It’s Social Media Week here in Chicago and some of the discussion has me thinking about video ROI. I’ve been following tweets coming from the sessions, one yesterday really caught my attention.

@audreyschroder: COI = Cost Of Ignoring. This is just as, if not more important than ROI. #smwtestnlearn #SMWChicago

COI… cost of ignoring. WOW… love that one!

The tweet was referencing something said by Erich Marx (@emarxe), Nissan’s Director of Interactive & Social Media Marketing/Public Relations. And I have to say… true for social media and true for video.

It wasn’t long ago…

It’s hard to imagine today, but 10-15 years ago web designers were out there doing their best to convince companies they all needed websites. That’s laughable now. Of course businesses need a website. I’d argue that 10-15 years from now we’ll be saying the same thing about video.

Many companies have produced videos and post them at their website. They share them in email campaigns and via social media. They have a YouTube channel.

At the same time, MOST businesses have not produced any videos. Less than 24% of national brands are using online marketing videos according to Kantar Media. That is going to change.

Video ROI vs. Video COI

The cost of ignoring video’s influence is becoming too great. A video that tells a good story is a tool that helps win hearts and minds. It’s a tool more and more marketers are seeing as an essential component to their digital campaigns.

All this means many business leaders are asking the wrong question about video. They want to know the ROI when they should be asking about the COI. That’s where things are trending.

One day they’re going to wake-up and realize their competitor has a well-told About Us video at their website. Another competitor will be sending email video invitations to prospects to attend company events. Another will be sharing product launch videos via social media to get customers excited about what’s coming.

That’s probably the point when they’ll stop asking about video ROI and start asking about the COI, but by then the competition will have a huge head start.

–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.

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Have you run out to get your new iPhone yet? Whether you’re an iPhone person or you prefer Android, there’s one thing we can all agreed on. Apple is the undisputed king of the product launch.

There’s the big debate over what the new products will be. The slow leaks out to the media and tech bloggers. Then comes the big day. Apple puts on a show with a keynote address by the CEO introducing  the new products. The company gets them up online at apple.com, and have you noticed what always tends to accompany them? Videos.

Product launch videos

That’s right, the undisputed king of product launches almost always has a video introducing the new merchandise to customers. The new iPhone models are no exception, but Apple did a little something different with these that everyone can learn from.

In the past, Apple’s videos were all focused on the finished product… what it looks like and what it can do. We got all sorts of  cool shots of the product spinning around on a white backdrop, tight shots of its components and screens, and sounds bites from the people who designed it.

We still get those things with the iPhone 5c and 5s, but now we get a little more… and I like it. Apple has decided to give us a look behind-the-scenes at how they’re made and the technology that makes them great.

Taking viewers behind-the-scenes

It’s an especially smart move with the iPhone 5c (VIDEO) because it’s a whole new offering for Apple… an iPhone with a plastic cover.

When you’re putting a new spin on an existing and popular product, any little change is going to scrutinized. Apple shows you how to face it head-on. Instead of just telling you about how it’s made… they show you. They want customers to be comfortable with how it’s constructed, so they’ll have the same confidence in this version as they have others.

Taking viewers behind-the-scenes helps earn their trust… something every business is looking for from customers.

–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.

 

Now’s the time. It’s only September, but businesses everywhere are already planning their budgets for 2014… so why not start thinking about your video production budget!?

It sounds so simple, but this is critically important. Companies often approach us without any idea of how much producing a video is going to cost. There’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t expect people to be experts on video costs.  But, this often slows the process… even for motivated clients. Business leaders need to investigate that sort of thing as they’re planning the new years budget, not when they realize a video is needed urgently.

Video Production Budget? What budget?

In our experience, here’s what tends to happen. People at a company love the idea of producing a video. They work it into their marketing plan, they get excited about it, then they start getting quotes and whoa!… sticker shock.

In many cases, it’s not necessarily that video costs a lot. It’s just that it costs more than what someone was anticipating. The response we get from a lot of people is something like, “Oh, that’s what it costs? Okay, we’ll have to budget for that next year.”

So… here we are… planning budgets and discussing video. Consider this our friendly reminder.

How many $$$ should you plan for?

How much money you plan for your video is entirely up to you, and it depends on what exactly you want done. I know, I know… I hate the “it depends” answer too, but it’s true.

Do you just want a basic marketing video? A single person on-camera talking about what makes the business special? There are producers who can do that for a $1,000 or less.

How about something a little more detailed? Multiple interviews, multiple locations, more complex storytelling? You better plan for $4,000-$7,000.

Multiple videos with complex stories? A project that’s going to take five or six video shoots? Helicopters, fireworks!? $10,000-$20,000.

Hopefully, that gives you start. If you want a more specific and detailed estimate, feel free to touch base with us. We’re happy to help you plan!

–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.

Having a plan for your corporate video production is smart. Sticking with that plan… might be overrated.

