Corporate and Promotional Programming
Corporate video is a rapidly-expanding market, as many new companies and current businesses look to promote themselves through the use of digital media. 50% of all internet traffic is video. In a month, your average internet user watches 17 minutes of online promotional/advertising videos.
However, companies aren’t using these videos just for promotional purposes; there are many different types of corporate video, such as videos that train employees or videos that try to communicate an ideology. Some videos might look to publicise a product launch or to provide coverage of an event important to the organisation.
There are many different types of corporate video, and I will cover the majority of the list below.
- Promotional
- Healthcare
- Training
- Events
- Product Launch
- Communicating Ideologies
Starting with Healthcare videos, we often see a very bright and straight-forward approach to the video. The video is very simply trying to transfer information to the audience. A common code of practice within healthcare videos is for there to be very little distracting the audience from the information displayed on-screen. The music, for example, will be quite low-key and in some videos won’t exist at all. Looking at this video [1] on the NHS website, there is no music while the presenter address the audience and there is only music when nobody is speaking. This music has no lyrics and never gets very loud, only serving to keep the audience’s attention while little is happening on-screen.
Promotional videos are a stark contrast to the squeaky-clean healthcare videos, as promotional material is often trying to influence the viewer by creating a particular mood or feeling. The promotional video often tries to tell a story and promote the brand instead of the product. See for example this [2] Star Wars The Force Awakens promotional video. They aren’t publicising the final product or telling you to go and watch the film when it is released in cinema. They are however making a show of how much fun the cast and crew are having on set and establishing the brand idea of this Star Wars trilogy being honest, fun, and a return to the old ways. Throughout this video we see voiceovers, camera movement and angles, and the entire video is edited to the music. The voiceovers are from cast and crew describing their experience on set and what they cherish about the experience, while the camera shows both what’s behind the scenes and what’s actually being filmed. This proves that they aren’t advertising their film, they are promoting it. They are improving the relationship between the audience and the brand without directly telling them to go see the film. They are promoting the brand and the people involved, not the film.
Sticking with promotional video, this promo [3] for the UK’s Super League shows a very clever usage of voice-over and a distinct lack of music. The voice-over is straight-forwards, but when combined with the images on the screen the audience think that Bradley Wiggins is talking about cycling, not rugby league. As soon as Sam Tompkins runs alongside Wiggins, and Wiggins actually mentions rugby league, the allusion is revealed. The lack of music is also cleverly done; this makes the audience focus more on what’s on-screen and what is being said by Bradley Wiggins (a well-known public figure). I would therefore conclude that the Super League promo is highly effective as it promotes the sport while being minimalistic and (above all) not directly advertising the selling points of the sport.
Training videos are often produced in-house and presented directly to new staff. They usually have footage of actual employees doing regular tasks at the workplace while a voiceover describes what the employee is doing. A good example of the format is this video [4]. The video linked shows many features of a training video; for example there are actual employees performing their duties and a voice-over describes what they are doing, how and why. This is a crucial convention used by training videos as it tells the learner what their task will be and explains how to do it both audibly and visually. This caters to several types of learner while being easy to produce; the use of actual employees lowers actor costs and so you’re only paying for equipment and voice-over. The equipment doesn’t have to be especially great because the focus is on the content of the video, not how high-quality the video is.
We often see corporate videos ‘Communicating Ideologies’, that is, making a video with the sole intention of changing the opinions of the audience. A great example of this would be Amnesty International, and in the following video [5] shows all the signs of Communicating Ideologies. In the linked video the audience is being addressed directly, being told that the life of Saman Naseem is in their hands. They are receiving a call to action; they are being made aware of something that is ethically wrong and asked only to help stop it from happening. This is not promoting Amnesty International or any products/services of theirs, but issimply asking for help to save one man’s life. The video is low-budget but straight to the point, and is definitely effective as proven by the fact that Saman is still alive [6] (as of July 2015). This video has very standard lighting and a non-moving camera, keeping the attention of the audience solely on the person speaking. The video is focused on the content and not the style of the video.
Product Launch videos are produced in line with the release of a product or service, and highlight the features of it. A good example might be the Apple iPhone 6/6s release video [7]. This video shows the phone in use and nothing else. A clear white background at all times, keeping in line with Apple’s minimalist brand identity. The voice-over is direct and clear; the actor does not have any distinctive accent or speech impediment. The production procedure for the video would be rather straight-forwards for the production team; they would film the close-ups of the phone in use, then move the footage onto a video editing package like Adobe’s After Effects, in which the graphics on the phone would be inserted (as well as the visuals being improved eg colour grading).
Finally looking towards events videos, we see a very different production. Instead of the production team storyboarding and scripting deeply, they will often just have a basic outline or goals to achieve and turn up at the event. Depending on the event itself the team would shoot footage of the crowd and the spectacle before usually implementing a voice-over or report from the physical location. A great example of this is the following video [8], in which we see exactly what I’ve been talking about. There is footage of the crowd marvelling at the spectacle, of the crowd arriving and having a good time. It then has an as-live report from a presenter, describing the events there. There is no real lighting department on the production as they do not have the time to set up any lights before shots. The only light would have been when the presenter does her bit; you can see the light in her eyes.
