 60: Trade Shows Brand Equity Constructs
7.6.1 Developing Positive Brand Associations
With regards to Brand equity, the construct of brand associations is essentially the
connections made by customers when they think of a brand. At PriVideo, the core
associations we want customers to make when they think of PriVideo are transparency,
clarity and compliance. These associations are core to the brand message we want to portray
to both potential business customers and Internet users.
7.6.2 Why Trade Shows?
We will visit a number of trade shows as this is our core physical marketing channel. This
presence at trade shows will allow us to work on two elements of brand equity namely; brand
awareness and brand associations. Trade shows represent a promising opportunity for us to
establish alliances and relationships, which can help create awareness of our brand and the
positive associations we want customers to make. Trade shows can also allow us to build
awareness of the PriVideo brand and create knowledge of our offerings and an interest in
these offerings.
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7.6.3 Objectives for Trade Shows
We have developed three core objectives to guide how we approach trade shows as a
marketing channel. These objectives all relate to the goals of creating brand awareness and
positive associations and are illustrated below.
Communication:
Enhancing Company and product visibility, establishing strong brand
awareness, educating attendees on the benefits and timeliness of our
services, garnering possible press or media attention.
Sales:
Generating immediate and future sales or leads through face to face
interactions.
Strategic Growth:
Learning about potential competitors, developing our network of
contacts, initiating potential alliances, forming relationships with
promising and potentially loyal leads.
7.6.4 Sample Trade Shows
At present, we have identified three trade shows which we feel we could benefit from having
a presence at. These trade shows are outlined in the table below, which includes locational
details, industry information and the benefits we hope to attain from attending each.
Trade Show
Name
Internet
Expo Dublin
Data Centres
Ireland
National
Business
Expo
Locational
Details
RDS, Dublin
14th-15th Oct
2013
RDS, Dublin
5th-6th Nov
2013
RDS, Dublin
March 2014
TBC
Applicability
Benefits
Event is for suppliers
of Internet P&S
2 of our targeted industries be present
namely ICT & E-commerce
Media coverage from Irish Times
Meeting objectives with 3/4 of our targeted
industries namely ICT, Telecoms & Ecommerce
Direct communication with visitors can help
create awareness of our brand
Meeting objectives with 3/4 of our targeted
industries namely Financial Services,
eCommerce, ICT
Will be attended by visitors including
potential customers, industry players &
professional experts.
Exhibition will
introduce some
excting new
solutions pertinent to
data centres
Unique as it brings
organisation leaders
together to discuss
modern technologies
pertaining to
companies
Figure 61: Sample Trade Shows
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7.6.5 Future Presence at Trade Shows
We plan to attend a number of trade shows in addition to the examples outlined above. We
have apportioned a budget for each year to attend a number of trade shows both in Ireland,
the UK and further afield.
7.6.6 Trade Show Requirements
To maximise the brand awareness generated from attending Trade shows, we will spend a
great deal of time designing all aspects of our stand, so as to portray our brand messages of
transparency, communication and clarity. There are various elements of our stand to prepare
for each trade show, which are as follows:
-
A well-designed background banner and poster, that is consistent with our brand
theme
-
Centred projector displaying our company video and illustrating what we represent
-
Brochures, leaflets, business cards
-
Feedback forms
7.6.7. Trade Show Preparation & Budgeting
Our first trade show, the Internet Expo Dublin, is expecting 3,000+ visitors. Based on the
visitor’s profile, we can ascertain that approximately 50% of visitors could be interested in
eCommerce & Educational Technologies, giving us a target audience of 1,500. Applying the
Audience Interest Factor, we aim to attract 675 visitors (1,500 * 45% = 675), over the course
of the two day event. Given that the Exhibition lasts for 16 hours we can expect to attract a
maximum of 42 visitors per hour. We must ensure that we all aspects of our stand are well
designed and engaging and that we are prepared to effectively meet the needs of each visitor.
We believe that this preparation will enable us to effectively portray our brand messages of
professionalism, transparency, compliance and clarity.
Furthermore, in order to effectively prepare for each trade show, we need to accurately
ascertain our cost requirements and develop a trade show budget. This budget will cover all
costs required to attend trade shows and to exhibit our services and brand in an effective way.
According to Red Cedar & PR Marketing (2012), the average square foot cost for exhibits is
$22.32, therefore a 50 square foot exhibit would cost us $1,116, which is roughly €840. They
also advise that the best way to budget for a trade show is to apportion three times the cost of
the exhibit space. We have therefore, budgeted €2,500 per trade show with €840 covering the
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exhibit space and €1,660 for other expenses. Other expenses will include travel and
accommodation. We have also accounted for the costs we expect to spend when creating high
quality banners, posters, brochures, leaflets and business cards. These costs are explained
further in our financial projections, see Pg. 147.
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Section 8: The PriVideo Team & Company
8.1 The PriVideo Team
Our team consists of four Masters Students from varying business backgrounds, each with a
huge interest in different aspects of online privacy. As digital natives, we are all aware of the
degree of information collected and shared online and can appreciate both the uses of this
information for companies and the concerns about the privacy of this information from the
viewpoint of an Internet user. We developed PriVideo as a solution which benefits both
parties operating online namely; users and companies.
8.1.1 The PriVideo Team
Figure 62: Team chart
Grace Kenny, CEO: Grace is currently completing an MSc
in E-commerce and has previously achieved an honours
Business degree. Grace has a strong interest in online privacy
and has a passion for improving users’ understanding of how
companies use their personal information so as to empower
them to make decisions on what companies they use.
Relevant Work Experience: Grace worked in Allianz as a
Motor Underwriter as part of her INTRA placement. This
experience not only honed Grace’s planning, creative thinking and communication skills, but
the contacts Grace developed during her time in Allianz have been of great benefit for both
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the research and testing elements of PriVideo. Contacts established in Allianz have enabled
us to contact numerous targets companies in the insurance and financial sectors.
Relevant Skills: Organisation & Planning, Creative Thinking, Communication skills
Core roles within the PriVideo team:

Developing relationships with partners such as privacy consultants and privacy solicitors.

Establishing contacts within target companies.

Organising and planning both PriVideo’s Business and communication strategy.

Playing a part in developing PriVideo brand message and carving out brand awareness
Graham O’Dowd, CMO: Upon graduating from DCU with a Bachelor degree in Marketing,
Innovation & Technology, Graham began pursuing a Masters
in
E-commerce.
Graham’s
passions
include
design,
marketing and a desire to convey information visually. He is
driven to ensure that all PriVideo animations, logos and
design elements are original, relatable and clearly convey
meaning to viewers.
Relevant Work Experience: Like Grace, Graham spent his
INTRA placement working in Allianz. He was the main
underwriter for Engineering and Computer policies within commercial lines. This experience
helped Graham develop proficient organisation and communication skills while establishing
important contacts.
Relevant Skills: Drawing & Design, Visual creativity, Marketing & Communicion
Core roles within the PriVideo team:

Drawing all video icons by hand and designing the brand logo

Lead animator of the videos

Developing Marketing strategy and communication plan for achieving brand equity

Assistant role in Web Design, while ensuring brand theme consistency
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Catherine Byrne, CFO: Catherine is a Business graduate
from DCU who continued her studies to undertake a Masters
in E-commerce. Catherine has a big interest in the impact of
the Internet on both companies and users. Catherine’s interests
include both companies born on the internet and those adapting
to an Internet dominated business world.
Relevant Work Experience: Catherine spent her INTRA work placement working in
Enterprise Ireland. Catherine worked on the team running the Enterprise Ireland,
Employment Subsidy Scheme which built her knowledge of funding and investment as well
as her numeracy skills.
Relevant Skills: Numerical proficiency, technical understanding and awareness, Customer
focus
Core roles within the PriVideo team:

Assistant role in animating the videos

Extensive market research

Honing the PriVideo concept for viability and differentiation from competitors

Primary role in financial projections.
Arthur Cabeli: As a French student with a Bachelor degree in
Business Administration, Arthur adds a different perspective
and technical viewpoint to the PriVideo team. Arthur’s
interests lie mainly in developing technical solutions to meet
problems including communication problems between Internet
companies and their customers. Arthur strives to ensure that
the PriVideo solution is as automated as possible while still
producing a unique, high-quality offering each time.
Relevant Work Experience: Arthur has industry experience from working as an intern analyst
in Pall Mall capital in London. During this time Arthur successfully honed and developed
both his numeracy adroitness and technical interest and awareness.
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Relevant Skills: Technical proficiency & awareness, Web design, Numerical proficiency,
creativity
Core roles within the PriVideo team:

Primary role in web design,

Leading role in ascertaining the technical requirements of PriVideo

Developing solutions to technical challenges

Assistant role in the financial projections of PriVideo
8.1.2 Collaboration among the team to date
Due to the innovativeness of our concept, we have focused on becoming a cohesive team
driven to infuse creativity into all solutions we develop. We worked together from Monday to
Friday from 9am – 5pm and maintained constant communication via our Facebook group, see
Appendix J, (Pg. 252). This provided us with enough time to discuss all ideas and make team
decisions, which we keep track of in a decision document, see Appendix K, (Pg. 253). We
also developed detailed plans for each week as illustrated in Appendix L, (Pg. 254). Each
team member had core roles but each role was completed with some team collaboration.
Responsibilities
Grace
Developing Relationships with Industry contacts
Developing & Testing PriVideo program
Competitor and Industry Analysis
Develop and Test PriVideo website
Develop sales and marketing plans
Develop sample blocks of animation for videos
Primary research into PriVideo potential
Forecast financial requirements and funding
Analyse challenges & design development plan
Primary Role
Assistive Role
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Graham
Arthur
Catherine
8.1.2 Strengths and Weaknesses of the PriVideo Team
Strengths: As a team, we believe we have a number of strengths which will help us when
further developing the PriVideo service. Our core strengths are summarised below.
Strength
Design
capabilities
Visual
Creativity
Relevance to PriVideo
 All icons are drawn by
PriVideo team
 Website designed by
team

The premise of
PriVideo is to visually
& effectively convey a
company’s privacy
policy to its customers








Experience
with
companies
as customers

PriVideo target
customers are
companies across many
industries




Business
Knowledge
&
Awareness



Technical
Awareness





As a new business
concept we need to
develop an effective
revenue stream
Need to conduct market
and competitor analysis
Developing &
communicating our
brand message is
crucial
Our website is our main
means of
communication
Our videos are
technical products
delivered online
We strive to automate
our offering
Need a program to
automatically pick from
our video database
Need generic video
script









How we will develop/use this strength
Continue to search for good animation tools
Continue to develop and hone our characters and
icons
Continue to seek out new ways of designing our
icons or offering
Animation training course for lead animator
Continue to test the effectiveness of our videos in
increasing understanding, improving brand image
and fostering trust
Continue to seek new ways to visually convey
meaning to internet users
Continue to develop new ways of visually
conveying different types of messages to develop
our offering
Work on ways to customise each video to our
customer’s needs and brand
Test effectiveness of each icon
By working with companies in different sectors we
will be more flexible to their needs as our clients
Working with our partners will also give us
experience in that dynamic
Undertake online customer service training to
ensure we offer the best customer service
We will continue to develop our awareness of the
privacy market by working with privacy lawyers,
consultants and their clients
Will continue to develop our brand message &
communicate it via various online platforms
Maintain awareness of new and existing
competitors and their offerings
Initially we will develop a database of video blocks,
a website, generic script & automation programme
Continue to be informed about new ways to
animate, incorporate voiceover etc
Continue to develop our skills by developing more
videos etc.
Incorporate help of our technical contacts
Work with developer to build and cement or API
Communicate any issues with developer and create
an understandable and viable solution
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Privacy
Awareness



Our product requires an
understanding of the
legal requirements on
companies
We need to be aware of
end users information
needs to when
communicating the
privacy policy visually


Continue to stay informed about EU Data
legislation and FTC recommendations in America
Incorporate advice of our partners (privacy lawyers
and consultants)
Inform ourselves of the Cookie Act 2012 and
Electronic Commerce Act 2000
Weaknesses: We are also aware that as a team of business students offering a technical
solution we have some shortcomings. Our main weakness lie on the technical side of our
offering and we have developed a solution to overcome each weakness as highlighted below.
Weakness
Technical: Lack
of knowledge of
programming
language for
automation
programme
Technical:
Script for
privacy policy
Relevance to
PriVideo
Core to our concept is
an automated program
which takes a script of
a privacy policy and
converts it into a video
using our video
database
Our product will
require us to develop a
generic script for the
video as discussed in
the technical
requirements section
How we will overcome this weakness







Lack of deep
technical
understanding
Lack of legal
background
The automated
programme, script,
animated video
database are all
technical elements of
our project which need
to come together to
produce our PriVideo
offering
The concept of
PriVideo is to convert
a company’s privacy
policy into an
animated video so the
legal requirements on
companies must be
met








We are conducting extensive research into languages
which can be used to make the program we desire
For the purpose of this project we plan to teach
ourselves some of this code
Going forward we will incorporate the assistance of
our technical associate
Employ a developer to code the more difficult
aspects of the API , whilst also learning the required
maintenance skills from our technical associate.
For the purpose of this project we will work to
develop a generic script which we would use going
forward to assess the privacy policy of the customer
Due to our lack of experience writing this type of
code we will have to test the script both over the
course of this project and going forward
We will also need to get assistance from our
technical associate to hone and error proof the final
script
In-depth research into the Stupeflix API in which we
intend to build our automation process
Consolation with technical associate
Working in association with developer when he is
creating the code in order to understand the main
elements
Detailed analysis into data storage and hosting
requirments
Creating relationship with a privacy consultant
Building relationships with privacy solicitors
Studying the legislation and the proposed
amendments
Referring customers to privacy partners if required
124
Diversity within
the team
The issue of online
privacy is a global one
and we will target
companies across
industries and
countries
Lack of
financial
experience
We need to ensure that
we understand the
financial requirements
to bring our product to
market and none of
our team members
have a strong financial
background






