Tag Archives: storytelling

Originally Posted: May 29th, 2012

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Yesterday was Memorial Day and it provides me with a perfect reason to share my all-time favorite commercial.

That’s right… commercial. A one-minute spot created by Budweiser that ran only once. It’s the 2003 Super Bowl ad titled, “Welcome Home.”

Here’s a few reasons why it’s a great example to learn from for anyone who’s producing videos…

• there’s a surprise. The spot starts in an airport. It’s a familiar setting, but just when we the audience settle in to this “normal” scene we get hit with something completely out of the norm.
• there’s no dialog. I come from a TV news background, so I’m all about sound bites and dialog. This spot is a great reminder that you don’t need either to create a video with impact. Sometimes images, natural sound, and music are all you need.
• finally, this spot puts on display what video does better than any other medium. It stirs emotion. Video allows you to tap emotion and capture the viewer’s heart.

Not every video is going to be as powerful as this one. Heck, there are very few videos that will be as powerful as this one. However, the lessons learned from it can put you on a path to creating better videos… and that’s a benefit for us all.

–Tony Gnau

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I’m really loving AT&T’s commercial series that features various kid focus groups, and it has me thinking about how to turn the idea into a focus group video series.

The latest AT&T commercial centers around Thanksgiving. It follows the same pattern as the others… four kids… one man asking questions… and typically a cute comment that’s turned into a fun joke.

How can we turn this into an effective online marketing series?

I don’t know… I’m brainstorming here.

• maybe put together a focus group using a company’s team members’ kids… have them test company products and then comment on them?
• how about having someone in sales do a pitch to a group of kids and then ask for questions?
• it could be an internal video series… a focus group of kids asked to talk about various company policies and initiatives?

The series doesn’t even have to focus around kids. You could do the same thing using the company’s team members as the focus group. I just like the idea of getting people talking about products or services and seeing where it leads. As a professional storyteller, I know I could get a conversation going that would result in something interesting.

Focus group video serves as inspiration

What am I getting at here? Simple. I’m trying to get you to think like a video producer. You see something you like on TV or online and reshape it into something that might work for your company.

The idea is to find a series idea that will grab an audience’s attention. A series that will keep them interested in the information being discussed. A series that will have them looking forward to the next video.

That’s how a video producer thinks. In my case, it’s turning a fun commercial series into something that might work for one of our clients. For you, it might be a music video, a TV show or a movie.

It’s not stealing. I’m not talking about producing something identical to what you like. It’s a way of finding creative inspiration.

Look at the videos that entertain you and find a way to put them to work for your business.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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A very, very cold bike ride yesterday had me thinking of a viral product video that’s been making the rounds.

Winter time in Chicago is tough as a bike rider. Finding a hat that’s warm enough but still fits under a bike helmet can be a challenge, which brings me to the video. It’s called, The Invisible Bike Helmet. It uses a technique that when done well, can be a really effective form a storytelling.

The Jaws Technique

How you seen the movie, Jaws? If you haven’t, it’s a classic and a must-watch. The behind-the-scenes stories about Jaws also happen to be just as good as the movie itself. One of them is about the shark used during the production.

The shark didn’t work. Steven Spielberg had so many problems with it he even altered his storytelling approach. Instead of showing the shark terrorizing people, he teases us. The audience sees the results of shark attacks, but we never actually get to see the shark until the final act. It was a smart thing to do because Spielberg plays on our imagination to help build suspense.

This technique is used in a similar way during the bike helmet video. We don’t get to see the helmet until the end of the video. The story behind the invention is compelling enough to keep us interested, all the while building our curiosity.

Will it work for your product video?

It’s a technique to consider as you’re thinking about your own product videos. It takes a bit of bravery, a lot of people are so excited about what their company is working on that they want to show people right away. They don’t have the storytelling patience to delay showing the product.

Every situation is unique, but I’d say if you have a product that a lot of people are going to be interested in… and you know that… the Jaws technique might be right for you.

This strategy is outside the box and could heighten excitement around your launch even more.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

 

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Hoping to provide inspiration today for some fun marketing videos by using a recent Sports Illustrated production.

