Categories: Articles

What Powerful Video Content Can Be

Can we admit it: video can unleash powerful brand stories, still a lot of the content we’re all being exposed to is little more than a glorified commercial.

It’s painting a broad brush stroke, but it does seem that way when you troll through the social feeds, or look to see what’s being published by brands in places like YouTube or Snapchat. They’re trying. They’re often trying too hard. Viewers can sense it. They can smell it. Odds are that these consumers are ignoring it. Skipping it, not clicking to hear the audio or – at worst – they’re disabling their autoplay option. I know that I did this on Facebook, and it completely altered my user experience. Yep, I’m no longer distracted by a squirrel skydiving. It’s the small things.

So, who is creating video content worth talking about and sharing?

One of the unique aspects of the TED conference (which took place in Vancouver this week) is how they produce each speaker session. Along with a theme and dynamic host, the speaker’s presentations are broken up with musical guests, and the occasional video. Most of them are super-engaging and run the gamut from silly YouTube-y like content, to rich mini documentaries. Chadburn Blomquist compiled as many of these “interstitials” (as the TED team calls them) into a YouTube playlist. Below are some of the ones that captured my attention.

Pay attention brands: this is what great video content can be (happy watching)…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.