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When’s the last time you lent a hand to a friend in need? I don’t mean something small like giving them a cup of sugar or a ride to someplace you were both going anyway. I’m thinking something major… like helping them move or giving them a ride to the airport.

Where am I going with this? I got a reminder last week just how nice it feels to help a good friend, and when you can do it through something you’re passionate about… all the better.

Mrs. G and I have a GREAT friend who’s moving soon. Not to like, Minnesota or something… no… she’s moving halfway around the world. 

Anyway, the move means she’s going to miss her little sister’s wedding. We found out she was considering shooting a video to surprise her sister with during the reception, so we basically took it from there.

We insisted on shooting and editing something special for her. Of course, she doesn’t want to “put us out,” but come on… do you have any idea how many times this person has cat-sit for us? I’ll end-up putting in some extra hours working this week, but producing a video is the least we can do for this person.

Well, we shot the video last week and afterwards I was really touched by how appreciative she was. She basically said this is the nicest gift anyone has ever given her. How badly do you think I want this video to turn out well?

My point is this… we all have skills we’re blessed with. To us…  they’re no big deal. They’re just what we’re good at. But to someone without those skills, they’re pretty awesome. Especially when you use them in a time of need.

–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’ve been meeting a lot of small business owners lately who have websites… but no website video. There are a few reasons why I think they’re missing a huge opportunity. Here are a few reasons you need an About Us video.

First

There’s no way around it. When a website features a video, visitors watch them, and there’s no better way to create a good first impression than with a quality video. A company can have the most beautiful website on the planet, but at the end of the day it’s unlikely the site going to stir any emotion in visitors.

A video on the other hand is all about eliciting emotion. I’m not talking about making people laugh or cry. What businesses can achieve with a quality video is inspiring confidence in the brand, and putting the company in a good light so that it’s likable. And we all know we buy from people we like.

Second

It’s not as expense as they think. Business owners hear “video” and think money pit. Huge production teams eating up big budgets.

Well, I’m not going to lie… that can happen. The thing is if they pick the right producer, they’ll come in on budget and deliver a terrific story. Heck, we offer a nice package for less than $1,000. You can get quality storytelling on a budget.

Third

These business owners without website videos aren’t alone. That means the ones who choose to produce videos will have a leg-up on their competition. We’re all doing our best to set ourselves apart from the pack. A quality video is a sure way to do it.

We’re at a point where small business owners are going to have to take the next step. Ten years ago many were still in denial that they needed a website. Ten years from today a website video will just be considered an essential website component.

Which side of the trend is your business on?

–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.

Here’s a frequent problem many business leaders find themselves in at one point or another. Employees appearing in your marketing videos who then leave the company.

Oops. I hate when that happens. Talk about a predicament. As a company, do you kill the videos completely, or do you just let them ride?

I wish I had a simple answer, but it’s one of those… “it depends” answers.

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Suggestion from a PR/marketing Expert

This was actually a question tackled by PR/marketing guru Gini Dietrich in one of the past vlog segments we produced for Spin Sucks. She totally nails it, although I’ll add one thing to her comments.

Gini says unless it’s a rogue employee or someone who left on bad terms, it’s best to keep the video up as long as you have their permission. SEO value alone is a good reason for that.

How about this idea?

However, I’ll add a suggestion. Don’t kill the video, kill the employee. There might be a way to simply extract the employee from the video with some editing.

It’s not always going to work, but in a lot of cases you can simply pluck the person out and you’re all set.

Will it cost you something to do it? Again, it all depends. I know we’ve had cases on both sides with our clients. If all we need to do is pull out a couple of sound bites and it doesn’t impact the story? No charge.

On the other hand, if we’re pulling out sound bites and other video of them in the video… and finding replacement pieces of video… and tweaking the story… yeah… there’s a charge.

The good news is even in that scenario, it’s going to cost far less than producing a new video.

Who knew killing employees could be so easy?

–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.

There’s always room for improvement with your video storytelling. I’ve won Emmy awards, Telly awards and I’m still learning everyday. My lesson this week came via an actor.

Well, an actor/marketer/speaker/writer. Rob Biesenbach is a busy guy. I met him at a PRSA event a while back and we’ve stayed in touch. He’s dynamic and very insightful. He’s also the only guy I know who’s written a business book and has a profile on imdb.com… albeit a short one. :-)

Rethinking your labels

Anyway, I loved his most recent newsletter, “Market Yourself Like A Godfather.” He writes about a different way to tell your story. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but I loved a few of his bullet points about highlighting actions instead of labels…

• I’m low maintenance vs. I get my own coffee.
• I’m dependable vs. I haven’t missed a day in 7 years.
• Our quality is the highest vs. Our customer reviews average 4.5 stars.

