Video, video, video!!! We're hearing this word several times per day lately.
Who can deny that compelling video really tells a story (just ask anyone who is glued to a screen)? But who can honestly say that most B2B Marcom video is compelling? I walked a trade show (Semicon West 2007, in which we exhibited) and started counting flat panel displays. I stopped when I got to 100 (didn't take too long) and I noted how many had an audience. After I saw 100 screens, I noted only two that had even a single person watching them!
It is my goal to meaningfully engage my audience and draw them in. Video offers an enhanced ability to do so (especially when compared to static posters/graphics). But producing a true and compelling video can be very expensive. For my first experimental foray into exhibition video, I wanted to keep the costs low. I turned to some trusted partners and arrived at a solution: motion graphics.
Motion graphics proved to be a low cost (nearly the same cost as posters) approximation of video. So, we used existing artwork, the "Ken Burns Effect", and some fancy intros/outros, and produced Indium's first exhibit "video", which was unveiled at IPC Midwest (Schaumburg, IL) last week and at SMTAI this week (Orlando, FL).
At the SMTAI show I asked my cynical Sales and Product Management teams to tell me their opinions of the new "videos". They loved them. They said that our exhibit looked more interesting and alluring than ever. Additionally, they used the graphics to depict certain products and properties to our customers.
Consider motion graphics as a first step into exhibit video if you want to be cautious and spend money carefully, or if you don't have a video-worthy subject.
I want to thank Alen Smajic and Claude Schuyler of The Paige Group for creating the motion graphics you see on ths page, which we used at the shows.