Context is Everything!

First ask yourself, will my video be viewed in the context of spontaneity, storytelling, brand-building, promotion, or as a public announcement? This consideration will determine how much of an investment you may want to apply toward optics as well as voices and background audio quality.

The raw video coming out of today’s phones can be impressive… especially in the hands of a pro who knows when and how to use them… and when to bring in the DSLR’s, drones, and cine cameras.

Whip out the phone!

• For spontaneous moments at shop or office, most phone cameras will record video that’s fine for social shares. This is true for on-the-spot promotions, especially in retail sales.
• Expert advice, tips & tricks can easily and immediately be steamed to your online social/business networks effectively from a phone.
• Updates from the field and visual progress reports can be efficiently captured on phones by available mobile agents.

Bring in the gear!

• Telling a story with video, designed to elicit feelings and move an audience, needs to be planned and strategically executed. Experienced video producers understand the conception, scripting, and storyboarding steps, and how to assure that the right story gets told.
• Competing in the advertising market is neither for the faint of heart nor the penny pincher. Producing a commercial video that positions your brand among the best in the market requires advanced skills and equipment to produce it.
• Your brand-building and public relations messages beg that you put your best foot forward, especially your visual communication assets. “Portrait” quality photography and “cinematic” grade video are the ideals to strive for.
• Homepage and flagship landing pages should include only premium quality videos. Custom “snippets” of full-length videos can add content value in multiple online channels to get more bang for the buck.

Let’s look at a few commercial video examples in the context of their respective purposes:

Brand-building, Storytelling…

Promotional Advertising…

Promotional Demo…

Homepage Capabilities Video…

The samples offered above all required careful planning, scripting, site reviews and preparations, a skilled camera and assist, and the right equipment for each venue – both indoors and out.

Ask the Experts

If you have a video project in mind or the need to improve your content quality in a significant way, you can always get a sense of what the process would look like, and a range of costs to produce what you want. We who’ve been through multiple video projects enjoy helping business owners lighten up their brands with great videos!

The post Video Quality Assurance for Your Brand appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Excellent Content Drives Marketing Enthusiasm

When you produce a fantastic marketing piece based on an excellent value concept – a video, custom photo gallery, a song, a story, website redesign or full-blown ad campaign, you won’t need to worry about distribution. You will find a way to get it in front of people!

The quality and value behind a great message produced with excellence will make broadcasting it an imperative. Your excitement and eagerness – your imperious urge for the message to be seen and heard will propel you to roll it out however you possibly can to the right audiences.

Re-energize Sales with Fresh Ideas

Whether it’s in your grocer’s produce isle or your marketing agency’s studios, freshness and quality matter a lot!

Think about the times you’ve invested in a marketing campaign and really liked how the designs and executions came out. Now think about the opposite; when all of your marketing materials were dated and fading in relevance or outshined by competitors’ campaigns. In the first case, you can hardly contain your enthusiasm to promote your message but in the latter case, you hesitate to even use what you have. Is it time to reenergize your marketing content to increase your drive to seize more opportunities?

Put the empowering quality of freshness and excellence into your sales and marketing efforts. Then let your enthusiasm for its greatness drive you to promote the value you offer through every feasible channel.

It Just Takes One!

Very often, it’s just one great video! A sometimes-overlooked asset is the vast gallery of excellent still shots that a premium high-def video production also yields. These can be used across the internet and even in some print applications. A great video is the anchor piece for many a refreshed marketing campaign.

For example, images from the drone video we produced for Bow Auto Parts are replacing some of the previous terrestrial still shots to improve their branding and website user experience.

Just one video shoot with a good director (ahem!) and camera operator and you’ll be equipped for great marketing executions you’ll be doing for years!

Now check out the second-generation version of Bow’s company video introducing the owner and team member who offer their candid inside perspectives.

Always remember that a guy with a phone won’t cut it when it comes to making a video that displays how well your shop performs (Like Bow Auto Parts’ operation clearly does) and how good you and your people are. Investing in a day of video photography is probably the most valuable marketing investment you’ll make this year.

We’re here to help write and produce a great video when you need one!

The post Great Content Gets Distributed appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Video is replacing much of the content on websites, social media and even blogs these days. Most people would rather watch a short movie or let someone tell them a quick story rather than commit to reading and digesting 500 or a thousand words.

I’m here to tell you that you can use video to your business advantage. Perhaps your industry has reached the point where you need well-produced videos in your marketing mix just to compete effectively. Every kind of business can benefit from video by delivering messages in a more dynamic and entertaining way.

Here are the main ways companies are succeeding with video:

• Broadcasting to reach wider audiences with world class production quality.
• Live event streaming – collaborators and audiences interact in real time wherever they happen to be.
• Testimonials – your customers talking directly to your prospective customers in a genuine and validating way.
• Documentaries – to record and preserve important information; to tell your story with compelling visual evidence.
• Industrial videos provide visual clarity of processes and easily understandable proofs of concept in various manufacturing applications.
• Promotional videos deliver your messages with the power of persuasion. You need to promote your ideas if you want your organization to grow.
• Storytelling is an art form that becomes electrified in high quality video productions. If you really want to captivate and inspire your audience, just let them watch your story unfold on screen.
• Motion Graphics provide that extra touch. Enhance and highlight sections to drive your key points home.

I’m happy to report that the growing prominence of video in marketing has added to our content writing work. Most business and institutional videos require a good script. Narrators and actors need lines, and as scriptwriters, we get to put the fire & sizzle into the spoken words – both acted and narrated.

Whether you need simple talking head videos or full scale commercial productions, the available talent in our little market north of Boston amazes me. I’ve worked with a few local video producers and directors whose work I’d rank up there with the best stuff coming out of LA and New York. In fact, some of their clients are in those cities.

In some cases, you can produce engaging video content, even if a little rudimentary, using your own equipment and the right backdrops.  If you click the image below, you’ll see a great way to incorporate video into a Homepage using a simple “About” video that gives viewers a clear sense of what this business is all about while it introduces the personality of the owner.

In some spontaneous contexts, even your smartphone camera will do. Friendly testimonials for social media come to mind.

Keep your ideas interesting and moving at a speed which people can easily follow along, which is pretty fast. Otherwise you’ll lose their attention pretty fast! Remember that “brevity is the soul of wit.” 30 seconds to 2 minutes tends to be within the attention span of most people as long as the message is relevant.

Are you using video in your marketing mix yet? Feel free to contact us if you need help planning or producing your next video project.

The post Video Marketing Power appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.