How to Make Effective Videos That Connect With Your Audience – May 2012 IABC Panel
Left to right: Larry Thomas of Latergy, Tamara Bentham of JetBlue, George Semper of OnStream Media, and Jennifer Vickey from IBM.
Recently I attended the New York chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators panel, “Powerful Video Storytelling: Best Practices, Tips & Tools for Communicators & Marketers,” that explored ways “to best leverage video for your organization both internally and externally and add authenticity to your video story and connect with your audience.”
The panelists included:
- Tamara Bentham, Corporate Communications Analyst at Jet Blue
- Jennifer Vickery, Manager, Workforce Enablement at IBM
- Gabrielle Boko, Vice President of Marketing at SAP
- Larry Thomas, President of Latergy, LLC
- George Stemper, Vice President of Development and Sales at OnStream
At Jet Blue video is the best way to go when communicating to your employees and customers according to Tamara Bentham. Jet Blue crew members (term used to describe JetBlue employees) are encouraged to create their own videos such as Safety is Mandatory.
Tamara’s tips include:
– Have your subject practice a few times before recording and and leave out the teleprompter.
– Know your audience to capture their attention; If someone gets bored it will not be an effective video.
Gabrielle Boko stated that SAP tries to humanize their brand by letting customers become advocates for SAP by making others feel like heroes. Gabrielle advises using video to describe your role and what makes you excited at your company.
Gabrielle’s tips include:
– Stay on brand but also communicate in a manner that your audience understands in clear, easy to understand language.
– Your video is going to mirror the attitude and thinking of the person on camera, so seek out those with enthusiasm.
At IBM Jennifer Vickery shared that video is used for a variety of things such as when the Chief Financial Officer and IBM Division Heads’ report on recent corporate news to holidays greetings from executives and staff. If you are waiting for that perfect moment or just the right budget it may not never arrive, so best to start with what you have and grow. Jennifer also suggested to use animation for a different approach and pointed to the Curiosity Shop videos using animated pictures and voice over for a great way to tell the story.
You can follow Jennifer on Twitter @jdvickery.
Larry Thomas cited the Corning video Day Made Of Glass as a great example of a company video telling a story. Even though the video is less than six minutes in length the manner the story is told pulls in the viewer.
Other effective videos include:
– CEO of JetBlue apology on YouTube
You can follow Larry on Twitter @Latergy
George Stemper concluded the evening by sharing that the Internal Revenue Service is an OnStream client and the IRS does sophisticated video productions out of the Washington DC office by using five cameras that creating videos targeted for the CPA crowd. George also advised that your videos can be seen on other devices such as tablets, smartphones, and other mobile technology.
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