Over the years I have produced literally hundreds of video productions. I remember early on in my business career clients used to tell me ‘we’ll do the script for the video’. Because I was less experienced and less assertive, I used to accept this and we would end up being handed scripts that were too long, badly written, lacking focus and clarity and ultimately doomed for failure. Because we have never been able to allow a client to fail we would then take this script and put our expertise and skills to it, resulting in a script that is clear, concise, and focused on the objective and target audience and ultimately a successful video project. Clients often didn’t realise the critical role in the success factor of their project – they didn’t notice the significant changes that had taken place in the script. They didn’t realise the full on listening and understanding of their business that had taken place. All they knew at the end of the day was that their video worked for them, had impact and achieved results. The success was wholey to do with our understanding of what they needed to achieve, why they needed to achieve it and creating a script and plan that resulted in the end project fitting these objectives.

A video script is not something that you can turn your hand to in an hour one afternoon. As anyone who has ever seen a bad video will know, it is very easy to switch off – whether physically or just in your mind! Either way time and money has been wasted.

The most important thing about a good video is that the message is relevant, interesting and the content is engaging for you – testimony to this is the hundreds of thousands of videos on youtube that have been created by amateurs and received millions of views. Now I am not suggesting that your video should be created by an amateur or that you need millions of views! If you have a specific audience and a specific message, you may only need to deliver it to 20 people – but if it is a business critical message that will be delivery to 20 key people, then this will be as important as Coca cola delivering a branding message to a millions – to you and your business !

So what does it take to create a good script? Well the first and most important thing is to take a step back, look at your project objectives and why you are creating a video and then think about who you are creating it for and why. If you know your who and why it is much easier to create your how. Give the process respect – if you want your video to work as a communication tool, treat it as you would any presentation or communication tool. Don’t expect miracles to happen in filming and editing if it hasn’t been planned out thoroughly first. The amount of times clients have come to us having had a video production fail and when we have analysed why it didn’t work or just didn’t happen, it generally turns out that the video team have not put any expertise into the pre-production stage. They have expected the client to do all that and just turn up and do the filming and editing. If you want your video to integrate within your communications you need to work with a good team who care about your business and your communication strategy, before any cameras start to roll!

We have a fantastic, unique scripting technique that we use in the pre-production stage of our video projects. It enables us to successfully plan out a script in very little time. It is revolutionary. Last month this technique alone allowed my creative director to write 12 scripts for health and safety training videos in just 4 hours! All we had been given were bullet point headlines by the client. Each video focused on a different area of health and safety training. And the scripts he created were spot on!

Watch this space and we’ll be posting a video in the coming weeks to show you how you can use this simple but revolutionary technique yourself!

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
– Confucius

Only 10% of training investment actually gets applied on a job in the way that actually impacts performance.

For more than a century studies have shown that “training transfer” from training sessions in companies is as low as 10%, which means companies are getting very low return on their training investment. That’s the bad news. The good news is that recent research shows us how to increase employee knowledge retention and achieve and receive a dramatically higher ROI.

In 1885 a German psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted a groundbreaking study called “memory”. His goal was to determine how much knowledge people retained after a single learning event. His method was to test retention at intervals at between 20 minutes and 30 days.

The results which have been replicated by many researchers after Ebbinghaus, are disturbing for educators and trainers who believe that what they teach actually sinks in.

Ebbinghaus found that after 20 minutes subjects retained just 60% of what they learned. After nine hours, 40%. And after one month, just 20%.

This doesn’t say that low knowledge retention is inevitable. It doesn’t say that training can’t result in permanent mastery of skills, high performance, and a huge return on investment. All it says is that if you train people and don’t follow up you won’t get a very big return on your investment.

One of the best ways you can get return on your investment and enable training to ‘stick’ and have long lasting impact is to use the power of video.

If your employees, associates, customers or users can access regular, easy and clear video the impact on their training success can be immense.

You can use it to re-inforce training points, to remind them of key factors and to maintain consistency with the training. Plus they are available to use again and again and you can even put a programme of learning in place with video materials, over a period of time, significantly increasing the successful delivery of the messages.

Gone are the traditional ‘health and safety’ training videos. And it is no longer that training videos should be dull, boring and half an hour long. Yes you may have 30 minute worth of content to deliver, but you would never deliver that in one go with a video nowadays. You would chunk it down, make it section-able. Make it interactive. Make it work!

