Corporate Credibility in 60 Seconds

In today’s short-attention-span world any business message has only a few seconds to make an impression. People make up their minds fast.

Try this. Go shopping online. Click on the first site that has what you need. In a flash you’ll make a decision. “Am I going to do business here?” If the answer isn’t an immediate strong “Yes”, then you’ll leave. There are plenty more to choose from.

The same goes for business presentations. In the first minute, they look at you and think “Is this person credible? Can their company handle my contract, solve my problem?”

And if they don’t know you, their first impression becomes doubly important.

Maybe you have no track record with them? Maybe you’ve barely earned the right to be in the room?

This Credibility Gap is why, since the Eighties, people have used marketing video to inform and persuade. Video established credibility. It was bigger, brighter, and better informed than the rep with the briefcase. Or so it seemed.

Corporate video became popular because companies were trying to impress other companies.

By the Nineties, marketing videos were 5-10 minutes long. And, unless someone had thrown a lot of budget at them, their production value was usually low-to-average.

This meant they didn’t look that great compared to television, the message wasn’t outstandingly persuasive, and they were often a bit long-winded.

They tried to be a catch-all credibility solution.

In the Nineties, only the wealthy could afford the high production values that cost the bigger bucks. They knew that the bigger the customer, the bigger the contract, then the more credibility they would need to have. So they spent big.

But now today, in the Noughties, people can be persuaded by messages delivered in under a minute. TV adverts prove this.

Today’s viewer is time-poor. They don’t want a long generalist message. They want it fast and to the point, and relevant to them.

This awareness has given rise to a new type of corporate video – the 60-Second ‘Instant Credibility video’.

Instant credibility in less than a minute keeps video costs down through shorter runtime.

This means production values can now be raised.

And suddenly, smaller companies can compete with the big players on a more level playing field to win the bigger contracts.

The 60-Second marketing message is typically 100 words long, and designed to persuasively deliver your Scope & Capability message as a series of Key Differentiators. In under a minute it’ll show how you’ll solve the customer’s problem.

This new type of marketing video is based around heart-stopping music underpinning an animated text-driven series of messages. There is no voiceover. The text and the music say it all. Examples here instantcredibilitymarketingvideo.htm

Ten or even five years ago, this fusion of words, music and hi-tech effects wasn’t possible in the corporate studio. The technology and production skills weren’t there as business tools, and the persuasion psychology of “brevity, style and bigness” wasn’t there as a business language.

But not any more. It’s now the medium of a new communication era.

Today, any Business Development Director can go into a meeting knowing their company, their products & services, and themselves will look 100% credible to the person they’re facing.

Not only is memorable impact assured, there is greater likelihood that claims will be given credence and respect.

In a nutshell, with the right marketing video you’ll be perceived as a better person to do business with. You’ll win corporate credibility in 60 seconds.