2. Customer Reference
Videos
•Customer
Testimonials
•Success Stories
•Man-in-the-Street
interviews
•Video Case Studies
•Customer
Presentations
Product and Service
Promotion
•Product Presentations
•Product
Demonstrations
•Product Reviews
•Visual Stories
Corporate Video
•Corporate Overview
•Executive
Presentations
•Staff Presentation
•Facility or Equipment
Tour
•Annual Review
•Video Signature
Training
•Training Video
•Expert Video
•How-To Videos
Customer Support
•Post Sale Support
•Website FAQ Videos
Corporate
Communications
• Internal
Communication
• Event/Trade
Show Video
• Employee
Orientation
• Health, Legal &
Safety
Advertising ,
Marketing and
Promotion
• Commercials
• Viral Video
• Infomercials
• Content
Marketing
• Interactive Video
• Branded
Entertainment
PR Support and
Community
Relations
• Video Press
Release
• PR Support
Material
• Community
Relations
• Corporate talk
show/interview
• EPK(electronic
press kit)
Event Videos
• Event
Presentation
• Round table
Sessions
• Experts Q&A
Sessions
Misc.
• Recruitment
Video
• In-store Video
• Company Lobby
Video
• Mobile Video
• Market Research
& polling
• Video Magazine
• Behind the
scenes Video
3. Customer
Reference
Videos
1 Customer Testimonials : Nothing is more compelling than seeing and hearing your customer
(ideally in their own environment) extol the virtues of your products and services or explaining how
your company helped them to achieve their business goals. These videos usually run from fifteen
second snippets to a minute and are typically combined with or used to support other marketing
material.
2 Success Stories : Similar to a customer testimonial these videos run between one and two
minutes and follow an interview format where the person on screen answers questions posed by an
interviewer just off-camera. These videos are usually delivered as stand-alone marketing support
materials and are often grouped with other customer success stories.
3 Video Case Study : A video case study combines customer testimonials with more a more in-depth
explanation of how your company’s products and services helped your customer be successful.
These case studies usually incorporate two voices – a narrator and the voice of your customer and
can run anywhere from two to five minutes. The video structure follows the same “Problem, Solution,
Benefit” format found in a printed case study and usually include b-roll or other supporting text and
video.
4 Man-in-the-street Interviews : These videos are typically done to promote events and to build
buzz around coming events but can also be employed to capture ‘spontaneous’ responses to
targeted questions that help promote your product or service or to help differentiate the benefits of
your brand compared to the real or imagined problems associated with your competitors. Sometimes
these videos are genuine. Sometimes they are completely staged. ‘Authenticity’ is, in some sense,
becoming a style…
5 Customer Presentations. : If one of your customers is presenting at a conference, trade show or
event or even in your offices and is talking about your products or services either directly with you or
indirectly as part of a larger discussion this may be a perfect opportunity to capture the presentation
of video (with permission, of course) to re-purpose on your website and intranet.
4. Product
and
Service
Promotion
6. Product Presentations(or service) presentation videos are typically employed early in
the buying cycle. Product or service presentations focus on benefits and talk from your
customer’s perspective. They should speak clearly to how your product solves a specific
business, personal or economic problem that your prospect is experiencing. They are used
to help your customers and prospects differentiate between the benefits of your products
and services to those of your competitors.
7. Product Demonstrations Product demos show how your product works and highlight
the features that differentiate it from that of your competitors. Software screen captures, a
3D cut-away, or a high impact demo by a presenter are all excellent ways of showing how
your product or service works. These videos are typically used to influence a prospect who
is relatively far along in the sales cycle. In technology marketing these videos would be
targeted at the technical approvers who need to understand how something works. In
consumer marketing these would be targeted at the economic buyers of larger ticket items
who may be further along the sales process.
8. Product Reviews : The best product reviews are trusted third party reviews. Video
reviews can be found anywhere from YouTube to various business portals. To the extent
they are positive and promote your brand, they should be referenced. You can also partner
with trusted third parties to create product reviews for your own products.
