I was recently involved in a client discussion about producing an online video series based around a list of the company’s services. To cut a long story short, at the end of the meeting everyone agreed that, as consumers themselves, if the project were to be commissioned, no-one in the room would actually be interested in watching it, talking about it or, much less, sharing it with people they knew.

Bit awkward.  Remind me why it is that you want to make this again?

It’s great news for online audiences that brand owners are increasingly experimenting with video, but we really need to think about what the outcome of that experimentation should be. Video content can be used to fulfil a variety of different requirements – both fun and functional – but these various uses can, and should, be tied together by a common theme: contributing something of value to those who watch it.

Ultimately brands want to create video content that gets watched, engaged with, liked, shared, watched again and commented on, and that promotes further content-seeking behaviour. This means that it needs to be about more than just providing another medium through which to tell consumers what you want them to hear. Great video content needs to provide users with something of genuine utility: useful information; education; insight; or just good old-fashioned entertainment.

I don’t know about you, but I’m always grateful when someone makes me smile.  I’ll really like you if you make me laugh.  If you can also provide me with the means to look cool (once, just once) by sharing something with my friends that they enjoy, or perhaps giving me enough information to sound impressive in front of people I’m desperately seeking approval from (everybody), then I’ll love you forever.  Seriously.

Bizarre as this may seem, consumers are pretty much like you.  Really.  Look it up.  They surf the Internet, just like you do.  They look for stuff that interests them, just like you do.  They find pictures of cats with stuff on them surprisingly funny (in spite of themselves), just like you do.

Why then, would any brand commission a piece of video content that they couldn’t answer “yes” to the questions: would I watch this?  Would I like this?  Would I find it useful, entertaining…interesting even?  Does it reward our viewers for their time?

Video is an enormously powerful, versatile, ‘create once – publish everywhere’ tool for marketers.  But in a world where roughly around a billion hours of new video is being uploaded to YouTube every eight and a half seconds, standout content should prioritise the user experience and focus unrelentingly on what the viewer can take away that’s good for them, rather than good for you.

At the end of the day, brands, like commercial TV channels, must ensure that they commission content that consumers want to watch. Surely one of the best tests of this is seeing your customers come back to watch your brilliant piece of creative time and time again. That’s the thing about choice; you have to give consumers a reason to choose you. Particularly when so much amazing original programming is being created by great brands – large and small – who are starting to see themselves, quite rightly, as media owners and online destinations for those seeking relevant digital experiences that reflect their own interests.

So, make more video.  Please.  Experiment with new video techniques, technologies and ideas.  Take some risks and see what happens with an unusual approach, or something that isn’t necessarily inline with your typical brand-image.

But above all, use your video content to deliver entertaining, useful and rewarding experiences for those who take the time to watch it.

If all else fails, just make something that you would want to see yourself.

After all, you’ve got good taste, right?

Rob Crombie is Head of Video at Sneak & Group FMG.

Originally Posted August 27 The Wall