Creating Corporate Videos That Excite the Public
Corporate videos with intrinsically interesting material must still be presented interestingly or their potential gain will slip out of the grasp of the fingers. An example of a corporate video that presents interesting material in a way that bores the audience can be seen in the Certisource 2007 seen on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Certisource .
Certisource has invented a technology, which is very useful and also, emotionally charged. Their unique DNA testing technology for timber helps regulators in countries such as Indonesia to put an end to the devastating deforestation, which officials say is destroying tropical forests the size of the country Belgium, every year.
A video documentary of the problem only has to present scenes of the devastation of vast acres of deforestation, or shots of orphaned wild animals hiding along side the naked stretches of deforested land, to grab the attention of the viewer. This video has the ability to add to that fact the observation that there are responsible forms of timber harvesting, which can supply our lumber needs, while still preserving forests. The video uses a bit of this effective imagery as we watch the interview with the administrator of the company, who sits on the porch of his home, surrounded by lush forest, which his company tries to preserve.
Yet, despite the fact that there are all these potentially powerful emotionally evocative images to present to the public, the video comes across as downright boring. The mistake the video makes is to focus too much on dull statistics, and leave out until the middle of the video, powerful images of the devastation of deforestation, and to leave out almost entirely images of the beautiful habitats being preserved by responsible timber harvesting. The video also fails to include any images depicting the intricate wonders of this new scientific technique the company uses to detect illegal harvesting with DNA fingerprinting.
What type of dull material does the video present instead? The film starts out by informing us that the global timber market is over 120 billion dollars a year. That type of statement might be interesting if the video was made for a timber company. But that fact has next to nothing to do with the success of this DNA fingerprinting company. Then the video goes on to say that “the majority of the timber is traded without any clear knowledge about the origins and hence the legality of the timber.” This second statement is not only boring, it is frightening to potential corporate investors. Nothing makes potential corporate investors more nervous than to hear about legal suits. The one weak question that will remain in the minds of people who manage to sit past this statement is what has this to do with the financial success of Certisource, a manufacturer of DNA fingerprinting tests.
A related video, made by Singapore Tonight, a news show reporting on the use of DNA fingerprinting to stop the illegal harvesting is seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/Certisource#p/a/u/0/aWTSj7UOeUM .
The news reporter comes out hitting hard, and in the first sentence describes the DNA fingerprinting as a possible solution to stop illegal logging in Southeast Asia and to prevent smugglers from using false paper work to export illegally harvested wood. Then the news report switches to the field. We see acres of naked smoking earth that has been illegally deforested. “Stolen timber,” we are told, “worth almost 2.5 billion dollars, is being traded, (around the world).” Then the news report goes on to explain how the DNA fingerprinting works and how it identifies stolen timber by comparing the DNA of trees brought to lumber mills with the DNA of trees in legal harvest areas. If someone brings trees to a mill and the DNA doesn’t match, they are told sorry, your trees were logged illegally and we won’t mill them.
The moral of this report, don’t hold your fire. If you have powerful information, images and documentation, to present to the public, bring it right out in the first scene of your video, in order to grab the attention of your viewers, and hold them riveted in their seats.
