Marketing pros who have spent much of their career dealing with the written word tend to approach making a video like this:

Voila! Send it off to the video crew and you’re off and running.

This backward approach is tantamount to buying a Ferrari then pushing it down the street at 1 mph. It’s a great car, but if you don’t actually drive it, it’s not going to make anyone swoon. The above approach is why so many corporate videos are dull and uninspiring.

If you operate your digital video vehicle correctly, it will create emotions and desires, impact beliefs and drive behavior. The first key to harnessing video’s multisensory power to reach right into your soul and shake you is to pay full homage to the MULTISENSORY Gods.

Imagine your video is reined over by three great and powerful Gods who want equal homage!

1) The God of Audio This God oversees music, which is one of the MOST IMPORTANT elements of your video. It amazes me how often music is thrown in at the very end as an afterthought. It sets a mood, a feeling, and can create urgency so for the love of the Audio God, use it wisely!
This category includes the voices of the speakers, other ambient sounds, and pauses.
2) The God of Visual Imagery This God wants a visual feast, from the artistically lit well-staged interview shot to gorgeous and compelling b-roll (non-interview footage) to beautiful and tasteful motion graphics. It goes without saying that the quality and content of the images is of utmost importance.
3) The God of Message Aside from the message itself, this God wants you to include the most pertinent information that the viewer must take away, including call to action.

You may want to save information that doesn’t fall under the auspices of the God of Message, for accompanying materials such as brochures or the website.

Keeping Pace

A wise producer once told me he won’t hire an editor who isn’t a musician. And here’s why: Just as any good song follows a pace. It swells, crescendos and resolves sometimes more than once. Your video should do the same. Trying to cram in too much information can have the same effect as adding two extra beats into a four-beat measure. The God of Audio will not be made happy.

My point is that trying to cram 3 minutes of copy or even 2:30 into a 3 minute video is a huge mistake. And the Multisensory Gods will not be happy, nor will your client or your boss.

Instead, pay homage to the Multisensory Gods equally, and think of your video as a chance to do what you can’t do as effectively in the copy: grab attention, instill emotions and compel action. Maybe even make someone swoon.

Aimee Nuzzo is the Executive Producer and co-owner of Concept2Cut Productions, an NJ-based media production company specializing in corporate, commercial and not-for profit content.