As a business, you are no doubt already aware that video is an essential part of any modern marketing strategy, however, many business don’t know where to start when it comes to creating something that is memorable and compelling. We’re here to help and are happy to do so. We offer video production in London, UK Nationwide and all over the world – we understand the importance of tight delivery times and it’s our priority to deliver on time.

Contact us today. You’re welcome to book a visit in our London head office, or we offer remote consultations online at no charge. Speak to one of our video production experts today on +44 (0)20 7112 8665.

We’ve worked on a variety of projects, including large scale corporate and business videos, online marketing videos, event wraps, promotional clips and customer testimonials. Take a look at our production portfolio to see our work for recent clients, including Spotify, EMC and QinetiQ. We work for all sectors but are especially good with tech content and love making videos that look great on your tablet or smartphone.

Are you in need of a corporate video, event highlights wrap, online marketing video or promotional film? Give the Holler production team a call on 020 7112 8665 and we’ll get the ball rolling on the next award-winning corporate video production.

It’s always good to have clear guidelines about how to get the most when we work together, here are some points to consider when you’re ready to bite the bullet:

Promotional Videos – Grab Attention in 10 Seconds

Brainstorm what you want in terms of purpose, locations, timings, length and a timeline for delivery. Involving your chosen video production team from the beginning can help you to build a creative angle. You have a clear purpose in mind of why you want the marketing video made and what the message is that you want to share. It might be that you want to introduce a new product or service, or to announce a rebrand. Perhaps it’s time you showcased your brand and its personality?

You have less than ten seconds to get your message across before viewers switch to something more interesting. If you can engage your viewers, the prize is worth it – 92% of mobile users say they’ll share a video if it grabs their attention. And that means a wider audience, whether you’re trying to sell a concept, your company or a product. Video can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolbox if you stick to these three simple rules when planning your promotional video filming in and around London.

Be concise. Attention spans are waning. People aren’t willing to invest much time, but ironically expect more. 50% of data traffic is mobile, so you’re competing with the TV, the outside world and a thousand and one other distractions. Be very clear on why you are making a video and what call to action you want viewers to do next.

To watch some of our 60 Second Tips, head to our 60 Second Tips Playlist and be sure to check out some of our other videos on our YouTube Channel. 

Corporate Video Production Services London and UK Nationwide

Based in London and Surrey, Holler are an award-winning corporate video production company creating fresh, modern videos to make businesses more successful.

We believe that your promo videos should be made with mobile and online in mind. We focus on creating content which looks great on iPads, iPhones and all mobile tablets and devices, easily shareable on social media sites such as Twitter Facebook and LinkedIn.

We offer a full creative service, taking you from the initial ideas, scripts and storyboards, through to filming in full HD, editing and adding graphics in our purpose build edit suite and uploading your final files to your company pages and social media channels. Take a look at our services page to find out what we can offer you.

Imagine your video is the equivalent of a text message, a TV advert or even the old-fashioned telegram. Its main purpose is to get to the point: convey your important message up front, as fast as possible. Your video should be no longer than it needs to be. Every word, image, sound effect and animation must add something, or it shouldn’t be there. Edit it down, and then edit again till you’re left with the bare bones. Every second should add something vital.

Maintain relevance and understand Know your audience. If you’ve got something important to say, then say it to the right people. Who are they: young, older, professionals or laymen? Tailor your message and means of delivery to appeal to them. Otherwise, you’ve lost them.

The same principle applies to where you put your video – choose your channels wisely. What’s the world’s second biggest search engine? The answer’s not as obvious as you’d think, it’s actually YouTube. Whether you go for YouTube, the second largest search engine on the net, or something a bit more niche like Vimeo, Vine or Instagram, the demographics are all slightly different. Where are your customers most likely to be? What do you want your audience to do once they’ve seen it – share on social media, thumbs up and a ‘like’ are great call to actions.

Sell solutions people want. But you’re not aiming for a hard sell – if they’ve found your video, they already have partial buy-in. Some of the most popular keywords for the videos that go viral are ‘How to’, ‘What is?’ and ‘Tutorial’. Offer them information and knowledge.How can your product or service meet their need?

Commercial Video Budget – How Much Will It Cost?

