Putting out a constant stream of creative, useful video content is a tall task. You have to constantly come up with fresh ideas, write great scripts, and edit until everything is tight and high-quality. That’s why it’s so easy for many companies to fall behind and tread the same beaten path. It’s simple and safe. You can keep putting videos out at an incredible pace without breaking a sweat.
When you start relying too heavily on these clichés, it’s the death of your campaign. You’re telling your audience that you’ve run out of ideas and don’t have anything interesting left to say. The content you create ends up being generic and insincere. You’re simply blending in with the rest of your competition, throwing all of the engagement and branding benefits of video right out the window.
To help you avoid hurting your Boston video campaign, we’ve put together a list of some of the most offensive corporate video clichés:
The Executive Who Can’t Act
One of the easiest ways to make your company seem boring and uninspired is by using your own managers in a video. Some employees may be a natural on film, but most of them turn out to be uneasy and awkward. If your videos suffer from wooden personalities and stiff acting, the message isn’t going to come across. Your best bet is to keep searching for an employee who’s comfortable on camera, or simply hiring a professional.
That Upbeat Music Everybody Else Has
If you’re watching a product demo or explainer video, you know exactly what music we’re talking about. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to carelessly skip around. It’s breezy and overly enthusiastic. Usually, it uses acoustic guitars, ukuleles, or whistles. The problem is that literally everybody else is using it. If you want to stand out from your competition, you’ll need to come up with another audio angle for your explainer video.
Here’s an example of this music, taken directly from one of Pinterest’s explainer videos.
The Unnecessary Second Angle in An Interview
One-on-one interviews can be incredibly valuable in your videos. Executives can introduce themselves and the company to your audience. Product managers can dive deeper into the benefits you can offer. Customers can offer social proof by giving referrals and recommendations.
The problem is that these interviews can sometimes be a little bit dry. As a result, many video makers decide to use multiple camera angles and quick cuts to spice the interview up a little bit. Unfortunately, this rarely works as intended, and usually makes a boring interview even more awkward. Your best bet is to find a way to liven up the material in the first place.
The Use of Style Over Substance
When you’re making a video it’s easy to focus on the visuals. You want terrific, exciting shots and breathtaking imagery. If your script isn’t up to par, however, your whole video falls apart.
It’s important to keep in mind that your whole video’s purpose is to deliver a specific message to your target audience. Images can do their part, but a strong script drives everything home. Make sure to spend just as much time and effort on pre-production as you do shooting and editing. Otherwise you’ll end up creating memorable videos with no purpose or value.
The Lack of Production Quality
Every video that you release is a direct reflection of your brand. If you’re churning out video content that isn’t up to your usual standards, it’s going to drag the rest of your content down. Don’t create content using a camera phone, and don’t just film it and release it. You need to take the time to produce something polished and well-thought out. You’ll be much better off with one piece of top-notch content than four pieces of middling content.
The Jokes That Try Too Hard
Using humor is a great way to engage your audience and show off your personality, but it needs to be natural. If you’re trying to force humor into your videos, it’s going to show. It ends up coming off as awkward and painful. Remember that not every video needs to be a comedy hit. Simply focus on providing some value to your audience, and making a joke or two if it makes sense.
You don’t want to try so hard that you make your audience uncomfortable!
The Same Old Business Language
For a long time, business jargon ruled the world. You needed to hold meetings about creating synergies and finding a way to reach emerging markets. Your corporate videos aren’t being pitched to the same old executives, though. They’re delivering valuable information to your audience. Focus on being transparent and authentic so that your message isn’t confused. Focus on talking about how you can help them and drop the jargon at the door.
The Epic, Panning Video That Doesn’t Mean Anything
Lots of stylish videos like to open their videos up on a grand scale. You’re looking at a busy city street from high on a roof, or traversing through an open desert road at incredible speeds. After five or ten seconds, you’re talking about broad concepts and incredible ideas.
The problem is, you’re not talking about your brand at all. You’re simply selling a concept. Make sure your videos focus on what makes your brand different than everybody else out there. You don’t want to accidentally promote your category and help your competition out, too.
Here’s an epic video maker, ready to sell absolutely nothing!
Here at Blue Wave Marketing, we understand how difficult it can be to constantly create fresh, exciting video content. With two decades of experience in helping our clients create content and connect with their audiences, however, we’ve learned a trick or two about getting results. To help you with your Boston video production, we wrote the eBook Optimizing Video for Epic Results. It has everything you need to make sure your videos perform.
