Tag Archives: marketing

Every company should have an About Us video on its website. A stand alone piece that gives people a sense about their business.

The problem with many of them is that they’re too long. If your target audience is on the web, you need to keep your video short… less than 2-minutes.

A lot of business leaders balk at this time limit. They think there’s too much information they want to share with viewers, and they won’t be able to cover all of it. I have a solution.

Don’t produce a single video that runs too long. Create a series of short videos. Each one can highlight different aspects about your company that you want to communicate.

The video series puts the audience in control of what they want to watch… guaranteeing you won’t waste their time with information that’s irrelevant to them.

–Tony Gnau

Snow! We finally got some decent snow here in Chicago. My California friends are all shaking their heads right now. Yes, many of us like the snow.

Anyway, I heard during a WGN-TV news story that the City of Chicago has a new website (Chicago Shovels) that lets people track the location of city snow plows and learn about other snow-related resources. I got curious so I checked it out and was excited to see video embedded on the home page.

Guess what? It’s not bad. It looks professionally done, tells a pretty good story, and I actually learned a lot. It even made me interested enough to want to get involved in the Snow Corps program… volunteers who shovel sidewalks for the elderly and disabled.

Go figure… quality storytelling informed me and drove me to action. Sounds like a concept business leaders might want to consider.

–Tony Gnau

My friend Jeremy Nichols turned me in to the following video. It was produced for the University of Wisconsin… and it’s terrific.

Video: Wisconsin Football Experience

One of the things I try to get through to clients is that you can communicate a lot without saying much. Video is about emotion. If you have great visuals, all you need is music and a storyteller who can weave everything together.

This video is a great example. There’s a little gameday audio, but not much. The rest is well-shot video, music and atmosphere.

You want a corporate video that paints a picture of your business? Don’t get hung-up on the company “script.” The more you script, the more it sounds scripted.

The less you script… the better your video will feel.

–Tony Gnau

My wife and I recently had our first baby, and when that happens you’re hit with all sorts of health information. One of the big ones, and these days somewhat controversial, is the push to make sure you immunize the child.

This isn’t a post about that issue… it’s just about a really lame video produced by the Centers for Disease Control.

The video is intended as an educational piece on why people should immunize. They gather a small group of mothers in someone’s family room and they ask a pediatrician questions about the vaccinations.

All of this would be fine if the moms weren’t so phony. We know all of this is staged, and you know the problem with that? It takes away from the message.

When the video looks staged, we feel like we’re not getting authentic information. It’s been sanitized for us… the audience… and we know it.

The whole thing feels dishonest. Not exactly the impression you want to make on people.

Speak from the heart, be honest with people when producing videos. You shouldn’t immunize the audience.

–Tony Gnau

I hope your business is like ours. We have some amazing clients, and just when we feel like we know it all… we’re pretty sharp… one of them teaches us something new.

We share a lot of those stories here, but some of them we single out at our newsletter (newsletter signup). We’re starting an ambitious new project tomorrow that involves sharing some of our clients’ stories through a series of newsletter videos.

Why they use video, how they use it, target audiences… it’s all up for discussion and you’ll hear about it in their own words.

We’re constantly amazed at some of the creative ways our clients are using video, so our hope is that you pick up some good ideas along the way.

First up… Goose Island Beer Company’s Chief Operating Officer. He’s part of the talented team that has led to the craft beer company to new heights. How high? Anheuser-Busch bought them last year for nearly $40 million.

Sound like they might have something to offer?

–Tony Gnau

My wife and I were bouncing in and out of a few stores this weekend, and I couldn’t help but think about the opportunities some retailers are missing.

Two of the stores we visited are major chain home decorating stores, and each had multiple living room configurations. One store used fake plastic televisions and the other used a piece of plywood with a TV drawn on it.

Clever, but neither is going to help them sell stuff.

I’d advocate for real televisions. I’d also encourage them to create their own video programming to put on those TVs. Maybe simple decorating tips that incorporate their goods.

Even if they don’t want to invest the time and expense of creating their own videos, a real TV would encourage people to sit down and soak in the environment they set up.

There’s all sorts of applications for video. It’s not all about the web.

–Tony Gnau

Good stuff yesterday from David Meerman Scott. His blog focused on Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, and how Huntsman isn’t too interested in social media.

He might not be focused on it, but Huntsman or his staff actually came up with a really good idea. They’re letting his daughters have some fun on YouTube.

Jon2012Girls only have a couple of posts, but they’re far from your standard political fare. One is a parody song and the other mimics an infamous Herman Cain ad.

Huntsman might not be too interested in social media, but I’ll bet his girls are. That’s why I’m glad to see him letting them run with this role. I’m sure it’s still being orchestrated by his campaign, but at least the first two videos show a little spunk.

Think about all the business leaders out there who are in the same spot. They don’t really care about social media, but probably know enough that they need to do something. It’s smart to turn it over to people who a) care about it and b) will bring some creative ideas to the table.

I don’t know how far Huntsman is going to go in the presidential race, but I hope we get a few more videos from Jon2012Girls along the way.

–Tony Gnau

Yesterday I decided to share via Facebook and Twitter our most popular blog entry from 2011… Put On A Black Jersey And Share Your PR/Marketing Message.

I love the video created by Ohio University. It may be a “football” video, but when you look at it with a critical eye there’s definitely corporate applications.

The idea behind the blog post was about enthusiasm and what it can do for your business, and this is a great time to reiterate that thought. It’s the start of a new year. Chances are you have all sorts of things you’re excited about for 2012.

Share them. Create videos that let customers and prospects in on your team’s enthusiasm for what’s happening at your company.

Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm.

–Tony Gnau

I hope everyone had a nice New Year’s celebration, and I thought I’d keep the party going by starting 2012 with a look at a good video.

General Electric has all sorts of stories at its YouTube channel.  This one jumped out as a perfect example of a couple of things I wished more businesses did… highlight employees and give viewers a behind the scenes look at the company.

I love the way the video is about GE but doesn’t reek of self-promotion. It’s about an important job and the people who get it done. Every business with passionate team members can produce this sort of video. You might not build jet engines, but you do something your customers value.

Show them how much you care about your products and/or services by telling your stories.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau, T60 Productions

T60 is excited about the new year, and we hope that you are as well. In 2011, we churned out 16 client videos, four newsletters, 184 blog posts… and who knows how many tweets and Facebook status updates. That’s a lot of content!

Guess what… we’re just getting started.  We have all sorts of plans for 2012 and they start this month.  We’ll be sharing a series of videos we’ve produced for you… our friends and followers.  Each video will feature a T60 client who will talk about their PR and marketing strategies for using video.  Why they produce them, who they’re targeting, and how they deliver them. Good stuff.

And since we’re toasting a new year, we’re going to start with some thoughts from the C.O.O. at Goose Island Beer Company.  You’ll hear from him in the coming weeks.

Don’t want to miss it? Just sign up for our monthly newsletter and you’ll have it delivered right to your email inbox (Newsletter Signup).

Happy to have you with us in 2012!

–Tony Gnau