Tag Archives: video production

I frequently preach something to clients and prospects and occasionally here as well. Produce video content that serves your audience instead of your ego.

The first video most businesses want to produce is the “about us” video. That’s fine. I think you should do that too, but that’s only a jumping off place. From there, businesses need to produce content that audience members can benefit from. That often means setting aside the instinct to make all your videos about you.

Alternatively, pick subjects you and your audience are passionate about and share your opinion and/or expertise.

Practice what we preach

Easy for me to say, right? Well, I practice what I preach. As a BrandSmart conference sponsor, T60 was permitted to email all the attendees. Instead of sending out a mass sales pitch, I offered links to my blog posts regarding the event, as well as a couple of videos from our “why our clients use video” series.

None of the content was about T60, but all of it afforded us the opportunity to display our expertise and provide conference attendees with information that could benefit them.

While we were all at the same event, I looked at it through my video “lens” and offered a perspective they might not have received. The videos are something else entirely. Two T60 clients offering their thoughts on why and how they use video as part of their marketing strategy.

Content is king.

–Tony Gnau

Anyone out there a fan of Pockets? It’s a Chicagoland sandwich chain and it’s one of my favorites. I follow them on Facebook and noticed a video they posted yesterday.

It promotes that the chain is now making pizzas and provides a promo code for $5 off an online order.

Okay, there’s nothing earth-shattering here. The video really isn’t anything interesting, but here’s what’s important… I watched.

Video works

How many Pockets Facebook posts do you think I’ve blown through and not even noticed? I’m sure a ton, but I stopped when I saw video.

Not because I was Facebook-mining for blog material (yup, I occasionally do that). No, it was because the video icon caught my eye and I was curious to learn more about their pizzas.

Video does a good job if catching our attention. It’s just one of the many reasons why it’s a great way to promote your business or brand.

Mmmmm… pizza.

–Tony Gnau

We just recently completed our fourth annual video for Glenwood Academy, and something really stood out this year that anyone planning an event can learn from.

First, some background, the school is a non-profit in Chicago’s south suburbs. It’s a great school for good kids growing up in bad neighborhoods.

School leaders hold a fundraising luncheon every year before Thanksgiving. It’s a big deal. They hold it in the main ballroom at the Hilton Chicago. It’s about as swag an event space as you’re going to find.

This is the first year I’ve been able to attend, and I was impressed… big time. The school’s most generous donors and the kids from the school, all sitting at tables together mingling. There’s a live auction for some big-ticket items, and then an opportunity for people to make scholarship donations.

video’s role at the event

Before the scholarship donations, school leaders show a video. This is where we come in. The task we’re given every year is to bring to life Glenwood’s students and help people see and feel how their donations make a difference.

Video– learn more about Glenwood’s video philosophy

The theme behind this year’s video was “a day in the life” of Glenwood’s students. I was happy to hear the audience give it a big ovation.

What you can learn from Glenwood

Here’s what everyone can learn from Glenwood. First, they spend the money to produce a quality video. This is a big-time event with important people, and they want a video to match the event. Glenwood may be a non-profit, but they understand the power of video and clearly believe they’re getting a return on their investment.

Second, they know how to stage things. The video came in a little more than half-way through the program. Just when people’s interest or attention might be fading, they hit them with a video. It perked up everyone and got them ready to open their wallets for the main part of the fundraising.

Folks… their leaders “get” it. Video has the power to grab an audience’s attention and get them pumped-up about the subject at hand.

You need video at your corporate events.

–Tony Gnau

I really thought I’d write more about political videos, but this is only my second post on the subject. Guess I’m just election-ed out… and I don’t even live in a battleground state.

Anyway, PR and marketing pros, the c-suite, business owners… everyone can learn from our political leaders in at least one way. They produce some darn good videos, and the main lesson is a frequent topic here.

Important Lesson

Video isn’t about facts and figures. It’s about emotion.

The presidential campaigns know this which is why their videos are aimed at pushing our buttons. Forget the negative ads. Chances are you’re not going to create a video with the express purpose of trashing your competitors. Instead, take a look at how the campaigns try to inspire enthusiasm.

• Obama Video– The Final Push: It’s On Us
• Romney Video– Red Rocks

I love both these videos. Inspiring speeches set to inspiring music and covered with inspiring images. It’s all an effort to get you pumped up about each candidate.

Video works

If you support President Obama, look at that video and try to tell me it doesn’t get you fired up.

Mitt Romney supporters, take a look at his video. I’ll bet you sprint to the polls today.

Companies can do this too. You may not inspire so much enthusiasm you’ll have people chanting your name, but it might make a sale a little easier.

–Tony Gnau

I always appreciate when people enjoy T60’s work and want to refer us to friends and colleagues. Someone asked me last week what type of business is a good tip for us… big companies, medium or small.

The answers is… yes.

It’s about storytelling, not size

See… companies interested in video production run the gambit. It really has more to do with how interested a business is in storytelling than the size of the company.

I’ll give you an example. We’ve done work for Fortune 500 companies, Walgreens and United Airlines. We’ve done work for medium-sized companies, Goose Island Beer Company. And we’ve done a ton of work for small businesses.

All of them have varying budgets that they allow for marketing, but do you know one of the biggest areas of our business? Non-profits. Yup. Organizations that have tiny marketing budgets compared to the Fortune 500 big boys consistently have quality videos produced.

