Thankful for Video

November 21, 2019

The Holidays are all about connecting. Think about most of your favorite memories. Do most of them involve sitting around the table exchanging stories. You know, pass the potatoes and a good story from the past? Stories really are the glue that hold us together. We are grateful for great stories. They elicit emotion. Influence who we trust. Play on our nostalgia. Now take those concepts and apply them to the marketing landscape. Voila. Dinner is served. What every brand needs is a story. Let’s dig in.

A really great story doesn’t have to be a 6 course meal. In fact, the best stories can communicate the entire character of a brand in less than three minutes (and most of the time much less). That’s just enough to give your audience a taste and keep them wanting more. To further that. You don’t want to stuff anything down your audience’s throats. Instead of selling a product, brands need to showcase why they’re passionate about their product. The best stories make us laugh, learn and, if you’re lucky, reaching for seconds.

The Main Course: The Theme

We love themes. The biggest lesson in content marketing is that the story shouldn’t be about you, but instead, what you do for others. Look beyond the basics to find the “why” behind what your organization does, and market that. If you sell solar panel software, your video message should be focused on saving the earth and the fight against climate change. Don’t sell memberships. Share an experience. We produced this video for the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida. The organization wanted to drive home the point that they do far more than sell cookies. They are raising the next generation of leaders.

Chew on This: Build Video Stories Around Emotion

If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The way to your audience’s attention is through its feelings. From laundry detergent to cars and everything in between, brands are playing on emotions. You’re not selling things. You’re sharing an experience. This story-based content is everywhere, and you can bet your bottom dollar there’s a reason it’s getting so emotional. But how do you get started?

Food for Thought: Video-Storytelling Tips

We believe in the rule of threes when it comes to most things. Just like a standard meal: Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert. Stories should have a Beginning, Middle and an End. Storyboards are a great way to visualize the story and they help you identify possible issues before you start filming.
Show, Don’t Tell. Use visuals and sound design to convey messages rather than stating it outright. Think about how angles, colors, audio, and more all work together to create a feeling. The perfect recipe. We produced the piece below as a selling point for the city of Tampa. It has no sound bytes. Just beautiful visuals and a message of adventure.
Short and Sweet. We have all had that appetizer that filled us up. It wasn’t much. But it was just enough to satisfy the appetite. Similarly, videos do not have to be longer to be better. Short stories can be just as compelling AND you have a better chance of keeping your audiences attention. Yum! What’s that over there! Snack-able social videos are the a great way to tee up the bigger dish. Check out the video below which we created for Hu-manity.co.

Take a minute and digest it all. It’s all great food for thought and certainly will help get you that video you’re grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving from Team Mad Bear

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About the Author: Roshni Hannon Contact: roshni@madbearproductions.com

Her name means “light” and that is what she is… high energy, bright and fast. And yes… she does run regularly. While we’re not sure what she is running from (perhaps her two young kids) we know she’s covered a ton of ground. She was the Executive Producer for an award winning and number one rated morning show in Tampa for years. And now, she uses her unique blend of organization, storytelling and curiosity to help Mad Bear clients find their stories. Think of her as an architect, a story architect.

Blog, Video Storytelling

authenticity, branded content, connection, video, video marketing