COVID sucks and I do not care who is offended by that statement. The disease has killed too many, risked the safety of the world, and has turned the economy on its head. One need only scroll through their favorite social media platform to see there is no shortage of folks who are also angry over the situation an invisible virus has caused.
Through every challenge, however, even during something as terrible as the coronavirus, there are opportunities. For social media marketers and content creators, the potential prospects should be obvious: millions of Americans are home, they are on social media, they are bored, and they are hungry for originally produced content from the brands they love. It’s an opportunity that will likely never come again quite like this.
While there may be a need for engaging storytelling, where in lies the challenge is creating content in a way that does not further spread the disease or put clients in potentially risky situations. Clip on microphones for a video interview? In most cases, not to get to technical, it is simply not an option. Doing a multi-camera shoot that has one camera up close and “tight”? Bad idea. Handshaking with your client? Forget about it. You get the idea.
Recently, a client of mine, that produces heavy machinery, tapped our business, Five Seasons Media, to create several videos highlighting their customers. The nature of the work their customers do would make it nearly impossible to practice social distancing had we sent a crew out to capture their efforts on site.
My team and I had an idea to deal with this situation. We decided, with our awesome client’s blessing, to have the subjects of the videos shoot out their own material on their smartphones.
Let me be clear, not everyone who can operate a camera is photographer and not everyone who can press “record” is a storyteller. In fact, in most cases, in my experience, most people who call themselves either a photographer or storyteller are not.
That said, with some heavy amounts of editing on our end, basic instructions on best shooting practices to those tasked with gathering video, and a request that the subjects record as much video as possible, we were confident for the purposes of this project we could create something that was truly unique and would stand out. We did.
The videos we have created have a feel all their own that surpassed even our own expectations. After polishing up the clips the subjects came back with, they have offered a unique and authentic glimpse into their world that is connecting deeply with those who watch the final product. The thousands of views each video is racking up is testament to a job well done.
Five Seasons Media is not the only content creation company to have had this idea I have learned. After we completed our first handful of videos, I stumbled across an article about a similar project Gary Vaynerchuck, of VaynerMedia, did for Kraft Heinz Co. I need to give credit where credit is due, it was also well done.
The lesson here for content creators is the same one business leaders across every industry are being forced to learn in the wake of COVID, embrace the chaos and turn it to your advantage, or become another victim of the virus’ economic impact. The choice is yours.
This blog article was written by Five Seasons Media’s Chief Creative Officer, Josh Scheinblum. For questions about how Five Seasons Media can help your organization, please contact Josh via email at Josh@5SeasonsMedia.com.
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