Tag Archives: marketing

When you’re fiercely loyal to your audience, you have to kill shots you love. Actually, the tougher thing is to kill shots your client loves and trying to explain it to them.

I’ll give you an example. I’ve had to shoot video for a bunch of ribbon cuttings. Clients love them. To them, a ribbon cutting is a big deal. The event signifies something major for the company. The audience on the other hand… could probably care less.

I usually find a way to incorporate the actual ribbon cutting… 3, 2, 1, cut!… but that’s about it. Questions typically follow… why didn’t you include the speech from event chair, the executive or the mayor?

Why? Because those speeches rarely impact the audience.

That’s why I start most video consultations with the question… who is this video for? If the answer is our clients/prospects/general public, then we need to make sure everything in the video speaks to their interests.

Remember, video is for the audience… not a company’s ego.

–Tony Gnau

We all know video is turning up just about everywhere these days. It’s kind of hard to escape it, but I spotted a video somewhere I never would have imagined finding one. In a catalog… a print version of a catalog.

Check out the photo I posted. If you page through Williams-Sonoma’s catalog you’ll find they include “play” buttons next to some of their products. I love it… a “play” button in a print catalog!?

I went to their website, typed in the product number, and low and behold there was indeed a video to watch. This one’s for a snow cone maker.

There are still business people out there who are questioning whether or not they should produce web videos. When print catalogs are touting their videos and you have none of your own… you know you’re behind the curve.

–Tony Gnau

American Airlines has produced some good videos in the past, and they keep up the tradition with their latest offering. It’s called, “New York Subway Station Domination.”

The airline must have some solid market research showing that subway advertising works for them because this is the second video they’ve based around the subject.

I love the fact that neither uses sound bites or narration to drive the story. They’re made up entirely of music, images, and solid editing. American clearly works with some talented producers because in their hands… that’s all they need to tell a quality story.

That first video is flat-out one of my favorites. This latest video isn’t quite as good, but it’s a solid effort. I think it would have been even better had they chopped it down by a minute. Running nearly two-and-a-half minutes, it’s way too long. The music and editing deliver terrific pacing, but it just keeps going and going.

Other than that… I love it. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Maybe they’ll put ads on subway passengers?

–Tony Gnau

You can’t hold on to preconceived notions. You might think a video is going one direction, but you have to be willing to go with the flow if things don’t go as intended.

I got a good reminder of this while completing a project for Yellow House Children’s Services. It’s a terrific non-profit raising money for kids with disabilities in Kenya.

We knew we weren’t going to get great b-roll since we weren’t going to Kenya to shoot. The organization had a few amateur videos shot there, but after viewing them we decided they didn’t really add value.

So… we had some photos we could use and we had a fundraising party we could shoot. Based on that I thought we’d focus our efforts around the party, and figure out a way to base the video around that.

During most shoots, I get into a rhythm. The story just seems to come together. Not this time. I didn’t like my original plan. I liked it even less days later as I logged the sound bites.

That meant shifting gears… and it worked. Once we created the script and started editing the video, it all came together. Instead of focusing the video on the fundraiser, we used it as a jumping off point to draw people to the photos.

I was really happy with how it turned out. We didn’t have much to work with, but thanks to being flexible the story came into focus.

–Tony Gnau

Okay… a little peek behind the blog’s curtain today. I write here four days a week. A lot of people are surprised I can find enough material to generate that much content on corporate video production. The truth is I’ve never found it very difficult… until last night.

Whenever I think of a blog topic, I make myself a note. If I’m out and about and I spot something that strikes me, I take a photo of it. When I see a good/bad video pop-up in my social accounts, I make sure to note it.

When none of the above has happened… I go Facebook fishing. I follow a lot of businesses producing videos and love to write about them via this blog. I can usually scroll back two, three, maybe six hours in my feed and typically find a video to blog about.

Not yesterday. Actually, the only corporate video in my feed is the one T60 posted about our latest client, Yellow House Children’s Services.