Earl Thomas is the starting free safety for the Seattle Seahawks. Sports Illustrated decided to have some fun with him… dropping him at Pike Place Market and asking him to give people passing by free safety advice.

Get it? He’s a free safety. He’s giving free safety advice. Clever, right? Note to Mrs. G… “free safety” is a football position. I’ll point it out during the next Bears game.

Anyway, adding to the fun is that taken out of context nobody recognized him as a pro football player. I’m sure he just seemed like a random dude.

You don’t have to laugh out loud

The video isn’t hilarious, but as I mentioned it is fun. Comedy is hard to do, fun is a little easier.

If you’re a content creator for your business, I’d love for you to take a cue from Sports Illustrated. Start thinking about your company in a different way. What are some fun things that take place around the office, factory, et cetera? Start featuring those things in your marketing videos.

Is there someone who likes wearing funny ties? That’s a video. Do people go all out decorating their cubicles? That’s a video. Any good superstitions surrounding people’s jobs? That’s a video.

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Fun marketing videos case study

Outtakes are another fun thing you can add to your videos. We recently produced a post-event video for Content Jam here in Chicago. We were getting speakers at the event to answer the question, “What’s the future of content marketing?”

Kind of a tough question to answer without some thought. Knowing we wanted the video to be “fun,” we hit record and let the camera roll during their time thinking about their answer. We then used those outtakes to set the tone for the rest of the video.

Business can be about big ideas, big solutions and even big bucks… but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun from time to time.

If your company culture allows it, adding the occasional fun video to your other content will spice things up and reinvigorate your audience.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

I met a woman yesterday who’s facing a common problem… getting the C-Suite to think like their corporate video target audience. Sometimes the two groups operate in opposite ways from one another and it can be a problem.

How it happens

An executive hands down a directive… make a video about “X.” It should include this “Y” and “Z” information.

Unfortunately, they walked right past the first question that needs to be asked. Who’s the audience?

Without that information, their video about “X” that includes “Y” and “Z” information is pointless. Who’s going to watch? That question will shape everything else, even the information you decide to include.

Another situation might be where production has started and an executive wants to add something to a video that you know won’t connect with the intended audience. Sometimes it’s a random statistic, sometimes it’s a company initiative. Whatever it might be, they’re pretty pumped about it and want it highlighted in the video.

Aligning executives with the corporate video target audience

The first thing I ask the executive.. again.. is who’s our audience? Then… if you were a member of that audience, why would you care about this statistic/initiative?

When they can’t give an answer, I immediately follow it with… so if the audience doesn’t care, why are we going to include it in the video? You don’t have to be snarky about it, and whatever you do don’t do it in a know-it-all tone. Be gentle, but still ask those questions.

I know there are some hard heads out there, but most people get it when you start breaking it down for them like that. In cases where someone still insists on doing it their way, you can continue pushing back but your good points will probably only have them digging in their heals even deeper.

I always try to instill in our clients upfront that it’s not “their” video they’re creating. It’s their audience’s video. Some choose not to see it that way, and that’s their prerogative. In the end, you need to find a way to make them happy while still staying true to a story that will connect with the audience. It can be a difficult balance, but it’s one talented producers can manage.

My advice… the more you talk about the audience and its needs and desires upfront, the easier the process will proceed. Keep asking that question about the audience over and over… who’s our audience? Why do they care about this?

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

We’re kicking off a special Dave Ramsey Week here at the T60 blog that will culminate on Thursday with a blog post about our trip to Nashville to meet the man himself and do our debt-free scream on his radio show. For now, however, we’ll stick to video, marketing and what we can all learn from Dave and his EntreLeadership team.

If you’re not familiar with EntreLeadership, I’ll let Dave explain it to you (VIDEO). He recently re-did the EntreLeadership website and I love it. I subscribe to the free portion of the site, and it offers a wealth of valuable material on operating a business. One of my favorite recent posts laid out the takeaways from Seth Godin’s appearance on the EntreLeadership podcast.

Video Marketing Lessons Courtesy Seth Godin

Godin talked about three main things for marketing success.

