Feb '18 | How to Capitalize On Your Event Investment

Don’t just think one event sizzle. Think videos that span your entire marketing funnel.

With a little strategic foresight and planning, Patina can film specific keynotes, interview key customers, capture on-the-floor audience soundbites, and gather great social moments that make your event not only informative, but memorable. All of this with the primary goal of creating a series of corporate event videos – not just one – that span across your entire buyer’s journey.

And this is exactly what we did for AppDirect at their 2017 Engage conference in San Francisco. We were able to capture enough soundbites and footage to create a variety of content that was inline with their yearly sales strategy.

Our Challenge

There are so many pressing details that go into planning an event, that sometimes the video strategy is created last minute. But putting some solid thought into a strategy yields a greater return on investment. Which is why you’ll hear us, all throughout our pre-production and planning process, talk about all the opportunities and possibilities for video. Because the more you know, the more specific the strategy. 

Tips for Marketers Who Skim:

• Know the possibilities and review them against your marketing and sales goals prior to the conference.

• Script out a list of potential soundbites.

• Think about what you want your viewers to feel, then create a list of imagery to capture.

Know What’s Possible

Here are six type of videos that can be created from footage captured at an event. Would any of these corporate event videos help your sales team move customers through the buyers journey? If so, put that in your video strategy!

Script Your Impromptu Soundbites

How do you do that, you ask? We start by asking our clients “What is it you’d like to hear your customers say during your event?” Once we understand that narrative, then we work backwards and write a series of leading questions that will get you those perfect answers.

Then we take it one step further by asking our clients: “Which keynotes will support these customer soundbites?”

For example, if you want a customer to remark on all the latest product releases announced, then it’s important to also film the keynote where those announcements were being made. That way you can go from a customer gushing about products to a product expert saying, “and this is just the tip of the iceberg, we plan to release several more features throughout the year!”

By loosely scripting out your ideal narrative, your video strategy – what and whom to get on camera– starts to become very clear.

Create a Shot List, or a List of Imagery

Video is a visual medium, so planning out your images ahead of time isn’t just good storytelling. It’ll help you get that return on investment. 

At Patina, we begin every event engagement by asking a lot of questions. Questions such as:

What is it that you want your viewer to think, to feel, to do?
Your soundbites will take care of the “thinking” aspect, but your visuals will make your viewers “feel.” And the combination of both soundbites and visuals will make your viewers act.

Which customers are you interviewing? Are they also giving a presentation or keynote?
It’s great when you can hear someone talk, then cut to them interacting with a crowd of people, or on stage giving a presentation. By knowing your characters beforehand we can plan out these little vignettes.

How do you want to portray diversity?
The last thing you want to do is realize all your customer testimonials were from white, older men. We do a lot to safeguard against this, but it would also behoove you to think about how your company wants to portray diversity and work toward that goal right from the beginning.

What kind of audience shots do you need – large keynotes, or a smaller classroom style ambiance?
Are you trying to presell your event breakouts or support the idea that your event is also about hands-on training? If so, getting visuals of people interacting in smaller settings is important.

How important is it to show the “fun” aspect of your event – the concerts, the meals, the parties?
If that’s a major selling point, make sure this is part of the visual strategy!

Are you needing event sponsors?
If the answer is yes, then plan to get footage of the different sponsor booths and the traffic on the trade show floor so you can entice future sponsors with this year’s corporate event videos.

“We had a fantastic experience working with Patina Pictures on all video aspects of our partner conference. The promotions, stage content, live recordings, and interviews they created for us were all high quality and very well received. Perhaps the most impressive project was a 12 hour turnaround onsite for a highlight reel to be played at the conference. The team is thoughtful, talented, and very open to feedback.”

~ Marketing Associate, AppDirect