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How To Create A Video Campaign Concept
By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

Have you ever had a good idea, maybe a great idea, only to find
that someone else already ready did it? Frustrating. You want to
be a success and who doesn't? It's why you do what you do, why
you put-up with what you put-up with? But it all gets so
frustrating.

As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, there just aren't
any secret methods, special potions, or motivational DVDs that
are going to make you a success in thirty days, but there are
things you can do that will help. Sure working hard helps but
working smart is even better. So how do you work smart? Well you
can start with presenting your core, marketing message to your
targeted audience in a way that engages the spirit, informs the
intellect, and embeds in the mind. And if you want to be cutting
edge, the way to do it is with audio and video.

What A Difference A Difference Makes

Anybody who has ever tried to raise money for a project from a
bank, or contacted an ad agency for help has heard the question,
"What makes your company different?" If you don't have a
different product, different process, or different way of doing
or presenting what you do, you are never going to raise a cent
or make an impact on the market. Yet most companies blindly
continue to follow the market leader, and wonder why they never
attain the level of success they hope to achieve.

If you want to be a success, you have to reinvent your company
as something unique, so when the time comes to present your
redefined vision to the world, you will actually have something
to say, and something worth listening to.

Lateral Thinking, The Creative Laxative

Once you've decided to develop a video marketing message that
focuses on what makes you different, you will want to know where
begin.

This is a creative process that can be scary to business
executives trained in left-brain linear thinking. Learning to
think creatively is hard and for most people it goes against
everything they have learned.

Creative thinking has been called 'thinking outside the box,'
right-brain thinking, or simply thinking differently. Author
Edward De Bono calls it 'Lateral Thinking.' De Bono argues
linear thinking stifles imagination because it suffices at the
first seemingly acceptable solution rather than looking for
innovative alternatives:

"In ordinary traditional thinking we have developed no methods
for going beyond the adequate. As soon as something is
satisfactory our thinking must stop."
- Edward De Bono

Where You Begin Is Where You End

One method of jump-starting the creative process is to think
backward: you begin at the end, because where you're going will
inform how you get there.

Create Your Memory Tag or Slogan

A well thought-out slogan or tag line focuses attention on the
critical point-of-differentiation, the thing that establishes
your brand identity. A good slogan serves as a memory device, a
positioning tool that implants itself in your audience's mind
and stays there.

No matter how many times the advertising agencies convince the
'pooh-bahs' at Coca-Cola to change their slogan, Coke will
forever be "The Real Thing," and Pepsi will be "The Choice of
a New Generation," at least to my generation.

These were excellent examples of how to focus on a single
element and establish a differentiating identity between
competing products that for the most part are just about the
same. Then of course you have 7-Up with "The Uncola" slogan
that was the best of the bunch, but was unfortunately dumped for
some lame reason.

Each of these soft drink slogans established market-turf for
their company, and each helped differentiate the product while
establishing identity in the audience's mind; and no place is
anything said about cost, quality, or any of the other
conventional selling points that small companies are so fond of
touting.

Develop Your Story

A well-designed video commercial takes your audience through the
three stages of storytelling: The Setup with inciting incident,
The Crisis with problem escalation, and The Resolution with
viewer satisfaction.

Your slogan or tag is the punch line that highlights your
resolution; it's what you want your audience to remember; it's
your marketing message destination; and it's where you want to
end. Now all you have to do is work backwards to the beginning.

This method of development helps you avoid saying too much: yes,
there are many things you want to say, most of which are valid,
some of which are relevant, but few of which are applicable to
the delivery of an effective Web video presentation. The more
you say to an audience, the less they hear. Stick to a simple
story that leads to a resolution based on your memorable punch
line or what TV screenwriters call 'the button.'

Invent Your Hook

Once you have your basic commercial storyline with a beginning,
middle, and end, you need to make sure you have a hook: the
thing that's going to pique audience curiosity and make them
stick around long enough to view the entire presentation. The
hook should center on the 'inciting incident:' the motivating
situation that propels your onscreen representative to find a
solution to the problem at hand that ultimately leads to the
resolution represented in your 'button' or punch line.

The Geico Caveman is a great example of a hook that demands
attention, and draws the audience into the series of mini dramas
that constitute this award winning ad campaign; all based on an
incredibly simple, yet brilliant, tag: "So Easy A Caveman Could
Do It." You don't need expensive special effects or exotic
locations; all you need is an imagination and a message that can
be delivered with a memorable one line "button."
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and
http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com
or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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