Video Blog Archives - Demo Duck

Inside Our LED Wall Shoot for Hopewell Brewing Co.

Jarrett Hothan — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 02:43:47 +0000

Demo Duck recently wrapped a delicious LED wall experiment, producing a video series for a local Chicago brewery. From embracing new technology to partnering with old friends, the project had plenty of layers to it. Our ACD Jarrett Hothan tells the story from his unique perspective.

In 2011, my friend Jonathan Fritz picked me up for band practice. Chicago had finally thawed out after a long winter, and the fresh optimism of spring was in the air. During that ride, Jon told me something interesting. He was finally setting in motion a dream long fermenting with his University of Illinois friends Samantha Lee and Stephen Bossu—they were going to open a brewery in Chicago.

Although our band unceremoniously disbanded after one show, it’s safe to say Jon's new side project was destined to be a hit. After years of planning, The Hopewell Brewing Company officially opened its doors in 2016, bringing crisp, crushable beers to the masses—especially via their bright and welcoming taproom in Logan Square. From day one, their visual branding was on-point—minimalist and tasteful packaging design with vivid colors, sharp angles, visible brush strokes. Hmm, maybe this stuff would look good in motion…

Our team capturing some footage of the Hopewell Tap room to display on the LED wall.

Tapping a New Technology

Certainly a few things have happened since 2016. Perhaps the most noteworthy? That’s right. Baby Yoda. Grogu, the cute, coo-ing, merchandising machine, became the breakout star of The Mandalorian. But another major star of the series was “The Volume,” a 20-foot-tall, 75-foot-wide, 270-degree immersive LED space designed custom by Industrial Light and Magic. The LED wall created high-resolution backgrounds that are illuminated as an actual light source—making the space western scenery all the more immersive and realistic as opposed to a green screen.

Naturally, the Demo Duck team wanted to get our hands on that thing. No, not Grogu. I’m talking about the LED wall. We’re always trying to learn new video production styles or try out new technology to elevate the work we do. Since we didn’t have a specific project that called for the LED wall, we decided to do a spec project where we’d bring to life a concept that would be a good use of its unique production benefits. An exciting decision, but it raised a few questions. Where would we find an LED wall? And what would we even shoot?

RJ Pole is a producer for MK Films in Chicago, a company that specializes in “tabletop production,” which finds dynamic, delicious ways to showcase food and beverages on film. And guess what they just added to their arsenal? An LED wall. Perfect! We reached out to RJ and his team to see if they’d be interested in partnering with us on the project and letting us use their studio space and the LED wall. Not only were they in, RJ also offered some creative advice for our concept development. He mentioned that the LED wall really sings when it’s the background for liquid, providing a delicious brightness and beautiful reflecting off glass.

The Ducks flocking together at MK Studios with the LED wall in the back. RJ Pole, pictured right.

The Fermentation Process

Our team hosted a brainstorming session featuring different ways we could utilize the LED wall. From explainer video parodies to fun multiversal bits, the room was buzzing with creative energy. However, RJ’s advice regarding the LED wall and its beverage benefits really offered us a “north star” to help us hone an idea. Let’s create a series of product-focused videos for Hopewell that uses the LED wall to bring their vibrant branding to life for the first time in motion.

Naturally, the Hopewell team was excited and on board for us to use their product and branding for our spec project. Who doesn’t like three cool videos produced on-the-house in the name of creative experimentation? Their only request was for us to use beers that are typically brewed year-round, so we settled on Ride or Die, Clover Club and Lightbeam due to their gorgeous packaging designs.

Call me Ishmael, I must confess that I am more of a narrator of this journey than captain of the ship. Our core project team involved a variety of Ducks, including Creative Director Kelsie Ozamiz, Producers Katie Williamson, Marissa Davis and Cody Benefiel, Designer/Animators Jake Allen, Aimé DeLattre and Ossian Mendoza, and our Director/Editor Nick Roth. Design and animation was a main part of our pre-production process. For two of our videos, we planned to have the LED wall display real footage of a warm evening on the lakefront and the Hopewell tap room—only for it to transition into animated versions of the Hopewell packaging designs. Creating this animated graphics was led by Aimé, our motion graphics guru who I actually met for the first time at Hopewell’s tap room.

“It was important to remember that the animations needed to serve as a background for the scene,” said Aimé. “Since the camera is shooting from different angles, or occasionally might blur the background when shooting something in the foreground, I needed to make sure both the design and the motion of the elements was very obvious.”

The Perfect Pour

Once we had all of our assets to display on the LED wall ready, it was time for the shoot! Our intrepid producer Marissa helped pull together props for the shoot to also bring some personality and color to the real objects in the foreground. These included a finished wood surface to create the illusion of the Hopewell taproom bar, as well as a delicious picnic scene. This is the magic of the LED wall. What we’re displaying is the location—all we need to do is switch out the elements and actors in the foreground. This certainly made things a little easier for the full team, and freed up producers like Cody to lend creative suggestions and more.

“In this case, we were able to accomplish the effect of a large location shoot without all the equipment moves and setups,” said Cody. “It really took the stress off me that day to not have to think through those aspects. Even though we were just experimenting with angles with the LED wall in the background, it made the video feel very lived in and immersive.”

Our first video for Lightbeam featured the sunny Hopewell taproom on the LED wall, and our well-coiffed ACD Jake in the foreground taking a sip of the beer. The idea was that he would then enter into a world of flavor, drawing slight inspiration from 90s advertising for Tang, Gushers and other teeth-rotting delights. Aimé’s animations then transform the taproom into a colorful squiggly interpretation of the beer label. Marissa and I got to work dueling hair dryers to create a transformative “flavor” effect of wind blowing back Jake’s hair. Practical effects are back, baby.