We have many examples of saving clients a lot of money through using video as a training tool. We have also saved time and resources and increased success rates through the use of well planned, well executed and well used training video material.

Here are just a few ways that video can work as a training tool within your organisation:

• As a tool to induct, motivate and introduce new employees to an organisation.
• As a series of short, bite size pieces of video to convey important procedures and operations.
• To deliver product training to customers, enhancing their customer experience and reducing the amount of time your staff are dealing with problems or giving advice on product set up or maintenance.
• Recording of live training sessions for staff to be able to take away and re-inforce their learning and action points.
• To capture unique expertise from within and outside your organisation.

There are so many ways that video can be used as a training tool. Essentially if you use training within your organisation, if you need to be using training more or if you have issues with staff, customers or users that can solved with training then using video could be the best decision you make. Once produced it can save time, money, maintain consistency and be used again and again, providing a huge return on your investment.

You don’t have to think along the traditional lines of video though – there are so many effective ways that video can work as a training tool. Your first step is to identify the issue that you need help with and then talk to a training video professional who can help you to brainstorm different ways of training video material working for you, within your timeframes, budget and in order to achieve your objectives.

Watch out for future articles where I will explore different types of training video material in more detail and the specific benefits they have had for organisations.

Lastly here are some pieces of viewing for you to have a cup of tea with!

This is not how we would recommend doing it – but you can remind yourself of some basics about office safety here….

and lastly, just for fun……..women know your limits!!!!!……

How to use the power of a video case study…….
As a business, you can’t argue with the value of a good case study and using video will help to substantiate your offering in a way that plain, static content just can’t do.
Having created many, many case study videos for all kind of clients over the 12 years we thought we would give you an insight and ideas for making good video case studies that actually have an impact – and show the difference having them can make to your business…..
The Story:
You need to think about the story you are telling and don’t try to say too much in one case study. If you have a great client and you provide 5 different services or solutions for them, don’t try to get across all of them in one video case study. Divide them up and talk about each one as a separate success story. Of course they can reference that you also provide other services when talking and that’s great, as it gives additional credibility – but if you try to say too much it will end up confusing, too long and less powerful. The main points you want to cover in each case study story are:
what service / product you provided
the problem it solved for your customer / how it helped them
what they achieved as a result
what stood out to them about your service / product delivery
Additionally if they can provide some points of interest about the service / product you provide that is always beneficial, as it engages viewers in your subject matter.
Testimonial too….
If you have time ask them for a testimonial comment too, and they will hopefully provide a generic, concise soundbite about your business as a whole. If you get a number of these from different clients you can have them edited together into a short montage of testimonials about your business that can be used on your website home page, in sales presentations and to help to close more sales!
Film more than you will need…..
I know I say above not to cover too much in an individual case study – but this is referring to the end edited version. When you are having the case study filmed, then film as much content as you can, with the time you have available with the client – as you will be editing it later. This may be your one opportunity with your client, as they are busy people and they are sparing this time for you now, so you don’t want to have to ask again next month! So the key here is planning – ask lots of questions to try and get the best answers and comments. Don’t be afraid to re-ask a question in a different way if you are looking for a slightly different answer or phrasing of an answer.
Remember to get your interviewee to contextualise the question by repeating some of it back in their answer – as when you edit the piece the viewer won’t hear your voice. This includes thinking about the wording of your question and asking an open question. For example if you have asked
“did we help you achieve more sales” they might answer “yes” which tells us nothing and cannot be used in a video.
But if you asked “how did our service help you to achieve more sales” they will be more likely to say “you service helped us to achieve more sales by…….”
Of course if you are hiring a professional production team to create your case studies then you won’t have to worry about all of this as they should capture the right comments in exactly the right way.(if you have chosen your video team wisely!)
One of the skills of a good video team, especially when it comes to capturing good case studies on video, is to be able to create a good rapport, quickly with the interviewee and be able to get them to provide articulate, concise answers. A good video producer will always be thinking about the edited piece and will know how a comment will be used and edited as soon as they are filmed.
Visuals….
If possible, plan some visuals that can be filmed to represent some of the points being made in the case study. This increase the power of your story massively, adds context and also establishes credibility. It may be that visual sequences need to be mocked up but this can usually be done reasonably easily. If you are unsure of what visuals you can film or short on ideas, your video team should be able to come up with creative suggestions – that’s what they do! So ask them for ideas and they will plan it and shoot it for them.
Strategy….
If you are planning to start using video case studies as part of your marketing collatoral, you should be thinking about the wider strategy that they will be part of. The main outlets for using your video case studies will be on your website, blog and via social media platforms. But you should also consider using them as tools to support presentations, whether bids or tenders or presenting to a potential client or when sending a proposal or quotation, you can attach a relevant video case study.
If you have a wider strategy then producing your case studies will have more impact and be cost effective. If you are hiring a video team you can plan with them to film and edit a bunch as a block, being more cost effective and giving you a series of case studies that you can then use over the coming months, roll out in blog, website and social media posts and use as promotional tools.
Just do it….
As with all marketing actions, you just need to do it to get it to start working for you. There is a huge amount of research that shows how many more people would prefer and are more likely to watch a short video than read a case study on a static page of text. So if you want to engage, persuade, impress and captivate your target audience, start using video case studies……..

