At the end of the day I like all of the videos I have done over the years for various clients. While the process may have been frustrating and the nature of clients being what and who they are may be frustrating, in the end we are on the same page, we both want something they feel good about and which can promote and market the clients product or service to potential new customers for them.
Anyway, Jeff G, the owner of JG Development, walked in to the Vilas Zoo setting. I put a mic on him and he knocked it (the video not the mic) out of the park. He may have been the rare "one take Jake", someone who felt good in front of a camera and knew what he wanted to say. It is hard to do. I've seen hundreds of people step up and try. I've done it myself. It is hard, but that is part of what makes video a good thing. When done right, the body language, the look, and the feel are all conveyed to your viewer. Call it multimedia I guess, but video turns out to be a great way to deliver a message on several different levels, best done by just being yourself, like Jeff does in this video.
Sometimes the need is an industrial tutorial, for lack of a better description. No face, no body, just your voice and the object. Simple and straight forward. A live demo recorded for others to learn from.
Some of my enduring themes appear again in this video from a Home Construction company in Kenosha. Credibility (multiple generations and mention of start year), Example (three different showrooms), and Good speaking voice.
A business video does not have to be this major bank breaking affair. After all your customers are not likely to be major bank breaking customers right? Speak in their language, show them things they are looking for, and keep it simple. No one goes into a purchase looking for complexity, regardless of what it is. Simple words, quick to understand imagery and good body language. I think that's the gist of what it takes to get someone's attention and get them thinking further about doing business with your company.
Simple. Direct. Friendly. Gets the job done for those searching online for a dentist in the Lake Geneva area. Love the ending. (spoiler alert) How many dentists offer cookies? I thought they were great guys. Lake Geneva is kind of a neat little town too. Might be worth a drive. The lake is gorgeous.
The letter "F" is a double dose today.
I think this video is interesting on several fronts. First, the orange graphic and use of the logo, offers a graphic "impact" a good bit more than a typical business video. Second, proper planning prevents poor performance. Although I like to think this turned out OK, when an intangible service is the subject, often times where to place the video is an issue, since there is nothing to look at, nothing to show. It is the strength, interest, and enthusiasm of the narrators that carries the video. The issue of b-roll is closely related. When there is nothing to show in terms of a product, the location and the people talking are relied upon to carry the whole video. A video centered upon something tangible is a bit easier because, while the narrator remains critical, there is other material (b-roll) to cut away to and look at.
Client-side thinking and planning in advance remain issues in the business video world. Salespeople, for the most part, lack the experience or understanding to sell it and - short of doing it yourself, most clients do not really understand the scenario that they need to spend time planning for and organizing. For example, when these three women arrived at a third party site, none of them knew what they wanted to talk about, we had no supporting materials, and they were nervous. None of them had done this before. On the upside, they were all involved in "A Fund for Women" and quickly figured out a theme. On the downside, no one had done video before, so body language, voice, tone, and using persuasion in lieu of declaration were harder to pin down and resolve. As they USUALLY are in every business video project.
Good people working and caring about a worthy topic. I like to think that this video, however they used it, did their cause some good.
The video below, is Foot and Ankle Associates, as you are no doubt hearing. While their work is intangible for the most part, the location is far stronger and very relevant, relative to the video above. This is not a good or bad, a doctor's office with three narrators, live models, and relevant props simply makes a stronger background.
I think both positively promote the business and cause. As both illustrate in different ways, location, planning, and a "show and share" aspect can strongly enhance business video.
Pretty straightforward. Short enough for attention spans. Credibility established. Background established. Location. Ambulance as difference maker. All presented by a familiar face, one that most people are going to see on entering the front door.
This one goes into my memory as one of the more unique subjects that I've had in front of my camera. Denture manufacturing. Not something most people ever really pay much attention to, until the day comes when teeth make their presence known and necessity awakens awareness. Then you find the "Dr. Ks" of the world. I learned that while this slice of industry is under the radar, it is big business. There are numerous people in need of dentures.
In retrospect, this should not have surprised me. Anytime an industry perceives enough customers to warrant spending money on letter network air time for ads, that in itself says the niche is big business. Dr. Kneepkens realized that as more and more people are able to using a search engine to research his product category before ever making their existence known to him, it was in his best interests to get durable content online that his potential clients could find.