I love clients who have it all figured out. This is what we’re going to shoot and when we’re going to shoot it. This is who we’re going to interview and what they’re going to say. I love that commitment to preparation.

The clients I love even more are the ones who make those plans, but are always ready to adjust when things don’t work out the way they were planned.

Corporate video production and Murphy

We have a client like that. Getting a spreadsheet filled with shoot times. Having three scripts for three videos that have been written in advance by the client. Come on… that’s pretty impressive.

Even more impressive is the client’s attitude. I believe she once said something to the extent of, “But I’m good with whatever happens.”

That’s my message for you today. Your production plan isn’t going to go as planned. Weather? Murphy’s law? Something else? Maybe… video shoots are unpredictable.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare. Having a solid game plan often makes the adjustment easier, but the willingness to change on the fly can often make or break your video in the end.

Don’t Panic, this should be fun

It can sound a little scary. Coordinating schedules, getting everything set-up, making sure all the moving parts are working toward your goal for the video. Doing all of that and knowing it could change on a dime. You know what though? That’s usually when things get really good, so go with the flow.

Producing a video is fun. It’s exciting, and when you complete the video… quite satisfying. You can even minimize all of that planning by hiring a video pro to take care of it for you.

Don’t be afraid of last minute changes. That spontaneity can lead to great moments. Let them happen.

–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.

I received a video email yesterday worth noting. That’s because it’s the second time I’ve received the video, and I think that’s a good thing.

The email came from Act|On. I actually blogged about the video the first time I received it because it’s a good example of an effective testimonial. The company is all about automated marketing, so no doubt the email I received then and yesterday was actually a planned attack that’s been in the works ever since I entered the company’s system.

Sending the same video email twice

At first, you might think sending the same video twice is a bad idea, but here’s why it’s a great idea. Just because you send an email video doesn’t mean everyone is going to see it.

I know, that’s kind of crazy for me to write. After all, we produce marketing videos. I should be telling you how many people do watch them. And while that’s true, the other part of that is no campaign gets a 100% click rate.

The reality is that if you’re cracking 40% with your open rate, you’re a rock star email marketer. Even if you are, that means 60% still aren’t opening your emails. Those who do open are likely to click that video if it’s relevant to them, but there are certainly those who will still pass it up.

Have a video strategy

What that brings me to is your video strategy. I know too many business leaders who create a video, share it once via email and/or social media and that’s it. A successful video campaign takes more than that. It takes a real plan.

When the video first comes out, you need to post it multiple times during the week on social media… and at different times of day. Do the same thing a few of months later. Do it again a year after its original release.

Do something similar with email. Send out that first email, but take a page from Act|On and send it again. The company’s first email I received months ago was dubbed as the case study of a business using marketing automation. The one I got yesterday had the subject line, “Stack your sales pipeline with more leads.”  Recipients who didn’t watch the first time might decide to hit play this time around. They are still potential audience member, so give them another chance to watch.

You spend time and money producing your marketing videos, but that’s just phase one. Phase two is making sure it gets seen.

–Tony Gnau

Writing this week about a couple of things we should all know but sometimes lose focus on. Yesterday, I blogged about knowing who you are as a business. Today, it is knowing your audience and how critically important it is for your video storytelling.

Both of these were themes talked about during last week’s “Evening with an Expert” put on by ChicagoAMA. One of those experts was Chris Young, Senior Director, Global Menu Strategy for a little company you might have heard of… McDonald’s.

Chris found it a little funny speaking at a marketing event because he isn’t a marketer. He’s a food scientist, but deciding what’s going to be placed on McDonald’s menus means understanding how to market those items… pointing out it’s important to ask a simple question.

“What do customers want?”

That’s a question we should all ask ourselves when it comes to our businesses, so why is it that many companies forget it when it comes to their marketing videos?

The problem I find with some business leaders is that in an effort to prop-up their company, they produce a video that’s designed to make themselves feel good… not their viewers. They have all sorts of things they love about their business, so they do their best to cram them all into their videos. That’s a mistake.

Let your audience guide your video storytelling

The first question you need to ask yourself when you start a new video project is… how do we serve our audience? Take a look at the elements you’re considering for your video. Think about them from the audience’s perspective. Do they impact viewers’ lives? Why should they care? Is this something that’s going to grab the audience’s attention?

If the audience isn’t interested, they’re not going to watch, and getting an audience to watch is the whole point of producing the video.

Remember, your video projects aren’t about padding the egos in the C-Suite. Your videos need to be about what the viewers want.

–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.

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to touch on some pretty basic themes. Themes we all know, but important ones that bear reminding… especially when it comes to corporate video production.

Evening with an expert

The first one comes via Justin Massa at Food Genius. He was one of the speakers last week at ChicagoAMA’s “Evening with an Expert.” The topic for the evening was the Age of Agile Marketing and Justin related his speech to the theme by talking about what he and Food Genius do… deliver Big Data to the food industry.  

