Favorite Projects of 2017

Here's a look back on all the great projects we’ve had the opportunity to produce in 2017.

We love that we get to work with so many different clients from such a wide range of different industries. From education to sports, healthcare to entertainment, product videos to television series, our favorite part of what we do every day is that each day is a new and different challenge. Total videos in 2017 was over 850 for 87 different clients!

Last month, we filmed with Governor Ricketts for Now You Know Nebraska.

Then hours later with Santa's Elves to make some Teammates wishes come true!

We rode with runners on a 76 mile, one-day trek.

And went small town shopping with our friends in Lexington. 

Whether it was getting a workout in with Husker Herbie for HyVee-

or traveling across the US to film Power of Sports, 

2017 was V2's best year ever! 

A big thank you to our clients for keeping us on our toes and making it nearly impossible to narrow it down to just one favorite project.

A 2016 Review (only 24 days late!)

One Year, 50 Clients, 674 videos, we won't even count the graphics!

2016 was a fantastic year at V2 Content and we wanted to share a month-by-month year in review to highlight some of the amazing projects we had the good fortune of working on with our incredible clients.

January: We debuted the first of a series of “Unforgettable Firsts” videos for First National Bank with this one day VIP surprise trip to the Opera.  We also warmed up for baseball season with Husker baseball TV spots and provided some comic relief marketing for Five Nines Technology.

February: Did you know the company that provides the communication headsets for the NFL is headquartered in Lincoln?  GSC is expanding their product to colleges and we helped tell their story.  We also helped with several branding videos for Infogressive, another Lincoln company who is a national leader- in cybersecurity.

March:  We started the month by helping our beloved Husker football team sell season tickets.  For the fourth straight year we produced the JDRF Lincoln Fund-a-Cure video for their annual gala.  And we wrapped up the month by launching a series of Snapchat videos for The Buckle.

April: At the Husker Spring game, we allowed fans the unforgettable first experience of being the Voice of the Huskers for some of the biggest plays in Husker history.

May: With football and basketball seasons on the horizon, we polished our sports production reel.

June: A couple of non-profit projects kicked off the month, followed by a 30-second spot for our good friends at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

July: More work for The Buckle with an explainer video for their Buckle Select program.  We helped introduce an important savings plan from First National Bank and also produced a fundraising campaign video for a great local non-profit.

August: Besides creating over 200 animated graphics for Memorial Stadium (whew!), we created a branding video for the University of Nebraska Water For Food Institute and started a year long concussion awareness campaign for the Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska.

September: About as busy a month as we had.  Husker football features for every home game, our 7th year of producing content for Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital’s annual GOAL Awards, and basketball spots for both the Husker men and women.

October: Basketball month.  Another 145 animated graphics for Pinnacle Bank Arena, VCU Hoops, Penn Quaker hoops, and throw in a start-up tour stop in Lincoln and highlighting UNL’s institutes.

November: We kicked off the month with our final race video of the year for Pink Gorilla Events, a long and very fun shoot day.  This election worker tribute for Election Systems and Software was shared across the country hundreds of times (and viewed thousands more) and we got to show some incredible behind-the-scenes winemaking from Mac’s Creek.

December: The official start of our Now You Know Nebraska series for the Nebraska 150th Anniversary organization.  This will run throughout 2017 encompassing over 180 videos!

Happy New Year to everyone and we look forward to working with our incredible clients (and some new ones as well) in 2017!

Why I'm digging on Food Networks Snapchat & you should too

Let me describe to you my discovery of Snapchat.  Nevermind.  Let me show you.

Me to 22-year-old Nanny last summer, "What is this you are using?"  Her, "Snapchat." Me (thought bubble), "I'll download that app.  Isn't that what my brother was using like 2 years ago...I didn't know he was up on all of the cool kid stuff...it's this the app that the pictures disappear...Anthony Weiner should have used Snapchat.  I'll download the app."

Fast forward (because you can say that if you are over 30 and know what it means) to today...my MOM who is not on Facebook has a Snapchat account.  Whaaa???  So how do you use it, how can it help you, what's in it for your business?  That's for another day.  BUT...

There are companies that are featured on your stories page.  They all have their thing, but I am LOVING the Food Network.  The other day, I watched the Pioneer Woman give me a how to course on rice krispee bars while she was driving.  I know what your thinking...no it wasn't weird.

