Death to the Corporate Video

A very common piece of feedback we get from our clients is to add more information, add details. Usually it's coming from a very good place. It's coming from a place of not wanting the audience to feel left out and removing any ambiguity to make a very clear and comprehendible ad. And while that sounds, and it can actually feel, like it's less risky, adding all those details is actually riskier an...

Big news: We’ve changed the name of our podcast from “So You Need a Video” to “Death to the Corporate Video.” Regular listeners may recognize that as the name of Guy’s book . But in addition to some consistency there, we wanted to update the podcast name to clearly show what we stand for. Our goal is to rid the world of bad corporate video. We want our listeners to generate growth with their video...

Marketing Week recently published a report claiming that 75% of B2B advertising is ineffective . In a study of 1,600 B2B ads watched by a whopping 6 million people, 75% of ads scored one star or lower on an emotional engagement scale. None of them reached the highest level of five stars.   In this episode of “So you need a video,” Guy and Hope break down what makes these B2B ads ineffective, why t...

Whenever you have a new or risky idea in marketing, there is going to be someone at your company who says no. Maybe they are risk-averse, maybe they just personally don’t like it. Either way, we all need strategies in our tool belt for how to defend great ideas, and how to push back on bad ones. In this episode, Hope and Guy give overview of our recommended strategies on pushing back on bad video...

As we talked about how to wrap up 2020, we didn’t want to focus on the negative. While a lot of 2020 was an anxiety-fueled dumpster fire, it also was a year of empathy, innovation, and reevaluating priorities. Looking into 2021, we decided to focus on our wishes and goals for the new year. Some of our wishes are things we’d like to see happen, and others are silver linings from 2020 that we’d like...

Like many marketing materials, the testimonial video appears deceptively simple. Go interview a happy customer, cut it together, boom, done, wonderful, slap it on the website! But we’ve seen plenty of bad examples of this format.  This episode will walk through 7 tips for how to create a testimonial video that works. Read the tips and access all the resources on our website: How to create an effec...

We here at Umault recently ran a video campaign for ourselves (yes, we practice what we preach). As our launch date approached, we made a checklist of all the things to do and check before hitting “go.” We found it very useful, and thought you might too. We’d like to share our secrets. Listen to the episode for a break down of the key steps you should take before your next campaign, or read the fu...

When and how to restart video production safely is one of the biggest questions in marketing and advertising right now. In this episode, we share the biggest changes you can expect on a video production set during COVID-19 and how our industry is adapting. For full details and a huge list of resources, read the guide on our website: Video production during COVID-19: How to restart safely Not ready...

Since the coronavirus pandemic started, it can feel like there is no good news out there for the economy or for marketers. However, we at Umault are inclined to look for the bright side. We figured that couldn’t be all bad, so we sent Tory out to gather up some good news. She came back with these five positive consumer trends for post COVID-19 that we hope will let a little sunshine back in your f...

We all know the sunken feeling of posting something to social and getting crickets in return. But if you’re a brand, especially in the B2B space, getting no engagement on your social media posts isn’t a sign that it’s just a bad joke. It’s a sign that you aren’t bringing value to your audience. And that means a missed opportunity to bring someone down the funnel. In some ways, social media engagem...

Before you hop over to google “video production [insert city name here]” to make a video for your business, there are several essential items you should have ready. The 6 things you should do before hiring a video production company 1. Identify your goals, objectives, and audience 2. Know your budget 3. Know your timeline or in-market timing 4. Develop a distribution plan 5. Have your script and s...

“Corporate video” was once a neutral descriptor for videos made by corporations. But now it’s become a dirty word. No one wants their video content described as “corporate” anymore. How did the phrase "corporate video" develop this negative connotation, and how can you make sure your content won’t get slapped with this label? Listen to the podcast or watch us on YouTube to learn where we think the...