It’s wise to understand what your budget is before you contact your video production company. This will then give a good idea of scale, whether there’s budget for more equipment or whether it’s key to keep it simple. Once we know what you can spend, we can give you an idea of what a project at that budget might look like. Determining the budget will also set the expectations of both parties and it will cut down on going back and forth in the early days.

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Research and Define Your Audience

Your video might be for internal use or it could be for customers. Remember that all effective communication is dependent on the identification of the target market. Once you know who you are creating the video for and what you want them to do with it, then you’ll be on a much smooth path to success.

What’s the world’s second biggest search engine?

The answer’s not as obvious as you’d think, it’s actually YouTube. For B2B and B2C companies of all sizes, YouTube is an established, potent and effective way to drive leads, demand generation and sales. If it’s for internal use, then we will still need to know who the audience is and what they need to take away from having seen it. We can add value by giving certain aspects that can surprise and delight or inspire.

If you have a preference, our understanding of that will be greater if you give us an example of that. For content, think about the triggers you’ll use to get your audience to take action. Be brave and creative – for example, aim for positive content that inspires amusement, surprise or awe. Research shows that the more intense a reaction you provoke, the more people will share a video – and that’s how they go viral.

For presentation, invest wisely in production. An amateur-looking video shot from your iPhone may look right in some circumstances, but generally opt for HD quality video – it looks and sounds better; and you’re showing off your company’s values and image, after all.

We’d love to learn how you’re planning to share or distribute your video. You might want to share it over social media, distribute a link through email or perhaps share it internally at a general meeting. We could even put in some behind the scenes shots to give your content that extra edge and an extended shelf life for sharing.

Using Employees In Your Promotional Branded Video

When companies are coming up with ideas for their next corporate video, they’ll often decide to use actors without considering other options. If you’re looking for people to feature in your company’s next video production London, then you seriously think about using your company’s own employees.

This isn’t just purely to save yourself the cost of hiring professional actors, there are many other huge benefits to putting your employees front and centre of your corporate video. Real life employees bring a certain X-factor to your video that you don’t often get with actors.

Here we’ll outline some of the benefits they bring and also how you can get the best out of them.

“Your employees ARE your company. Using them in the video has so many benefits.”

Book Video Production In Advance

This one just boils down to common courtesy more than anything, but it will also affect how they perform on camera. Willing volunteers will always do a better job than people who are being forced, simply because they want to be there more.

So there isn’t much to gain from forcing someone to take part. It’s really easy to spot someone in a video who doesn’t want to be there. Also give them a heads up that filming it happening. There’s nothing worse than suddenly being sprung with the news that a film crew are coming tomorrow and they’re going to be filmed. Sometimes it’s not possible, but give them plenty of notice.

This will give them time to get used to the idea and they’ll be less nervous on screen.
A lot of employees struggle to speak on camera, that’s only natural. It’s not an easy thing to do. You’ve got all the lights on you, a microphone floating in front of your face and multiple cameras pointing at you. Combine this with not wanting to look bad or say the wrong thing and it’s no wonder some people struggle.

So if you’ve got employees who maybe aren’t so comfortable with speaking, maybe give them non-speaking roles. Have them be apart of the B-Roll. This will involve performing simple tasks on camera (walking/talking to colleagues etc). This footage will then be used as cutaway footage and as a visual example of what’s being spoken about on screen.

Put a Face to Your Company No-Scripts, Less Pressure

Non-Speaking Roles Quite often, if employees know they’re talking on camera, they’ll want to write down a script of things to say. Which is totally understandable. You want to look great for your company and don’t want to appear unsure by stumbling your way through the interview. But scripts aren’t always the best solution. The general rule of thumb is that you can’t put words in someone’s mouth and expect it to sound natural. Your employees will know the business, so just let them answer in their own words.

By all means you can be there to make sure they say the right thing, but if they’re saying it in their own words then it’s going to sound much more natural and a lot more.

One reason you should use employees in your next video production London, is because it helps put a face to your brand. They’re perfect for representing your company’s personality and culture. This also makes the video feel more personal to the viewer. At the end of the day, when it comes to business, people buy from people. So if you’re wanting to connect better with your customers, maybe you should think about putting your employees in your videos.

Videos Feel More Genuine

Using employees in your video production London can also make your video feel a lot more genuine. As great as actors are, people can often tell your using actors. It’s something about their chiseled good looks or their natural ability in front of the camera which people can often find slightly false. On the other hand, viewers will often find real life employees a lot more genuine and will be more likely to believe the messages you’re trying to convey.

