There are many thousands of video campaigns released every year, and yet only a few of them are both successful and even memorable. Through all of these campaigns there are a number of things that can be learned. All of them, in spite of coming from vastly different industries and brands are all linked in one way, they are all human. They show people doing things, interacting with each other, getting things done and things like that. Anything you make and look to advertise is going to either make life easier or enhance their experiences. That is usually the intent of creating a new product or service, to save time and interest people enough to get them to use the service.
The same philosophy, when translated to your explainer video, will most certainly elevate your video from just a product description to something that is both nice to look at as a standalone video and informative to your customers. It is true that most of these companies are among the biggest in the world and have close to unlimited amounts of money to back them up, there are things that can be taken home from each of them as a lesson. Here are a few such successful campaigns, which when studied reveal a few key points that can take elevate your video to more than just a set of moving slides.
A video can be more than just your product - Dove
There are a number of ways in which you can evoke a strain of thoughts through a video. Dove is well known for such videos, which showcase not only their product, but also discuss a larger societal concept or norm. In one of their most well received as well as controversy stirring videos, they had a set of doors marked beautiful on side and average on the other and real life women's reaction when faced with these doors in a busy building was observed. It was a brilliant take on how people saw themselves and make their own choice about how they felt. The product was only introduced at the very end. Melty Cone is a professional product video production company in NYC that makes tasteful, emotional product videos.
Reactions from users of the product - Small business, big dreams series
A lot of explainer videos often have the inventor of the product or the engineer who built it show how it can be used. They are seen as the best people to explain these things as they know every bit of it thoroughly. Doing this, however can alienate some users. Not every one of your customers are going to be expert engineers or agile with their hands, there will surely be a good number of clumsy people who may not know what they are doing at first. Having real users, not staged actors in the video on screen can be a big plus.
Know what the customer wants and use that in your video - Facebook how-to series
It is good to know beforehand what the customer may want, what kind of ideas, thoughts and queries they may have about your product and use them to create your clips. They do not have to have too many such features explained, just one or two might be sufficient, but as long as they are explained well and without room for doubt, you have a win. The Facebook video series had a number of new features like how to block a person and then unblock them later; it was short, informative and memorable.
Tap into the emotions - Google Earth
Google Earth, when released was astounding. They had managed to photograph almost the entire planet and put it up online for everyone to see. While that is a product that can pretty much sell itself, the marketing team behind the videos saw a way to tap into the emotional side of Google Earth. Tugging at emotions is a very powerful tool and is enough to rouse people, but fake emotions and tear baits can be easily seen through. There is nothing more irritating to watch, than a video trying hard to make you feel things. The video titled 'homeward bound' told the real life story of a man who finds his home and his family after nearly twenty years after recognizing a railway station on Google Earth, that is incredibly touching and realistic.
A well placed plot twist can hit hard - American Greetings
Everyone loves a good plot twist, but it can get real old really fast when overused. Plot twists can also invoke a lot of thinking. One such campaign that managed to carry it off with aplomb was the 'World's toughest job' video. It had a simple format, an online video interview where the interviewer asks the person some tough questions and says that the job has some impossible requirements and roles, but close to no pay, every one interviewed rejects the offer, but it is then revealed that mothers go through this every day. Simple, direct and poignant.
Make it funny - Dollar Shave Club
There are very few products that cannot be sold or explained with humor. Comedy is one of the main ingredients for a short explainer video. The top three YouTube channels, based on number of subscribers are all comedy based. If a person sees a funny video, they are more likely to share it than not. The Dollar Shave Club was one of the funnier campaign videos that went viral last year, it had the CEO of the company telling everyone that his 'blades are f***ing great'. There are no complicated visuals or settings, just one guy walking through his warehouse and explaining why you should buy his product. The video has since been viewed over 18 million times. Melty Cone is a professional comedy video production company in NYC.
So before you start filming your video, think of ways to make it a lot more interesting by incorporating one or more of these pointers in them.
What is Melty Cone? Melty Cone is a full-service video production company in NYC. We make videos from start to finish; from creative idea conception to final video delivery.
