Tag Archives: communications

USC quarterback Matt Barkley lost this week. Now, if you’re a college football fan, you might be a bit confused right now.

Didn’t Barkey tie a school record over the weekend by throwing 6-touchdowns en route to a win over Syracuse? Yes. Barkley continues to impress on the football field, but on a tennis court… not so much.

Off the field, on the court

As part of USC’s YouTube marketing/public relations campaign, the school posted a video last week of Barkley and his center, Khaled Holmes, playing doubles tennis with a pair of USC tennis players. FYI… USC has won the last four NCAA Championships in tennis. In other words, the Trojan tennis team is pretty good.

Anyway, while Barkley might be the frontrunner for this year’s Heisman Trophy, he’s not going to be taking center court at Wimbledon anytime soon. The video proves it. It’s fun, self-deprecating and gives you some insight into his personality off the field.

Your company can do this too

Why should you care? Look at this from another perspective. Think of USC as your company and Barkley as the CEO… or the maybe the top sales guy… or the chosen “face” of the company. How great would it be to humble that person a bit by forcing them to do something outside their comfort zone?

How about a video series where that person takes on different jobs around the company? What a great way to humanize the company and show customers/prospects your willingness to have a little fun.

Barkley’s willing to do it. Who’s willing on your team?

–Tony Gnau

I made another woman cry last night. I’m not proud of this, but I was happy when her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears.

I’m not heartless. It was during an interview for a video we’re producing, and there are two emotional reactions that are money when you create a video… laughter and tears.

Video isn’t about facts and figures. It’s about emotion, and if you can get someone in the video to laugh or cry… well… that’s about as good as it gets.

It’s Contagious

Those two things happen to be contagious. Viewers who see or hear someone laughing or crying are more likely to do the same. That’s why producers like me get excited when we see an interview subject well-up with tears.

Even if you don’t get the same emotional response from the audience, laughter and tears are great triggers for viewer engagement. If they see someone breakout in a hearty laugh, it catches their attention. If someone breaks down and cries, they listen a little closer.

All of these things are great reactions because it means your message is getting through to them.

Videos Go From Good To Great

As soon as it happened last night, I knew the video we were producing was likely to go from turning out well… to turning out great. Professionalism and skill will take your videos a long way, but moments like that are where experience matters most.

You need to be aware of when emotional triggers are likely to happen. You need to be ready for when they do, and then pounce on them.

Not every video you produce will have a funny or sad moment. Actually, most will not. Those moments are often spontaneous, and that’s why you have to be ready when happen.

Be on alert for emotional moments. They can take your videos to the next level.

–Tony Gnau

Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine

You know I’m all about storytelling, so when Entrepreneur Magazine posts something like this (see photo) in its Facebook feed… you have my attention.

Actually, I prefer another quote from the same piece with Gary Vaynerchuk…

“Storytelling is the most underrated skill in business.”

Love… it! And couldn’t agree more. The better you tell your story, the more likely you are to make a sale.

Why? Storytelling tugs at our hearts. It has the ability to help build an emotional connection between the viewer and storyteller.

How valuable can that be when you go to make a sale?

–Tony Gnau

Okay, last week it was the Republican National Convention, this week it’s the Democrats. But before we put the RNC in the books, we have to look at Mitt Romney’s introduction video. It aired Thursday night, and since I blog Monday-Thursday and Monday was a holiday… here we are.

First, put your politics aside. I’ll be reviewing Romney’s videos leading up to the election, and I’ll be doing the same for the President. The reviews will be about the videos and what we can learn from them, not the politics.

Bad Beginning

So… Romney’s intro video at the convention. It was… good. Not great. Good. I think the only thing holding it back was the opening and it provides a lesson. It’s like we just jump into the story with Romney taking over leadership at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

It took me a minute to get my feet under me while watching. Once I caught-up, the Olympic story was just okay. We hear about a controversy, then Romney taking over and turning things around.

So… as the video is rolling… I’m trying to recall what the “controversy” was about the 2002 Winter Olympics. I remember it was something before it started. Something about… oh yeah!… bribery! There were allegations of bribery to get the Olympic bid.

Good for me. I remembered. Bad for the video because while I was working that out in my head, the video was rolling along and I’m missing everything that’s being said.

Audiences Disengage

That’s why storytelling is so important. If you make a misstep, you lose your audience. Include something in your video that jostles viewers, and they miss the information you want them to get.

It can be the way you tell the story, a funky looking graphic, even something weird in the background of an interview. Anything that potentially disengages the viewer from the story is a no-no.

The rest of Romney’s video… awesome. Once I got past the opening, I re-engaged and thought it delivered.

Take a look at the video and let me know what you think.

We’ll take a look at President Obama’s video on Thursday and report back here on Monday.

–Tony Gnau

I just watched a video produced for a prominent Chicago hospital group, and it’s a shining example of why I rarely recommend scripting videos in advance.

Normally, when I critique a video I share it with you, but in this case I’m not going to. It featured a doctor talking about his specialties. I’m sure he had nothing to do how the video was produced. The hospital’s marketing team probably asked him to write a script, then show up to go on-camera to deliver it. No reason for me to single him out by showing it to you.

And in this case, there’s no need. You’ve seen it before. Someone who’s not accustomed to performing on-camera, looking stiff and reading with no emotion. That’s what scripting videos gets you.

I’ll bet he would have come off differently if a quality interviewer sat down with him to discuss his specialties. He would have seemed far more confident and personable.

The truth is there are few people who can take a written script and perform it without having it sound as though it’s scripted. Even trained actors and politicians have a tough time with it. That’s why interviewing people and letting them speak off-the-cuff is far more effective. It’s authentic.