The second video was for Clover Club. This was an interesting creative pivot from earlier iterations of the project. We were thinking of maybe another “location turning into animated label” bit, but Kelsie brought up the idea of creating a video based on, well, good vibes. Inspired by the gin cocktail of the same name, Clover Club features a vibrant, flowery label. So we decided to create a sunny picnic with a high-definition nature background. Our director/editor Nick, who shot the footage, saw the LED wall as a unique advantage.

“The LED wall was great because I was able to keep an eye on the background and use that changing light and react to what was happening in real-time,” said Nick. “This was especially important for the picnic scene, where I made sure to shoot footage that featured light reflecting off the glasses, cans and other objects to really make it vibrant and feel outdoors.”

An interesting learning was that the luminance of the LED wall isn't always your best friend when it comes to shooting beverages. We found that the light reflecting off the cans was indeed a little harsh from certain angles, and was throwing off the desired vibe of the footage. We sprayed the cans with a a little bit of dulling spray, reducing reflections and light glare. This is a common issue that MK Films encounters for such shoots, and they have a full toolbox on hand for problem-solving customizations.

The day was moving and grooving, and soon it was time for the third and final video for Ride or Die. It was also time for me to serve as on-screen talent. This video featured myself and Ossian as two buddies meeting up at the Chicago lakefront to enjoy a tasty beverage, which would then transform into the Lake Michigan-inspired packaging. It was the role I was born to play—step aside Daniel Day-Lewis!

Although Ossian and I’s actions were pretty minimal, my takeaway was how much intricacies and timing are often necessary for key moments like a can opening or even toasting. When the pressure is on and the cameras are rolling, it’s funny how you can overthink everyday actions. Fortunately, Nick and Kelsie were there to guide our timing. “Alright enter…walk…open cooler…crack beer…cheers!” If there's no need to capture audio, there's nothing wrong with over-communicating and working out a plan for choreographing small actions.

After the shoot wrapped, it came time for the edit. This was handled by Nick, and former Duck and current freelancer partner Sam Powell. Since Hopewell wasn’t an official client per say, it allowed our team to explore the right story or shot mix that we wanted. When it came to the edit, Nick’s main goal was to have each video feel slightly different, and feature the product shots in unique ways as well.

Lights, camera, chug! Aimé, Jake and Chris get ready for their on-screen debut while Kelsie helps direct.

Last Call

Three delicious brews. Three delicious videos. And of course, lots of learnings from our first experience working with the LED Wall. We still love building immersive live action sets, or utilizing green screens or colorful cyc walls. It’s all about what is best for the client and concept. Hopefully these videos—and the transformative power of the LED wall—can transport you to a sunny Lake Michigan day with a cold beverage with a buddy. Or if you’re in the Chicagoland area, you can actually visit the Hopewell tap room in person. Maybe you’ll see me there…strictly doing research for the next video series, of course.

The post Inside Our LED Wall Shoot for Hopewell Brewing Co. appeared first on Demo Duck.

Remote Networking: Keyframes & Kegs Mega Reel

Kelsie Ozamiz — Wed, 13 May 2020 18:28:38 +0000

Keyframes & Kegs is Demo Duck’s ongoing event series for Chicago-based video and motion creatives. It’s a chance for folks to network, and share their own work, with the creative community. Because of the circumstances surrounding coronavirus, a live event just wasn’t possible this spring. But we knew amazing local work was still being made—even from home. So, we put out the call for video submissions from Chicagoland area creatives to help us build the very cool-sounding, Keyframes & Kegs Mega Reel (cue air horn). It was our way of bringing everyone together, from a safe distance. Check it out!

A special thank you to everyone who submitted their latest projects. Demo Duck is so proud to be able to support local creatives in the Chicago area. If you’d like to see more work from the artists, animators and rockstars in this video, hit one (or many!) of their links below. We’re looking forward to hosting more Keyframes & Kegs events as soon as we’re able.

Tim Whalen / Big Foot Media
Dante Zaballa
David Wall
Josh Van Praag / The Mill
Alejandro De Hoyos Lechuga / ILA Creative
Alex Johnson / The Disruption Society
Brad Backofen / Flavor
Sam Powell / Flightless Bird Creative
Keith Wilson
Zach Landua / The Mill
Jake Mathew
Chas Fries / Polymyth Productions
Jon Silver / ShowPup Network
Erik Jensen / Run Kick Shout
Katrina Zimmerman
Alison Kim
Ollie Mamaril
Dan Moore
Andrew Lucas / ps mediaworks
Devin Hayes
Danny Perry
Sebastian Buffa
Laura Lewis-Barr

The post Remote Networking: Keyframes & Kegs Mega Reel appeared first on Demo Duck.

Caption This! The Ins-and-Outs of Captioning Your Marketing Video

Jarrett Hothan — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 21:31:22 +0000

When it comes to recent video projects, captions are the equivalent of where I bought band t-shirts as a moody teenager in 1999.

A Hot Topic.

We have more platforms than ever to connect with audiences through video. And with more platforms come more variables to consider when producing video, especially when it comes to captions. For example, YouTube allows closed captions, but Instagram does not. If you want to create captioned video to live on both, how do you avoid potential cross-channel caption confusion at the end of a project?

The key is to plan for captions early as possible in the production process.

Maybe this is the first marketing video you’re creating for your small business, perhaps you’ve created hundreds of explainer videos but have yet to tackle captions, or you’re just curious about captions in general. So let’s back up a little. What are the different kinds? Why even use them? Well, put on your favorite 2000s band (shouts out Incubus) and let’s get into it.

A Captions Rundown

Closed captions are the approach that you’re probably most familiar with seeing. They’re the small, black boxes that traditionally feature white text within them. You’ve seen them on TV when watching your favorite team lose at a loud bar, or on social sites like YouTube, Wistia and Facebook. Closed captions can be turned on and off by the viewer, and can easily be modified within the video file (more on that later). With this flexibility also comes some limitations. Closed captions only work if they’re supported by the platform, and put some responsibility on the viewer to operate them if that platform doesn’t enable them by default.

Hey, the handsome guy on screen has a point.

