Brownell Travel, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is one of the nation’s oldest travel agencies. To celebrate their 125th anniversary, Brownell Travel hosted a large gala event on January 7, 2012. Part of the evening’s festivities included the screening of an historical video, chronicling the agency’s evolution through the years. To produce the video, Brownell Travel turned to us. We took the agency’s archived materials and wove them together in a continuous layered composite of images and motion pictures.
Power 2 Transform is a consulting company that works with healthcare clients to improve leadership, communication, and operational efficiency. Their staff of consultants and trainers come on-site and work with hospital administrators to facilitate discussions, implement plans, and initiate programs that reduce costs and improve patient care.
Power 2 Transform was interested in expanding their services to other hospitals and so they decided to ramp up their marketing efforts. Part of that plan was to create a simple testimonial video. Power 2 Transform hired us to provide all production and post-production services. We created one testimonial video, consisting of five different interviews. Once that initial video was complete, we took each of the interviews and edited them into five separate stand-alone pieces that could be used to explain certain services in greater detail.
This is the single testimonial video with all five interview subjects.
The New Media Minuteis a podcast I listen to regularly. In each episode, host Daisy Whitney covers the latest online video trends. In the episode dated September 27, 2011, Daisy spoke with the head of AOL Video, Ran Harnevo, to discuss how video creators can increase video views. Content, of course, is a given. We’ve all heard that compelling, interesting content will drive views. But is there anything else that video producers can do to boost the amount of people watching their videos? Here are the take-away points from Ran’s interview:
When it comes to where you will place your video, think geographically. This point is geared more toward advertisers; i.e. those who place their videos in different markets. If you are an advertiser, thinking about how to get the most views for your video, consider the relevance of your subject matter. If it speaks more to an East Coast lifestyle/culture, place your video in those markets.
The placement of the video on the website affects the number of views. This might require some A/B testing, but the research will be worth it. Does the video perform better on the right sidebar? The left sidebar? Front and center? Evaluate the performance of your video as it relates to page placement and then insert your video in the location that will give you the most views.
Select an interesting thumbnail. Sometimes just the thumbnail image can entice a viewer to watch your video.
Work on building up a library of videos. Viewers are more likely to watch additional video content if it’s related to what they are already watching.
If you are an advertiser, your ad formats are important. Personalized pre-rolls and interactive videos will boost the number of views because they encourage engagement.
Hall Marketing hired us to provide production and post-production services on a video project for the Pelham Senior Center. The video was part of an overall re-branding campaign that included a new logo, new tagline, and new website. The client wanted the video to reflect the new tagline, “It’s a Brand New Day, Everyday” while highlighting the variety of programs, classes, activities, etc. that are offered. We developed a concept for the video that centered on the idea of contrast. The viewer is introduced to an elderly gentleman, writing a letter to his daughter. During the video, the viewer quickly learns that the elderly gentleman (as he describes things to his daughter in the letter) downplays how much fun he’s having. Hall Marketing wrote the script based on our concept. The Pelham Senior Center currently uses the video on their website.
We recently worked with Hall Marketing to produce a promotional video for the Pelham Library as a part of the library’s re-branding campaign. Conceptually, the video had to fit with the library’s new tagline, “Taking You Where You Want To Go” and their new logo, which features a compass as the central icon of the design. We developed the concept and the visual of the style of the video and were responsible for all production and post-production services.