9. Visual Stories : Quickly rising in popularity, visual stories employ illustrations,
animations and motion graphics with a voice-over to explain complex products or services
in a simple and compelling manner. These are sometime referred to as ‘explainers’ and
are usually between one and three minutes in length. A new version of this tool, used
primarily for entertainment, are websites that offer predefined characters and backgrounds
that you can both animate and add an automated voice to (sort of like building your own
Second Life commercials). You will begin to see many new hosted services offering
customizable cloud-based animation modeling options – some good and some quite awful.
5. Corporate
Video
10. Corporate Overview : These videos are the video equivalent of the ‘company brochure’ for small companies
– intended to give new visitors to a website a better idea of the company. Corporate overview videos typically
company history, key products, executives/owners and other top level business info. As the cost of video
production continues to decrease and the popularity of video increases you will start to see these videos being
replaced by multiple, more targeted video.
11. Executive Presentations : Whether you are preparing for a quarterly update, responding to a major event in
your industry or making a regularly scheduled presentation there is great value in presenting the “face” and
“voice” of your leadership team to all of your constituents.
12. Staff Presentations : Social media and other Web 2.0 trends have caused companies to reconsider how
they communicate with external audiences. Your senior leadership team should not be the first and only
consideration to represent your company. It is becoming more imperative to consider showcasing the people
that drive the day-to-day operations of your company. Customer service representatives, technical experts and
legacy workers are all valuable considerations for this new category of corporate video. Surveys show that there
is more trust associated with these employees than with senior management. When you are selling to
influencers in organizations (versus economic buyers or decision makers) it is especially important you represent
your company with people that your customers and prospects can relate to
13. Corporate facilities or equipment tour : Ten years ago corporate facility videos and equipment tours were
popular. Down-sizing, off-shoring, outsourcing, a couple of recessions and a hollowing out of North America’s
manufacturing base has change the priorities placed on these videos. Uniqueness is key to success here. That
said, it’s really not about you and your stuff any more – it’s about how you can solve your customers problems.
14. Annual Report / Review Public companies are legally obliged to create annual and quarterly reviews. As
well, larger privately held companies also create their own quarterly and annual reviews. As print continues to
fall out of favor video will either supplement or replace these materials.
15. Video Signature and Video Introduction: Social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are just starting to
enter into the corporate culture even though they have been part of the social culture for years. Other social sites
like web-based dating services are now commonplace. Video is becoming a key component in how you ‘sell’
yourself, in your private life… and in business. A video signature is a video (either embedded or direct link to
video) that is in the signature portion of your email. Introductory videos serve the same purpose – to give people
who don’t know you a better idea about who your are.
6. Training 16. Training: Corporate video first gained prominence with training
(service, support, sales, personal development etc.) and continues to be
one of the best uses of video. Online Video is a cost effective substitute
for in-class training. You can also easily integrate video into online
training management tools.
17. Overnight expert videos (Sales Support): If you serve a large
geographic area or sell through channels then it is well worth the effort to
put together short ‘overnight expert’ sales support videos that highlight
the key selling points, features, benefits, objection handling and follow-up
issues to consider by your direct or channel sales force.
18. Just-in-time learning (‘How-to’ Videos) :Contextual training videos
are becoming very popular on the web. ‘How-to’ videos, video manuals,
on-site video reference, quick assembly demos, and other types of video
are being used to supplement or replace traditional training. Mobile video
will increase the popularity of this type of video.
7. Customer
Support 19. Post sale support and maintenance: No one reads
manuals. You can save thousands of dollars of post sale support
by creating informative assembly, installation and maintenance
videos for your products and services.
20. Website FAQ Video : In certain formats video can be a
suitable replacement for text where an authoritative voice,
support materials or other visual references are required. A list of
FAQ’s answered by a company expert is an example.
8. Corporate
Communications
21. Internal Communications : In larger companies few people have the time or interest to
understand what other groups or functions within the company do or even why they exist.
