In 2023 we saw an abundance of creativity and progression in video advertising – with commercials and content reaching new levels, while also giving a respectful nod to the past.

From steps forward in technological advancements to paying tribute to technologies from generations before, the last year showcased the dynamic intersection of expression and innovation, and the evolution of storytelling in advertising.

Let’s focus on some of the trends that dominated the landscape of video in advertising and are poised to shape the future of commercials and content in the coming year.

Trend 1. Mixed Mediums

While mixing mediums is not new, 2023 saw all perceived “rules” thrown out the window, with audiences engaged in a greater variety of creative collaging than ever before.

Combining contemporary digital video with “outdated” formats like miniDV (VHS), 8mm & 16mm film, digital and film still photography, hand drawn animation, and computer generated animation, created a bigger palette for marketers and creatives to work with.

Mixing mediums is great for amplifying an audience’s engagement through film by connecting with the audience’s emotions through feelings, such as the nostalgia associated with older mediums, the excitement of a night out associated with flash photography, or the childlike wonder that can be felt when watching animation.

Sydney Sweeney x Ford Bronco® | Built Ford Proud | Ford
This spot for Ford is a great example of using mixed mediums. The film contains digital video, 16mm film, miniDV/VHS, still photography, drone footage and VFX.

Australian Government | One Talk At A Time
This campaign by the Australian Government utilises 3 different styles of computer generated animation to illustrate the perspectives of children

Elsy Wameyo | South Australia – A New State of Mind
This spot produced by Fuller for South Australia uses modern digital video alongside miniDV, still photography, drone footage and hand drawn animated elements to tell the story of musician Elsy Wameyo.

Trend 2. Shooting for all delivery channels

With average internet users spending more than 2 and a half hours a day on social media platforms (more than 30% more than spent on television), 2023 continued the ongoing shift in the hierarchy of delivery channels and reaffirmed that television is no longer a marketers primary platform.

Global ad spend on social media continues to increase and is projected to reach US$219.8bn (AUD$333.82bn) in 2024, ensuring campaigns that are customised for all platforms are essential to maximising reach and ensuring audience engagement.

Fortunately for marketers, these shifts have occurred in a time when updates in camera technology have resulted in an increase in recordable image sizes (4k+).

These extra pixels are now being leveraged to frame and compose one larger image that can be cropped for both horizontal and vertical.

The outcome is one shot which can be cropped for TV, YouTube, feeds, stories and reels, while saving time and costs and ensuring consistency of appearance across all platforms without sacrificing quality.

Marketers and creatives are now planning compositions and production around this technical approach with plenty of success.

Trend 3: Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) certainly created headlines in 2023, and its impact is being felt in the visual advertising and media landscape as creatives leverage this new technology to take their ideas in new directions.

From crafting compelling visuals to personalised content, AI algorithms are transforming the way brands engage with their audience. In the realm of visual content creation, AI-powered tools are becoming indispensable.

Like any tool, Generative AI is only as good as the person using it (see the Burger King example below). Whether it’s generating unique imagery, transforming visual effects processes or even producing entire video campaigns, the best AI applications are carefully considered, well planned and thoughtfully applied to amplify an original creative concept.

Coca-Cola® Masterpiece
Set in an art gallery, Coca-Cola’s Masterpiece utilises generative AI (along with other visual effects) to bring paintings by artists such as Ady Warhol, Edvard Munch & Van Gogh (amongst others) to life.

La Compil des Bleues (The Blues Compilation)
French telecom company Orange used Generative AI & visual effects techniques to transform footage of female football players into male players. The spot aimed to challenge prejudice against women’s sports and perceptions that female athletes are not as skilful as their male counterparts as a part of their campaign for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

BURGER KING® France | A.I.LLOWEEN
Not every commercial that has leveraged generative AI has been a beautiful execution of creativity or a thoughtful statement of equality. For Halloween in 2023, Burger King France launched this 100% social media campaign using generative AI to create fear-inducing images of Burger King customers losing their human form as they eat hamburgers.

Morphettville | A Day At The Races
In a creative use of technology, Fuller used generative AI to develop an animated group of horses in full gallop with jockeys riding in a scenario where filming on location or using stock footage was a limitation of production.

Trend 4. Unique Lenses

Specialty Lenses provide unique points of view that engage audiences by catching their eye and drawing them into the world. Probe lenses, ultra wide and telescopic lenses all allow for unusual perspectives that create interest.