Contact global companies
Hire relevant professionals to help us operate in
different jurisdictions
 Hire US privacy consultant if and when PriVideo
decide to target the US
 Associate with translator or country native when
trying to build overseas partnerships
 In global companies target Irish branch first and
establish contact through this medium
Studying accounts
Contacting companies to ensure costing’s are correct
Having accounts looked over by a actuarial student
with maths and accounting prowess
Backing up all our costing’s and sales predictions
with contacts
8.1.3 Training
Training is a crucial element in the development of both the PriVideo team and concept.
Without the team being fully equipped to deal with every aspect of the business, the business
may fail to flourish. In terms of training, there are numerous areas in which the team intend to
undertake training in. Graham the lead designer, will undertake some training in order to
increase his proficiency in drawing the animations and training specifically on the software
needed when creating the animation videos. Arthur will undertake some training with the
hired developer to improve his knowledge of coding and also to learn and understand the
vital technical aspects of the PriVideo service. Grace and Catherine will both undertake some
training in relation to customer service and sales. This training will include online webinars
and customer service guides. Graham and Catherine recently secured the Hubspot inbound
marketing certificate and will utilise these skills in relation to PriVideo’s inbound marketing
strategy. The chart below illustrates the many important aspects of PriVideo and our current
skill level.
125
Aspects of PriVideo
4
Importance to PriVideo's Offering
3.5
Relationship
with
partners
3
Animation &
Design
Brand
Awareness
2.5
Privacy
Understading
Video
builder
2
1.5
1
Website
design
0.5
0
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Our current skill level
Figure 63: PriVideo Team Skill chart
126
3.5
4
4.5
5
8.2 IP, Trademark and Copyright
We’re aware that our concept, while unique and innovative, is, to some degree imitable. For
this reason we are placing a great deal of emphasis and time on carving out reputable brand
for the company. As another way of protecting our concept, we will also get all the IP
protection we can. In order to ascertain what protection we could get, we consulted with the
Irish Patents Office. Further details from this consultation can be found in Appendix A, (Pg.
211).
8.2.1 Protecting our Concept to date
While we cannot patent the process of converting a privacy policy into an animated video,
there are a number of elements within our company which we can patent. This will help us in
carving out a reputable brand. To date, we have used a number of safety measures to protect
our idea. Firstly, we didn’t speak to some companies who would have the capability to
produce such a video, as a precaution measure. We did however, speak to some companies
we had trusted contacts in and ensured they signed an NDA (A copy of which can be found in
Appendix M, Pg. 256). We also signed a partnership agreement among ourselves and
exercised caution when conducting all primary research.
8.2.1.1 Trademarks
Following our consultation with the IPO, it became apparent that we could trademark a
number of the names associated with the PriVideo brand. These trademarks include the
PriVideo name itself and characters used in our video such as Sam. As a start-up, we were
advised by the IPO, to use the TM symbol each time we wrote PriVideo as a sign of the
emphasis placed on the name. He said we could then trademark the brand once we are market
ready.
8.2.1.2 Copyright
We can copyright all characters and symbols we hand draw, including Sam, the
character in our prototype video. We can also claim copyright protection on
every video we produce. To date, we have done so by sending ourselves a copy
of our Prototype PriVideo animations and logo by
mail along with a brief description of our concept
and a print out of all symbols hand drawn by the
team. Using registered post will provide us with copyright protection
127
8.2.2 Protecting our concept Going Forward
Upon launching the service, we will apply for a trademark for the PriVideo brand. This will
be done in January 2014, with an application to the IPO which costs €70. Upon acceptance of
the application, we will be required to pay a fee of €177 to gain the trademark. As shown
below, the PriVideo name does not currently have any trademarks as of the 23rd July 2013. In
Year two, we will apply for a trademark covering all of Europe which will cost €900.
8.2.2.1Domain Name
Cybersquatting is a recent phenomenon, which involves buying domain names relevant to a
company and then selling them to the company for a large fee. In order to overcome this risk,
we will domain names including; PriVideo.co.uk, PriVideo.com. This will help with our
future expansion plans also.
8.3 Setting up PriVideo as an Operational Service
As detailed above, there are a number of elements we need to work on in order to be market
ready but there are also a number of legal steps we must take before launching our PriVideo
service. This section will discuss these steps and outline how and when we plan to complete
each step.
8.3.1 Partnership Agreement
As of the 15th of July, the four members of the PriVideo team entered into a partnership
together. This was done under the advice of Daragh O’Brien, a privacy consultant we
developed a relationship with when the concept was first conceived in March 2013. The
partnership gives each member an equal share of 25% and will require an initial investment
128
of approximately €10,000 from each member. A copy of our partnership agreement, which
was proofed by a solicitor can be found in Appendix N, (Pg. 258).
This agreement allows us to protect the concept while we are still developing it, after which
we will then set up a Private Limited Company. It’s important to note that the partnership
agreement was signed by the team members but, was not registered with the CRO as a
Limited Partnership. This primary reason for this decision is due to the fact that it is not
possible to transfer a registered partnership into a public limited company as the partnership
must be dissolved first. We have therefore, decided to use our partnership agreement as a
promise to each other and to the idea, as opposed to officially registering the partnership and
going in to business as a partnership.
8.3.2 Becoming a Private Limited Company
The core reasoning behind our decision to set up a public limited company was the limited
liability placed on us as directors. The other advantages of becoming a Private Limited
Company are detailed below. The core PriVideo team will be directors in the company, as
well as holding a position as outlined above in our PriVideo team section.
Limited Company Characteristics
Considered a separate legal entity, company will be sued not directors – partnerships are the
same legal entity as partners so partners can be sued
Company continues to trade even if there are changes in partners or managers
Limited liability on directors
Figure 64: Company Characteristics Source: CRO, 2013
The steps involved in setting up PriVideo are as follows:
129
Reserve
company
name
Join Fé
Phráinn
Scheme
Yearly B1
return
Complete
A1 form
8.3.2.1 Step One: Company Name Registration
The company name will be registered online on the Central Registration Office’s website
using the CORE service (Companies Online Registration Environment). This will require us
to reserve the company name costing €25. As shown below, the company name PriVideo is
available as of the 23rd of July 2013. We will register the company name within the next four
months while building our database of clips and developing our automated system.
8.3.2.2 Step Two: Joining the Fé Phráinn Scheme
The CRO operates a Fé Phráinn Scheme, which we must join in order to incorporate the
company. This streamlines the incorporation process into 5 working days. To join this
130
scheme, we must draft Memorandum and articles of association in accordance with the
Companies Acts 1963-2012. The Memorandum of Association must include details on the
liability of the company, which is limited in our case. Articles of Association will set out the
rules under which we will regulate our business as PriVideo Solutions. These documents will
be drafted on our behalf by a solicitor in January 2014, when the product is market ready.
8.3.2.3 Step Three: Form A1:
Upon acceptance into the Fé Phráinn Scheme, we must complete the A1 Form. This form
costs €50 when completed online and will be done in late January 2014. The company name
on this form must match the company name on the Memorandum of Association drafted for
the Fé Phráinn Scheme. Details included in this form are illustrated below.
Form Requirements
Company Name
Directors
Declaration that Companies Acts are complied
with
Purpose of the company
NACE Code
Registered Address
PriVideo Details
PriVideo Solutions
Catherine Byrne, Arthur Cabeli, Grace Kenny,
Graham O’Dowd
Directors signatures
B2B Video animation service
6209
PriVideo HQ
Figure 65: Memorandum of Association
8.3.2.4 Step Four: Form B1
At the every Year end, we will have to file an annual return for a charge of €20 when done
online. This will include details such as; the details of our directors, PriVideo’s registered
office and any shareholder or share capital information.
8.3.2.5 Further Information
We have received a lot of positive feedback in terms of our concept and have also received
some interest from people who may add to our skillset and could potentially become a partner
in the company. If this is to happen, we will have to inform the CRO of the new director and
his/her details. This must be done within 14 days and is free when done online. Our company
name will appear on a sign in our office or workplace. Our company name will also have to
appear on any stationary or headed paper. This signage and stationary will be purchased in
January 2014.
131
8.3.2 E- Commerce Act 2000 Table
As a company operating online we must ensure that we comply with the E-Commerce Act of
2000 as outlined below.
Regulation
Obligation of PriVideo
Electronic form not to affect legal validity or
enforceability
Electronic forms filled in on the PriVideo website
have same legal validity as offline forms.
Consumer law to apply
Consumer legislation applies to online and offline
transactions, so PriVideo must abide by consumer
law.
Contracts created through the PriVideo website
between PriVideo and PriVideo customers face
the same laws as offline consumer contracts.
PriVideo must abide by the contracts it creates.
PriVideo must supply customers with a receipt of
transaction in relation to transactions that occur
both on the PriVideo website and offline through
contacts.
Contracts
Acknowledgement of receipt of electronic
communications
Once request enters PriVideo website for video
receipt is applicable from first form of contact,
regardless if the automation is outsourced to
Stupeflix. Receipt is applicable once form
received and thus that is time and date of receipt.
All provisions of existing defamation law shall
apply to all electronic communications with
PriVideo, including the retention of information
electronically.
Time and place of dispatch and receipt of
electronic communications
Defamation law to apply
Our returns policy if customers are not satisfied
with the service
Other Information
Figure 66: The E-Commerce Act & PriVideo
132
8.4 Operations & Employee Plans
This section outlines our operational and employment plans for the first three years of
Operations.
8.4.1 Preparing for Market Launch
The last four months of this year will be spent getting the PriVideo service ready for launch
in January 2014. The core tasks to be completed over the course of these four months are as
follows:
1. We will work with our privacy solicitors and consultant to ensure all videos we want to
generate are compliant with Irish and EU Legislation as well as offering videos compliant
with the proposed amendments
2. A database of animated clips will be developed to cover all of the variations of privacy
policy in our 4 target industries.
3. Our website will be fully developed with the help of a developer and will include a back
end database, incorporation of Stupeflix’s API and other elements discussed in technical
requirements.
4. We will touch base with our current and potential new contacts and develop relationships
with other privacy solicitors
5. Voiceover will be recorded for all clips
These roles will be broken down as follows:
Role
Person(s) Responsible
Work with privacy solicitors on video scripts
Grace
Animations done
Graham
Website & Back End
Arthur & Karl (Developer)
Building relationships
Catherine & Grace
Voiceover recording
Catherine & Arthur
Figure 67: Job Roles
For these first four months, we will work from the home of a PriVideo team member. This
house has is a spare room, which we will set up with our computers and other equipment.
This will allow us to get the service market ready while, limiting our initial expenditure.
133
8.4.2 Year 1, Operations
In January 2014, we will begin to lease a premises in Clarehall, Dublin 13. This space
includes furniture and fittings, Internet and telephone lines and is located close to the M50
which is an ideal location for travelling to Dublin City Centre and other counties if required.
We will continue to lease this premises in Years Two & Three.
A day in the Life of the PriVideo Team
As a company offering a B2B service based predominately online, the day to day running of
PriVideo is extremely different to that of a company manufacturing goods for example.
However, each day in PriVideo HQ could entail something different and exciting due to the
number of offerings we strive to develop and our unique outlook on the world of digital
privacy. In Year 1, we will be focusing on continually refining our offering, conducting tests
on what works and what doesn’t, finding out what our small and large customers want, what
their customers’ want and trying to figure out how we can deliver it.
Therefore on any given day, the PriVideo team could be brainstorming design ideas for new
videos, for new characters or working on completely new videos to be applied in different
contexts. We’ll also be continuing to converse with Internet users via our various social
network profiles, through our relationship with privacy professionals and the DPC. Each day
or week, we will also try to reach new potential customers and deepen our relationships with
current contacts and customers.
8.4.2 Years 2 & 3
As we progress into years 2 & 3, the PriVideo team will continue to seek to add to our
extensive list of services. We will be aiming to expand into new countries and industries and
will thus, spend more time conducting research on the market and on our own solutions. We
will enlist the help of developers to develop our new solutions and marketers or salespeople
to introduce future clients to these services. We see PriVideo maintaining the same creativity
and hunger for educating the world while incorporating more expansion plans and strategies.
8.4.3 Employment Forecast
Our projected employment plans for our first Three years in operations are outlined below.
It’s important to note that these recruitment plans are based on our current strategy for
expansion and our projected sales over the next three years. The company may grow at a
quicker rate than anticipated, which may in turn require us to recruit more team members.
134
Job Role
Website & Backend development
Marketing/Sales
Marketing/Sales
Marketing/Sales
Technical/Developer
Animator
Number
1
1
1
1
1
1
When Hired
Immediately (Temporary)
Year 2 (Permanent)
Year 3 (Permanent Part-Time)
Year 3 (Permanent)
Year 2&3 (When required)
Year 3 (Permanent)
Figure 68: Employment Forecasts
135
Section 9: Sales Projections
9.1 Sales Plan
This section covers our strategy for contacting potential customers, a detailed list of
customers we plan to target in year 1, our contacts within these companies and our forecasted
sales for our first three years of operation.
9.1.1 How will we generate sales?
In Year One, we plan to actively contact our target customers, specifically small to medium
sized enterprises. The primary reasoning behind this decision is to create awareness of our
offering among the smaller companies within our target industries. In the Financial services
and Insurance industry for example, there are over 5,000 SMEs who could utilise our service.
Insurance brokers act as an intermediary between the insured and the insurance company and
thus, must store and protect a vast amount of personal information. These companies must,
therefore comply with the same legislation including data protection legislation, as global
companies like Allianz. PriVideo’s core offering, as well as some of our additional services
can enable these companies to comply in a way that is both cost effective and efficient in
terms of time and communicating the message a privacy policy should.
9.1.2 Who will sell?
As mentioned previously, during the months of September 2013 – December 2013, we will
spend a great deal of time developing our database of clips. This covers all privacy policy
variations for our four industries and developing our automated system. These roles will be
completed by Graham our lead designer, Arthur our Technical lead as well as an external
developer. Throughout these months, the other two members of the core team, Catherine and
Grace will get in touch with all the contacts we currently have and contact a number of firms
in the hope of gaining new contacts. The process of contacting each firm is illustrated below.
136
Figure 69: Process for contacting companies
137
9.1.2 Timeframe for Contacting Customers
We’re aware that it would not be realistic or sustainable to contact every possible customer,
so we have developed a timeframe for contacting our current contacts and gaining new
contacts. Over the course of the last few months, we have already initialised the relationship
with a number of our contacts. With some contacts we merely touched base while, with
others with discussed the concept and their needs. In some cases, we arranged a meeting to
showcase our prototype. These relationships can be strengthened and deepened almost
immediately. The timeframe can be briefly explained as follows:
1.
During the months of September-December, we will ensure that all current contacts have
been contacted whether it is to touch base, seek a referral or discuss the concept.
2. Upon launching our service, the first 6 months will be spent ensuring all our contacts are
informed about the service and converting some of these contacts into customers
3. The last six months of the year will involve contacting the larger companies we want to
attract. We decided to wait until months 6-12, for two core reasons namely, we will be
more advanced in using the animation software and we will have some customers which
will help develop our reputation as a reputable company.
Contact Timeframe
138
9.2 Industry Contact Tables
Within our four target industries, there are hundreds if not thousands of potential SMEs we
could contact, as well as a number of global players who could be interested in our
customised offering. Therefore, it was important to develop a detailed list of the companies,
albeit a list which is not 100% complete. We developed a list for each industry as a guideline
of what contacts we have, the companies we will contact, when we will contact them and our
progress to date (See Appendix B, Pg. 222). It’s important to note that, while we intend to
target the larger organisations in the second half of the year, we will still get in touch with our
contacts and commence initial communications. We will then wait until we have secured
some smaller customers before pitching the service.
9.2.1 Financial and Insurance Industry
Due to our experience in this industry, we have a number of contacts in various SMEs and
some large companies. We also have two contacts who have agreed to introduce us to more
target companies. As detailed in our strategy, initially our focus in this industry will be on
Insurance companies and brokers as we’ve so many contacts in these companies. However,
we will quickly move to targeting financial organisations and already have contacts within
the large players in this sector.
9.2.2 Telecommunications
Due to our relationship with a privacy consultant, we have many opportunities to pitch our
concept to a number of global players. We also have some contacts in large companies who
we have touched base with the in the hope of getting a referral. The timeline for this industry
focuses on first pitching to the companies we have contacts in and then moving on to
contacting other firms.
9.2.3 Online Retail
Like the Financial and Services industry, this industry has a large volume of companies who
could benefit from our automated offering, as well as powerful players who we can also
target. There are also a wide range of companies in this area, which gives us the opportunity
to touch on different sectors from clothing to books or car parts, as all of these companies
have privacy policies. In terms of the larger companies, we have some contacts in these
companies who we will touch base with immediately and try to pitch the product in second
half of the year when we’ve gained some smaller customers.
139
9.2.4 ICT
This industry is perhaps the most global industry we are targeting. As many global ICT
companies have a presence in Ireland, this makes them more accessible. Furthermore, we
have some contacts in these large firms. We’re aware that many of these companies have the
resources themselves to develop such a video, but we’re planning to use our contacts to at the
least pitch the product and gain feedback. We also hope that securing customers of varying
sizes will work in our favour.
9.3 Projected Sales
Our estimated sales for Year 1 are based on the companies we already have contacts in or
have identified as targets in the tables see Appendix B, (Pg. 222). Given the applicability of
our service across industries and company size, we’re aware that are thousands of other
companies in these industries that could utilise the service. Our sales projections air on the
side of caution, while incorporating the positive and constructive feedback we have already
received from a number of sources in global companies as well as smaller companies. The
tables below summarise our estimated sales for each Industry for Year 1.
9.3.1 Financial and Insurance Industry Sales
Total Customers explicitly targeted: 74 Total Projected sales: 38 51.35% success rate
Company Size
SME
Large
Total
Jan-Mar
1-3)
5
0
5
(Mth April-June(Mth
4-6)
8
0
8
July-Sept(Mth 7- Oct-Dec(Mth 109)
12)
11
8
2
4
13
12
9.3.2 Telecommunications Sales
Total Customers explicitly targeted: 15 Total Projected sales: 4 26.66% success rate
Company Size
SME
Large
Total
Jan-Mar
1-3)
0
0
0
(Mth April-June(Mth
4-6)
0
0
0
July-Sept(Mth 7- Oct-Dec(Mth 109)
12)
0
0
1
3
1
3
*As discussed in customers section the focus in this industry in on large companies with a
number of different privacy policies
140
9.3.3 Online Retail Sales
Total Customers explicitly targeted: 31 Total Projected sales: 15 48.39% success rate
Company Size
SME
Large
Total
Jan-Mar
1-3)
0
0
0
(Mth April-June(Mth
4-6)
3
0
3
July-Sept(Mth 7- Oct-Dec(Mth 109)
12)
5
5
1
1
6
6
9.3.4 ICT Sales
Total Customers explicitly targeted: 28 Total Projected sales: 10 35.71% success rate
Company Size
SME
Large
Total
Jan-Mar
1-3)
0
0
0
(Mth April-June(Mth
4-6)
2
0
2
July-Sept(Mth 7- Oct-Dec(Mth 109)
12)
4
1
2
1
6
2
9.4 Contacting Firms in the Future
As discussed in our strategy, we plan to expand further into other countries and industries and
thus, won’t be contacting SMEs going forward into Year 2 and beyond. As most SMEs will
use our automated service, we will aim to increase the number of companies using the site
through its increasing visibility in various industries. We will however, continue to contact
more global companies. This will include companies we have already contacted like O2 or
Allianz, as we will attempt to pitch to their branches in other countries. We will also begin
targeting new global companies in our four specified industries, where we believe we will
have developed a presence.
We have developed a list of potential companies we will target or pitch to in Years 2 and 3
based on the four industries we already have a presence in. We will however, by the end of
Year One have added to this list and also have developed a list of target companies in new
industries. This table can be found in Appendix H, (Pg. 249) and is mainly for illustrative
purposes to highlight our progression from contacting all potential companies to strategically
targeting global players who can avail of an extremely customised service and offer us
opportunities in new countries, as well as opportunities to introduce new products and
services. Whilst Year One will give us the opportunity to establish relationships and build
contacts, Year two will be used to exploit the relationships we forged and complete these
contracts.
141
9.4.1 Future Projected Sales
For Years 2 and 3, our projected sales are again cautious but also understanding of the broad
applicability and great potential of our offering. We’ve based the sales projections in the table
below on the following assumptions:
1. More and more SMEs in our 4 initial industries will begin using our automated service
2. Our network of contacts will grow with our solicitors and consultants continuing to
recommend our service
3. More large companies begin to use the service due to the fact their competitors are using
the service and the benefits they can attain
4. Our service will be in more countries and industries than in Year 1
5. We will have launched additional services be it videos for terms & conditions, more
detailed videos or videos for employee training. These new services will result in new
customers, with each time a package or video is sold representing one customer. So if a
customer comes back in a few months for another video, they count as another customer.
6. New EU legislation will be implemented, resulting in small companies needing a cheap
way of complying and large companies looking to take advantage of communicating their
compliance.
9.4.2 Year Two Projected Sales
Company Size
Financial
Telecoms
SME
Large*
Total
772
13
785
57
42**
99
Online
Retail
487
17
504
ICT
254
8
262
Additional
Industry 1
84
2
86
*Large is a company with 250 people 1 customer can = 1 branch of a global company
**Due to number of privacy policies & similar products each company has 1 customer = 1
video
9.4.3 Year Three Projected Sales
Company
Size
SME
Large
Total
Financial
Telecoms
390
22
412
46
79
125
Online
Retail
653
67
720
142
ICT
366
25
391
Additional
Industry 1
241
38
279
Additional
Industry 2
179
9
188
Section 10: Financial Projections
At PriVideo, we understand the importance of sales and financing, especially for a start-up
company like ourselves. In the following section, we will describe what we believe is
required to set up PriVideo, as well as costs the associated with running the business for the
first three years. Some of the costs and figures we have used in this report are estimations
based on the information currently available and may change due to unforeseen
circumstances. We believe this section gives an realistic and accurate insight into PriVideo
for the first three years of business.
Financial Assumptions

Our financial forecasts are based on our assumptions of growth and losses for PriVideo in
the first three years.