Some recent video case studies for our clients:

Happy New Year! I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of our favourite You Tube Videos from 2012 and what we can learn from them…

See some drama……

This video shows how a great video, doesn’t necessarily rest on great video making as such – of course you need to film well and edit well, but you don’t necessarily need big post production effects – if you have a good concept then the video is purely the medium of communicating it – you need an interesting concept for the video to stand out – this point is exemplified beautifully in this video here. Belgian television station Telenet played set up an action-packed sequence on a typically quiet Belgian square. Involving ambulances, gangsters and a bikini-clad motorcyclist, the scene grabbed the attention of passers-by but most importantly became a viral hit, aquiring 39 million views of the video on YouTube. Yes not a cheap production to set up, once you have taken into account the logistics of a shoot in a public place and the actors involved, but actually in value terms of what was achieved, I would say they have got their return many time over and had a super success with it!

Samsung v’s iPhone……

Sometimes in business you look at a competitor who appears to have the market all sewn up and wonder how you can persuade customers to use you instead. Here is a brilliant example of how Samsung managed to get heard with their new competitor Smartphone, over the much anticipated launch of the Apple iPhone 5 in summer 2012.They created a campaign entitled ‘The Next Big Thing is Already Here’. The campaign managed to present the Galaxy SIII as the superior product, while never actually mentioning their competitor by name. It was a huge success and after just one day on the web the video had been shared 99,294 times and had generated 2.3 million views! One to learn from!

LG monitors – so real it’s scary!

This is a really great product demo video – forget boring demonstration videos – this gets the point across in a really funny and memorable way – and with over 17 million views I’d say they have got the message across about their product!

And just for laughs……… Scary Lift Prank…

Ok, not sure how this could be used in your business, but its a good one for your coffee break! I really love the guy laughing in the audience “hah, hah, hah”!!!

And lastly, for anyone who has the post-Christmas blues, here is something to inspire you – wake up and be happy!

Merry Christmas to all our clients, suppliers, contacts and friends!

The Capture 1 Management team did some ‘team bonding at the Christmas do this year!! Vote for your favourite Christmas jumper…….

Here is a video we just did for a client for them to send a Christmas message from their staff to their customers…..

Shooting a video at Christmas is a great way to stand out and send an alternative greeting to your customers and contacts. It also allows you to have some fun and communicate the personality of your company. If you are considering doing this, here are some thoughts that may help you…..

1/ Idea:

When brainstorming ideas you need to consider the following:
Who can be in the video (how many of you are there, who is available, who wants to be in it?!)
Where can you shoot it?
How long do you have to shoot it?
Are you shooting it yourself or do you have the budget to bring in a video company?
Do you want to do something music based – there are so many great music songs that you can utilize and there is no easier way than to create some Christmas spirit in your audience than with a good Christmas tune!
How are you sharing it with people?

All these answers will help you come up with an appropriate idea. It’s no good with wanting to create a scene from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ if there are only 3 of you available and you have to shoot it in an hour in your office!

See some examples of some great company Christmas videos here to inspire you:

2/ Planning:

Once you have your idea, you must plan to ensure the shoot is as easy and time efficient as possible. If you are pulling people out of their work to do the shoot you need to take up as little time as possible from them, otherwise you won’t be popular – so good preparation is the key!