Saying and proving your video storytelling

I really love those examples. How many times have all of us given our elevator pitches and mentioned labels? In video, we get away with it thanks to an old adage… say it, prove it. For instance, in our T60 elevator pitch video, I say we’re expert storytellers and back it up with a shot of an Emmy. Say it, prove it.

That’s good… but I like Rob’s point more, and there’s no reason you can’t combine his idea with say it, prove it. It’s making me rethink the way I talk to people about what we do.

Not to mention, I’m coaching business owners every week… helping them tell their stories. These are suggestions I’ll be keeping in mind. I might even give Rob credit… more than imdb.com does anyway.

–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.

My daughter and I visited a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian this weekend, and it actually spurred a thought about video ROI. If you’re a business leader who still thinks video is a waste of money because people won’t watch, you’re falling behind the times. 

Actually, if that’s what you believe, you might not be a business leader for long because the next generation is hot on your heals… and its members all watch online videos.

This came to me as I watched my 2-year-old daughter roam from station-to-station inside the exhibit, using the touch screens and pressing the “play” button on every… single… video. There were about 9-10 of them scattered throughout the exhibit.

“my customers don’t watch videos.”

I know, I know… she’s 2-years-old. If you’re one of these business leaders in denial, you’re probably thinking adults are more mature and wouldn’t do such a thing. That’s not what the statistic tell us.

• Over 85% of the country’s Internet users viewed online video content in September 2012 alone. —Oracle | Eloqua

“The Executives I deal with don’t watch videos.”

Okay, now you’re thinking… that’s the great unwashed masses. I do B2B sales and deal with sophisticated business types. They don’t watch online videos.

You’re wrong… so wrong. This comes from a Forbes Insights report…

• Video appears to have evolved from a novelty into a mainstream method for executives to receive business information. Younger executives in particular appear more inclined not only to view video, but also to create it and share it over the business-oriented “social” Web. Their growing influence within corporate America is likely to make business-related video even more prevalent in the coming years.

That’s Forbes talking… not me the video producer. You know what’s crazy about that report? The date it was published. If you didn’t read that in December of 2010, you’re now two-and-a-half years behind the trend.

Video marketing isn’t slowing down. It’s picking up steam. Don’t turn a blind eye on the direction communications is going.

–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.

Yesterday, I was making a case against narrated videos. Today, it’s a videography challenge… the side-by-side interview.

Don’t like them… never have. Yesterday’s objection was rooted in sound beliefs regarding how people watch videos. This one is more style-based, but I have my reasons.

First, unless you’re in a big room or outside, you have to frame-up the shot so wide you get very little depth-of-field. Aesthetically speaker… not the best looking shot.

Second, in most cases what you end-up with is one person talking and another person simply staring at them the whole time. As a viewer, you don’t know where to look. You want to look at the person speaking, but there’s that other person over there. You feel like you have to keep an eye on them too because they might say something at any moment.

Third, and this one is specifically for those of use producing corporate videos, what if one of those people leaves the business? I can’t tell you how many times clients have called us because Sue or Ted just left the company and now they want to pull them out of the company video. If they’re alone on camera for their interview, this is pretty easy. Not so much if they’re sharing the screen with someone else who talks.

How to make it work

The great thing about videography is it’s an art. There are plenty of ways to frame two people on camera for an interview shot, but that’s all dependent on each individual’s skill level. The client’s tolerance for creativity also plays a factor here. If they’re buttoned-up, a creatively-framed shot could freak them out.

When it’s okay

Of course, there’s an exception to every rule. Sometimes the two-person interview works great. If you have two people on-camera at the same time who have a great rapport, it can work well. Think Vince Vahaun and Owen Wilson.

The side-by-side interview is the type of thing when it goes right, it goes right. On the other hand, when it goes bad…

–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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I hate to keep picking on Illinois politicians… okay… that’s not true. I’m perfectly comfortable picking on Illinois politicians. They deserve it on a lot of levels. In this case, it centers on video narration. Small potatoes compared to the state’s $100-billion debt, but a good lesson for anyone producing a marketing video.

It’s a case of… here we go again. Democrats… Republicans… all doing the same thing and all missing the mark. Videos meant to sell us on them, only we barely get to hear from the candidates themselves.

It’s really quite maddening.

This time it’s a political newcomer, Doug Truax. He’s running for the U.S. Senate here in Illinois and he had a video produced to introduce himself to voters.

The video is over three minutes. That’s long for a web video, but not too bad. For me, video length is all about audience and the video’s purpose. In this case, I think three minutes is fine. Except for this one thing… we don’t hear from Traux during the first two minutes of the video. Instead, it’s your typical political commercial voice.

Ugg.

Why I’m not a fan of scripted video narration

If what you’re after is a carefully scripted message, narration is the way to go. However, if you you’re a business leader, here’s why I think you’re making a mistake. Your perfectly scripted and performed narration sounds scripted and performed.

