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CONTENT MARKETING: The Power of Story
September 9th, 2011
A frequent question: What’s “Content Marketing”?
Content Marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent – a wiser consumer. They seek out the content. This is a much more efficient and economical approach than the “old way” of forcing advertising on people.
• When was the last time you made a point of seeking out commercials or advertising?
• When was the last time you went on line to research a product or service?
It comes down to the fact that people don’t want to be sold. They want to buy based on information they find. Yes, that’s why content is king. The Power of Story is king.
Why video?• Did you read the book Titanic?
• Did you see the movie?
So before you send any text only messages, any brochures, or print any business cards, bring your story to life with video.
We’ll help you tell your story and the success story of your clients. We’re experts in storytelling. We’ve been teaching the best and the brightest journalists and TV videographers for more than three decades. And that’s based on deep insights into viewer behavior. We know audience.
Senior Vice President for Content Marketing
AR&D
bkaplitz@ar-d.com
Posted in Social Media Video, Uncategorized, Web Video | No Comments »
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Why “Content Marketing”?
September 8th, 2011
The question we often hear is “What’s the deal with so-called “Content Marketing”?
As senior vice president of Content Marketing for AR&D I like to respond.
Rather than just watch me, click on some of the articles to the right under Recent Posts to see what Content Marketing can do. Watch actual examples for clients ranging from The Four Seasons Sports Club and Resort to non-profits like Friends of the Family, which helps victims of domestic violence. Imagine the “old way” of trying to communicate with just text. Video brings your story to life. And ultimately, it’s the Power of Story that gets your phone to ring.
Posted in broadcast journalism, content marketing, Social Media, Social Media Video, Web Video | No Comments »
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Content Marketing: Capturing the Emotion without Exploiting the Victim
September 6th, 2011
Domestic violence is obviously a sensitive subject. So when my colleague Regent Ducas and I developed a messaging strategy for the non-profit Friends of the Family, we wanted to share poignant stories, but not sensationalize or exploit. We took this approach.
The success of content marketing like this depends alot on whom you interview. Working closely with Friends of the Family, we were fortunate they identified the right person. She believes in the value of the organization and is committed to getting the word out. From our perspective, “Emmi” is a role model.
Posted in Bob Kaplitz video, Social Media, Web Video | No Comments »
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Content Marketing: Squeezing Alot into a Story to Delight Viewers
September 6th, 2011
Visuals and action make for engaging visual storytelling. But time is limited, so we squeeze in as much as possible to help viewers enjoy the experience. In this case, it’s The Four Seasons Sports Club’s tennis membership. Collaborating with Regent Ducas, I tried to capture the action while focusing on the all important messaging.
The quick edits make videos like these move quickly to engage viewers. And by focusing on one person viewers could identify with, we told a story — instead of just listing facts. Also, you may have noticed we just didn’t want to focus on the game itself. The Four Seasons Sports Club prides itself because it’s an overall social experience.
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Video, Web Video | No Comments »
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How QR Codes Can Make Your Phone Ring
September 5th, 2011
So called QR or “quick response” codes are becoming more popular every day. And we’re creating them for many clients, including Texas Meatpackers, which is using QR on food labels to launch our videos. The president of the company, John Pieper, appears on the videos at our suggestion. As the top person, he’s in the best position to connect with consumers on subjects ranging from recipes to best ways to serve meat.
Content Marketing is the art of communicating with prospects and clients without selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent – a wiser consumer. We hope you’ll be wiser from watching this video, starting with how to use a QR code:AR&D creates customized web marketing solutions for clients essentially enabling you to become your own TV station.
There’s no better way to tell your story than by creating authentic, real videos that educate, engage and add value to the consumer.
AR&D combines video story telling with customized QR codes to provide smartphone visitors/consumers with a rich, state-of-the-art mobile experience that drives traffic to your videos, website, promotions and more.
Posted in Bob Kaplitz video, Social Media, Social Media Video | No Comments »
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Smart Video Marketing
September 2nd, 2011
What makes this approach valuable to clients is that the video opens in the email. It doesn’t lose email readers to YouTube. Here’s an example we created for one of our new clients who wanted to share information about an upcoming convention.
Compare this approach to the “old” ways of just announcing an upcoming event with text or sending a link to YouTube. This way, viewers can read more or even register right on your page. Okay, click to watch what happens when the mail opens.
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Video, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Capture the Fun in Your Content Marketing
September 2nd, 2011
Capture the joy of an event to build your business. Especially if your business is about people having a good time.
For our content marketing video project for The Four Seasons Sports Club in Las Colinas, a suburb of Dallas, we wanted to capture the experience of a tennis membership. And that’s more than just playing tennis on beautiful courts, which we captured indoors and out. The goal is to help viewers see the value — from the fun of the sport to the job getting together with friends.
If you just stick a camera in people’s faces, they don’t feel comfortable. In fact, if they’re at Racquets about to enjoy a snack, they’re ready to eat.
TAKEAWAYS
So the key was to acknowledge that, give us a minute to capture the fun, joke with them briefly hoping for a small, and roll. I held the camera at a low angle to capture it. Instead of showing the entire video here, this frame captures one of those fun moments.
The wide shot that follows here is helpful to provide perspective, but you should look for those defining moments that capture emotion. You should etch them in the hearts and minds of viewers.
We know the power of that from our more than three decades of experience gaining insights into what TV viewers like and dislike in video storytelling.
Posted in Multimedia Journalism, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »
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Show and Tell
September 2nd, 2011
Show and tell is one powerful way to market your brand.
In this case, Kids R Kids, an academy for pre-kindergarden kids, wanted to show off its technology. So that’s what we did and with sound up so viewers could see and hear for themselves.
It’s a simple, basic, and powerful concept — especially when showcasing your competitive advantages. And ultimately it comes down to what separates you from the pack. In short, “Why you?”
Here’s technology aimed at speeding up learning for this national company, which is one of our new Content Marketing clients.
What show and tell can you incorporate in your web videos?
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Video, Web Video | No Comments »
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Capture the Feeling
September 1st, 2011
Capturing relationships and emotion can set you apart from your competitors.
In telling and showing the story of one of America’s most respected pre-school academies, Kids R Kids, we wanted to capture the warmth and commitment of the owners of the Keller, Texas franchise.
Missie and Steve Brown communicate just that, so we wanted to show them together, communicating their mission. And they did just that.
When you can capture the feeling, you connect with your audience. This isn’t a matter of staging or forcing, but capturing reality. We like to look at memorable moments like this as they’re part of the messaging. And, of course, you need to know your target audience. In this case: Parents.
Having shot many testimonials for this client, we know how impressed parents are that the owners of the franchise care about kids and are heavily involved in all facets of the operation — from choosing healthy food to hiring the most dedicated teachers.
TAKEAWAY
Remember that your message needs to connect emotionally with your prospects to gain their trust. Capture the genuine feeling.
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The above freeze frame captures the warmth. Here’s the video itself.
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Video, Web Video | No Comments »
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Coupons Get QR Code Results
August 7th, 2011
Coupons work well with QR codes. This study shows the power of coupons in getting people to scan QR codes,which stands for Quick Response. It makes a big difference even though curiosity is also a factor as is information about the product.
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Video | 1 Comment »