A lot of what he talked about was how to use Big Data to help guide the marketing decisions businesses need to make in our ever-changing world. One of his takeaways in particular caught my attention because it’s just as relevant to video as it is to Big Data.

Justin said, “Know who you are.” I don’t care whether we’re talking about Big Data or video, that’s an important point.

How it applies to corporate video production

Your videos should mirror the type of business you have. What’s your company culture like? That’s the guiding light for your videos.

If you have a strong and traditional business, that’s how your videos should look and feel. If your team comes to work everyday wearing jeans, t-shirts and flip-flops, your videos should reflect that loose vibe. Knowing who you are will set the tone for everything from the shooting style to the music bed the plays under the video.

Staying true to who you are can often be the first step to a successful video project.

–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.

 

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You don’t need a spoken audio track to make an effective marketing video, but you do need good storytelling. An American Airlines video remains my favorite example, and since seeing it I love highlighting similar videos.

The best of the best are often high on style but still manage to tell a good story. The not-so-best of the best… just high on style. Case in point… Porsche.

I saw a friend post something on Facebook yesterday about the Porsche 918 Spyder. I love cars, so I Googled the car and found a video of its lap around the Nurburgring.

High on style

The German Nurburgring… much to the chagrin of the BBC Top Gear guys… is the benchmark track where many cars are tested. The video starts well… music, the car being prepped. It moves on to the track with lots of cameras tracking the car’s run. It finishes with the lap time and a celebration. No spoken audio traffic, and almost a good story. Almost.

Here’s the problem, why is everyone celebrating? Clearly, it must have been a good time. I then did another Google search and found out that it’s the first time a street-legal car has broken the 7-minute mark.

Storytelling lesson

It’s important to keep in mind that everyone who watches your video might not know what you know. The produces for Porsche all knew this was a record-setting run, but they didn’t take into account certain audience members (cough, cough… me) might not. That’s a good lesson.

You know your business inside-out. Sometimes that can cloud the information you put in a story, or how you even go about telling the story. Watch the Porsche video. Now imagine starting it with an aerial of the track, some music and an on-screen graphic… Nurburgring, Germany: a production car has never completed a lap in less than 7:00.

The video takes on a whole new meaning. Even if the audience already knew that fact, all it does is add to the anticipation that we’re about to see something special.

The things you think might be obvious about your business, might actually be the key to driving interest.

–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.

I’m sure I’m like a lot of Americans on this day. It’s hard to look at the date and not think about the morning of September 11, 2001. I think 9/11 will always be that way for me. Without question, it was one of the most emotionally draining days of my life.

So… for me… it’s a day to reflect.

I think back to the day itself when this seasoned news reporter was an emotional wreck, and the day years later when a Port Authority cop allowed me to shoot on Ground Zero. Each are worth a day of reflection.

This past weekend, 60 Minutes had a feature on the 9/11 museum that’s under construction. It’s definitely worth watching. The museum looks like it’s going to be pretty amazing, and I look froward to seeing it someday.

I also look forward to taking my daughter there when she’s older. I hope it helps her understand a time when we saw the worst in humanity followed by the best.

–Tony Gnau

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There was another interesting event put on last night by the American Marketing Association’s Chicago chapter (ChicagoAMA). “Evening with an Expert” was focused on the Age of Agile Marketing, marketing strategies and tactics that allow you to quickly respond to change.

At the start, I was thinking to myself… I don’t like the sound of this. Video production isn’t traditionally thought of as an “agile” marketing tactic.

Agile marketing and video can work well together

The truth is that’s not the case. The more I listened, the more I thought about how agile video really can be. After all, I come from TV news. Talk about needing to be agile. TV news is all about video storytelling on the run. It’s video storytelling at a quick pace. Yes, video storytelling can be done quickly… and done well.

It’s possible because video is highly agile. I can shoot and edit a story and have it to a business owner in a matter of hours. Want to produce, then make some tweaks after testing? That’s easy with video as well.

On the other hand… some companies… are about as agile as a super tanker.

I could blog and blog and blog about the video approval process and how slow it is with some businesses… and there’s a lesson there.

Don’t sweat the details

In a world of agile marketing, being able to get your video out and seen is critically important. The more you hem and haw over all the details found in a video, the more slowly it reaches your audience.

Now, I’m not saying for one second that you shouldn’t pay attention to details. You should. But, you should also avoid being crippled by those details. An important thing to keep in mind is that viewers aren’t focusing on the details in the same way you do. They’re just… well… watching and hopefully enjoying. They’re not scrutinizing every little detail.

You might be obsessed about a particular 3-second shot that appears in your video. Can we cut it short by second? Can you extend it second? Should we eliminate the shot all together?

They all might be relevant questions, but more than likely, whatever decision is made won’t matter to the viewer. Essentially, all you’ve done is sink a lot of time into a decision that isn’t going to impact the overall viewing experience.

You want a good video. You want one that looks good, sounds good, and above all else, tells a good story. Just remember, a tactic like video is only going to be as agile as your company will allow 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 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.