Embracing the imperfections of vintage lenses allows filmmakers to create softer and more organic worlds away from the harshness that can be associated with a digital image. Vintage lenses also hold characteristics that are unique and not associated with modern glass, allowing content to subconsciously imply an emotion from the viewer. As with many trends, what’s old is new again and once forgotten glass is now seeing a dramatic rise in popularity.

SATC | Travel. Our Way.
This commercial produced by Fuller for the South Australian Tourism Commission utilised 1970’s Canon K35 lenses due to their amazing performance and unique character.

META X RAYBAN | The Art of the Downtime
This content piece advertising the collaboration between Meta and Rayban and their smart glasses range used vintage 1970’s Zeiss Super Speed lenses combined with a modern cinema camera to give an organic texture to the piece.

Trend 5. Visual FX

For the most part, technological advancement is the underlying driver for a majority of the trends we saw in 2023 which are likely to continue this year. Visual effects, once reserved for the Hollywood productions with multi-million dollar budgets, are now accessible to productions with much leaner bottom lines.

While the eye-catching glamour of visual effects are great, the most exciting aspect of this technology (and the reason that this trend is here to stay) is that it opens up a new world of contemporary storytelling for creatives that was previously out of reach. This helps marketers to communicate to audiences with unique voices, create more engaging content and stand out from the sea of same.

CITB | Trade Up
In this commercial for the Construction Industry Training Board, Fuller used an assortment of visual effects from sky replacements to computer portals, all with the purpose of telling an engaging story that spoke to a youthful audience and encouraged them to change their perceptions of what a career in the trades stands for.

MTN DEW | Your Soul Needs DEW
Mountain Dew utilised high end visual effects to drive the storytelling in this amazing execution aimed at empowering audiences to unleash their “true selves” by drinking their beverage. Combining dynamic camera movements with thoughtful production design and costumes allowed the visual effects to feel cohesive with the storytelling, creating a bespoke world to draw in audiences.

Final Thoughts

In 2023 the video trends in advertising were led by technological advances and saw visual narratives expressed in new and exciting ways. A new arsenal of tools and methods to engage with an audience were added to a marketer’s toolkit, with almost any idea seemingly within reach (and budget!), inspiring what feels like a renaissance of visual storytelling in advertising.

This was balanced against a renewed passion for using older technologies and practices that has allowed brands to connect with their audiences (albeit subconsciously) by using textures and feelings that evoked an emotional response.

I believe 2024 will see these trends and creative freedom flourish, as further advances in technology allow the conventions of the past to be pushed and morphed further into new directions.

Brands and marketers can leverage this freedom to create unique perspectives, and tell human stories that will cut through and connect with their audiences. For those who are brave enough to embrace the change (while keeping their own truths intact), success will follow.

We are lucky enough to be living and working with so many options at our disposal, where the possibilities of the future will be limited only by our imaginations.

The post New Tech vs. Old School Feels: Five Video Trends for 2024 appeared first on Fuller.

I promptly stumbled upon the topic of Green Software Engineering (GSE) ⁠— an emerging discipline that combines climate science with software and hardware best practices.

After some general research, I wanted to learn more, and understand how best to implement the GSE practices at Fuller ⁠— both for ourselves as an agency For Good ⁠— and for our clients.

What I discovered was that building a more sustainable digital product isn’t about one optimisation, it’s about thousands of fine tuning steps that increase overall carbon efficiency.

It’s also about making software work smarter, not harder to reduce carbon intensity (the measure of carbon emissions produced per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed).

My research aims to inform readers about what Green Software Engineering is, what the industry is doing about the ICT’s growing carbon emissions, and what we can do about it as individual businesses and developers.

Marko Rapaic

2021 Fuller Fellow

The post What is Green Software Engineering? appeared first on Fuller.

You’re not alone. Marketing mistakes happen when you’re managing masses of content and intricate customer journeys. It’s human nature.

And with a little creativity, mistakes can be a good thing – an opportunity to build rapport with your customers.

Take 404 error pages as an example.

Usually a minor frustration for the customer, Renny Gleeson of Wieden+Kennedy looked at how to flip the 404 experience and use it as an engagement opportunity, in this TED Talk.

According to Renny, this is a chance to talk directly to your audience, admit fault and build a stronger relationship with them.

