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Corporate videos don’t just happen. Corporate videos arise when there is a need that must be fulfilled. The more clearly the need is identified the more clearly it can be addressed by the video. A not uncommon challenge for established corporations, one that is frequently met with a corporate video, is the need to inform shareholders and the public that the corporation is responding properly to a drastic change in the market the company sells in. When the market change is extreme, the video has to be extreme in reassuring the public that the company is readjusting. The Kodak Winds of Change Video is an example of a video that addresses this very situation.
Few corporations could be faced with a more drastic market change than when Kodak, a household name in regular photography, was faced with the digital photography revolution. Kodak made a video responding to this revolution in photography, and it was as extreme in format, as the market change was great. After seeing it, no can say that Kodak sat back and did nothing to address fears among their shareholders that Kodak would be severely affected by this great technological change in their field.
The Kodak “Winds of Change Video,” in a powerfully unique way tells the shareholders and public that Kodak is making a strong response to digital photography and is already creating imaginative and ingenious technology, which represents significant contributions by Kodak to digital photography. The video underscores this point by presenting the old and new Kodak in the video.
The video begins with a scene one might expect from an established company with a history of excellence. A dignified spokesman addresses the audience in an ornate classical theater setting. He describes the illustrious 100 year history of Kodak. Classic examples of Kodak pictures of children and family gatherings flash in the background, while pleasant elevator music, conducive to the scene, plays in the video sound track.
Suddenly as viewers begin to shift nervously in their chair, thinking that Kodak is living on their laurels, the mood changes. “Yep,” says the narrator, “they shoveled on the smaltz pretty thick.” “But,” he adds. “that kind of crap doesn’t work any more.” Then in a very worldly wise fashion the spokesman begins to talk about the digital photography revolution. He informs us that “Kodak is back and is “taking this digital thing to a level unheard of.”
The video continues, and as it does the narrator addresses each and every question or concern the public might have about Kodak’s response to digital photography. The spokesman admits that there was an initial hesitation on Kodak’s part. However, once it became clear that digital was the wave of the future Kodak jumped in feet first. The narrator then lists some of the new digital features that Kodak is developing in their laboratories; photography that meets “meta-knowledge.”
The narrator describes ways in which digital programming will allow home photographers to create unheard of sophisticated shows and displays of their photos, intertwined with background music and video sequencing. Then he describes how the old well loved look of Kodak, the shots of babies families and grandmas will come back in a new form within the digital media.
When the video is over, we are convinced, albeit in an unconventional way, that Kodak is not just a bunch of stuffed shirt faddy daddies, but that they have managed to mobilize their corporate resources to become part of the world of computerized photography.
The take home lesson from this video is to name and identify the challenge and task of the corporate video and meet it fully .
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4Ward is a Canadian company specializing in branding, web video production and photography. Their 2008 corporate video is posted on the web. Their corporate video is striking in that they have chosen as background music, the popular song “Here it Goes Again,” by OK.
The song is an exciting song, which won real prominence because of the incredible viral video made to the tune of that song. The video features the band members performing an incredible walk dance on a series of treadmills in a gymnasium. The treadmills are lined up in two rows and set to run in alternating directions. As the band members walk/dance from treadmill to treadmill, to the tune of the music, they create some incredible visual effects. The visual effects illustrate the theme of the song as well. In the song, the protagonist is always getting in the groove and in the mood, with a girl, apparently, when something outside of his control occurs. The treadmills which constantly are in motion, and never allow the user to stand still, reflect that out of control and need to go with the flow type of daily living pattern.
The choice of Here it Goes Again, as background music for their corporate video apparently reflects the company’s esprit de corp. Videography manufacturing is a fast paced business. Just when one project is under control, the phone rings and another project comes along. The pace never stops and people working in videography on online marketing are constantly busy, but constantly loving it.
Both of these themes are expressed by the video song selection. While the song laments the fact that
something always goes out of control, just when things are going great, the song response is an dutiful and upbeat accpetance, “Oh well, here we go again.”
The visual display is collage style, with lots of images, many related to computers and communication, coming and going in multiple simultaneous frames. The work held together stylistically and is loosely held together by occasional captions. The captions tell us the company has 40 branches throughout Canada.
The video addresses the fast paced world of computer video and visual advertising. As a corporate video the work shows off the ability of the company to create motion graphics. The captions note that the company makes flash, 3D animation, print design, package design and web design.
Eveyone will be able to relate to the background song of this video, and people who work in a related industry will be able to relate with the imagery Much of the material presents products of desktop publishing, including photographs, text designs and online arragnements. Other segments present clips of videos made for important clients such as Yamaha.
As a viewer, if asked how the company could better the production of their corporate video for future years, I would suggest using a song that is slightly less domineering. It is a tune that is so popular on You Tube, that anyone hearing it immediately wants to see the viral video that goes with it. The meaning of the song appears to express the pace of life of the industry, and that is captivating and amusing. I personally would relate a little better to a visual storyline which presents a more unified visual theme. I would want to see a bit more coherence and correspondence between the images and the script. However, it is worthy of note that the video has been popular, as corporate videos on You Tube go, with over 25,000 views. And that’s a lot more views than many very coherent looking corporate branding videos get.
One must concede that this video has presented a successful branding image of the company, based on the song and the content of the video collage. This helps to defend the company’s assertion that they are specialists in branding.These are people who know how to live and breathe in the fast paced Internet video and web marketing environment. And in the computer world, we tend to trust faced paced people. People who can make it have fun from 4 until 10, as the song describes, and then shrug off a sudden unexpected event, which ends the good time, and then go with the flow, are the kind of people we know we can trust with a marketing project.