Your library is your portrait.
- Holbrook Jackson
Let’s talk about libraries. Multimedia libraries.
When we mention “breaking up
your messages into packets”, we are introducing the Long View approach to your
video production and online communications needs.
After all – if you’ve got a lot to
share and you’ve absorbed the wisdom against throwing all your eggs in one
basket, you’re going to need a long-term installment plan. The best approach? Open a library of online content.
This library can (and should) include
a little bit of everything – text, quotes, testimonials, still photography,
video and graphics – and, as we explained in a recent post, audiences will peruse
text and photos, explore customer testimonials and feedback, and watch videos
that interest them. It’s the
virtual equivalent of browsing through your “store.” They will be drawn towards what they know they like, and
they will be lured into liking something new.
So how do you build this multimedia library?
We’ve articulated four “kickstart”
production takeaways below to consider – interesting creative and content
considerations shaped by efficient, practical, and cost-effective production
approaches.
1) Leverage assets you
already have to gain quick wins.
Most companies have their own
libraries of professional-grade photography they’ve acquired over the
years. Storymasters can weave existing high-resolution photography of your people, operational settings and
projects into engaging multimedia you can use right now. We can create a suite of
video assets that weave music, on-screen typography, and an animation technique
we call “Photoscape” – a relatively simple layering process that creates 3D
perspective from flat high-resolution photos. Here are two very simple examples
of photoscapes: http://youtu.be/abgBwvg95Qk and http://youtu.be/ASWlyGRyYT0
2) Create a series of Case
Study vignettes that reinforce your brand values.
These are simple, stylish
“documentary” stories that introduce your audience to role model employees,
team innovation, interesting project challenges, multi-faceted collaboration,
or perhaps just a vignette about one of your employees that built a playground
structure for a community school.
Here’s an example for PwC that we like: http://youtu.be/Aokm44Sw2dw
3) Establish your Visual
Brand and don’t sway from it.
As opportunities present
themselves, Storymasters can capture cinematic imagery of key projects,
teamwork, and community involvement that can be woven into rich, highly visual
stories down the road. You’ll gain
a reputation in the marketplace for the perspectives you take, music you
choose, the typography you incorporate – the very style by which you tell your
stories. Here’s an example for Rio
Tinto we found on the web: http://youtu.be/w9A5en5zK14
4) Visualize your video
library in advance, then build it strategically.
Creating a single introductory
corporate video that features your best people, flagship projects from coast to
coast, and your international presence can be daunting (and expensive) –
especially on a tight timeframe.
If you build up your library over time with engaging vignettes that
communicate your brand, that “big corporate overview video” becomes easier to
create. You may have noticed that
the Rio Tinto recruitment video (see link above) is a compilation of 10-12
two-minute employee stories shot over many months in different regions of Canada.
Together, we can create a
quality video library that evolves with your brand, communicates your core
values, celebrates your people, and engages your prospects.