Customer experiences have come a long way since this TED Talk in 2012. Now they are more complex and have more touch points, which means there is a higher chance things can go wrong.

But all the little moments, done right, build brand personality and loyalty.

It’s the mishaps that make us.

So, let’s embrace mistakes, because they’re full of creative opportunities. Here’s how:

Find funniness.

What if an aged care home accidentally used the phrase ‘you can rest in peace’ instead of ‘you don’t have to worry’? What if a brand announced a new product was ‘coming soon’ on a billboard above an adult shop? Sometimes it’s hard to tell if entertaining errors are mistakes or marketing flair.

Regardless, fcuk ups are funny. They can be used as customer ice-breakers to amuse and engage – just like Heinz’s purposely slow landing page or Google Chrome’s dinosaur game.

Be real.

If the rise in popularity of BeReal is anything to go by, realness is in. People crave open, honest and authentic interaction – especially from brands. Customers will tend to remember how they feel more than what went wrong. They might talk about the mistake, but they’ll definitely talk about the fix if you go above and beyond.

Next time a customer points out a mistake you’ve made, be upfront and apologise.

Find a way to own it.

Learn and share.

Recently on Triple J’s Hack program, host Dave Marchese slipped up and referred to G Flip with the wrong pronouns. Instead of deleting his mistake from the pre-recorded interview, he left it in (with G Flip’s permission). They used it to discuss non-binary identities and ways to navigate conversations around gender.

The mistake became a learning opportunity, and a chance to reassess, grow and share. Have a listen here.

What if, after the former Prime Minister and Cabinet’s communications team unveiled their embarrassingly phallic Women’s Network logo, they owned the oversight and embarked on much-needed cultural change in federal parliament?

Make change.

In 2018, two Black men were arrested while waiting for a friend at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, igniting accusations of institutional racism and the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks.

Following this appalling mistake, the CEO of Starbucks offered an apology, released a public statement, began an internal review, and closed every Starbucks for mandatory racial-bias training.

Mistakes have power, they can be the catalyst for change.

See beauty.

Electronic music pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto put it like this:

“I am open to mistakes…I do play lots of wrong notes while I am making some music, and a mistake or a wrong note is like a gift for me: ‘Oh, wow, an unknown sound or an unknown harmony. I didn’t know about this.”

In primary school classrooms, when a kid spills paint or accidentally sticks things together, teachers don’t call it a ‘mistake’. They call it a ‘beautiful oops’.

I think it’s time – as adults – we owned our ‘beautiful oopses’ too.

You never know the opportunities that might arise.

If there have been any typos in this article please let us know. It’s an excellent excuse for a chat.

The post How to embrace mistaeks appeared first on Fuller.

You know the one — ‘know’ or ‘awareness’ at the top, ‘consideration’ in the middle, then a little further down, the good stuff that translates into financial gain: ‘conversion’.

When we, as marketers, feel particularly confident in our skills we’ll add a pointy, emphasised fourth stage at the bottom of the funnel, and label it ‘advocate’ or ‘trust’.

The funnel is a tried and tested method that helps marketers to consider the psyche of a consumer from the first time they see a brand, right through to when they’re gushing over it at a dinner party (that’s right, advocate!)

But, in a world of ever-changing consumer behaviours and an unprecedented desire for experiential fulfilment, customers are wanting different ways to not only ‘know’ a brand, but to experience it. 

Enter stage right, the brand activation. 

In the traditional sales funnel, brand activation is likely to sit between conversion and advocacy.

However, the beauty of a great brand activation is that it fast-tracks the sales funnel altogether and creates an opportunity for personalised, one-to-one interactions with active consumers.

Point in case, the return of Adelaide’s Festival Plaza.

When Renewal SA approached Fuller to help it relaunch the former heart of Adelaide’s music and arts scene, we were asked to create a brand without a brand…and an event which wasn’t an event.

The answer? Activation.

Our job was to activate a space which had lay dormant under the rubble construction for seven years. 

The space had to be seen as something malleable and ownable; something for the people and by the people.

So, rather than tell people what the space was all about and how it could benefit them to visit it, we set out to show them.

Festival Plaza Presents allowed us an ever-changing public space which demonstrated its ability to transform and flex into whatever the people of Adelaide wanted it to be.

A gourmet café? Sure! A night time live music space? Let’s do it! Family friendly games? Why not! Interactive art? Yes please! Live footy on the big screen? Absolutely. 

