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Five things that make a marketing video effective.

December 15, 2011 By Jimm Fox 1 Comment

This video is very effective.  It’s fun, it’s memorable, it’s evocative and it’s something that you want to share.  It informs you, it engages you, it moves you and it’s very well done. Wow.

Sponsored by RIOTUR, the City of Rio de Janeiro’s tourism authority, this video was created to support RIO’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. RIO won the bid making it the first South American city to host the Olympic games. I have to believe that this video contributed in at least some small way to RIO’s successful bid.

Like Paris, San Francisco, Vancouver and Venice, RIO is blessed with iconic scenery and natural beauty so an argument could be made that creating a video to promote the city shouldn’t be that difficult. There’s more to it than beautiful shots, however. This video works for a number of reasons:

1. There’s a strong story-line that carries the video. By story-line, I don’t mean ‘boy meets girl, boy leaves girl, etc.” The story-line is much more subtle in this video, but just as important. Music is at the heart of the video. Music not only sets the mood and pace of this video, it becomes clear that music is a core element that makes up the character of the city and the people of RIO. That’s the story being told. Music is an integral part of the culture. That’s a very compelling story.

2. The video is engaging. You want to watch the video, you are interested to see what comes next. This is a difficult thing to do in a video – make the viewer want to keep watching.

3. It solves a specific business problem. The business problem for the Olympic committee was ‘what city do we chose for the 2016 Olympics?’ RIOTUR provides ample reasons for IOC judges to consider RIO as the 2016 destination city: RIO is a ‘lifestyle city’ as evidenced by the myriad of activities shown in the video; RIO has a strong and obvious tradition of sports; RIO already has existing sporting facilities that could accommodate some of the different events; RIO will be a huge draw as a destination for travelers which will ensure that the games are well attended; and like the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the natural beauty of the hosting city will certainly have a halo effect on the games themselves.

4. Simple message. Show me don’t tell me. No talking heads, no spoken words, no happy talk or marketing bluster, just a compelling video highlighting the people, the lifestyle and the beauty of RIO all centered around a theme of music and culture.

5. The video is very well produced. From the inclusion of familiar iconic scenary like the cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city to an array of lifestyle and beauty shots of the city and it’s inhabitants, this video covers all bases.  A clever concept interweaving a combination of sound and music is complemented by beautiful cinematography and great editing.

I don’t know the name of the company that produced this video but they deserve a lot of credit for helping RIO win the 2016 Olympic bid.

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video and Government, Video Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Video is becoming a critical information source for senior executives

January 25, 2011 By Jimm Fox 1 Comment

Work-related videos are driving senior executives to take action.

Forbes Insights, in association with Google, surveyed more than 300 C-level and senior executives at large U.S. companies ($500 million-plus in annual revenues) to learn more about how they are approaching Web video as a source of business-related information. The results are both surprising and important for anyone who’s job it is to communicate with and influence senior executives in any sized company.

The graphic above (created by eMarketer) illustrates post video-viewing intent. Clearly video’s influence is growing and will only continue to grow in the coming years. The following is a summary of some of the findings of the Forbes/Google research:

1. In some cases executives prefer video to text. When asked “If video and text covering the same topic are on the same Web page, which would you watch first,” 59% chose video and 37% chose text.

2. The top 3 objectives when watching business-related YouTube videos are: 1. Testimonials (29%), 2. Product demonstrations (28%) and 3. Product reviews (29%).

3. Video is social. 54% of senior executives share work related videos with colleagues at least once a week.

4. “Longer” videos are preferred. Conventional wisdom (it is usually neither…) has it that 2 minutes is the “absolute limit” for business related video. When asked, 47% of executives preferred a length of 3-5 minutes, followed by 36% preferring 1-3 minutes and 9% preferring over five minutes.

5. Video causes executive to take action. Overall, 65% have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video. Younger executives, however, may be more fully engaged with this type of media, and appear more likely to make a purchase, call a vendor, or respond to an ad.

Forbes summarizes these trends well – “While the Web itself is in the midst of a video makeover, executives are transforming their habits to be more open to video—the non-text Web—as a highly reliable and trusted source for gathering and filtering business information.”

Filed Under: General, Marketing with Video, The Future of Corporate Video, Video Marketing, Video Statistics Tagged With: , , ,

Microsoft redesigns iPod packaging

November 24, 2009 By Jimm Fox 2 Comments

Elegance and simplicity is tough to beat.

This video, which has been circulating for quite a while, should be required viewing for introductory marketing classes. While it picks on Microsoft (admittedly an easy target) the real point of the video is to illustrate that less is more. Anyone caught in the ‘design by committee’ death spiral will be able to relate to the added ‘enhancements’ that get thrown into this packaging exercise.

