So, what is a corporate video? ‘Corporate video’, sounds scary right? Like corporate law or corporal punishment? Well, there’s nothing to be scared of. They’re just videos produced by an organisation to promote their brand, products or services. They can be used for training, capturing events, live streaming or just tweeting the office cat helping with shredding.
Yet despite the endless possibilities of corporate videos theyhave a reputation for being painfully dull. If you’re having a flashback to one now then it most likely featured an executive in a suit, sitting at a table, pretending they weren’t reading from a script. They sounded bored, they looked bored, the lighting was dull and the sound distant. In essence if you hadn’t been contractually obliged to watch the video you’d have turned it off ten seconds in. But, times are changing. With the condition known as ‘Death by Powerpoint’ on the rise corporations are looking to video to spruce up their presentations and add some sparkle to their messages. This is because video is an engaging way of providing information, but also makes that information easy to find. Google loves video and if you have video on the front page of your website you’ll rank higher in searches. YouTube is the next biggest search engine for people wanting to find information.
How to make a good corporate video
1. Making a plan and deciding your message
Like everything that isn’t spontaneous, failure to plan means you plan to fail. For video projects this is especially true and starting with your budget and creating a timeline are essential first steps. The next step is work out who your audience is and what message you want to convey. If you can’t answer these questions then it’s time to get round the table and do some brainstorming. Once you’ve got your message try to summarise it in a few sentences. Being concise will help ensure your audience stays focused and don’t start thinking about lunch or wondering who did frame Roger Rabbit.
2. Getting technical
This is the hard part and where you want to think about bringing in the professionals to help (ahem, Crispy Dog!) and don’t rely on your smartphone for filming. Yes, it’s great for filming your hamster doing backstroke in the bath, but not for when you’re trying to impress thousands of potential clients. The problem isn’t that smartphones can’t capture high quality video, they absolutely can, the problem is all the other elements you need to make that high quality image worth looking at.
A big one is lighting; most office lighting will not make you look good on video and will create the cold feeling of attending a very one sided meeting. Yet with a little thought and some creative lighting you can add warmth, colour and even drama to your message. Then there’s the audio – arguably even more important than the image as so much can go wrong. You’ll never notice good sound but you’ll certainly notice if the microphone is too far away, too close or captures contributions from other employees – such as the fridge. Poor sound means your message will lack credibility and professionalism.
Then there is the post production such as colour correction, audio mixing and editing to think about. But the bottom line is that the best videos will come when you can concentrate on the message, and the technical team can handle the rest.
3. Being creative!
Once you’ve decided what you want to say and who can help you achieve it, then it’s time to get creative and focus on how. For example, do you want to use animation, a newsroom style presenter, interviews or even actors? Think about videos that stick in your mind, even the driest of subjects like airline safety videos can be given a creative flair. Of course, this is where your budget comes in – if you want to hire a dolphin to squeak the quarterly fiscal results then it will be more costly than asking Maggie from Accounts to squeak them instead. But a large budget isn’t required to make a creative or visually interesting video. Maggie walking through the office, talking to camera with colleagues shouting out their figures, will be interesting to watch, but without breaking the budget.
Finally, make sure you’re there to participate in the shoot, get involved and pay attention to detail as it’s the little things that can make all the difference. Things often go wrong and plans never come fully to fruition, but by thinking on your feet you will come up with creative solutions that look like they were intended all along. Keep calm, be confident in your planning and most of all enjoy it and have fun!
One Last Thing
But don’t worry if you feel swamped by all this information. At Crispy Dog we can help you both plan and execute your video. Get in touch today for a free consultation, what do you have to lose?
