By: Melissa Jackson
Video is an incredibly versatile medium, and with its ability to teach, entertain and tell stories it is an ideal tool for businesses and organizations, as well as individuals looking to promote their own areas of expertise. Below you will find some suggestions and samples of what kinds of video you can make to help you engage your audience.
Commercials
Commercials are short and last just seconds. Typically the ones you see on television and online range from 15-30 seconds and are focused on grabbing your interest for just a moment and cementing a brand image in your mind. They usually include a call to action as their primary push, whether it be donating to a charity, buying tickets to a concert, catching a sale, or introducing you to a new product.
Indulge – A Bigger Taste of Glenhyrst from Atomic Spark on Vimeo.
Promotional Videos
Promotional videos are one of the most popular productions and focus on telling the story of brand, charity, person, product, event, or anything that needs a little help being defined and shared with an audience. Most promotional videos are much longer than traditional commercials, and can range in length from 1 minute to over an hour in length. Typically though, most fall in the 3-5 minutes range, which allows for the thorough presentation of one core topic, or an overview of one’s organization or business. Some great examples of using promotional videos to connect with your audience is through offering a tour of your facilities and introducing services and staff, showing yourself at a speaking engagement, and sharing the stories of those you have helped in order to build a strong brand image.
Georgetown Hospital Foundation from Atomic Spark on Vimeo.
Infomercials
Most people are familiar with infomercials and they often air on television late at night and early in the morning, though they may also be available online. These are usually 15 to 30 minutes in length and are focused on advertising a product or service, though they may attempt to downplay their sales pitch through the creation of mock interviews, talk-show like environments and even by implementing elaborate storylines. Despite many peoples insistence that informercials don’t impact them the fact is a lot of people buy from these long-form commercials, enough to create a $150 billion dollar informercial industry.
Web Series
Web series are gaining popularity as more and more people turn from traditional cable packages and head online for their entertainment. For many producers of web series each episode can be kept quite short, from 1 – 6 minutes each, and an entire season can hinge around the hour mark. These content rich episodes move quickly and keep the audience coming back for more, developing stories and characters just like traditional television series. Some advertisers, such as Friskies, have managed to build an audience and rapport with their consumers through the creation of a humorous web series. Each episode of Friskies’ Will Kitty Play With It game show style web series has thousands of views, even surpassing the million view mark with some of their older episodes.
Instructional
Instructional videos can be used to train new employees, guide buyers on the use of their new product, offer DIY advice, and teach individuals just about anything. No matter the subject matter, using a medium that allows individuals to see the action being taught with the option to replay and pause, is a fantastic educational tool. With video there is no need to worry about the consistency of instruction or if someone is presenting your brand incorrectly. Additionally, instruction through video offers the opportunity for wide distribution while keeping the cost low.
Events
Having a video crew create a video for an event, as either a form of promotion for something upcoming, or after the fact, to show what your business or organization has been doing, can be a great way to capture a big moment in your history. These videos are excellent to use during presentations and to keep your social media streams active.
Melissa Jackson is a project assistant extraordinaire at Atomic Spark. A master of multi-tasking and managing miscellany requests she keeps everyone on track while blogging, organizing and whipping up nifty graphics.