We estimate to start to turn a profit after in our second year.

The accounts are prepared in line with accounting standards.

To start up, we estimate PriVideo will need €100,000 approximately based on our
projected costs and sales.

The four owners of PriVideo will work full time with paid salaries, the value of which
will be increased yearly for the first three years.

The company will draw from Darragh O’Brien and Crowley solicitors for advice and
guidance as well as consultation for PriVideo.

Our partners will be paid 5% of Tier 4 sales as they are required for consultation.
10.1: Financial Implications of our Business Strategy
Year 1: In Year One, PriVideo will begin to establish itself in the privacy solutions industry.
We believe our loan and team investment will enable us to successfully start our business.
We predict that by the end of Year One, we will have a large amount of companies contacted
and be beginning to see a rise in PriVideo sales.
Year 2: PriVideo will begin to make a profit at the end of year two, owing partially to the
networking and relationships the team built in Year One.
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Year 3: PriVideo will continue to make a profit as brand awareness rises and the company
continues to expand globally.
10.1.1 Key Costs of the Project
Travel: The cost of attending events and travelling to trade shows is an essential part of
securing PriVideo’s contracts. Due to this and for other travel PriVideo will purchase a van
in year two.
IP: Trademarking our name and copyrighting each of our uniquely drawn icons will be
essential to reduce the imitability of PriVideo.
Additional Staff: PriVideo will employ a number of developers, sales people, tech support
staff and animators throughout the three year period for both part time and full time contracts
(Detailed further below).
Road tax: We estimate to pay road tax on our car in Year One and both the car and Van in
year two and three. The tax figures are based on a calculated quote as detailed below.
Car:
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Van:
10.1.2 Cost of Sales
Stupeflix: The Stupeflix monthly API is the basis of the automated versions of our service
and hence will account for a large part of our cost of sales. Stupeflix will also be responsible
for hosting our automatically generated videos on their site. Thus, as the amount of videos
required increases so too will our monthly Stupeflix costs.
Voice Actors: Voice actors that are required to record for the manually processed videos
would be a substantial cost for PriVideo. Each manually generated video would have a
different script in which the voice actor would have to record to meet the customer’s
specifications.
Animation Software: The animation software required by the animators to create the unique
icons is an essential cost to the PriVideo software. The main animation software used will be
Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop CS6.
Domain Name: The PriVideo domain name will be bought for .ie in the first year and .eu
and .co.uk in the second year. This will be as the PriVideo service expands.
10.1.3 Running Costs
Office Space: The PriVideo team will set up their base in the City Junction Business Park,
Clarehall, Dublin 13. The four core PriVideo staff members and any additional staff will be
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based in this office. The office will cost €500 monthly or account for €6000 annually (Daft.ie
2013).
Directors Salaries: In Year One, each of the core members of the PriVideo team will be paid
a salary of €20,000. In the second year this will increase slightly to €25,000 as PriVideo
begin to generate more sales and build awareness as a company. Finally in Year Three the
salaries will be slightly increased again to €30,000 as the company begins to make a
substantial profit.
2014
Directors salaries
2015
€80,000.00
2016
€100,000.00
€120,000.00
Detailed Wages: The PriVideo financial statements will account for numerous miscellaneous
wages in addition to the director’s salaries. In the first six months, PriVideo will hire a
developer to ensure the product is launched on time and the relevant team members are
trained on the technical aspects of the PriVideo service. In the second year, PriVideo will
hire a salesperson and support staff to help with the increasing level of sales. Additionally, a
developer will be hired when required. In the third year, PriVideo will hire an extra part time
salesperson and an animator to ensure the company can keep up with the manual video
orders. A developer will also be utilised in the third year at various stages.
Miscellaneous Wages
2014
Developer in first 6 months
2015
2016
€25,000.00
€25,000.00
€3,000.00
Salesperson
€12,500.00
Part-Time Sales Person
€25,000.00
Support Staff
€28,000.00
Animator
Developer as required
Total
€25,000.00
€3,000.00
€5,000.00
€10,000.00
€55,000.00
€100,500.00
10.1.4 General Administration and Marketing
The table below details the stationary costs and costs of registering the business that PriVideo
will incur.
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2014
2015
2016
Business Stationary & Signage
€1,200.00
€400.00
€400.00
Registering company name
€25.00
€0.00
€0.00
A1 form for setting up company
€50.00
€0.00
€0.00
B1
€20.00
€20.00
€20.00
Marketing: PriVideo will face numerous different marketing costs, as outlined below. This
table includes the cost of getting business cards, brochures, flyers and posters printed
(Vistaprint 2013). We have also apportioned part of the marketing budget to PPC marketing
and Tradeshows as detailed in the company’s marketing strategy. Market research and
branding the car and van PriVideo will use is also considered in the Marketing costs.
Marketing Costs
2014
2015
2016
€89.98
€99.98
€132.98
€184.99
€418.49
€529.49
Flyers
€27.23
€35.73
€44.73
Posters
€184.99
€433.99
€433.99
Business Cards
Brochure
PPC
€5,000.00
Tradeshows & Assoc
Costs
€7,500.00 €16,000.00 €25,000.00
Car promotions
Market Research
Marketing budget
€73.99
€9,000.00 €12,000.00
€147.99
€0.00
€10,000 €16,000.00 €23,000.00
€23,061.18 €42,136.18 €61,141.19
10.2 PriVideo Required Funding
In order to successfully enter and compete in the market, we’re aware that we need to raise
the capital needed to set up the company. Following an extensive review of all our costs, we
ascertained two core sources of funding that could help cover the start up and running costs
of PriVideo. These funding sources are outlined below in terms of monetary amount of each
and when we hope to secure them.
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Funding Source
Monetary Amount
Date Secured
Director Investment
€10,000 each = €40,000
September 2013
Bank Loan
€60,000
January 2014
Total Capital Requirements:
€100,000
January 2014
Initial Team Investment: Each member of the team invested €10,000 into PriVideo in return
for 25% share in the company. This initial capital will enable us to essentially get the product
market ready, by animating all of the clips which will feature in our initial database and fully
developing our website and user interface for creating automated videos. This capital will
also cover the costs in buying technical equipment and software to produce the animations,
paying a voice actor to record the voiceover for these clips and paying our developer to
complete the website and incorporate the Stupeflix API into our website. The technical
requirements are discussed further on Pg. 174.
Bank Loan: We will need to acquire a bank loan in order to continue operating throughout
Year One and into Year Two, while making a loss. We plan to secure a €60,000 small
business loan from Bank of Ireland in January 2014. The interest rate on the loan would be
approximately 6.74% and the loan will be repaid over the course of three years.
Funding Scheme: We have completed our 3 year projections without accounting for funding
from incubator or accelerator programmes. However after research on the various schemes
available, we have identified two programs which we will endeavour to apply for in our first
year of business.
Ryan Academy’s Propeller Venture Accelerator programme: Applications for this
programme usually begin in September every year with the programme beginning every year
in January and running for approximately 3 months.
Wayra start-up academy: The Wayra program has two calls for applications, in January and
again in May. The scheme participants are chosen in September and the Wayra programme
runs for between 6-12 months depending on the individual project.
The benefits of these programs are illustrated in the table below:
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Fund
Funding
Ryan
Academy
Propeller
Venture
Accelerator
Program
€30,000
Wayra StartUp Academy
€30,000-€70,000.
Depending on project
and requirements
Other Core elements















Stake in
funding
Mentorship
Investor Day
Free Office Space
Marketing advice
Sales Advice
Legal guidance
I.P. advice
Accounting guidance
7.5% equity
stake
Project management support
Legal advice
Training courses
Tech support
Work space
Mentors
Access to possible partners
Dependent
on amount
of funding
and in
agreement
with team.
We have based our financial projections on a number of assumptions. Firstly, our projections
are based on securing a bank loan and the initial team investment. As mentioned above, our
capital may be increased if we are successfully accepted onto one of the accelerator
programmes detailed.
Furthermore, our projected sales for Year One are largely based on the feedback we have
received to date on the concept and the gap in the market for this service. For Year Two &
Three, we have based our sales on the introduction of more stringent data protection
legislation and our expansion into different industries and countries.
10.3 Projected Sales and Profit and Loss Account
We have developed our profit and loss accounts for our first three years of operations
namely; 2014, 2015 and 2016 below. We have also included a monthly profit and loss
account for our first year trading see Appendix O, (Pg. 261).
In order to accurately develop our Profit and Loss Account for Year One, we needed to
establish the costs we would incur in producing our offering and making it available for sale.
Our cost of goods considers the many costs associated with developing our offering. Costs
incurred as mentioned above include; Animation software such as Adobe After Effects and
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Adobe Professional CS6, the cost of acquiring our Domain Name, website and server hosting,
voice Actors and the costs paid to Stupeflix. Additional expenses we will incur over the year
include wages, insurance, travel and costs of legally establishing the company.
Our reasoning behind our sales projections is detailed in our sales plan, see Pg. 140. It’s
important to note that all projections are extremely cautious and based our discussions with
these companies, further contacts we will utilise and the need for our product. We have
predicted sales based on our automatic service (Tier 1) and our most customised service (Tier
4) which is aimed at large companies. We have not factored in the additional income
generated from Tiers 2 & 3 as it is too difficult to estimate what extra services our SME
clients will avail of.
10.3.1 Year One
Sales Package
Number of Customers
Sales in Monetary
(Vat Inclusive)
Tier 4 (Customised)
15
€105,000
Tier 1 (Automated Video)
52
€12,948
Terms
€117,948
Total Sales:
For Year One, this leaves PriVideo with a net loss of -€86,974.12 which accounts for a
€22,080.50 repayment of our €60,000 loan.
10.3.2 Year Two
In our second year, we predict a large increase in sales. Again, the reasons behind this
prediction are discussed in detail in our sales plan on Pg. 142. These reasons in brief are as
follows:
1. We will finalise sales with companies contacted towards the end of Year One
2. The impact of our marketing campaigns
3. Our expansion to different industries and countries
4. The impending amendments to EU legislation
5. Our brand will be more recognised
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Sales Package
Number of Customers
Sales in Monetary
(Vat Inclusive)
Tier 4 (Customised)
82
€574,000
Tier 1 (Automated Video)
1,654
€411,846
Terms
€985,846
Total Sales:
We estimated to turn a profit in Year Two, despite incurring a number of expenses including
increased legal expenses. With each Tier 4 video we sell, the product will need to be
individually checked by one of our solicitors to ensure compliance with data protection. In
these cases, the solicitor receives a 5% of the sale. Furthermore, as we generate more clips for
our database of automated videos, these will need to also be checked and will have a set fee
based on the bulk of new clips. Other costs incurred in Year Two include; the purchase of a
PriVideo van to visit clients, attend Trade shows etc.
Our estimated net profit will be €387,646.05 this includes a further €22,080.50 is repaid back
of the €60,000 loan.
10.3.3 Year Three:
In our third year, we estimate our sales to increase again. This assumption is based on the fact
that PriVideo will be operating successfully in Ireland for a third year, while also having a
presence in other countries. Furthermore, due to the broad applicability of PriVideo across
industries, the service may be offered to a large number of industries by Year Three.
Furthermore, the results of the amendments to EU legislation will be seen more.
Sales Package
Number of Customers
Sales in Monetary
(Vat Inclusive)
Tier 4 (Customised)
240
€1,680,000
Tier 1 (Automated Video)
1,875
€466,875
Terms
€2,146,875
Total Sales:
We predict net profit in our third year to be €1,055,667.94. This figure accounts for a
€22,080.50 repayment of the loan in year 3, clearing the debt completely.
Within our Profit estimations for Years Two and Three we have accounted for the payment of
corporation tax. The profits for year two and three also account for corporation tax of 12.5%.
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Corporation tax is charged on profits over €40,000 and thus paid in year two and three. The
figures for sales are exclusive of VAT in the profit and loss account. VAT is charged at 23%.
The monthly break down of the profit and loss portrays PriVideo’s expenses and sales in the
first year on a month by month basis. This shows how we will steadily establish ourselves in
the market. Some aspects of our cost of goods available for sale, are paid in full in January
making it an expensive month for the company. The general expenses are divided over the
twelve months of the year.
10.4 Cash Flow
The yearly cash flow statement provides a detailed view of the inflows and outflows of cash
and cash equivalents in the business. It enables the cash position of PriVideo to be established
at any given point in time by determining the difference between cash received and cash paid
out. It also provides information on sales and expenditure.
The cash flow provides information on depreciation (Van & Car), tax paid (VAT ), purchase
of fixed assets (Van - year two) the owner's initial investment (€20,000, or €5,000 per owner)
the change in bank loan and finally details the cash and cash equivalents carried forward for
each year (as depicted below).
2014
Cash and Cash Equivalents Carried Forward
-€11,974.12
2015
€395,986.94
2016
€1,518,344.45
10.5 Balance Sheet
The Balance sheet for PriVideo clearly shows the company’s assets and liabilities for our first
three years’ operating. Due to technical nature of the service, the company does not own a
large amount of fixed assets. Our storage requirements are covered both by our own server
and by Stupeflix who house all of our animated widgets reducing the storage requirements
and costs of our own server.
In the first year, the PriVideo team will have access to one of the team member’s cars (Ford
Fiesta). Then in the second year, PriVideo will purchase a Volkswagen Caddy Van, this van
will be added to our fixed assets on the balance sheet. The other main feature in the fixed
assets area of the balance sheet will be the computer hardware and software required by the
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management team. These items will be bought new in year on from the tech budget so they
will not face depreciation in the first three years.
The company’s liabilities include expenses involved in providing the service, wages, taxes
and repayment of the loan. When calculating the balance sheet we used the Assets =
Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity formula. We also added in the initial investment made by
the management team in order to provide a holistic view of the company thus, enabling us to
calculate the total owner's equity and total liabilities & equity for the three years detailed
below.
2014
2015
2016
Total Current Assets
€5,000.00
€416,049.94
€1,547,149.57
Total Owner's Equity
-€46,974.12
€340,671.93
€1,396,339.87
€5,000.00
€416,049.94
€1,547,149.57
Total Liabilities & Equity
10.5.1 Projected Three year Sales:
€2,500,000
€2,000,000
€1,500,000
€1,000,000
Sales
€500,000
€0
2014
2015
Yearly Sales
153
2016
10.5.2 Projected Three year Profits:
Profits
€1,200,000.00
€1,000,000.00
€800,000.00
2014
€600,000.00
2015
€400,000.00
2016
€200,000.00
€0.00
2014
2015
2016
-€200,000.00
10.5.3 Projected Sales and Profits
Yearly Sales and Profit
€2,500,000.00
€2,000,000.00
€1,500,000.00
€1,000,000.00
€500,000.00
€0.00
-€500,000.00
2014
2015
Profits
154
Sales
2016
10.6 Breakeven Analysis
We have calculated the breakeven point for Tier One sales in Year One. We used Tier One in
the analysis as this is our most basic offering and serves as an illustration of the success we
need to have with SMEs if we fail to secure any large contracts. This figure is based on
taking the fixed costs associated with developing our library of clips and the charges paid to
Stupeflix. Fixed costs associated with Tier One sales are €18,551.54 with each sale
generating €249 in revenue. To breakeven selling only Tier One products, PriVideo would
need to sell 75 Tier One videos.
10.7 Exit Strategy
The following exit strategy is available to investors of PriVideo for consideration. The terms
below have been agreed to by all parties vested in the company:

Any shareholder may sell their shares to any party but must offer first refusal of their
shares to their fellow shareholders and all parties must be in agreement.

