Experience. Peer. Learning.

How can these 3 words go together? Experience is all about failing. We’re competing with peers. And who the hell wants to learn ??

Allow me to sell to you – India’s first true bootcamp for Product Entrepreneurs – #PNCamp, happening in Pune in December this year.

“…to your context…” – watch this video about a customer. You’ll appreciate why learning is directly connected to decision making.

“…I thought it was me…” – another customer. Why and how peers can play a fantastic role in arriving at solutions. They’ve made mistakes that you don’t need to. Vice versa.

“….tunnel vision….” – the curse of knowledge. From a veteran.

Product Entrepreneurs are battling their demons every hour, every day. And inside this battle lies the glory of winning. From the outside it looks like chaos and madness. But there is a sense to it all. See this deck below to get a better idea.

How silly of me… almost forgot to mention … this is a by invite only event. You don’t want to be left out. You’ll find the registration links below the deck.

See you in the city that was the top 3 shortlisted cities to be India’s capital back in the day.

100 minds – 8 mins with each.

In simple maths, every one of the 100 who saw the videos, was kept engaged for at least 8 minutes. Assuming they didn’t see all of the videos – a sales guy was around to continue conversations.

Humans have recently surpassed the attention span of a goldfish. And you thought keeping a goldfish engaged was easy….

Knowcross sells a service automation and management software to Hotels. It’s called Triton. Some of the world’s reputed hotels are their customers. For good reason – the tool is just remarkable to see at work.

Recently they attended HiTec – world’s largest and most expansive hospitality technology event.

“We were one of the last to book our space and we missed the best spots on the floor. Even with that, we managed to get about 200 people to the booth in 3 days. And about half of them we kept engaged through a touchscreen that played the 8 videos.”

Neha Singh | Senior Manager Marketing at Triton

 

Here are the 8 videos in their glory.

Triton EngineeringTriton MobileTriton SupervisorTriton Attendant

 

 

 

Content is one of those things a marketer has to spend money on. The pursuit, however – is to find the highest ROI from content. 

Here are 3 things that made their conference content investment a high return exercise:

1. Spray it. Don’t just say it.

Pepper your audience with multiple small bite sized information.

When you are expecting guests – as in a trade show particularly – try to put up more than a single piece of information.

So 100 brochures is great. But a choice between 20 each of 5 types of brochures – is a better idea. Within the first audience set (5 – 10 people), you’d know which brochures to send the mascot with.

“The 37 inch touchscreen had an application running. So after they see one video, they’d be presented with another one, and then another. This allowed us to comprehensively cover the product and its propositions without them getting bored with one long video. ”

– Neha Singh. senior Manager Marketing at Triton.

2. Address different causes.

If you can solve my problem – tell me how much you’ll charge. You’ve got 8 seconds. Go.

So Engineering has its own problems. Housekeeping has its own problems. The management has its own problems. And individuals within these units – have their own problems.

For Engineering – they made a different story – connected to the engineering’s cause. See this.
For Housekeeping – they made a different story – connected to the housekeeping’s cause. See this.
And for Senior Management – they made a more overarching story – connected to the business’ cause. See this.

So if Joe the CEO wanted to check with Bob the CTO – they would both just huddle at the booth. There’s a bunch of smartie pants ready to answer questions.

Instant gratification as many cultures call it.

3. Consistent and simple visuals

We eat with our eyes – as taught in culinary schools. That’s why plating is important.

Did your eyes catch the variation in the color RED above ?

In their case, the characters were simple with little detailing. So there was no distraction. And the colors and icons are consistent.

See the image to the left – there are 3 slides one below the other.

Did your eyes catch the slight change in color?

Imagine how distracted you’d get if the characters, scenes, music, or even narrator’s voice changed on each video. 

They got this done from a single creative team. A set of minds that didn’t change during the production process. This ensured visuals and audio and the look n feel and the sounds and voices – were all synchronized. Everything looks and sounds in sync.

Its like Ballet.

So the costumes were same colors. The characters were similar. The situations and icons were similar. Think different episodes of a television series.

If you have dabbled in Video marketing, what kind of results have you got from your initiatives? I would love to hear your thoughts.

5 tips to making a killer product video

Your product has something worthy – its just that no one reads now. So how do you make your audience appreciate the worthiness of your product. They’re hearing you – but are they listening to you? 

Videos use 2 out of our 5 senses and if designed right – a video can help you can slip the pill. A pill that will start a conversation. And a conversation is the start to any sale.

For hygiene – videos are of many types. A video can entertain (Avatar the movie), It can teach (NGC the channel) and it can sell (explainer videos). I’m talking about the last on the list – quick explainer videos that showcase a USP of your product. 

Here are my top 5 tips to making your product video stand out:

1. Number of propositions

Sure your product has half a dozen value propositions. But your audience can only remember a few of them. In a minute – try to restrict the propositions to 1 or 2 at the most. 

Its better you say 1 thing two times than 2 things once.

This is a proposition heavy video. (you’ll notice how little propositions you’ll remember after you’ve seen it) 

2. Number of seconds 

Brevity plays a big role in any content. Not at the cost of the propositions though – but exceeding 90 seconds can cause slow death. 

See this 2:28 min video we did for a tech startup and then compare it to the 68 second one for another product – you’ll appreciate the difference. 

3. Speed/Velocity 

The pace of the video is perhaps the trickiest to set. If the speed is too fast – ideas will zip by. If its too slow – your audience will lose attention. Damn these fickle minded audience I tell you ! 

The trick is to build the speed based on the propositions. At govideotoday, we set the pace based on how many UIs are to be shown, or how many propositions need to be delivered. We also take into consideration the pace of the narrator (voice over) and the genre of the background score. 

This is a fast video. The pace limits the understanding of the product. 

4. Audio 

Most forget that Audio Visual – is 50% Audio ! As a musician and a self-taught audio engineer, I can tell you that if you get the audio wrong – all hell will break loose. 

The trick to judge any audio is to close your eyes. Silly I know – but by closing your eyes, you’ll prevent distraction and you’ll focus on the tonal quality of the voice over, the beat in the music, the gain levels, and how the music contours the voice. 

I know this may not be precise but audio engineering is not a science yet and most audio engineers get paid (or used to) because they just had good ears. Its pretty much like a painting on canvas. After a few years of doing it – your eyes can detect the goods and the bads. 

In my opinion, this video has a good audio master. (notice the beat on the score)

5. Reality – use case 

This is the BEST way to make your video rock. Real use case of where your software made a hit with the customer. Call it a case study or a client showcase – the use case is real, therefore its something your target audience can relate to, and therefore its got trust written all over it. 

When people trust you – they’ll talk to you. What did I say about conversations earlier – remember? 

This is a video that you’ll so easily relate to.

If you’re a pastry fan like me – you’ll know that the light and crispy pastry always wins over the oily and soggy. That’s not a personal choice – that’s how we ALL like it. Any marketing content is subject to the same prejudices. 

Keep it short. Simple. and Humorous. Humor is the best way to break any resistance. 

What have been your favorite product videos?