Legal Issues
Naturally, the production has to remain legally sound to prevent any loss of profits or reputation, and so they will consider a wealth of issues before actually producing their corporate videos. For example, if a team was shooting an event they would have to get signatures or permission from every member of the crowd that the team is allowed to use their image in their video. This would have to be in writing for evidential purposes; this would protect the production company and their employers in the case of someone wanting their image removed from the work.
Regarding copyright, the production team would have to ensure that they have the right to display brands or products in their video. If they did not do this, then they may be persecuted for displaying them without due permissions or licensing. For example, if someone shot a healthcare video and displayed a patient using a specifically branded medicine, and the medicine manufacturers took issue with this, then the production team and their employers could find themselves in legal trouble. Therefore it is always best for a production team to either seek permission or completely remove branded items from their work.
As per the Equality Act 2010, production teams are not allowed to discriminate against someone due to disability or race. It would be legally disastrous if the team blatantly produced a video in which people of a certain race or disability are discriminated against. For example, producing a video in which people with black skin colour are portrayed as (and only as) criminals would definitely cause trouble for the production company. Looking at the Advertising Codes as set out by the Advertising Standards Authority, they state that “Ads must not contain something that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.” [9]
Finally, the production team must not allow any obscene material to filter into their corporate video (unless it is 100% relevant). This could be nudity, swearing or explicitly graphic violence. This is linked to the advertising codes of practice I linked earlier; while the corporate video may not necessarily be advertising the codes of practice would still be considered by production teams.
Ethical Issues
Ethically speaking, the production team would have to be diligent in order to not let their production misrepresent certain racial or religious groups. Failing to fairly represent a group of people could potentially lead to public outcry and possibly legal action. The group would naturally have to be described equally and fairly; the editing and filming must be unbiased. Racial and religious groups must have equal representation in productions to represent the diverse nation we live in. For example, if a corporate video is made in which the entire board of directors at a company are shown as white middle-aged males, then it would become an ethical dilemma and the likelihood is that the production team would have one or two actors of different racial/religious backgrounds there instead, like a Sikh man with a turban or a woman of African descent. This is backed up by the Equality Act of 2010 and like I stated earlier, the teams would probably use a similar code of conduct to the Advertising Standards Authority Codes [9] that I linked to earlier in this report.
Production Practices
The production of a corporate video is more often than not a collaboration between the employer and a production company, and therefore a large focus for the production company would be client liaison. The production team should be keeping in contact with the employer at all stages of production; this is because the employer will often have specific goals or targets to achieve with the video and are paying for the production company’s time. Therefore it is up to the production company to keep the client involved in order to ensure that what is being produced is accurate and relevant to the brief provided by the client. Often the client will have one or two members of staff on set with the production team at all times in order to make sure that everything is running as planned and agreed.
The formation of the idea can sometimes be entirely on the shoulders of the client ( the client will come up with the idea before hiring) or can sometimes be left to the production team, or even collaborated on by both client and production company. After the idea is formed and both production team and client are happy, the pre-production starts. For example, if it is a promotional video then there would be heavy scripting, storyboarding and treatments produced. Comparing that to an event video, it’d be normal for the event video to lack a full script and storyboard (as much of the content would be produced during the event).
After all pre-production is finished and finalized, the production team would organize their crew and equipment for the shoot. Size of crew and value of equipment would often depend on the type of video being produced and the budget; a larger crew would cost more in wages. If the video being produced was a healthcare video for example, then the crew could be smaller and less equipment being taken; lighting might be minimal (for example) as the focus is on the information not the visual appeal of the video. Most current corporate videos try to feature in what we consider High Definition (1080p or 720p), but for example a healthcare video might use a lower resolution in order to lower costs, whereas a promotional video would most commonly be found in 1080p or sometimes even higher. This is because they consider the visual aspects important and representative of their brand; look back at the Apple iPhone 6 launch video [7]. Aside from the phone, the design of the video is minimalistic and clean. The background is simplistic in design, and Apple strive towards a minimalistic feel for themselves and their products.
Conclusion
To conclude, the ever-expanding world of corporate video is intricate, filled with several very-different types and formats. These are videos for viewing on the internet, at meetings and playing in hospitals, for example. The video will fit the needs of the client, whether that be to train new staff or to promote their particular brand. It’s no small wonder that 140 videos are viewed for every single person on the planet. 140 videos each. With the total human population at 7.1 billion people as of July 2015, and growing by roughly 2-3 newborns every single second...This statistic demonstrates the rapid growth of the market and the rising importance of Corporate and Promotional Programming. Every day new businesses take to the web to pursue new markets and more customers, and it is video production companies providing them with the content they desire.
Sources
9 - https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/~/media/Files/ASA/Education%20resources/Intro_Curriculum%20update.ashx (PAGE 4)
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