Authenticity will trump managed, scripted stories everyday.

–Tony Gnau

Taking customers and prospects behind-the-scenes at your business is a great way to show them why you’re the one they should hire. And while one video is great, a series of behind-the-scenes videos is event better.

Need an example? I continue to use my Alma Mater. The University of Southern California athletic department’s leaders produce tons of videos, and none better than the ones that take us beyond the football field.

They’ve shown us how coaches motivate their players, student-athletes having fun around campus, even players taking a humanitarian mission to Haiti. All of the videos offer USC alumni and fans a look at life off the field.

The latest example is the school’s preseason edition, and it offers a valuable lesson. USC just opened a new athletic facility. It’s AMAZING! The video takes us into the new building. We hear from the players about what they like, but most of the comments are focused on how the facility should impact play on the field.

In many cases, it’s not enough to take someone behind-the-scenes. You have to give them a reason for why it matters. USC’s video makes things clear… improved training rooms keep players healthy, a lounge helps build team unity and the new facility provides extra incentive to “earn the building.”

Your videos need to do the same thing. If you’re going to show people how you make your products, make sure they understand how your process impacts price, quality, whatever sets you apart. If you’re showing how your team works together, highlight how that teamwork impacts the customer’s experience.

Take customers and prospects behind-the-scenes, but make sure your videos are still focused on them.

–Tony Gnau

I got to meet marketing expert Geoff Livingston during a shoot a couple of months ago. He and one of our clients, Arment Dietrich CEO Gini Dietrich, were launching a new book. Geoff’s a fun guy. I’ve been reading his blog ever since, and yesterday’s post really got my attention.

The title says it all… Customers Don’t Care About Us. He writes about how social engagement doesn’t always add up to more sales… that recommendations by peers rule.

That’s one of the reasons I frequently encourage clients to make their videos about their customers… not them.

I’m talking about going beyond the testimonial. The heart of the story is about your client’s business, then eventually work in how your company helps them.

You can also use them in projects or with issues you’re passionate about. In our case, we have an ongoing video series about why our clients use video.

Each is a powerful way to show a) how dedicated you are to your clients… giving them some free publicity. And b) how dedicated they are to you… that they’re willing to go on camera for your company.

That’s a message prospects will trust.

–Tony Gnau

There are a lot of companies producing videos these days, but sometimes they seem aimless. In many cases, I think it’s because they aren’t setting goals for their projects. They’re feeling pressure by specific competitors who are producing videos or sometimes it’s just the marketplace. Everyone else is producing videos, so we better start.

No matter the reason, diving into video without a plan isn’t the best idea. First question, as always, is who’s our audience? Second question, what’s our goal?

The goal is tricky. Business types want to put a dollar figure on the ROI. In some cases, you can do this by tracking a specific video campaign. How many people are watching? How many then click and buy? These are all things you can track.

The problem is most companies start their video journey with the “About Us” video. Tracking ROI on this type of video is nearly impossible, but I do have a guideline we tend to follow when producing them.

After the video is done, we show it to a few people and ask what they think of the company. In most cases, they’re usually pretty impressed with the place and will point out things they like about the business.

This is in no way scientific, but neither is an “About Us” video. It’s all subjective. My main goal for these videos is for the viewer to finish watching and think to themselves… that looks like a pretty good company. That’s it.

All we’re trying to do is create a good first impression. We want to elicit a positive emotional response. If we do that, it’s a job well done.

Remember, video isn’t about facts and figures. It’s about emotion.

–Tony Gnau

I advocate pretty hard for video. I’m a big believer in the medium and what it can do for businesses. I’m also realistic, so I get excited when someone with a bigger megaphone takes up the charge.

Enter Gini Dietrich… PR/marketing expert, superstar blogger and a published author. Her following is measured in the tens of thousands and we’re proud to call her a T60 client.

One of her blog posts last week caught my attention. She wrote about how PR pros aren’t keeping up with what journalists want, and she cited some recent studies…

These combined studies showed 80 percent of journalists and bloggers value images that are easily available and ready to use. And 75 percent says they want video and that 30 percent of their websites now use externally produced video.

Did you catch that? 75 percent of journalists want video. This speaks to me on multiple levels considering I own a video production company and once made my living as a TV news reporter.

As a matter of fact, it wasn’t too long ago I was offering some suggestions on how companies can cater to the media. These studies only prove it’s an even better idea than I originally thought.

So… PR-types… keep these stats in mind. If you want to provide extra incentive for journalists to cover your clients, video is something you should consider.

Business leaders… if you want to make your company a source for information related to your industry, you should probably update you media page with some video as well.

–Tony Gnau

Yesterday I met with an old friend of mine and a very talented graphic designer, Julie Woertz at We Cre8 Design. It was followed by a phone call with the friend of a friend who’s looking for a video-related job. Two totally different conversations but something similar struck me about each.

We’re still having to sell people on video.

Julie was telling me how she’s always recommending to clients to include video on their websites, but people haven’t been biting. My new acquaintance was talking about how hard his former employer had to work to sell video B2B.

I’m faced with it as well, and it shocks me. I mean, I get it. If a business leader sees the potential for how video can help them, but they feel like they just can’t afford to do it right now… okay. But that’s not what we’re talking about.

Many executives still don’t see the point of video. What’s more, they seemingly ignore all the stats out there telling them how many people are watching online videos.

All I feel I can do is continue to advocate for the medium. It is such a powerful way to reach people… to connect with them on an emotional level. These are clients and prospects, and business leaders need to realize they’re out there watching.

–Tony Gnau