Non-profits “get it” better than anyone

Why? Non-profit leaders understand the power of storytelling and video. They understand producing a compelling story about their organization will help build trust and a connection with the people who are donating money. And in today’s social media world, they know they’re producing something that can be shared from prospect to prospect.

They understand the true value of video.

–Tony Gnau

Planning ahead can save you a lot of headaches. That’s true with many things, but especially video.

During a vlog shoot this week for one of our clients, the CEO spoke about the organization’s national conference. Following the shoot, I smiled and asked their corporate communications director what videos she wanted to produce surrounding the conference.

Somewhat bold of me, but she loved the idea. She said she really needs to start thinking about that and planning ahead.

Why you Should plan ahead

Yes, she does. We all do. When you start planning your videos in advance, you’ll be surprised about how things fall into place. The shoot is less hectic, and the results are frequently better. Usually because the video fits into a greater PR or marketing plan.

It doesn’t have to be the details for how every aspect of the videos are going to be produced. I’m talking about having a plan for what stories you want to tell.

Who’s are audience? What stories will impact them? These are the things you want to discuss in advance.

The better organized you are from the beginning, the more likely your videos will impress.

–Tony Gnau

I have a new appreciation for our clients. We’re currently updating our website, and our designer is working overtime to make sure we’re happy.

Video… graphic design… both creative pursuits trying to serve corporate America. We create, clients ask for revisions, we try to accommodate them. Sometimes that process can go on and on. It can be frustrating on the creative end making those revisions, but now I get it.

wanting to get it right

Our designer, Julie Woertz at We Cre8 Design, keeps sending us great looking proofs. We keep picking apart minor details. She must be pulling out her hair.

We’ve been there, but now having experienced it on the client end, I think I’ll be even more understanding. You want to get it right, so you nit-pick.

Thank you Julie for putting up with us. Almost there!

–Tony Gnau

And you thought I was done blogging about BrandSmart. Well… so did I, but I was going over my notes one more time and another blog post jumped out at me.

Encyclopedia Britannica. Did you think the internet killed it? Not even close. The company’s senior vice president and general manager of education told the BrandSmart audience Britannica has been changing with the times.

They no longer print encyclopedias, instead, the company delivers its content online. The internet hasn’t killed Britannica. It’s actually given leaders there a chance to make their content even more engaging.

Britannica Video

I know, you can see where this is going. The first thing you find when logging on to the website is video. Obviously, something the print edition could never do, but it speaks volumes about the medium about how it’s a powerful information tool.

Here’s a company that’s been in the information and printing business for hundreds of years. You read that right… hundreds of years. The company was founded in 18th Century, and after all that time they leave the printing business and what’s one of the first things that’s added to the content… video.

They understand the power of video. It has the ability to capture people’s attention, peak their interest and get them to seek even more information.

Seeing any benefit to business here?

–Tony Gnau

All week I’ve been highlighting some of my takeaways from last week’s BrandSmart conference. The event was put on by the Chicago chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Panel discussions… featured speakers… movers and shakers in the marketing world… all under one roof. It was a terrific event.

T60 is a Chicago-AMA sponsor, so we were thrown into the mix as a BrandSmart sponsor as well. We got to set up a display table and talk to people about our passion… storytelling.

BrandSmart Video competition

One of the things a lot of people commented on was that there were two other video sponsors that had tables. Nothing like a little healthy competition, right?

Wrong. We all talked with one another, checked out each others’ stuff and you know what? We’re totally not in competition with each other. All three of us clearly have our own areas of expertise.

One of the companies focuses mostly on 30-second commercials. The other company seemed to feature a lot of longer format videos. T60… short and to-the-point storytelling.

Production companies are all different

If you’re looking for someone to produce your videos, please keep in mind no two production companies are alike. Chances are the three of us at BrandSmart could all produce what the others specialize in, but in T60’s case we choose not to. We rather focus on our passion.

So… remember to ask the production companies you approach what types of projects they enjoy the most. The bigger the company, the more likely they dabble in a little bit of everything, but what are they best at producing? Look at their work and you should also be able to judge for yourself.

It’s important to find someone who lines up with what you’re looking for. I’ll tell you right now, if you’re looking for a production company that’s going to roll in for the day with a big production team carrying all sorts of fun video toys… T60 isn’t the company for you. We’re lean, fast and focused on telling good stories… short on flash and long on substance.

Figure out the type of video you want, the type of production team that fits with the project and pick a company that’s going to deliver.

–Tony Gnau

No surprise… a big topic of conversation at BrandSmart 2012 was the rise of mobile and what it means to marketing. A question asked during one of the panels is if video has a role.

Alex Kutsishin, president at FiddleFly mobile web solution said adding video to mobile is “brilliant.” He seemed totally on-board and liked the idea of QR codes in stores sending customers to mobile videos.

Mobile video is brilliant, but…

There was a little push-back from Ro Kumar, CEO at Digital Aisle. He cautioned the audience saying video in that situation needs special care. The issue… length. Mr. Kumar says the last thing customer are going to want to do is stand in an aisle watching a long video.

Agreed. I blogged yesterday about producing videos focused on your audience. That’s true when it comes to selecting your content, but it also means considering where they’ll watch the video.

Consider your audience

If you have a captive audience at a meeting or an industry conference like BrandSmart (virtually all the presenters used video), you can show a 3-4 minute video. If your audience is watching on a smart phone in a store, you better keep it short. I’d suggest 1-minute or less.

Mobile is here and video has a role, but you still need to know your audience.

–Tony Gnau