I was watching some football this weekend and saw a funny new ad from Miller Lite that features a great storytelling technique… surprises.

The commercial looks and feels very much like one you’d see for eHarmony, the internet dating service, but at the end we find out it’s for Miller Lite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXXgBU_bS7A).  It’s a funny surprise… which is why it sticks with me even now.

Surprises also work great in video marketing.  You should always ask yourself if there’s something unique about your product or service that will surprise people.  Building up to that surprise and revealing it will almost always provide a nice impact on the viewer.

I worked a good surprise into a video I produced for Illinois State Sen. John Millner that shows what kind of man he is away from Springfield (https://www.t60productions.com/Video-Sen._John_Millner.html).

–Tony Gnau

The key to creating a good corporate video is finding the right story.  Sure, your boss wants facts and figures included, but you need to find the right story to weave them into otherwise people aren’t going to remember anything about the video.  It’s called corporate storytelling.

I try my best to help clients with this all the time.  The fact is corporate officials aren’t journalists, so they don’t look at a potential story in the same way.  You have to know who your audience is and find something that’s going to appeal to them.

–Tony Gnau

Yeah, we have some pretty high standards at T60.  But the “best blog ever written?”  Well, it’s hard, but we’ll try.

Anyway, welcome!  You’re logging on to our first official blog entry.  We hope you’ll follow our adventures and post your own comments along the way.

We’re really excited about this new feature at t60productions.com because it’ll allow us an opportunity to share with you some of the stories behind the stories.

T60 is fortunate to have some great clients and vendors we work with, and each project we complete we learn so much along the way.

Through this blog we’ll share things like how we came up with the ideas for our videos, ways our clients are using them and how it might help you and your communication needs.

We’ll probably also share some insights on various other issues around T60.  I’m sure if the coffee maker brakes, T60’s V.P. of Marketing, Katie, will immediately jump on the blog to conduct a poll of how many people feel coffee is essential to the creative process.

So, thanks for joining us.  We’ll be in touch!

–Tony Gnau