| A
pregnant woman discusses the emotional impact of having a
child and as her eyes begin to tear, the interviewer hands
her a Kleenex. A second video features another well-spoken
woman talking about her return to New Orleans after the devastation
of hurricane Katrina. Again as the woman becomes emotional
and begins to cry, the interviewer hands her a tissue. Nothing
more needs to be said, this is very powerful story telling
that connects to the audience and delivers an image of the
brand as caring and sensitive; the exact kind of impression
the company wants to portray.
Even companies
that aren't exactly dead-from-the-neck-up boring can benefit
from this approach. The Home Depot ran a series of advertisements
with a husband showing his wife a series of power tools that
he wanted. Rather than try to convince his wife, and by association
all the wives in the audience, that he needs another expensive
toy, the husband points to each tool and states, "this
is your new shelving unit" and "this one is your
new kitchen" - a far more dramatic and effective way
to make the case for a new purchase.
You can deliver
the same kind of powerful marketing messages for your own
company by presenting Web-based videos that follow a few very
simple guidelines.
Six Steps To Turn Boring Into
Exciting
1. Use People to Sell People
There is no
substitute for people. Human beings are capable of communicating
with an enormous degree of nuance and subtlety, using voice,
expression, body language, and gesture; no animation, avatar,
or artificial substitute can take the place of a real person
for communicating meaningful, memorable marketing messages.
With relatively
easy-to-use production tools anyone can create a video, but
not necessarily one that delivers the message or image that
your company wants to present. We have seen far too many poor
quality efforts both on the Web and even on local television,
where company presidents with bad haircuts and ill-fitting
suits, uttering nonsense-riddled scripts in zombie-like performances
expose themselves to audiences expecting more, much more.
Skilled performers
communicate in very subtle ways to an audience, and only the
well-practiced professional has the experience and capability
to deliver the intended experience. The cost of saving monëy
by doing-it-yourself or with amateurs can result in delivering
an unintended message that may undermine the impression and
image you are trying to create. |