We marketed the revitalised Festival Plaza by activating it over a six week period, allowing consumers — new and old — to be re-introduced to the space (awareness) in ways that engaged with them personally (consideration) and that encouraged them to take action – whether buying a beer, taking in the water feature or interacting with our art, music, games and more (conversion). 

Those who experienced Festival Plaza Presents spoke about it, without any paid media spend required.

They shared their experience via social media; through media commentary and through feedback directly to our activation staff.

Can you see where I’m heading? That’s right — they advocated for it. 

The magic of a great activation is that it doesn’t feel like marketing. And that’s what makes it so effective.

It’s inviting the consumer to the driving seat, knowing the test drive will leave them wanting more. 

Build an army of brand advocates with help from Fuller’s brand strategists – we’d love to help. Get in touch today.

The post Stop, activate and they‘ll advocate appeared first on Fuller.

Just like dating archetypes, your brand’s type says a lot about who your organisation is, and what it stands for. 

In branding, ‘typeface’ refers to the design of lettering (not one’s preference for long eyelashes or dimples).  

It can include variations in things like size, weight, slope and width, and can broadly be sorted into four categories, including serif, sans serif, scripts, and decorative.  

While the word ‘typeface’ is often used interchangeably with ‘font’, there is a nuanced difference, with font referring to a particular size, weight and style of a typeface.

For example, Helvetica is a typeface, and 14pt Arial Bold is a font.

Choosing a typeface — or even better, commissioning a custom typeface — is an opportunity for your brand to put its best foot forward by showing personality, being memorable and differentiating itself from competition. 

Why typeface matters

Your brand can’t be the whole package without thoughtful consideration to its typeface. 

For emotional connection

Font psychology is a thing — and it’s used to describe the ideas and emotions we experience when we’re exposed to different typography. 

Fonts that provoke a psychological reaction can be used to make a brand feel more trustworthy, friendly, or aspirational.

For example, a bank that wants to be perceived as stable, reputable and well-established could choose a traditional serif-style font, whereas an IT company who wants to be perceived as innovative, intelligent and forward-thinking is more likely to opt for a modern sans serif font.

For digital connection

In a digital-first world, typography has never been more important. 

Today, two billion people access the internet from their smartphone, where the available space for imagery and graphics is reduced. 

Besides colour, all that remains of your branding is text — and there is almost no website, app or digital product that exists without text.

For inclusive connection

Today’s typography is the most inclusive it’s ever been. Beyond setting the tone for your brand messaging, typeface choice can increase legibility and readability for low vision readers. 

It’s not all good though. Twitter’s recent typeface ‘Chirp’ has been accused of giving people headaches. 

Getting personal

When typography is figuratively the ‘clothes’ your brand’s words wear, a bespoke typeface can often become your most recognisable brand asset. 

 Luxury brands have known this for a long time, with trendsetting brands such as Acne, Rimowa, Vigil Abloh, and SSENSE making their custom typefaces a large part of their visual identity.

Brands built on nostalgia and fun, like M&Ms, Burger King, and Pizza Hut, have all paid homage to their heritage by expanding the original logos into fully formed typefaces.

This trend hasn’t been lost in the tech industry either, with Instagram, Pinterest, PayPal, Tumblr and WeTransfer all commissioning custom typefaces.

Bespoke typography need not be in the realm of brands with big-tech budgets. 

Recent apps like Glyphs remove the steep learning curve of traditional font editing software and have given graphic designers the ability to create their own fonts. 

This development has disrupted the traditional font purchasing model. 

Type foundries like Dinamo recently announced its Font Customiser, which allows brands to customise and name their own font at no extra cost.

 “We believe that customising fonts should not be an exclusive thing that people need to pay lots of money for,” they state on their website. 

“We’re no longer casting fonts into expensive metal; software lets us make fonts with as many alternates as we like baked inside. 

“For us, having this flexibility in mind feels like a modern way of working.”

Here at Fuller, we’ve recently developed bespoke typefaces for Ceravolo Orchards and Sawyer Wine Co.

Ralph Titling, named after Ceravolo’s founder, Ralph, references the vintage hand-painted signage found around the orchards. 

Featuring condensed, easily reproducible letter forms with minimal optical correction and a lack of stylistic details, Ralph is a no-nonsense, ‘tell-it-how-it-is’ typeface that visually communicates just like the Ceravolo family does: efficient and concise!

