Additional ideas for content include interviewing the executive champion of an improvement initiative that will better align her company with its customers; a compelling story to tell. The hydraulic systems manufacturer that just cut lead time for delivery by 70% with a new supply chain strategy is a compelling story. The impact of the on production down-time at the hydraulic company’s customer’s plant is a testimonial with teeth too.
The CEO’s strategic vision, the line manager’s success optimizing a workflow, the story of the Wounded Warrior hire that turned around a business unit with gritty yet compassionate leadership. All are stories that can be made even more engaging with video interviews.
Why? Because people connect with video faster -- in fact video data is processed 60,000 times faster than text. The connections to the audience are made more deeply too. You can see the Marketing Director’s excitement as she leans forward in her office chair and starts weaving in some hand gestures(subtle hand gestures – don’t let her freak out). You can hear the passion for the work her team did getting the new product to market on schedule in her voice. You can sense the confidence she has in the sales projections she delivers.
Yes the interview can be powerful, but it has to be done well. In the time it takes you to read this article 400 hours of content will be uploaded to YouTube. If your story is worthy of being told with video, be sure it is well told. Have a seasoned copywriter or interviewer write the questions. Light it perfectly and get great sound. Maybe walk the steadicam slowly around the subject to create movement in the background, or bounce back and forth between focal planes to accentuate different elements in the shot. Shoot the interview across multiple locations or use multiple cameras to expand your options in post production. Have fun and be creative, weave in some humor where you can. But remember, at the end of the day getting something compelling and engaging still has to happen.
OK, we did a video great interview, now what do we do with it?
- Put it on your website (73% of companies do that)
- Include excerpts, or the interview with links in outbound eMail campaigns (65% of companies do that)
- Distribute it via social media (87% of B2B Content marketers do that)
 The interview can also morph into a documentary. Here is a phenomenal example of an interview being used as an audio track for a very cool story about a Siemens PLM software user. Paper Dreams – A story by David Bettridge, pulls the audience in quickly by making a model building nerd vulnerable: “People are saying, this guy must be strange.” That self assessment is validated later when we see a model Red Bull RB7 Formula 1 car, with about 6,500 parts, built entirely from paper, recyclables and paint.
It is impressive. In fact the Infinity Red Bull Racing Team thought it was so impressive that they hired him. Now the paper model building kid is using Siemens PLM software to help design the new RB10 racer, and fine tuning the team’s cars before each race.
FishEye has completed dozens of highly-produced video interviews in the last six months. If you have an idea for a video interview project to explore, or if you want help coming up with one, please Drop Us a Line and we’ll have one of our producers get back with you!
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