Tag Archives: Illinois

Courtesy: billdaleyillinois.com/

Well… turnabout is fair play. Earlier this week, I blogged about a pretty uninspiring political video. It was produced by one of the many people running for governor here in Illinois. My post was non-political, but the video happened to feature a Republican. Today… the Democrats prove they can serve-up average storytelling as well.

Bill Daley is known to many around Illinois… especially Chicago. What the Kennedy’s are to Massachusetts, the Daley’s are to Chicago. The point is Daley doesn’t really have to introduce himself, but that name recognition also comes with a problem.

Storytelling and Trust

The Daley’s are the embodiment of the Chicago political machine. That’s not good downstate. Safe to say… Daley has a trust issue.

He announced his candidacy this week with a video (VIDEO BELOW) designed to turn that around. For me anyway, it fell flat and the reason is simple.

It features Daley clearly reading a scripted message from a teleprompter. He trashes the state’s current condition… not difficult to do… and positions himself as the man to change it.

Yawn. You know the thing about scripted messages? That’s how they sound. Scripted.

Speak from the heart instead from a teleprompter

I’ll take someone speaking from the heart any day over some finely crafted message. Whether it’s a politician or company marketing itself. It’s something I frequently promote to our clients. Some are a little concerned about giving-up a degree of control over their message, but I always tell them what they give-up in control… they get back in authenticity. That’s a big deal.

Don’t handcuff your people by forcing them to read or memorize copy that’s been written for them. Just sit them down, asked them some questions, and get them talking.

What you’ll get back is a genuine message that audiences will appreciate.

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

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Courtesy: brucerauner.com

Probably the most popular video we and other companies produce is the classic About Us video. It’s something every business should have at its website… a basic introduction to who you are and what you do. Anyone can produce one of these, but it’s quality storytelling that can make yours standout.

Or… not. I recently saw a political video (VIDEO BELOW) about a man, Bruce Rauner, who is running for Governor here in Illinois. It’s… fine. And frankly, fine isn’t good enough if you’re trying to get noticed.

Tell your story

Here’s my problem with it. It’s nearly 3-minutes long, and the first 2-minutes basically puts forth the case for why Illinois needs new leadership. Then… less than a minute on Rauner.

Rauner might be known in some circles as a successful businessman, but he’s probably unknown by most Illinoisans. This is his official introduction to them, but all we get is him standing in front of green screen reading a scripted message.

This isn’t a critique of the message or the politics. It’s simply the execution behind the storytelling and the video. It’s just uninspiring. It’s kind of funny because Rauner tags himself as a political outsider, but his video is cookie-cutter political stuff.

What good storytelling can do

Video is all about emotion. It allows viewers an opportunity to feel like they’re getting to know a person. I actually watched the video because I was curious to learn about him, but I didn’t get that.

Green screens and scripted messages rarely allow that to happen. They aren’t authentic and audiences pick-up on that. It’s why I often council our clients to allow us to shoot in natural environments for their company videos, and to interview people who speak from the heart instead of rehearsed sound bites.

There’s good storytelling… bad storytelling… and “ho-hum” storytelling. Which do you want?

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

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