Rhône Modern is a custom typeface developed for Sawyer Wine Co. 

Named after the wine region in France where the winemaker, Michael Sawyer, previously worked, Rhône takes inspiration from early European gothics, such as Futura or Erbar, which are built on a foundation of geometric proportions and a generous, low X-height. 

This classic formula is juxtaposed by modern details like exaggerated ink traps and minimal contrast between the horizontal and vertical letter strokes.

This resulting typeface has an effortless charm and perfectly represents ‘the Sawyer approach to wine’ — thoughtfully crafted with a bright energy and individuality.

Time to upgrade?

If your brand’s existing type just isn’t doing it for you anymore, it might be time to upgrade. 

Here are five considerations that can help a designer find or customise a typeface that captures your brand’s identity: 

• Brand personality: is your brand welcoming, professional, sophisticated or trailblazing? Are you intending to stand out, or blend in? Are you celebrating your brand’s history, or looking ahead to the future?
• Brand content: is your written content intended to be informative or expressive? A bold display typeface will work for short, simple headlines but will not be flexible for editorial style copy where different widths, weights and open type features are required.
• Application: will your brand mostly be seen on packaging with beautiful type finishes, where fine details matter? Or on low resolution, mobile devices, where details become visual noise and fine lines disappear?
• Accessibility: how inclusive and accessible does your typeface need to be, based on your brand’s audience? Keep in mind that people read 11 per cent slower for every 20 years they age, and research shows that simpler, sans serif typefaces are better for poor readers, whereas traditional serifs are better for strong readers. Do non-english languages need to be supported?
• Budget: Is a bespoke typeface going to add value to your brand, or is an open-source typeface going to be a more practical solution?

The post Finding your brand‘s type appeared first on Fuller.

As a communication agency, it provides an opportunity for us to reflect on how we can harness our creativity as a force for reconciliation.

Afterall, there’s power in good creative. It influences our emotions, changes our behaviour, and provides new perspectives — all of which are the building blocks of reconciliation.

Reconciliation Australia has coined this years’ theme “Be Brave. Make Change.”

They’re challenging individuals, families, communities, organisations, and government to ‘Be Brave’ and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation to ‘Make Change’ for the benefit of all Australians.

As creatives, we’re in the box seat with a unique opportunity to make change — beyond a single week of the year.   

Here at Fuller, we’ve spent the past few months learning more about the histories, cultures, perspectives, and achievements of Aboriginal people through a series of workshops with Yamatji man and co-founder of Yuntulun Consulting, Tommy Hicks.

After providing valuable insight and mentorship for my Fellowship project, Tommy has become part of the fabric at Fuller, and we’re thrilled that he’s guiding us on our journey as we develop our first Reconciliation Action Plan.

Aside from developing a Reconciliation Action Plan, we’re committed to harnessing our creativity to contribute towards reconciliation in Australia. 

Education, representation and communication are a great place to start.

1. Education

Sadly, stereotypes are rife in the portrayal of First Nations people in advertising and mainstream media in Australia.

The reality is that when we switch on the news, we are still more likely to see a negative portrayal of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person, than a positive one.

It’s hard to begin to break down these stereotypes when there aren’t many varied or modern perceptions of First Nations people that exist in mainstream broadcast media or advertising.

Learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history — particularly through forming relationships with First Nations people — is a fundamental component of reconciliation, Tommy says. 

“Education will happen through relationships.

“To begin to deconstruct negative stereotypes, we must address the ‘us and them’ attitudes ingrained in our society.

“Forming relationships will allow us to find our common ground and in the interest of truth, begin the inevitably uncomfortable and confronting process of understanding who we are as a nation.”

There are many ways you can grow your understanding and awareness of First Nations people and culture in Australia, including: 

• Tuning into the ABC’s ‘You Can’t Ask That’ episode about Indigenous Australians, which tackles some of these stereotypes head-on.
• Engaging a cultural consultant to run cultural competency training, or a workshop, for your organisation.
• Look into some examples of Reconciliation Action Plans or the process of creating a Reconciliation Action Plan for your organisation.
• Explore the history of your local area from a First Nations perspective.

2. Representation

Increasing visibility of Australia’s First Nations people and culture in advertising and media goes a long way in helping achieve reconciliation. 

Afterall, you can’t be what you can’t see, Tommy says. 