The challenge with simplicty is that it is really risky and most companies are risk averse. Complexity in packaging is just another way of hedging your bets – making sure that no group goes undifferentiated and that no bit of information goes unmentioned. Having the confidence and insight to be able to communicate to your target audience in a very clear and very simple manner is not the norm.

{As the story goes, this is an internally produced video by Microsoft to illustrate the unnecessary management layers that gum up the marketing process. Good for them if this is true.}

Filed Under: Marketing with Video, Video Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Evian’s brilliant roller babies… but it’s still just water, right?

July 10, 2009 By Jimm Fox 1 Comment

It’s just water, isn’t it?

For some reason the French are really good at branding. Who else can get you to spend hundreds of dollars on a scarf or a little bottle of perfume? You would think that water – the ultimate commodity (the ‘air’ market hasn’t fully matured but I’m sure “l’air” will be at the high end…) – would be really, really difficult to brand. The French ‘own’ two of the best known water brands: Evian (owned by Danone – a French company) and Perrier (now owned by Nestle – a Swiss company). The ‘informed’ ask for branded water. The uber-keen insist on it. The well-healed bath in it. It’s still just water.

If you want to maintain position in a  highly competitive, commoditized market you have to remind people how important your brand is – which brings us to the roller rappin’ babies.

This video has ‘viral’ written all over it. It’s clever, it’s surprising… verging on astonishing and it’s fun to watch. Way to go Evian. What do babies have to do with the Evian brand – nothing. You can certainly make the arguement, as Evian does, that drinking their water keeps you young but I can imagine a hundred other brands (Pampers?) who would have benefited more from the visuals in this video.

Does all of that matter? Probably not. Evian benefits by associated itself with a really good viral video (and ad) and continues to keep its brand front and centre.

This video also demonstrates that there are now very few technical barriers stopping video developers from creating ‘virtually’ anything they can imagine. It is possible to make people believe that almost anything is ‘real’ – like drinking special water will keep you young.

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , ,

Channel creates more video (film) art to promote their brand

May 21, 2009 By Jimm Fox Leave a Comment

 

When you own a premium brand you have to spend premium dollars to support it.

Channel has just released their newest commercial / mini-movie and as before, have done a wonderful job. Last time it was Nicole Kidman in a three minute short film (or a three minute long commercial). This time around Audrey Tautou – one of France’s national treasures – graces the screen for Channel. North Americans might remember her as ‘Amelie’ in one of the few French films to get theatre time back in 2001. The Director of that film – Jean-Pierre Jeunet directs this commercial and was given a free hand in creating Channel’s newest filmette. Naturally he cast his favourite actress (it didn’t hurt that Tautou is also playing Coco Channel in the recently released film ’Coco Avant Channel’ in France) in the lead role.

The story (not that it matters a whit) centres around a chance encounter on a train to Istanbul. Tautou spends the remaining two minutes waiting and hoping to hook up with the handsome stranger. A sudden romance on a night train to an exotic destination – ya, it`s cliche. Romance and mystery and the promise of adventure – that`s what you buy when you drop $100 or more for a little bottle of purfume – the promise of something exciting. That`s exactly what Channel is selling, and they are quite good at it.

You have to give Jeunet top marks for his direction. He spared no expense (watch `the making of` to see what kind of coin they dropped on this little video) at creating some asbolutely stunning sequences. He`s come a long way since his last big North American film - he directed the last Alien film (I think it was called Alien Abomination). Like the perfume Jeunet is selling, this video won`t be for everyone  but for those who it targets, he hits the mark perfectly.

Filed Under: Content Marketing, Corporate Video Examples, General, Marketing with Video, The Effect of Video on Your Brand, Video Marketing, YouTube Video Tagged With: , , , ,

Simple and direct is very effective.

January 14, 2009 By Jimm Fox Leave a Comment


Video Production – Watch the top videos of the week here

Invisialign is a California based company that produces clear, removable teeth ‘aligners’. It’s two key points of differentiation with braces are that Invisalign’s product are easy to use and they are nearly invisible. The promotional video above highlights these two advantages in a very simple and very engaging manner. (Sure, having a presenter who looks and sounds like Demi Moore can’t hurt…).

This ad is very effective. It clearly and simply demonstrates the benefits of the product, it does so in a very engaging manner and it also tells a story which makes the presentation more real.

The production could not have been simpler – a close up of the presenter and a simple and direct call-to-action. There are a hundreds of different ways this promotion could have been created – many of them ‘award-winning’. Often simple and direct is the most effective route.

… and here is a Eurpoean promotion for Invisalign which likely cost a lot more to produce. Which one do you think is more effective?

Filed Under: Corporate Video Examples Tagged With: , ,