What do Pepsi, the Milwaukee Bucks, and Solstice Productions Video have in common? We were all just named Telly Award Winners this morning!
We’re proud to celebrate our Silver Telly Award for Non-Broadcast honoring KWAME Building Group’s 30th Anniversary Video. Congrats as well to KWAME for 30 amazing years!
And what does Standing Partnership have in common with KWAME? They also chose Solstice to help tell their 30th Anniversary Story.
Check out the video, and raise a glass in celebration.
To Script or Not to Script?
That is the question asked by just about every business when they embark on a new video project. There are some situations where a script is absolutely imperative to a good project, such as:
If you’re planning any of the above videos, or any video where a script will be used, it is worth the investment to work with a professional scriptwriter (we have them on staff, if you’re looking). Scriptwriting differs from writing newsletters, blogs, email drips, white papers, or any other content that is meant to be consumed by reading because of a very important distinction – scripts are meant to be watched (seems obvious, but if this isn’t what you do every day, it can really trip you up).
A great time to not script? Any time you’re asking non-actors to appear on screen. Writing a script is hard. Performing a script in a believable way? Hey, that’s why George Clooney makes the big bucks.
The approach that we recommend is:
There are many “happy not-so accidents” that will come out of this approach, including:
Not sure how to approach your next video, or looking for some help? You know where to find us.
The end of a year comes with a lot of activities, demands, last minute and not-so last minute things to attend to, and hopefully, the opportunity to reflect, to celebrate, and to prepare for the next one.
Here’s hoping you have a beautiful and joyful holiday season, and an amazing 2022!
This job continually reminds me that a focus on the little things can have a major impact. It might be the placement of a tool, an award, or another object in the deep background of an interview frame. An extra half second on a transition in an animation. A properly placed word or graphic. And suddenly a scene becomes more than the sum of its parts.
The same is true when we look at the many assets of our diverse community. We recently had the pleasure of being invited to create a Hero Video for Eye Thrive, a St. Louis based non-profit that provides free eye exams and glasses to lower income kids throughout the region. (You can learn more about Eye Thrive, and how to support them, here.)
A pair of glasses can seem like a little thing – until you meet someone like Dontrell, a 4th grader who opens the featured video by saying “I always wanted to see, ever since I was just a little kid. But my mom said we couldn’t afford glasses. Then the eye doctor showed up in a RV!”
That new pair of glasses is going to help Dontrell and thousands of kids like him focus better in school, perform better academically and athletically, and truly see and experience the world around them. It’s a small thing with a huge impact for the kids, the schools, and the community.
Sometimes, like these kids who get their first pair of glasses from Eye Thrive, we realize that something is not quite right, not quite in focus, but we couldn’t say what it is until someone with experience puts the right lens up to our eyes and it all becomes clear.
Looking for some help putting your brand story into focus? We’ve got the lens for that – give us a call.
Last month, we were invited to a meeting at the Construction Forum to discuss an important and personal issue – leaders in the construction industry are working to address concerns and hesitations amongst the workforce when it comes to receiving the relatively new COVID vaccines. Workplace safety is always at the top of the industry’s list, and, sadly, our St. Louis based construction industry lost more than a few members during the pandemic.
Led by Thom Kuhn, CEO of Millstone Weber, the Forum quickly sprung into action and assembled a team of collaborators. An incredible 26 individuals signed up to join us for one day of filming and to share their COVID story, facts about the vaccine, or their own vaccine experience. The overall approach is one of addressing concerns, sharing facts, and coming together as a community to help us all recover and get back to “normal”.
From the inception, this has truly been a team effort, with contributions from Washington University, the CDC, STL Carpenters, McCarthy, STL/KC Laborers, SIBA, KWAME Building Group, Excel Business Systems, and the generous support of Thom Kuhn.
Now, we’re asking you to join the team. If you find this information helpful and relevant, please share.
Check out the full initiative at VaxFactsSTL.com.
What do you do when your concrete structure is showing signs of wear? Reach out to an SRS trained contractor, of course! (such as our friends and clients over at Western Specialty Contractors)
And, what do you do when a large portion of your business development and sales time is spent on explaining what it is that your product or service actually does?
A short, well-messaged Explainer Video is always a strong choice.
So, what makes an Explainer Video an Explainer Video?
1) It answers a prospect’s most common questions in a clear and concise manner
2) It demonstrates the features and benefits of a product or a service
3) When well presented, it leads to a “how do we get started?” sales conversation instead of a “now what is this?” exploratory conversation.
