Creative Lewisham blog

September 27 2013 5:24 PM

I've seen two marketing videos in the last week or two and, to me, they represent the two extremes of the effectiveness of the art.

Let me make it clear that I don't wish to unduly condemn or praise the brand behind them, but simply comment on the use of video and how I see one as superb, the other as disappointing. And I hope it is a useful illustration to anyone considering video as a marketing tool.

Anyway, here they are:

BAD: Talking headlines

The first example aims to explain recent developments in B2B marketing. It's called "How Modern Marketing Works". It goes onto explain how marketing automation works, how collaboration works, how social marketing works. You get the drift. So it's interesting stuff, but the content is simply a few (albeit interesting) statements and statistics animated to a muzak soundtrack. IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE A VIDEO. Is this was text, I'd have got my value out of it in about 20 seconds. These guys made me spend 2 minutes on it. Irritating and unnecessary. Sorry.   

See what you think.

GOOD: Talking people

I loved this. It is for LinkedIn and it is aiming to promote the importance of LinkedIn profiles by getting well-known people to talk about theirs. Or rather, they found an interesting twist: what's NOT on their LinkedIn profile. That small creative effort made the difference – that and the appreciation that an interesting video is an effective one. They used video to do something that other formats could not. Hats off to you LinkedIn – and to the guys who took part in it who I now see as more interesting, rounded and engaging individuals than I did before. It succeeded in making me think about what was on my own LinkedIn profile. It worked. I enjoyed it.

And you've got some great animal impressions going there, Michael Stelzner...

When do you use video?

It's not hard. You use video when video adds something. Not when it just slows up your reading speed.

I think it was best put by a fellow commenter on a MarketingProfs blog post this week, Steve Lubetkin.

"Video is about pictures and images, so don't waste money on videos of someone standing in a fake background green-screen reading words from a Powerpoint slide. Don't do motion graphic videos that are forcing your clients to read a bunch of moving words on screen. SHOW them what you and your team look like in your workspace. Let them tour your factory or facilities. Let them meet your clients who love what you do and hear them tell why."

Wise words. LinkedIn were obviously listening when others weren't.