If another company, in the field of privacy solutions or otherwise, wishes to buy PriVideo
all members of the team must be in agreement in order to sell the company outright. If all
shareholders are not in agreement an outright sale is not permitted. All shareholders could
exit at this point with a potential profit.
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10.8 Profit and Loss Account
156
10.9 Three year Cash Flow Account
157
10.10 Three year balance sheet
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Section 11: The Technical Side of PriVideo
This section of the report details all elements which when combined make the technical side
of PriVideo. This includes how the service will work, the Prototype we have developed thus
far, future technical requirements and challenges we will face going forward.
11.1 Section Overview
Before discussing the various elements of our technical delivery for PriVideo, it is important
to establish what the PriVideo concept is in broad, technical terms. The PriVideo system
essentially aims to provide a B2B service which generates video representations of privacy
policies on demand for affordable prices. This is briefly outlined below.
PriVideo Concept
User with
Privacy Policy
PriVideo System
Video
Figure 70: The PriVideo Concept
The technical section of this report includes a detailed analysis of the PriVideo system. This
system is supported by two deliverables namely a website and an animated video. This
section also outlines the processes, architecture, requirements, technical challenges and
benefits of these deliverables, as they provide tangible representations of both ends of the
system. The website represents the system’s entry point, as it hosts a mock-up of the
interface, where the user interacts with the system. The website also reinforces many of the
aspects of PriVideo’s business strategy including the communication strategy. The animated
video is a proof of our concept, as it demonstrates that it is possible to condense the totality of
a privacy policy into a short animated video. This deliverable represents how the finished
product or output of our technical system would look, if developed and implemented.
The presence of the website, mock-up interface and video prototype ensures that all elements
explained in this section easier to understand, as they provide a clear and tangible
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representation of a possible client’s experience. The technical section starts by introducing
the technical deliverables before diving into the diverse aspects of the technical concept.
11.2 Technical Deliverables, Animated Videos
As mentioned above, we developed two core deliverables namely our website and prototype
videos. We created two animated videos thus far. The first video conveys 02’s privacy policy
whilst the second video introduces the company PriVideo and our service offering. The
purpose of creating our prototype, privacy policy video was to demonstrate the effectiveness
of transferring a text based policy into video format. This prototype allowed us to test our
video design and various assumptions on the educational, information recall and enjoyment
factors. Our aim for both videos was to incorporate high quality hand drawn icons with
creatively animated scenes.
11.2.1 The Process
Initially, we studied the O2 Privacy Policy in full. We then broke it down into the nine
separate sections. Each of these sections essentially served as a script. For each script, we
discussed our options and how best to animate them for video. Once we decided upon our
scenes, we identified and listed all the individual icons that were needed to be drawn for each
animated scene.
We decided to hand draw each of these icons to avoid any potential copyright issues and to
secure our own intellectual rights on our designs. This way, our creative designs serve as
assets to our company. Upon completion of these drawings, we were able to start the
animation process. In order to design, develop and produce, these animated videos we used
Adobe Flash Professional (CS6), a multimedia authoring program. The use of this software
required a large learning curve and led to numerous challenges, which will be discussed
below.
The process of creating our animated videos can illustrated by the process map below, which
began with an analysis of the written privacy policy and ended with a finished animated
privacy policy which serves as a prototype of our offering.
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Figure 71: Video Creation process
11.2.1 Learning the Software
One of our biggest challenges was mastering the CS6 program. It was necessary to do this
before attempting to create any prototype videos. This challenge involved two dimensions:
1. Learning how to utilise all the required tools to create the individual icons for each scene
2. Learning how to animate these icons to create a complete, seamless video
1. Drawing
Initially, creating the individual icons proved difficult and restrictive largely due to the fact
that each icon was created using a laptop touchpad. Additionally, as these icons were to serve
as intellectual property we needed to ensure a high level of quality. We therefore, invested in
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a Computer Drawing Tablet that enabled us to sketch these icons in a more natural and
expressive way, with the simplicity of a pen. We then familiarised ourselves with the CS6
program and its various tools and settings. Ultimately, we used the Pen and Brush tools as
well as the pressure settings to sketch the outlines of most our icons. However, the Line tool
was more appropriate for linear sketches such as buildings and mobile phones. Once the
outlines of our icons were drawn, we focused our attention on colouring, shading and the tone
of the icon to ensure the icons were vibrant and accurately perceived. When we were fully
familiar with the program, our drawings began to take shape. We were able to do a number of
things to increase the quality and value of our videos for both the viewers and our business
customers. For example, we created a relatable character to represent the customers. This
approach allows us to illustrate companies’ privacy policies from a third-person narrative
allowing the videos to be more objective. We were also able to apply creative thinking to
integrate company’s brand logo in various ways. Furthermore, we designed unique images
such as a safe attached to a folder to emphasise that collected information is stored securely.
2. Animation
The main requirement for creating our very first animated scene was developing on
understanding of the basic principles behind the process of animation. The notion of frames,
timelines and layers were relatively new terms to us, but upon learning the main
functionalities of the software, we began to understand the terminology and how to start
developing our animation scenes.
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Each icon that we drew, represented one key frame and in order to create the illusion of
movement, the positioning and/or dimensions of each drawing needed to differ slightly from
the one before it. This is where the importance of the timeline became apparent. As icons
differed from frame to frame, the timeline dictated how their sequence looked when played
back in real time. This required constant playback in order to assess the animation’s flow and
to make subsequent re-adjustments where necessary. Layers referred to the different levels on
which we placed our drawings. As each icon represented a frame, the animated sequence of
these frames represented that icon’s own distinct layer. This allowed us to compound our
scenes, giving us more freedom in editing and allowing us focus on the animation of each
icon separately.
To ensure the best simulation of movement, we constructed our video with 24 frames per
second (FPS), which is recommended as the optimal amount. As our final video length was
just over 2mins, our timeline reached 124 seconds, which resulted in 2,980 frames.
Considering we only drew 28 distinct icons, producing a sequence of 2,980 frames manually
would not have been feasible. Luckily there were various tools provided by the CS6 software
which mitigated such laborious work.
The main tool we used throughout our animation was the motion tween. The motion tween
allowed us to easily animate the motion of our icons for smooth transitions within and
between scenes. Our only requirement was to define the beginning position and ending
position of the desirable motion. The motion tween then automatically filled in the gap,
saving us from having to manually define the icon’s position in every frame. As a result of
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learning the CS6 software on the go, some aspects of the video where revisited numerous
times. As we made new discoveries and our learning developed, we were constantly returning
to refine elements of the video. This was in order to make better alterations in line with our
newly acquired knowledge of the system. For example, we made progressive discoveries
about the advantages of the motion tween such as having icons grow and shrink, move
through defined paths and rotate in a 3D dimension, as illustrated below. This hugely added
to the scope of our design.
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11.3 Technical Deliverables, the PriVideo Website
This section introduces the website that was developed by our team as part of our technical
delivery. The section encapsulates the various factors that were considered during the
development of this website and how it fits into our overall delivery. The factors considered
include Goals, Content, Functionalities, Design, Performance, SEO considerations and
Technical specificities.
11.3.1 Website Goals
The website plays a critical role in PriVideo’s communication strategy, as it is one of the
main communication channels between our team and potential customers or partners. It
enables us to communicate complex and relevant information to these parties.
The website was built to accomplish the following goals:

To enable the PriVideo brand to develop its online presence

To create a concrete platform where the concept for the PriVideo service can be
showcased

To promote the benefits of online data protection for both businesses and the general
public
These goals heavily influenced the development of each step of the PriVideo, as their various
implications were taken into consideration when selecting the website’s content, style and
functionalities.
11.3.2 Content
In line with the website’s aim to provide relevant information to potential partners and
customers, as well as the general public, is the ability for the website to build brand
awareness. The content of the website has a huge impact on determining how visitors of the
website view our brand. Our website contains 6 sections, all of which serve a different
purpose while supporting the website’s overarching goals.
These sections are:

Homepage
This section provides details about PriVideo’s mission, as well as informing visitors about the
different goals of our animated videos. To achieve this, the page presents an introductory
video of the company. The homepage also contains our video prototype; this presents an
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example of what the video representation of the telecommunication company O2’s privacy
policy would look like.

Privacy Corner
The Privacy Corner is a page destined to raise awareness and educate the general public
about online privacy, encouraging users to care about their personal information. This page
hosts links towards websites that have authority in the domains of online privacy and data
protection.

Blog
This section will provide the website with a source of regular fresh and unique content. It will
allow for various articles and comments on the current legislation, as well as debates about
online privacy and news that highlights the increasing privacy concerns. The blog will also
allow for stories that highlight the benefits for a company of being transparent and effectively
communicating their privacy policies.

Video Builder
This section hosts a mock-up interface of the video generation service that is conceptualised
on Pg. 14 of this report. This acts as the entry point of PriVideo’s system, where user input is
captured to build a corresponding video.

About us
This section provides profiles of the key members of the PriVideo team, asserting each
member’s specialty and providing a mechanism to contact each member through their
LinkedIn profiles.

Contact us
This section proposes means for visitors to get in contact with the team through mail, phone,
or social media networks. PriVideo is currently present on Facebook and Twitter, making the
company more open and approachable.
11.3.4 Functionalities
The different functionalities present on this website were implemented with the website’s
goals in mind. One such functionality is linking the website to PriVideo’s social accounts
such as Twitter and Facebook, to enable visitors to directly contact the team. To further
improve our client relations, a Google map was implemented, offering a quick and efficient
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way for potential partners or clients to establish PriVideo’s base and determine the feasibility
of travel to the company for a meeting.
To ensure efficient showcasing of PriVideo’s mission and offer, the website includes a video
introduction to the company, as well as a video example of a finalised product on its
homepage. These videos were hosted on YouTube due to its unmatched performance in terms
of loading speed as well as the service being free.
11.3.5 Design
The design of the website aims to make PriVideo appealing to professional cliental. Through
the website, we also aim to reinforce the content on the website by conveying trustworthy and
appealing image.
The design was conceptualised with the website’s specific goals and characteristics in mind,
such as the relatively low amount of content and pages compared to the average corporate
website. The design of the website focused on the main elements including the colour
scheme, layout, navigation, templates and frameworks employed as well as the future design
challenges.
11.3.5.1 Colour scheme
The colour scheme comprises of 3 main colours. The first one is teal, our staple brand colour
and is consistently present across our logo, video and website. The second and third colours
were selected to reinforce and complement our primary colour. The pale beige and white are
both light enough to ensure black text can be clearly read over them. Beige is also used to
highlight certain elements that complement the text including the buttons on the navigation
and top bar. While the white serves as a background for our main pieces of text and content.
Teal
Colour Code #315A5E
Beige
Colour Code #D2D2B6
White
Colour Code #FFFFF
11.3.5.2 Layout & Navigation
As our website only consists of 6 sections, we decided to implement a minimalist navigation
bar on the top of each section, to the right of the logo. The role of this bar is to occupy space,
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while acting as an additional link back to the homepage. The navigation bar does not have
any dropdown menu; all the links are visible from the outset.
As shown below the layout of the page is clean, it has a minimal amount of embellishments
and conveys an air of professionalism similar to that of a solicitor’s website. It’s width of
800 pixels will fit most laptops and desktops; this version of the site does not currently
support devices with resolutions under 800x600 pixels.
11.3.5.3 Templates and frameworks
Connect template
The design of the navigation bar
and the page structure were both
inspired by an online template
found at the following address:
http://www.templatemo.com/templ
ates/templatemo_368_connect/
This template was merely used as a source of inspiration, as our team modified and
implemented the specific elements of the template, which we felt best fit the needs of the
PriVideo website.
11.3.5.4 Bootstrap Framework
Additionally, specific elements of
the
website
were
implemented using the Bootstrap framework. This allowed us
to support additional features and implement design aspects
that we would not have been able to do by ourselves.
Amongst other things, bootstrap enabled the implementation of
a login menu and an image carousel. Image Source:
twitter.github.io/bootstrap/
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11.3.6 Future design Challenges
11.3.6.1 Scaling with content
The design of our website needs be capable of coping with the addition of new features and
content, especially on the blogs section. This sections needs to cope with the increase in the
number of blog posts over time and include a sub navigation bar that can scale a variety of
different topics and dates.
We also plan to implement breadcrumbs on the blog section, using the Bootstrap framework,
to help visitors find their way back to previous sections when browsing blog posts.
11.3.6.2 Performance
The performance of the website was one of our primary concerns, especially when it comes
to the videos that are integrated in some pages. For a service provider promoting the use of
video as a medium to communicate information such as PriVideo, it is essential to display a
flawless video integration. To do so, we had no choice but to rely on YouTube to host our
videos as it has the most reliable free video player we are familiar with.
To improve the performance of our site, we have compressed all images on the site to reduce
the download times and bandwidth usage. We have also concatenated and minified all static
HTML, CSS and JavaScript files to reduce the amount of requests needed to load a page.
Videos were also encoded for YouTube at a weight less than 20 MB, which ensures relatively
short loading times.
11.3.7 SEO considerations
Throughout the development of the website, efforts were made to satisfy search engine
optimisation standards in terms of site-wide, on-page and off-site optimisation.
11.3.7.1 Site-Wide Optimisation
Crawling Facilitation
One of the most important SEO factors for a newly created website is the facilitation of
access and navigation for the search engines’ web crawlers. The simple HTML structure and
the absence of flash navigation elements on the PriVideo website make it easy for spiders to
navigate. In addition to this, crawling was further facilitated by the creation of an XML site
map, which contains a comprehensive list of the different web pages present on PriVideo’s
website. The XML map was built accordingly to the current XML standards, as it can be seen
on the following example.
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>http://student.computing.dcu.ie/~cabelia2/PriVideo/index </loc>
<lastmod>20013-07-31</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>1</priority>
</url>
</urlset>
Within the <urlset> several <url> tags are stored, one for each page of the website.
These <url> tags each contain four different sub-tags:
1. <loc> tag where the location of the webpage is stored
2. <lastmod> tag which provides the date of the page’s last modification
3. <changefreq> tag gives information on the frequency at which the page is modified
4. <priority> tag which enables to weight the page’s priority against the website’s other
pages.
The <lastmod>, <changefreq> and <priority> tags enable web crawlers to determine
how often they should visit each page.
The sitemap is made available for web crawlers in a robots.txt document through the
following entry:
Sitemap: http://student.computing.dcu.ie/~cabelia2/PriVideo/sitemap.xml
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The robots.txt file is stored in http://student.computing.dcu.ie/~cabelia2/PriVideo/robots.txt
and does not disallow any page on the website to web crawlers.
Usability
Since Google’s Panda update in 2012, usability is taken into account in the page rank
calculation and therefore, has become part of the site-wide optimisation of our website.
Amongst the different measures taken to enhance usability and navigation on its website,
PriVideo added features such as a graphical indication of the page the user is currently
viewing on the navigation bar. This element was incorporated on the website through the
addition of the following CSS ID, which is only used in the HTML onto the link which
corresponds to the current page on the navigation bar:
#currentnav {
background-image: url("images/images.png");
background-position: -63px -36px;
height: 33px;
width: 94px; no-repeat
}
Another example of usability enhanced recognised search engines is the presence of a
customised 404 page which helps the user find their way back to the website’s homepage
through a hyperlink.
11.3.7.2 On-Page Optimisation
Keywords
By strategically placing selected keywords in diverse parts of the HTML, PriVideo can
increase its relevance in certain topics and have a better chance of being matched to specific
queries. PriVideo focused its efforts on keywords such as “PriVideo”, “privacy”, “video”,
“policy” and “data protection”. These keywords are emphasised on a page by page basis
through different ways:

Titles & headers: Keywords placed in the <title> tag from the <head> of the html page
and those placed into <h1> tags have more impact on page rank than those placed in
plain text. However, we were cautious to only use keywords when relevant, as keyword
stuffing negatively affects page ranking since the Panda update.
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
Alt tags: Alt attributes in image tags are employed to describe the content of pictures. As
our website provides several pictures of logos from companies that promote data
protection and screenshots of our privacy policy videos, the associated alt tags can
incorporate keywords, while maintaining their relevance.

