How to make a success of your company video ?
Did you know – the very first film in the history of cinema, ‘Workers Leaving the Lumière factory in Lyon’, is a corporate film! It goes to show that the genre isn’t really new. What is new, on the other hand, is the growing public interest in this media. Video has now become an essential part of marketing communication.
And corporate video has also diversified! It’s important to know the basics well so as to avoid depending entirely on your advertising agency. The latter could direct you towards its flagship product which is not necessarily the one you need. Let’s get started right away to describe the sub-categories of corporate video.
Corporate or company film – showcase your business in video:
Here you aren’t introducing your products or services, or in any case, not only. You’re introducing yourself! That company video reveals what your values and your activities are. It can be used to introduce you to new customers, whether it’s used by your sales team in the field (by means of a tablet), on the homepage of your website, on your social networks’ pages or even during exhibitions or trade fairs/shows. Here, the company film is a unique means of making you more human for your prospective customers, to establish warmer contact and to get them to like you. The corporate video gives you more depth because it reveals the soul of the company behind the brand.
To make a success of your company presentation film, it is important to choose a advertising agency that brings together several skills – artistic skill, a knowledge of marketing and a mastery of SEO. Selecting innovative visual techniques for your corporate video will give the company a dynamic, modern image. We can mention for example the use of drones (for filming aerial shots in a very cinematographic-style), motion design animation in 2D, 3D or whiteboard animation .
The product video – spice up video advertising:
The company film focuses here on a product or a line of goods. There are several variations TV-advertising spot, web advertising, the product presentation video (which highlights the characteristics of a product)… They say product video is a sales tool. Admittedly! However, all types of company video contribute to sales. The weariness that traditional publicity (TV advertising) causes in the public should not be underestimated. What are the key ingredients? Buying space on TV is so expensive that there has been overkill in the aesthetic quality of adverts. The appearance of the web has made it possible to return to the fundamental values of the content of a product film.
A product film must INFORM the target public about:
- « customer benefits » (what benefits the customer gets by using it…)
- « product features » (what are the differentiating points compared with the competition…)
But a good product film must also answer the fundamental question:
- How much does this cost?
- How do I buy it?
- What are the variations and options?
- What about customer-service?
The 30-second spot format is usually too short. Thanks to the Web, you can create your product video with the required length. To capture and hold attention, you must also invent, surprise and work on the style of your commercial video. Originality, unexpectedness, a bit of humour, it is advisable to use the services of a scriptwriter to innovate and propel the advertising film into the sphere of viral videos which people share on social networks.
The video interview – Inform and educate your public:
The interview allows a company to give the floor to an expert, an engineer, the CEO or a member of staff who has unique know-how. This type of video presentation is a simple, effective and inexpensive way of showing your expertise, of explaining what you do – that your competitors don’t. Your audience is in the process of searching for information to make a purchasing decision. The interview is the ideal moment to create and reinforce your prospective customer’s confidence in your company and your product. How do you do that? You solve a major part of his problem by explaining key data allowing him to make the right choices. And if your expertise is really good, your advice will be smart and will help him to decide, with the result that your prospective customer is a little indebted to you. This point will be important in tipping the balance when he makes his final choice.
Here’s an example of a film with interview and drawing.
Of course, with this company film, you can also give the floor to your happy customers and show examples of use that demonstrate your competitive advantages, but always in an approach aiming to inform and educate your prospect so that he can make the right choices. The secret to a successful interview is upstream, preparatory work, with the adverising agency, on the education strategy and the questions asked during the interview. Of course, the interviewee must be at ease in order to have a natural, warm and dynamic tone during the interview. The choice of the decor is important because in a video interview there’s a risk of quickly tiring your audience.
So, it’s very beneficial, at post-production phase, to insert images, diagrams or small drawings which will illustrate and explain what the interviewee is saying. That solves two key problems for this company film: 1) it regularly stimulates attention, 2) This allows the film not to be too theoretical and to show concretely what the speaker is explaining. The insertion of whiteboard animation, in accelerated drawing is particularly effective for this, because in addition it gives a human dimension.
The event video: Get your teams and your prospects onboard!
A celebration, a seminar, a trade show… these are all perfect opportunities to make an event video. In-house, it enables you to federate your executives and your employees, to involve them in the strategy, to give a voice to certain key executives and to engrave this event as a key moment in the life of your company.
Rather paradoxically, to manage to create a natural and spontaneous effect in the event-video, it is important upstream to script the message that you want to communicate and to prepare the filming as much as possible. To maintain the interest of the spectator, it’s important to know how to alternate mini-interviews, shots of the event, show-casing of your skills and the explanatory scribing videos produced in advance which allow you to introduce the main subject in an effective, light and fun way.
The web series – stand out from your competitors:
Now, let’s clearly get off the beaten path to present an innovative format, the company web-series. The ideal is to create a viral video that will circulate on the web, but it is a perilous exercise. It is essential that the subject be appropriate for it. It must be funny – either a little or a lot and must explain a topic (the various uses of your products, the various customer benefits…). a web series allows you to regularly feed your social newsletter, your site and your networks but also to create expectations.
To shine with a company web series, you need to know how to measure out useful information, humour, esthetics, story telling and innovation. It’s absolutely essential to use the services of professional actors. And don’t hesitate to use motion design animation or whiteboard animation, or even to mix the techniques.
The key to creating good company videos is to use the right style for each use, for each audience. It’s better to allocate small budgets to each of the styles of video rather than investing a lot in one. So, create in abundance and call in some pros!