“In my experience, when discussing future aspirations with young Aboriginal people — particularly young boys — they often have a limited perspective of what’s available to them. 

“They seldom envision themselves outside the sporting industry as it’s the only place they see their likeness adored by the public, and even that has its caveats.

“For them to be able to picture themselves owning a home, travelling the world or becoming a provider for those they love would be invaluable to their self-esteem.” 

Several government departments, brands and organisations have been increasing First Nations representation in recent campaigns.  

Clothing the Gaps, an Aboriginal clothing label, has launched a campaign called Shades of Deadly to challenge stereotypes around the appearance of First Nations peoples.

Their website states: “It’s not about judging each other by colour or appearance. It’s about our connection to community, culture, land and people which shapes us and identity.” 

Last year, the Department of Health launched For All Of Us, a campaign encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

For All of Us brought together household names including musician Baker Boy, model Samantha Harris, chef Nornie Bero, street artist Tori-Jay Mordey, Paralympian Amanda Reid and renowned Yidaki (Didgeridoo) player and vocalist William Barton in a bid to tackle vaccine hesitancy amongst mob. 

In addition to the advertising campaign, the Department of Health also produced a suite of culturally appropriate resources.

Tourism Australia is adopting a dual-naming approach for capital cities and other specific locations around Australia by using the known Aboriginal name alongside the English name.

Perth Airport has also begun informing travellers of the traditional custodians of their destination as well as the commonly used name on flight information screens throughout the terminals.

Before representing Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, cultures, or language in a creative campaign, make sure you’ve consulted with the community.

“Consultation is important for a few different reasons,” Tommy says.

“The most obvious being that content is culturally safe for Aboriginal people, but also the opportunity it provides to learn and have healthy conversations.

“This will allow the development of relationships based on trust and respect with your local community.

“The diversity of the Aboriginal community is something that must always be acknowledged, we are hundreds of proud nations united, it’s not a one size fits all in every instance.”

3. Communication

Recognising and understanding Indigenous languages – along with applying respectful and culturally sensitive terminology in communications – goes a long way in assisting reconciliation.

Conversely, when used incorrectly, language can reinforce harmful stereotypes, as well as cause discrimination, offence and hurt.

“Using language, either Aboriginal or English terms commonly used by communities, can be an effective mechanism to build relationships,” Tommy says.

“Understanding the diversity of our languages or even using them can convey your appreciation for what was here before. 

“For languages to be alive they need to be spoken, so it can also be a way to play a role in the preservation of a key piece of the culture local to you.”

A great place to start is by finding out who the custodians of the Country that you are living or working on are. To do this, check out this map and postcode finder developed by AIATSIS. 

A range of resources exist to help creatives use culturally appropriate and respectful language:

• 50 Words Online is a platform where Aboriginal language groups post 50 common words (with audio pronunciation) for people to hear and learn.
• The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has developed ‘Communicating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Audiences’ which provides guidance and considerations on appropriate language usage for marketing and communications purposes.
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Style Manual can help you use culturally appropriate and respectful language when writing with, for or about First Nations Australians.
  
• Take a look at the Reconciliation Action Plan Good Practice Guide, which contains a section about demonstrating inclusive and respectful language.
• Australians Together has also developed a handy Language and Terminology Guide.

The post Harnessing creativity as a force for reconciliation appeared first on Fuller.

As one of the most effective tools in the back pocket of any communications professional, nothing beats video when it comes to audience engagement and connection…if it’s done well. 

With attention spans on the decline and time pressures on the incline, developing succinct and captivating video content has never been more important.

Andreas Heikaus, Fuller’s Motion Graphics Designer and Alejandro Aristizabal, Fuller’s Content Creator, share their top tips for levelling up your next corporate comms video. 

1. Use dynamic camerawork

There’s no reason to leave your camera on a tripod!  

If you’re shooting on location, why not ask your talent to walk down a hall, perhaps towards the relevant part of the location you want to shoot, and speak to the camera? 

Or, to demonstrate processes, consider following a product from construction to shipping in one moving shot, or a series of moving shots as an introduction to your video. From there, you can break out the various parts of the process, as needed. Take this example from Dollar Shave Club. 

If your video mainly features a talking-head, try framing the interviewee from new angles, rather than just having them talk down the barrel or slightly off camera. 