Today it was a five step course on how to make eggs over easy.  Then a rundown of a Dr. Seuss cake.  Seriously.

So why I am I digging on this?  

1. It's well produced.  Not some poorly lit shot with bad sound.

2. It's short but still tells a story and captures attention.

3. It's still aligned with their brand.  

4. It's creative.  They can break out of the structure of television and have a little fun.

5. I hardly ever get the chance to soak in the Food Network in all it's glory. But now, if I have 5 minutes, you can count on it, I'm going to get my imaginary cook on.

Why does this matter to you?

Sometimes you just need to know where the good content is at.  But if you are a marketer and this is an arena where your brand belongs but you don't want junk videos for the sake of saying you have content...we can help you.

Let me know what you LOVE or hate about Snapchat, the Food Network, or hit me up to talk about a video strategy for Snap.

Facebook Videos- View counts don’t add up

While the advantages of using native Facebook video far outweigh the disadvantages, comparing view counts between Facebook and Youtube is like comparing apples to (very small) oranges.

I was amazed last week scrolling through my Facebook feed of the view count on some of the very substandard videos I was seeing.  Short clips from marketers with literally no thought towards audience or purpose were racking up impressions in the thousands.

So I decided to look into this a little more closely.  What exactly counts as a Facebook video view?

First of all, there is no arguing that Facebook video is an incredible force right now in distributing video content.  With a number now exceeding 8 billion views a day, combined with the fact that 65% of Facebook videos are now natively uploaded- if you are a marketer and not utilizing this medium- you are not doing your job.

The biggest advantage of posting Facebook videos natively is autoplay.  As a consumer is scrolling through their feed, the initial images of your video have the ability to grab their attention.

I would have assumed in order for an impression or view to count, the user would need to select the video- which enables the audio.

But in reality, a Facebook view is logged after just three seconds of viewing, even if unselected and just scrolled past on a timeline.  If a viewer is parked on a post above or below your video for just a moment, it is counted as having an impression or view.

Youtube will not name at what point a video gets a view logged, but has said it is around 30 seconds.

In essence, you need to divide your Facebook views by 5, 8, maybe even 10 to get an accurate comparison to Youtube views.

So what does this all mean for us as content creators and you as marketers?

1)      There really is no reason to not use both mediums, but Facebook native uploading is the way to go on their platform.

2)      A view on Youtube counts for a lot more than an impression on Facebook.

3)      Most importantly from content creation, it is very important to consider the medium in the final edit of the video.

In fact, I would now argue that every production requires a different edit for each platform.  On Facebook- the first five seconds has to be visually dynamic and appealing without consideration of the audio.  It is a much different edit than a traditional production, but the best visual content has to lead the video.

Youtube is similar, but I would say the window is closer to 10 seconds to pull in the viewer, plus the audio actually has a role on that platform when convincing viewers to keep watching.

We have now moved to a world where the two minute branding video we produce for your website should be re-edited for Facebook, slightly re-edited for Youtube, have a 15 second version created for Instagram, and edited into a dozen 10 second snippets for Snapchat.

Social media diversification for our clients is our top focus in 2016.  It’s finding the perfect balance between content, audience and platform to produce the biggest ROI for our clients and their consumers.

How to use social media in corporate branding videos

Twitter has done an amazing job combining the content from their platform, with dynamic moments from Major League Baseball and the NBA.

The excitement doesn't end with the game. See the top NBA highlights, the most spirited fans, and more on Twitter.

Three years ago, the Houston Dynamo opened a new stadium in downtown Houston.  It was truly an amazing facility that fans were blown away by the first time they walked in.  The dilemma was how do you gain momentum and buzz across the city about how impressive the stadium was.  An additional hurdle was only having one game (at the time) to showcase.

We came up with the idea of using the most traditional method, a customer testimonial, in a completely new way.  We combed back through thousands of Twitter posts that occurred before, during and after the inaugural match- and pulled the ones that most effectively highlighted the experience at the new stadium.

Obviously, the spot was on a much smaller scale and budget than what Twitter produced, but it was a fantastic new way of communicating how people outside of an organization feel about a new product.

We utilized the same technique this last year for the BRIN Running Series races:

I love Twitter the most for the exact reason this technique was used.  Good, bad, or indifferent, social media gives you an unfiltered look at how customers view your product or service.  Any time we are debuting a video in a stadium or arena, I will search twitter during and after the air time to see the immediate response.  It's easy to tell quickly if the purpose of the production was achieved.

