Top tips for achieving video success
Videos entertain, inform and give people access to digestible news on the go. They are also one of the best ways to achieve exposure. In fact, including them in your PR strategy is a no brainer.
There is no greater example of how influential video can be than the rise of the ‘Youtube’ stars. Ordinary, everyday folk turned into celebrities and idols (although I use that term loosely, very loosely) simply as a result of posting a video online. Whether it’s someone giving hair styling tips, baking tutorials or just playing a computer game. The potential influence of video is plain to see.
Dan Patterson of ABC News Radio said that ‘Humans are incredibly visual and powerful, moving images help us find meaning… [And] video helps capture and contextualize the world around us’. It is not surprising therefore that we extended our portfolio of services to include video.
Among our favourite campaigns we have worked on were two social media campaigns for supermarket Asda. One was a video for their Facebook page featuring magician and star of ITV’s Tricked, Ben Hanlin. We filmed Ben at an Asda store in London performing magic tricks for customers, including pulling money from items such as bread, unopened crisp packets and sealed yoghurt pots. The video achieved nearly 1 million views on Asda’s Facebook page.
The other, entitled 'Pimp my BBQ', was a fun, quirky video that unsurprisingly showcased a costumed ‘pimped’ BBQ. The BBQ featured additions such as a selfie stick, iPad stand, neon lights to name but a few. This video had pick-up all across a wide range of sites and proved especially popular with the MailOnline and Lad Bible
We’re lucky to have the services of incredible cameramen, video producers and editors from SWNS behind us to help us make the most of our video content.
If you’re looking to produce a video there are a few things to bear in mind.
1. Audience and Content
Cisco has predicted that video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017, so to truly have a place in this market we need to know what our audience want.
Not only must the video content we create chime well with the survey stories we produce, but we must keep trying to be as inventive and creative as possible. This comes not only from our own creative process but also from watching the video market and staying relevant and in line with what viewers want.
Videos don’t have to be elaborate. Yes sometimes a brief may call for a big stunt or a big name to appear in it but it doesn’t always have to. Sometimes a simple vox pop style video can be just as effective. After all, the people on the street are the people you are trying to attract so why not make them the centre of attention. Look at your brief and decide who you are trying to reach, how you’re going to do it and what style is going to have the most impact.
Watch our video showreel below to see the variation of video styles we've used for our clients:
2. Platform and Length
Only two years ago videos would be produced that could last over 5 minutes for just one story. We have learnt rapidly that most people’s engagement and time spent on a video last no more than 60 seconds, which is why as a rule at 72Point we produce nothing longer than 1 minute. This allows us to keep costs lower for the client - and crucially - we stay relevant for our publishers and help them engage with their audiences.
Videos will become even shorter as the use of mobile devices to access content continues to rocket. Evidence of this can be seen in the popularity of Vine which is based around 6 second videos, and Instagram which only allows 15 seconds. People now spend more time viewing stories on their mobiles than desktops and with that comes a shift in content presentation. This means a mobile-first approach is crucial for 72Point and its clients in 2016. Once you know who your video is aimed at, what you’re trying to say and how you’re going to share it, then everything else should slot into place. But if not here are some of our top tips for video success:
- Make it clear in your headline what the video is about
- Videos must have rich SEO within the metadata
- Be creative in how you link videos to text stories
- Always always share your video on social media
- Keep them short and snappy
- Don't try to be too clever - it can come across as false
- Make the first 8 seconds as attention-grabbing as possible. That’s all our attention span will take to lose interest.
So much is changing in the world of content and video as it continues to play a huge role in the market place. If we can utilise video and embrace the technology that comes with it, and the interactivity it gives audiences, then we and our clients are set for a bright and fun future.
Visit our video page to find out more about our video offering.Written by our video team: Issy Potts and Jessica Macdonald.
Has Paid Media Found Its Mojo?
There are two types of branded content in this World; Paid and Earned.
Earned media refers to the process of garnering publicity through media, blogger and influencer relations. Out of necessity it has high quality content at its heart, and has somewhat short-sightedly become the de facto model used by PR professionals because of that. But contrary to belief, PR is not synonymous with earned media.
Public relations is defined by the Chartered Institute as the “discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour.” At no point is PR defined in terms of paid, owned or earned media. In fact, industry leaders are increasingly embracing the full PESO Model, but I’ll come on to that later. First, the paid media revolution.