Open captions, on the other hand, are captions that are permanently in the video file. They cannot be turned on and off, like closed captions can. Open captions are often referred to as being “burned in.” They give you a certain element of control—you know that the captions will be visible no matter where they appear, and you can choose their font and color. But open captions can be restrictive too. Say you wanted to reformat a landscape video (with open captions) to vertical orientation for an Instagram story. The permanent captions could now be partially cut off on-screen.

You may be wondering—what’s the difference between captions and subtitles? Well, subtitles are different than captions because they are an alternative to the dialogue being spoken aloud on screen. They’re usually of a different language than the audio, and can include action notes or notifications and descriptions of non-speech sounds.

Perhaps the cousin of captions is the use of text on-screen, like kinetic typography. This approach allows you to emphasize key lines of the script, while using colors and fonts to evoke the emotions behind the words. However, these are best used as part of a larger creative concept, and not a solve to help with accessibility.

Why We Use Captions

Traditionally, captions are used to improve accessibility. About 20 percent of Americans have some degree of hearing loss, so it’s important to give them the option. Some entities—including US federal offices and universities—are required by the American Disabilities Act, or ADA, to caption any video content that they share. For most short form video projects, Demo Duck provides closed captions files to our clients free of charge for accessibility reasons. They’re easy to create, and give the client some flexibility of how they use them.

But now in the auto-muted world of social media, audiences may be viewing your video content without sound by default. Or, maybe they are watching it on their smartphone during their commute and forgot their headphones. In addition to helping with accessibility, captions are now a way to adapt to the creative constraints put in place by a platform itself. What good is creating a well-produced piece of video content if your message isn’t communicated—either by sound or by caption?

Captions and the Production Process

Captions are quite helpful in a variety of ways. But how do they show up in the video you’re watching?

When creating a video with closed captions, we’ll take the approved script for the video and format the text into an .SRT file. Each captions is organized within a “trigger,” a set amount of time when the caption will be displayed on screen. We’ll then deliver the .SRT file to you along with the final video file (traditionally a .mp4 or .mov) once the project is finished. When you go to upload the video to a platform that supports closed captions, you’ll upload the .SRT file as well.

Creating open captions for a video is easy if they are part of the project from the start. Retrofitting them after a project is finished is where things get tricky. The lower third of a frame, where captions are displayed, is prime real estate. Maybe in that area there’s already some tiny characters. Or important scene-setting elements. Or even a logo on display! Adding open captions on top of a finished product risks overlapping important parts of your video.

When we typically kick off a project, we work with our clients to determine where the videos will eventually live. This helps to give everyone a better sense of how we should caption. If a video is going to be used, say, in a trade show booth at a busy, noisy conference center, we can decide together to go with open captions. That way, every asset—from storyboards to styleframes—can be designed with this in mind.

An Open Ending

Captions are a hot topic indeed, and that isn’t a bad thing. Not only do they help with accessibility for audiences, they can also make sure your message breaks through in a busy social media stream. Also, captions aren’t necessarily cumbersome to a viewer, even if they don’t need them. Maybe this is a blog post for another day, but popular culture might be making audiences more comfortable with text on screen. From the popularity of subtitled anime, diversity of favorite meme formats, and the joy of sharing frames of .GIFs from our favorite shows or movies—it’s important to consider the changing way of how we process static or moving images. But as always, text on-screen—in our case, captions—are used most effectively once you have a firm understanding of your audience and the platform your video will live.

By approaching a video project with that mindset, a Hot Topic can become a Sam Goody. Just don’t forget that you’re Limited Too constraints of platform where the video is shared. Oh boy. Maybe I should just put my AIM away message on and get out of here…

The post Caption This! The Ins-and-Outs of Captioning Your Marketing Video appeared first on Demo Duck.

Tools of the Craft: Episode 3 – Wipster

Colin Hogan — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 21:31:31 +0000

COLIN: Welcome to tools? Yeah?

THERESA: To tools [laughs].

BOTH: Welcome to ‘Tools of the Craft’.

COLIN: I’m Colin.

THERESA: I’m Theresa.

COLIN: Today we’re gonna be talking about a tool-

THERESA: While making a craft.

THERESA: Today’s tool is Wipster. Wipster is a video review tool that we use internally and with our clients for a lot of our video productions.

COLIN: Well, do you want to do the honors and grab the mystery box?

THERESA: Yes, let’s see what is in the box.

COLIN: Bust it out.

THERESA: Let’s look inside. We got some pens. This seems serious.

COLIN: Some sticky pads. Post-it Notes, that’s the word I was looking for.

THERESA: And-

COLIN: Looks like we’re making…if you haven’t guessed yet …

THERESA: Flipbooks.

COLIN: Whoa, that’s so flipping exciting.

THERESA: Here you have a little stick man jumping.

COLIN: Stick man jumping, huh?

THERESA: Time to get crafting. We have a note that says, don’t draw here. We’re not going to draw at the top.

COLIN: That’s our safe margin up here.

How does your team use Wipster?

COLIN: So for the main feature of Wipster, when you add comments, it’s pretty straightforward. You just pause or click on a frame while a video is playing, and wherever it is in that frame, you can add a comment. If there’s a specific element in the frame, you can actually drag and drop where your comment is. Okay, this pylon, can we change the color from white to blue? Where there’s a little-

THERESA: Did you say pylon?

COLIN: Yeah, if there’s a pylon in the background.

THERESA: That’s not something I really think about.

COLIN: Well, I don’t know why I did think of it. I don’t know why I did think of it, but …

How does Wipster fit into your video production process?

THERESA: Demo Duck will review a video, perhaps an explainer video or testimonial video, and we can just add our comments in there, send that Wipster link off to our freelancers, and they have everything there. Again, we can do discussions right there in Wipster.

COLIN: Yeah, so I think working backward is actually not helping me.

THERESA: Ooh, interesting.

