Courtesy: Goose Island Beer Co.

A quarter century in business is something to celebrate. The ups, the downs, the people who made it everything possible… all of it makes for good video content. Give it to a loyal following and they’ll eat it up… or drink it down in this case.

Goose Island Beer Company is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this week. For those of you outside Chicago, it’s quite simply the city’s beer. Starting as a brew pub, growing into a craft brewery, and succeeding to the point where Anheuser-Busch stepped in and purchased the company. It’s the American Dream come to life, and now you can learn all about it in a newly produced video (WATCH IT BELOW).

Goose Island Helped Grow T60

I’m really proud of this video even though T60 didn’t have any part in it. As you may or may not know, Goose Island played a BIG role in growing this business. Just a couple years after launching, Goose Island leaders hired T60 to produce about a dozen videos on their beers. It was without question the biggest single project we had worked. The videos turned out great, and we were called back for a few other projects over the next couple of years.

Goose Island as a client gave T60 instant credibility here in Chicago. When prospects would ask me about some of our clients, all I had to do was mention the Goose and I had their attention. Great company, great product, our storytelling… I couldn’t ask for much more.

Inspiring More Storytelling

We haven’t done anything for them since the crew from St. Louis made the purchase. You’d think I’d be bummed, but the truth is it warms my heart. See… Goose Island’s leaders understand the power of video and storytelling. They wanted to do more… a lot more… so they went out and hired someone to produce videos in-house.

In a way, I hope their experience with T60 inspired them. They were so happy with the response they got from our videos that they wanted more, and from a cost standpoint it made more sense to hire someone full-time.

What Goose Island Can Teach you

I’d love to still be doing work for them, but when you see the video you’ll understand they’re in good hands. It’s on the long-side, but in this case I think that’s just fine. This video is for everyone at the company and anyone who’s a die-hard fan. You want to do a 15-minute video on the company’s history for those audiences? Go for it.

It’s actually a great lesson for anyone struggling with finding content ideas. Your company’s history is a potential treasure trove. You don’t have to do a 15-minute epic. A series of short history stories on various aspects of the company is a great way to go.

Anyway, I couldn’t be happier for everyone at Goose Island and I’m eternally grateful to have worked with them. They are passionate about what they do, and it comes through in all their videos.

Happy Anniversary Goose.

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

Courtesy: cars.com

One of the things I love about being a ChicagoAMA sponsor is getting to meet the amazing professionals who share their time and knowledge with the members. T60 produces preview videos for many of the organization’s events. That means I get to meet the keynote speakers weeks before their presentations, and that one-on-one time has been priceless to learn about their video strategy.

Basically, I get to pick their brains. A lot it centers on the topic they’ll be covering, but no surprise I also ask them questions about how they’re using video. You can imagine how excited I was when I met with the cars.com Chief Marketing Officer,Linda Bartman, and saw a sheet hanging above her desk entitled, The Video Factor.

It was an infographic the company produced in 2011 to highlight how many people are watching online videos. You don’t need me to tell you… it’s like a gazillion. Here’s what I love though… it’s terrific justification for producing video content.

What’s coming at the event

Which leads me into the upcoming event (SEE VIDEO BELOW | REGISTER). Linda will be speaking about some of the challenges they face that might sound familiar to many marketers. One of them is having to explain some of their content decisions. In the case of cars.com, they have to explain it to their clients… the companies and dealerships that advertise with them.

The case for video

The info-graphic does a great job of explaining the reason for producing video content. 178-million Americans watching online video… 30% watching on mobile devices… and then the nitty-gritty for them.

• 68% of people watching online automotive videos found them important
• 55% of car buyers watch an online video before making their purchase
• Shoppers who watch dealer videos on cars.com spend nearly twice as much time on the site as people who don’t watch videos

Good stuff. That’s coming from a company that crunches the numbers and understands the power of video.

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

Courtesy: imdb.com

I watched a pretty cool movie over the weekend, and it illustrated something important for anyone producing corporate videos. Keeping an open mind is crucial to storytelling.

