Constructing A Narrative – Testimonial Video Editing

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A post shared by Mark Sylvester 🎥 (@mrksylvstr) on Mar 2, 2019 at 9:25am PST

ISN’T IT CREEPY WHEN AN AD FOLLOWS YOU HOME?

#ThatMomentWhen social starts serving you ads that showcase EXACTLY what you’ve been thinking about 🤔 💭 …odds are you’ve have had this happen to you… even though Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, swears his platform does not use the microphone on your mobile device to help a paid #facebookcampaign find its way directly into your line of sight… I’m still not sure I believe him… regardless of the fact he is the friendliest alien I have ever seen here on 🌏 👽

The three videos embed (from my Instagram) above were used to spread awareness and sell a product for @montaukjuicefactory …they are a fantastic local #LongIsland business with really amazing products and I recommend you check them out if you value health and wellness 😍 No, they did not pay me for this plug 😂

MAKING SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO ADS:

I actually want to talk about the process of finding a narrative within testimonial videos. If you watch them, you’ll notice that all three of these edits were pieced together from the same video footage and audio assets. Each video delivers a similar story in different depths.

If you work in video editing or social media …you’re more than likely familiar with the concept of testimonial videos.

In my experience, #narrative is something these types of videos usually lack… No, I don’t mean your product sales video should have the “cinematic story arc” of “Castaway” or the dramatic “plot twist” of The 6th Sense. I’m not talking about making an award-winning film, I am talking about giving social media video advertisements a more relatable “why.”

There is a fine line between “too salesy” & “not enough info.” …as social media continues to overstimulate its users, their barometer for BS becomes even more accurate.

To me, cutting down a longer form testimonial video into a solid 30-second spot means taking the time to get to know the story behind the brand. More importantly, it means understanding what the person on camera actually cares about & how it relates to the brand’s audience.

Great ad campaigns are built around the idea of “why.” People buy products & services that fix their problems. Successful brands understand the specificity of their customer’s needs and use a well crafted “why” to stand out among their competitors. Great video ad campaigns follow suit.

In my opinion, testimonial video ads are one of the best ways to humanize a brand’s offerings. If executed correctly, they not only show an individual the answer to their problem BUT… They start with “why” & leave audiences with relatable & memorable feeling. I for one am a believer that the most memorable stories are made up of relatable human experiences. When it comes to video ads – relatable human “why” should make up 51%. Beautiful visual accompaniment, use cases & other examples should act as support not a substitute for story.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MULTIPLE VIDEO ADS

Combining testimonial videos & the right social media ad campaign can put your brand story in front of an audience who relates but there is one more big thing to consider…

How much content can you cram into that edit? The answer, not much.

On average, your video has less than 3 seconds to break that mindless scroll & make a good first impression on a user’s news feed. You better make your point & make it good. Having multiple cuts becomes particularly important when the final videos need to help spread the word about a brand, especially if you have more than one BIG point you’d like to make.

In video production, a great deal of time and research goes into casting the right “voice” BUT a good #videoeditor makes all the difference in getting the right message across… A well-thought-out edit becomes even more critical when the final cut is 30 seconds long but the audience departed around the 15-second mark…

I hope you found this article useful 🙂

If you or your brand is in the market for video ads or you’d like to learn more about what effects content marketing can have on your business, please reach out! //speaklymedia.com/contact/

I would love to open up the floor for discussion here. I’d love to know if any of my #contentcreator friends out there would have handled the selections process from a different mindset. Please, take a look at all the video & let me know what you think of our choices! I love constructive criticism, especially when it comes from people involved in the community the content relates to 😁

I’d also like to give a HUGE shout out to @megangaber (featured in the videos) What an amazing job, we can’t thank her enough 🙌

As always, please feel free to join my mailing list for more blog posts like this, future free guides & time-saving tools!

I look forward to hearing from you!
-@mrksylvstr