Positively Informed

More Than Words: Using Video to Communicate

June 12, 2012 at 9:19 am Angela 2 comments

By Angela Moriarty

If a picture speaks a thousand words, a video has the potential to say millions. And the tourism industry has got a lot to say – visitor numbers, media results, campaign creative and reach… basically more images and data than you can shake a tour bus at. A really big tour bus.

Businesses are increasingly using video as a means to communicate results and/or entertain and thank stakeholders. At their annual movie night with partners, the Trade Me team always pull out a beauty for the latter purpose.

You’ll no doubt be well acquainted with the Air New Zealand safety videos. But the airline also regularly uses the video medium to report on their activities and successes, for example with this clip outlining their use of social media:

Over the past few years Positively Wellington Tourism has taken the video route for reporting to our stakeholders at our end of year function. Not only is it a more approachable way of presenting information, you can get more detail in front of people than would be interesting in a written document or list in a speech. Video reports also double as great content for the many presentations to community and industry groups CEOs carry out as part of any good external relations strategy.

Despite the challenges 2011 put in front of the New Zealand tourism industry, Wellington had a record September, record winter and many more fantastic results. We did our best to summarise the volume, variety and, most importantly, the results of our year’s work into a few minutes:

Wellington Zoo also showcased their impressive results through video:

In 2010 we went down the case study route,  sharing the process and results of the launch of Wellington’s first major consumer campaign in Australia. In the 24 months to March 2012 since its launch, this campaign has seen Australian visitor arrivals into Wellington increase by 21%.

Who Do We Use for Video Production?

We often get asked for advice as to which agencies and individuals we use for contract work. When it comes to corporate video, we script and plan internally and get Touch/Cast to  put it together and make it look good.

There are definitely going to be occasions where time and budget don’t justify or accommodate utilising a professional. As we approached WLG Melbourne, we plugged some very amateur footage we’d take at the Sydney version of the pop up restaurant project into Microsoft Movie Maker. Not exactly groundbreaking production software, but chances are it’s on your computer already and if I can figure it out, I’d contend most people can.

Another thing the DIY video producer needs is rights-free music (don’t risk breaching copyright by using any old tune you like without permission). You can spend a lot of time online searching for this stuff – a colleague directed me to jewelbeat.com, which has a range of decent tracks for a bargain US99c.

The end result is certainly not going to win any production awards, but shows something can be done from the simplest tools and footage:

What are your experiences with corporate video, and what great tools/tricks/examples do you have to share?

Entry filed under: Digital, Media & PR. Tags: Air New Zealand, annual reports, communications, digital, media, Positively Wellington Tourism, social media, tourism, Trade Me, travel, video, Wellington Zoo.