Let’s start with the obvious question. Can a still photographer produce a video? Yes they can and many of them have started doing more of it. Do most of them do it well? No.

Notice I wrote “most” in there. That’s quite intentional. I’m sure there are still photographers out there who do a fine job of producing videos, but in my opinion they tend to be the exception. There’s a good reason for that and I’ll get to it in just a minute.

Don’t worry, I won’t let videographers off the hook because it goes the other way as well.… Read More

One of my favorite videos we produce is the event video. I guess I should actually be referring to them as “videos” because there are actually several different types of event videos you can produce.

These videos excel in a few key areas:

• helping promote events
• keeping an audience’s attention during an event
• driving traffic to a booth or table during trade shows
• allowing an event to live on even after it’s over

That last area was actually the subject of a post I wrote this week for Eventbrite, How-To Leave People Feeling Good About Your Event. It’s a detailed look at how you can produce a video during your event that “puts a bow on the experience” for all of your attendees and beyond.… Read More

Attention all human resources professionals or others in charge of communicating with team members. I have an internal communications video idea for you. An idea that will have everyone in your organization buzzing.

What I propose is to start featuring employees… at random. Not the employee of the month, not someone working on the latest company product or initiative. No, I’m talking about selecting people at random, and I’ll layout my case for why this is an awesome idea.

Some background

I’ve blogged in the past about my TV news mentor, CBS feature reporter Steve Hartman. He’s just flat-out one of the best in the biz.… Read More

Joe Pulizzi is the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and one of the nation’s authorities on content marketing. He knows how to reach people.

No surprise… he LOVES video and is a strong advocate for storytelling. My favorite take from my interview with him:

“If it’s not in some sort of story format, what is it in? How are you going to make the stuff you have interesting because if we want to get found in search, and we want to have social media work for us, if we want to drive leads, you have to be interesting.”

It’s officially Chicago Craft Beer Week. The 5th annual event is quickly becoming a city staple with local brewers, drinkers, and chefs all getting in on the fun. T60 has a rich history in beer videos, so I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane to share some suds stories and marketing lessons learned along the way.

We have produced more than a dozen videos for Goose Island Beer Company, the king of Chicago craft beers, and have won a couple of Telly Awards for that work. We haven’t produced any videos since Anheuser-Busch bought the company in 2011, but believe it or not, I actually take pride in that.… Read More

Congratulations… you have a new marketing video. Whether you produced it yourself or hired pros to create something awesome, you’re only half-way through the process.

What?

You thought you were done?

Nope.

You might have the best video ever, but it’s useless until people get a chance to see it. It’s now time to promote your video.

Video Promotion Strategy

Contrary to what many people believe, you just don’t post a video to YouTube and watch the views grow and grow.

You might get some, but you’re missing out on your video’s true potential if this is all you do.… Read More

I’m in the trust business. You are in the trust business. When it comes right down to it, we’re all in the trust business. The more our customers and prospects trust that we’re going to deliver for them, the more willing they are to buy from us.

Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm, believes that so much the company created its Trust Barometer. It measures trust in business, trust in government, trust around the world. When you go to the Trust Barometer page at Edelman’s website, it features a brief description regarding what the Trust Barometer is all about and a pretty cool info graphic.… Read More

Picking a video production company can be a tricky proposition. No doubt, price matters and you’ll want to find out if they fit your budget. However, there are some other things you can look at when learning how-to pick a video company. 

• look at their client list (do they have many repeat clients?)
• ask who’s going to be the creative mind behind the project?
• are they purely video experts, or do they have a storytelling background too?

Just a few things you should consider.

Of course, you should watch the client videos they post at their website as examples. We have an additional tip on what to look for when you do that in this month’s vlog, so please give that a watch.… Read More

Trust. Can you think of a more valuable commodity when it comes to marketing? We buy from those we trust, which is why I consistently encourage our clients to help us create authentic marketing videos for their companies.

I have never met with a business leader who was setting out to lie to their customers, and thankfully, I’ve never met with any who would like to “spin” how they do things. Having said that, we all know they exist.

Gini Dietrich wrote the book on why Spin Sucks, literally. That book and her daily blog by the same name detail better ways to do PR and marketing.… Read More

Pricing out video production can be kind of tricky. Ask someone in the industry for help and you’ll likely get the typical answer… it depends. Not very helpful when you’re planning a budget and trying to figure out your video production costs.

Maybe that’s why so many production companies don’t advertise their prices. It drives me crazy when I can’t find pricing information at a website, so we at least try to give some ballpark figures at our video production pricing sheet. We’re also happy to prepare a quote for you anytime you’re planning a budget.

While I’ve had plenty of customers and prospects thank me for that, I thought a more extensive blog post on how we break down our costs might be worthwhile explaining.… Read More