It’s also worth remembering that your employees are experts in what they do. So they’ll know the business and they’ll know how to explain things in a way that viewers will understand. This is something that actors may not be as good at doing.

Film Employees Behind The Scenes

So you’re probably now thinking that, whilst your employees are great at what they do, they may not be so great in front of camera. You don’t want their potential nervousness or awkwardness to bring down the quality of the video. Which is fine – but there are some things you can do to make your employees shine on camera.

Video Size Matters – Short Attention Span of Viewers

When faced with a YouTube video, are you finding yourself instantly hunting for that important nugget of numerical information normally found in the bottom right hand corner of the video window? Those often tiny little digits provide an insight into the amount of effort required on your part, to sit and take in what the video facing you has to offer. If those numbers are verging on being divisible by 10 your heart tends to drop.

In the age of the iPad and Smartphone, we’re basically turning into children. We can’t sit and watch one thing online for more than a couple of minutes (if that) before getting bored and clicking over to something else. So if we’re doing this, imagine what your clients are thinking when they see your 7 mins+ company video…?!

Think SHORT.

Take your company video message and cut it up into little pieces. Just like chef Ramsay would with his vegetables. Rather than having one long video covering lots of different subjects, separate each of those subjects and make a series of short snappy videos to cover each individual message. Doing this means lots of good things:

1: You’ll have lots of company videos instead of one – meaning you’ve got more things to share on the likes of Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and YouTube.

2: Your viewers only have to watch the videos most relevant to them so they stay interested

3: Your viewers are more likely to watch their chosen company video(s) the whole way through

4: You have smaller video file sizes to upload, share and distribute so it’s easier to share your video about your company

5: You can make your tags and captions REALLY relevant for each video – helping to achieve that holy grail of better SEO for your company website.

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After years of getting our corporate clients in front of the camera, we’ve decided it’s time to practice what we preach. Our YouTube channel features our 60 Second Tips – help and hints on making a corporate video, presented by friendly Holler staff in under a minute.

We’ve taken our expert knowledge, along with frequently asked questions and other handy info to bring viewers a range of videos that we hope you’ll find useful, or at least entertaining.

We’ll be uploading new videos regularly, discussing topics across the video production process – from coming up with a killer idea, to what to do with your final files – so be sure to follow us on Twitter @techtvuk to get the latest updates.

Here’s some other technical aspects we consider when creating, editing and filming a promotional corporate branded video:

Nicely encoded.  Check your web video platform does the encoding for you and upload the highest quality version you can find.

Embed the video in the right place on your website.  The homepage isn’t necessarily the place where people want to discover what your film’s telling them. By including video on product pages and at key points during the purchase journey, you can increase conversion and reduce cart abandonment. Teaser trailers and video reviews are a great way to drive traffic to your site and also increase browser to buyer conversion.

Make it possible to share your content away from your site so viewers, bloggers and ‘social media gurus’ can post it around the web for you.  Integrated sharing controls and embed codes make it possible for your viewers to act as your advocates by sharing the content around the web: increasing your reach and brand awareness.

Know your goals.  Work out what the call to action is and make sure it’s easy for them to click through to it when they’ve watched the film. Use analytics and duration monitoring to measure the performance of your video and adjust your call to actions for maximum impact.

Create your own in-video adverts to generate results.  In-video adverts are intuitive and unobtrusive. Viewers don’t mind hiding them, and will click them readily if the action is appealing. People are much more likely to click an advert that is directly related to the content they’re watching (for example ‘drop into basket’, ‘donate now’ or ‘download product spec’).

Try using playlists to give viewers access to multiple films and choose what they want to watch.  This could reduce the amount of space on your site that you need to dedicate to video, but still give people access to a great range of content.

Switch on comments.  Film is great currency in social media terms and comments mean your viewers can engage in a conversation. Most systems allow comment moderation.

Try inserting a pre-roll (such as a motion graphics ident) at the beginning of all your videos.  This gives you an ad platform each time your video is seen away from your site.

Find out how well your content is working.  Good analytics will let you know how many people have watched each film, where they are, where they saw it if it’s been shared and how much of it they watched. Try A/B testing to work out how effective your video is.

Make sure everyone can access your content.  Closed captioning, keyboard controls and transcripts will make sure people with sight impairments or hearing disabilities are included.