How To Avoid Becoming a Punch List Person
How To Avoid Becoming a Punch List Person
Picture this: You’re getting ready to create your first video for your company. It’s time to meet with the great production company you’ll be working with, and you come prepared with a list of video must-haves. It might look something like:
- Really needs to be creative and original
- Needs to fully represent our brand
- Has to pack an emotional punch that will get our employee audience very excited
- Should touch on all ten of our company values
- Must have a great diversity of people—age, race, gender and background
- Should probably briefly hear from some of our executives, including our CEO, COO, CMO, and the VP of each business unit
- We also want to hear from some of our employees
- Definitely should be no more than 2 minutes
The company you hired seemed so capable at the start—so why are you getting so much pushback on your great ideas? If the video doesn’t achieve each item on your list, you’re never going to hear the end of it from the executives.
If this is you, you’re officially a punch list person. Now, let’s break down why cramming all of these elements into one video won’t accomplish everything—and potentially not even one of your goals.
Who Has To Be In Your Video?
It would certainly be wonderful to include your corporation’s executive lineup, management team, and some ground level employees. You might assume this casting would capture the full view of your company.
In fact, fitting too many people into your video can be totally counterproductive. The messaging sent by executives will be very different in content and tone than messaging from employees, especially when your video’s audience is new hires or existing employees.
And if your video has to be under 2 minutes but include 5 execs, 3 VIPs, and 4 employees, that’s merely 10 seconds for each person. That’s barely enough time to establish who they are, let alone sent an impactful message.
If Your Company Video is Limited for Time, What Are You Willing to Lose?
The length of your company video is crucial to keeping your audience’s attention. If it’s too long and the pacing isn’t right, you’ll lose people before they get to hear your important message.
So what are you willing to lose? Who can you cut out of the casting? How many locations can you realistically shoot in and include in the final cut? Which stories are essential, and which are just nice to have? Are there brand or identity guidelines to consider? Do you need to have a logo at the beginning or end, a graphic style to lead the direction, music that will guide the pacing?
How to Achieve Your Video Punch List
There’s no reason all of the elements on your punch list can’t be completed with a corporate video. The strategy is to assess these elements and divide them up into multiple videos.
You might want to create a series that highlights diverse employee stories. Or break them up by corporate value—you can only fit one or two messages into a short video before they get muddled.
When Tribe was hired by BASF to create recruiting films that highlighted the diverse stories of their employees, we broke them up into several focused stories.
Raise the Flag celebrates LGBTQ+ employees.
Sundar’s profile explores the comprehensive benefits package the company offers.
Change the Stars follows a military veteran’s upward journey.
You could work with your production team to develop multiple versions of the same video—a long cut for a dedicated audience like shareholders, a shorter video for the general public, and an even shorter cut for social media.
Your might be surprised by how creative you can get when you face roadblocks and limitations. Your final product might not look like the punch list you started with. But letting go of some of your “must-haves” could be the move you need to make for your video to be a must-watch.