In my last post I talked about encouraging marketers and communicators to watch more TV. To be critical and up their standards in terms of quality. Here's why...
Each year large companies produce a great many videos and this has a huge impact on their communications budgets. Given that television is one of the more expensive media, it is surprising how little is known amongst marketing people about the strengths and effectiveness of this medium, as well as the creative process behind it. This is fairly common among B2B marketing departments, in my experience.
The promotion of rich content over broadband as a core offering of the company has given rise to a culture of “it has to be on video”, like it will somehow fix a sensitive or complex message. The thought that a busy customer might prefer to watch someone they hardly know on screen for five minutes effectively “reading out loud” a sales pitch to them, to reading an insightful, life-changing article in Wired magazine, never ceases to astonish me. It’s as if “corporate Video” has nothing to do with professional television production.
The video production industry comes from two roots. Technology and Creativity. One side has grown up with cameras, photography, editing, production tech etc. It knows how the mechanics work. It knows about formats, HD, screen resolutions and lighting. This is also what most marketing people understand video to mean.
The other side knows about storytelling, ideas, imagery, levels of communication, dramatic approaches, people, thoughts, nuances, truth, artifice and performances. The parts that get remembered.
The creative side should lead, and the technical process should follow, but this is not always the case.
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