Hi JoeClark,
You have a great question! Many of our clients use video in new and interesting ways. I’ll try to answer each question you have:
You ask “What is it great for?” - It all depends on what it is you are trying to say. We’ve had clients who wanted us record meetings and create a narrative that summarised the event. Its not your typical use case. The main difference between the written word and film/video, is that film can communicate understanding, whereas the written word can communicate detail.
You ask “What is it bad for?” - Sadly, there are far too many, what I call “check list” type videos out there. These are videos that simply say what the company or product can do. If it were a garage, they would say “we do MOTs, servicing and tire changes”. These types of films rarely keep viewers engaged and this obviously affects how successful the video communication will be. Without “story” being a critical part of the message, its unlikely that such a film will keep viewers engaged all the way through to the end of the film. So to answer your question, asking “what is it bad for?” is the wrong question. Its more a case of “what makes a bad video?”.
You ask “Do you recommend it for relaying a lot of information whilst keeping your customer entertained?”. Its not about keeping the customer entertained. Its about story. The stronger the story, the more engaged your customer will be. Sadly, “story” has become an overloaded term in the industry (in my opinion) and everyone is using it, without truly understanding what story is. We’re just finishing off a story about a painter. The film is essentially a video portrait. The viewer will be intrigued with his perspectives and by the end of it, they’ll understand his passion, the type of person he is and that he is the person they want to paint their £10,000 portrait. You couldn’t get this type of engagement with a “check list” type video. Like I said earlier, text and the written word are great for detailed information. Taking the garage example, an outdoor display board or advertisement or website would be a great place to detail “check list” items. Video with story is a powerful tool to communicate understanding.
You ask “is the main focus getting the message of the company's culture to the viewer” - This depends on the story you are trying to communicate. Most of my films are “People” led. There is a very human quality to them. I like these films because people connect with people. Watching a story we can all connect with is a powerful way to engage other people. But, there are other types of stories that one can tell. A film that communicates a “brand” message is “Purpose” led. This takes on a different style of story and focuses on the purpose of the business and if culture is an important part of the story, it will make it into the final edit.
We have seen some amazing results with video. One client of ours was in a meeting with their potential customer and started playing one of two films. Their customer stopped the meeting and said I’ll be back in a second. When they came back, he brought the director for the whole region. This was an extremely important person and getting a meeting with him was unlikely to happen in the normality of business. It would be even more unlikely that he would agree with my clients perspectives. In 7 minutes, the director turned round and said, we need this now! No matter of talking it through (without the use of the videos) would have communicated this level of understanding in 7 minutes over the two films.
Another example, a client of ours posts videos designed for social media. They had 32,000 likes in February 2016. Today they have over 119,000 likes and they have accumalted over 3 million views. This has had a significant impact on their business!! But it must also be mentioned, that in this case, video was not enough on its own. It had to be accompanied with other content. But video was a significant driver to attract people to see the other written content.
I hope that answers many of your questions…
