Corporate Capabilities Video | MARSH Open Innovation from Cinevita Films on Vimeo.
Our team recently created a video for an agency who had been pitching for a $20 million chunk of business. They had been pitching for months without success. They were spending thousands of dollars flying their team to the potential clients offices trying desperately to communicate their vision. On a last ditch attempt, they contracted with Cinevita Films to produce a short video promoting their company and capabilities. They used this video in their next sales meeting and were able to have the confidence to close that $20 million dollar piece of business. What do you think their ROI was on that video?
The cost of video production can deter many companies from considering the benefits of video. Companies often want to first understand the Return On Investment they will receive from investing into a new promotional video or a TV commercial. Video now offers more metrics than ever to measure who is watching your video, how long they are watching your video, and how many people are watching your video. While these metrics are invaluable, there is one metric that is very difficult to measure. Quality.
We understand the importance of metrics, and we are big fans of measuring and quantifying your marketing strategies and, when posible, linking those metrics to revenue. But we also acknowledge that not all aspects of marketing have clear measurable metrics. Sometimes the most valuable aspects of marketing can’t directly be analyzed through ROI.
Before you right me off, let me explain further through some examples. Do you think Nike is able to directly calculate a ROI off the small fortune they spend designing and redesigning their logo? Nobody questions that. Do you think Google is able to calculate a tangible ROI against the millions they have spend on user interface with their search engine and other products? Do you think Apple is able to calculate a Return on Investment for their perfectly designed website? The metric of “Quality” is one that is not easily measured, yet has an enormous impact on the consumers decision wether or not to purchase your product or service. I think we would all agree nobody would purchase a product who had a website looking like this.
Would you visit a Chiropractor who had a video like this?
Maybe its an overstated reality, but quality of marketing matters just as much as the amount of viewers you are receiving. Take that last video as an example. The video received 9 million views on youtube. How many of those views were actually converted into a customer? I certainly would be surprised if even one was converted. But that’s the metric that is most import, the metric of conversion rates. Is it better to have 9 million views with no conversion, or only 40 views with 20 conversion to customers? That’s not to diminish the importance of quantity of views, but quantity doesn’t matter at all if the quality of video isn’t converting those views.
Another X factor is confidence. While we can’t measure a distinct ROI on the decision to not wear board shorts to a client meeting, we can however agree that we are given confidence in that pitch by dressing for success. How will your sales reps feel when they are able to present a top quality video in their sales meeting? Are your sales reps currently cringing when they present your marketing materials? I have seen that far too often. The quality of work they are able to present directly has an effect on the quality of their pitch and the receptiveness of the clients.
While you should always attempt to calculate your ROI on any marketing campaign, always remember some of the most important elements can’t be measured.