Paid media is an effective means of creating brand awareness or new customer acquisition through traditional advertising, paid search, social marketing and, most recently, through content. Blogs, infographics, videos and news releases have all become wrapped up as part of the ‘paid’ arsenal as native threatens to displace display in the digital ad industry. Liberated from its conventional confines paid has found its mojo, and marketers are leading the pursuit.
The evolution has largely come about thanks to a change in media consumption habits. We know that media consumers can handle the deluge of content on the web, but what they don’t want is to consume content that is so heavily branded and full of advertising messages that it is clearly being pushed to them by an advertiser. Josh Black, CEO of GroupM Content Asia Pacific, says increasingly “the very best forms of content created by advertisers are truly becoming ‘content’ – pieces of work that consumers want to share with the friends, tweet about and like”.
“The expectations on quality are rising. The stories being told are well constructed, interesting and shot beautifully. The content these advertisers are creating and distributing are no longer pieces of ‘branded content’, they are just ‘content’. Audiences, consciously or otherwise, are not using or associating the word ‘branded’ with them.”
So does that make branded content obsolete, or just reimagined? I’d err to the latter, but what is for sure is that paid media has become a big player in the PR industry. And it doesn’t stop there. Shared and owned media are both increasingly prevalent and important media types. Combine all four, and you get the complete digital marketing strategy.
The PESO model (Paid, Earned, Social and Owned) is what the future looks like for PR professionals. Gini Dietrich, a leading voice for the PR industry and author of Spin Sucks, told Mashable that there “is a misguided perception in the PR industry that all we do is media relations. Get your boss or client on the front page of the New York Times and all of your troubles will vanish”. The current measurement of success is still stuck in the Dark Ages. We use impressions and advertising equivalences. But they will soon be irrelevant.
“If you aren’t using the PESO model for your communications work, and measuring the meaningful metrics that help an organization grow, you will not have a job in 10 years,” Dietrich says. The days when earned reigned supreme are gone. Future campaigns require an omni-approach.
Hippos, polar bears & paint: PR highlights of 2015
A good PR campaign or stunt can work wonders for a brand.
Get the timing, tone and creativity just right and not only will you see tons of national, regional, online and broadcast coverage but thanks to social media, it can also end up going viral, giving you more exposure than money could ever buy.
There is a fine line between a good stunt and a failure. They can be expensive to plan and carry out, with no guarantee of anyone talking or writing about it afterwards.
But here at 72Point, we’ve seen several stunts and campaigns this year which have not only had great results in terms of coverage, but were memorable and got us all talking.
Here are just a few of our favourites from 2015…
Polar bear
Campaign: Polar bear on the tube
Brand: Sky Atlantic/Fortitude
Agency: Taylor Herring and Sky’s in-house PR team
Last January, commuters in London were greeted with a life-sized polar bear on the tube, after it was ‘set loose’ by Sky Atlantic to promote its new crime drama Fortitude.
The huge bear, which was built by a team of Hollywood special effects experts and operated by two puppeteers from the West End production of War Horse, was seen around various places in the city including the underground and crossing the Millennium Bridge.
Fortitude was set in the Arctic, and what better symbol is there of the frozen landscape than a terrifying but beautiful polar bear?
Thanks to the amazing pictures of the bear riding the tube, walking over bridges and roaming the city’s parks, the campaign got widespread coverage but it was also great for social media. The first thing confused Londoners would have done is to Tweet, Instagram or Facebook about their unusual encounter with a polar bear that day.
It received 47 million impressions on Twitter – 30 million of which were from the UK, while the show launched with just over 700,000 viewers – the biggest audience to date for a UK originated drama on Sky Atlantic.
Fifty Shades
Campaign: Fifty Shades of Grey ‘Leaked Memo’
Brand: B&Q
Agency: Good Relations
At the start of the year, it was all about the highly anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey film, which was released in February.
B&Q ‘issued’ a memo to all staff telling them to get to know the storyline in case customers enquired about items inspired by the film, such as cable ties, rope and duct tape.
So many brands wanted to be associated with the famous movie, and all kinds of surveys, PR stories and stunts were planned to allow them to get on the Fifty Shades bandwagon.
But this was one of the best – the ‘leaked’ memo format was great and entirely believable, while still being very tongue-in-cheek, resulting in a huge amount of coverage including The Daily Telegraph, Sky News and BBC Radio Two.
They even saw a second wave of coverage after admitting the memo was, in fact, fake.