• discipline is key
• a matter of trust
• share your story

Those are great takeaways, but they also tie specifically into video marketing.

Share your story… yes, storytelling is a fantastic way to communicate. You should be sharing all sorts of stories from throughout your business. Share stories about how your products were created. Introduce team members and let them talk about their jobs and their lives. Produce stories that answer customers’ frequently asked questions. I could go on and on, but you get the message. Your stories can be highly effective marketing tactics.

A matter of trust… that’s what video can help you earn. We trust people we know. Video allows you to speak with your customers. It gets you in front of them. It allows them an opportunity to get to know you through your stories. The more they see, the more they’ll trust you.

Discipline is key… you need it for a successful video campaign. Whether it’s the discipline needed to follow-through on producing a whole series of videos, or if it’s simply sticking with a plan to continually promote a single video via email and social media. Discipline is the character trait that will keep your video strategy rolling.

Seth Godin wasn’t speaking to video specifically, but he might as well have been. The power of video… it can do great things for your company if you go for it.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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Storytelling is a pretty big buzz word these days around PR and marketing. Here at T60 it’s more than a trendy topic… it’s what we do and what we’re passionate about. Always have been, always will be.

The question is… why? Why do we love it so much and why is storytelling so en vogue when it comes to all the different types of marketing videos (updated 7/14/14) you can produce?

Why storytelling?

Storytelling can do a lot for a business. It holds important attributes that make it a terrific way to communicate. Here’s our top five reasons why storytelling is more than a buzz word…

• it’s a great way to sell stuff without sounding like you’re trying to sell stuff
• by incorporating information into a compelling story, you capture the audience’s attention and make them more receptive to your messages
• storytelling helps viewers retain the information
• after people watch something they really enjoy, they tell other people about it
• storytelling is a natural for the social media world. Video storytelling in particular is easily shared and among the most popular content on the web

Are you sold on storytelling? Well, this is the tricky part. While anyone can tell stories, not everyone can tell them well.

I stink at spreadsheets. I can use them, but it probably takes me twice as long to put one together as Mrs. G. She loves them… has fun building them… and is the Excel Queen.

Storytelling is the same sort of thing. We all have the ability to do it, some storytellers are just better at it than others. Mrs. G’s strength… among MANY things… is handling numbers. Yours might be something else, while mine is storytelling. That’s worth considering when planning your corporate stories.

Storytelling starts with perspective

As professional storytellers, we just see things differently than most people. I’ll never forget walking into former Illinois State Senator John Millner’s office for the first time. He wanted a video to help viewers learn more about him.

The Senator was telling me about all the laws he had sponsored when I noticed a toy truck on shelf. That one observation completely changed the direction of the story we would tell (SEE THE PROFILE VIDEO). That’s what sets storytellers apart from others, they find stories everywhere.

Put your storytelling in the hands of someone like that and you’re bound to find out why it’s more than just a buzz word.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

 

One of the great ways for business leaders to help guide their video producer on everything from storytelling to interview backdrops is to send them example videos of the things they like. We as producers don’t necessarily copy those videos (the good producers don’t anyway), but the videos do give us a sense of the style a client prefers.

A potential client recently sent me some video examples and I cringed when I saw them, but thankfully what he liked is the content idea and not necessarily the style in which they were shot.

It was a series of testimonial videos (example below) produced by Morgan Stanley. They feature financial advisers talking about the Morgan Stanley products they recommend to their clients. Our potential client is right… great content idea. What made me cringe were the interview backdrops used in the examples.

Superimposed interview backdrops

Granted… not everyone is going to react negatively to these. They’re simply artistic renderings that have been superimposed behind the interview subjects. Some of you might even be scratching your heads wondering what’s the big deal? Here’s why I can’t stand fake back drops like these.

• they’re fake. Many of us go through all sorts of efforts to deliver authentic marketing videos. I would argue that as soon as you produce something that’s clearly staged, like a fake interview backdrop, you begin to undermine that effort.
• they’re distracting. Your eye can’t help but be drawn to them because they’re unnatural. The look out-of-place.
• both of the previous reasons take the audience right out of the video. We’re no longer captivated by the story. We’re simply focused on the backdrop. We recognize it’s fake. Our eyes are drawn to it and we begin to try to place it. Meanwhile, the interview subject is continuing to deliver content and we’re missing what they’re saying.