COLIN: Controversy. My favorite feature within Wipster is probably that finished reviewing checkbox, just because I like to get that notification and it just makes things a little bit cleaner. You can just click it, go about your day, and I know that it’s done. So I just like how clean it is.

What’s your favorite Wipster feature?

THERESA: My favorite feature is the versioning. Just upload new versions right on top of the old one. It makes it easy to know what’s the most current version, and then also, if I need to go back and review a previous version, I can just flip a switch and it’s right there with all of the comments in there ready to go.

COLIN: Are you almost done?

THERESA: I am almost done, yeah.

COLIN: Wrapping up the last frame, or at least faking it, that I’m finishing up the last frame. We present it now?

THERESA: Pencils down.

COLIN: Pencils down.

THERESA: Pencils down.

COLIN: So I did a little retro, went back and did a Pong match if you will-

THERESA: Oh nice.

COLIN: If you’re familiar. I’m pretty happy with it. What did you do?

THERESA: I did a duck.

COLIN: Oh snap.

THERESA: First thing that came to my head, since we have a lot of ducks around here.

COLIN: Quack.

THERESA: Ooh, nice.

COLIN: Oh wow, exit frame is back into frame, and then you try to get ‘Quack’ as a fill there. That’s pretty good.

Tool review

THERESA: I would rate Wipster seven-and-a-half flip books, yeah.

COLIN: I’ll go full eight because I don’t think we’re utilizing it to the best of its abilities. So eight flip books for me.

COLIN: Wipster was the tool.

THERESA: Flipbooks was the craft.

COLIN: And this was tools of the craft.

THERESA: See you next time.

The post Tools of the Craft: Episode 3 – Wipster appeared first on Demo Duck.

Tools of the Craft: Episode 1 – Airtable

Colin Hogan — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:14:23 +0000

For our first ever episode of ‘Tools of the Craft’, we reviewed Airtable! Airtable is one of our favorite collaboration applications that helps make our lives easier during the video production process. See how we utilize the tool in the above video or check out the transcript below. Stay tuned for more episodes of ‘Tools of the Craft’ in the coming weeks!

BOTH: Welcome to ‘Tools of the Craft’.

SAM: I’m Sam.

NICKY: I’m Nicky.

SAM: And today, we’re going to be talking about a tool.

NICKY: While making a craft.

SAM: Our tool today is Airtable. It’s a tool that we use for some creative databases and some project tracking. Little bit of this, little bit of that.

NICKY: We have a mystery box that we are about to open and find out what our craft is. Should we, like do a little…

SAM: Oh.

NICKY: Some origami.

SAM: Origam-ayee. [laughs] it looks like we’re gonna be making a paper airplane. When you were a kid, did you ever make a really solid plane?

NICKY: I actually didn’t.

SAM: Yeah, me neither. Interested to see how this goes. Can I have blue paper, since it’s my favorite color?

NICKY: Yeah.

What do you use Airtable for?

SAM: So introduced Airtable into our animated video production process towards the end of last year as an alternative creative database.

NICKY: We put all of our creatives’ information in there and what their specialties are.

SAM: Yeah.

NICKY: Specialties like 2-D animation or 3-D animation. This is actually really difficult…

SAM: Does this mean I have to make a cut into the paper? I’m on step two right now, and I’m already… I don’t know if I can do it.

NICKY: I use Airtable to do a lot of things, actually. I use it as a social media calendar, as well as marking the social posts after they go out.

SAM: It’s cool to see how we both use the same tool in very different ways.

What problem does Airtable solve for you?

NICKY: I can’t even imagine when I wasn’t using Airtable and someone asked me to edit a spreadsheet or put something in a spreadsheet, and I would just cringe. But now I’m just like “sign me up!” Wait, you’re there. I’m getting like really sweaty doing this.

SAM: Yeah, me too.

What’s your favorite feature of Airtable?

NICKY: My favorite feature is all of the filters that you can use. You can put all this data into one table and easily use a filter to see what you need. If you want to see who is a 3-D animator or who is a 2-D animator. Instead of jacking up all your data, it just easily puts it into a nice filtered out… System? I don’t know how to describe it.

SAM: Yeah.

NICKY: Wait what happens in between this step?

SAM: So I’m like right here.

NICKY: Wait, that’s close. I think it’s this cause it’s on the outside I think.

SAM: Yours looks way different. I’ve maybe folded the wrong way.

How does Airtable fit into your workflow?

SAM: When a project comes down a pipeline, and a producer needs to find a creative to work on it, they’ll go to Airtable, and they’ll look through our creative database.

NICKY: And if we need a reference to some of their work, instead of having to click on all their websites, we put in some reference GIFs, or images, just to see some of their animation pieces or their go-to style. I’m pretty close. I’m not there yet, but it’s… oh.

SAM: Hey, this actually looks pretty good.

Final review of the tool

NICKY: I’d probably rate the tool…

SAM: I think it’s really awesome. Let’s give it 8 out of 10 paper air gliders.

NICKY: Airtable was a tool.

SAM: Paper airplanes were the craft.

NICKY: And this was ‘Tools of the Craft’.

SAM: We’ll see ya next time.

The post Tools of the Craft: Episode 1 – Airtable appeared first on Demo Duck.

Demo Duck & ViralGains: Video Marketing and Data Strategy [VIDEO]

Colin Hogan — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 18:05:26 +0000

We recently sat down with Lauren Garcia from ViralGains and had a fun chat about world of video. We discussed how data and the ViralGains platform enhances video marketing performance. We also talked about how we use data during the video production process and, of course, some of our favorite viral videos. Check out highlights from the conversation in the video above or read the transcription below.

Colin Hogan: Hi, I’m Colin Hogan, Managing Director of Demo Duck, a video production agency in Chicago. And today, I’m joined by…

Lauren Garcia: Lauren Garcia from ViralGains.

Colin: So tell us a little bit about ViralGains.