The movie I saw was Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. It’s all about nutrition and changing the way we eat. The material is interesting, the story is well-told and it’s worthwhile watching. The trailer and full movie are below.

Alright, spoiler alert… I’m going to give away a surprise in the movie, so if you’re genuinely interested in seeing it… bookmark this post and come back to read it later.

About the movie

Okay, the movie is billed as the story of Joe Cross… an Australian man who’s 100-pounds overweight, suffering from an autoimmune disease and ready to make a big life-change. That is indeed what the movie is about, but there’s a story that overtakes it. Along the way on Joe’s journey, he runs into a truck driver in worse shape than him. Joe offers his help, and low and behold the trucker calls him out of the blue one day asking to take him up on it.

What’s remarkable about this is that the phone call appears to come at the end of Joe’s adventure. I can just imagine the production meeting after that phone call. Here they are at the end of the production and what could be an even better story has been gift-wrapped for them.

Joe’s story is good and he’s a likeable guy, but the transformation that follows with the truck driver is nothing short of extraordinary. It clearly added several months to the production and I’m sure more expense as well.

Takeaway

Joe and the production team deserve a lot of credit. It would have been easy for them to ignore the truck driver’s story and make the movie they set-out to make… all focused on Joe and his journey. What they seemingly did was make a tough call and it paid-off BIGTIME!

This isn’t a unique situation. The same thing happens during all sorts of corporate video productions. The hard thing is standing up and telling either your client or boss… there’s a better story here. I know we made plans to do one thing, but we’ve found something better. You might get some push-back and ultimately they’re the ones making the call, but you owe it to them to give your professional opinion.

You should want to tell the best story possible, even if that wasn’t the story you set-out to tell.

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

Courtesy– Pete the Cat: I like my white shoes.

I’m your classic half-full versus half-empty kind of guy. Always have been. That’s a good quality to have when producing corporate videos.

Here’s how my morning went last Thursday…

• 6:20 a.m.: woke up 20-minutes late
• 7:00 a.m.: realized I forgot my phone at home
• 8:30 a.m.: returned to get my phone, made me late for chiropractor appointment
• 11:10 a.m.: after an hour in the office, jumped on the L to meet a friend/colleague in the Loop for lunch
• 11:15 a.m.: CTA shut down north side L service because of a train derailment
• 11:45 a.m.: make the 30-minute walk home only to arrive to a big pile of cat puke in the front hall

That was all before Noon. It would have been easy to get down after a morning like that or feel sorry for myself, but as Pete the Cat would say… “It’s all good.” (VIDEO BELOW)

That’s an attitude that will help you be successful producing corporate videos. Productions are always changing. Sometimes for the good, but more often than not the changes present… we’ll call them… challenges.

Griping about it isn’t going to help anything. Rolling with it and being a problem-solver will not only make you feel better, it will likely lead to a good video. There have been plenty of situations where I’ve been handed a lemon during a shoot, and those lemonade videos frequently turn out to be some of my favorites.

Keep your head up and press 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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

Courtesy: thestartbook.com

Here we go again. I had another pros and cons conversation recently with someone about do-it-yourself video content. Thankfully, I had a new argument to bolster my opinion courtesy Jon Acuff.

Acuff is a successful author. He started with a blog and his latest book, START (VIDEO BELOW), debuted on The New York Times best sellers list. I’m a big fan of his last book, Quitter, and I’m looking forward to reading this next one. He’s an entertaining writer, but even better he’s pretty inspiring.

I was listening to him talk about START during an EntreLeadership podcast and something really hit home for me. I run into a lot of leaders at success companies who think they can produce their own videos. “Tim in accounting has his own camera and his home movies are pretty good.” That’s an actual quote.

You can’t skip ahead to awesome

Acuff talks about these stages everyone goes through on the road to awesome… learning, editing, mastering, harvesting and guiding. If you’re going to be awesome at something, you have to go through each step. One leads to the other and nobody gets to jump ahead. You figure out what you’re passionate about, practice, hone your craft, see the benefits of your hard work, then help others who are starting out.

