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10 ways to supercharge your video content

It’s never been easier to make and share videos. But is your business and brand getting the most from this media?

Here are 10 ways to supercharge your video content.

1. What’s the story?

Make sure there is a compelling narrative to even your shortest clips. All good storytelling is about setting up a problem for your character and then taking them on a journey to resolve it. What is the problem your product solves? How can you dramatise the journey to its solution?

2. A human face

Even a simple piece to camera gives the viewer so much more information about you and your brand than static text on a web page. It could be you or your customers talking about your product. But website visitors like to consume information at their own pace. Don’t force video content on them.

3. Simplify the complex

If you have complex products, processes and plans, video can be the best way to communicate with customers and colleagues. Think, how many PowerPoint screens you would need, to get across what a video could do in minutes?

4. The power of search

As well as enhancing the customer experience, video content is given extra weight by search engines assessing your site. Plus, all the description data and links, to and from YouTube/Vimeo, give your search rankings another big boost. Take care with naming, describing and tagging your video files for key word search.

5. Explore the possibilities

Motion graphics, animation, kinetic text, green screen, After Effects, video banners, live drawing, CGI, infographics, 3D. There’s a whole world of video possibilities (and jargon) to explore. There’s no excuse for being boring.

6. Animate the facts

Infographics are a current trend for displaying facts and stats. But how much more powerful could they be when animated.

7. Go viral

True viral videos that spread across the globe are rare. And most commercial examples have big budgets behind them. But you can share video with a just small customer base and generate a big impact on sales.

8. User generated content

With smartphone ownership at 45%, there’s a lot of potential movie makers out there. If you haven’t got time to make your own, get your customers and employees to send you their videos.

9. Production values

Following on from point 8, with a half decent smartphone, script and location anyone can put together a mini-movie these days. But with a little extra care, kit and crew you can create something of real quality. Make sure your video matches your brand values.

10. Short is sweet

How long is a YouTube video? The average is 2 mins 1 second. 2 to 3 minutes is the length of an average news feature on TV, so we’re comfortable watching stories that long. But if it’s good enough why not longer? Unlike real TV, there’s no fixed length for a YouTube video. But, attention spans do seem to be getting shorter.

How Milestone can help.

We can create high impact video and motion graphics for web, advertising, digital media, broadcast, conferences and events.

Our strength in this media is the way we combine dynamic animated graphics with stunning live action, sound and tight scripting. We can create amazing branded short films that convey your most complex messaging quickly and memorably.

Take a look at our showreel and get in touch.

Happy Birthday Russ

Russ Birthday

We’d all like to say happy birthday to Russ, one of our super talented team of creatives here at Milestone. We’re especially happy for him as he came in this morning us with a plate of luxury cakes that Mary Berry would be proud of. Whilst we don’t approve of bribery, it may well help his career prospects in the future. We might even get him InDesign 6 to play with.

P.S. He still won’t say how old he is though. Want to have a guess?

Feeling confident about 2013?

It’s Budget day and the first day of Spring! Feeling confident about the year ahead?

Well, take a look at The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s latest Marketing Confidence Monitor results to get a temperature check on the industry’s confidence. It’s rising, just. Let’s hope today’s budget supports that trend. For the last quarter’s results we’ve created an infographic plus this animated version of the stats. You may recognise the voice over artist who had to stand in for CIM’s Chris Moriarty.

Take a look – there’s a full report available too. It shows how small businesses are leading continued confidence in business performance and why marketers are shying away from risk and innovation in the search for growth.

The brochure bites back

Helen Royds

Denman 75th Anniversary Brochure Spread 1

Denman 75th Anniversary Brochure Spread 2

Denman 75th Anniversary Brochures

With so much communication now designed for digital channels, the printed brochure seems like a forgotten art. But this year brochures seem to be bouncing back. We’ve already created several, for different clients and there’s more being briefed in.

Sometimes you can’t beat the engagement of a nice tactile piece of print. Just the smell of quality ink on paper feels good. And nothing feels more special than this brochure we’ve created for Denman International. Designed by Helen Royds, it marks Denman’s 75th Anniversary, telling the story of the brand. Helen has designed it in the style of a fashion magazine, with luxury stock and special finishes including gold foiling and metallic inks.

At Milestone, we think a lot of comms deserve a better life than as a PDF download. But, if you are going to print something today, it needs to work harder than it did in the past to justify its physical existence. Every aspect including layout, copy, imagery, paper, finishing and size needs careful consideration to deliver something you can’t put down.

Judging by the positive reaction to this Denman brochure it seems the brochure could be about to enjoy a renaissance as a marketing tool.

Decoded – the science behind why we buy

Launched today and available on Amazon is ‘Decoded’. Written by Phil Barden it promises to explain the science behind why we buy. We’ve worked with Phil on RAC brand strategy development. He has an amazing and unique process for understanding the subconscious triggers behind consumer behaviour. He works with many leading brands – working out if your words, branding, packaging and campaigns will resonate with customers or not. It’s all in the mind – most of the time we humans operate on autopilot, letting our subconscious do all the hard work.

He’ll be pleased to know that we think ordering a copy is a bit of a ‘no brainer!’

Decoded

Jump into 2013

Salmon Jumper

Outstanding sales figures for Christmas jumpers this year will hopefully give the retail sector a much needed boost in confidence going into 2013. Indeed, many of our own Milestonians have been seen sporting novelty knits this season. And at one point during our Christmas bash in London we were all diverted into an establishment specialising in sensational sweaters. I’m still smarting that I missed out on this unique salmon backed beauty.

Take a look at our Facebook page for more novelty knits.

Best wishes for Christmas and The New Year from all at Milestone.

What’s in a name? Part 6

The sixth in our series of ten pointers talks about one of the most important considerations when choosing a name – your online presence.

6 – Your name online

With its global reach, search process and informal language the internet has changed the game and inspired new types of brand name:

  • lastminute.com
  • comparethemarket.com
  • iwantoneofthose.com

Whatever name you come up with you need a web address. And unless you want it peppered with dashes and numbers you’ve got to be a bit creative these days to find a decent dot com.

Come back soon for part 7 – Changing names…

Milestone Movember

Movember 2012 is almost over & here we have the final mug shot from Matt!….

It’s fair to say he hasn’t really embraced his new tea strainer – even more reason to pat him on the back for raising money for such a great cause, Prostate UK. #tookonefortheteam

Don’t forget, we’re still donating £10 for every new ‘like’ on our Facebook page up until the end of November. So if you’d like our bosses to break the bank for charity – get liking!

As much as we’ve loved raising dosh for Prostate UK I think we’ll all be glad to see the back of Matt’s creepy tash.