Tag Archives: Telly Awards

Alright, we’ve been celebrating our 12th Telly Award all week by looking back on past winners for some good production lessons. Today’s the day we unveil this year’s winner and offer some insights for event planning.

Drum roll, please. Our 2013 Telly Award winner is… Heroin Abuse Awareness Seminar for Illinois State Sen. Matt Murphy!

Hugh!?

I know, you’re thinking… Tony, your videos always tend to be upbeat, happy and inspirational… what gives?

Well, call it a change of pace if you like, but this video is actually a classic example of what an event video can do.

Multiplying Your Audience

Sen. Murphy was hosting a pair of seminars in his district just outside Chicago to highlight an important issue facing his constituents, suburban heroin abuse. He brought together law enforcement officials, addiction experts and family members of addicts to give parents a wake-up call.

Certainly a worthy effort, but he knew the seminars would only draw a few hundred people. He represents tens of thousands and wanted to be able to get this message out to as many of them as possible.

Enter video. He asked for a short story highlighting the major points… something that would leave an impression on viewers. Once it was produced, he and the Illinois Senate Republicans used their social networks to share the video with constituents (VIDEO BELOW).

Put aside politics, and instead, examine that through your PR and marketing lens. They took an event attended by hundreds and turned it into something that could impact thousands.

That’s why PR, marketing and event planning pros need a new line item in every significant event they put on… video budget.

–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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This week we’re celebrating our 12th Telly Award by looking back at past winning entries to pass along some valuable insights. Today, I’m blogging about an incredibly important element when it comes to storytelling.

People

The people you choose to include in your video might be the most critical decision you make for the video’s success. The mistake a lot of business owners make is thinking they need to hire actors or models to put a pretty face behind their company. That’s not the case.

The best videos tend to feature real people who are passionate about their jobs and their company or organization. We’ve done a bunch of videos featuring some pretty great people, but one of them definitely stands out in my mind.

Vashawn was a 13-year-old Glenwood Academy student when we met him (VIDEO BELOW). He’s a good kid from a bad neighborhood who’s getting a chance at a great education by attending Glenwood Academy in Chicago’s south suburbs.

On-Camera Stars

He was one of “those” people. The camera loves him. He is at total ease in front of it, and that comes through in the video. I can’t really explain it other that to say you’ll know these people when you see them, and when you do you better have the ability to switch gears to take advantage.

Vashawn was not meant to be the “star” of this particular video, but after we did the interview I told the school’s marketing director he had to be front and center. The whole video changed. His story and the way he told it was simply captivating.

I told my wife after that shoot we were going to win another Telly Award because of Vashawn. I hadn’t even looked at the raw material, but when you capture the right people on camera you just know it’s going to turn out great.

Every business has a Vashawn working for them. It might not be someone in the C-suite, but that doesn’t matter. Feature the people who shine, and so will your videos.

–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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I had a few things planned for this week, but I’m putting them on hold. I received word over the weekend that T60 has won its 12th Telly Award, so over the next few days we’re going to look back at some previous winners that provide video production lessons. Then, on Thursday, I’ll reveal this year’s winning entry and provide good insights to take-away from its production.

Okay… today I’m going to write a little about having a vision and/or having a plan for your videos. It may sound like a pretty basic concept, but the truth is a lot of people go into their projects with very little thought put into them. They understand the power of video, they want to put it to work for their business or brand, but they don’t have a vision for what that’s going to look like.

Client Case Study

Goose Island Beer Company is not one of those businesses. I’ve had the privilege of working with the Goose Island team on more than a dozen videos. One was a series of videos and a couple of them were just individual projects. The common thread among them was that Goose Island leaders had a plan. They knew their audience and they had a goal for the videos.

Those might be the two most important things you need when starting a project. We’ve won a few Telly Awards for our Goose Island work, but the one I’ll feature today is a good example of how planning makes a difference.

Know Your Audience, Have a Goal

The Goose Island team produces a lot of videos to better educate their wholesale and retail partners. In most cases, it’s educating them on the beers, but in this case they wanted to make sure they all understood the company’s dedication to promoting its 312 brand.

Makes sense… the more Goose Island promotes a brand to the public, the easier it is for the wholesalers and retailers to sell. The plan for the video was to highlight all the different kinds of events 312 is sponsoring. They had a list of events they wanted us to shoot and it was a project that would take all summer.

Goose Island leaders relied on T60 for the creative end of the production. They filled us in on the audience and the goal, told us they wanted to inspire confidence in the brand, and we were off and running.

Having a vision and plan for the video paid off. Being able to clearly identify the audience and what they wanted from the video allowed us to focus our creative energy on achieving their goal. The end result speaks for itself… the video is AWESOME! 

A vision and plan can take your video production to the next level.

–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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Well, I’m please to announce that T60 has won two 2012 Telly Awards.

The Telly Awards draw over 10,000 entries every year and are considered one of television’s and the non-broadcast video industry’s most prestigious honors.

We’ve now won 11 Telly Awards over the last five years, but who’s counting? :-)

See the winning entries: METROsquash – Warrenville P.D. Recruiting

All kidding aside, we owe a debt of gratitude to our clients. Not just the award winners… all of our clients. Our mission is to create quality storytelling at an affordable price. We’re able to do both because our clients put a lot of trust in our creative ability.

That’s the value we try to provide each and every client.

–Tony Gnau