Lauren: Well, we’re actually a video-based ad journey platform. We sit on top of existing, beautiful, glossy, video inventory and we help tee up brand messages to people in a very personalized way.

Colin: So the audiences are actually going to interact with the marketing video in some way? And what do you do with that interaction?

Lauren:That interaction allows us to not only optimize towards their personal signals, preferences, if they like the brand, etc., and we can share that information back to the brand. Then also help kind of sweep customers intuitively down the purchase funnel by sharing more content that makes sense.

Colin: We just make video [laughs].

What are some example content strategies that you’ve seen clients use to keep viewers engaged?

Lauren: One of the video content strategies we have seen was with a pet medication brand. They were testing different creative approaches so they made three different videos, and using the platform, we were able to surface insights and share back whichever was the most meaningful for the consumer.

Colin: I’m gonna guess it was the funny one.

Lauren: Well, you’d actually be wrong. People are very sentimental about their pets and it really tugged at heartstrings. So we were able to share that back with them and then give them additional insights from an audience’s perspective to move forward with.

What should businesses be measuring when it comes to engagement?

Lauren: Well, you have your old standbys like viewability, click-through, just general engagement rates, which a lot of places would consider vanity-metrics. We’re trying to shift brands attention away from the old stand-bys of measurement and look towards stuff that’s actually powering their business, like lift, sales, and those sentiment-based signals.

What is your favorite viral video of all time?

Colin: I’m a simple man. My favorite viral video of all time is, I believe it is, San Diego when this guy has the jetpack on next to this newscaster and he says “It starts right now,” and then he goes immediately into the water.

Colin: I reference it two to three times a week. I watch it once a week. And it is my favorite viral video of all time.

Lauren: I mean, I still stand by “Double Rainbow.”

Lauren: I mean, it was just magical in every sense of the word.

Colin: Have you ever seen a double rainbow in real life?

Lauren: I have seen a double rainbow, although it was outside of a Kroger so it was less spectacular than in Yellowstone.

What role does data play in developing a creative concept for a video?

Colin: Data plays the lead role, if you will, for our video concepting phase. During our discovery process and throughout the creative brief, we ask several questions around the data that our clients currently have on hand. We also do our own analysis within the industry and competitors to see what’s resonating with the client’s target audience. Data also can help determine what video we even make for them. Is it a customer testimonial video to help tell a little bit more about that company because people need to know more about who they are? Or is it just one and done explainer video because customers don’t want to read all the copy on the homepage.

What’s the key to creating effective video series content?

Colin: Three things, the three S’s if you will, (I just made that up but let’s go with it) can help you produce an effective business video series. First, there has to be some scalability. If you’re gonna make an entire suite of 10, 20 videos, especially if they’re animated videos, you want to think about how they can scale over time because you may just start with five explainer videos and they perform really well, so then you’ll want to make another ten or so. I think another thing that we like to think about is strategi- No, it wasn’t. I did have three S’s earlier too. Stra-, scalable? Oh. I know what it is. Standalone.

Lauren: Hm, that’s interesting.

Colin: Because even though it’s a video series, you want every video within that series to work as a standalone video because you don’t know how people are going to come across them. And the last one is, they have to be Stupendous. Or any other adjective that means cool and good. They just have to look great. Even though you’re creating a series of videos, don’t skimp on the quality. They can be simple but they should still be of high quality.

Colin:Once again, I’m Colin from Demo Duck. I’d like to thank Lauren from ViralGains for stopping by. Any parting wisdom for our viewers?

Lauren: There’s no denying the power of sight, sound, and motion. So, brands should just be embracing it and excited by what the future of video holds.

Colin: People are yearning, so you keep on churning. We’ll see you next time.

The post Demo Duck & ViralGains: Video Marketing and Data Strategy [VIDEO] appeared first on Demo Duck.

Stop that Scroll! 3 Ways to Optimize Your Marketing Video for Social Feeds

Jarrett Hothan — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 21:59:23 +0000

Video content is a powerful tool for connecting with audiences via social media. It’s an efficient way to communicate a great deal of information in a short time. And a large number of users engage with video on social platforms—especially on their mobile devices.

Also, the sky is blue. Tacos are delicious. Steph Curry can shoot a basketball.

Ok, so we’re not exactly breaking new ground here. Just know that it’s not just a good time to leverage video in your social strategy—it’s also the most competitive time. On Facebook, your post only has 1.7 seconds to catch a user’s attention before they scroll past. Getting your content into a user’s feed is half the battle. What good is producing a video for your business, be it an animated explainer or customer testimonial, if your target audience isn’t even compelled to engage with it?

Just remember that optimizing your video for your audience’s social feed begins during the concepting phase. Keep these three best practices in the mind to help “slow the scroll” and drive engagement with your social media video content.

Adapt Creative for Auto-Mute

On most social platforms, video content is automatically muted until the users manually adjust the volume setting. Chances are that this feature has actually come in handy a couple times. What would your mom think if she heard you watching those football highlights during dinner? But for branded content, it presents a large challenge. How do you convince your audience to stop and watch your video if they can’t even hear what you’re offering?

One way to combat auto-mute is to display a title card during the first few frames of your video. That way, your audience knows exactly what they’re in for from the jump, even when muted. It’s a tutorial video of how your new product works. It’s a customer testimonial about how delicious your new smoothies are. Also make sure to start with strong, captivating visuals to build intrigue. Something beautiful. Or delicious. Or hilarious. Or haunting. Something they can’t swipe past.

Another reality to consider is that a user might end up watching your entire video completely muted. They’re interested…but they’re stuck on a crowded subway car. To make things worse, they left their earbuds in a different coat (been there), so they can’t turn off auto-mute without being “that guy.” Motion graphics can help build a narrative in a visually captivating way, and closed captioning can emphasize any mandatory messaging.