Anchor text: Anchor text is useful to insert links into pieces of text or to provide clarity
about URLs that do not clearly indicate the topic of the destination website. As shown on
this example, anchor text can be used to increase the significance of URLs and
strategically place keywords at the same time.
<a href="

https://www.mywot.com/">Web of Trust</a>
Meta-Tags: are no longer used in page rank but can provide anyone who views the
HTML source code with useful information about the keywords emphasised on the page.
We implemented meta-tags on each page by including the line of code below with
relevant keywords in the <head> of the HTML.
<meta name="keywords" content="…, …, …">

YouTube tags: A video which illustrates PriVideo’s mission and offering is embedded on
to the homepage. This video is uploaded to PriVideo’s YouTube account, where we have
full control over the associated tags and video description. These YouTube tags help
reinforce the relevance of our homepage regarding the topics of privacy policies and data
protection. YouTube videos are embedded onto the home page through the following
lines of code:
<div id="youtube">
<object width="640" height="360">
<param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y9NVfbWaYyQ?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB"
>
</param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y9NVfbWaYyQ?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">
</embed></object>
</div>
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
Description meta-tag: Description meta-tags are also an important part of the on-page
optimisation, as they offer the chance to provide a relevant description of the page’s
content to the general public. A different description meta-tag is present in the <head> of
each HTML page. These meta-tags are introduced through the following code:
<meta name="description"
content="…">
11.3.7.2 Offsite Optimisation
Links: The last aspect of SEO that was considered while building the website was offsite
optimisation through linkage. The website has links to PriVideo’s social media accounts
embedded in its footer. In addition, we made sure to that each social media account links
back to the website.
We also embedded links many websites that have authority in the domain of data protection
and online privacy such as http://www.dataprotection.ie/ or http://www.truste.com/.
11.3.8 Technical Elements of the PriVideo Website

Structure: The PriVideo website has a very simple structure, as displayed on below.
Current Structure
Root Page
/index.html
/privacy.html
/blogs.html
/ business.html
/ contactus.html

Coding languages: The PriVideo website was coded using HTML5 and CSS, with the
addition of some JavaScript elements to support features such as the login menu. Most of
the website was coded by our team using standard HTML & CSS, while a few elements
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including the JavaScript were implemented from the bootstrap framework, available at:
http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/index.html

Tools employed: The main tool used to code the website was
Notepad++. Notepad++ is a notepad that supports syntax
highlighting for languages such as HTML or CSS. This
software was selected because of its user friendly interface
and features, as well as its capability to run well on low-end
computers.
The syntax highlighting allows for easy identification of the different elements of the code
and quick rectification of mistakes as displayed below.
Missing coma
No colour
11.4 Technical Requirements for PriVideo
11.4.1 Overview
In order to explain the concepts behind automated video generation, it is first necessary to
establish what PriVideo is trying to accomplish with its technical system. PriVideo’s goal for
our system is to generate representations of privacy policies that take the form of videos. It is
essential for the video to match the content and specificities of the privacy policy of any
potential client. Since there are variations amongst companies’ privacy policies, the system
needs to have the capability to adapt to different clients and the distinctive elements of their
privacy policies. In response to this particular need, the system supporting the service put in
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place by PriVideo was designed with the capability to assemble videos on demand. This is
done by using a library of individual video elements, which once combined, can create a
multitude of different videos. To achieve this, the system relies on a library of short video
clips representing elements that can be found in privacy policies. We can distinguish between
two kinds of clips:
The core clips: These clips introduce and explain the core concepts present in most privacy
policies. Different versions of a same core clip are present in the library to fit with different
industries.
The optional elements: These very short clips present concrete examples of the concepts
expressed through the core clips. These elements enable deep video customisation and are
essential to the production of accurate representations of specific privacy policies.
Using the user interface, clients can decide which of the optional elements should be
displayed in the video in line with their privacy policies. The sequence in which the elements
are organised in the video is predetermined and cannot be modified; this guarantees that the
structure of the video stays coherent.
Optional
elements
Core clip
Information
Name
Phone
Date
collected
Addr.
of
Credit
Email
Card
birth
1
0
1
0
0
0
Disabled
Enabled
In accordance with the DPC’s recommendations on privacy policies outlined above, some
core elements are mandatory and must be included in privacy policies and therefore, the
associated clips are locked and should be present in our videos regardless of the client’s
input.
With currently 9 core clips per target industry and 25 different optional elements, our service
can generate a total of 225 or 33 554 432 different combinations. Considering that a video
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needs to comprise at least 15 out of 25 elements to have enough content, PriVideo can
currently generate ∑
(
)
7 119 516 different viable video combinations.
The system uses clients’ inputs about their own privacy policies to generate a video definition
file that determines which elements and assets should be assembled to produce the video. To
perform these tasks, PriVideo uses the tools and services provided by Stupeflix, which enable
the addition of features and options to further personalise each video and make the PriVideo
service more interactive.
The diagram below presents a general overview of the system, which will be described in
further detail throughout this section.
Stupeflix
Stupeflix is a company that provides a digital service
which enables users to create videos with minimum effort.
Users simply need to upload their pictures or clips to
Stupeflix and the service performs the montage, transitions, editing and encoding of the video
automatically. Stupeflix provide themes that offer specific backgrounds and transitions,
enabling it’s users to create a wide variety of videos or slideshows.
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In addition to the service they offer to the general public,
Stupeflix also gives the ability to businesses to integrate
and adapt their tools to develop new services on their websites or in their apps. Through the
Stupeflix application programming interface (API), businesses can integrate automated video
generation as part of their services.
While the Stupeflix API was initially created to enable for non-linear templates randomising
some aspects of video creation and creating different videos every time, it can be scripted to
create linear templates that give full control over the output while still enabling
personalisation.
Our team views Stupeflix as the perfect tool to automatically generate videos representations
of privacy policies. While other methods were considered to automate the production and
editing of videos, we chose Stupeflix due to its set of unique features and advantages as
outlined below.
Benefits
Disadvantages
High Rendering Speed
Loss of control
Good Infrastructure
Lower initial investment
Supports many features
Easy to implement
The main benefit of Stupeflix is the speed at which it performs video rendering. Stupeflix
states that due to innovative hardware solutions, its service can render one minute of video in
only one minute for a video in 360p resolution and 4 minutes for a video in high definition
(720p) (http://developer.Stupeflix.com/pricing/ 2013). This rendering speed is substantially
faster than any of our other alternatives, which increaases the responsiveness of PriVideo’s
service thus improving the quality of the user experience.
By relying on Stupeflix’s infrastructure to carry a critical part of PriVideo’s operations, we
will forfeit some control over the reliability and performance of our system. In exchange for
this, PriVideo benefits from the scale of Stupeflix’s infrastructure. The API has the capability
to serve as many simultaneous video requests as it receives, as Stupeflix has an infrastructure
that can support volumes of simultaneous requests.
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Another advantage of using Stupeflix is that it lowers the initial investment required to set-up
our service. The prices proposed by the Stupeflix scale with the volume of video processed,
with a cost per minute of rendering varying between 0.5$ ( or 0.38€) and 0.10$ ( or 0.08€)
depending on the volume, with a minimal cost of 300$ ( or 228€) per month.
(Stupeflix, 2013, at: http://developer.Stupeflix.com/pricing/)
Stupeflix supports many generic features such as subtitles, as well as unique features such as
text-to-speech integration or After Effects widgets. These features enable PriVideo to offer
more personalisation in videos such as the integration of brand name and logo in the videos
without breaking the automated process through which these are created.
Finally, one of the most determining factors in the selection of Stupeflix as the solution of
choice for video production is it’s ease of implementation. Stupeflix aim to facilitate the
implementation of their API by creating a wiki that gives large amounts of documentation
and tutorials to help developers.
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11.4.2 Automated Video Generation
This section provides a detailed description of the technical concepts behind PriVideo’s
automated production of privacy policy videos. Three activities were identified as being
essential to this process namely; analysing the privacy policy, producing the video and
delivering the video. The following diagram depicts the process through which these three
activities are carried out by PriVideo’s system.
Step One Privacy Policy Analysis:
11.4.2.1 Presentation of the approach
Videos produced by PriVideo must be tailored to correspond with the client’s privacy policy,
an analysis of the document is therefore, required for each new client before the production of
the video can start.
The interpretation of the client’s privacy policy is not automated by our system; this option
was ruled out by our team due to the complexity of the language employed in legal
documents such as privacy policies. Furthermore, as a team of four, it is necessary for us to
limit the scope of our project and allocate our limited resources to the most essential aspects
of our project. We estimate that attempting to automate the analysis of privacy policies would
be a waste of resources from and the benefits of automating this part of the system are only
marginal.
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We had originally planned to have the analysis of privacy policies be carried out by PriVideo
employees. However, after studying different possibilities, we decided to use client’s input to
fulfil this task as it was the solution that provided the most benefits and the least
disadvantages for the company.
Benefits
Disadvantages
Gives more control to the client over the result Demands more work from the client
product
Client is liable for any misinterpretations of the Requires the implementation of an interface
policy
onto the website
Enables the complete automation of the video
production process
Videos can be produced faster
Videos can be produced cheaper
Using our website, PriVideo can collect input from its clients through a HTML form that acts
as a user interface. To make the user interface more interactive and atheistically pleasing, it
was complemented with JavaScript, as shown below. When submitted, the information
collected by the HTML form is processed by the website’s back end, which uses this
information to generate an XML video definition file that contains the information required
for the production of the video. This video definition file is described in further on Pg. 185.
11.4.2.2 Interface Mock-up
The following two images illustrate how our video builder interface will work. As shown in
the first image, our website contains log in functionality as well as offering customers the
ability to sign up to our service. The first steps require the customer to enter their company
name, select their industry as this will dictate what video options they’re given and upload the
company logo. The second image highlights how the user will progress through the process.
This example, is taken from the third of the eight core scenes and allows the user to select
what information the company collects about their users before moving on the scene four.
This image also shows, the progress bar will allows the user to see the video creation in
action, with the current scene they are developing highlighted in colour. The design of this
interface again focuses on our brand image of clarity and transparency and aims to make the
video creation process easy and enjoyable for customers.
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11.4.2.3 Content of the HTML form
The following paragraphs describe what information the user is required to enter when
ordering a new video and explains why these inputs are important for the end product.
1.
Company information: The client is first asked to input company or brand information
that should appear in the video. This includes the company or brand name and logo.
a. The user is asked to enter the name of his company or brand. This information
will appear in the video’s voice over and in the subtitles if the client chooses to
enable them.
b. The user is then asked to select his or her industry from the list in the drop down
menu. This will in turn ensure that all possible video clips offered to the customer
are relevant to the company’s industry and ensure that the sections that are
mandatory in particular industries are automatically included.
c.
The user can upload his or her logo for it to appear on reserved spots in the video,
if he chooses not to do so, a generic icon is inserted instead. Even though the
system can take most formats or resolution, it is recommended that the logo
should be in PNG format with a 128 per 128 pixels resolution in order to achieve
the best possible results.
2.
Privacy Policy content input: Through the following steps, the user influences the
content of the future video by providing input about the content of their privacy policy.
o The user selects which of the proposed core clips correspond to the content of his or her
privacy policy. Different variations of core clips may be available depending on the
client’s industry.

The user does not need to select all sections, for example, section 7, which
pertains to the use of cookies is only applicable to companies that operate a
website that uses cookies to collect information from their clients.