This is truly the customer testimonial of the 21st century.  It is no longer required to identify a few "happy customers", bring them into a studio and do a lengthy interview to hope you get the material you want about what you are trying to sell.

Just scan twitter, facebook, instagram or any of the other mainstream social media platforms and you will see how customers feel about what your company is doing.

If the reviews are positive, we can use that material as an effective and unbiased trumpet for your cause.

To learn more about how we can integrate this technique into your branding, contact me  at brandon@v2content.com

Health Care Video Production with Sports Video Efficiency

One of our biggest differences from our competitors is our background in sports.  When your working with athletes and coaches, you don't have time to adjust lights, measure your focus, ask a dozen questions, etc.  You have them for a few minutes...and you better be ready to go within 20 seconds of their arrival...and you always finish sooner than what they expect.

This experience is invaluable for a lot of our clients.  

Recently, we produced a new commercial spot for Nebraska Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine (replacing this spot we produced about three years ago).

Our biggest hurdles were the doctors.  Our client wanted to feature them all, but they have about as much free time, if not less, than our sports divas.

Efficiency was the absolute key, and we had to execute it to perfection.

The shoot went something like this:

5:45pm- Full group doctor shot in lobby with crane

6:00pm- shoot first doctor in location 1

6:20pm- shoot second doctor in location 2

6:40pm- shoot third doctor in location 3

7:00pm- shoot fourth doctor in location 4

7:20pm- shoot fifth doctor in location 5

We actually ended up adding an additional 6th doctor in the middle (he just got out of surgery)  and still had the shoot wrapped up 10 minutes early!  

We were really happy with the end product, especially how we were able to tell a story instead of a typical "here's our medical practice" spot.

These are the kinds of challenges we love.  In fact, there's been a half dozen times since we started our company that we've been referred to a project by a competitor because we were "the only people in town crazy enough to take that on".

Your company doesn't need to spend three hours acquiring a single shot or one interview.  And they definitely don't need to spend the money to film for four or five days for a short production.  

Efficiency is in our DNA, and we love that it always benefits our clients.

Sports Video for Season Ticket Campaigns

In late April, we were called to a meeting in the athletic department at Memorial Stadium.  A 20 minute discussion later we walked out of the room with a challenge…create a video campaign to help sell 1500 season tickets for Husker football.

This isn't a new challenge for us.  We've done season ticket campaigns for college teams from coast to coast, and helped with campaigns for Husker men's and women's basketball and Husker baseball.  But this was definitely unique.  Memorial Stadium has been sold out for every single game since 1962- and this is the first time in decades there would be a campaign for football tickets.

These 1500 tickets existed because of new Big Ten rules that opened up an additional 1000 seats previously allotted to visiting teams, this was in no means because of lack of interest.  But we definitely felt pressure walking out of that room in coming up with a plan to help preserve a sellout streak that is one of the biggest points of pride in the state of Nebraska.

These types of projects are by far our favorite.  A 20-30 minute explanation of a problem and an audience, then leaving it up to us to find a solution, direction and concept; and execute it from start to finish. 

Both Tiff and I grew up in Nebraska and have loved Husker football since birth.  Which made this project all that more daunting.  Most of the time, we can return two or three concepts to a client within 3-4 days.  This one took about three weeks….and we only had one solid idea!  Fortunately our friends in NU Athletics liked it.

In the 10 days after the concept was approved it was a rush of sequential steps…

1) Acquiring voice over from a talent I found online in Vancouver, Canada.  We wanted someone who sounded like an old farmer, or your grandfather reminding you of the importance of this streak.

2) Hunting for historical pictures with the uber-talented NU photog Scott Bruhn and UNL Archives czar Josh Caster.

3) Tiff cutting out pictures old and new to provide some depth and motion on the still photographs.  This included changing 186 placards being held by fans in a game from the late 60's.  This shot alone took about two full days.  

4) Compiling all of the elements into a long-form web video, then into multiple 30-second spots for broadcast.

In the end, we love how it turned out.  And the best news of all…the season tickets sold out less than 24 hours after the campaign started.

There is nothing better than getting immediate, measurable results for our clients, and this project was as gratifying as it gets.