Tag Archives: BrandSmart

I frequently preach something to clients and prospects and occasionally here as well. Produce video content that serves your audience instead of your ego.

The first video most businesses want to produce is the “about us” video. That’s fine. I think you should do that too, but that’s only a jumping off place. From there, businesses need to produce content that audience members can benefit from. That often means setting aside the instinct to make all your videos about you.

Alternatively, pick subjects you and your audience are passionate about and share your opinion and/or expertise.

Practice what we preach

Easy for me to say, right? Well, I practice what I preach. As a BrandSmart conference sponsor, T60 was permitted to email all the attendees. Instead of sending out a mass sales pitch, I offered links to my blog posts regarding the event, as well as a couple of videos from our “why our clients use video” series.

None of the content was about T60, but all of it afforded us the opportunity to display our expertise and provide conference attendees with information that could benefit them.

While we were all at the same event, I looked at it through my video “lens” and offered a perspective they might not have received. The videos are something else entirely. Two T60 clients offering their thoughts on why and how they use video as part of their marketing strategy.

Content is king.

–Tony Gnau

No surprise… a big topic of conversation at BrandSmart 2012 was the rise of mobile and what it means to marketing. A question asked during one of the panels is if video has a role.

Alex Kutsishin, president at FiddleFly mobile web solution said adding video to mobile is “brilliant.” He seemed totally on-board and liked the idea of QR codes in stores sending customers to mobile videos.

Mobile video is brilliant, but…

There was a little push-back from Ro Kumar, CEO at Digital Aisle. He cautioned the audience saying video in that situation needs special care. The issue… length. Mr. Kumar says the last thing customer are going to want to do is stand in an aisle watching a long video.

Agreed. I blogged yesterday about producing videos focused on your audience. That’s true when it comes to selecting your content, but it also means considering where they’ll watch the video.

Consider your audience

If you have a captive audience at a meeting or an industry conference like BrandSmart (virtually all the presenters used video), you can show a 3-4 minute video. If your audience is watching on a smart phone in a store, you better keep it short. I’d suggest 1-minute or less.

Mobile is here and video has a role, but you still need to know your audience.

–Tony Gnau

Nice day Wednesday at BrandSmart 2012. The Chicago chapter of the American Marketing Association brought together some great panels and speakers to talk about all the changes taking place in marketing.

The highlight for me might have been Second City. Someone from the improv comedy organization talked about the similarities between what they do and what marketers do. Didn’t hurt bringing some Second City performers along to do a few quick sketches.

Anyway, good stuff… and I plan on sharing it all with you next week. TEASE! That’s right, Monday-Thursday next week I’ll share some observations from BrandSmart 2012.

Stay tuned!

–Tony Gnau