Tag Archives: college football

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Let your team carry the company torch through internal videos. If you run a quality organization, they’re ready to do it. They want to shout to all their friends about how much they enjoy working at the company.

I blogged yesterday about attending the Ragan Communications 2013 Best Practices in Video for Communicators Summit, and a lot of the conference was focused on producing internal videos. It’s a good idea for a couple of reasons.

First, producing internal videos is a great way to boost morale. Featuring team members and bragging about the job their doing, well, who doesn’t like a pat on the back?

The second reason is the one I’d like to focus on today, and I’ll use my alma mater as an example.

Lesson courtesy USC football

I went to USC. If you know anything about college sports, you know that USC is a football powerhouse. The last four years have been rough on the school after the NCAA imposed some harsh sanctions, accusing USC leaders of losing “institutional control” over their student-athletes. I won’t get into that, but the majority of the sports community continues to scratch their heads about it considering other schools have done far worse and received lighter penalties.

But I digress… it’s been a rough four years. So there we were in an unfamiliar role on Saturday night, an underdog playing at home against 4th ranked Stanford. It was the game of the week on national television. The entire college football world was focused on the L.A. Coliseum.

The Trojans slugged it out with the Cardinal for four quarters, and with about 20-seconds left… they kicked a game winning field goal. The stands emptied onto the field starting a party that raged all night.

It was the kind of thing that highlights why college sports are so much fun. If only there was a way to capture that moment and share it with alumni and fans. A way to show them all the things they didn’t get to see like what it looked like from the sidelines, the raw emotion from inside the locker room, the pure joy of that winning kick.

Oh wait… there is a way. USC released a video yesterday afternoon on its YouTube channel featuring all of those things. 

Lesson for your internal videos

Now… think about all of this in a different way. USC is your company. The alumni and fans are your team members. Think they’re going to share that video with people?

What are milestone moments on the horizon for your company? Are you launching a new product? Closing in on your 1,000th sale? Are you about to set a new safety record? Open a new facility?

The list could go on and on. The point is you should be documenting a lot of these things, and there’s no better way than video. Producing a video around these types of events will provide that morale boost I mentioned, but it will also allow your team members to spread the word via their social networks about all the great things you’re doing.

That’s good HR, PR and marketing all rolled into one.

–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.

Video isn’t about facts and figures. Video is about emotion. That’s one of the reasons I actively encourage our clients to feature their employees because real people tap emotion better than products or services.

One of the organizations doing the best job of this lately is the University of Southern California’s athletic department… in particular the football team.

Yes… the USC Trojans… 6 Heisman Trophies, 11 National Championships, 24 Rose Bowl victories… those USC Trojans.

Watching the school’s videos, it’s clear the university’s leaders are making an effort to promote USC using their star athletes. Sure, they highlight their talents on the field, but more and more they’re figuring out ways to feature them off the field as well.

The theme to those videos… fun… and USC’s most recent video serves as a great example to businesses. It features Heisman Trophy candidate Matt Barkley and some of the team’s other stars walking around campus in their full uniforms… pads and all.

It’s goofy, but it’s goofy that serves a purpose. College and college football are fun.

Now, watch the video again with your business goggles on. If USC football is a company, the athletic director and coaches are senior management, and these players represent their top employees.

The company’s leadership is shinning a spotlight on their top people. They’re highlighting their personalities in an effort to promote the brand. They’re using “fun” to tap emotion.

Heck, they even provide the employees’ Twitter handles to encourage viewers to follow them on the social web.

I’m not suggesting that every business should go out and manufacture “fun” videos. What I’m saying is that they should look at the company and highlight the aspects important to the company culture.

At USC, they’re all about winning football games and having fun, so that’s what their videos are about. At your company, you might be all about excellence and ingenuity. Produce videos that highlight employees who embody those characteristics.

Real people, real spirit.

–Tony Gnau

Videos may inform, they may educate, but words on a page or screen can do the same thing for less money. The reason smart marketers choose video is because video is much more likely to stir emotions and connect with an audience.

Looking for an example? Look at how college football programs market to their fans.

One of the biggest upsets of the weekend involved USC knocking off #4 Oregon. The Trojans create a video to show the team before every game, and they also share it on YouTube for all their alumni and fans.

Normally, it’s simply highlights set to rap or rock music, but this week USC kicked it up a notch. They took an inspirational speech by defensive line coach Ed Orgeron and spun it into a video that stirred emotions. The Trojans aren’t often the underdogs, but the school’s video team played up the role to perfection.

Good written content paired with music and beautiful images… storytelling at its best. Businesses need to pay attention. Video is a way for companies to connect with clients and prospects.

Could words alone have done this? Maybe. But I challenge anyone to tell me they’d be more effective than this video.

–Tony Gnau