Learn from RedBull - Make Video That's NOT About Your Product
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 @ 10:00 AM
My husband is a glider pilot with the Greater Boston Soaring Club, and so I am in the loop on some really cool videos about gliders and soaring. This video is one of the most breathtaking I've seen - hang onto something, watch it, and then we'll talk about what a bunch of crazy/brilliant Austrian glider pilots and stuntmen have to do with your business:
While you completely get that this is an awesome video - and you may even share it with friends via email or on Facebook or Twitter - what does it have to do with your business?
Business is about relationships
Cool videos are like little gifts you give your current customers - and those who may be your future customers. Videos that are not overt commercials, but instead have a more peripheral connection to your product/service, are interesting and worthy of conversation. They provide current/potential customers with a good reason to engage with you and to talk about you, and to share your video, which will introduce your company to more people.
The peripheral product connection for this video is to Red Bull, the energy drink. It's hosted on the Red Bull website, along with lots of other remarkable videos about sports and athletes and music and dance. It's a great place to go and get your daily Wow. (And, of course, your daily reminder that Red Bull is a brand that is associated with really cool activities.)
What about budget?
But wait, you say - are you nuts? We don't have the budget for a multi-cam production, with helicopters, in the Alps!
No problem. The beauty of video is that no matter how small your video production budget, you can make video that's fun to watch, and fun to share. Maybe it's a karaoke music video starring your office staff. Maybe you're a car dealer and you bring in your new puppy and take him for a drive in one of your new cars. Or bring in your 92-year-old grandmother and take her for a drive. Or...
You get the picture. When it comes to making videos that are outside the usual serious and all-business stuff, the possibilities are endless - all you have to do is stop thinking about video as a medium that's only appropriate for communicating seriously about your products and services. Instead, remember that people want to have fun. A fun video that's peripherally related to your product can have a place too. It can be cool in a way your strict product videos can't, and it has a far greater chance of being shared, and talked about. But you have to be willing to step outside that comfortable space where your video production budget is always spent on serious, product/centered videos.
The possibilities are endliess - so step outside your comfort zone, start thinking creatively, have some fun, and share your fun.
(...and if you're interested, take a look at some of the videos made by members of the Greater Boston Soaring Club about their adventures in the sky. They'll give you goose bumps!)