Simply put, an explainer video helps good prospects qualify themselves and saves sales and business development teams hours of time. And they are kind of like potato chips – once you have us produce one, you’ll be ready to come back for another (and another and . . . )
Have any questions about how Explainer Videos might work for your business? Give me a call . . .
The best kind of marketing, and the best kind of video, has a very specific audience and knows exactly what it aims to do. Case in point – long time client and collaborator Construction Forum tackles the challenges facing the construction industry as a whole by designing niche content and campaigns. You can’t influence all of the people all of the time. But you CAN (and should) consistently engage all of your potential audiences in ways that matter to them.
Next Tuesday, April 27th, Construction Forum presents a panel on construction careers for women under their Yeah I Built That platform. Aimed at female students in middle and high school, this is one of many tactics the organization will undertake in an effort to recruit the next generation of construction workers.
When you break your Big Hairy Goals down into small, digestible bites, you start to see results quickly. And when you break your “I want to do video but I don’t know how to start” goal into targeting one very specific opportunity at a time, you’ll see results there as well.
Know someone who would like to learn more about the construction industry? Register here.
Need some help identifying your next video opportunity? Reach out anytime . . .
As a multi-generational family business, Aschinger Electric knows that the best way to build a strong business to build strong relationships. And that relationship building in 2021 looks a little, ok, A LOT, different than it did over 100 years ago when the founder rode the streets of St. Louis on a trolley car.
You can reach so many more people in the digital environment than you could ever hope to in pre-internet days. But “reach” does not mean “connect with”, let alone “build a relationship with.”
A smart video campaign can help move a contact to a customer in an organic way, building insight, trust, and relationship 60 to 120 seconds at a time, so that when your business development team calls they get a warm reception instead of a cold brush off.
A few tips:
Keep it short. Think of each video as building on another piece of your story, or as adding another brick onto the structure of your newly developing relationship.
Be authentic. When you showcase your real people working on a real project for a real customer, it’s easier for prospects to trust you with their real needs.
Be inviting. A video should be a lead-in to a great conversation, not a replacement for that conversation. Give your prospects a reason to want to learn more.
For more tips on putting video to work building your business relationships give us a call . . .
One of the most difficult questions I face nearly every day is “How much does a short video cost?”
So, in honor of the approaching Spring and the gradual re-opening of the economy and the travel industry, let’s approach that answer in a manner similar to the one you’ll soon take in planning your next vacation. How much does a vacation cost? Well, it depends.
We’ve recently completed these two videos for two very different travel destinations. Take a look and you’ll understand:
Although these two videos are very similar in length, that’s about where the similarities end. One uses aerial and cinematic footage, VoiceOver, and an elegant editing style that’s in keeping with the experience that our client Joe Lang Travel offers (shout out to Joe, book a trip with him!)
The other features hand drawn characters, Looney-Tunes style sound design, and the type of tongue in cheek branding that our good friends in Uranus, Missouri are quickly becoming famous for. Ready for a road trip on Route 66? This is a roadside attraction that is worth the stop.
Designing a video, and a video budget, has a lot in common with designing a trip.
Ask yourself:
What do I want as the final destination (what do I hope to achieve by taking on this effort)?
How can the video reflect the experience that I’d like associated with my brand?
What is my budget? (You shouldn’t plan a European river cruise if you’re working with a road trip budget – that’s an easy one)
Do I want the ability to create additional videos (or take additional trips) in the near future?
And then be sure to select a video team that you feel confident can help you to reach your destination in a style that supports your unique brand and comes in on budget.
Need help designing your next trip? Call Joe. Need help designing your next video? Call us anytime.
Like the Bitrode family of products keeps the power running on a manufacturing floor, a good video campaign can keep the leads flowing into your sales team.
But video doesn’t only have a place at the top of that oh-so-important funnel. This new study conducted by Proposify shows that featuring images in your sales proposals can increase close rates by 26%. After studying thousands of winning sales processes, Proposify comes to this conclusion:
“Well-designed proposals with embedded video have an undeniable edge over the flat, one-dimensional documents from the competition.”
Types of videos in proposals can vary from Introduction videos like the example shown here to About Us, Product Demos, Explainer Videos, Testimonials, Project Case Studies, or any other video content that addresses the common objections that keep your sales team from winning opportunities.
Want our help energizing your sales process with video? You know where to find us . . .
