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12 Essential Qualities Your Branded Corporate Video Needs
- Company videos must be high-quality and on brand.
- Branded videos should be succinct, purposeful, and targeted to your core audience.
- Branded videos must also exude authenticity, maintain the interest of the viewer, and include a call to action.
When it comes to the effectiveness of video content for your company, there are three possibilities:
A. Your video is low in quality but perfectly on brand.
B. Your video is of excellent quality but is off target branding-wise.
Therefore, you can’t simply aim to make a “good” video as defined by either click totals/award-worthiness or the precise articulation of your branding message/campaign. If you want a significant return on investment from your video production efforts, you must achieve the third possible outcome:
C. Your video is of excellent quality and perfectly on brand.
To accomplish that, your video must be:
1. On brand. Obviously. All too often, someone on the creative team will have a “fantastic idea” for the video concept which may indeed be clever, original or insightful—but have little or nothing to do with the company’s brand. If viewers like your video but can’t remember your company or what it does/sells, then you’ve wasted a bunch of money entertaining people who will never become your customers.
The U.S. Postal Service boosted its brand by promoting the Sally Ride stamp in this video.
2. Purposeful. Make sure every video has a purpose, a measurable and a desired outcome. A hodgepodge of images and talking heads with no purpose is as impractical as a video that isn’t on brand. Give the video a purpose such as demonstrating your product, teaching viewers how to do something, or interviewing industry experts and/or satisfied customers.
3. Targeted to your audience. Before you write a single word of the script, you must establish precisely to whom you are speaking. What’s the demographic of your target audience? Is it made up of consumers across the country or professionals with specific titles in a few select industries? When and on what device will they likely view the video? Answering these questions and others will affect the content of your finished product.
4. Authentic. One skill that most people have is the ability to spot false promises or over promotion. If you aren’t genuine in the way that you are presenting your message to the audience, viewers will tune you out immediately. So think twice before you decide to make wildly un-provable claims or shoehorn an attention-getting element in a thinly-veiled effort to make the video go viral.
5. Not boring. Sure, some industries are characterized by dry material and jargon-laden principles. But that’s no excuse for making a video with content that is presented in a dull manner. Instead, try taking the video script and turning it into a story. Viewers respond well to narrative formats, and keeping them entertained will help with the retention of your message.
6. Visually engaging. Even if much of your video relies on people talking on-camera, you can intersperse other images (also known as “b-roll”) into these clips of an individual talking. Or incorporate animations and graphics to illustrate important and/or complex concepts to the viewer. These and other techniques can liven up even the most cumbersome material.
Iceland fans were pretty hype about their first-ever FIFA World Cup goal! pic.twitter.com/z0KAXPH22w
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 16, 2018
Even in this short clip, the video doesn’t rely on a single shot of fans cheering, but adds other angles to improve the end product.
7. Succinct. One of the challenges of making a video is to include all of the relevant information without losing the audience’s attention. That’s why most videos are between one minute (for image or promotional videos) and three to four minutes (for explainer, demonstration, company history, and similar videos). One more thing: if a speaker is being especially verbose or meandering, don’t hesitate to edit out the superfluous words and tighten up your final product.
8. Not overly complex. Make sure special effects and animation don’t take away from your messaging. Those components are fine if they are consistent with the brand or video message; but if a topic can be covered in a simpler manner, it’s usually better for the flow of the video (and the health of your marketing budget).
9. Valuable. As in “demonstrates the value of your company, product, and/or service.” This is not achieved by simply listing a bunch of product technical specs, industry or community awards, or company factoids. If you’re not clearly spelling out why your company/product/service will make viewers’ lives easier or their companies more profitable, then all of the information in your video is useless.
10. Likable. If you are working with non-professional or in-house talent his is a bit trickier to achieve and often requires some subtle adjustments. While it’s rare for branding videos to portray a company as truly unlikable, tweaks such as getting on-camera talent to smile, avoid overacting, vary their vocal tones, and make eye contact with the camera will focus the viewer’s attention on the video content rather than the people telling them about it.
11. Of good quality. To be sure, derivative or mundane content won’t be able to compete with a crowded Internet video marketplace. So take the time to complete all of the steps in making a video from concept development and storyboarding to scripting, shooting, and editing. And for videos with a lot of information or a high degree of complexity, always partner with a professional video crew so that the production values are strong and the look of the finished product is first-rate.
Want good quality? Check out some of Crews Control’s work.
12. Clear regarding its call to action. If you’ve put together an awesome video that is inspiring to its audience, what then? It’s your job to plainly state what you want the viewer to do—visit your website, call a salesperson, attend an event, etc.—at the end of your video. For online videos, you can include a hyperlink which can take viewers directly to the desired web portal. Don’t just end your video with something like, “This is us! Thanks for watching!” (Unless you want subpar conversion rates.)
Since 82 percent of all Web traffic by 2021 will consist of video, it’s imperative that your company be able to build and fortify its brand using this medium. But failing to produce video content that promotes your brand in the right manner and to the right people is akin to squandering money on yet another failed marketing initiative.
Need a crew for your upcoming branded video? Get a quote today!
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