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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.

 

Well… I was planning to write today’s post last night, but I didn’t quite get to it. Why? Parenthood.

I was helping my toddler daughter fall asleep at about 7:30-8:00, and I apparently did such a good job I put myself to sleep as well. That means no video insights today… back next week with 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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How do you take a public relations hit or joke and turn it to your favor… have fun with it. Take Chicago pizza chain Lou Malnati’s and their new PR video.

How it all started

As you may or may not be aware, One World Trade Center in New York recently unseated Chicago’s Willis Tower as the nation’s tallest building. While Willis Tower has more floors, 1 WTC’s spire atop the building makes it 47-feet taller. This led to a funny story on The Daily Show that evolved into Jon Stewart ripping Chicago pizza.

Okay… it was all in fun. It’s not like this was some serious critique or condemnation of our beloved deep dish here in Chicago, but that didn’t stop one of our local chains from having some fun of their own.

The pizza PR video response

Lou Malnati’s owner Marc Malnati flew to New York and shot a video to counter Stewart’s rant. Now… let’s be clear. The folks at Lou Malnati’s are much better at making pizza than comedy, but the video is still fun.

Lou Malnati’s took something topical and used it to promote their own PR message. CHICAGO DEEP DISH PIZZA IS AWESOME! Okay, it’s something I feel passionate about as well. Again, it’s all in good fun. New York… Chicago… we love the back-and-forth debate whether it’s pizza… sports… politics… whatever.

Well, no surprise the whole exchange has been a big hit on social media. Stewart’s video went viral last Friday receiving hundreds of thousands of views. Lou Malnati’s launched it’s video yesterday (Tuesday) and has already racked up nearly 30-thousand views.

How would your company like that kind of publicity?

Well… here’s your challenge… keep your eyes and ears on fun things happening in the news and social media surrounding your industry. Have a video budget ready to take advantage of the right situations. Establish a relationship with video pros who can act fast.

If you do all of that… there might be a PR video you can create to get in on the fun.

–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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Let your team carry the company torch through internal videos. If you run a quality organization, they’re ready to do it. They want to shout to all their friends about how much they enjoy working at the company.

I blogged yesterday about attending the Ragan Communications 2013 Best Practices in Video for Communicators Summit, and a lot of the conference was focused on producing internal videos. It’s a good idea for a couple of reasons.

First, producing internal videos is a great way to boost morale. Featuring team members and bragging about the job their doing, well, who doesn’t like a pat on the back?

The second reason is the one I’d like to focus on today, and I’ll use my alma mater as an example.

Lesson courtesy USC football

I went to USC. If you know anything about college sports, you know that USC is a football powerhouse. The last four years have been rough on the school after the NCAA imposed some harsh sanctions, accusing USC leaders of losing “institutional control” over their student-athletes. I won’t get into that, but the majority of the sports community continues to scratch their heads about it considering other schools have done far worse and received lighter penalties.

But I digress… it’s been a rough four years. So there we were in an unfamiliar role on Saturday night, an underdog playing at home against 4th ranked Stanford. It was the game of the week on national television. The entire college football world was focused on the L.A. Coliseum.

The Trojans slugged it out with the Cardinal for four quarters, and with about 20-seconds left… they kicked a game winning field goal. The stands emptied onto the field starting a party that raged all night.

It was the kind of thing that highlights why college sports are so much fun. If only there was a way to capture that moment and share it with alumni and fans. A way to show them all the things they didn’t get to see like what it looked like from the sidelines, the raw emotion from inside the locker room, the pure joy of that winning kick.

Oh wait… there is a way. USC released a video yesterday afternoon on its YouTube channel featuring all of those things. 

Lesson for your internal videos

Now… think about all of this in a different way. USC is your company. The alumni and fans are your team members. Think they’re going to share that video with people?

What are milestone moments on the horizon for your company? Are you launching a new product? Closing in on your 1,000th sale? Are you about to set a new safety record? Open a new facility?

The list could go on and on. The point is you should be documenting a lot of these things, and there’s no better way than video. Producing a video around these types of events will provide that morale boost I mentioned, but it will also allow your team members to spread the word via their social networks about all the great things you’re doing.

That’s good HR, PR and marketing all rolled into 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.

Last week, I attended the 2013 Best Practices in Video for Communicators Summit put on by Ragan Communications… thanks for the invite Jenny Fukumoto! It was mainly geared towards HR, PR and marketing people, but I looked at it as a chance for some professional development. My biggest takeaway was a terrific reminder as to the importance of video strategy.

Most of the speakers talked about strategy, but the person who really stressed it was George Wright. You know him as the man behind the hugely successful video campaign for BlendTec blenders… Will it blend? Side note… he concluded his presentation by pulling out a BlendTec and blending a tape measure. Pretty cool!

Anyway, he talked about the strategy behind that campaign, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

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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.

