As the market for promotional video content becomes increasingly saturated, everyone is looking for unique ways to have their messaging to stand out. However, the answer to your next great video marketing campaign may not be as elusive as you might imagine. In fact, it could involve someone you interact with nearly every day: Your client!
The team at Richter Studios has seen a sharp rise in demand for videos that involve interviews with our client’s customers. And when I say interview, I basically mean it’s a testimonial endorsement that satisfied customers are providing for our clients. We keep a very close eye on the types of content we are photographing or filming and there’s been a genuine uptick over the past year. To quantify this, our production calendar has gone from approximately 2-3 interview shoots a month to over a half dozen during the past year. A sharp rise indeed!
So why all the excitement? Well, as it turns out, the answer is quite simple: The individuals being asked to provide a testimonial are becoming very savvy on camera. A big part of this has been due to the selection criteria of our clients, where they have taken great care in identifying customers that have solid insight to share and are comfortable being on camera. Here’s a recent example we filmed and edited for ShopperTrak, a leading global provider of retail analytics:
ShopperTrak – Johnston & Murphy Testimonial Film
The delivery of this gentleman’s (Danny Ewoldsen, Executive Vice President of Retail and eCommerce for Johnston & Murphy) story is spectacular. He succinctly describes his company and its need for traffic analytics. This is very helpful because it provided some context for the video. From there, he describes in precise detail how ShopperTrak’s solutions dramatically affected their retail operations. And that’s the beauty of testimonial videos when they are done right – the viewer gets to learn how a client’s offerings solved a specific challenge from the perspective of their customers. It’s the best form of advertising a company could ask for.
Another great example where the customer of one of our clients rocked it out of the park is this one for the real estate division of OnCourse Learning. As you can see, their customer (LeAnn Harris, Team Leader at Keller Williams) also does a great job of briefly providing some context and then dives into how their vendor (OnCourse) solved a specific challenge. Her delivery on camera is exceptional and the case she makes for OnCourse is very powerful to watch:
OnCourse Learning – Testimonial Film
For both the ShopperTrak and OnCourse examples, its important to point out that there’s really only a handful of things that make them so compelling. Let’s break it down into bullet-sized chunks:
– Both videos featured excellent interviewee performances
– Both videos were captured with multiple cameras
– Both videos included B-Roll footage
– The interviews were both organic and not contrived
– You heard how the client’s offerings solved specific challenges
As I’ve written about previously, multi-camera shoots are becoming more mainstream. This is true, in large part, because of the tremendous effect they have on production quality and overall efficiency. Embracing this approach also makes capturing B-Roll footage very practical and enables better storytelling. This is significant because showing the customer’s world goes a long way toward making a more meaningful and personal connection with viewers.
Let’s take a look at a different approach to a testimonial video, one that featured about a half dozen individuals talking about business improvement seminars offered by Oliver Wight. Despite the increased number of interviews featured in the video, note how they are still following many of the bullet points mentioned above, including discussing how a client’s offerings addressed a specific challenge, not being contrived, incorporating B-Roll and, most importantly, how great their interview performances are:
Oliver Wight – Attendees
Clearly, when done correctly, testimonial-based videos are quickly becoming the new gold standard for marketing efforts. The beauty with them is that you’re not telling your customers how great your are – your very customers themselves are telling everyone for you! How poetic is that?
In this spirit, we’ll end with our own exclamation point through a fabulous testimonial quote we recently received from Katie Fairchild at ShopperTrak. We worked closely with Katie to develop the video featuring Danny Ewoldsen from Johnston & Murphy.
“The Richter Studios team delivered a testimonial video that exceeded our expectations. I was impressed with every phase of the project from initial planning and creative concept development to filming and final editing. The team was extremely professional, made the process easy and efficient, and were fun to work with to boot.” ~ Katie Fairchild, Director of Marketing at ShopperTrak
Actually, come to think of it, maybe we should get Katie on camera….
