HOW DO I PLAN THE RIGHT CONTENT FOR MY VIDEOS?

By Ms. PG, in-house executive producer and director

So, you’ve decided that you’d want your brand’s video to be like the ones you’ve seen in Thailand, either those emotionally impactful ones that either trigger you to cry like there’s no tomorrow or laugh till you drop? If you’re wondering why these stories are so well executed and successful. And, here’s why:

TARGET AUDIENCE
Defining your target audience is the first and important step in your planning. This can be a complex process that includes building buyer personas. Why? Your audience is more than just one customer. So, what you’ve got to do is narrow down your audience to a specific target group and not generic audiences, and that will help you to prepare the right content in the video.

MESSAGE
What’s your message to the audience? “I have the best product, buy my product!” or “You should be here!” Instead of just telling people what to do, think carefully on why your audience should choose you instead of anyone else in the same business. The core values need to be strong, impactful and if it’s not emotional content, make sure it’s backed with the right knowledge and statistics.

BRAND STORY
No brand is created without a journey; no brand can grow without a story. What’s your brand story?
“The story is what gives the brand a life of their own.” Consider carefully what you’d like the content to be like, discuss it with your team and with your production house.

BUDGET
This is the next thing you should be planning carefully. This won’t cost you and an arm and a leg or both if you already understand what you’d like to achieve from this. Knowing your brand story, target audience and message ahead of time narrows down what you can do and cannot do for your brand video. Plan carefully but make sure you’re paying for quality, not just the most inexpensive.

SCRIPTING
Every word in a script is precious. Why? Think about the draggy Korean and Taiwan drama serials you’ve watched and switched off, and then think about the bored and unenthusiastic feeling you experience when you watch them. Would you want your target audiences to share the same feelings? Scripts are transformed into scenes. And no scenes should be wasted; every scene should be shot with a purpose. Why would some stories make you emotional?

PRIORITIZE THE FIRST 10 SECONDS
Fully utilize the first 10 seconds to hook in your audience. Audience are akin to a goldfish or even Dory in “Finding Nemo”, who suffers from short term memory loss. The moment you lose their attention, they won’t come back. You should always prioritize the story build-up for that first 10 seconds of your video.

VIDEO LENGTH
Your message should help you determine what story you’d like to tell, and the content once drawn up will determine your video length. Brand videos can be effective tools in content marketing, but having the right script, content and emotion will help you attain the ultimate goal of trusting your brand as an expert or a thought leader in the field.

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
A production schedule is crucial if you are going to the pre-to-pro stage, and should be updated regularly. From a production schedule, you should see the timeline, production schedule, post schedule and delivery schedule for both offline (raw edit) and online (audio mixing, color grading (if any) and final mixing).

There are many producers and production companies to work with if this is your first time working on your brand video. If you’re experienced with this process, give yourself more time to consider. Most importantly, talk to companies that will listen to your story and walk you through your video making process. There are more things that you should know, and they want to advise you on your content and offer alternatives.

Feel free to drop us an email at chitchat@2i1e.com to discuss on any plans you might have!

Video Production is Never Simple and There Are Many Factors to Consider – Talk to Production Houses That Will Listen and Share Their Advice!