One of the biggest challenges that organizations face when they set out to create video marketing content is this: “What do I put in it?”
Good videos have a message. Good videos have a story. In an earlier article, I offered four questions to help you find the story of your organization and draft a basic script that will speak to your audience. In this piece, I’ll go more in depth about the first, how to pull it off, and why it’s important.
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Why do you do it?
- Why should we care?
I’ll admit that the importance of telling the audience who you are seems self-evident — a real no-brainer. Without identifying the brand, how will customers know what or where to buy?
I think that answering this question can go a lot deeper than that, though. In a good video, every frame contains loads of information that the audience picks up on, whether consciously or subconsciously. You can use this phenomenon to provide visual cues that act as shorthand, following the old filmmaker’s adage, “Show, don’t tell.” Other the other hand, if you don’t take control, it can work against you, with imagery that distracts or runs counter to your message.
A valid answer to the question “Who are you?” is: “I’m Walt the barber.” But so many questions are left unanswered. You don’t really understand who Walt is, even if you now know his name and profession. How much could you learn about Walt if the following visual cues were provided?
- Walt’s workstation is covered in sports memorabilia and a picture of him with his son is slotted into the edge of the mirror
- Walt wears a basic crewneck t-shirt that shows off a collection of arm tattoos, well-worn blue jeans, and a pair of Doc Martin boots
- While on-screen, Walt continually smiles as he talks
- The lower-third title (the words on-screen that identify him) adds a little flair: Walt, Barber Extraordinaire
If I were directing this video, I’d be sure to emphasize all of this and more. It can work for anything. Are you a roofer? In the video, dress like a roofer. Not just any roofer, though — if there’s something about your work look that’s unique to you, own it! Let’s shoot your speaking parts at an active worksite (as long as we can avoid interference from noise), or we could get really crazy and go up on the roof to film the interview, providing a remarkable view that audiences rarely get to see. Instead of simply “Roofer,” the lower-third could read “Licensed Roofer,” or something fun like “Roof Doctor.”
Even when filming in an office setting, my team likes to try and include personal items in the shot— framed pictures, knick-knacks, diplomas, posters — to make the viewer understand that they’re watching a real person with interests, accomplishments, hopes, dreams, and loved ones.
A classic example of this feat in cinema is the introduction to the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. For the first 3:20 of the film, we don’t hear Indy say a word. We don’t even see his face. Despite this, we already feel like we know his character and think he’s cool. Director Steven Spielberg shows off Indy’s fearlessness, persistence, skill, and quick-thinking — not to mention his iconic look: Jacket, whip, satchel, Stetson hat.
All of this information is conveyed through visual cues. Film moves much slower than marketing videos, though — 120 minutes vs. half a minute— so you need to plan how you’re going to accomplish the same thing in just a few seconds at a time.
Let’s add a dimension. Who are you? can also mean featuring the other major players within your organization. Anyone that the customer might interact with, should they choose to do business with you, is a good candidate for inclusion.
This offers different perspectives on who you are. What Postham’s Plumbing is to the CEO might not be who it is according to one of the plumbers. Who are you? should give people a sense of recognition when they come in to buy, by showing them faces they already know. The third question, Why do you do it?, will flesh out these differences a bit more as each featured face shares their personal motivations.
Accomplishing recognition is undoubtedly easier to do in a small- or medium-sized organization. Large organizations have so many people involved that a customer is incredibly unlikely to recognize a specific person.
In a large organization, you should shift the focus from individuals to the team as much as possible. If you have a strong brand image, your team will look unique, and the work environment should appear unique, too. Both will provide visual cues that convey your identity. If Postham’s Plumbing has 10,000 plumbers on staff, we can make the story more about their cool worktrucks rolling through neighborhoods like working-class heroes, rather than an individual worker.
We see this in corporate ads all the time. They show workers (or, more often, actors playing workers), but rarely do they get identified. We don’t get any details about them. It’s about what they are all working on together, not the individuals as characters.
When we do get these more intimate looks, it’s when the corporation is doing a special message, made remarkable by the fact that it goes counter to what they normally produce. The exception proves the rule. In a small organization, these identifying details should be the rule, not the exception.
Before making a video, figure out who you are and how you’re going to show it. Create robust characters out of key individuals in your organization. Give cues that that the audience will immediately like and relate to. Make them recognizable and memorable. We’re telling a story, after all, and what’s a story without interesting characters?
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