Digital video content is the trend. A little less than half of all Germans use video portals on the Internet. One of the biggest players is Youtube. Every minute 400 hours of new videos are uploaded to YouTube worldwide.
Video content is also playing an increasing role for companies. On the one hand, TV campaigns on the net are being extended (e.g. through PreRoll Sports in media libraries or Youtube). On the other hand, videos are used to play social channels such as Facebook. However, integration on company websites in the form of product presentations, image videos or user manuals is also becoming increasingly important.
Before the production of a corporate video starts, it is important to define the framework and goals. For this purpose you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the overall aim of the video?
- Where should the video be used?
- Who is the video’s target audience?
- What messages/content should the video communicate?
Once a goal has been defined, the first step towards a good corporate video is already taken. However, you should pay close attention to the following factors during planning and later production. Only then will your video fulfil the basic requirements to be successful.
Quality
First of all, the visual quality of the video must be good. On the one hand, this means that lighting, colours and image composition must be right. On the other hand, the visual quality also includes the technical quality. For example, if you display your video on a large format on the website, you will also need a corresponding resolution of the recordings.
Besides the visual quality, the acoustic quality is also important. If your image material is wonderful, but the sound is noisy or the voice quality is very poor, your entire company video will suffer.
Lenght
Every corporate video usually has a goal. Sometimes it serves as an advertising video to attract new customers, sometimes it is used on the website as an image video. An advertising video must be short and concise, as the time span of its advertising window is limited. An image video, on the other hand, can easily last a few minutes as long as it remains interesting. If you make a video instruction manual, a company video can sometimes be half an hour or longer.
Language
The language must be appropriate to the objective and the target group. If you are addressing a professional audience, you must use a different language than when speaking to children. But not only the words themselves play a role. If you are running a campaign in Bavaria, for example, it may well be an advantage to have a speaker with a Bavarian dialect. But your target group for the video also determines the gender or age of the speaker.
Dramaturgy
In addition to quality, length and language, the dramaturgy also determines whether you achieve your goals with the video. How you dramaturgically structure the video has to do with the goal. If you make a video user manual, the dramaturgy is of course less important than with an image video or advertising clip. The first few seconds are very important. If you do not convince the viewer in these first seconds, he will not be ready to watch the video in its entirety. If you produce a longer video, it is important to create a tension to “captivate” the viewers. The point of a promotional video is that the video is ultimately powerful and the advertising message will stick.
