• How to Deliver an Engaging Event Recap Video

    How to Deliver an Engaging Event Recap Video

    Event recap videos are a great way to create quick and easy video content. It allows companies to showcase their collaborative, fun-loving culture whether its showing off their BBQs, beach trips, volunteer events or bike-athons.

    Too often, though, event videos resonate primarily with the people who were a part of the event. While that’s great for internal camaraderie to boost morale, it’s essential to engage a wider audience, like prospective talent and customers, with the same piece. With these three strategic tips in mind, you can elevate your event recap from merely an enjoyable video for the attendees to a creative piece of content to capture the attention of a wider target audience.

    • Every event has a story. The most common misconception of event videos is there’s no story to tell the audience. There may be some cool shots and an energetic song, but for the average viewer, there’s little reason to continue watching because there’s no deeper theme behind the onscreen fun. You can combat this issue and tell a more compelling story by including interviews with attendees or supplementary text overlays. For example, did you have a volunteer event where employees were giving back to the community or celebrating a healthy work/life balance? Pair visuals with the story to create a story the audience can resonate with, whether they participated in the event or not.

    • Don’t drag it out. It’s rare an event video should be longer than a minute or so. Unless you’ve taken the first point to heart and are truly weaving a compelling story from multiple interviewees together, longer event videos can be indulgent at best and unmindful of your audience’s time and attention at worst. In today’s era, shorter is almost always better. No one but you will lament the good-but-not-great footage that didn’t make the final cut. People only need a taste; they’re not going to stick around for a three course meal.

    • Capitalize on engagement with a meaningful call-to-action. So your event video has a great story and didn’t overstay its welcome – don’t miss your chance to engage with the viewer by fading to black. Determine what call-to-action best intersects with the event itself and your overall marketing strategy to leave the viewer with a message they can act upon. A call-to-action could be your social media handles, the date for next year’s event, a funny hashtag, or even a memorable tagline that ties in to the larger marketing goal.

    By keeping these few principles in mind, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of any event recap video. So get out there this summer and enjoy your team activities while driving greater business impact along the way. Need a hand? We’re here to help.

    Gabe Gerzon

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  • Everybody Grab Your Brand Buddy

    If any one word could lay claim to the zeitgeist of the last decade, it’s “community”. Obviously “community” has been a core driver of human behavior for millennia, but the past ten years have championed the term as the essence of not only how we market ourselves, but how we operate our businesses. As of a few years ago, it stopped being enough to have a good product; you also had demonstrate how your product, or your profits, benefited the community at large.

    This can be an overwhelming idea to startups or brands in crisis, who often suffer from a lack of exposure (or worse yet, an abundance of negative opinions). How are they supposed to break through the gut-wrenching, face-melting din of modern media and transform into an instinctual, essential part of customers’ daily lives?

    I’ll tell you what: you’ll get there a lot faster if you stop thinking about “community” and start thinking about “collaboration”. Having a good product and community benefit at heart isn’t the secret anymore; you have to demonstrate how your brand fits alongside the brands that have already established themselves with your audience and can draw a clear line between the product they offer and the betterment of mankind. So how do you find them?

    1. Build a customer profile. Build several, for that matter. Marketing, advertising and PR agencies have been doing this for decades, and there’s a damn good reason for it. Building a profile for your ideal customer allows you to envision the nuances of their daily lives, including the types of brands that are so essential they’ve basically become thoughtless reflexes. Your goal is to be so well-known that no one thinks about you at all.
    2. Figure out why their chosen brands are essential. For many of them, the reasons may be far from practical. Dive deep into your lizard brain and analyze how the brands in your daily life deliver comfort and validation. Understanding your customers’ emotional needs will make it easier to see how your product, service or idea can double-down on the real, intangible benefits those other brands deliver.
    3. Realize that it’s 2016 and brands = media. That means thinking like a journalist. Brands used to live entirely at the mercy of the media and what it chose to expose, but now the relationship is different. Brands’ best shot for long-term exposure is collaboration with media to produce meaningful content, hence the meteoric rise of guest columns, sponsored posts, brand journalism and content marketing. While you’re thinking about the brands your customers consider essential to daily life, explore which media they consider essential too. Consider that media relationships are the brand relationships you covet, and thus, the onus is on you to create the informed, unbiased, interactive content – with input from independent influencers – that media will want to provide to readers.
    4. Read their quarterly and annual reports. I don’t care how you feel about 30 pages of pie charts and long-winded mission statements. These reports not only deliver much of the transparency that millennials and entrepreneurs crave, they give you an immediate idea about where the brand is expected to go, and how it plans to fit in customers’ ecosystems, now and in the future. You’re not looking for a firework. You’re looking for a satellite.

    Successful brand partnerships are now a critical part of strategic exposure and long-term business growth. They don’t just burgeon one-off ideas – they establish positive associations, pool resources and allow brands to continuously learn from each other. If you’re looking to get your business off the ground, make sure at least one member of your team is dedicated to exploring partnerships, not just investors, with great potential. Too short on time? Here’s a partnership to kick things off.

