Okay PR pros… you want to see how to make life easy on your TV contacts? Check out Clarke. It’s a company doing the type of work that’s bound to draw media attention. They fight mosquitoes.

Yes… not necessarily a sexy business, but just look at their video download page. It’s AMAZING! They provide dozens of clips for journalists to use. It looks professional and has everything a TV producer, reporter, or editor is going to need to piece together a story on mosquito control.

You know how I know this? A friend of mine at WGN-TV news told me about the company. WGN was doing a story on West Nile virus (transmitted by mosquitoes) and someone at Clarke sent them a link to their videos. My friend was gushing over how helpful it was.

If you’re working for a business that’s involved with issues or subject matters that end up on the news, you need to put together a page like this. It provides exposure, and allows you to control the content surrounding your company.

–Tony Gnau

Company culture is something more and more people are looking at these days. Whether it’s customers looking for businesses that align with their beliefs, or potential employees looking for a good work environment. Company culture has become very important.

The best way to show people your culture… video. Nothing does a better job. You can write about it all you want. You can take tons of photos. Neither does the job better than video.

It gives people a behind-the-scenes look at your company. Are you power suits and polished shoes or t-shirts and jeans?  Cubicles and board rooms or open floor plans and scooters? The audience gets to see the physical environment, hear from team members, and get a sense of what it’s like being there.

If you want to give people a peek behind the curtain… video is the way to do it.

–Tony Gnau

When you’re fiercely loyal to your audience, you have to kill shots you love. Actually, the tougher thing is to kill shots your client loves and trying to explain it to them.

I’ll give you an example. I’ve had to shoot video for a bunch of ribbon cuttings. Clients love them. To them, a ribbon cutting is a big deal. The event signifies something major for the company. The audience on the other hand… could probably care less.

I usually find a way to incorporate the actual ribbon cutting… 3, 2, 1, cut!… but that’s about it. Questions typically follow… why didn’t you include the speech from event chair, the executive or the mayor?

Why? Because those speeches rarely impact the audience.

That’s why I start most video consultations with the question… who is this video for? If the answer is our clients/prospects/general public, then we need to make sure everything in the video speaks to their interests.

Remember, video is for the audience… not a company’s ego.

–Tony Gnau

We all know video is turning up just about everywhere these days. It’s kind of hard to escape it, but I spotted a video somewhere I never would have imagined finding one. In a catalog… a print version of a catalog.

Check out the photo I posted. If you page through Williams-Sonoma’s catalog you’ll find they include “play” buttons next to some of their products. I love it… a “play” button in a print catalog!?

I went to their website, typed in the product number, and low and behold there was indeed a video to watch. This one’s for a snow cone maker.

There are still business people out there who are questioning whether or not they should produce web videos. When print catalogs are touting their videos and you have none of your own… you know you’re behind the curve.

–Tony Gnau

American Airlines has produced some good videos in the past, and they keep up the tradition with their latest offering. It’s called, “New York Subway Station Domination.”

The airline must have some solid market research showing that subway advertising works for them because this is the second video they’ve based around the subject.

I love the fact that neither uses sound bites or narration to drive the story. They’re made up entirely of music, images, and solid editing. American clearly works with some talented producers because in their hands… that’s all they need to tell a quality story.

That first video is flat-out one of my favorites. This latest video isn’t quite as good, but it’s a solid effort. I think it would have been even better had they chopped it down by a minute. Running nearly two-and-a-half minutes, it’s way too long. The music and editing deliver terrific pacing, but it just keeps going and going.

Other than that… I love it. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Maybe they’ll put ads on subway passengers?

–Tony Gnau

Okay… a little peek behind the blog’s curtain today. I write here four days a week. A lot of people are surprised I can find enough material to generate that much content on corporate video production. The truth is I’ve never found it very difficult… until last night.

Whenever I think of a blog topic, I make myself a note. If I’m out and about and I spot something that strikes me, I take a photo of it. When I see a good/bad video pop-up in my social accounts, I make sure to note it.

