Video Production is everywhere these days. You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, iPads…we are drowning in a sea of digital media. In fact, as I was typing this sentence more video was posted to You Tube than you can watch on your lunch break!
The consequence of this video boom is since video isn’t so special anymore, you’ll have to work pretty hard (or smart) to make a stand out video. In other words, if you want people to actually watch your video and take some action, you’ll have to produce something truly engaging. Sometimes not so easy, but If you do, your audience will reward you with shares, likes, follows, tweets, comments and best of all…you may just have started…(drumroll)…an ongoing relationship!
Here’s an example of a video Digital Accomplice recently produced for Sherwin Williams which is a great example of how any company can increase engagement of their videos with a little concept development.
High Engagement: sounds valuable, right? So just how the heck are you supposed to do that?!
The real solution is a focus on “Pre-Production” (AKA planning). What I really mean by this is the very first couple steps of the project when you are trying to figure out what to do. Before you schedule a shoot, before you commit to a budget, this is the time to develop not just decide. This is the critical stage where a projects true destiny is decided and good ideas are born… or not. The reason most videos aren’t that interesting is frequently because the fundamental concept isn’t really engaging. Sure, there’s lots of amazing skateboard and cat videos out there but the corporate world has certain realities and restrictions on what makes sense to show.
The key is to work with an experienced and talented producer who can help develop and engaging concept for your particular situation that makes sense. If you hire someone to work through the goals and issues and develop concepts that make sense (and are engaging) you have a much better chance of getting video content that people want to watch. It’s a lot like making a house: you don’t want to start building without a blueprint. If you are going to take the time to make a blue print in the first place, why not take the time to develop and design it really fit your needs?Video Production can be an expensive process, especially if you don’t plan ahead. By developing a plan that fits in your budget, you can be sure to stick to just about any budget. The catch is that the planning phase has to be built into the overall budget, but how much to allocate? This is the place where many video productions fall flat. At a certain point, you have to take a leap of faith in your producer and trust that they are going to help you develop an engaging concept, and that it’s worth some investment to develop and discover what that will be. Again, just like the house example, at a certain point you have to hire an architect to design your blueprint.
The real issues are education and trust. In my experience, many times the client hasn’t researched vendors enough to see what they can do. If you have that ability, it can make a huge difference. Finding video concept development talent isn’t always so easy, in fact that’s surely a talent in itself. What I recommend is really doing your homework. See what different videos a possible vendor has produced before and see if they seem to have the “creative juice” that can help craft content people want to watch. Talk to them, see what they think it would take to develop something for your project. Once you have a sense of what’s involved in planning a high engagement project and you have a reasonable amount of confidence in investing in your video producer’s time to help shape the project to meet your goals, you’ll be ready to move forward.
The cost of not investing in high-engagement content will most certainly be lower views, less shares, less buzz…and ultimately a lower return on investment. Think about video content that you find engaging, I am willing to bet you a Facebook “Like” that the top content that you find most interesting has been developed, planned, crafted and thought through by someone with talent rather than simply ‘shot’.