As explained in the video content section, some elements such as the right of
access or right of rectification are mandatory in a privacy policy and are
enabled by default.
o For each section, the user is asked to select the optional elements that correspond to the
specificities of their privacy policy. For example, in the section about data collection,
users can select the different methods through which they collect information from their
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users, so that these elements can appear in the video. This step enables the client to tailor
the video accordingly with the specificities of his or her privacy policy and create a
personalised variation of the video.
3. Additional options
The system can take input influencing other aspects of the video, such as audio or visual
effects. The user can select the following additional options:
o Subtitles: the user can select this option to enable the addition of subtitles on the video.
This enhances the usability of the video for viewers with hearing difficulties or no sound
on their device.
o Human Voice Over: By default, the video is produced with a voice over generated by
text-to-speech software, by ticking an option, the user can have this automated voice over
replaced by another one recorded with professional voice actors. If chosen, this option
breaks the automation of the video production, which results in extra costs and a delay of
7 days for the video production.
11.4.3 Video production
Video production is the most critical element of PriVideo’s technical system. For this reason,
we invested a lot of resources and time into finding the best possible way to perform video
production tasks. When developing the concept for this automated video production system,
the focus was set on responsiveness and customisability. PriVideo selected Stupeflix as a
third party service to assemble, edit and encode videos due to its additional features and
superior performance in terms of rendering time and qualities that are in line with the
objectives set for the system.
This section describes how the tools made available by Stupeflix were integrated into
PriVideo’s system to support the automated production of linear privacy policy videos. The
key elements involved in this integration are the Stupeflix API, the Stupeflix Widgets and the
XML video definition files.
11.4.3.1 Stupeflix API
The Stupeflix API enables companies like PriVideo, to integrate Stupeflix’s video creation
services onto our website. This API was created to enable businesses to generate large
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amounts of videos from their websites by using Stupeflix’s infrastructure and rendering
engine.
Image source: http://developer.Stupeflix.com/
The Stupeflix API is built using the Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture,
which guarantees its compatibility with a wide variety of platforms and languages. Stupeflix
created a software development kit (SDK) available for its API, in order to facilitate its
implementation in distributed environments. The SDK supports PHP, Ruby, Java and Python.
When activated, the API sends a request directly to PriVideo’s servers which trigger the
video production process. To trigger the production of a video, the API requires PriVideo to
communicate information on four key elements. The four elements are explained below and
included in an example of Stupeflix’s API code in PHP, which can be found Appendix P,
(Pg. 262).
1. Identification: Stupeflix does not offer its services for free and requires users to be
registered before authorising them to use its services. Therefore, the first element that
needs to be communicated when creating a video is the user’s credentials.
2. Video profile: Video profiles determine the quality of the video that is being created.
Stupeflix proposes 21 different profiles, which determine the video resolution, the output
format, the frame rate, video and audio codecs and the video and audio bit rates. Stupeflix
supports MP4, WMV, MPG or FLV as outputs formats. The pre-established profiles were
optimised to provide the best performance in different situations. The creation of custom
profiles is also possible in the case where none of the pre-established formats correspond
to the particular needs of a user.
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3. Path to the video definition file: The video definition file is an XML document that
contains information about the structure of the video to be produced and the assets that
need to be used to produce it. A message is sent to Stupeflix to trigger the production of a
video. This requires a path to the definition file that respects the format proposed by
Stupeflix in order to start the process. Video definition files are explained in more detail
in the associated section below.
4. The return method: The message needs to specify how the video should be returned to the
user after its creation. The Stupeflix API provides several upload options to make the
video available through the most fitting platforms. These different upload options are
explained thoroughly in the video storage and delivery section below..
11.4.3.2 Stupeflix Widgets
Widgets are one of the four types of visual assets that can be used by Stupeflix. They are
elements that can be used to produce videos, exactly like video clips or images. Widgets are
essentially templates, which support several layers on which images, video and text can be
incorporated, they can be still or animated. They enable Stupeflix to use some complex video
editing features from Adobe After Effects, the software in which these widgets are created.
PriVideo uses widgets to represent each of the core clips and optional elements from which
privacy policy videos are built. Widgets are used over plain video to enable video
personalisation through the integration of companies and brand logos into video backgrounds.
11.4.3.4 Stupeflix Video Definition File
The Video Definition File takes the form of an XML document which determines the
structure of the videos being produced by Stupeflix, as well as hosting access paths to the
different assets that are being used to build the videos. This document is written following the
rules of the Craftsman v1.0 XML language, which supports features such as transitions, textto-speech and widgets. This document is generated by the back end of PriVideo’s website.
The production of a video definition file is triggered by the submission of a form by a
registered user. The assets present in the file generated correspond to the information sent by
the user as an input through the form.
Example of code explained:
The following piece of code is an example of a video definition file that is used to request
creation of a privacy policy video. This example covers the two first core scenes of a Privacy
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policy video, where two out of three optional elements are enabled, as shown on the
representation below. It’s important to note that this code is purely for illustrative purposes
and only shows how the first two scenes will be generated. These scenes are core and thus,
must be included. While this code snippet doesn’t illustrate it, it’s important to note that the
optional widgets, which have been chosen, will be implemented in the same way as the core
elements shown below. The set of rules revealed through the following piece of code applies
to both core widgets and optional widgets.
Scene 1
Scene 2
Registration Purchase Browsing
Opening scene
Information
enabled
« Meet Sam»
collection methods
Disabled enabled
<movie service="craftsman-1.0">
<body>
<widget type="set.PriVideo.scene.01" duration="6.2">
<image filename="http://PriVideo/temp/IMG_0024.JPG">
</image>
<text type="zone" fontcolor="#ffffff">
Meet Sam, like you, Sam just became a customer of companyname.
</text>
<audio voice="neospeech:julie">Meet Sam, like you, Sam just became a
customer of companyname.
</audio>
</widget>
<widget type="set.PriVideo.scene.02" duration="4.4">
<image filename="http://PriVideo/temp/IMG_0024.JPG">
</image>
<text type="zone" fontcolor="#ffffff">
Script body: The body of the XML video definition file is created by nesting the <movie>
and <body> tags. Inside the body, a video can be created using the <stack>, <sequence>, or
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<widget> tags. PriVideo only uses the <widget> tag when creating videos as it supports
additional features.
While Stupeflix was originally designed to produce non-linear videos by picking random
elements from a list, it is surprisingly easy to create linear videos with the video definition
file. In the case of PriVideo, linear videos representing privacy policies are created by simply
implementing the relevant widgets one after another in the body of the XML file. The
Widgets implemented each represent a core clip or optional element selected by the user
through the HTML form.
Image Assets: Images are implemented in videos through the <image> tag and contain an
URL from where the asset can be accessed by Stupeflix’s server. Typically, image assets are
used by Stupeflix to create slideshows. However, if an image is implemented within a
<widget> tag, it does not appear in the background of the video; instead it takes the place of
the image placeholders that are already present in the widgets.
If several image assets need to be incorporated, two company logos of different shapes for
example, the image that appears first in the XML will take the spot of the placeholder tagged
with “IMG_01” in After Effects and the second image asset present in the same <widget> tag
in the XML will take the place of the placeholder tagged with “IMG_02”. If there are more
assets than different IMG tags, the assets are not incorporated in the video. In this example, a
single image representing the client’s company logo is used several times in the video.
Subtitles: Subtitles are incorporated into the XML through <text> tags. In a similar fashion
to the image assets, when a text tag is nested within a <widget> tag, the text is implemented
in the specific spots present in the widget through text placeholders. Subtitles obey the same
rules as image assets; the content of the first <text> tag takes the spot occupied in the widget
by the placeholder marked as TEXT_01. Subtitles need a different <text> tag and
placeholder for each line of text that needs to be displayed on the video.
Text-to-Speech: The script for the text-to-speech is implemented by an <audio> tag which
is associated with a voice attribute. Stupeflix currently provides the choice between a male
and a female voice, respectively activated by implementing the following attributes in the
<audio> tag: voice=“neospeech:paul” or voice=”neospeech:Julie”.
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11.4.5 Video Storage and Delivery
The hosting of videos is a determining factor for the perceived reliability and quality of
service, as it impacts the speed at which videos can be downloaded and the amount of time
for which videos stay available for download. Through its API, Stupeflix provides several
possibilities for the upload of newly created videos. The different options are the standard
Stupeflix storage and download, HTTP POST upload, uploading to media websites such as
YouTube or cloud storage services such as Amazon S3.There are benefits and disadvantages
of these different hosting options to be considered.
1. Stupeflix Download
When a video is created through Stupeflix, it is stored on their
servers for a period of 24 hours. Once the rendering is ready,
the video can be downloaded using the getProfile command,
alternatively, a download link can be obtained through the getProfileURL command.
Choosing Stupeflix as a temporary medium for storage and download has several advantages,
as it does not incur third party charges. In addition, direct download from Stupeflix is the
option that makes the video available for the client in the shortest amount of time as it does
not require an upload to a different server.
2. HTTP POST Upload
Stupeflix can upload the videos to any server through an HTTP Post Upload. Through this
method, PriVideo can have the created video uploaded directly onto a server, which PriVideo
would has full control of. This option is the one that gives the most control to PriVideo over
the reliability and quality of its service. However, having more control over the storage of
data also involves additional responsibilities, as the team will need to maintain the server,
remove dead links, monitor traffic and ensure that the server does not get overloaded. As a
result, PriVideo would need to invest additional time and resources to ensure complete
reliability and quality service if this option was to be chosen.
3. Amazon S3 Bucket Upload
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a third party storage
solution that offers a reliable storage and fast download
speed at an affordable price. Amazon guarantees the reliability of its infrastructure and offers
compensation if the service’s availability ever falls below 99.9%. Furthermore, Amazon has
infrastructure in multiple countries and continents, enabling PriVideo to offer its clients the
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best download speeds without having to use different storage service providers. Amazon S3
provides different access control formulas, amongst which the Access Control List (ALC)
can be set up to authorise uploads from Stupeflix without giving out PriVideo’s account
credentials. Stupeflix can automatically upload newly created videos onto Amazon by
incorporating the following code into its API, here, the example is provided in PHP
<?php
$upload = new StupeflixS3Upload("MY_BUCKET_NAME", null,
null, "MY_PREFIX", $meta); ?>
4. YouTube Upload
The fourth upload option that was considered is the YouTube
upload. This option is interesting as it enables for the monitoring
of viewership, which can be a selling point for the videos.
Stupeflix supports uploads to YouTube, however, it either requires the YouTube account
credentials or a token obtained from the YouTube API. It is therefore, impossible to upload
videos directly onto clients’ accounts without asking them to give their YouTube credentials.
Another possible solution would be to upload all videos to a YouTube account belonging to
PriVideo and send back the embedded URL to clients.
This example below takes YouTube credentials as inputs to enable the upload to YouTube in
PHP
<?php
$upload = new StupeflixYoutubeUpload('MY_YOUTUBE_LOGIN',
'MY_YOUTUBE_PASSWORD', $meta);
?>
This second example uses a token instead:
<?php
$upload = new StupeflixYoutubeTokenUpload('MY_YOUTUBE_DEVELOPER_KEY',
'MY_TOKEN');
?>
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Summary
Stupeflix Download
HTTP POST Upload
Amazon S3
YouTube upload
Benefits
Disadvantages
Does not require resources from
PriVideo
Video available faster for download
PriVideo has full control over the
storage duration
Cheap file hosting
Worldwide presence
Reliable infrastructure
Enables the monitoring of viewership
Does not require resources from
PriVideo
The file is only stored for 24h
Requires more investment from
the PriVideo team
Requires knowledge of the
Amazon SDK
Needs account credentials for
the upload
After examination of the benefits and disadvantages of each different storage solution,
Amazon S3 appears to be the most viable option and was selected as PriVideo’s main storage
solution for our produced videos. The main reasons for this choice were the negligible costs
of using the service, the ease of implementation and the reliability of the service.
11.4.6 Initial Set-up
11.4.6.1 Section Overview
This section describes the initial set-up required to enable the automated generation of video.
This set-up involves the creation of a library of video clips, the conversion of the content of
this library into After Effects widgets and their incorporation into the Stupeflix Widget
library. This section addresses the challenges faced by our team when planning this initial set
up, in terms of design choices as well as implementation.
11.4.6.2 Library of clips
The first step in PriVideo’s system set-up is the constitution of a library of clips, which
encompasses most common elements found in privacy policies. The goal of this library is to
190
host clips that can be used as building blocks to assemble videos representative of any
specific privacy policy. There are three main activities necessary to build this library of clips
namely; The division of privacy policies into sections, the identification of the possible
variations across privacy policies and the conversion of each identified element into video
clips.
Step One: Division of privacy policies into sections: Privacy policies are never identical.
However, as they are legal documents subject to the same regulations, they all share some
generic attributes. As discussed in our video content section page, companies operating in
Ireland must comply with the Data Protection Commissioner’s recommendations.
From these recommendations, we identified 8 sections that encompass the majority of
privacy policies, which are:
1. Introduction – Presentation of the company
2. Data collection methods – circumstances under which data is collected from
customers
3. Data collected – Present the type of data being collected
4. Purpose of data collection – Clarifies the reasons behind data collection
5. Data Exchange – Present the entities with who the data collected about customers
may be shared
6. Storage Duration – Explains how long which type of data is kept and why
7. Cookies – notifies the user of the presence of cookies on the website and explains
their purpose
8. Data Availability and Data Modification
191
Step Two: Identification of possible variations in privacy policies: Depending on the
industry, there are disparities in organisations’ privacy policies in terms of, sections and
content. For this reason, we identified all alternative versions of the 8 privacy policy sections
described above in accordance with each of our target industries, which are insurance,
telecommunication, social media and online retail. For example, telecommunication
companies such as O2 focus their privacy policies on their user’s traffic information.
Companies from different industries never approach this subject as they do not have access to
such information.
Even within a same industry, variations can be observed amongst privacy policies. These
variations often take the form of specific elements used as concrete examples to explain the
different concepts present in the privacy policy. For example, when a company explains what
kind of personal information is collected, companies can explain that they collect names,
phone number, e-mail addresses or credit information depending on their practices. Our team
identified a list of 25 optional elements that are the most common across privacy policies.
Step Three: Creation of video clips representing each individual element identified:
After identifying the 8 core sections that encompass most privacy policies and the 25
elements responsible for most variations across privacy policies, video elements were drawn
and animated to represent and explain those concepts and elements. The software Adobe
Flash Pro CS6 was employed as a tool to perform this task. Visual assets were drawn and
animated by our team using a Bamboo Pen drawing tablet to avoid any copyright issues with
the content of our video.
192
A final core clip was added separately to the 8 main sections identified earlier to
communicate where to find more information or read the full privacy policy. In some
instances, optional elements needed to appear in the middle of a core clip, which caused it to
be divided into several parts. As a result, our library currently counts four sets of 12 core
clips, one set for each target industry and 25 optional element clips as displayed in the
representation below.
11.4.6.3 Setting up a Widget Library
Before the clips created can be used to build videos, they must be converted into widgets so
that video personalisation can be enabled on the PriVideo service. The transformation of a
video clip into a Stupeflix widget involves two main activities:
1. The incorporation of clips into an After Effects Widgets
2. The conversion of After Effects Widgets into Stupeflix Widgets
Activity One: After Effects Widgets Widgets are created using Adobe After Effects, a
powerful video editing software. Several steps are highlighted by Stupeflix in the creation of
these widgets:
1 – Creation of a new project on After Effects: A different After Effects project needs to be
created for each core clip and optional element clip present in the clip library so that each can
be converted into a separate widget.
2 – Implementation of the clips into the After Effects Project as a background asset: In the
After Effects widget, the video clips from the clip library act as background assets, they
determine the length and native resolution of the widget. The video clip is placed on the layer
that has the lowest priority, which makes it appear on the background.
3 – Creation of image placeholders for the company logos and application of motion to those
placeholders: Image placeholders are shapes placed on different layers that are replaced in the
193
final video by image assets uploaded by users. In the case of privacy policy videos, image
placeholders are used to mark the spots where the client’s company or brand logo should
appear. In the example below, motion is applied to the image placeholder to follow the spot
where the company logo needs to be on the video. As the video is animated, image
placeholder need to be set in motion and synchronised with motion from the background
video to achieve acceptable results. Image placeholders need to be placed onto layers that
have a higher priority than the background layer in order for them to show on screen.
4 – Creation of text placeholders for subtitles and Synchronisation with the video: Text
placeholders are created to host potential subtitles in the final video. Text placeholders obey
the same rules as image placeholders. Subtitles can only be displayed one line at a time,
therefore, placeholders should be synchronised with the content on the video to appear when
a new sentence starts and disappear when it finished.
5 – Tagging placeholders: The last and most important step in the creation of an After Effects
Widget that would be eligible for a conversion into a Stupeflix Widget, is the tagging of
placeholders with attributes recognised by Stupeflix. During the video creation process,
Stupeflix looks into the XML video definition file for the tags corresponding to the
placeholder tags in the widgets. Tags enable Stupeflix to identify placeholders and implement
user assets into these spots.
Stupeflix currently only recognises text and image tags that are formatted as follows:
IMG_01
IMG_02
…
TEXT_01
TEXT_02
…
194
Activity Two Conversion from After Effects Widget to Stupeflix Widget: Stupeflix
Widgets differ from After Effects Widgets in that they are stored in libraries on Stupeflix’s
servers. While Stupeflix performs the conversion of widgets by itself, files need to be
prepared for the conversion beforehand.
The first step in this preparation is the optimisation and verification of the After Effects
Widget: Stupeflix renders the videos on their servers; therefore, they need to know
beforehand if the template is too heavy to assure quality service. The SxC Validation Script is
an After Effects script that checks After Effects Widgets and determines if it is suitable to be
converted into a Stupeflix widget. The validation script provides the tested widget with a
performance score, an estimated render time and gives warnings if the project does not
respect the limitations of the Stupeflix engine. Stupeflix highlights three limitations that make
the rendering too slow to process if these are reached:
-
A widget should not stack more than 15 layers. With only 3 layers, our project is well
optimised in this regard.
195
-
A widget should not show many user assets at the same time. Again, we were careful
to limit the use of user assets as much as possible in our widgets, limiting the
maximum number of pictures on screen to 3 maximum.
-
A widget should not have nested trackmattes or simultaneous trackmatted. Our
widgets are safe in this regard as no trackmattes are employed in this project.
Rendering is further optimized by having transitions within our original video. This way, our
videos do not need to use the transitions created by Stupeflix at all, which saves some
rendering time.Once the project is optimised and has been verified with the SxC script, files
can be compiled and prepared for conversion. The After Effects widget needs to be reduced
and exported, which creates a directory. This directory is then zipped into a single file and
sent to Stupeflix for conversion into a Stupeflix Widget.
