Advances in technology (smart phones, tablets etc) a growing population of internet users and accessible recording, especially the growing trend in the use of DSLRs that can capture video with a cinematic look, have led to 100 million people watching online videos each day. As a result, video has become one of the most powerful forms of communication known to marketers and consumers. It’s effective. It’s powerful. It gets your message across.
More and more organisations have started to invest and engage with online viewers by posting videos on their websites. Short films are an excellent way to reach those who learn experientially and those who are time-poor. Once the link is viewed and potentially shared, a wider audience can become aware of the project, product or cause – and get involved. Because the average brain is more capable of remembering pictures and sounds than words and letters, videos is a key tool for education and marketing. A familiar graphic, catchy song, sting or piece of music helps to remind the viewer of the product, service or cause – through association, so a good video production company will help you choose a range of ‘selling’ techniques that in addition to the main content, will subliminally make your video work to its full potential.
There are many kinds of promotional video. For example, you could choose a fly-on-the-wall documentary, a storyboarded short film, a straight piece to camera or creative imagery with graphics-heavy animation. Mixing styles can help you achieve what’s best for your business but sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start with the concept. The best way to start is trawl the Internet, find a few videos that interest you, or just ask! A good, experienced video production company that is used to producing films for a wide range of clients will be able to guide you in your choice of style, help you write scripts, cast the participants, arrange the graphics, insert the all-important call-to-action and find emotive music licenced for your use.
Who should consider use of video?
Community / Charities
There is no better way to grab attention on the web or at a presentation than with video. For charities and community organisations or for companies who support them, powerful and emotive video with a call to action can help to engage many more people than words and pictures. Using a combination of effective music, story boarding and creative cinematography, a video can present human struggle, team spirit and willpower in a rollercoaster of emotions. It can help to influence viewers to get involved and can also help people to associate your organisation with your chosen charity. Have a look at our Community Engagement page for more details of the videos we can do. Below is a video of Lauren Doherty and her story.
Exhibitions
Exhibition organisers are becoming increasingly dependent on videos to sell the concept of a trade show. A 2-minute exhibition ‘highlights video’ containing key messages can definitely help potential visitors or exhibitors decide whether to commit – and at what level. A positive video – that focuses on the visitor and exhibitor experience can be used to sell a show for a full year. Fresh, like it happened only yesterday, the watcher sees the crowds, listens to exhibitors talk about the show and therefore immediately understands the benefits of attending.
Conferences and Workshops
The inclusion of video shorts as walk ups, a start and end to the conference, or to embed within presentations is becoming more expected. It’s all about the planning.
The filming of keynote presentations for internal staff or people who missed a conference is becoming increasingly popular. Although the American TED style video looks very relaxed and easy, bear in mind that an awful lot of planning must go into the filming to achieve a good video. Often 2 camera angles are required to add interest in a 30-40 minute slot. If powerpoint slides are used in a presentation, a couple of the presenter’s actual powerpoint slides added into the video edit in full screen – with voice-over explanations, provide clarity. And sound is absolutely key so getting a feed direct from the AV mixing desk is always preferable in any situation. Again, it’s the look and feel of the conference or workshop that it’s so important to portray. So whether your presentations are conferences, internal business meetings, global meetings, awards dinners or a series of small workshops, it’s vital that the video production company isn’t ‘just a couple of camera operators’. Have a meeting with your video production company first! It’s understanding the requirements of the end product, the planning and the editing that turns a good conference video into a great one. Our Corporate Video page has more examples.
Products.
Advertising a product through online video is vital in today’s marketing mix. If you have a video profile on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vine or any other social media site your video can be spread quickly and easily (virally) using ‘Share’ or ‘Retweet’ buttons. Seeing a product in action helps a potential customer to understand it and see its quality before they buy it. It helps them engage with the product quickly. It can be creative, fun, or serious, depending on the product. After all, it’s much easier to copy complex set up actions from a video than find the problem and a solution in an instruction manual.
If people like the product, or if your video is just interesting to watch; if it has some benefit to them and others they know, people will share the link to the video. In doing so, they will help you increase your online profile, and drive people to your website.
Screen capture
In addition to interviews, a piece to camera, a voiceover and product demonstrations, computer screen capture can be included for educational purposes. You can also introduce using screen capture within a story. It’s all about the storyboarding and a good video production company will be able to integrate screen capture with graphics.
Scripting and Storyboarding – to get your story out there
At award ceremonies, audiences love watching short videos about those shortlisted or winning awards. Awards videos work particularly well at engaging audiences with emotive, inspirational or emotional topics. By watching a short interview that includes the award logo and sting, some emotional music (highs and lows), candid interviews and footage of the topic in question, the audience can truly understand the danger or the struggle what the winners went through to earn their award.
Schools
websites are a great shop window for what happens behind closed doors. Secondary schools are using video on their websites more and more to communicate their messages, and their values to existing, past and future parents and students. We have undertaken video projects of Year 7 Induction Days, School plays, and promotional videos for websites and parent/teacher evenings that really give viewers a taste of what their child is experiencing or is about to experience.
Video is now a vital part of customer demand. The growth in social networking and online services means that video promotion is a worthwhile investment. As long as you work with the right video production company! For more details of all the services we can offer from our base in Harrogate please see our Video Production page, or contact us on 01423546440.
