According to a recent survey, videos are one of the most exciting tools to use in B2B content marketing – yet still you don’t come across videos nearly as often as other formats. One reason for this might be the difficulty to find employees or customers willing to step in front of the camera, or the lack of confidence in their ability to pull it off successfully. Professional talent is rarely used, for budgetary reasons.
Common sense would say that a company’s own employees or customers are the ones who embody the very core of the business, something that a great video can communicate. But when it comes to performing on camera, there’s often one big problem that can be captured in a single word: should. If you go into it thinking that you should make a video and you should make it look really great because that’s the “it” thing to do now, your mind is on something else than the message you should be conveying, and this will show in the outcome.
As someone who has directed a great number of video shoots over the years, I can see one clear key to a successful on-camera delivery: the combination of willingness and a sense of assurance. When the person in front of the camera has a personal interest in being there as well as the assurance of knowing that the shoot has been set up on his or her terms, the results will be good. You can get superb on-camera performances out of your employees by first creating a workplace culture that embraces people who like to perform, and by supporting people as their own individual personalities, along with nurturing their presentation skills at work. One star is a good start. Think you know who that star is in your organisation? You might be in for a surprise…
Antti Sipilä CEO, Oneminstory
P.S Below you can find a recent example of a succesful performance by Gary Marquis, Dean of Aalto University School of Engineering.
Antti Sipilä