Having produced over 30 videos in 2018, we’d like to share some thoughts on video strategy.
You can effectively add compelling video to your marketing mix if you have a solid strategy for how it will be used. Video plays exceptionally well for both B2B and B2C audiences, opening up opportunities for nearly any industry to entertain and educate with video content. At a high-level, we believe B2C audiences want to be entertained with video and B2B audiences want to be educated (without being bored to death).
We always think of video in three different marketing buckets:
Video as Online Advertising
Many companies spend money on videos and don’t think about allocating a digital media budget to making sure it gets enough eyes on it. Paid media can be put towards targeted YouTube audiences, banner ads, paid social promotion, or even paid industry newsletters for B2B. With a paid media budget, you can either play the video natively or drive people to a landing page where the full video and other videos in a campaign live. Owned brand channels can also act as an “advertising” platform without a media budget. Also, remember to use these video opportunities to shoot photography for other ad or marketing assets.
(If you have the budget for A-level TV commercials, that opens up more considerations and opportunities which we can discuss with you.)
Video for PR
Since even the most traditional industries consume their information digitally, the magazines that we constantly pitch for our clients need digital content, like video, as badly as they need print stories. This creates the perfect opportunity for traditional PR initiatives. Where standard editorial concepts might fall flat or get lost in a sea of pitches, video provides a valuable and ready-to-go asset for editors, keeping their web content dynamic and engaging. Video should be pitched to editors in the same way as customer testimonials, trend stories and educational content.
Just remember, the more of an industry benefit or tip that it might provide, the better chance it has to be covered by magazines and bloggers. Don’t be too self-serving.
Video for Social
Social media is a beast that needs to be fed eye-catching content, but it lets you connect with your audience like never before. Luckily, video catches attention better than anything else on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. The possibilities are wide open for what kind of videos your brand can create for social. Depending on your brand and target audience, social creates an opportunity to have some fun with playful or humorous videos. Keep in mind that short videos work best for the attention-deficit world of Instagram. Longer forms of video will play better on Facebook and LinkedIn, but better yet, create a teaser video “trailer” for videos that are over 2 minutes and drive your audience to YouTube or your website for the full video.
Types of video you should consider producing:
Manufacturing Plant
Customer Testimonial
Good Cause Initiative
Case Study
Brand Lifestyle
How-To or Education
Product as Hero
Highlight a Promotion
Stop-Motion Animation
Social – Unlimited Possibilities
Behind-The-Scenes
TV Commercials (we’ll take a deeper dive into these in another email)
Seed Factory not only concepts, storyboards and produces videos in-house and through production companies, but we can help with the strategy of how to use it best for your brand to meet specific business and marketing objectives. Our Creative Director has worked with budgets ranging from $6k – $800k.
