Using the Corporate Video Intro To Create an Immediate Sense of Trust in the Company
It would have been another typical corporate video introducing a regional but hard working technology company, However, the intro to this video is so imaginative and unusual that it makes viewers stand up and take notice of the company, and importantly, want to know more about it.
Katlax is a company that was formed in 1980, and has worked on the creation of industrial sensors, with a whole range of applications. According to the video, the company has done well. Their technology is not in the same major league as companies manufacturing androids or robotics, yet this corporate video stands out because it presents a major league vision, which is conveyed to the viewer in the first 30 seconds of the video. How does this take place?
The video, which can be viewed at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8927703223545068827# begins with a presentation that is tangential to the actual material presented in the body of the video, but which successfully presents to the viewer a sense of the grand vision, which led to the company’s inception. The video starts with the sound of relaxing music, the type which is conducive to meditation or guided imagery. Then, the form of a human being appears. It fades away from the camera and permits us to see the muted bluish purple misty background. The human, we soon see is assuming the lotus position of mediation. As the visual imagery unfolds before our eyes the narrator informs us, in an interesting Indo-European accent, that “Human, is the most powerful living being on the planet, the human brain makes it so,” As the second phrase is spoken the human transforms into a transparent man, whose internal organs are visible. We see the brain, and golden light emanates from the man’s cerebrum. Then the narrator tells us that “Human is the most intelligent living being on this planet, the human brain makes it so.” As we listen to this phrase, the camera focuses on the brain of the human. We see golden connections inside the transparent skin. The background, which had switched to a stellar background, now turns into a surround of golden clouds, which makes us think of a supernal heavenly world. Then the narrator tells us that “Human is the only living being blessed with all the five senses of vision, hearing, smelling touch and taste.” As this phrase is being spoken, the human figure reverts to a physical opaque being. The being has no hair, and is seen in a modest posture, with the camera focusing on each sense organ, as it is named by the narrator. Circles of concentric blue ethereal light begin to surround the manikin. Finally the narrator tells us that “Human has transformed the human senses into electronic sensors.” The circular blue light is replaced by beams of light emanating from the brain of the human figure and passing through a golden glow background. As the phrase ends, the human figure reaches out to touch an electronic hand, and a beam of light radiates from the second finger of the man to the second finger of the robot. The orb of the sun appears in the background. The sun rises as the narrator tells us that a “silent revolution has begun.”
Hidden within this imaginative introduction, is some important information about the corporation. We see, and experience, by the dispassionate depiction of the human senses, that the founders of this corporation are people who have control over their own senses, which they are capable of viewing objectively. And secondly, we see growing out of that dispassion, the birth, growth and activation of a vision to apply the wisdom of the human senses to industrial applications. As this message comes through, it begins to give us faith in the company. In fact, we are not surprised to hear later on that the company has posted three recent years of 40% profit. An impressive accomplishment, especially at a time when many western corporations are failing. We see from the video that this is not a company run by men who will squander their profits in dissipation, these are people with self control and with a vision.
While I called this intro “unusual,” I did so from the perspective of a westerner. American corporations are much more likely to recruit viewer trust by presenting the great accomplishments and grand vision of the company, but without a segment devoted to showing a connection of that vision to a dispassionate experience of human intellect and potential. But the intro is worth looking at, because it does accomplish, right at the beginning, what every corporate video seeks to do, which is to enlist the faith of the viewer in their corporation.
