Despite video being one of the most shared media online, many people in the PR world are often sceptical about investing time and money to create video content for their campaign
Although it’s difficult to measure the exact return of any individual video, its potential reach is vast. By 2017, video will account for 69% of all internet traffic – that’s according to networking giant CISCO.
So if a picture paints a thousand words, then a short one minute video must be worth at least 1.8 million. Video is emotive and engaging and ultimately easy to consume – allowing the viewer to gain maximum impact with little effort required. YouTube is still the second most popular website in the world, behind Google, and more than 100 hours of video are uploaded to it every minute.
So what’s the benefit of creating your own broadcast PR video? Well, firstly you are guaranteeing it WILL be filmed. Often broadcasters sign up to come along to events or agree to an interview with a spokesperson, and the nature of news means another story will break which pushes your story off the agenda. You may find that you’ve gone from having three or four potential pieces of coverage to no coverage at all. If you commission a video production agency like Shout! to film your event and distribute B-roll to broadcasters or video for online – you’re not at the mercy of the news editors. No matter what else happens in the world of news, the broadcasters will be guaranteed to get video/B-roll of the event which they can use as they wish.
Also, if you commission your own video as part of your broadcast PR campaign, it puts YOU in control. You have editorial say in what interview clips, shots and brand messages are put across and how the final video should look and feel. Ultimately it means you and/or your client won’t be disappointed with the end result
Shout! filmed various videos and B-roll for P&O Cruises to mark the official naming of their new cruise ship Britannia in March of this year. Although various broadcasters were also present at the event – we were used as the general broadcast resource for the occasion. We filmed interviews with celebrities who had limited time availability meaning they only had to agree to do one interview which was distributed to all broadcasters. We were also able to film in the hard to reach areas at the event – taking the onus off the news crews to achieve that ‘perfect shot’.
Importantly, by deciding to invest in a video you’ll be creating a permanent record of your broadcast PR campaign which will give it a lasting legacy. If you’ve spent a lot of money on a celebrity spokesperson and an amazing location – why would you not want to immortalise it in video? Online videos remain on the internet in perpetuity and will continue to be sought out by those craving information and entertainment. For example – the Dove Real Beauty sketches have had more than 65 million views since being uploaded two years ago.
If you place a video on your website, you are also helping to drive more traffic to the site. Web pages which contain video are 53% more likely to appear in one of the top 10 Google searches. This is down to Google’s blended algorithms which are heavily weighted towards video content. So by simply hosting a video you’re more likely to get noticed.
It’s clear for the foreseeable future at least that online video is here to stay – with more and more investment in the industry being made every year. It’s possible that many businesses which have not already seized the opportunity to create video assume they have missed the boat – but it’s not too late to get involved. So if you are interested in using video as part of your PR campaign, drop us an email on hello@shoutcommunications.co.uk or call 0207 240 7121.