Speaking of that must-have messaging…

Simplify Your Messaging

Your brand has a rich collection of stories to tell. But when it comes to developing a piece of video content for social, you need to make sure that it communicates a singular, strategic story. You’re battling short attention spans.You’re battling sponsored videos from other brands—including your competitors. The last thing you want to do is have multiple messages fighting against each other too.

Figure out your value proposition and get to it quickly. Ideally within the first five seconds. What problem are you solving? What specific benefit are you offering? How you express that benefit is where your creativity comes in. Then it’s very important to use an effective call-to-action later in your video. After a user watches it, chances are that they’ll keep on scrolling in their feed. You can’t assume that they’ll immediately click “follow” on your page and then get every update from your brand moving forward. Let them know where they can go to purchase your product or service or direct them to where they can further engage with your brand.

Also, keep in mind that your video will be shared on a social platform with accompanying copy. From the beginning, it’s important to consider how the social post copy can work in harmony with the video’s content. For example, by including the call-to-action in the social post you can have more time in the video to show the product in use.

Know the Power of Format

When it comes to video format, you have options. Just know that the format you choose does dictate how users engage with your content. Sure, landscape video gives you more space to tell your story. But 1:1 video takes up 78 percent more real estate in someone’s mobile newsfeed than landscape. And according to a study by the fine folks at Buffer Social, 1:1 format video outperformed landscape video when it came to average engagements, views, and completion rate percentage. That’s big time.

There’s nothing wrong with landscape video. In fact, we use it all the time. Sometimes it adds a necessary cinematic quality or gives us more space to fit in priority graphic elements for some of our explainer videos. But we’ve begun to embrace more 1:1 videos, including these short, energetic videos we created for a school here in Chicago. The key is to find what is right for the story you want to communicate and the platform where it will be shared.

Let’s not forget about the new(ish) kid on the video format block—vertical video! Does your brand have an Instagram account? By sharing vertical video in the platform’s “Stories” feature, you can bypass the traditional newsfeed entirely and get into the Stories preview bar. If you’re a verified user on Instagram, you can also include a hyperlink within your story—essentially a built-in video call to action! Snapchat’s Snap Ads allow you to use vertical video to connect with the app’s highly-engaged user base. With a max length of 10 seconds, it’s vital to make your Snap Ad creative simple with a clear message.

Until now, developing video for Instagram stories presented a quandary to marketers. Sure, you want to develop well-produced video to represent your brand well. But is it worth the investment if the videos just disappear in 24 hours? Fortunately, Instagram users can now archive their favorite stories as “memories” within the app. You can even group them by theme! So the next time you’re trying to sell your team on a producing a vertical-formatted video for Instagram, make sure they know about that valuable feature.

We hope you find some of our best practices helpful. Just remember that developing an engaging video for social starts during the creative brainstorm—not when you’re uploading it to the social platform. Sure, Facebook’s targeting capabilities are extremely powerful. But just getting the video in the right user’s feed doesn’t mean that they are going to watch it.

Do you have any tactics that you’ve found social video success with? Share them in the comments below!

The post Stop that Scroll! 3 Ways to Optimize Your Marketing Video for Social Feeds appeared first on Demo Duck.

Creating a Successful Business Video Series

Colin Hogan — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 22:16:55 +0000

Back when Demo Duck was in its infancy, we grew up right alongside something that would help define our identity. Explainer videos. Our clients loved them, and we loved making them. But we started to feel a little like Oprah.

“You get an explainer video! And you get an explainer video! And you get an explainer video!”

We were this close to hiding explainer videos under the chairs in our studio. But over the past seven years, we’ve seen the world of business videos evolve. This isn’t a huge surprise considering how drastically our clients’ industries have evolved too. That’s why we’ve expanded our capabilities to include explainer videos and much, much more.

As part of our ongoing effort to build deeper relationships with our clients, we focused our 2017 on being a true video partner. Someone who can help our clients accomplish a variety of business goals through animated and live action videos.

We’ve done this through long term, multiple project relationships. But recently, we’ve been lucky enough to work on some very exciting projects that we categorize in the “video series” realm. Why? Well, because we’re working on multiple videos that fall under the same title, visual style and goal. Some even have different episode titles. It’s been very exciting.

Why are business video series the next big marketing trend?

Well, we already know that video is making waves across all aspects of the web. On social media, in search engines, on websites—and now many online publications are making the pivot to video too. Given that companies are always looking for new ways to keep their audience engaged in the long term, a few videos won’t cut it anymore.

Planning a consistent release of new online video? Make sure you set expectations with your target audience sooner than later. Whether it’s letting customers know you’ll be sharing a new video each week or internal employees can expect video company updates on the last Friday of the month, creating a schedule and sticking with it is important.

Besides, whether they follow you on the ‘Gram, subscribe to your YouTube channel, reside on your distro-list, or participate in an online educational program building a consistent “fan base” is easier now than ever.

So, now that we know that a business video series is the next big thing in marketing, let’s make one. Easy, right? Not quite. Making a business video series is not without its challenges. It’s much different than developing a one-off video. You need to consider scale, develop a plan to roll out your finished episodes, and strategize how to keep viewers engaged throughout the entire series.

After working on over eight video series projects in 2017, we’ve been able to find solutions to these challenges. Here’s our best practices when it comes to creating a business video series. Sure, call us Oprah if you want.

Make video concepts scalable yet flexible

When crafting a framework or high-level concept for a business video series, we make sure to keep two things in mind. First, the ideas need to be scalable to keep from blowing through the budget. For example, it’s not that a stop-motion series is impossible. However, the labor-intensive visual approach can create roadblocks when you’re trying to produce eight episodes in a business video series.

The other factor we consider during the concept phase? Well, it’s one that we can all relate to these days—binge watching! Maybe someone decides to binge watch the entire video series. Will all the episodes start to feel exactly the same? Will they be be entertained and engaged for longer than 60 seconds? 90 seconds? By using unique intro devices, different voice over techniques, or just titling the episode upfront, you can help differentiate one episode from the next. Small tweaks go a long way.