Wide shots can help build an understanding of your talent’s location or environment, ‘behind the scenes’ shots give authenticity to your video, and close-ups allow you to capture emotion and convey greater personality.

One of the tried-and-true rules of any video production, from a short instructional video to a full-length movie, is that you should give your talent something to do. 

Colourful and interesting props not only draw the viewer’s attention, but the way your talking-head interacts with and uses them also encourages greater audience engagement. We love this example from Supermaker. 

2. Overlay footage is your friend

Overlay footage, sometimes called ‘B-roll’, is a crucial component of any corporate comms video. Not only does it give you more flexibility in the editing process, it plays an important role in setting the tone for your video, establishing characters or location, and breaking up monotony. 

Types of B-roll footage can include: 

• Atmospheric shots of location or inanimate objects
• Undirected footage of subject/people
• Establishing shots
• Dramatic reenactments
• Pick-up shots
• Stock footage; and
• Archival imagery 

When planning overlay footage for your corporate communications video, think about: 

• Varying your shot frames (wide/medium/close-up)
• Adding infographics/supers
• Using stock footage wisely
• Thinking abstract; and 
• Involving others.

NIBC Bank, based out of the Netherlands, used overlay to reinforce the theme of its corporate brand video: ‘Reflections’. 

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History used overlay footage to show the scale of objects in their various collections — 144 million different objects to be precise! 

3. Engage the senses

It’s widely known that sound, particularly music, can affect the way we feel. 

So when it comes to corporate communications videos, sound — including your backing track, voice overs, sound FX or even strategic silences — shouldn’t be overlooked. Sound adds emotion and connects people to the on-screen visuals; and defines the overall mood and tone. 

For example, where H&M could have created a very straightforward ‘talking-head’ style video about their values, they chose to use emotive music, an interesting voice over and visual metaphors to communicate their key messages. 

4. Get animated

Instead of a traditional point and shoot-style corporate videos, have you ever considered using animation? Animation is an incredibly effective tool for explaining complex concepts or abstract ideas. 

Animation, whether it’s of text, characters or other graphics, can be used on their own or in addition to live-action footage. Branded graphics, like titles used in lower thirds or to display general supporting information, can also make the video more cohesive and on-brand. 

Our Future Los Angeles — a coalition focused on ensuring everyone has access to safe housing in L.A. County — creatively used animation to succinctly explain a complex social issue, and communicate who they are, the problem they solve, and why the work they do is important.

Not-for-profit, the CureGRIN Foundation, shared one family’s story with GRIN Disorder (a rare genetic condition) in an emotive way using custom illustration animation, and authentic voice overs. 

5. Be unique, and authentically you

As with all types of communication, it’s vital that you reflect your brand’s values and identity in your videos. While remaining authentic to your brand, get creative and try to develop something unique. Comedy, timelapses, bold editing choices and exploring metaphors are all great ways to help your video gain cut-through.

We love this internal communications video from Lendlease, one of the world’s biggest construction and property companies. As part of their ‘Mums for Safety’ campaign, the video brings humanity and universal humour to an issue that’s incredibly important to those in the construction industry: workplace safety. 

Feeling inspired?

If you’re ready to level up your next corporate comms video, planning is key. 

Before you begin, we recommend: 

• Finding examples of videos you like to give your production team an idea of the product and style you’re aiming for.
• Involving a shooter and/or editor in the planning process. They’ll be able to advise if certain styles, or set ups, are possible within your timeframe and budget.
• Allowing plenty of time to plan, produce and polish a piece of video content — think about the key messages you’re trying to communicate and the best video format to achieve this, undertake recces, properly brief your talent, and allow plenty of time on shoot day to capture content, as well as change locations, and set-up and pack-down.  
• Engaging a professional copywriter and/or creative as part of the process. They can help you to develop a script or key messaging, as well as an accompanying shot list or more detailed storyboard.

Better yet, consider engaging a creative agency like Fuller. 

Our content team can guide you through the whole process, helping you plan and deliver a creative, professional and effective corporate communications video — saving you valuable time in the process.

The post 5 ways to level up your corporate comms video appeared first on Fuller.

VR swings, data symphonies, phone-led bike tours, workshops, games, rides, and drone performances were all listed alongside the usual arts mix, and our pandemic-fatigued, arts-starved city loved it! 

Emerging technologies and travel restrictions have intersected at an interesting point in time, giving new meaning to the term ‘experience economy’. 