A better choice for interview backdrops

I simply prefer natural environments, and by that I mean anywhere the subject would naturally be found. A financial adviser would fit in an office, a conference room, etc. A factory worker should be in a manufacturing setting. You get the idea.

Interview backdrops shouldn’t be a distraction, so don’t make them one.

–Tony Gnau

 Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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There’s an old journalism joke… don’t let the facts get in the way  of a good story. Well… that goes for video content as well.

Of course, that old joke is supposed to allude to being dishonest in  some way to further the story. In the case of video content, it simply  means sometimes you need to hold back some of the truth so that it  doesn’t get in the way of the story.  Something that could have  happened in one of our latest videos.

Video content case study

I love sharing client success stories. I feel like they’re good case  studies that everyone can learn from, and the story of Chicago Design  and Construction (CD+C) is no different.

CD+C is a one-stop-shop for anyone who needs a commercial or  residential building. It’s run by a team of architects who design the  building, then oversee its construction from the ground up. The  company’s partners are stepping-up their marketing efforts, so they  wanted a video as a part of their greater strategy.

No surprise, they wanted to highlight a bunch of projects they’ve  completed. Houses, condo buildings, businesses… you name it, they  have examples to show. They actually fell into the same category as a  lot of business leaders producing their first marketing video. They  wanted a short video, but they also wanted to show-off what they can do.

It can get tricky. Cram all of that material into your short video and  it becomes too much for viewers to focus on. Expand the length of the  video to comfortably add all the material and you risk your audience  losing interest.

In the end, we had the same discussion with them that we frequently  have here. I explained that video isn’t about the information or the  materials (the facts), it’s about emotion. Video is about getting the  audience to feel good about them… the partners. In the end, what  they say and how they say it is more important than showing dozens of  construction examples, especially when those examples can also be  found in other places at their new website (coming soon).

How to juggle all the materials

We have to let the story dictate how many completed projects we  feature in the video. A story that’s going to connect with people, and  one told in a way that’s going to inspire confidence in the men behind  the company.

To their credit… they got it. They cut down a list of completed  projects to a handful for us to shoot. We also shot video of them  doing the work they love. Most importantly, we heard from them in  interviews about their passion… design and construction.

They didn’t let the facts get in the way of their story.

 –Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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An important part of video storytelling is focus. Not keeping the camera focused… keeping your story focused.

Northwestern football provides us with a great teaching opportunity. Fitting, right? Great school… alma mater to website consultant extraordinaire Brian Bender at Net Elevation (plug, ding!).

Anyway, NU produces a terrific web series called, “The Hunt,” which details the team’s quest to return to the Rose Bowl. A side note… the last time the Wildcats played in Pasadena, T60 client Jeremy Hogue of Sovereign Healthcare (double plug blog post!… ding, ding!) was leading USC to a victory over the Wildcats.

Learning from Northwestern

Okay… so… Northwestern does a great job of taking us behind the scenes. We get some flavor of campus life, as well as action on the field. It’s good stuff. It’s professional and well-produced.

Having said that, we can always find some room for improvement, and this lesson is great for business, PR and marketing leaders to note. NU’s latest video is titled, “The Student Athlete.” Like all the videos in the series, it looks great… the problem here is the storytelling.

If you watched the video without reading the title, you’d think it was a recap of the team’s game against Maine. Read the title again though… “The Student Athlete.” It isn’t until the end of the video when we get a mini-feature on one of the ‘Cats players talking about what he does in the classroom.

Actually, it kind of feels like a throwaway piece because we don’t really learn anything significant, and that’s a shame because highlighting how hard these athletes work in the classroom could be a GREAT story.

Video storytelling takeaway

The lesson is simple. Keep your video storytelling focused. If your title promises viewers something, you better tell that story. If what you deliver isn’t what the audience is expecting, how likely do you think it is they’ll watch your next video?

Focus your storytelling and deliver on promises.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.