Stagger the production to keep your sanity

We highly advise against trying to move all video series through the various production steps in unison. Get the first episode into storyboards, then start scripting the second. Follow this staggered approach for the subsequent episodes too.

This will help you keep things organized while making sure that you’re getting the project off on the right foot. You can take best practices learned from the initial videos and apply them to the videos created later on. We often see that this allows for the latter steps of production to go smoother—and faster—since everyone’s generally on the same page.

Traditionally, we also like to administer a quick round of high-fives between storyboard and scripting. That’s a little trade secret, so keep it on the low.

Recap the production status weekly

This is important for any video production. But when developing a video series—and using the staggered approach—there are a lot of deliverables and timelines to consider. With a weekly status call or even email recap, everyone can get a snapshot of where each episode lies in the production process.

The weekly recap can also help inform the production schedule. Perhaps the second video is moving a bit slower and will end up as episode 3 rather than episode 2. Not that you want to continually shift the different videos around, but a bit of scheduling freedom can be very helpful.

Creating a publishing schedule early

Speaking of schedules, don’t wait until the videos are done to create a publishing calendar. Work as a team with your video production company to develop it too. When will the first episode go live? Where? How do you plan to roll the rest out after the launch?

It may sound intimidating to put this stake in the ground, but it will help push the entire project forward. Everyone will be working towards a shared goal, and you’ll avoid any confusion regarding deadlines.

When it comes time to share your video series, we recommend publishing two episodes at the same time for the big “premiere.” This way, your audience knows that the videos are part of a larger series and that they can expect more down the line.

Make it easy to binge and track results

You’ve got options to make it binge-worthy. You can use autoplay. Your can place all the episodes on one page of your website. Hyperlink through an annotation from one episode to the next.

Similar to a website design, make the viewer flow as simple as possible so they can watch multiple episodes of your business video series in one sitting. You want to lower the increase the “stickiness” of your business video series as much as possible. There’s a reason Netflix autoplays a new episode as soon as the credits begin to roll.

The recap

Whether you’re a marketing executive thinking about creating a YouTube video series for your business or a creator jumping into your first multi-video production, we hope you find our best practices useful.

We may not be creating the next Breaking Bad—well, not yet—but the Demo Duck teamhad a ton of fun creating business video series projects in 2017. It’s allowed us to get to know our clients better and think big with what we’re producing.

If you’re interested in making a video series of your own, drop us a line and live your best life.

The post Creating a Successful Business Video Series appeared first on Demo Duck.

Customer Testimonials: How to Prepare to be on Camera (Especially if You Don’t Want To)

Sarah Ramler-Olson — Wed, 24 May 2017 14:26:14 +0000

When we ask people to appear in customer testimonial videos, we get one of two responses: “YES! Now I can start my IMDb page.”

And the others that say, “Uh, sure? I don’t really want to, but I like you guys, so … I guess I’ll do it.”

Customer testimonials are important. Like, really important. Like so important, marketing expert, Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios talks about how important they are:

“Video testimonials are without a doubt one of the most powerful pieces of content you can put on any website.”

With the increase in online shopping, customers require more reassurance that what they’re purchasing is the real deal and customer testimonials help provide the evidence they need. That’s why it has to be real customers because viewers can see right through hired actors and scripted conversations. Plus, offering to do customer testimonials for a company you loved is an easy way to say, “Thanks for your great work!”.

Regardless of what camp you might fall in, customer testimonial videos are actually kind of fun. However, for those of you that are nervous, here are some tips for your customer testimonial debut.

Before the Shoot

First off: There’s no pressure! Remind yourself that it was a great partnership. You were nominated, so someone believes that you would be able to tell a great story AND be great on camera. Trust us, companies don’t ask people they think will freeze up or tell a not-so-compelling story. Being asked is basically a form of flattery.

This also gives you an opportunity to buoy up a company or organization that you believe in. Good work deserves to be recognized and what better way than through a visual story of how you worked together to meet common goals?

“No animals were harmed in the filming of this video.”

Sound silly? Well, that’s because there’s no real reason to be nervous, just remember that no one’s life is on the line. Take some weight off your shoulders and start getting jazzed about doing something great.

Also, there is a benefit to you. You’re expanding your skill set by having some on-air time and you can add it to your LinkedIn profile and resume. Also, you can ask the company that you volunteered for to endorse and recommend you. The wins just keep coming!

Set Expectations for the Set

Sweating buckets thinking about a number of lights will be on you? Well, we can’t lie to you, there will be lights. More than what you’re used to because the director is going to want to highlight your face and make sure that every shot looks bright and positive.

Most likely the shoot will be in your office or home, If not, get there early so you can familiarize yourself with the space. You can also ask your director for a photo of an example set. Here’s one of ours:

See? That’s not bad! You got this.

You Got the Look (Everything You Need to Know About Clothes, Makeup, Etc.)

Clothes: When it comes to your wardrobe, stick to solid colors since patterns can play tricks with the camera. However, also try to avoid wearing solid black, white, or a highly saturated color such as red. When it comes to the color correction phase of editing, these colors can make the editor’s job much more difficult.

You may also want to avoid wearing solid green in case you have any in-office pranksters. Just sayin’.

Hair and Makeup: The director wants you to just be you, which means that you should wear your makeup and hair the same as you usually do. Because of that, make sure you bring your makeup along if you need touch-ups.

Finishing touches: As for glasses, let the director know. They might need to adjust the lighting to reduce glare. And for jewelry, less is always better. One, you don’t want to distract the viewer from your face, and second, sometimes the mic can pick up the sound of it jingling, which can be a nightmare for the audio editor.

During the Shoot

Beware of Your Energy Levels

The truth is, it’s exhausting to be on camera because your energy levels will need to be one notch above what feels normal.

