Have you noticed that most corporate videos look the same?  Here is a summary of what you can expect:  Start with a drone shot of a building, often created without thoughts for public safety or permits. They then cut to random slow motion footage. Then a voice, or someone, on camera shows us how boring they are by telling us about stuff we, the viewer, don’t really care about like how old the company is and how great they are.  Insert a logo and you have two or three minutes of your life that you can’t get back.  Lots of video with no story.  On reason this is happening is that it has never been easier to shoot a nice looking video with a camera.  Unfortunately, those moving pictures lack purpose and proper sequence.    The biggest challenge is that it is hard to write a good story.

Stand out from the noise

If your goal is to get people to watch your video, you need to do some extra work.  With over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it is easy for your brand to get lost in the sea of other videos.  A drone shot of your building isn’t going fix this problem.  You need to do one of three things in your video:  entertain, inspire, or educate and if you can do all three, your video is a big win.  Most corporate videos lack story because of this:  there isn’t a plot or strong characters. To find the plot of a story, it takes work and that work costs money.  Start by realizing your brand is not the hero of the story.  The hero in your story is the viewer.  Your company is the guide or wise old sage in the story (think Yoda from Star Wars).  Your viewer is Luke Skywalker.

Why use story?

Story is a universal language.  People were created for the need for story.  People buy things emotionally, not rationally.  The way we deliver that emotion is through story.  Story makes your brand human.  Not sure what to do next?  Join our free webinar “What Your Brand Needs to Know to Succeed with Video“