If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a well-branded, message-rich video segment can be priceless.
While it’s true that securing any sort of positive, branded television or online video coverage for a client is a win, a little extra effort to dress up the visuals and include an engaging spokesperson can transform good into great.
Having come from mainly a hospitality/travel/lifestyle PR background – think ski resorts, wineries, golf communities, hotels and other travel destinations – I never gave much thought to staging. Secure a TV camera onsite, point them to the beauty shots, and my job was done. Get a screen graphic to tell viewers what they were looking at, and let the snowy mountain backdrop do the rest…or the perfectly manicured fairways, bucolic vineyards and lavishly appointed, luxury suites.
Consumer products are different. While ensuring logo placement is a key element for overall brand awareness, properly staging a shoot can maximize the overall impact and brand PR message.
This image is from a turkey donation story that ran a few weeks prior to last Thanksgiving, which included a brand mention for Foster Farms and close up of a Foster Farms fresh turkey. Overall, the result was a logo placement – and brand awareness – and a nice mention about the company giving back to the community for the holidays. Good, but how could it have been better?
The two screen shots below demonstrate how better staging can have a significant impact on what the viewer sees and the impact it has on their brand perception. The first is taken from a turkey story that aired the week before Thanksgiving, which took place at a supermarket and included several early-morning live segments. We wanted the viewer to see more than a turkey sitting in the supermarket cold case. Dressing up a table with a cooked turkey (and it’s not easy to get a cooked turkey at 5 a.m.!), fall vegetables and a festive tablecloth, the viewer is guided to really connect the Foster Farms brand with fresh turkey, the fall bounty and Thanksgiving.
The shot on the far right shows the winner of the Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest appearing in a cooking demonstration segment. We prepared her as a spokesperson to deliver the brand’s key message points – locally grown, always fresh, always delivered to the store in 48 hours or less. Our spokesperson wore a Foster Farms branded apron for logo placement throughout the segment. The cooking area was also staged to include colorful, fresh ingredients that were part of the recipe being prepared – oranges, avocados, fennel bulb, and chili peppers – and packages of Foster Farms fresh chicken breasts. A screen graphic letting viewers know they were watching the Foster Farms contest winner, and a very enthusiastic host who let the audience know that she “loves Foster Farms,” made this segment as good as it gets.