Here is an example of how people usually sound off camera:

Here is an example of how to sound on camera:

Even professionals need to remind themselves to boost up the energy. So, if you find yourself feeling a little sluggish, take a break. Just dance, jump, or skip. Something physical to distract your brain. Exercise can be a great way revive the conversation, especially if you’ve been sitting or standing for a long period of time.

Freewheeling and the Art of Feedback

The big difference between a customer testimonials video shoot and an explainer videoor educational video is there isn’t a script, so the director can capture genuine responses from you.

We know, we know! You were feeling all calm and confident and then we stressed you out again. If you’re concerned about the free-flow conversation, reach out to your director and ask for some sample questions or a general outline of where they want the conversation to go.

This also means be prepared for feedback and be okay with multiple takes because there will be multiple takes. Your director just wants to make sure you look and sound your best, so they will always take a safety shot even if you nail it the first time.

They may also ask you the same question twice, just to hear you answer it different ways. Just remember that feedback isn’t a reflection of you, it’s just notes of how of how the shot can approve.

If you start getting stuck in your head or finding yourself in a negative feedback loop, returning back to your breath can be a great mental break. Remember, there’s nothing wrong with taking a moment. We all need them.

Keep it conversational

We can’t emphasize enough how important it is to treat it like a normal conversation. Imagine that you met the director on a bus or at a party. Customers want to see and hear real people talk about this particular company or product, and the more natural it feels, the more successful the video is.

After the Shoot

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

You did it! You made it through your first customer testimonial video.

*Hold for applause*

That’s it. Enjoy and add it to your skills list.

Wrap-up

When being asked to star in a customer testimonial video, most of us go for the “uhhhhhhh, okay?” route. However, with the proper preparation, we all can be stars! Or, more realistically, we can all be comfortable on camera.

If you have any tips or tricks, please share in the comments.

Don’t forget to tweet us your IMDb link!

Itching to learn more about video? Here are other great posts:

How to Take Your Video from Good to Great

Grab Your Viewers’ Attention in 10 Seconds

The post Customer Testimonials: How to Prepare to be on Camera (Especially if You Don’t Want To) appeared first on Demo Duck.

Video Marketing with SEO expert Andy Crestodina

Sarah Ramler-Olson — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:19:48 +0000

“Video testimonials are without a doubt one of the most powerful pieces of content you can put on any website.”

My name is Andy Crestodina and I’m the Co-Founder and the Strategic Director of Orbit Media Studios, which is the web design company here in Chicago.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s the art and science of ranking high in search and attracting visitors to your website.

How does video help SEO?

Google likes pages that when visitors click to visit them, the visitor doesn’t leave right away because that’s a sign of the page is good quality. So, one of our goals in search optimization is to make pages that have high dwell time. They call it the “short click” versus the “long click.”

Every time that I’ve published a page with video, the time on page is longer than the rest of the website’s content on average.

How does video help users?

Separate from search, it just has such a powerful force for building trust. It’s just a giant credibility builder because video shows tone of voice and body language and when you’re watching a video, you really feel like you’re talking to that person. The ultimate, of course, would be to be in the room with the person, but we can’t be in everybody’s room with everybody, so videos are way to be there when you’re not there much much more than text it’s the ultimate format for content. Text is the weakest format for content and video is the best.

What pages need video?

There’s two kinds of videos you can add to sites generally. There’s the conversion
focused videos which are specifically designed to build trust and make the case and to provide evidence and put you in the best light. Those go on sales and product pages, service pages, the brochure-ware parts of your website.

Those really should be high production value and I think that when people go to price it out, that they’re surprised at the cost and they weren’t ready at that time to make the investment. People need to consider going big on this and actually fixing that and budgeting for it because it’s valuable. it will make a difference. It’s worth the money.

The content marketing parts of your website, the blog posts, the educational content, the purely informative stuff, those are videos (like this video) where you’re just teaching, you’re just helping and in those cases it becomes the part of a content strategy.

Any video advice?

People have an emotional barrier. They think that it has to be “a plus there too.” If you turn on your webcam and just start teaching something and then share your screen and capture that as a video and post it, that’s not expensive. That doesn’t have to be a “plus like-you-know-super-polished video.”

I think there’s the financial side for conversion videos and there’s the emotional just perfectionist and people that stops them from producing content in general, but video specifically. Again get over it, it’s worth it. Just take the plunge.

Additional Resources

More SEO tips from Orbit Media
SEO Best Practices: On Page SEO Checklist

Video SEO tech tip from Demo Duck
Curious about the tech side of video SEO? Here is a quick and easy way to optimize your videos (for a full step-by-step guide, check out our 5 Steps to Video SEO Optimization blog post).

Find a keyword and be consistent with it. We recommend always having a focus keyword for a video and pairing it with a relevant content page. After you have that selected, upload it to YouTube and make sure the title, description, and tags all include that keyword. This is important because this is the data that Google’s search spiders crawl. They determine what information to catalog into Google’s index, which populates the Search Engine Results Page (a.k.a., what web pages are great matches for certain keywords).

Video sitemaps, what the heck are they?
Let’s just say that Google isn’t the one watching your video, they just help people find the videos that are the most relevant to their search. So, a video sitemap is a text file that Google reads to learn more about the video’s subject matter, which again influences how it will be indexed and displayed in search results. Connect with your webmaster to start adding your video content to your sitemap, or if you’re your own webmaster, check out Google’s help page to learn more.

Even MORE resources:

Interested in learning more about video SEO?
Check out part two of our Beginner’s Guide to Online Video: Video SEO.

Other great interviews with really awesome people:
Client Communication and Producing Teamwork with Rollo Wenlock of Wipster

Telling Stories and Making Connections with Video with Patrick Moreau of Stillmotionand Muse Storytelling.

Starting an Agency and the Problem with Feedback with Uri Ratner of Nelson Cash

Founder Stories: Chris Savage of Wistia

The Business of Video at Basecamp with Shaun Hildner of Basecamp

The post Video Marketing with SEO expert Andy Crestodina appeared first on Demo Duck.