Producing Fun Marketing Videos

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Hoping to provide inspiration today for some fun marketing videos by using a recent Sports Illustrated production.

Earl Thomas is the starting free safety for the Seattle Seahawks. Sports Illustrated decided to have some fun with him… dropping him at Pike Place Market and asking him to give people passing by free safety advice.

Get it? He’s a free safety. He’s giving free safety advice. Clever, right? Note to Mrs. G… “free safety” is a football position. I’ll point it out during the next Bears game.

Anyway, adding to the fun is that taken out of context nobody recognized him as a pro football player. I’m sure he just seemed like a random dude.

You don’t have to laugh out loud

The video isn’t hilarious, but as I mentioned it is fun. Comedy is hard to do, fun is a little easier.

If you’re a content creator for your business, I’d love for you to take a cue from Sports Illustrated. Start thinking about your company in a different way. What are some fun things that take place around the office, factory, et cetera? Start featuring those things in your marketing videos.

Is there someone who likes wearing funny ties? That’s a video. Do people go all out decorating their cubicles? That’s a video. Any good superstitions surrounding people’s jobs? That’s a video.

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Fun marketing videos case study

Outtakes are another fun thing you can add to your videos. We recently produced a post-event video for Content Jam here in Chicago. We were getting speakers at the event to answer the question, “What’s the future of content marketing?”

Kind of a tough question to answer without some thought. Knowing we wanted the video to be “fun,” we hit record and let the camera roll during their time thinking about their answer. We then used those outtakes to set the tone for the rest of the video.

Business can be about big ideas, big solutions and even big bucks… but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun from time to time.

If your company culture allows it, adding the occasional fun video to your other content will spice things up and reinvigorate your audience.

–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 12 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.