Four different approaches to script writing Approach #1: Promotional video A promotional video provides an overview of what your company does in a way that is meaningful to your customers. It addresses your customers needs or problems and enables you the opportunity to explain how your product/ service solves these problems. Every business can benefit from a promotional video available on their website as this is a great way help people get to the heart of what you do. Here are the elements of this approach: 1. Hook Capture their attention in the first 10 seconds (e.g. with delight, surprise or shock). 2. Address their Problems. 3. Provide the Solution. 4. Why is it the right solution? Reinforce by showing/ telling them the benefits, particularly how they will feel after using your product/service. 5. Call-to-action Encourage them to follow up immediately, which can also include emphasising scarcity (limited quantity or limited time) or offering a special promotion. 6. Contact details. 53
Capture more customers with video Example: Promotional video script Element Audio Visual Hook Problems Solutions Why Call-to-action Contact details 54
The nuts and bolts of video production Example: Promotional video script Story line Hi, My name is Dave and guess what, I am about to strip off naked and run around my local neighbourhood. Now I bet your wondering why? Well, I run a local business, providing a high quality, affordable services to homes in this local area and I have tried everything to get noticed. I ve advertised on TV, radio and in the local newspaper. I spend a fortune each month with online search and paid a bunch of schoolkids to deliver some flyers for me. Did it do me any good? Well sort of. I got some calls, and a bit of business here and there, but I really wanted to take my business to the next level and what I m doing now is just not working for me. So this is my last resort, I am going to run around my targeted neighbourhoods naked so that the households remember who I am. Don t worry I will have a sandwich board so I don t scare the kids and I am still advertising cause it has my contact details written in bold. But I reckon this is really going to work! Watch me go! Rows of houses Visuals Dave walks onto screen as he starts talking. Then have him starting to get undressed, taking his shirt of first. Show a normal body and then have him breath in and show a body builders body with six pack Show Dave working at his desk and then show behind him a waterfall of money and occasionally you see a banner that says: TV Advert Radio Advert Local paper advert Show Dave stopping working and have a speech bubble appear above his head Did it do me any good? Have him talking directly at the screen: Well sort of.. Return to the neighbourhood scene once again and have Dave in normal body, taking off his trousers, putting on the A-Frame Board, Written on the A-Frame: Call Me 0444 555333 Have Dave running down the street and have people coming out of their houses and either smiling, clapping and pointing. 55
Capture more customers with video Different voice: Well there is a much better way than running around your neighbourhood naked to get noticed We re XXX and our clients tell us that we have one of the best success rates of any media. Here s how it works: Send in your promotional offer to us or work with one of our designers to create your large full colour ad We will place your ad, which is always a full page, into our next catalogue. Then Australia Post delivers it into each home for the areas you want to target be it your local area, all of metro or even across the nation We also combine our catalogue with our huge online database, so you can get access to thousands of households online too. Have the (trademarked) shopping basket from their logo, zoom onto the screen and fill it with the Letterbox deal logo. Have the shopping cart reduce in size and have multiple shopping carts appearing all over Australia. Map of Australia with Letterbox deals in the middle and shopping carts with ticks in them in appearing across Australia. Show Letterbox Deal Head Office and lots of happy friendly people working. Have a group that are talking about a fantastic advert that is appearing in the next catalogue. Have a stunning advertising page appear Place this advert into the Letterbox Deals catalogue Give it to a guy on a motor bike (Australian postman example on a motorbike image) Return to the neighbourhood above and have the motor bike delivering letters directly into people s mail boxes and handing it to people directly. 56
The nuts and bolts of video production Case study Start-ups Beyond simply selling to your market, video can be a powerful way to tell a select audience about your new business or product idea, such as an investor group. I received a call one day from a very quietly spoken man about a game he d invented he wanted to know if I would recommend him to an investor I knew. I usually pride myself on being able to grasp an idea pretty quickly, but on this occasion I really struggled. We must have spoken for 40 minutes and I still wasn t clear on what the game was all about. He confessed that he d had similar experiences before and had recently been turned down by a gaming investor who was quite curt with him. So we agreed to meet. He was a very clever man indeed and the game he d invented turned out to be equally clever it was just difficult to explain in words. We ended up working together to produce a video as part of an overall presentation to investors. The video really brought the game idea to life and made the unintelligible, understandable. I ended up going with my client to a couple of investor presentations as well as seeing the video bring the idea to life for a couple of his key suppliers too. Sufficed to say, he got the funding! Take outs Unless you are a truly great presenter, a video will usually add clarity and excitement to a product or business pitch A video can be a great way to explain very complex ideas and in a way that can be shared and reused by your audience 57