Internal videos that highlight business plans, new business activities and achievements can
improve knowledge transfer and lead to more effective communications. They are also a great
way to show off your local heroes. These videos can be either live or recorded and are typically
used in larger more geographically dispersed companies. As employees continue to work from
home these videos will become more important.
22. Event/Conference and Trade Show Communications. : Most companies spend a
disproportionate amount of their marketing budget on attending and participating in a variety
of industry events and yet only a very small percentage of employees ever benefit from these
activities. Share the knowledge gained at these events by capturing the presentations, demos,
interviews, commentaries etc. on video.
23. Employee orientation: Once your new recruits are on board employee orientation videos
are a great way to get new staff up to speed. Company history, structure, procedures, policies
and codes of behavior can all be communicated effectively with video.
24. Health, Legal & Safety: The cost of dealing with health and safety related issues within
organizations continues to grow. Video is one of the most effective means of minimizing these
costs.
9. Advertising
Marketing &
Promotion
25. Commercials : While advertisers are becoming more selective in how they chose to spend their promotional dollars with
broadcast television, other venues for commercials such as online video pre-roll, online sponsorships, in-game advertising, event
sponsorships and in-theatre advertising are starting to take the place of broadcast / cable commercials. A proliferation of video
screens cropping up on every building, device and structure will create an even more diverse set of advertising opportunities. The
challenge will be to create specialized content targeted to ever- shrinking niche audiences.
26. Viral Video :A video is viral if it is so compelling that people want to share it. (Calling a video ‘Viral’ doesn’t make it so). Viral
videos have to be extremely engaging, entertaining, shocking or meaningful to be successful. Unfortunately some of the most
successful viral videos have little connection (and therefore value) to any brand. Everyone references ‘Will it Blend’ but very few viral
videos are remotely this successful in actually driving sales. Viral video is very difficult to do well.
27. Email Video: Testing has shown that open rates can double if you include video in your email marketing activities. To be
effective the video should be purpose-built to elicit a specific conversion activity such as requesting a demo, more info, etc. E-mail is
seeing a resurgence with marketers and embedded video in emails (like gmail supports) or links to video in email is becoming very
popular.
28. Infomercials: Infomercials have been around forever. While they continue to be the primary focus of web-based parody videos
they have remained remarkably resilient over time. The shopping channel is, in effect, a 24 hour infomercial. If done well,
Infomercials can be very effective at selling certain consumer products.
29. Content Marketing: This is a broad category that will become very important over the next months and years. Much of the
content (video or otherwise) being created today by companies is focused on selling and focused on the brand. Focusing on solving
your customers problems first and then associating your brand with those solutions will be increasingly more important and
effective. (i.e. Home Depot has developed branded ‘how-to’ series that sits on their website and shows their customers how-to fix
various things around the house. ) What knowledge do you have that can help your customers and prospects. People don’t go to
your website to see your sales pitch. They go to see if you can solve their problem.
30. Interactive Video: The promise of interactive video has been around for years but we’re just starting to see companies build in
interactivity into their videos. You can build in calls to action, form fields, multiple scenarios and any number of engaging content
that get people to not just passively watch your video but actually gets them to start to interact with your video. Technology will play
a huge role in interactive video over the next few years. You can already see the foundations of this with YouTube allowing you to
add annotations and links to videos.
31. Branded Entertainment and Sponsored Video: Viral Video in many ways is just branded entertainment. There are many ways
companies can benefit from having their names attached to content. In the ’50 the ‘soaps’ were a great way for P&G and other
consumer companies to promote their brand. Everyday there is a new format for sponsored video being created for delivery on the
web. Many will fail but some will become hugely popular. Associating your brand with the right entertainment and informational
content on the web is a very interesting opportunity.
10. PR Support
and
Community
Relations
32. Video Press Releases: The standard four paragraph press release is now being supplemented with
video and rich media to tell a more engaging story. Video is now being purpose-built to directly
support the important company announcements. The new challenge for press releases is to change the
focus from the company to the customer.
