One of my favorite things about online marketing videos is the opportunity they provide businesses to give customers an insider’s look at the company.

I just watched a video Ford has on its YouTube channel showing people how they test a vehicle for wind noise. From a production value standpoint, the video is okay… nothing special really.

Where it excels is simply giving a guy like me a glimpse behind the curtain. I’m going to be in the market for a car in the next couple years, so I find myself looking at stuff like this.

Online videos are completely changing the way we shop. They give us a whole new perspective that consumers didn’t have even just a few years ago.

Sure, Ford has produced a video sanitized for my viewing, but it’s still information I probably wouldn’t have noticed if not for YouTube.

–Tony Gnau

If you’re looking for someone to produce a company video, don’t search for a corporate video producer. You should look for a corporate storyteller.

Now, some video producers are storytellers, but not all of them. You can find tons of people with the technical expertise to edit together a video, but a storyteller will help make the video relevant to an audience.

How do you know if they’re a storyteller? Look at their work.

Does it hold your attention? Are you curious to see what’s next? Do you connect with the video’s message?

If the answer is yes to one or more of these questions, then you might have found someone who can tell your company’s story.

–Tony Gnau

Jim Collins writes a lot in his book Good To Great about how important it is for companies to “get the right people on the bus.” In short, finding employees who are self-motivated.

That’s something we take seriously at T60. Right now, I shoot and edit most of our video, but T60 is growing so more and more we turn to freelancers to help. These aren’t just any freelancers though, they’re rock stars! Photographers and editors we can trust to create great content for our clients.

I was reminded how talented they are last week when I got the good news that Jeremy Nichols won a pair of Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Jeremy is a news photographer/editor at WISC-TV in Madison, WI.  He has worked for T60 in the past, and I hope he’ll continue to play a part in the company’s growth.

Jeremy just won awards for best use of video, watch Goat Art and you’ll see why, but he didn’t stop there. He’s so motivated that as a photographer/editor, he even won an award for sports reporting. Jeremy shot, wrote, voiced, and edited Good Eye, Tanner.

Any doubt this is the type of person you want creating content?

–Tony Gnau

Storytelling doesn’t need words, but it does need a story. That little ditty came to me after watching a video produced by Italian automaker Alpha Romeo.

The video uses time-lapse photography to show a concept car being assembled.

Did I miss something? Is that it? There’s no voice track or interviews to tell us anything about the car or the car show where it was displayed.

All it does is leave me wondering. What was I supposed to get from the video? Is the message simply, look at this cool car? I guess if I have to ask what the message is it’s not very good.

In comparison, check out this American Airlines video I highlighted last January. Similar concept… showing us an advertisement display being created, but the airline’s video does a great job of delivering a message without any words.

Video is a great medium, but businesses still have to give viewers a reason to watch.

–Tony Gnau

I’m a big believer in transparency. In government, in business, and yes… in marketing videos. That’s why I’m pretty excited about seeing a new movie coming out this week.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is Morgan Spurlock‘s latest documentary. The concept… produce a movie about product placement and advertising that is paid for by product placement and advertising.

Love it.

Sure, it’s a clever way to focus on the subject, but I love the fact that some companies were apparently willing to jump onboard.

A business that respects an audience’s intelligence is bound to reap rewards.

–Tony Gnau

There are all sorts of videos that can help a company make a sale. Whether you provide a product or a service, a good video highlighting what you do can go a long way to earning new business.

But don’t discount your current customers.

A good video can also be an investment in them. If you don’t think your competitors are trying to lure their business away, you’re kidding yourself. That means its just as important to share your videos with your “faithful” clients as it is with your prospects.

It’s an investment worth making.

–Tony Gnau

I watched a good interview over at the Social Media Examiner last week, and it really hit home because it gave me a different perspective on one of my favorite topics.

Social Media author Scott Stratten talked about corporate video and how businesses need to tell emotional stories to get people to share them. He thinks this is the key to making videos go viral.

Anyone who reads this blog knows my feelings on this subject. Video is all about emotion, not facts. Call it my mantra. A good video touches emotions and connects with the audience. A powerful concept for any marketer.

Anyway, Stratten did open my eyes though because I’ve never thought about it from a “sharing” perspective, but it makes sense. People rarely share videos because they have great facts. They share videos that elicit emotion.

In some cases, facts lead to emotions, but it’s still the emotional response that’s driving viewers to share.

Emotion is apparently a key that opens many doors.

–Tony Gnau

Ditch the actors in web videos. Real people are just a better way to go.

I was watching an American Airlines video yesterday when this thought jumped to mind. The airline actually does a great job of posting online videos, some good, some not so good.

This one focuses on a contest the airline is running, and the video features actors posing as real people who talk about needing a vacation. This would have been so much better with real people, in their real environments.

Real people work well in videos because it immediately allows the viewer to connect with who they’re watching. Once you see an actor in a video, that sensation is gone. You know the company is selling you on something.

Real people on the other hand, their message is more authentic. Viewers are simply more interested in what they have to say, and they’re even trusted.

Real people, real messages, real impact.

–Tony Gnau

It doesn’t take long. A good video can get people’s attention and peak their interest in less than a couple of minutes. That’s important because most web surfers have very short attention spans.

However, that’s not why I think shorter PR and marketing videos are better. Shorter is better because it allows you to do more.

Instead of producing a single, let’s say, 10-minute video, businesses should turn out five, 2-minute videos. Breaking things up into segments does a couple of things…

1. it’s a manageable time for people to watch
2. it creates an event to look forward to

I want to focus on that second point. Producing a series of videos allows a company to release them as a web series. Using our previous example, we’ll say one video a week for five weeks.

Show them over your social media networks, in an email campaign, and now you’re producing content your followers will anticipate and appreciate every week.

Less really can be more.

–Tony Gnau

Anyone who watched the Masters this past weekend got to see some great golf interspersed with the same commercials… over and over again. It’s a Masters thing. There are fewer commercial breaks, but the same ads are shown throughout the broadcast.

Kind of annoying, but believe it or not one of them actually got my attention and drove me to act. IBM promoted a series of “films” the company is showing at its website, so I checked them out.

Wow. I was expecting a few short web videos. Not the case. One of the two that are currently posted is 30-minutes long. The other is 13-minutes. Both document IBM achievements over the years.

It’s a pretty bold video strategy. The company clearly invested a lot in the productions, and I enjoyed them.  They certainly do a good job of driving home the message about what an important company IBM has been in the computing world.

The only problem, I’m not sure how many people will take the time to watch. I know I did, but hey, I’m in the video marketing biz.

I think there’s a huge audience out there for videos that are 5-minutes or less. 30-minutes… not so much. Heck, I usually recommend companies produce marketing videos that are 2-minutes or less.

IBM’s 30-minute film is actually broken into shorter segments, and I’m wondering why they simply didn’t release the individual segments instead of creating one big video? Stagger their release every couple days and now you have a series people could better manage.

–Tony Gnau