We’ve been hired to create a new tradeshow video for a client’s HR department. The mandate is to create something that is attractive to potential recruits, which means something that is interesting to “Generation Y”. Something that catches their interest and helps them consider a career at this client’s company.
I love this. It means we get to create something that’s fast-paced, colorful, and fun.
Most important, however, is the time I’m spending right now before the project gets underway. Right now, what I’m working out is the core message of this project. I’m asking myself what the story is. Because all the awesome visuals in the world are just noise if you don’t say something with them.
I’m looking beyond the client-supplied text (which is not bad stuff, to be sure), and the existing corporate images and approved messages. I am trying to go beyond the words on the screen from their old tradeshow presentation, to get to the meat (or the soul, really) of this company.
Because it’s all about story, really.
Sometimes applying the “so what?” principle really helps with a project like this. That is, I read what the client had written or look at the imagery it has given me. And I think, so what? Sometimes it helps cut through the clutter.
One problem a lot of presentation videos have is trying to cram way too much “stuff” into them. Looking at this client’s previous work, I see a lot of that. And it dilutes the core message. We can’t have that this time out.
Well, I am getting back to it now. It’s a lot of work but very rewarding to take a client’s message and figure out how to get that message across to different audiences.
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production, video, corporate video
