Member Article

What return can video offer business?

Ian Brownhill, managing director and senior consultant at BergHind Joseph, explores the world of video for business.

The internet age has made information a commodity and bred a new, savvier type of consumer who has access to a wealth of material. Making us all authors and editors, who roam the internet in search of nuggets of information that we can re-write or stitch together in order to gain an understanding of something. The upside of this has been a profound democratisation of information. The downside is the fragmentation of information, the erosion of authority and (for corporations) loss of control of their story.

This latter idea has resulted in companies realising the need to take control of their message and the way it is being communicated. This is so consumers have a clear idea about what a company is saying, without relying on the printed word.

A time for change

BergHind Joseph’s 2012 Global Players study reemphasises the importance of taking control of
corporate messages. With the study not only demonstrating how companies in the Fortune Global
500 are responding to this idea, but how video is playing a pivotal role in achieving it:

• Nokia is currently using video to give a human story to the strategic move behind Nokia’s Lumia 800 smartphone.
• AXA has developed a series of videos which talk about various topics from their ‘Global Forum for Longevity’ – an initiative that shares knowledge between experts and the general public on the issues that increased life expectancy will create in the future.
• Deutsche Post DHL use video exceptionally well for their ‘Working Abroad’ feature, where three interviewees– one British, one Indian and one American –tell their story about working for the company.

Can video really deliver?

Whilst these large multinational organisations have the budget and ability to develop videos, can other (smaller) organisations afford to invest in video too? And if they do, will they ever see a return on their investment?

The reality is with the tools that we use to communicate growing in sophistication, so to have the results we want to see from them. That’s why - when referring to tools such as video – the results you want to reap should no longer relate to financial gain, and instead should refer to what you want a video to achieve once somebody has watched it.

This idea has resulted in creative communication agency BergHind Joseph developing a variety of videos that fulfil a plethora of objectives; from effectively communicating a new brand, both internally and externally across a global community; to helping the CEO communicate the new strategic changes being made in a business; to communicating and celebrating employee’s contributions within a multi-national business.

Gauging success

Whilst the intangible results a video delivers can be powerful, analytics now exist to actively demonstrate and measure the success of a video campaign too.

From tools that that make it possible to guarantee traffic to a film; to observing and measuring the demographic a film attracts; and even make footage clickable to encourage audience participation. This level of intelligence means that video is no longer a tool for simply pushing out messages; it offers a new level of engagement for viewers and provides fantastic market intelligence – something which very few communication tools can do.

Want to find out more?

Watch BergHind Joseph’s recent video series which uncovers the business case for video.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BergHind Joseph .