11.4.7 Architecture, Accounts and Payment
This section presents the concept for the architecture that would need to be built to support
PriVideo’s services. The following diagram represents the integration of video production
into PriVideo’s architecture.
196
As shown above, the PriVideo web server is set up with a WAMP stack composed of
Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP. The Stupeflix API supports many different
programming languages and PHP was selected as the main language for PriVideo’s back end
due to the superior amount of documentation and tutorials related to the implementation of
the Stupeflix API in PHP. The MySQL database needs to use encryption to secure the clients
email addresses and passwords. PriVideo does not store any sensitive information such as
credit card details, as common transactions are handled through PayPal. Payment occurs after
the generation of videos and before access to the video is given to the client, in order to give
the client the opportunity to see a preview of the newly created video. Therefore, an access
right system is established in order to only enable users to access the download links to their
videos after reception of payment. The same access right system prevents users from getting
access to videos from other users.
11.5 Technical Challenges
Throughout this section, we have discussed numerous challenges we encountered when
exploring the technical requirements of PriVideo. We have also discussed all solutions we
came to for each challenge and the reasoning behind each solution. This section outlined the
existing and potential technical challenges facing PriVideo, for which no finite solution has
yet been found.
11.5.1 Implementation of human voice over
PriVideo’s basic video offer includes a voice over generated by text-to-speech software,
which generally produces good quality voice over, but can sometimes mispronounce
company names or feel impersonal. Our team would like to facilitate the implementation of
voice over recorded by voice actors into our videos in order to improve their overall
production quality and give our company a better image.
In its current state, the system cannot automate the implementation of human voice over,
which causes significant extra cost and production time for whoever selects this option.
a. Current Solution
Currently, the incorporation of human voice over in the video involves booking a weekly
recording session with our voice actors where they can record the names of all companies
that demanded this option during the week. For this reason, the integration of human voice
197
over into a video forces a delay of 7 days between the order for the video and its production.
In addition, this involves a substantial additional cost for companies selecting this option.
b. Record a generic voice over
It would be possible to record a generic voice over with each individual video element in our
database. This could easily be done by creating a generic script where the client’s company or
brand name is never mentioned. However, this solution was excluded as it could expose
PriVideo to unauthorised use of its videos. The integration of company names and logos into
videos produced is not only a feature that improves the general quality of our videos; it is also
a way to prevent companies from using videos that were not created directly for them.
PriVideo does not have the resources to monitor who uses our videos and enforce our
copyrights. As a result, each video needs to be customised in such a way that it cannot be
duplicated and used by multiple companies.
c. Pre-record company names
Another option would be to pre-record the names of all companies identified as potential
customer, this would enable the automation of human voice over integration into produced
videos. Each audio file could be stored into a database and incorporated into the XML video
definition as an audio asset when the video is created. This would remove the 7 days
production time and drastically reduce the price of the human voice over option.
However, this option was ruled out due to the fact that our company cannot sell the same
service at different costs to different companies. With this solution, companies that do not
have their names pre-recorded would need to wait 7 days and pay more than companies that
do. We considered that such practices could be seen as unfair and may give the company a
poor image.
11.5.2 Viewership monitoring
Monitoring the videos created by PriVideo would be a great addition to the service currently
provided. Monitoring viewership could be a way to maintain regular contact with our clients
and provide a tangible proof of the effectiveness of our videos.
It was determined that it would be impossible to monitor viewership if clients were to host
the videos by themselves on their own websites as this would prevent PriVideo from
benefitting from the advantages that come from monitoring videos.
198
Possible solution: Include optional YouTube upload:
It would be possible to offer a free upload onto YouTube when the video is created as it is a
feature supported by Stupeflix. However, this involves either uploading the file onto an
account owned by PriVideo, or asking the client to insert their YouTube account credentials
onto the form.
11.5.3 Resolution and rendering time
Encoding our videos in high definition (720p) may incur excessive rendering times, which
would have a negative impact on the quality of service and operating costs. Each minute of
rendering initially increases the cost of video production by 0.5€, which is why optimisation
is crucial to the success of our business.
According to Stupeflix’s rendering time estimations, it takes 1 minute to render 1 minute of
video in 360p and 4 minutes for a video 720p. However, these estimations are not based on
videos produced from multi-layered widgets. Widgets negatively impact rendering time due
to the multiple layers and user assets. Our team took precautionary measures by limiting the
number of layers widgets can have to 3, as well as limiting the number of user assets on
screen simultaneously. These measures should limit the negative impact of widgets as much
as possible.
It is currently impossible to estimate how long the rendering of videos in 720p would take for
PriVideo’s videos; therefore, it is uncertain that PriVideo will ever face the issue of excessive
rendering times. If the rendering times happened to be unsatisfactory, we would proceed to
further optimisation through more limitations in terms of user input, or tweaking of video
profile factors such as frame rate.
199
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206
Appendix A: Interviews
This section details the main aspects of each interview we carried out:
Date: Various meetings and emails
Interviewee: Daragh O’Brien
Location: DCU Invent
Main Findings / Discussion Points:
Meeting One:
From our initial meeting with Daragh he confirmed at present there is a huge gap in privacy
with proposed regulation in the EU – all 27 countries have same policy and countries
developing policies tend to follow European direction. He believes video – is a great element
of service to get an informed user.
He suggested creating an overall privacy solutions interface as managers need simple, easy to
use tools for compliance. This interface could enable a company to monitor breaches and if
serious trigger a protocol aka management services which may inform management, the data
commissioner etc. As all companies need to comply and inform data commissioner of any
breaches regardless of size so a tool like so would be extremely useful for sme’s.
Daragh stated that if implemented successfully video privacy policies could enable us to
develop in the future into further management solutions and breach interfaces. He also
expressed that a video privacy policy was an excellent way to encourage users to inform
themselves in regard to their online privacy.
Meeting Two
In this meeting we demonstrated our prototype to Daragh. We created our prototype on the
O2 privacy policy as we needed a demo company and as they were a client of Daragh’s.
Through email he had informed us that they were looking for an idea that was easy for
customers to understand and conveyed their privacy policy. Daragh also informed us that he
may be able to get us a meeting to pitch to O2 in the future.
207
O2 have numerous different products and some have different policies which means there
would be a business opportunity in telecommunications companies to create more than one
video. Daragh advised that we could have a library of standard graphics and then storyboard
it out or go further and storyboard the company’s whole privacy policy out. Daragh explained
that we need to have levels of price points and decide how much each would be. Such as
having a standard package and a fully customised package. Consider the tiered levels –sme
level cheap and cheerful automated option
Daragh advised us to consider developing some metric capability to let the client know they
watched a video. One way we could do this would be an email is sent to them every time a
video is watched or maybe a monthly report of metrics
We also discussed with Daragh Value added options such as getting a solicitor or compliance
professional to proof a company’s privacy policy for an extra cost such as 5-10k for example
we refer them on to Daragh or we have a standard policy for the industry which has already
been proofed.
Daragh stated that communicating the value of the product to customers is essentials but we
also need to follow up for retention purposes
1. Company wants to know they communicated effectively with customers
2. Customer wants to know what company is doing with their data and why
3. Company wants to decrease calls and costs of these calls and hidden costs of
compliance
A major problem is customers are often surprised by how information is used and often don’t
realise what data is use. Companies in turn don’t realise that they aren’t communicating
effectively with customers
At PriVideo we can aim to reduce the element of surprise
1. Outcomes: Complaints reduced
2. Reduce costs of complaints
3. Reduce call centres
4. A reduction of 15seconds from calls saves €2.5million a year
5. Reduce need for customers to phone and enquire
6. Reduce need for legal resources
208
Forming strong partnerships can allow us to offer our videos as well as consultation and
guidance service. If our service can help companies effectively communicate with their
customers, Inform customers of what companies are doing with their data and decrease the
calls and costs of compliance we will have managed to reduce the element of surprise for
customers, costs for companies and foster an environment of transparent communication.
Daragh’s Email
209
210
Date: June 25th
Interviewee: David – Irish Patent Office
Location: Phone Interview
Main Findings / Discussion Points: From our phone interview with David from the IPO we
managed to establish a lot of information in regard to IP, Trademark and copyright for the
company. The PriVideo service is not a service that can be patented. Additionally the idea as
a whole cannot be trademarked or copyright as we cannot stop a company copying our idea
and turning their own privacy policies into an animated video.
The PriVideo name can be trademarked, for a start-up company it is enough to use the ™
symbol after the name so PriVideo™. This shows we understand and attribute value to the
name of the product. After PriVideo™ is a bit more established and we are in a better
financial position we can register with the Irish Patent Office and apply to trademark the
name, the application cost €70 and if the application is accepted you must pay a further €177
to gain the trademark. This trademark would cover Ireland, to trademark the name in the EU
the fee would increase to €900.
211
The character we have created to feature in our video “Sam”, can be copyrighted as he is our
own creation. To copyright Sam, David advised us to use the archaic method of sending a
registered letter to ourselves. This letter would enable us to prove when we created Sam and
if it was disputed the unopened letter would be the best form of proof. The character of Sam,
may also be trademarked, in the same way as the Tayto man.
Similarly to the character of Sam any videos generated by PriVideo can be copyrighted. This
can be done using the same registered letter method.
Additionally the process of automating the scripts we create from the privacy policy of each
company can be copyrighted when the code we use in the automation is created by us.
The PriVideo logo can be copyrighted.
The company name can be trademarked and any aspects of our own personal creation can be
copyrighted such as the logo, character, videos created and automation process.
Date: July 3rd & July 22nd
Interviewee: Karl Crowley
Location: DCU Business Canteen
Main Findings / Discussion Points: Our two interviews with Karl centred on the technical
requirements of the PriVideo service. Karl is a web developer and was able to answer our
questions in relation to how to both understand the Stupeflix API and implement it in
coherence with the PriVideo website.
With Karl we also discussed the mock up architecture design and the most effective and
efficient programming languages to use throughout our technical deliver, such as using both
HTML and Javascript in the website form to make it both functional and visually appealing.
Karl also advised us to use PHP on the back end in line with the Stupeflix API and consider
adding some JavaScript to the overall website design to compliment the CSS and HTML we
had already implemented.
212
In our interview with Karl we also discussed server storage, hosting requirements and the
possible challenges PriVideo may face. Karl was also the person to suggest exporting the
customer videos to Amazon S3.
Ensure website is both functional and visually appealing. Use Amazon S3 to export videos.
Increase understanding of P.H.P. to enhance understanding of Stupeflix API.
Date: 3 July
Interviewee: Chris bollard
Location: Phone Interview
Main Findings / Discussion Points: When we scheduled our phone interview with Chris we
were aware he was on a very tight schedule. We therefore prepared questions and stuck to
these in order to gain as much information as we required in the short space of time.
1. What kind of companies do you deal with with regards to privacy in terms of what
industries they are in, what size they are etc?
Every industry. A lot of companies working with the firm in general will get referred down to
me in IP and data protection division. These can range from ecommerce companies to
insurance companies and financial services companies. Some are American companies with
an Irish base so they need to comply with EU data protection legislation. The thing is most
companies are gathering data on their websites and so they need to comply also.
2. What are the priorities of your clients in terms of drafting privacy statements - is it
purely to comply with law or do end customers ever come into consideration?
Clients tend to just want a privacy policy for the majority it is just a box checking exercise
but more and more companies are paying more attention when checking this box. There have
been two recent situations where companies came to me wanting to go beyond data
protection legislation and give their customers more rights nearly.
213
3. What are the challenges facing companies with regards to privacy policies and trying
to increase transparency with customers?
One of the many challenges is companies are often operating in a number of different
countries and indeed continents. This means that they must comply with many different
versions of data protection legislation even within the EU the way in which different
countries transpose the data protection directive into law is different in France etc for.
Companies sometimes want to have one privacy policy to govern all countries or some want
different policies for each jurisdiction.
4. What are the challenges you face when trying to communicate with companies about
privacy statements?
Engage companies fully and get them to think about how they are using data we don’t want
to just give them a standard privacy policy which some companies will want but more
companies are putting a bit more effort in lately and that will only increase I think. The
privacy policy really does require a lot of thought some companies do the minimum
something needs to happen to see significant improvements like if somebody gets a fine
because they breach the law – the new legislation will give the DPC more power to do so
hopefully
5. Are your clients looking to increase the number of users reading these privacy
policies or again is it just a matter of compliance
It’s mostly again about compliance but most of them are extremely long and technical I agree
and that can be a deterrent for users. I think we’ll see more efforts from other companies and
then those with really long policies will be seen as those who have something to hide or look
as though they do. Privacy is definitely becoming a bigger issue and the more it plays on
people’s minds the more companies will start to pay attention and they may see it as a selling
point to gain a competitive advantage. I think your solution could start this movement and
depending on the clarity of the icons they could nearly become symbols for info collection.
6. What area or department within these companies would you deal with when dealing
with privacy policies?
Legal or compliance department
214
The majority of companies require a privacy policy. At present there is a move towards
companies trying to go the extra mile to inform their users and demonstrate their privacy
compliance. Our offering is timely and if implemented correctly could start a movement
towards clear compliance and transparency.
Date: July 4th
Interviewee: Jack Nagle
Location: DCU Business Canteen
Main Findings / Discussion Points: From our interview with Jack we received a large
amount of guidance and advice in terms of our prototype video, PriVideo as a business idea
and the company’s future potential. Jack advised us to increase clarity in regard to certain
aspects of the video – such as slow down or explain more specifically the credit dimension
card.
Additionally we discussed, if company want extra customisation the intro of videos could
link to the EU directive. In order to be successful PriVideo should target compliance
departments and ensure to highlight benefits to the company of being transparent eg. Aka
allow it to Enhance the brand.
It was also suggested when creating the video we could frame it from regulalatory point of
view. If considering the use of music use music that is calming – such as Mozart, don’t take
away from video. Our focus should have a legal basis in mind – think as a business and look
at the potential users.
Target: Initially big companies may be the most lucrative and feasible clients. Jack suggested
we charge up to €20,000 (Negotiable). This encompasses the video – making it, consulting
fee and branding (Marketing fees). PriVideo could offer seminars €1500 – groups of 20 –
seminars, trainings and hard content videos. If this is implements it is critical to do so in a
corporate context, present this in seminar context –look at info awareness of staff and
customers.
215
PriVideo allows a company to send a sober branding message. These type of messages will
make people listen. Drivers behind the service are regulatory, CSR and brand were possible
We must be aware that our core competencies at PriVideo are from an electronic business
perspective. We can harness information and partnerships with – third party experts,
compliance specialists. Physical security experts and specific experts
The company has a Silos of skills which can be exploited - We have the framework/network,
own the software/videos, know what we offer
The company has enormous potential if we manage to wrap privacy around business idea.
We could Resell the expertise of Darragh and solicitors etc – create one stop shop of
expertise as well as offering an online consultation service– allow users to ask q and answer
online
Date: 8 July
Interviewee: Susann Radach
Location: Allianz Ireland
Main Findings / Discussion Points: From our meeting with Susann we were able to
discover the main privacy issues in relation to the insurance / financial industry and whether
or not Susann thought our concept could be utilised in a global company.
Susann discussed 3 main privacy related issues for Allianz:
1- Access rights  people requesting their information and being wrong about their
entitlements.
2- Cookies misunderstanding  people thinking cookies are tools employed by the
company to track them
3- Data Security  people concerned about the security of their personal information,
how does Allianz keep the info, with which companies do they share the info, and
how does these partner companies secure the info & share it?
216
Potential advantage for PriVideo: The video from PriVideo could help people understand
how their information is used and be more willing to accept the company’s marketing by
ticking the box (I accept to be contacted by partners…)
Susann discussed how requests from clients about their information are time consuming. It
takes time to explain them their rights and what exactly they are entitled to, in this sense, our
video could benefit Allianz.
One challenge for the video highlighted by Susann is possible Branding Policies employed by
large corporations. Ex: if something is blue in the video, it must be the “Allianz Blue” All
Allianz advertisements must be in line with their global marketing policy. Personalisation &
customisation through different tiers of service could help overcoming the need for branding
of big corporations and enable PriVideo to get more money from these companies.
Susann also suggested perhaps placing Sam on the website where he is seen and shown to be
different from other links on the page could be useful like placing a small icon down the
bottom and allowing customers to click on say click here to watch a video about your privacy
with Allianz
At present there is an increase in information requests to the DPC which shows increasing
trend in seeking information. In terms of training it would be hard to get access to Allianz
Ireland as they do all the training themselves but we could offer the use of a platform where
they have control.
Susann felt that PriVideo was an excellent business idea. Access requests cost Allianz the
most in terms of time – this could be reduced by explaining a person’s basic rights from the
start. For PriVideo small brokers could be good route and the offering would need to be
Customised a lot for companies the size of Allianz.
Date: 15th July
Interviewee: Cathal Gurrin
Location: DCU Computer Building
217
Main Findings / Discussion Points: We met Cathal to gain feedback on our prototype and
discuss the technical deliverables for the practicum report. Cathal advised us that he liked the
video and we should ensure to put any prototype we have created on our website.
Cathal also informed us that whilst as four business students we do not have to build the link
from PriVideo to the Stupeflix API we do have to fully understand it. Cathal also detailed to
us that we need to have a mock-up of the architecture and explain it coherently to
demonstrate our understanding of our product and how it works. We established that it was
critical to demonstrate our knowledge of the Stupeflix API, and knowledge of the necessary
coding language used to link the PriVideo website form to the Stupeflix video generation
mechanism. We also needed to understand the stupeflix server, how we were going to receive
our finished videos and the architecture on which we were going to host these videos such as
Amazon S3.
Getting the technical delivery right is correct. Our technical delivery includes the PriVideo
website, the PriVideo prototype videos (Company and 02) and Mock-ups of the relevant
architecture. It is crucial for our team to understand the programming languages and hosting
requirements of all aspects of our server to succeed.
Date: Numerous Meetings / Emails
Interviewee: Jean Cushen
Location: Jean’s Office, DCU Business Building
Main Findings / Discussion Points: As one of our supervisors we met with Jean numerous
times to gain advice on the business aspect of our Practicum. Jean was extremely helpful and
insightful and gave us guidance on branding of our product as well as feedback on the video
and its design. We also had numerous contact with Jean through email which was very
beneficial.
In our meetings with Jean we discussed and explained concept the concept of PriVideo and
whenever slight changes or advice was needed in relation to the concept we reverted to Jean.
218
We also discussed with Jean the importance of differentiation and how we would envisage
PriVideo differentiating. Jean advised us to hone our strategy and ensure we were clear in