It was a great quick-win, which was quick and easy to execute, providing great talk value and standing out at a time when so many other brands were trying do stories about the same thing.
Lego
Campaign: Lego-proof slippers
Brand: Lego
Agency: Brand Station
As a parent to an almost five-year-old, Lego-mad little boy, as soon as I saw this, I thought it was a brilliant idea – stunt or not.
Anyone who has a Lego fan in their house will know the unbearable pain that comes from stepping on a discarded brick, trying hard not to swear repeatedly because your darling child (who is most likely the one responsible for leaving said brick in the middle of the floor) is nearby.
The branded slippers come with an extra thick sole, meaning parents can walk around their house freely, safe in the knowledge that more of the little bricks will no longer be a threat to their feet.
Unfortunately for millions of parents, Lego and the French agency behind the slippers, Brand Station, only made 1,500 of the slippers, but the coverage and social media activity around the stunt was a great result for the brand.
Lights
Campaign Christmas: Lights Untangler
Brand: Tesco
Christmas is a tricky time of year for PR – everyone wants to get in on the action but there is only so much Christmas PR the media can take.
Tesco came out on top with their idea to hire the first Christmas light untangler in one of their Wrexham stores after research found those in the town were found to be most frustrated by the festive job.
They took something which causes all kinds of stress in UK households at the start of December and tied it into their famous ‘Every Little Helps’ slogan with ease.
As part of the job ad, responsibilities included ‘manning and managing the Christmas lights untangling stand’, ‘checking lights and bulbs for signs of breakage’ and of course ‘successfully untangling customers’ Christmas lights neatly, quickly and efficiently and in an orderly fashion’.
The ideal candidate had to be ‘passionate about Christmas, ‘able to untangle three metres of lights in under three minutes’ and ‘be persistent and patient’.
After the first wave of coverage from the initial job ad, Tesco also saw further hits once they revealed more than 100 people had applied for the position.
NHS
Campaign: Missing Type
Brand: NHS Blood and Transport
The Missing Type campaign, in June, was designed to raise awareness about the shortage of blood donations, and saw As, Bs and Os, removed from the brands logo to highlight the different blood groups.
It started with a host of brands such as Waterstones, Odeon and even Downing Street mysteriously removing letters from their signage.
A few days later, NHS Blood and Transport revealed they were behind the missing letters with a news story revealing that 40 per cent fewer donors had come forward in that year, compared to ten years ago.
But following the reveal, as well as the brands who had already joined in, other brands took part with the public also joining in by changing their Twitter handles to replace any As, Bs and Os with a blank space. We even took part ourselves. The success of the campaign is clear in the figures – more than 30,000 people registered as blood donors during 10-day campaign and it had more than 700 pieces of coverage, which even resulted in the public website having to be taken down as a result of the unprecedented demand.
Snickers
Campaign: You aren’t you when you’re hungry
Brand: Snickers
Following news of the Jeremy Clarkson ‘fracas’ in March, Snickers jumped at the chance of some brilliant reactive PR.
As details emerged of the incident, where the Top Gear presenter was said to have assaulted one of the show’s producers because he was refused a hot meal, Snickers sent a box of the bars to the (former) BBC presenter with a note using the brand’s slogan ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’.
The chocolate brand’s campaign and TV advert sees a Snickers bar given to someone who is acting diva-like due to hunger. After tucking into the chocolate treat, they return to their normal self.
The parallels with the Clarkson story were just too good to pass up and Snickers were quick to react – and tweet a picture of the box and note to their followers, which was retweeted thousands of times.
And finally, on the subject of Jeremy Clarkson, we also need to give an honourable mention to the Robox, a 3D printer created by the husband of our very own creative account director Emma Elsworthy, who created a Jeremy Clarkson version of Hungry Hippos, ‘Hungry Jeremy’.
They designed a 3D-printable version of Clarkson’s head, which can be used to replace the hippos’ heads in the classic game, which saw great coverage across print and online. It goes to show that a killer of an idea is still at the heart of a good PR campaign – you don’t need to be a big brand to generate a buzz.
PR Resolutions: The art of decent exposure in 2016
Over the last few years we have witnessed many traditional PR companies start to reinvent themselves as the digital revolution has transformed the way their own clients reach and engage with their audiences.
Here at 72Point, we very quickly realised a simple survey and news copy were no longer enough to keep media outlets happy, and so we also began to more firmly integrate visual content services with our existing USPs.