Now more than ever, brands have creative and commercial opportunities to engage artists as collaborators and share stories in immersive ways. To throw events and activations. To improve physical and digital spaces. To attract and engage audiences. To make memories.

This season, the Electric Dreams Conference came to town to celebrate and investigate the new age of immersive storytelling. 

Held in Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide, the one-day conference featured a line-up of pro experience-makers.

Here are some of their secrets:  

Be evocative

“We need to be able to feel from real data, otherwise it’s just an infographic.” 

That was the key takeaway from Musician Jamie Perera and Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray’s session, in relation to Anthropocene in C Major, a symphony created by turning climate change data into music through sonification.

It’s easy to muddle ‘informing’ and ‘evoking’ when communicating. But if your goal is to connect with audiences, then it should be emotional.

Art and immersive storytelling techniques can be harnessed to change perspectives — build resilience, encourage learning, and form memories.

Singer-songwriter and Barkindji Woman, Nancy Bates, spoke of the importance in allowing First Nations Artists to tell their own stories, and how ideas can emerge through co-design. 

This was the case for Sky Song,  a drone and LED sky installation. The installation incorporated new and old storytelling methods to help people find their way “back to the fire” and look up.

It’s evocative experiences like these that encourage deep listening to Country.

Go through the fridge

“There is a deep-seated desire in humans to explore beyond what is normal, to go through household appliances.”

In his keynote speech, Vince Kadlubek, Founder and CEO of American immersive art powerhouse Meow Wolf, discussed why people were so attracted to crawling through the fridge into a new world in his iconic art amusement park.

It was the transformation from known to unknown that stood out to audiences — a moment that proved anything is possible.

Afterall, wouldn’t an unpredictably designed shop, office or website be more exciting than your stock-standard? Aren’t we scrolling for unknown, not known, content on social media? Don’t we want audiences to discover products, services, and experiences for themselves?

In our capitalist evolution from commodity, to good, to service, to experience…what follows? Kadlubek stressed that ‘transformation’ is the next step. 

While on one-hand, constantly creating ‘transformational’ experiences sounds exhausting and unsustainable, it also sounds very alluring. 

Transformation can be achieved by giving consumers real agency and meaningful surprise. 

Beyond dark modes and easter eggs, it requires imagination.

Embrace ugliness

May Abdalla, Immersive Experience Creator at Anagram, rightly quoted Brain Eno in her talk titled ‘Everything You Feel Is Real’.

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature.”

Vinyl crackle. Film grain. Electric guitar distortion. 8-bit pixel art. When mediums are at their breaking point, they’re cherished. 

“Tech breaks, but humans also break,” Abdalla concluded.

It’s time we reach this point with new tech too, like virtual and augmented reality. 

Instead of trying to remake movies, redefine office work, or recreate the ‘real’ world in VR and AR – why don’t we embrace its flaws? Clunky headsets, graphic latency problems and its solo nature.

In creating Goliath, an award-winning VR experience about schizophrenia, gaming and connection, Anagram didn’t retrofit a story to the medium. They asked: what can we say with VR that is unique to VR?

Time the rollercoaster

Brendan Walker’s secret is ‘thrill’. 

As Director at StudioGoGo and creator of Volo: Dreams of Flight  (you probably saw the VR swings outside the South Australian Museum), he approaches immersive experience-making like rollercoaster design.

Emotions fluctuate throughout experiences, so it helps to structure them around perceived risk and reward. It’s how Hitchcock times jump scares and Skrillex times bass drops.

Experiences become immersive when the audience is totally lost in mystery and uncertainty – when they are completely present. This allows them to surrender to the narrative and its two components: the story and the interaction.

When peak story and peak interaction combine,  you’ve reached the steepest part of the rollercoaster!

Give your audience an audience

Is someone watching you read this article? Or are you going to share it on social media for others to read?

If you experienced the VR swings out the front of the South Australian Museum with others, or even just walked past and observed, you probably experienced second-hand enjoyment (you can’t deny there’s something inherently funny about watching people in VR headsets).

Blast Theory’s Rider Spoke also tapped into this idea by using user-generated content to guide bike tours. Strangers recorded and listened to each others’ messages, and thus the audience gained an audience.

After all, if you’re going to create an interactive experience or immersive story then why not make it shareable?

Humans have always shared stories, now we just do it in different ways.

The post The secret to immersive storytelling appeared first on Fuller.