Consider if you need props or accessories – even some tinsel, santa hats or bauble decorations can add some sparkle to the team singing a christmas song – but it all needs gathering!

3/ Shooting:

If you are shooting a music based piece with people singing along to a tune or actually singing themselves, the best way to shoot it to film the audio of the singing first and then play this back through speakers, getting the staff to mime to this, to get the same timing and then edit together the visuals of the miming with the audio of the singing. This allows for the audio to be seamless, otherwise you will have jumps as you edit between people.

If your piece requires movement or scenes to be acted out then make sure you have the ability to control your location setting, so that you don’t have random people cutting across and spoiling your shot when you are in the middle of it! Also be aware of any background noise that may spoil the audio of what you are filming.

If you are using a video professional to film it for you they will take care of all of this.

4/ Editing:

Whether you are editing it yourself or a video professional is cutting it together for you, know what you want to end piece to look like. Consider whether an post production effects would work and add impact i.e. snow or added glitz or graphics.

You may want to add music in the edit, if you have’t incorporated it in the filming.

5/ Sharing it:
How are you going to get people to see you video?
The obvious place is to put it on your website for the whole of the Christmas period.
It is also a good idea to send it out to all your clients and prospects as your video greeting. This can be done on the email (linking to YouTube, Vimeo or wherever your video is hosted).
Alternatively if you want to stand out and have some budget to really be memorable, send them a DVD or a USB stick with the video on.
Obviously use social media platforms to share and promote your video too.

Happy Christmas Video Making!….

See below some Christmas videos we like….

2013 is our 13th year in business and this site will be our 5th website re-design – to be fair this one was very overdue! (like the tale of the cobbler and his own shoes, we are always so busy for clients, our own marketing activity takes a back seat!)

When I think back to our very first website back in 2000, it makes me chuckle as it was so basic! It was just one page!

We’ve done various types of sites since then and what we have learnt and where we are at now with our newest, is interestingly that despite the amazing amount of bells and whistles, functionality and complexity it is possible to have on your website these days – actually simple is still best! What are the main things that people want to get from your website? I think it is:
– Who you are?
– What is your credibility?
– What have you done?
– How can you help them?
– How can I contact you?

Yes, there are always more content ideas you can include, but generally the points above are the ones that most of the people you want to view your site are interested in.

We worked closely with and were advised brilliantly by Clear Creative who are a full service creative design agency. What they helped us to do was to think about our marketing strategy first – who we wanted to be looking at the site and what did we want them to do once they were there? The team at Clear are very successful at creating websites for clients that actually generate results and increase profits. They do this by looking at the marketing strategy first and then creating a site to fit this, rather than the other way round.

So the first step we did was to sit down with them, go through our business model including who we help with our video production service and who we want to work with more in the future. This allowed them to create a wireframe and site structure. This allowed us to identify how many pages we wanted and what sub pages we wanted. We were advised by Clear to keep our navigation and main menu bar as simple as possible with a maximum of 5 items and have sub headings within these buttons. This allows the visitor to clearly see where they want to go.

Once the wireframe and site structure was established the team at Clear Creative came up with a design and template for us to approve initially before the rest of the site was created. Then came the content writing! There is no getting around it, this was time consuming. We tried to strike a balance between providing all the key information that visitors will be interested to read about without them losing the will to live with how long it was! So we worked to keep it concise but useful.

Obviously a critical factor for our site was being able to demonstrate videos we have done – with us having produced literally 100′s over the years, we had to choose our best examples. Although this was made easier by us only choosing our work from recent times that is in HD, as the older formats are not as high quality for web playback. We also felt it important to show how busy and current our company is and the amount of successful projects we have done recently.

Another critical factor was the inclusion of social media links and of course a blog, which is being showcased now!

Ultimately I would say that we have been lucky to work with a fantastic creative agency who were able to advise us from a full marketing point of view and help the website to fit within our marketing plan rather than just be a technical operation of building a site that looked pretty, although we think it does that too!

We hope you enjoy our new site and it is useful. Please free to leave any comments below…..

Does it lie with one person, two people, a handful of people? Do you have a key account or key business area, that without the knowledge or expertise of these people your business would be in serious trouble? Continue reading “Have you ever thought where all the key knowledge in your business is?” »

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