Chicago Video Production

A great way to establish trust between your business and potential clients is to answer as many questions about your business as possible. If you can answer a customer’s question before they even ask it, then they will recognize your awareness of client needs. A lot of websites for products and services have FAQ pages which list frequently asked questions. These are often helpful, but text FAQs are gradually becoming outdated. It’s time more people used video. It’s time more people were like Roger Rombro.

Rombro’s video isn’t particularly exciting. But by using multiple camera angles and changing imagery, it’s easy to watch. It lets Rombro tell a personal story about his life and business, which creates an immediate relationship with his viewers. If that’s not enough, the video’s information box actually says he made the videos “to build trust with prospective clients visiting his website.”

But how do you figure out what questions customers have for you? Well, the best way is just to listen. And with the Internet, listening is easier than ever. People can create a profile on Formspring.com, a social network where anonymous and public users can ask people questions. Likewise, businesses can also get questions sent to their email, Facebook, or Twitter. Below, vlogger Dan Brown reads questions sent to him over the Internet. He acknowledges who sent him the question and then replies to it. Can it get more personal than that?

Brown’s video walks a tight rope of helpfulness and annoyance. He is eccentric, wild eyed, and his hair is unkempt. Perhaps this is natural for people from Nebraska. All in all, it’s kind of exciting and easy to watch. And the truth is, practically any FAQ can be watchable, if done right.

Below is a FAQ video for Ambit Energy, a natural gas provider. The video is a large, monotonous, talking head. However, since they’re less than a minute long, it ends almost as quickly as it begins and people walk away knowing a little bit more about Ambit Energy, whether they want to or not.

If you’re like me, you’ve had many fabulous and expensive furs ruined by red paint wielding animal rights activists. So I’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate a new Dodge commercial that pokes fun at PETA.

That video didn’t always have an invisible monkey. It used to have a very real monkey. Until PETA rubbed its greasy hands on that monkey and it turned invisible. What if that monkey wanted to work? That monkey could have been working to feed its starving monkey family. Way to go PETA, now you have starving monkey on your hands. Who’s the eco-terrorist now?! Below is the original video.

Have you seen this new video from Jamba Juice. Apparently they don’t appreciate McDonald’s encroaching on their smoothie turf.

Who wants a Cheeseburger Chill for dessert?!

Anyone who has been following the trials and tribulations of the journalism industry is aware that many newspapers and magazines are having trouble competing with the Internet. But it seems that Craine’s Chicago Business isn’t even trying to compete with the Internet. Rather, it is embracing the power of the web to deliver news content in a rich media format.

In addition to the typical business news that is covered in Crain’s Chicago, their website has a video series that looks and feels like a nightly news program. Although the videos aren’t as long or detailed as television news, new videos are produced every weekday, they are always available online, and they never exceed 5 minutes.

These videos allow Crain’s to deliver their branded news content in an easy-to-consume format that anyone with Internet has access to. Although their news program doesn’t advertise the magazine, the video established a level of trust among devoted viewers. This type of trust and familiarity with a publication is what newspaper have traditionally relied on to enhance readership. Otherwise, no one would accept their articles as fact.

Tragically, these great videos are hidden behind some pretty unappealing thumbnails. Seriously Crain’s, I’m looking right at you now. I bet if you fixed those thumbnails, changing it from the woman in front of a blue screen to something that reflects how sophisticated your videos are, your click rates will jump up in the first week. Seriously, try it and see what happens. Seriously. Seriously…

Thumbnail or not, Crain’s not only has a good reputation in the realm of journalism, these videos will earn them a positive reputation in the ream of online content. For creating a regularly-updated news program that delves into important issues in news and business, and doing it with free online videos, Crain’s Chicago Business earned this week’s Video Professionals Award.