Sometimes it’s obvious when you need an outside opinion, like when you’re trying to decide if that sweater from Anthropologie is actually cute or just weird. Other times, the value of an outside opinion is less clear. If you have a strong marketing department with great ideas and clear goals, do you really need to engage with an outside agency? What are they going to contribute that you don’t alre...

When Lady Gaga released her newest music video for Stupid Love “shot on iPhone,” the Umault team started thinking about the role of user-generated video in marketing. I personally live by the motto “If it’s good enough for Gaga, then it’s good enough for me,” but that’s probably not true for all brands as well. However, user-generated and self-taped content does have a role in the current media la...

During the holiday season, the high-end exercise company Peloton released an ad with a simple enough concept: Man buys his wife a Peloton. She works out all year and loves it. Thanks husband the next Christmas for the wonderful gift. And yet. The internet exploded with controversy over the spot. When we watched it, we sensed an overreliance on audience personas. Audience personas are a valuable ma...

Determining the right medium for your sales and marketing content is vital part of a robust communications strategy. It's like a balanced breakfast of content! Text and video can and should work together at different stages of your sales funnel to achieve different goals. Is text dead? Should I just stop typing this introduction right now and let you skip straight to the podcast? Determining the r...

What do you think of when you think of Super Bowl ads? Memorable spots? Your favorite celebrities? Big budgets? At Umault, we think of all of these things, but we mostly think about the entertainment value. And then we wonder, why can't all marketing and advertising be as entertaining as Super Bowl ads? Why aren't we always trying to entertain? Ah, entertainment. The key to capturing an audience's...

If there's one thing the team at Umault would love to see left behind in 2019, it's the limits that the terms "B2B" and "B2C" marketing put on the creative process (and also vertical cell phone videos but that's not relevant to this post). Businesses don't market to businesses. We market to people. Real ones who thought The Rise of Skywalker was flawed but emotionally satisfying and that more peop...

As people and as brands, we all desperately want to be liked by everyone. It's human nature. But when it comes to successful video marketing, you shouldn't be afraid of being disliked every once in a while. That's not to say that you should create content that offends people just to get the social media buzz. Well done video marketing content will be liked by the target audience and will elicit no...

We often don't think about how we experience and find new content online, but it all comes from one place: shares. Shares are how content moves across social platforms like Facebook or Reddit, and shares dictate how we consume content. As video marketers, we are constantly fielding questions about how to promote your video online. It leads to the eternal question, "How do we get our video shared?"...

Our business and personal conversations are filled with phrases used to show that we belong and create a feeling of being "in the club." These are words weaved into our day-to-day vocabulary in conscious, or even subconscious, attempts to communicate our intelligence and "wokeness" to the world (think words and phrases like "hone in on," "derive actionable insights," and "impactful".)   What if we...

Depending on marketing objectives you may need additional support.  Learn when to hire a marketing agency vs. utilizing your in-house marketing team. Episode notes When a new marketing project kicks off, it can be hard to pull together the right team for the job. Evaluating the current and potential talent within your organization can be time-consuming, political, and down-right difficult. And onc...

How can you decide if rushing your marketing video timeline is worth it? What pitfalls should you watch out for if you do decide to rush? How can you make sure that your rush video stays on track and goes as smoothly as it can?  Rush marketing projects  - when unforeseen circumstances force you to take the amount of time you know your project needs and condense it down to a timeline that's anythin...

When it comes to launching an internal initiative, it can be hard to know where to start. The standard intranet article, email blast, or templated PDF attachment are begging to be transformed into something more engaging. And more effective. Often, internal communications teams don't seriously consider using video or don't think they can justify spending "that kind of money" for something that is...

Coming up with a great idea for a video can be daunting. How can you make sure it’s good? How do you know it’s going to work? The development of a strong strategy and creative concept can help allay some of those fears and make you more confident in your video marketing game plan. But what about after you’ve gotten over the hump of those initial challenges and fears yourself, and it’s time to sell...