    Vanessa Boynton

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  • A Newcomer’s Guide to Drone Videography

    A Newcomer’s Guide to Drone Videography

     At this day in age, it’s amazing to think that remote controlled drones (or UAVs) are becoming a part of everyday life. They can be seen in search and rescue applications, lighting scenarios, and of course aerial videography. When it comes to other places it can be useful, the sky is the limit (pun intended).

     

    Let me preface this write-up by stating that I am still a newcomer to the drone videography world. My goal for a while has been to learn any video rig I can get my hands on, and this is the most logical next step. The value in drone videography is obvious as well; shots from the sky add an interesting perspective to your video that simply cannot be replicated.

    At first I was under the impression that someone can go out and buy one of these and use it freely, similar to a remote controlled car- boy was I wrong. Here are a few tips and other things you should consider when becoming a drone enthusiast

    1. Start Small: A drone big enough for a camera complete with all the necessary batteries, prop guards, gimbal, and controllers will set you back at least a couple thousand dollars. Before making such a purchase, I found that buying this $70 drone is a great stepping-stone before graduating to the bigger contraptions. It helps with getting a feel for the controls, air resistance, and aerial maneuvering. It’s also inevitable that you’re going to have a few crash landings, which won’t damage it because of the small size (the drone in the link fits in the palm of your hand).
    1. Take a Class: Flying a drone is not a “plug and play” solution. There are important details such as calibration, course setting, home lock, airport communications, and many other things you need to know that can’t be summed up in a brief YouTube video. I found that taking an in-person course really helped me get familiar with both the drone and the app. The instructors are all licensed helicopter pilots who can address any other questions you may have, and there’s a block of class time that’s used for flight practice.
    1. Stay Current with Government Regulations: The FAA controls all of the airspace in our atmosphere. Whether it’s a few inches above your head or 400 feet off the ground, they are the ones who make the rules. It’s important to read up on their current and proposed regulations, so that you don’t get ticketed or fined for flying illegally. Right now, in order to make money from flying you’ll need to obtain an FAA 333 Exemption, or be a commercial airline pilot. While this paperwork can be easily applied for, it takes roughly six months for it to get approved and sent back. I’m writing this blog in June, and it’s been rumored that the FAA will be coming out with a separate set of drone pilot regulations this month. We’re still waiting on that, which leaves a lot of us commercial drone pilot hopefuls in limbo.
    1. Practice, Practice, Practice: Similar to the first tip I covered earlier in this blog, you can never have enough practice. After all, a great aerial shot cannot be achieved without great aerial maneuvering. Setup a chair or trash barrel in your yard and practice orbiting around it, with the nose of the drone constantly facing the subject. Once you’ve mastered that, give these a try.

    To sum it all up, it seems like drone flying is a hobby/professional tool that is here to stay. It’s an activity that should be done with safety as the number one concern, and enthusiasts should not rush to the finish line. I’ll leave you with my three favorite drone videos on YouTube (1) (2) (3). Happy flying!

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    Matter

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  • An HR Perspective on a Successful Company Volunteer Initiative

    For an HR professional working at a PR agency, I’m embarrassed to admit- but I’m no expert on blog posts (this is actually my first one ever so I hope I do my colleagues proud!)

    I started at Matter six months ago and was asked to lead our Helping Hands Matter Initiative (aka our amazing volunteer program). I was already excited to take on my new role as HR Manager and to join Matter, but to be asked to lead such a great initiative was a bonus.  I’ve always enjoyed volunteering in some capacity, but never truly knew how passionate I was about giving back until I started working at Matter as it is engrained in the culture here.

    Throughout the Matter website, you can visually see that Matter is committed to making a difference to those in need. Our efforts are encouraged by the motto People in need matter. Helping hands matter.  To see this written is one thing, but to actually witness the dedication, support and enthusiasm across all five of our offices has been beyond amazing and quite frankly- heartwarming to see. Some of our activities have included (but trust me this is not an all-inclusive list): volunteering at homeless shelters, sponsoring and serving meals to local communities, donating time at animal shelters, organizing supply drives for local communities, to all five of our offices participating in a walk to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis.

    You might be wondering how all of our employees and all of our offices are involved in this program. Every employee is encouraged to submit suggestions to the Helping Hands committee at any time. Each office has an AWESOME lead for this initiative and they meet with the committee members on a monthly basis to discuss any submitted suggestions and approve what organizations we will be supporting and/or sponsoring for the upcoming months. Currently, we have events booked through July!

    We have an agency goal of 500 hours by the end of 2016 and I’m happy to report that with just four months into the year we crossed the 300-hour mark at the end of April.  For a company with approximately 120 employees, this is an incredible accomplishment and I am 100% confident we will surpass the 500-hour mark well before the end of the year (if we don’t, I will write another blog admitting I was wrong!).

    Month after month, I am blown away by the excitement and support that this program has received and am forever thankful to Matter and our employees (now this blog is turning into a love letter) for making me realize one of the things I am most passionate about in life- giving back and making an impact in the lives of those in need.

    As Dr. Loretta Scott once said “we can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

    Matter

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