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.

Banking and Basketball: Videos that Score!

            V2 Content filming Doug McDermott

The "Doug Shoot" has been a long time coming.  We were pitching ideas to First National Bank not long after the ink was dry with the partnership.  But timing is always a little crazy when the main man is juggling an NBA schedule.

Our list is a mile long when it comes to college and professional athletes we've worked with. When it comes down to it, our main goal is to keep a relaxed atmosphere while we are filming. We had five hours with Doug on Monday, and a full punch list of content. We filmed everything from surprising First National Bank Creighton Visa Debit Card holders, to a private meet and greet, to interviews and filming Doug with Creighton Basketball campers.

We kept our crew small.  We used 3 shooters for the day, just to make sure nothing was missed. We had one assistant producer on set and an audio guy.  We shot with a Cannon 5D Mark II, a Cannon 5D Mark III, Panasonic AF100, and a Panasonic GH4.

We got everything knocked out and wrapped 20 minutes ahead of schedule.  We're excited to start editing the final product, which will begin in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned!

Using Video and Graphics for High-Impact Results - The Houston Dynamo!

Our work with the Houston Dynamo of the MLS started in 2010 with a TV spot promoting an upcoming match against world soccer legend Thierry Henry.

Since that time, we’ve produced well over 75 videos for the Dynamo that cover the full range of production. Commercials, in-stadium graphics & features, sponsorship presentations & pitches, jersey unveiling’s, new stadium celebrations, psych-up videos, team intros, season-in-review’s….the list goes on and on.

Tonight we’re working on a video celebrating their 10th season in Houston. Going through all of the historical highlights keeps reminding me of the really fun projects we’ve been a part of over the last five years.

One of my favorites was from 2011, when in-state rival FC Dallas and the Dynamo were beginning to define a new rivalry. We developed the concept, wrote, edited and developed the graphic content for this spot:

A second favorite was a video we produced that aired as part of the pregame ceremony on opening night at the Dynamo’s new stadium:

It’s been a fun five years of content for the Dynamo, and a successful 10 years in Houston for one of the MLS’s best franchises.

Documentary Videos: Telling Stories of Native Culture

On location for Growing Native television series.

In the Fall of 2011, a call from Shirley Sneve, the Executive Director at Native American Public Telecommunications (now known as Vision Maker Media) started an incredible four year journey that has taken us to some incredible places.  

The project was a television series called Growing Native, documenting stories of how native people are returning to the life ways of their ancestors for health and well being today.

Our first year on the project was spent budgeting and developing story concepts for episodes to be filmed in seven regions of the United States and Canada.  We filmed episodes in the Pacific Northwest for two different stretches and in Alaska on a 10-day jaunt across the state.

It's impossible to describe in words the amount of inspiration we received from dozens of incredible Native Americans we met from tribes across Oregon, Washington and Alaska.  VisionMaker Media now has an incredibly talented producer working on the next five episodes within their organization, and we are very excited to see where the series ends up when it is fully produced.

The highlight of the project for me was a comment made from a member of the advisory council, who served as consultants for the story lines of the episodes.

"Storytelling is what maintained our culture through the hardest of times," he told me, "you are helping play that role for another generation of our people."