The best marketing videos are the ones where people don’t feel like someone is selling them something. The video tells a compelling and authentic story. You loose the “authentic” part as soon as the audience hears the narrator.

Even if it’s only on a subconscious level, they know this video has been sanitized for their viewing. It’s no longer them discovering something new. It’s them being sold something.

You know how to stop that? Tell your own story. Go on camera and let your passion show. Drop the script, leave the teleprompter behind and speak from the heart.

That’s how you connect with an audience. That’s how you create a good first impression.

–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.

No doubt… video production can get expensive. Unless you have an eye on video ROI. That could change your perspective.

We have some low-cost options, but if you want full-service storytelling it’s going to cost you at least $4,000. Some company’s don’t blink at that. For others, it’s a big commitment.

Return on investment is something every business has to judge on their own, but there are some statistics out there that can help guide you. Here are some I have come across recently…

Marketing Pros Find a Video ROI

Video ranks 2nd with marketing professionals (51.9%) as the type of content with the best ROI.  |  eMarketer

People Act After Watching Videos

About 46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.  |  Oracle

Video ROI even touches top executives and decision makers

65% of senior executives have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video.  |  Forbes | Insights

Video Isn’t Easy

The highest percentage of marketers (49.8%) describe video content as “difficult to create.” (cough, cough… which is why it’s good to hire a professional video storyteller)  |  eMarketer

I’m not here to tell you people will watch your video and immediately line-up to buy your product or service. What I will say is if you tell a good story, you’re going to put yourself in a good light… making it easier for people to buy from you.

Video is a great way to create a good first impression. It can help endear you to your prospects, and we buy from people we like.

That’s the power of video. That’s a good return on investment.

–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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I’m a big fan of YouSendIt.com. T60 has had an account with the company for years. We send some pretty large files to our clients, and YouSendIt.com is how we’ve always done it… until now.

That’s because YouSendIt.com has changed its name to Hightail.com. The company has been mentioning the name change for a while, but just recently it made the switch official.

Like many clients, I was wondering… why? Well, Hightail leaders made a very smart decision… they told us.

I mean that literally, they told us. They produced a video and explained the idea behind the name change.

The reason isn’t important. You can find out for yourself by watching the video. What’s important is they used video to its fullest.

Keeping clients informed

First of all, they didn’t owe an explanation to anyone. It’s their company. If they want to change the name, they certainly can. But knowing they have a loyal following, they knew there would be questions so why not clue people in?

Second, they could have posted an open letter to customers at the website or sent everyone an email, but they took it a step further by creating a video. This allowed them to personally tell everyone what was going on. We got to hear it straight from them.

I love it… such a great idea. Not only is it an accessible way for people to get an answer to the “why” question, it also humanizes the company. We get to see and hear from Hightail’s leadership and share in their passion.

I’ll tell you what the video did for this client… it satisfied me. I heard their reasoning… accepted it… and changed my web browser bookmark.

From my end… happy customer. From their end… mission accomplished.

Something to keep in mind the next time you have big news clients might be interested to know.

–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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Wrapping up a week of blogging about some of our most recent videos and sharing the lessons behind them. Today, it’s about picking the right video producer.

Let’s face it. There are TONS of people out there who can produce your video. Everyone with a smartphone in their pocket is carrying a video camera. You can even edit the video you shot on the phone as well… not recommended.

But just because everyone has the tools to shoot and edit video, it does not mean they have the ability to produce a quality video. Which leads me to today’s video, For Women, ltd.

Case Study

Dr. Javier Fajardo is a Chicago-based doctor offering gynecological and obstetrical care with a personalized touch. He was in the middle of a website redesign and decided a new video was in order.

The old video… not so good. The biggest issue was the lighting. The person shooting it clearly didn’t use their own lights and relied on the overhead florescent lights. Big mistake.

You can get away with that in certain circumstances. If there are a bunch of them and the room is truly bright… probably okay. When you have to boost your camera levels to the max and the picture still looks pretty dark… you better whip out the light kit.

Dr. Fajardo’s office isn’t poorly lit. It’s perfectly fine as a doctor’s office, but it isn’t exactly ideal as a video studio. Even putting up a single light made a world of difference. That’s what experience gets you.

On Alert for Video producer problems

I think there are a few problems to be aware of when choosing a video producer. Technology has become a crutch. The cameras are so good these days we just put too much trust in them. Next, a few classes on video production doesn’t make someone an expert. Years in the field do. Finally, I’ll just say it… some people are lazy. “Good enough” isn’t good enough.

And that’s just the technical aspect of shooting a video… I didn’t even touch on the importance of choosing a real storyteller.

Keep those things in mind the next time you pick your producer.

–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.