Effective video by simple means

Corporate communicators can definitely learn from news media. This week, for example, the New York Times published the following 2-minute video on the riots in London:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/08/10/opinion/100000000992337/what-is-driving-the-riots-.html?emc=eta1

It is gives a professional impression and communicates effectively, yet there is no evidence of any high-end equipment having been used in its production. Obviously, the NYT had access to some very striking imagery and video clips, but the narrative by Roger Cohen seems to have been recorded using the built-in camera of the very laptop computer on which he wrote the story.

One may assume that the editing was done by a specialist with an advanced video workstation, but any modern computer with inexpensive or bundled software would in fact have been sufficient.

Thus, a video that communicates a current story and is of professional quality with regard to the demands that web use sets can be produced without involving a team of experts. All that is needed is a message to communicate, a handful of reasonably good images to illustrate it and someone who is sufficiently handy with editing software. And, of course, a corporate communicator prepared to appear on moving images reading the message.

Such videos could routinely be attached to press releases – not least in order to appeal to smartphone and tablet users, to whom, in particular, it may be natural to watch the video before reading the text. Also, a well-filled video library gives opportunities for extra corporate exposure through services like YouTube.