As someone who’s dedicated their professional life to becoming a great storyteller, that clicked with me. It’s also why most DIY corporate videos suck. Ted in accounting hasn’t gone through the steps. His boss wants him to be a professional storyteller, but he hasn’t spent enough time learning, editing and mastering.

When to DIY, When not to DIY

I’ve said it time and time again, if you’re a small business owner without any budget and believe in the power of video… have at it. Produce your own stuff. It’s better than nothing and nobody is expecting professional videos from you.

On the other hand, if you’re a leader at an established company, find yourself a video pro. They’ll do it smarter, more efficiently and better than you.

Why would you trust the image and reputation of your business to Ted in accounting?

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I consistently am when it comes to all the ways marketing videos are being used and where.

I walked into a local locksmith yesterday, Ashland Lock and Security Solutions, and I was greeted not by one video monitor… but two. A pair of flat screens playing videos featuring two different products.

Two monitors, two brands

One of them was showing a durability demonstration for a particular lock system (VIDEO BELOW) and the other highlighted a bunch of different locks and the mechanics behind how they work.

The videos actually accomplished a couple of things. First, they provided me with some interesting stuff to watch. I’m serious… the content on each monitor was genuinely interesting. Second, my time in the store took a little longer than anticipated, but it didn’t feel that way because I had something to keep my attention.

Seems like a win, win to me. The store was able to market to me while keeping me entertained all at the same time.

Free content for the store

I asked the locksmith about the videos and he told me the lock companies actually provided and installed the monitors, as well as stream the content. That’s free content folks. Not a bad deal.

Turns out each of the lock systems are brands offered by the same company, Assa Abloy. A little further investigating and I found separate YouTube channels for each of the brands.

I love this company. It’s leaders clearly understand the power of video. Dozens, upon dozens of videos are on YouTube featuring everything from straight-up marketing videos to how-to install and operate the locks. It’s a great mix of how content marketing should look.

If you need an example of how a company can effectively use video to further a brand… this is 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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

There are all sorts of ways you can use video to help market a business, but there are few things as effective as client testimonials or case studies.

T60 is a sponsor for the Chicago chapter of the American Marketing Association (ChicagoAMA). One of our follow sponsors is the company Act|On. They sell a marketing automation software platform. I spoke with one of the reps at a recent event, gave them a business card and asked for more information about their services.

Follow-up email with video

Consider me impressed. They’ve been following-up with me on a consistent basis, and about a week ago I got an email with a subject line that immediately caught my attention… Video Case Study: Achieving real results with Marketing Automation (VIDEO BELOW).

The email drove me to a video produced by the company that features one of their clients singing Act|On’s praises.

I loved it. It looked good, sounded good and it told a nice story.

Testimonials benefit both parties

One of the reasons I enjoy testimonials like this is that it benefits everyone. Obviously, Act|On benefits from having a customer share their experiences, but that client gets a boost as well. As soon as I was done watching the video, I Googled both businesses to learn more about each of them.

Maybe the only critique I have with the video is that it probably could have been a minute shorter and still accomplished the same goal, but that’s really nitpicking. It’s a solid effort, and considering I am a prospective customer it obviously kept my attention throughout.

Anyway, just goes to show you that a quality video telling a compelling story can even reel-in a video professional.

Well done Act|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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

You know me… I love event videos. Previews that encourage people to attend, and videos shot during the event to share afterwards. I think they’re a great way to get people excited about the event, and a way for the event to live on even after it’s over.

Having said that… you still need to deliver a quality video and tell a good story. Just producing a video isn’t good enough. Case in point… CDW.

The technology retailer launched a new campaign last week and bought some space on Facebook. One of their ads popped-up in my news feed, and while I typically sail over them this one caught my attention.

It featured a video, See the fun people had at Technoliner reveal day (video below). Sounded like a good example of an event video, so I decided to see what they cooked up. It turned out to be a major letdown.