When none of the above has happened… I go Facebook fishing. I follow a lot of businesses producing videos and love to write about them via this blog. I can usually scroll back two, three, maybe six hours in my feed and typically find a video to blog about.

Not yesterday. Actually, the only corporate video in my feed is the one T60 posted about our latest client, Yellow House Children’s Services.

I planned on sharing some stories from that shoot sometime this week and could have done it today, but I thought my Facebook fishing failure deserved some notice.

Why? Because this is how much the world has changed over the last few years. Videos are everywhere. Five years ago, searching for video to write about would have taken forever. Today, I’m put out because I couldn’t find one during a 60-second Facebook search.

The world has changed. Video needs to be part of your PR/marketing strategy. I shouldn’t have to go Facebook fishing for you.

–Tony Gnau

I often talk and write about un-scripted videos being far more authentic than scripted stories, but I’ve never really gone into “why” they’re more authentic.

The reason is simple. When you allow real people to tell the story, it comes off as much more genuine than if someone sat at a computer and typed it out.

Real people stumble when they talk. Real people talk in run-on sentences. Real people sound like what we listen to in person everyday. When you put those things into a video, it sounds like real life… not some corporate marketing message that’s been tested by focus groups and approved by attorneys.

It sounds… authentic.

–Tony Gnau

Music can make or break your videos. Nothing sets a mood better. The feeling your video leaves behind will be greatly shaped by the music bed you put under it.

Having produced videos for a while now, we’ve built a nice little royalty-free music library… mostly songs we’ve downloaded from premiumbeat.com. We definitely have some favorites, and it’s easy to keep going back to them.

I had one in mind for a video we just completed, but at the last second I decided to download something new. It’s amazing how a new song spices things up. Not just for the video, for the editor as well. The new music really made me scrutinize the edit in a whole new way.

Music set the mood in the video… and the edit suite.

–Tony Gnau

You want to change the perception of your brand… your company? Video is the way to do it. It’s better than any other medium at changing people’s opinions.

Take the University of Southern California. The school is a frequent source of examples here. One, because I went there. Two, because the school’s leaders have a clear video strategy and they just flat-out bring it.

So… perception. USC is a private university filled with spoiled students and arrogant football players. You know what… there’s a little bit of that, but there’s so much more to the school and the football team. That’s one of the reasons for the videos they’re producing.

The latest documents a trip several football players made to Haiti. I challenge you to watch this video and walk away with the typical “perception” of USC.

This isn’t a group of a few unheard of players. Matt Barkley, Robert Woods, T.J. McDonald… these are guys who’ll be first round picks in next year’s NFL draft. This mission was clearly a priority for them, their teammates, and it comes through in the video.

If it weren’t for this production, we wouldn’t know that. Sure, we could read an article about what they did, but it’s not the same. Not even close. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices. That’s what makes video unique.

Your business might not be sending anyone to Haiti, but you’re doing something. It doesn’t even have to be a charity effort. It might be a video about how you’re improving your customer’s lives in some way.

The point is to look for things you’re doing that will shake-up perception about your company. Video can do that.

–Tony Gnau

Another book to read. I feel like my list never gets any shorter. This time it’s courtesy Gini Dietrich.

Gini is a marketing and public relations pro, and she may very well work 25-hours a day. She apparently wrote this book on weekends. Can you say, “overachiever!?”

Actually, she’s pretty awesome. We’ve only known each other for a little over a year, but she’s taught me a lot. My PR/marketing education started by reading her hugely success blog (spinsucks.com), continued with our occasional get-togethers, and will move forward when I download the Kindle version of Marketing in the Round.

She and her co-author Geoff Livingston are breaking down corporate silos and sharing their marketing strategies with all of us. T60 shot a video for the book launch today, and we hope to roll it out soon.

Bottom line, these two know what they’re talking about. They’re big time, and you should probably add their book to your must-read list as well.

–Tony Gnau