33. PR Support Materials: Make it easy for networks, bloggers, news gathers and others to promote
your business and also to talk about your industry. Smart companies are developing video support
catalogs of company and industry related materials (b-roll, industry footage, sound bites etc) and
offering them to news and business portals. The demand for video is everywhere. If a news agency
(online or broadcast) is looking for stock footage to use in a story it might as well be yours. (assuming
the story is positive, of course)
34. Community Relations Video: If your company is out working in the community, being good
corporate citizens, helping the environment or contributing to important causes you should be
capturing those efforts on video. Show the world what you are doing, don’t just talk about it.
35. Corporate Talk Show / Interviews: Weekly newsletters require a lot of effort and the ‘open’ rate
on most of these is quite low. Companies of all sizes are now starting to develop talk-show format
video where a host interviews various people (either internal or external to their company) to discuss
things that are important to your audience. Think of it as the long tail of interviews where very
specific interviews are being delivered to very specific audiences.
36. EPK (electronic press kit): While EPK’s are still being delivered on DVD, web based video and
text are quickly replacing this electronic version of the press kit which became popular in the mid
90′s.
11. Event
Video
37. Event Presentation video : Events represent a unique confluence of
expertise and opportunity – often under-leveraged. Trade Shows,
meeting and conferences are usually attended by your top sales people,
your corporate executives, industry experts and other influential business
people. If you are speaking at an event or someone is referencing your
company you should be capturing this valuable content on video.
38. Round table Sessions: Take the opportunity at an event to corral
four to six of your best customers and other industry experts, put them
in room and video tape them talking about industry trends, business
issues and the future of your industry. This content will be the most
valuable content you could ever capture.
39. Q&A Expert sessions. :There are many opportunities to take specific
event participants to the side and take them through informal Q&A
sessions on various topics that matter to your customers. This content is
valuable lead generation content.
12. Miscellaneous 40. Recruitment Videos: Finding the best employees is the single most important function of any company and yet
comparatively small amounts of time and money are allocated to this critical task. Recruitment videos that feature
company employees, highlight corporate culture and promote the direction of the company can be very influential.
41. In Store Video: Wal-Mart has its own profitable in-store TV network that makes shoppers aware of new promotions.
LCD screens are ubiquitous. In store LCD’s will be networked and customizable offering you the ability to promote your
own goods and services or make money by promoting other complimentary services.
42. Company Lobby / Waiting Room Video: HD video screens are popping up everywhere – why not in your lobby or
reception where you can get a jump start on first impressions and also take advantage of a captive audience.
43. Mobile Video: Mobile video will soon be the largest video category outside of broadcast. In the short-run, mobile
video will consist of hastily re-purposed video made to fit on a mobile device. It will quickly evolve into a much more
specific format – i.e. five to fifteen second hyper targeted messages that are part of geo-located (‘location aware’) and
micro-niched promotions. Adding mobility (true context) to video will generate many new uses and formats for video.
44. Market research, focus groups and polling: Market research firms are now capturing the anecdotal feedback along
with the raw statistics of their research. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video of your customer describing
her likes and dislikes of your new product is priceless. Go to YouTube to see how people are describing your products
and services.
45. Video White paper: Video white papers have evolved over the last years from basically a person reading a white
paper on camera (what’s the point) to a professional delivery that is accompanied by charts, graphs and other visual
references to make the presentation more valuable.
46. Video Magazine: Some video production companies specialize in helping companies deliver serialized video content
to their customers. Like the name implies video content is created on a regular basis (usually monthly) that customers
and prospects can view through a subscription service. While it makes sense to apply tradition formats to new technology
and ideas, not all ideas transfer as elegantly as others.
47. Behind the Scenes Video: Personalize your brand. Open up the cultural veil and let customers and products
understand who you are – a group of humans rather than a ‘brand’. Authenticity is important.