CDW apparently is driving a bus across the country featuring new technology, and they’re promoting the tour hoping people will check out the bus if it stops in their town. Sounds like a good opportunity for a video, right? Well, it is but the story stinks.

It’s all about CDW. Look at our launch party. We had Charles Barkley there. We grilled out. There’s all sorts of technology on-board. In short… they’re totally full of themselves. 

Look… if all your event video is doing is capturing the scene to give people sense of what happened that’s all fine, but that isn’t the goal for this video. I think the goal is to get us to want to see the Technoliner. So here I am… Joe Viewer… thinking… who cares? How does this technology impact me? Why would I make an effort to see the bus? What’s the point?

I don’t have an answer for any of those questions because CDW is too busy patting themselves on the back.

On top of that… they want me to check out the bus, but they don’t say which cities it’ll hit. Okay, maybe it’s too many to list, but give me a call-to-action saying something like, “Check the website for when the Technoliner will be in your neighborhood.”

Just because you’re holding an event and you’re excited about it doesn’t mean the rest of the world will be as well. The video still needs to be focused on audience members and their needs.

That’s the foundation for a good video.

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

Alright, we’ve been celebrating our 12th Telly Award all week by looking back on past winners for some good production lessons. Today’s the day we unveil this year’s winner and offer some insights for event planning.

Drum roll, please. Our 2013 Telly Award winner is… Heroin Abuse Awareness Seminar for Illinois State Sen. Matt Murphy!

Hugh!?

I know, you’re thinking… Tony, your videos always tend to be upbeat, happy and inspirational… what gives?

Well, call it a change of pace if you like, but this video is actually a classic example of what an event video can do.

Multiplying Your Audience

Sen. Murphy was hosting a pair of seminars in his district just outside Chicago to highlight an important issue facing his constituents, suburban heroin abuse. He brought together law enforcement officials, addiction experts and family members of addicts to give parents a wake-up call.

Certainly a worthy effort, but he knew the seminars would only draw a few hundred people. He represents tens of thousands and wanted to be able to get this message out to as many of them as possible.

Enter video. He asked for a short story highlighting the major points… something that would leave an impression on viewers. Once it was produced, he and the Illinois Senate Republicans used their social networks to share the video with constituents (VIDEO BELOW).

Put aside politics, and instead, examine that through your PR and marketing lens. They took an event attended by hundreds and turned it into something that could impact thousands.

That’s why PR, marketing and event planning pros need a new line item in every significant event they put on… video budget.

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url

We’re celebrating at T60 this week after finding out we won our 12th Telly Award. The honor got us thinking back to some of our past winning entries and the lessons they can provide. We blog a lot about marketing, but today’s post is all about public relations videos.

One of the issues I face with prospects and clients is the notion… we don’t do anything interesting… why would anyone watch a video about us? I don’t blame people for feeling that way. It’s hard to look past what you do everyday and see it with a fresh set of eyes… a different perspective… but that’s why business leaders need professional storytellers.

One of our clients recently retired, Illinois State Senator John Millner. I never used to blog about him because I didn’t want to invite any political discussions. None of the videos we produced for him were political in nature. They were straight-up public relations videos highlighting work he was doing for his constituents.

We had a contract to do a series of videos and it had run down to the last video. Through his lens, he couldn’t really think of anything else he was doing that would be “worth” highlighting. I asked him if he had any events he’d be attending in the coming weeks, and it turned out he’d be walking in a Labor Day parade.

I said, “That’s your video.” He didn’t get it. He said all he does is shake hands. I assured him we’d find a story in that, and we did.

What I noticed on the shoot was that all the characteristics that make him shine came through during that parade. Sen. Millner is a genuinely nice guy. He’s humble. He’s upbeat. He wanted to connect with the people he served. Why not a video highlighting those things?

The Telly Award judges apparently agreed with me because they awarded us for that story (VIDEO BELOW).

Businesses go about their day-to-day work not realizing there are stories all around them. Stories other people would be interested in if they were shared. A good storyteller can look at your company and help you find those stories.

–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.

ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url