A good story is crucial. Stories are a way we can connect with each other on an emotional level. In the same way, stories used in video connects the viewer with a brand or idea. It is also what compels us to keep watching. It develops a simple but captivating message that replays over and over again in our minds.
As a business to business production agency, we work across a variety of industries to develop an engaging through line within the videos we produce. One of our key practices at Pendula is creating a strong connection between video marketing and storytelling – and we take this approach with almost all of our corporate clients. We are in the business of developing your video marketing needs, but we are passionate about defining a bold story tailored to you. When we’ve previously talked about The Power of Video, we focused on video content and its close tie to social media. This time we want to shift the attention to the storytelling that makes up that content and how the Pendula team work to balance this with marketing goals.
To create this style of visual storytelling we typically break down a number of factors.
1. The Nature of the Client’s Business
As we produce video for such a number of different enterprises, we at Pendula are privileged to challenge ourselves with a number of unique and varied approaches. This is usually dependant on the nature of our client’s business. What about you? Are you marketing a tangible product, an experience or an idea or perhaps even yourself? We love that we are able to work with our clients to define this and then begin crafting a unique and creative approach to highlight it.
2. Video Objective and The Narrative
The first step before any script has been written or any storyboard produced is to determine the overarching message of the video we’ve been engaged to create. Corporate video can sometimes stagnate by marketing stipulations and whilst these can prove to be restrictive at times, our aim is to incorporate them organically. To do so, we ensure that we centre the production around the fundamental objectives whilst linking it to highly engaging narrative and well executed creative. It’s no surprise that authentic narrative is a powerful force in our modern times. Some even believe that it’s a major reason why Walmart and GE are tanking yet Apple and Salesforce are seeing continued success. By collaborating with you to simplify and consolidate your objectives we then work hard to craft your story to support this. Authentic story truly benefits video marketing due to its ability to evoke a strong response. Whether that response is happy, excited, or one of intrigue is usually different for each of our clients, yet it is imperative as it creates emotional resonance within the viewer.
3. The Call to Action and Engagement
Crucial to the marketing potential of video productions is the call to action or CTA. It’s one of the most useful ways to track viewers engagement with the content as well as their receptiveness to the story and the overall return on the investment in a particular video. It leads the viewer to respond in a certain way, and gives them something to do after viewing our videos. Obviously, the CTA is vastly different depending on the objective of the client and this request for the viewer to take action can be offered in many different ways. Take vlogging content for example, it’s usually as simple as requesting viewers to like, subscribe, share and comment. This fosters a branded relationship with the client and their viewers. For corporate content a different approach is used, depending on the objective of the video and the client’s business, the CTA can range from signing up to a newsletter, clicking through to view a website for more context, or attending events and purchasing products. The narrative acts as an important vessel to deliver this request to the viewer. It’s through an emotional connection created by the storytelling narrative that engages with the viewer and compels them to follow through on the requests.
While some may think incorporating marketing objectives can affect the authenticity of a story, the team at Pendula work hard to balance the two in order to create a visually compelling narrative that promotes the client’s objective. Storytelling is an ancient pastime and it has taken on many forms through its continued evolution. Our goal is to adapt this tradition for the evolving video marketing practice and create a cohesive relationship between storytelling and marketing.
