It's quality Jim but not as we know it.

If Captain Kirk beamed down to Earth in 2011 he, and Spock, would be amazed at the amount of time modern humans spend in front of screens. Star Trek might have foretold our love of hand-held communication devices, but it didn't anticipate our craving for screens.

Screens are everywhere: on our phones, in our pockets, our laptops and PCs, our TVs and even in our cars. We suck up hours upon hours of moving images and even produce half of them and broadcast them on YouTube.

Quality has become the Jekyll and Hyde of the 21st Century: stellar HD on our LED screens - and home-made, jerky footage shot on our iPhones and uploaded onto the web.

The cost of HD cameras that can capture broadcast quality images has plummeted. That means anyone can pick up a camera and shoot professional video - right? Well, yes, but the importance of quality has, for a while, been downgraded, and that's a bad thing.

It's especially bad for business.

Business has always been a big user of video. It's one of the best way to get a message across to all kinds of stakeholders (internal and external) and has long been used as a way of reflecting corporate values and building engagement with staff, customers and other audiences.

So, it seemed logical to put together the need for corporate video with the explosion in accessible technology and cut out the middle-man. I mean, who feels sorry for a video producer who's making less money or none at all? It's the logic of business: cut costs and deliver more value.

Simple.

But it's not simple. I recently started a discussion about video production and it's current state on LinkedIn and the response was enormous. It seems that what I like to call the 'YouTube Moment' is passing. Many people out there are beginning to realise that quality matters. Quality communicates. It always has and it always will. And I don't just mean the quality of the actual image and sound on the screen, important as they are, what really makes a difference is the quality of the service, skills and experience of the people who get those images, put them together in a compelling way, and ensure that a message is communicated.

That’s real quality.

Many respondents on LinkedIn used simple and obvious analogies: I can go out and buy plumbing equipment but it doesn't mean I'm going 'to install a quality bathroom. I can buy a good printer but it doesn't mean I have the design expertise or materials to make business cards that inspire confidence in my customers.

When you really want to do business you call in a professional who knows how to make the most of their equipment, and who has the experience to stop you making costly (and embarrassing) mistakes.

The 'YouTube Moment' hit us about five or so years ago. People began to think that because YouTube, with its amateurish videos shot on high-spec technology, was so popular it was possible to circumvent production companies and their expensive camera crews and producers and writers and so on, and do it all in-house.

Often, it back-fired. What many did was the equivalent of handing out low-quality business-cards which just served to make them look cheap.

Production companies have realised that they need to work harder to deliver quality, add greater value and persuade clients that quality from concept to screen actually counts. I think that's starting to work. For my part, I'm selling my services much more on quality of service and ideas than technical points. And it's working.

When I look back I realise that, maybe, many video production didn't engage with their clients enough. They excluded clients from the production process. That made clients believe they were paying for 'smoke-and-mirrors' rather than talent and expertise.

I think we need to be much more transparent about what we do and how we do it, and SHOW clients how we achieve quality on their behalf. The client has to be part of the creative journey, and then they will see how their cash is being spent on making them, and their products and services, look brilliant.

If you would like to chat further, please get in touch. I’m here to make you or your company look good... whichever way we do it.

10 easy steps to help stimulate conversation of using video for your business (part 1)

Ok, so if you’re reading this (watching this) you're probably aware that you should be considering video or want to improve how you use it.

Here's a few pointers to get you started - it's far from definitive, but it should stimulate some constructive thinking, so that you can use video that gets watched, and encourages your audience to do something positive?

First - are you using video now? If you are, stop and take a close look at what you've got. 

Look at it from your audiences perspective what are they getting from it? Who are you aiming it at? Are you using it to it’s maximum, is it being used and deployed everywhere and anywhere appropriate. Take a close look and be honest. Does it represent you, your messages and your brand in the best way possible?

Second, think about your audience; who are they? Customers, employees, new recruits? Think about how you can target them so they pay attention to your message. What kind of messages do they want to hear? Think about the look and feel of each video - will it engage them? 

One way to do that is to think of the way YOU engage with videos that someone else has aimed at YOU. Does it work? How do you react? Does the message get through to you? If it does, think about why it does.

Third, understand the medium. It's not a waste of time surfing YouTube to see what's popular, what's not, and how other businesses use video. Gauge your responses and those of your colleagues: how quickly do you get bored? What looks twee? What looks amateurish? What looks too slick? What's just plain dull? Is it linked to other materials like brochures, white papers or other websites? Then compare notes and try to work out how you would like to look, to your audience.

Then, work to build on those insights by looking specifically at what your competitors are doing. Appraise it honestly and then work out how you can match or more importantly, exceed their efforts. This can form a great starting point if you are going to get the ‘professionals’ in, like us, fact finding acts as a great foundation to build upon. 

Next, to shoot or not to shoot? that is the question… The technology is cheaper and better than ever before: an excellent, inexpensive HD camcorder can be bought almost anywhere, and the editing software that that avaibale gives you the ability to make programmes that can be quite good.

