4 ways to make truly memorable corporate videos
Marketers, tell me if you have heard this one before.
Company A spends about 100,000 euros on a brand film, uses it once or twice, and then the video fades into distant memory.
Or maybe this one, Company B does short videos of 15 seconds or less, releases them, and watches as they disappear into the social media ether.
In both cases, odds are that no one can explain how these videos stick in their audiences’ memory, helping further the companies’ strategic messaging.
As a former broadcast journalist and producer, I have worked on different video types ranging from 30-second clips to hour-long documentaries. The key to getting audiences to engage with them is to offer a compelling narrative. Here are 4 videos where we used different storytelling tactics to make Finland’s biggest brands stand out.
1) Don’t forget the importance of local flavour
Most brands would give up an arm and a leg to get the kind of brand recognition that National Geographic has. That popularity posed a challenge to National Geographic Nordics as local audiences did not consider them a Nordic brand, leading to low engagement. So, when they wanted to promote their very popular car restoration show Car SOS in the Nordics, they reached out to Spoon Finland.
To reach and engage with local audiences, we created original programming that connected with Nordic tastes and interests. We invited two hosts (a master mechanic and a materials expert) from each country to create a replica of a model car using materials easily identifiable with each Nordic country. A total of 4 videos were produced and localised, leading to 16 videos in total. Produced and packaged in 10 days, these videos carried an unmistakable local flavour that made them a hit with Nordic audiences. It became one of National Geographic Nordics’ best-performing social media campaigns. Check Finland’s video below and follow our YouTube page to see the others.
2) Utilise unique global perspectives
When it comes to Thought Leadership, most brands get caught up in pushing their own product or service and have very little of the thought leadership that audiences need. This limits their reach and engagement. Finnish software brand, The QT Company, dared to take a different route when they wanted to drive thought leadership around UX/UI trends and reach a global audience.
Utilising Qt’s in-house experts as well as external UX/UI experts, we created a Hero video that helped Qt drive the conversation around cutting-edge mega trends in UX/UI. Featuring a relaxed and friendly vibe, the video spoke to audiences instead of at them, helping increase its recall value. The use of external experts also meant that Qt was able to leverage the networks of these experts and amplify their thought leadership video to even larger global audiences. Filmed in Finland, the US and the UK, the video also provided valuable content for reuse in Qt’s webinars, events, and social media channels. Check the full video below.
3) Look for the unscripted moment
Most corporate videos try too hard to be perfect. The result can be alienating for audiences who are exposed to dozens of videos each day. The need of the hour is authenticity and that can come from the most unexpected places, as seen in this documentary video we produced for KONE.
KONE, a Finnish brand is one of the biggest elevator manufacturers in the world, yet they come from a land without any skyscrapers. So, what do they do to test their elevators? Instead of going up, they go down to a depth of almost 350 meters at their Tytyri test laboratory, based in a working limestone mine. Spoon Finland created a documentary-style video that gave audiences an up-close and personal look at KONE’s testing facilities and their people in the field. While the video featured a challenge that serves as the climax of the narrative, my favourite is a totally unscripted moment at 02:48 where their engineer explains how much she loves the “Thwungggg” sound KONE’s UltraRope makes. You cannot buy that kind of authenticity. Check the moment out in the video below.
4) Always talk to audiences, not down or at them
On the topic of corporate video trying too hard to be perfect, spare a thought for the in-house expert expected to feature in one of these videos. The sheer pressure of getting everything right can be unnerving. With the “UPM Unpacked” video series, we show what can be achieved when a video is designed to help experts and their expertise shine, rather than forcing them into a typical corporate video template.
UPM Corporation wanted to create social-media friendly-content that would help increase awareness about sustainable lifestyles. At the same time, they also wanted to highlight their people whose expertise was making everything from biodegradable packaging to green fuels happen. Spoon Finland conceptualised and created the “UPM Unpacked” video series. Featuring UPM experts in work environments (Mills, R&D lab, forests, etc.), the videos followed the experts around as they answered questions from an off-screen interviewer. The result was an up-close, candid, and thoroughly engaging video series that helped global audiences feel like they were the interviewers, talking to and learning from the people who make a difference. Check the video out below.
Corporate videos need not be expensive, nor do they need to be mass-produced to create an impact. The key is to understand what different audiences need and craft a suitable narrative that reaches them. If you too are struggling to make videos that further your brands’ strategic messaging, get in touch and allow us to help you out.
In the meantime, follow our YouTube page for more great video storytelling at: https://www.youtube.com/@spoonfinland