Prepping your executives to look and sound their best on-screen! by Bright talk

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Prepared
Professional
Polished
An on-camera guide
for executives

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Video is a must have for any marketer’s
strategy. As a marketer you need to make
sure your colleagues shine through and
come across as likeable and relatable to
help foster brand loyalty. This guide delves
into the tactical components of getting your
executives to dominate on camera to capture
the best content.
Your people are an opportunity to personalize
your expertise and insights, thus making your
company more accessible and engaging
for buyers.
83% of UK marketers
leverage video
79% of US B2B marketers
leverage video
Source: CMI

3. One of the most important parts of video
marketing is selecting the right spokespeople
to represent your business. Not every company
has enough bandwidth to media train all of
their employees who might be in the spotlight,
but it’s critical to keep the most qualified talent
up-to-date on your brand and communications
policy. Designate any internal spokespeople
beforehand and brief your speakers on topics
pertaining to the interview.
Your marketing team needs to understand the
makeup of your business — whether small or
large — to keep track of your best talent to
leverage for video. Many enterprise organizations
have a strict media policy where employees
must be preapproved to speak externally on behalf
of the company.
If it’s an external interview, make sure to scope
out the company’s work ahead of time to
understand the interviewer’s approach and
whether or not it’s a good fit to represent your
brand. Some companies aim to trick executives
to say the wrong thing, at the wrong time to
increase their own traffic.
BrightTALKTM
Selecting your best
on-screen talent

4. BrightTALKTM
Understand the medium in which the video is being captured to identify your
best spokesperson. These are some of the most common video formats and the
attributes you should be looking for in your talent.
Video Roundtable
Best Attributes: Personable,
well-spoken, very educated on
the topic
Feature
Best Attributes: Sound bite
oriented, well-spoken,
authoritative
Sound bite
noun
a brief, striking remark or statement excerpted
from an audiotape or videotape for insertion in
a broadcast news story.
1:1 Interview
Best Attributes: Comfortable
on-screen, senior member,
credible, opinionated (will need to
expand on the questions asked)
Company Overview Video
Best Attributes: Comfortable
on-screen, passionate,
relatable, prepared

5. BrightTALKTM
Prepping your executives
to look and sound their
best on-screen
Unlike webinars or podcasts, videos are meant
to be punchy and short, in order to capture
and engage the 8-second attention span. Make
sure to reserve 30-60 minutes on your executive’s
calendar beforehand to walk through and set
expectations.
It’s important to equip your colleagues with as
much information as possible, but avoid scripting
responses, as it will come across as inauthentic.
To properly prepare them without sounding too
scripted, craft a 10 most-likely to be asked
questions list and go through them together
twice - once without prep and then again after
discussing the prior responses. If it helps your
colleague feel more at ease, provide a copy of
the questions with bullets, but make sure that
they aren’t scripted. The goal is not to prepare
language that will be recited word-for-word in
front of the camera, but to get your colleague
comfortable with their speaking points and
knowing where they want to go once they start
speaking.

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When you’re doing this, make sure to record
them so that they can hear their tone and pace,
as well as which answers worked and which
ones didn’t. Encourage them to take pauses or
breaths when gathering thoughts as opposed
to using umms and ahhs. This might be difficult
for them, but they will love how much more polish
and authority it brings to their performances.
Use the following topics to craft 10 questions
to help prep your executive:
Industry insights
Product updates
Any company turmoil (and how to address
questions around it)
Upcoming company announcements (how
can you tease without revealing too much)
4-5 statistics around your company and
industry (people love proof points)
The most common problems your customers
face, and how you’ve helped to solve them
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If they have never been on
film before, grab your
phone and record them during
the dry run so that they can see
how they come across on camera.

7. BrightTALKTM
While the rhetoric is critical to what viewers take
away from your video, the visual and personal
cues will also leave an impact. How your spokesperson
composes themselves, behaves, and appears will
impact the effectiveness of the video. Depending on
the type of video, your spokesperson may be speaking
into the lens to the audience or off camera to an
interviewer. This is a creative choice and should
remain consistent.
Visually

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Here are some visual components to keep in mind during your shoot.
Let them be themselves. Everyone has their own natural body language, and everyone tries their
best to stifle it for the camera. If someone tends to talk with their hands or prefers to present standing, let
them. They’ll be more natural, confident, and engaging. This makes them more like the person you
intended to film in the first place. Encourage them to practice beforehand either in front of a mirror,
laptop or cell phone camera. If you are trying to have them be more personable with the audience,
have them test it out a few times so they’ll see how it looks speaking to the camera. This establishes a
more direct and intimate conversation style with the viewer. Speaking into the camera can be tough the
first few times but with a little practice, they won’t feel as pressured when the real cameras begin to roll.
Understand where your interview will take place. While most interviews will be held either outside, in
an office setting, or in a studio, it’s always smart to check in case your shoot involves a green screen. If
it does, make sure that that the interviewee is not wearing green to avoid a floating talking head.

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Consider the wardrobe and what will make the individual pop the
most on-screen. Industry experts know to avoid colors that will
bleed on camera (pink, pastels, red) and white, which will make all the
other colors appear underexposed.
Stay away from pinstripes and sharp patterns. They tend to cause
moire effects that look bad on camera. Solid colors are best.
Leverage cool, solid tones like purples or blues
to get the most comfortable look on camera.

10. Keep the wardrobe clean and simple. Dress your
subjects professionally to create authority for your
company. Depending on your brand or industry,
blazers are not always needed (but definitely
recommended). However, short sleeves can come
across as unprofessional and a bit underwhelming.
Connect with the individual ahead of time to know
what they’re planning on wearing – and advise
accordingly. Keep jewelry to a minimum. While style
is certainly important to exude the right feel of your
brand and employees, large necklaces and big
earrings can be loud and interfere with the
microphone’s ability to pick up sound.
Ties are typically recommended for men on camera
and can help pull together the look. Avoid ties with
distracting patterns that will shake on-screen and
detract from what is being shared.
Avoid bold patterns. Intense prints
(like stripes or plaid) can shake on
camera due to the light and thus are a
major distraction from what is being
said. TV stations and video production
companies will mention this before they
film, but a pro will know this ahead of time.

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Politely discuss hair decisions. To avoid awkward fidgeting and face touching, make sure your
speaker’s hair is kept out of the face. The focus should be on what the interviewee is saying, not on
hair adjustments.
Remember makeup. Whether you’re in a studio
or on an event floor, making sure that you look your
best involves a bit of coverage and having some
extra makeup on hand for touch-ups. Cameras do
wash out your skin, so you’ll need to add a bit more
than you’d normally wear, but remember to still be
tasteful. Can’t convince your CEO to wear some
foundation? At least have some mineral veil to
eliminate the shine, which can come across as
nervous sweat. Jay Leno, David Letterman, and
Stephen Colbert all have to wear makeup for the
camera if you need to name drop.

12. Video has the power to influence your prospects across the web and television.
Getting your executives on camera will help bring a face, and personality,
that’ll make you memorable.
However, being filmed can trip up even the most qualified, skilled experts.
Prepare and set up your colleagues for success so that you’ll get the best shots
and marketing collateral for your business. Also, make sure you’re working with
a premier film team to get the most from your time and spend.
BrightTALKTM
To learn how BrightTALK Studios can help you create video that increases
your marketing impact, visit our website.