The heart of 72Point is, and always will be, national news content. The backbone of our business is South West News Service, the UK’s largest independent press agency, which has been delivering hard-hitting news on a daily basis since 1978. This means we have top-class ideas, page-ready news copy, access to the UK’s best news experts, and a channel to the powers in the press at our fingertips.
Now is the time to consider revising the way you present your content to news editors who want page ready copy without the fluff and nonsense of the traditional press release.
In recognition of the changing media landscape, which brings with it the absolute necessity for additional content such as videos, pictures and infographics, we actively encourage our clients to pursue ALL avenues when putting together a PR campaign.
This is why, although we generally dislike the idea of making New Year’s resolutions, we do have 10 tips / resolutions for getting the most out of 2016:
1. Think visually – with every story you send out, make sure you have painted a picture of what you want to say. The majority of humans are visual learners, so are likely to absorb more through watching a video, reading an infographic or looking at a picture than by any other means. Think about how you are going to deliver your news to your audience, and how they are most likely to consume it.
2. If budget will allow, make a video – the demand for online video is at all-time high, and there is nothing out there to suggest the rapid growth we witnessed in 2015 won’t continue into 2016. The potential reach of a video is endless, and almost everyone in the UK has access to some sort of device needed to watch videos. A quick 90 second film, which is to the point and not over branded, is a powerful tool which can be shared millions of times across websites and on the likes of YouTube and Facebook.
3. Always illustrate a story with a picture – we know the national news desks and online sites all have stock shots, and can randomly select any old picture to go with a story they want to publish. So why bother to send your own picture? By tailoring an image so that it clearly spells out the content of the news copy, you have more editorial control and therefore increase your chance of securing relevant coverage.
If designed with the need to re-purpose in mind, infographics can be ‘sliced up’ into smaller bite size graphics making them perfect for pulling out key stats and headlines, and sharing multiple times with your own followers across a number of social channels.
4. Help consumers absorb the stats with an easy-to-read infographic – we all know there is more demand for visual content than ever before, and people are more likely to absorb statistics which are embedded in a pretty graphic than a body of writing. By producing an infographic alongside your copy you are making your story even more visible. An infographic can also be re-used time and time again across multiple channels. It may start as a means to getting media coverage, but can also be posted on your own site, used in your own marketing collateral.
5. Look to the future with digital sell in – print will always have its place in the media landscape, but to maximise coverage and help boost a brand’s online presence a full digital sell in is a must for all campaigns in 2016. Earlier this year the Mail Online surpassed 200 million monthly browsers making it the most visited English-language newspaper website in the world, and many other publishers are looking to replicate the model to attract new audiences. Not only does this spell value for PR campaigns in terms of reach, it also delivers ROI on search engine optimisation goals and creates a ‘social’ buzz.
6. Don’t underestimate the powers of social media – many clients are understandably focussed on getting coverage in the national newspapers and websites, or subject specific websites, and don’t actually consider the power of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn etc.
People love to share visual content of any sort, and some of the biggest news stories are those which have been shared by millions of people across social media.
We produced a video featuring Ben Hanlin for a client’s national media campaign. The branded video featured on The Mirror and Yahoo among others, but most impressively it was viewed more than a million times on the client’s Facebook page.
7.Think about dropping the press release – when you open the national newspapers, do you see bullet points at the beginning of a news story? Can you see a company logo in the top right corner? Are there footnotes for us to read later? If not, you might want to consider revising the way you present your content to news editors who want page ready copy without the fluff and nonsense of the traditional press release.
8. Have a brainstorm / think outside the box / attend a thought shower – whatever you want to call it, but generate good ideas and a story that your audience can relate to, and will find themselves talking about and sharing with others. We all know news is on a loop, and there are some topics that are covered time and time again, but if you can find that gem of an idea which the whole office ends up talking about, you know you’re onto a winner.
9. Do your research – a news story which is based on consumer or market research is more likely to be read by journalists than one without. Research led stories have an extra edge – the statistics give it a quantifiable news hook and help validate the point of the story. As well as being a great tool for coverage, market research enables businesses to differentiate themselves from others and illustrate their ability to identify with their audience.
10. Choose a company who can do all of the above under one roof – alright, this ‘resolution’ might be an excuse to plug 72Point, but if you are determined to make a media success of 2016, and can’t be bothered to hire several different companies to do the work for you, you might want to consider doing all of the above with the help of our very lovely team.