CRAP: The biggest threat to video content marketing

Creativa

April 16, 2015

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Many recent online surveys have been showing increasingly similar trend data when it comes to video content.
Around 90% of marketers surveyed said they plan to spend a lot more on video content this year than they did last year. (I am slightly worried as to what the other 10% are planning… Hopefully it’s not a photocopied mail out to letterboxes! I hate that.)
So it doesn’t take a genius (in fact I’m pretty sure the average contestant on Australia’s worst bogan could work this one out) to tell you that this adds up to a massive – no scratch that – ginormous… No… Still not there… Hmm… How about colossal amount of video content coming our way.
Given these facts we are probably about to be targeted by a literal and figurative tsunami of video content and as marketers we all be competing against a Murray River of so called ‘meaningful video material’.

So… How can we overcome this epic challenge and break through all these hurdles and deliver messages consumers really want to hear?
The answer is simple. Avoid making crap video content!

My top five tips on what video content constitutes crap and therefore should be avoided at all cost:

1. Video interviews that might as well be subtitled, ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’
2. Motion Graphic Videos that are full of ridiculously obvious statements tenuously disguised as profound insights
3. Dated, drab infomercial content repurposed and packaged as ‘new’ information or product videos (but still look like they are from the 90’s!)
4. Using template infographics… In fact using templates of any kind.
5. Videos that are too literal… Like the time saving video that shows a graphic of a clock with a ticking sound!

Great video content is intelligent, useful, entertaining and always worth consuming. If you can’t bear to watch it – why on earth should anyone else?
I won’t tell you what style of video you should be choosing (as this is something you should discuss in a briefing and style is something you get to once you decide what your video is about), what I will do is give you my top five principles for what makes great video content marketing:

1. Always be the buyer. Everything starts with their challenges, needs, prejudices and concerns.
2. Be Authoritative. Always stay in the space where the things you understand better than anyone else intersect with the things your consumers really care about.
3. Be Strategic. One-off video content campaigns don’t add up to a content strategy!
4. Be prolific. Video is consumed much faster than any other medium so don’t leave people hanging for new content or allow them to get bored of the content you have
5. Be tough on yourself. If you feel that the idea you’ve come up with is lazy… Chances are its lazy… So go out and fix it and make it something better!

So separate yourself from the herd and start thinking seriously about the video content you are putting out there. Good content is all it takes to make a big difference in getting a response from your campaign!