Long before your video is ever scripted, shot or edited, you have a few opportunities to get it headed in the right direction. This post is about knowing those opportunities.
Know Your Purpose
Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses helps you live your life on-purpose, fully focused. But for your video that purpose is defined in a document, the Creative Brief. It’s this document that’s your video’s starting place. And the more clarity you can have in articulating the strengths (objective, audience and message) and the weaknesses (issues and challenges) of that video, the greater your potential for success.
It’s your Creative Brief that eliminates distractions like speaking to too many audiences or trying to convey too many messages. It’s the Creative Brief that helps you say “NO!” to a lot of “good” things and saying “YES!” to a few GREAT things. It helps you eliminate those distractions so your video will have a clear and simple purpose.
Know Your Pains
Too many times as a kid my hammer missed the nail and hit my thumb instead. But that pain made me a better carpenter. From it I learned the right way to use a hammer–a way that didn’t involve a throbbing thumb!
In the same way the pain of my thumb sent my brain a message, so too your Creative Brief should help you identify those problem areas of your video. You can ignore the pain and keep wildly swinging the hammer but that will mean your video will never reach the right audience with the right message. And that’s not what you want.
Think of the Creative Brief as the father who told you, “Choke up on your hammer a bit. Swing it more like this.” Learn from those messages and identify those problem areas that have the prospect to diminish the impact, (Sorry. I couldn’t help myself), of your video. A strong Creative Brief will help you minimize those problems before they become throbbing pains.
Know Your Influencers
Your video will be influenced by almost everyone who touches it along the way. A good Creative Brief will help you identify those influencers that get you closer to your message, not farther from it.
Our Creative Brief calls those influencers “sacred cows”. But you can also think of them as mandatory or requirements. They can be ingredients like a tag line, a url or if you’re Apple, white earbuds hanging from someone’s ears. Those are influencers and they mold the message your audience wants to hear. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking influences are not important.
Long before you start thinking about the creative aspects of your video. Long before your video is ever scripted, shot or edited–know the opportunities to get it focused!