Some business leaders freakout a little over their video script. They want it to be perfect, and I certainly understand the place they’re coming from. The only problem is that video is art, so there is no such thing as “perfect.”

There is good news though for anyone worried about not being able to create the perfect video script. You don’t need one. As a matter of fact, you don’t need a script at all.

All the control freaks out there go ahead and read that paragraph a second time. You read it right. You don’t need a video script… in a manner of speaking.

You don’t need to sit down at a computer with all of your promotional language and hammer out a written script for the video to follow. In many cases, it’s a waste of time. Those types of videos often turn out sounding canned… in other words, scripted… because they are.

People are more important than words

Instead of spending all of your time creating something like that, use your time to select the right people to appear in the video. Who loves their job? Who talks effortlessly about what they do? Who puts a smile on everyone’s face? Pick the right people, interview them on-camera and they’ll end-up writing your script for you.

People who are passionate about what they do just have a way about them. In video, “how” they say it can be even more powerful than “what” they say. It looks, sounds and feels… authentic… because it is.

Let their words tell your company’s stories. I don’t care whether you run a micro business or you’re marketing a Fortune 500 company, passionate employees do a great job selling the company.

Try this type of video script

Now once the interviews are over, your professional video producer can pick the best sound bites and arrange them into script form. It doesn’t give you the same measure of control you get by scripting everything that’s said, but what you give up in control… you get back in authenticity.

I’ll take passionate people over a “perfect” script any day of the week.

–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.

Thank you for your service to our nation.

Thank you for being will to volunteer.

Thank you for pushing yourself physically and mentally.

Thank you for being willing to move from place to place and rarely settle down.

Thank you for giving up personal time for additional training.

Thank you for sacrificing sleep to accomplish your missions.

Thank you for enduring unbearable heat and cold.

Thank you for your willingness to eat MREs.

Thank your for being professionals.

Thank you for facing bullets and shrapnel. 

Thank you for being tough in mind, body and spirit.

Thank your for enduring incredible stress.

Thank you for being brave.

Thank you for protecting the United States of America and freedom all over the globe.

It is we… a grateful nation… that salutes you. Happy Veterans Day.

–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 wrapping up a special Dave Ramsey Week here at T60 the best way possible… with our debt-free scream. All week we’ve been focusing on some EntreLeadership marketing lessons, but today it’s all about wrapping-up our debt-free story.

Mrs. G and I became debt-free (besides our mortgage) a couple of months ago. Over the last four years we have paid-off the lease on an SUV, all of our credit cards, business debt and a student loan. Let me tell you… that debt-free scream last Friday felt pretty good.

I blogged about our debt-free journey back in September, so I won’t rehash what’s already there. All we have left to pay off is our house and that’s next on the list. We are committed to being debt-free for the rest of our lives, and that includes our business.

Anyway, for me, one of the most inspiring parts of Dave’s radio show continues to be the debt-free screams. People who have sacrificed to win, call-in or make the trip to Nashville where the show is broadcast to share their story and proclaim they’re debt-free. Every time I heard one of those calls over the last four years I thought to myself… someday we’re going to do that. I was pretty determined.

Behind the scenes of our debt-free scream

Well, we got our chance last week. As a birthday surprise to me, Mrs. G contacted Dave’s team and arranged for us to do our scream there in Nashville the day before my birthday. Yeah, she’s pretty awesome.

We arrived at Dave’s studio which sits behind some glass in the lobby of Financial Peace Plaza… the home of his company. It was especially cool for me because they recently started broadcasting video of the radio show everyday live on the internet, so I spent most of our time there chatting with members of his video staff.

When it came time for our scream they gave Mrs. G and I some headphones, and a member of Dave’s team occupied our daughter. The interview went by so fast. It was nearly 9-minutes long, but it felt like just a couple of minutes. We both had things we wanted to say and failed to talk about.

Mrs. G wanted to mention that in addition paying off our debt, we managed to pay for our wedding with cash as well as the medical expenses associated with the birth of our daughter. I wanted to talk about how paying off our debt has completely changed our outlook on money, and how we don’t plan to change the frugal lifestyle we’ve grown comfortable with.

Despite that, we were both happy with the interview, and the actual debt-free scream was fun. Dave came out to the lobby a couple of times while we were there, so we got some photos with him and chatted for an another 5-minutes or so.

My Nashville takeaway

It was great to meet Dave and thank him personally for the financial plan that has put us on solid ground, but that’s not what the trip was about. It was really a stepping stone to the next phase of our lives. I feel so fortunate that Mrs. G and I were able to start our marriage working this plan together. I think it has only strengthened our relationship, and we now know that we can tackle any challenge that comes our way.

Was it tough? Yes. Did it take a long time? Yup. Was it worth it? Totally.

We’ll look forward to another trip to Nashville after we pay off our house and finish Baby Step 6.

–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.