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How to add value to my corporate video?
Categories:
Marketing agencies, freelance creatives and entrepreneurs look for creating value, telling stories and tapping emotions in every single project. However, it can feel very abstract:
How to touch the intangible?
How to describe something new?
How to tell a story in an unforgettable way?
This article guides creative professionals to implement their creativity by following a simple process destined to make original ideas work in the format of a business documentary or corporate video.
The big ideas suggested here are a snippet of my research on how your company can incorporate and communicate true value through business videos and addresses the localization of the verbal language (lettering, subtitles, script) and the audio content (voiceover).
For this, before sending the voiceover script for recording (or putting the cake in the oven), and hoping for the best, it's important to use the right fresh ingredients.
So what's the recipe?
If effective communication with a nation or culture (a. k. a. localization, translation or transcreation) had a recipe of simply following their grammar rules and common-sense, all translations done by Artificial Intelligence would be enough.
If locale voice-over's recipe was solely the use of specific words and phones with a sparkle of a native accent, TTS and AI's voices would be enough.
If AI, grammar, voice and native accent are not always enough, what then is missing in the recipe?
You might be waiting for me to say something like: the human touch, the emotion... Emotions and human energy dismiss comments. They are essential and we know that.
However, I want to entice your thoughts and invite you to go further the obvious.
And because I'm committed to bringing you proven strategies that cannot be found anywhere else, I want to show you part of my investigation on what human touch and emotion are in terms of translation and voice-over and how to magnify their value and presence in your project.
Secret Ingredient
What do humans usually do?
They exaggerate. They can show how really pissed they are. They can show how excited they are when they are soooo excited. And they also can show the depth of their sadness when they intend to do it.
But the word exaggeration can have a bad connotation.
Let's use magnification instead.
And what does magnification mean?
It is contrast, intensity, amplification, or something unexpected, that exceeds. Because if a given level of anger/excitement/sadness is expected and a person delivers that emotion in that amount, it is not exaggeration nor novelty. Of course, it still causes resonation, empathy, connection and can be contagious. However, it does not pass the threshold for something more impactful to happen.
The impact, the magic, the change comes from the unexpectedness, the break of a pattern, the wild card, and almost every project can benefit from this phenomenon. We used some similar strategies for Itaú Bank marketing campaings in a very natural, funny and non-technical way.
If your video lacks an essence, or an element that makes the person blink twice, or lean over, or smile, shake their head, share, comment, take a deep breath, or even make that person think about something, then I'm almost sure you are thinking of a plain translation and a standard voice reading a dead text.
You must refuse a plain translation and a standard voice reading a dead text.
DO
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Define. Invite ideas, stimulate senses, and plan the brand (I suppose you may have a Brand Guideline or a Brand Board. Not the one eveybody does. But your own map and destiny. If not, start on step 0).
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Craft well the first seconds of the copy:
- If the translation or copywriting is not going to be done in-house, find a copywriter or translator with whom you can have an open conversation. If he or she is unresponsive, closed, doesn't contribute with ideas and expertise or seems toooooo much professional, squared and conservative, that you suspect he/she can be a cyborg, step back. It might not go well.
- Be generous in value and intensity. You have nothing to be shy or fearful of. Depending on your niche, you can exaggerate in beauty, in depth of feelings, in energy, in showing confidence, in elegance, and even exaggerate in being centered, e-collar. But do it with intensity. Don't be one more of the same. Don't look like stock photos. Don't be generic. If you are going conservative, be THE conservative. If you insist in being perfectly centered, I suspect you don't really want to position your company...
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Infuse the whole copy with your value:
- Trust the copywriter or translator to make the value permeate every word, phrase and macro structure of the script. Doing it right, the text will be live and unique, and not hollow or disconnected. No space will remain that is not filled with value and purpose.
- Again, take ownership of your choices, because you must take a choice. There's no such thing as being neutral. There's no such a thing as being acclaimed by simply being grammarly perfect. That time has gone.No one will trust you or buy from you only by this. In terms of verbal language, neutrality is easily ignored - and worse, can lead to other things that are beyond the scope of this article. For now, note: neutrality is not the same thing as calmness or straightforward language. Neutrality is the fear of making word choices and saying things out loud, as if you don't want to disturb, to offend, to reveal yourself, not even to be perceived. It's like you have nothing new to say and want to say more of what has been said over and over.
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Ensure the script is oral:
- Make it clear to the writer that the script is supposed to be read! It must not simply follow grammar and be error-free. It must sound amazing. Grammar, in terms of copywriting, does a disservice if it disempowers ideas. And if the video has a fixed duration, for example, of 1 minute, the translation of the voiceover script must fit comfortably within the video length. The translator must know it beforehand.
- If possible, have the voice over talent (or someone qualified) beside you to take a look at the script and check the orality of it. If the English version had 120 words and it was read calmly, imagine the inconsistency if the translation has now 150 words and the script fits 1 minute ONLY if read rushed. Puff, the value of ideas and emotions your team has crafted so well, now is gone, if the VO actor needs to fight against the copy to make it fit.
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Take notes of your values, mood board and branding:
- if this is the first video your company is doing with that new mindset of value and intensity, you might want to start documenting this brand self-discovery process and updating wisely your Brand Board. It's similar to composing your own perfume and taking notes of all the unique scents, oils, flowers and other ingredients that make our perfume YOURS, so you can do it more, do it often, and even evolve it through time.
- summarize that documentation into a brief to communicate with other professionals, like creative directors, voiceover artists, marketing agencies, or any other person you are bringing on board and will work on the positioning of the company.
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Bring the VO artist on board:
- if you really had success finding a trustworthy, creative voice over professional, and want to make the audio shine, give the voice artist two things: the music track + freedom to improve the orality / localization.
- be confident, rich and bold in your requirements for the voice over actress or actor. Don't be afraid of telling how unique or special you want the VO to sound. Bring the voice talent to the state you envision your corporate video to be, and the voice artist will respond accordingly.
CONSIDER:
- the idea of doing something you were not invited to do (no one will invite your company to be what you envision for it to be, anyway... don't wait for it). You don't need permission from the competitors nor the audience. But do it carefully, thinking things through and backing it up with confidence and truth, persistently.
- using terminology that is understood but that identifies you as being unique.
- making the subtitles shorter and faster, instead of using long lines and small letters.
DON'T
- don't be self-conscious.
- don't start with jargon (In a world - The world is changing - We are all connected...). If so, you have a challenge in front of you. Think twice.
- don't be economic in value. Don't be a miser. Value is not moved from one place to another like a box. Value is perfume, it multiplies and expands when externalized.
- don't try to be neutral. The audience can ignore it. It can be a sign of fear or indecision from the company and even give an impression of the copy being generated by AI. If the VO is also tooo perfect, it can sound artificial.
- don't fake. It stinks, and intelligent, mindful people smell it from afar.
By following the steps and applying some of that out-of-the-box principles, you can design a unique voice and sound identity for your business project with ease and objectivity, while still being creative and original. Other creatives and entrepreneurs have been creating and growing the value in their businesses with the help of our processes - and if you are ready, you're the next. Send us a message with your questions and ideas and we get started.