Tag Archives: corporate culture

Company culture doesn’t have to just be the working environment around your business. If it’s something you take pride in, you can use that aspect of your company in your marketing videos.

Culture is something more and more businesses are focusing on. Happy employees make for productive employees. It also makes a difference while recruiting the right people to get on the bus.

CULTURE AS A SALES TOOL

One of our clients put their culture front and center in their About Us video. The Electri-Flex sales staff uses the video to set themselves apart in an industry where family-owned companies are a rarity.

The point is don’t limit yourself when considering a marketing video. There are all sorts of ways to highlight what makes your company a good one.

–Tony Gnau

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

Every company is different. Every company has its own culture, procedures, ways of doing things. When you go looking for a video producer, do your best to make sure they can fit in with your team.

We just started working with a new client and they did something I’ve never seen before. They provided us with a calendar, not only detailing what they expect from us, but what they would be adding to the project themselves.

I loved it. It’s clearly an insight into their company culture, and I have to say it worked for me. I took one look at the calendar and it was incredibly helpful, but I can tell you it might have freaked out other video professionals.

We’re a creative industry… right-brained, not left. Fortunately, I appreciate details, as long as people remain flexible, but if they had chosen the wrong production company… it could have been a doomed business relationship from the start.

Keep culture in mind when you start interviewing creative professionals.

–Tony Gnau

Every corporate culture is different, but if yours is… shall we say on the tight side… you might want to loosen things up a bit when you start producing company videos.

The advantage of a tight, perfected corporate message is that it allows you complete control over the image you’re putting in front of the public. The disadvantage of a tight, perfected corporate message is that it sounds like you’re trying to keep complete control over the image you’re putting in front of the public.

Viewers these days are sophisticated. If you trot out a company video that sounds like the marketing department has crafted it and managers have polished it, your audience will likely pick up on that.

Maybe that’s no big deal to you, but it is for that audience. What it says to them is that this has been sanitized for their viewing.

Why should we watch something like that?

Ditch your pre-written script and let your team members speak their minds. What you give up in message control you get back in authenticity.

–Tony Gnau

We all know videos can serve multiple marketing purposes. Social media, email campaigns, live events… the list goes on and on.

How about internal morale booster? That’s right, the same videos used to cultivate relationships with clients and prospects can have a tremendous impact on your own team.

The way you do it is to include your team members in the videos themselves. In some cases, you can even highlight them and the good job they’re doing (see an example).

Have you ever given someone a pat on the back? I’ve been reading a lot lately about leadership, and encouragement seems to be a recurring theme. Think about how it’ll make your team feel to see themselves and their co-workers in the videos their company uses to help earn new business.

It’ll make them feel appreciated. It’ll make them feel like they’re a part of something. It’ll make them feel like stars.

–Tony Gnau