‘User Generated Video’ is here to stay. It has its place. It may save money, get your message out there quicker and provide tangible results. But my advice on this is simple: If you’re going to broadcast your message to the world – make it count. That piece of video might be the only way your customers, or peers can judge you.

So… is it right for you and your brand to make it yourself? Discuss this in depth, and the pros and cons of doing getting the professionals in. 

Ok, well we are half way through, hopefully it's opened your mind a little more as to how to getting the ideas flowing in your busniness and amongst your colleagues.

If your looking for more ideas watch part 2 or take a look at what SugarSnap can offer.

More about Simon Burgess.

Nobody knows anything!

When the screenwriter of such classic movies as The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (not forgetting Marathan Man and The Princess Bride) declares that, for all his experience and talent, ‘nobody knows anything’* when it comes to making hit films andTV shows and any other artistic endeavour you’d care to mention, then we need to listen. William Goldman wasn’t saying that anyone could make a blockbuster, but that there was no science you could apply to guarantee a successful communication.

You had to be able to trust your instincts rather than focus groups, and work hard to putting quality up on the screen rather than what you think people want.

Nobody really knows what audiences want: if they did all films or TV programmes would be brilliant hits. They aren’t. Most aren’t any good at all. So, how do you ensure that you have the best chance of getting your message across so that the audience listens, remembers and appreciates what you had to say?

In my view it’s all about integrity.

It’s about being straight-forward about what you want to say, and thinking about the audience first, rather than your own narrow agenda. If you make the film or video – or any kind of communication, be it live or recorded – so that it works as an entity; so that it’s an honest piece of work – then people will respond.They always do.

That’s how I like to work.

*William Goldman: Adventures in the Screen Trade

Does video get people talking more than words do?

A colleague of mine - a writer - told me about a book he'd just read by a brain scientist. It showed how reading was actually 'an unnatural act' and that the fact that most of us end up learning to read at all is 'a miracle.'

I was surprised by that claim. But then I thought about it. For most of human history people communicated using their voices or pictures or even physical action. The great majority of people did not read.

But now, we all do. Only, I don't think our fundamental nature has changed. We like to SEE and HEAR messages rather than read them. That's why the moving image is all around us. We all like a nice, colourful picture with action in it!

What's that got to with how you can use video in your business?

A lot.

The revolution in communication that the Internet has unleashed is only just being understood properly. What some commentators are saying is that the Web has taken us away from a word-centered society to one in which the image has become more important again.

Simply, words are all very well, but images - especially moving ones - are back on top.

This same writer friend of mine - he does a LOT of reading! - but then, he's a writer! He told me about work carried out by the Software Usability Research Lab at Wichita State University. It showed that people don't actually 'read' web pages - they speed read them in a strange 'F' pattern. That means they read a headline, drop down the page, missing out most of the words beneath the headline, then scan across again to another bold headline - or set of bullets - and then scan down the margin to the end to find a pay-off, if there is one.

They register, and this is a staggering number, just 18% of the words on the page! So, out of every 100 words you publish on a webpage only 18 of them are likely to be read. That doesn't mean you stop using words - you've just got to use less of them.

What's also clear is that there's been an explosion of video content on the web… one of the most important communications platforms around. So, businesses has to think about how it tries to get their messages across using a tool that we are all hard wired to connect with.

Can anyone make a good video and are production companies on the way out?

The technology is cheaper and better than ever before: an excellent HD camcorder can be bought almost anywhere, and the editing software that comes with it gives you the ability to make programmes that look quite good.

You can share your video on the web – on an intranet, through social-networking sites or, of course, through the amazing medium of YouTube. Millions of people could, potentially, click on to your video and take your corporate message and share it with all their customers, work colleagues and friends.

Easy.

Production companies that offer broadcast professional services are dead. It’s over. We can all go home. Simple.

But is it so simple?

I don’t think so. I’m not saying that what some call ‘User Generated Video’, or UGV isn’t here to stay; it is. It has its place. It may save money, get your message out there quicker and provide tangible results. It can be useful.

If you take your people out of their normal jobs so that they can spend the time to shoot and put together a short film, you can use it in any way you like. It might look good, but it might not.

It’s important to remember though, that the vast majority of clips on YouTube don’t get many viewings. Most get only a few hundred. The clips that cause a global sensation are few and far between: the exceptions that prove the rule. And that rule is: YouTube has far too much content for it to be an effective medium of communication.

And when you see a clip on another platform – your website for instance – lack of quality can really show. And that’s when UGV can be dangerous. A badly made video can backfire. You or your company could look stupid. Or, you could find that an in-house joke undermines your brand.

Not so long ago German transport giant, Deutsche Bahn, was in take-over talks with UK-rail operator Arriva, when a video appeared on YouTube that ridiculed their negotiations. A clip from a movie about Hitler was ‘re-subtitled’ to make fun of their approach to the discussions. No one quite knows who made it, but it damaged the German company’s brand for a while.

So, UGV can be useful, but needs to be handled properly.

