Every corporate event is a chance to market in different ways. For example, the stills and clips you can shoot can be part of the business’s video advertising strategy.
Videos are critical marketing tools these days for many reasons:
- Videos appeal to the younger generation, accounting for a significant consumer population.
- Videos are easy to share, making them excellent complementary marketing materials for social media and e-mail marketing strategies.
- Companies can use videos to raise brand awareness, improve consumer engagement, and build conversions.
- Videos can be easily adapted to suit many marketing needs, such as demonstrating new products or highlighting customer testimonials.
However, shooting good videos requires more than just pressing the record button on your digital camera. It would help if you had a plan for capturing quality video content that will help accomplish your business goals.
Here are some guidelines for planning corporate event videos that will achieve your business objectives:
1. Know Your Objectives
Before you begin shooting, have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with the video. Be sure to know how long it should be, the target audience, and which digital platform it will use.
You should also know the venue where the corporate event is taking place, like the back of your hand before you begin shooting. You need to understand how lighting, logistics, sounds, and other factors influence video quality. Know what equipment you can bring in (e.g., tripods, selfie sticks) and how long you can stay in the venue.
Be aware of when to shoot so that you can capture important moments like opening and closing remarks, award presentations, press briefings, etc. Hide your camera somewhere discreet (e.g., in your backpack) during critical moments, or take some test shots beforehand to see if it’s worth recording with your current equipment.
Lastly, you never know what kinds of events will add variety to your video. Keep your focus on the overall objective but be open to spontaneity so you can capture exciting moments that may not occur if you were more rigid about sticking with your original shooting plan.
2. Plan Your Shooting Angles
Shooting wide shots of the venue will help your viewers get a better sense of place, which makes them more engaged with the video content at hand. Play around with your camera’s zoom to get different angles on the event or venue.
Meanwhile, having different camera angles when editing a corporate event video will make it seem like you had more than one camera person. Focus on the most critical angles (e.g., when someone is speaking) and save other shots (e.g., of the venue or attendees’ reactions) for later use in your video editing program.
Shots of the event venue, signage, people arriving and leaving, etc., are also valuable for later use in your corporate videos. But be sure that you don’t spend too much time recording these shots since they may not be significant enough to keep in the final video edit.
Most people consider the human face an incredibly compelling visual element, so make sure to show many faces. While this can look unflattering at times, it creates a compelling experience for your viewers since they feel like they’re right there with you and the other attendees.
In particular, capture them when they’re showing high engagement with the speaker, clearly interested in what they are saying, and showing good reactions to exciting points. Be sure to hold shots long enough, so viewers can take everything in and appreciate how it relates to the bigger picture.
3. Edit Your Shots
Live event videos are usually too long and unfocused to be exciting or engaging. Video editing software like Premiere Pro and After Effects let you add professional effects, cut out the boring parts, and combine different shots in a visually stimulating way.
Music is also an excellent way to enhance the emotional impact of your video content. Use soundtracks that match the tone of your video so viewers are emotionally engaged with the scenes you’re showing them.
As far as post-production audio is concerned, be sure to avoid loud background noise like clapping or cheering since it can be distracting for viewers. You might even consider using voiceovers or subtitles to replace these sounds with text equivalents.
Moreover, the best way to make sure your final edited video looks professional is to edit it in full resolution. Don’t use shortcuts that will only bring the quality down a few notches. You’ll regret it later when you have to re-edit or redo your footage anyway.
If the event was inspiring, be sure to record your thoughts about it to include your thoughts in the final video. Was it exciting? Did you learn new things? Why or why not? Be sure to ask these questions and more to get people’s reactions on camera.
Live-event videos are usually an afterthought in many marketing strategies. People don’t always understand what’s so important about filming these events since it can be tedious work unless you have a highly competent video team on board.
But if you want to monetize your website traffic or appeal to people interested in your field, invest some time and money into developing a focused video content strategy. Each corporate event you attend provides an opportunity for you to do that.