both what our service offered and our strategy to achieve this.
Additonally during our meetings with jean we discussed our market and competitors, we
were aware of the importance in understanding and clearing defining the marker we were
targeting and being aware of the current players in that market.
Jean also provided us with links and reference papers to help us set out and understand our
branding strategy.
Furthermore when we were conducting our primary research questionnaire and focus group
we discussed these with Jean. Jean also proofed our questionnaire before it went live.
Hone and understand concept. Study market and be aware of competitors. Design primary
research in a way which ensures we gain most effective feedback. Don’t underestimate the
importance of branding for our service.
Date: Numerous Meetings / Emails
Interviewee: Alan Smeaton
Location: Alan’s Office, DCU Computer Building
Main Findings / Discussion Points: As our technical supervisor we had numerous meetings
with Alan. We met with Alan to discuss and refine the technical aspects of our service. Alan
was extremely helpful and insightful in every meeting. As our team was made up of four
business students we were aware that our technical knowledge was limited.
We tested the prototype video on Alan, we also sought Alan’s advice / feedback on the
website we had designed and then implemented the slight changes he suggested.
219
Additionally we discussed the automation of our service with Alan and how best to
implement this. Alan suggested due to our skills and experience the best option for PriVideo
would be to outsource the automation to a tool that will animate the video based on a script.
Alan also suggested a tool called Stupeflix but advised that we firstly look into the
technicalities of Stupeflix. We discussed the importance of figuring out how it would work
and what language we need to use to create the script to enable stupeflix then convert into a
video. We also had to research into the voiceover, subtitles and logo aspects of Stupeflix. The
Stupef;ix s API is the tool we decided to use after lengthy research into the API. We based
made the decision to choose Stupefix after gaining a deeper understanding of how it works
with help from Alan and our developer contact.
Use an automation tool as the team are from business backgrounds. Understand the
implications and limitations of any software or language we intend on using. Ensure we fully
inform ourselves on the automation tool and how it works before attempting to implement it.
Date:
Interviewee: Stewart Fennel
Location: Email and phone
Main Findings / Discussion Points: We originally attempted to arrange a meeting with the
Data commissioner or a representative from his office. Unfortunately due to the office being
extremely busy at current we were unable to achieve this. We did however manage to explain
our proposed concept through email and schedule a brief phone call with Stewart Fennel from
the office of the Data Commissioner. Stewart informed us that the PriVideo concept was
extremely timely and in sync with the impending changes in data legislation. He described
our offering as a potential solution to any miscommunication in relation to privacy between
customers and companies. Although the phone call was brief Stuart did inform us that he
could see no reason why the data commissioner or data commissioner’s office would not
support a service such as PriVideo.
220
If we have the relevant contacts to enable companies seek guidance on their privacy policy
and successfully represent the policy in an entertaining animated form we may have the
solution to breach the privacy communication gap.
Date: 11 July
Interviewee: Lucy Alley, Crowley Solicitors
Location: Email and phone
Main Findings / Discussion Points: After exchanging a number of emails we conducted a
phone interview. During the interview we discussed the concept in detail including our plans
to develop a network of experts in the privacy industry. Lucy commended the applicability of
the product to privacy policies as is our core offering. She also advised that we consider
applying the idea to other areas that are governed by legal frameworks.
Lucy specialises in drafting internal policies which pertain to data protection issues. One
example Lucy gave was internet and email usage policies within an organisation. These
policies are supposed to educate employees on their rights and the rights of the organisation
to conduct electronic surveillance on them within the workplace. Similar to privacy policies
however, these policies are ineffective in educating the reader. She stated that an animated
video of this policy might fit well and could be placed on the company’s intranet. She also
said that she would consider referring clients to us in the future.
Other suggestions Lucy made included developing videos with subtitles or voiceovers in
other languages. She said this would be helpful because many international employees have
difficulties reading the legalities of a English language policy.
Lucy also advised that while she can’t give an exact figure drafting a privacy policy costs at
the least €500 for some changes and on average €2,000. This helped in developing our price
tiers.
There is potential for PriVideo to expand their offering to internal staff training. An
additional service add on could also be offering the service in various languages.
221
Appendix B: Year One Sales Plan
Timeframe for
Company
Industry
Size
Location
Contact
Progress
Next step
Meet
next contact
with
Branding
Allianz Ireland
Financial
Large
Dublin
Head of Compliance
1st Meeting had
Dublin,
Arachas
Financial
SME
Brief
Waterford
Head of Sales
Touched base
Dublin,
Marsh
Financial
SME
Team
Employee in Dublin
Touched base
Financial
SME
Dublin
Dublin,
Willis
Financial
SME
Manager
Cork,
Limerick
McCarthys Insurance
Group
Touched base
SME
All over Ireland
on
Immediately
on
concept
Immediately
Awaiting
Employee in Dublin
Briefed Contact
Supervisor in Dublin
Financial
Immediately
concept
Brief
JLT
on
concept
Brief
Cork,Galway
Immediately
Office
Awaiting
referral
Awaiting
Briefed Contact
referral
referral
Brief
CFM Group
Financial
SME
Dublin
from BDE in Allianz
No contact yet
concept
Brittons
Financial
SME
Donegal
Manager
Touched base
Brief
222
First 3 months
First 3 months
on
First 3 months
on Immediately
concept
Awaiting
Mannions
Financial
SME
Roscommon
referral
from BDE in Allianz
Brief
No contact yet
on
concept
First 3 months
Awaiting
Kidd
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Awaiting
Cotter Insurance
Financial
SME
Dublin
Financial
SME
Wexford
referral
from BDE in Allianz
Awaiting
Sheridan Insurance
Briefed Contact
Employee
Zurich Ireland
Liberty Insurance
Financial
FInancial
Large
Large
Dublin
Dublin
Brief
No contact yet
referral
from BDE in Allianz
No contact yet
No contact yet
First 3 months
on
concept
Brief
in
Compliance
referral
First 3 months
on
concept
First 3 months
Arrange
Briefed Contact
meeting
Contact
Brief
Company
concept
Immediately
on
First 6 months
Awaiting
AON
Financial
Large
Dublin
Employee in Sales
Briefed Contact
referral
Brief
Marine & General
Financial
SME
Dublin
Manager
Touched base
Financial
SME
Dublin
Supervisor
Touched base
on
concept
Brief
Kinane Insurance
First 3 months
concept
Immediately
on
Immediately
Awaiting
Murray & Spellman
Financial
SME
Galway, Kildare
Employee in Kildare
Touched base
referral
First 3 months
O'Driscoll O'Neill
Financial
SME
Dublin
Manager
Briefed Contact
Arrange
Immediately
223
meeting
Awaiting
O'Malley Scanlon
Financial
SME
Donegal
from BDE in Allianz
Awaiting
Priority Insurances
Financial
SME
Meath
referral
Brief
No contact yet
referral
from BDE in Allianz
concept
Brief
No contact yet
on
First 6 months
on
concept
First 3 months
Awaiting
KPMG
Financial
Large
Dublin
Employee in HR
Briefed Contact
referral
First 3 months
Awaiting
Ernst & Young
Financial
Large
Dublin
Employee in HR
Employee
Deloitte & Touche
Financial
Large
Dublin
Briefed Contact
in
Marketing
Financial
Large
Dublin
Briefed Contact
Office
Awaiting
E J McDermott
O’Dowd
SME
Kilkenny
Donnelly
Carbin
North
Financial
Awaiting
Financial
SME
Donegal
referral
No contact yet
No contact yet
SME
Dublin
Galway,
Manager
Touched base
Mayo, Manager in one of
concept
First 6 months
on
First 3 months
on
First 6 months
Awaiting
Hastings
Financial
SME
Sligo
the Mayo Offices
Briefed Contact
referral
O'Brien Finlay
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Touched base
Brief
224
on
concept
Brief
Financial
First 3 months
concept
Brief
County
Brokers
First 3 months
referral
Brief
referral
from BDE in Allianz
referral
Awaiting
Briefed Contact
from BDE in Allianz
First 3 months
Awaiting
Employee in Head
AIB
referral
First 3 months
on Immediately
concept
Brief
Des Morris
Financial
SME
Wicklow
Des (Owner)
Awaiting
JJ Meers
Financial
SME
Sligo
Touched base
referral
from BDE in Allianz
concept
Brief
No contact yet
Financial
SME
Dublin
Manager
Touched base
Immediately
on
concept
Brief
Victor O'Rourke
on
First 3 months
on
concept
Immediately
Awaiting
Prestige
Financial
SME
Cavan
Employee
Awaiting
O'Shea Insurance
Financial
SME
Cork
Briefed Contact
referral
from BDE in Allianz
referral
Brief
No contact yet
First 3 months
on
concept
First 6 months
Awaiting
Brian J Pearce
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
Brief
Mentone
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Awaiting
Oliver Murphys
Financial
SME
Waterford
The Brook Insurance
Brokers
SME
Donegal
referral
from BDE in Allianz
Awaiting
Financial
Touched base
referral
from BDE in Allianz
Awaiting
referral
McSharry Foley
Financial
SME
Sligo
from BDE in Allianz
EJ McDermott
Financial
SME
Kilkenny
Awaiting
225
referral No contact yet
on
First 6 months
on
concept
Brief
No contact yet
Immediately
concept
Brief
No contact yet
on
concept
Brief
No contact yet
First 3 months
concept
Brief
First 6 months
on
First 6 months
on First 6 months
from BDE in Allianz
PwC
Financial
Large
Dublin
Director of Tax
concept
No contact yet
Touch base
First 3 months
Awaiting
AA
Financial
Abbey Murphy
Financial
Large
SME
Dublin
Sales Manager
Longford,
Manager in Longford
Westmeath
office
Touched base
referral
Awaiting
Briefed Contact
referral
Brief
Acorn Brokerage
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Awaiting
Abingon Insurance
Financial
SME
Wicklow
Touched base
referral
from BDE in Allianz
First 6 months
on
concept
Brief
No contact yet
First 3 months
Immediately
on
concept
First 3 months
Awaiting
AIC
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
Brief
Alliance Insurance
Financial
SME
Dublin
Manager
Touched base
First 3 months
on
concept
First 6 months
Awaiting
AON
McDonagh
Financial
Large
Dublin
Boland
Employee
Awaiting
Touched base
referral
referral
Brief
First 6 months
on
Crotty
Financial
SME
Dublin
from BDE in Allianz
No contact yet
concept
First 6 months
Crotty Insurance
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
No contact yet
Touch base
Immediately
Awaiting
referral
Brief
on
Wright Group
Financial
SME
Wexford
from BDE in Allianz
No contact yet
concept
First 3 months
Barrington
Financial
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
226
Insurance
Base Plan Ltd
Financial
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Robert Blythman
Financial
SME
Dublin
Owner
No contact yet
Touch base
Immediately
Awaiting
BMCI Insurance
Financial
SME
Dublin
referral
from BDE in Allianz
Brief
No contact yet
on
concept
First 6 months
Awaiting
Pat Britton
Brosnan
Financial
SME
Donegal
Employee
Briefed Contact
Boylan
referral
Brief
First 6 months
on
Golden
Financial
SME
Cork
Emloyee
Touched base
concept
First 6 months
Bruen Brothers
Financial
SME
Galway
Employee
No contact yet
Touch base
Immediately
Employee
in
Awaiting
Campion Insurance
Financial
Large
All over Ireland
Kilkenny
Briefed contact
referral
First 3 months
Carron Insurance
Financial
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Awaiting
Chill
Financial
Large
Dublin
Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
First 3 months
Cleary Barker
Financial
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Creane & Creane
Financial
SME
Wexford
Employee
No contact yet
Touch base
First 3 months
Awaiting
referral
Brief
on
Crana Financial
Financial
SME
Donegal
from BDE in Allianz
No contact yet
concept
First 3 months
Cuffe & Co
Financial
SME
Cork
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Brief
Cross Insurance
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
227
Touched base
concept
on
Immediately
Brief
Culleton Insurances
Financial
SME
Carlow, Wexford
No contact yet
No contact yet
concept
Brief
Sean G Cusack
Financial
SME
Cork
Employee
Touched base
on
First 3 months
on
concept
First 3 months
Awaiting
Goggins
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
Brief
Gogans
First 6 months
on
Financial
SME
Dublin
Manager
Touched base
concept
First 3 months
Brokers
Financial
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Tom Fogarty's
Financial
SME
Tipperary
Manager
No contact yet
Touch base
Immediately
Fingal
Insurance
McElhinney
Insurance Brokers
Awaiting
Financial
SME
Donegal
Employee
Briefed Contact
Cornmarket
Financial Group
Brief
Financial
SME
Dublin
Employee
Touched base
Employee in HR &
LinkedIn
referral
ICT
Large
Dublin
Sales
concept
First 3 months
on
First 3 months
Awaiting
Briefed Contact
referral
First 3 months
Awaiting
Dropbox
ICT
Large
Dublin
Sales Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
First 6 months
Awaiting
Twitter
ICT
Large
Dublin
Sales Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
First 6 months
Salesforce
ICT
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
228
Awaiting
LoudSEO
ICT
SME
Dublin
Developer
Touched base
referral
First 6 months
Second half of
Dell
ICT
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Intel
ICT
Large
Kildare
HR Employee
No contact yet
Touch base
year
Second half of
Verizon
ICT
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Haystaks
ICT
Start-Up
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Curam Software
ICT
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
EMC Ireland
ICT
Large
Cork, Dublin
Employee in cork
No contact yet
Touch base
year
Awaiting
Glen Dimplex
ICT
Large
Louth
Employee
Touched base
referral
First 6 months
Second half of
Logitech
ICT
Large
Cork
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Newbay software
ICT
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
Norkom
Technologies
year
Second half of
ICT
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
229
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
CarCompare.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
awaiting
internal
Sparkdating.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
External contact
Briefed Contact
contact
First 6 months
Flirtbox.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Specialsomeone.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Second half of
Redwind Software
ICT
SME
Dublin
Developer
No contact yet
Touch base
year
Boards.ie
ICT
SME
Galway
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
Etraining.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
External contact
Briefed Contact
contact
First 6 months
silkwebdesign.ie
ICT
SME
Meath
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
certtracker.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
adverts.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
audiowarehouse.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
Briefed Contact
contact
First 3 months
mediacontact.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
Briefed Contact
Awaiting
First 3 months
230
referral
to
Internal
contact
thejournal.ie
ICT
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
digitgaming.com
ICT
SME
Dublin
External contact
Briefed contact
Employee in Head
Marks & Spencer
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
Office
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
Office
First 3 months
Awaiting
Briefed Contact
Employee in Head
Dunnes Stores
contact
referral
First 6 months
Awaiting
Briefed Contact
referral
First 6 months
Awaiting
Tesco Ireland
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
HR Employee
Briefed Contact
referral
First 3 months
Awaiting
Arnotts
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
Store Manager
Briefed Contact
referral
First 6 months
Simply Be
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Buy4Now
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
I Love Shopping
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
Justshop.ie
Online Retail
SME
Kildare
External contact
231
Briefed contact
contact
First 3 months
callancomputers.com Online Retail
SME
Louth
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
elara.ie
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Online Retail
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
iclothing.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
External contact
Briefed contact
contact
First 3 months
Books Unlimited
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
Store Manager
No contact yet
Touch base
First 6 months
Irish Books direct
Online Retail
SME
Kildare
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Awaiting
Second half of
referral
year
Support
Donedeal
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
employee
staff
Touched base
Second half of
Gumtree
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
Developer
No contact yet
Touch base
year
Second half of
Schoolbookstore.ie
Online Retail
SME
Laois
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Bookhaven.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Tarabookco.ie
Online Retail
SME
Galway
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
Vavavoom.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dundalk, Louth
External contact
232
Briefed contact
contact
First 3 months
Nopolka.com
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
clothing.ie
Online Retail
SME
Laois
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
carparts.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
External contact
Briefed Contact
contact
First 3 months
micksgarage.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
CelebBoutique
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Awaiting
referral
to
Internal
Oxendales.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
External contact
Briefed Contact
contact
First 3 months
Awaiting
Superquinn
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
Employee Buyer
Briefed Contact
referral
First 6 months
Thespindoctor.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
BuyandSell.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 6 months
BeepBeep.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
CarsIreland.ie
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
First 3 months
Brief
GrabOne
Online Retail
Large
Dublin
External contact
Support
Textagift
Online Retail
SME
Dublin
employee
233
No contact yet
staff
concept
Brief
Touched base
on
concept
First 3 months
on
First 3 months
Briefed
02
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Privacy Consultant
by Awaiting
Consultant
feedback
Brief
Vodafone
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Privacy Consultant
No contact yet
Immediately
from
Consultant
First 3 months
Awaiting
3
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Store Manager
Briefed Contact
Carphone
Warehouse
referral
First 3 months
Awaiting
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Store Manager
Briefed Contact
referral
First 6 months
Touched base
Brief contact
First 6 months
Sales Manger Head
Meteor
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Office
Brief
Eircom
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Privacy Consultant
No contact yet
from
Consultant
First 6 months
Second half of
BT Ireland
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Awaiting
UPC
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
Sales Employee
Touched base
referral
First 6 months
Second half of
Indigio Ireland
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Ireland Online
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
Magnet
Entertainment
year
Second half of
Telecoms
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
234
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Smart Telecom
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Blueface
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Digiweb
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Ericsson
Telecoms
Large
Dublin
No contact yet
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Second half of
Netshare
Telecoms
SME
Dublin
No contact yet
235
No contact yet
Contact firm
year
Appendix C: Questionnaire
236
237
238
239
Appendix D: Focus Group Moderator Guide
240
241
242
243
244
Appendix E: Focus Group Consent Form
245
Appendix F: Focus group video feedback sheet
246
247
Appendix G: Data Gathering, Tracking and usage methods Infographic
248
Appendix H: Year Two and Three Sales Plan
Company
Chill Insurance
AXA
RSA
Travellers Insurance
FBD
Aviva
Bank of Ireland
KBC
New Ireland
Argos
Asos
eBay
Amazon
Promod
Irish Life
Ulster Bank
Halifax
Barclays
EBS
Debenhams
John Lewis
Vhi
Microsoft
Industry
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Online Retail
Online Retail
Online Retail
Online Retail
Online Retail
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Online Retail
Online Retail
Financial
ICT
Location
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
UK
London
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
London
London
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
249
Size
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Symantec
Facebook
Google
Topshop
River Island
Cisco
Apple
Deutsche Bank
Mercer
Towers Watson
AIG
Grant Thornton
BDO
IFG
Standard Life
Generali
Friends First
Boohoo
LivingSocial
ICT
ICT
ICT
Online Retail
Online Retail
ICT
ICT
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Financial
Online Retail
Online Retail
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Dublin
Meath
Dublin
London
Washington, US
250
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Large
Appendix I: PriVideo Facebook
251
Appendix J: Practicum Facebook Group
252
Appendix K: Example Decision and information Sheets
As a group we kept a document that detailed key decision and information. This document
was stored on Google drive and as a team we updated it daily based on our progress. Below
are two examples of our entries into this document.
253
Appendix L: Example Weekly Plans
The tables below are examples of the weekly plans created and followed by the PriVideo
team. Creating the plan allowed each member of the team ascertain the weekly objectives
with a simple look. These plans also guided our daily tasks and objectives. The first example
is from the first week after our N.G.M. portfolio and exams were completed. The second
example table is from when the project had advanced and we were in the middle of the
practicum process.
254
Example Weekly Plan
255
Appendix M: PriVideo Non-Disclosure Agreement
256
257
Appendix N: Partnership Agreement
258
259
260
Appendix O: Monthly Profit and Loss Account
261
Appendix P: Stupeflix API Sample Code
This is the API code that can be found in the Stupeflix API SDK in PHP.
<?php
include 'stupeflix.php';
define('stupeflixAccessKey', 'PUT-YOUR-ACCESS-KEY-HERE');
define('stupeflixSecretKey', 'PUT-YOUR-SECRET-KEY-HERE');
define('stupeflixHost', getenv("STUPEFLIX_HOST"));
// Create the client
$stupeflix = new Stupeflix(stupeflixAccessKey, stupeflixSecretKey, stupeflixHost);
// If you plan to offer the service to your own users,
// you can set the user variable to your user id.
// Otherwise, you can define one as you like
$user = "yourUserName";
// Each of your users can have different projects.
// If you want to overwrite your video each time you render it, you can define a char string
// to be used as the ressource.
// If you want to create a new video each time you render it (as this is the most common use
case)
// you need to generate a unique ressource each time.
// in case you overwrite the video for each render
$resource = "yourStaticResourceName";
// in case you want to create a new video for each render
// $resource = time();
$metaDict = array("title" => "Upload test ",
"description"=>"This is an upload test",
"thumbnailTime"=>"2", // useful to choose the thumbnail time
"tags"=>"upload test",
"channels"=>"Tech",
"acl"=>"public", // "private" or "unlisted"
262
"location"=>"48.8583,2.2945"); // A famous tower position
$meta = new StupeflixMeta($metaDict);
$upload = #################### HERE IS THE UPLOAD SETUP CODE
$profile = new StupeflixProfile("iphone", array($upload), $meta);
// here you can specify several profiles to render to
$profiles = new StupeflixProfileSet(array($profile), null, null);
// replace test.xml by the xml file you generated
$stupeflix->sendDefinition($user, $resource, "test.xml");
$stupeflix->createProfiles($user, $resource, $profiles);
?>
263