A recent report by Every Sense suggested that production companies were nervous about UGV, and didn’t quite know if it was a threat or an opportunity. They interviewed professional programme makers and found a range of views, and a host of worries, but concluded that video companies had to stress the value that they can bring to a communications project.

And that’s my main point. I don’t see UGV as a threat. It is an opportunity, both for clients and for production professionals. It’s another way I can help clients. People come to me because

I can solve their communications needs creatively and cost-effectively. It takes skill and experience to do that: just as in any other walk of life.

I can’t believe that a company would entrust a mission critical message – a message that is supposed to build their brand, attract paying customers, motivate or educate their staff – to someone who hasn’t made a video before, and does not have the experience or contacts to bring in the right talent to make it look good. If a company did that, they’d be taking a big risk with one of their most precious assets: their reputation.

UGV can be appropriate in many instances: internal communications and at or around specific events, for instance, but when it comes to selling or building a brand you can’t rely on what is, in all honesty, amateurism.

Production expertise and experience – the kind you get from companies like SugarSnap and others – add value to your message. You get more bang for your bucks; and you benefit from long experience to overcome obstacles and problems when they arise – as they sometimes do during a production. Above all you get objective and expert advice on how to shape the narrative and tell your story in a way that works for your message and your target audience.

That’s when the difference between a professional and an amateur really shows.

We all have an instinct for quality; we know when something has been professionally made, and we know when it hasn’t. We all watch TV (on a set and online) everyday and we don’t make allowances for lack of budget or expertise: if something looks bad it is bad. That’s it.

And now that your video is only a click away from BBC i-Player, I think the difference is more obvious.

My advice is simple: when you’re wondering whether to shoot or not to shoot – think of your objectives, your audience, your brand and what you want your audience to feel once they have watched it. If you’re going to broadcast your message to the world – make it look good.

That piece of video might be the only way your customers or peers can judge you.

If you would like to chat further, then give me a buzz. I’m here to make you or your company look good... whichever way we do it.

1 "There are ways of stopping you laughing; City Diary." Times [London, England] 24 Mar. 2010

2 “UGV Threat or Opportunity” Every Sense Ltd

Up close & personal... on a USB stick

“They’re the hardest people in the world to cold-call,” one frustrated marketing manager for a technology company told me not so long ago; “you can’t get through all the barriers that stand in the way of real decision makers – they just don’t want to talk to you. But it’s your job to get through to them, so how do you do it?”

That’s the age-old problem all marketing professionals have, and there’s a new way of breaching the defences of C-level executives – personalised videos.

I tell clients that it’s actually the oldest trick in the book; get your face and voice on a screen in front of an important person... and use their name, and you’ve got their attention. But, surely, they tell me, that’s impractical. How do you create enough videos to cover a whole market?

It can be hard work, but in a targeted campaign that could yield a lot of value, it’s worth the effort.

Is this micro-marketing gone mad? Maybe, but companies like Kronos (www.kronos.co.uk) and Living Time (www.living-time.co.uk) have decided to try a little madness, and it seems to be working.

“We really struggle to get through using tele- marketing to senior level execs,” says Kate Burge of Kronos, “but by sending a personalised video on a memory stick, we can by-pass some gatekeepers in a simple and effective way.”

The idea is simple.

I shoot a short video, make it look good, and then attach a brief, personalised message at either end of it, and edit it so that it looks like one seamless whole. “The executive doesn’t know you’ve made a couple of hundred other videos, all he sees and hears is his own name” says Stuart Wilson of Living Time. “We scripted a strong message about our company, then made it relevant to each person and then did the opening and closing lines 215 times, addressing the person we were targeting AND their company by name.”

The response to our productions for Kronos and Living Time has been stunning: “We’ve got appointments we never thought we’d get,” says Kate Burge. “It got us face-to-face appointments with more than 80% of the CEOs/MDs we targeted,'' Stuart Wilson adds.

The videos were scripted, and then we shot and edited them. Once they were done they were loaded onto individualised USB memory sticks. When the sticks were inserted in a PC, a personalised interface popped up, inviting the intended recipient to watch their video. Our application enabled other videos, web links, and associated PDFs to be added to the stick. Giving our customers the freedom to tailor each message proved another hit.

They were sent direct to the target audience. Intrigued, the executives loaded the video and watched as they were addressed directly on screens as if the video had been made exclusively for them.

In my mind it’s a simple idea, but it’s important to understand that it takes careful thought to make it work. It’s a careful balance though of production value and quality... it mustn’t look too over produced. You would never go into your first meeting with a huge fanfare of music and glossy graphics!

This is the ultimate calling card – it speaks!

At SugarSnap we encourage our clients to think of video in a different way, and to take the medium into uncharted territory: Often you’re using tried and tested techniques but in new environments and contexts. The point is to be innovative and exciting so that the audience notice and remember you. It seems to be working for our clients.

If you would like to know more about our approach, our application or our ideas and how they can help to make a difference in your business please get in touch.