I planned on sharing some stories from that shoot sometime this week and could have done it today, but I thought my Facebook fishing failure deserved some notice.

Why? Because this is how much the world has changed over the last few years. Videos are everywhere. Five years ago, searching for video to write about would have taken forever. Today, I’m put out because I couldn’t find one during a 60-second Facebook search.

The world has changed. Video needs to be part of your PR/marketing strategy. I shouldn’t have to go Facebook fishing for you.

–Tony Gnau

Here’s one of the big problems that plague clients and their video producers… competing visions.

The client envisions the video going one way, the producer sees it in different light, and they end up getting on each other’s nerves. Who’s right? Neither.

See… it’s not about you. It’s about the audience.

Video is a tough thing because it’s art that serves a business purpose. In other words, it’s a completely subjective medium that’s carrying a corporate message. The client wants to control that message, the video producer is usually more interested in the story that’s delivering the content.

The trick is for neither party to get so wrapped-up in what they’re doing that they lose sight of the most important piece of the equation. The audience should dictate which direction the video goes… not the client… not the producer.

Whenever there’s competing visions, someone better step-up and ask what’s most important to the audience. They’re the ones you need to consider. After all, it’s their video… not yours.

–Tony Gnau

I often talk and write about un-scripted videos being far more authentic than scripted stories, but I’ve never really gone into “why” they’re more authentic.

The reason is simple. When you allow real people to tell the story, it comes off as much more genuine than if someone sat at a computer and typed it out.

Real people stumble when they talk. Real people talk in run-on sentences. Real people sound like what we listen to in person everyday. When you put those things into a video, it sounds like real life… not some corporate marketing message that’s been tested by focus groups and approved by attorneys.

It sounds… authentic.

–Tony Gnau

Here’s a big reason why I prefer non-scripted videos over scripted… they’re authentic. I know, I know… that’s a term getting overused these days, but I have a different take on it today.

Authentic videos are good for a lot of reasons, but one that’s often overlooked gets right to the heart of why they’re better than scripted videos.

It’s hard to mess-up authenticity. I recently saw a video promoting Chicago’s Ribfest. Now, I LOVE Ribfest. The event is in T60’s neighborhood, and the date is marked on my calendar every year. The video though… I don’t love.

In truth, there’s a lot to like about it. It’s professionally produced, has a clear story, and accomplishes the goal of promoting the event. The problem is it’s a mock movie trailer that’s supposed to be funny… and it isn’t. Mildly amusing… maybe. Funny… no.

I don’t fault Ribfest or the video’s produces. They had an amusing concept and they went for it. The thing is that scripting something great is HARD. Some of the most talented people in Hollywood get paid millions of dollars to produce “funny” and even they fail more than they succeed.

Authenticity… when you have it… it just works.

–Tony Gnau

Surprises are a magical thing. The problem is too many storytellers can’t help themselves and rush into them too quickly.

A good surprise within a story is a great device to reinvigorate interest in your video. Just when the audience thinks they know where the story is going, you zing them with something they’re not expecting.

The key is to build up to the surprise. There’s no rush. The build up actually makes the surprise that much more effective.

It also doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering. Sure, it’s better if it is something significant, but ultimately anything that’s going to take viewers off-guard is going to work. Whether it’s a piece of video or a tidbit of information.

A good surprise will make your videos much more memorable.

–Tony Gnau

Music can make or break your videos. Nothing sets a mood better. The feeling your video leaves behind will be greatly shaped by the music bed you put under it.

Having produced videos for a while now, we’ve built a nice little royalty-free music library… mostly songs we’ve downloaded from premiumbeat.com. We definitely have some favorites, and it’s easy to keep going back to them.

I had one in mind for a video we just completed, but at the last second I decided to download something new. It’s amazing how a new song spices things up. Not just for the video, for the editor as well. The new music really made me scrutinize the edit in a whole new way.

Music set the mood in the video… and the edit suite.

–Tony Gnau