Since meeting at Google Digital Garage earlier in the year, we've been chatting with John Daniels, the Lean Marketer, on how our businesses could work together and complement each other, being closely aligned with video content and digital marketing. We hatched a plan to make some video together in which we learn more about each others expertise. In our first series Brendan and John chat all things video content, from planning right through to delivery online. You can follow our conversations here.

​Look past the daily vlogs posted by a Youtube-famous influencer. Beyond the endless compilations of people falling. Skip through the cooking shows and DIY tutorials. Turn left at the marmot yelling “Alan!”, and you’ll soon notice that you’ve become part of a statistic: ​1.5 billion people watch videos on Youtube each day. There’s a lot of video content out there on the internet, and a lot of people who want to watch it. Do you have content that is ready to be seen?

It just might be the understatement of the year, but with the average customer spending 88% more of their time on a website with video, content video is a game-changing piece of business strategy. And it’s not just about creating meaningful conversations with potential customers and engaging marketing. Content video covers almost every aspect of your business, from testimonials to tutorials and guides. They work so well because they display a human element that jumps beyond reading words on a page. Watching a video of someone authentically raving about the latest-and-greatest product, and why you need it, contextualises the fact that people buy from people. And, even better for you, video viewers are 64% more likely to buy than non-viewers. 

So what’s the best way to create relevant video content that ticks all the boxes? Start by thinking about who’s watching your video and why. A viewer is usually either looking to increase their awareness by seeing what’s ‘out there’, searching for a solution to their problem, or trying to make a final decision. Or they just really like watching videos of bad lip readings. ​

No matter what stage a viewer is at, video content can help build awareness and loyalty, strengthen trust in a product, develop better relationships, and increase sales or conversion rates. How you use videos, and even what kind of videos you need, depends on what your business does. The choices are almost endless. You can use videos to: ​
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• Highlight a product and demonstrate its key features
• Provide instructional how-to guides
• Showcase authentic testimonials
• Welcome visitors to your website
• Introduce staff or new policies
• Share industry expertise and build your reputation.​

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That list is far from exhaustive, and when done well, each type of video can help transform your website into an informative and engaging place that helps convert visitors into customers. Video works so well because it does what words can’t do alone - it creates a feeling of interaction and connection in real time. No matter where you’re watching or what’s happening around you. Start building a better, more engaging relationship with your viewers by contacting us to chat about your shoot today.

Raise your hand if you feel like you know what you’re doing when it comes to creating video content. We’ll go out on a limb and say that chances are your hand is not raised (even in your head). You’re not alone though - most people don’t feel confident in their video making skills!

Not only is Youtube the second most popular search engine, but 84% of online content is video. It’s safe to say that video is changing the way people communicate (even if we politely try to opt out of video calls because of a ‘broken camera’). But just because there are more videos online every day doesn’t mean they’re easy to create… especially if you want them to look professional.

It takes months, even years, to feel capable when it comes to making compelling video marketing content. But when 87% of people want to see more video content from companies, and 36% of agencies use video to help them close new clients, can you really afford to not be in the game? 

Even before the rise of social media, video was (and is) the most efficient way to connect a company or brand to their audience. It helps that Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, your website, streaming services, corporate presentations, and just about anything else you can think of, are all great ways to target and communicate with people as well. And that’s not even an exhaustive list. 

About 50% of potential customers look for product videos before they make a purchase. Video is so engaging that the majority of people would rather watch a video than read something. The stats we’ve sprinkled through this blog post make it clear: your audience wants to connect with you and video makes it easy for them to do so. But just because you know that doesn’t mean setting up a location or defining your video’s message is any easier. That’s where a video workshop comes in.  ​​

You shouldn’t have to spend months Googling “how do I edit a video?” or “what is an aspect ratio?” as you try and piece together shaky footage. Learn video skills in hours, not months, with a Dangerous video workshop that covers everything you need to know for each stage of video production. What does that mean? Well, here’s a list. We’ll give you a step-by-step guide to filming your subject and help you:
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• Define the message you want to get across
• Plan your video to ensure you have everything you need
• Get advice on affordable kit to make your production look and sound great
• Learn how to set up your location and prepare your speaker
• Work with your footage
• Add text, logos and photos
• Publish and share your video online

And the best part (besides hanging out with us for the day) is that you can pick the location. Our studio in Leith, your office in Edinburgh, or anywhere else you can think of. 

Just tell us where and when you want your video workshop.

When we first met Dr Yvonne Davies, founder of Yoga Warrior, she had a clear vision of what she wanted to achieve. Having had a high powered and high stress career prior to developing her yoga teaching with Yoga Warrior, Yvonne knew how yoga could be a great benefit to executives. Yvonne also appreciated the difficulties that busy people who work and travel a lot can have accessing regular classes. Yvonne’s idea was to develop an online yoga course, accessible by subscription where she could demonstrate her practices and users could access them where and when it suited them. With executives firmly in mind the classes were suitable to be done in an offices and hotel rooms.

We were excited to hear of Yvonne’s plans, this sounded like a fun project! We knew we had to find some great locations and get the look of the films just right. We also had to think about how the voice instructions would work, and how we could best make this work for sound and editing.  After lots of brainstorming we came up with a plan.

We shot over four days in four locations, each with a different feel for different types of video Yvonne wanted to produce. We were amazed by Yvonne’s stamina throughout the shoot! And personally I have no idea how she managed to not laugh when she was lying on the mat with her eyes closed just breathing knowing the camera was inches from her face! A true professional, Yvonne powered through the practices.

When it came to the edit Yvonne attended and worked with Andrew to bring together the footage and record the voice over in our studio. Then it was in to the finishing suite for a final polish. We output a series of over 10 hours of video broken down in to various courses. These were then delivered ready to be uploaded are now available on the Yoga Warrior Online website where you can find out more information about Yoga Warrior online. If you'd like a chat about selling your courses online, get in touch.

Investing in video content for your business can seem like a big commitment, particularly for smaller companies on tighter budgets. But by creating a video you, in addition to increasing your client engagement, can also make the video work in different ways for you. Along with sharing your video on your website and social media there are lots of other ways you can reuse and repurpose your footage to make the most of what you have. There is a lot of evidence to show that the more your audience hears from you the more they are likely to trust your brand and engage with you. Here are some ideas of how you can get more from your video production.

Clips
Your full video will deliver your full message, but snippets of this will also be useful to your audience. You could use these as short tips or teasers for your full service, these are particularly on social media where attention spans are short and you need to get in there quickly. Don’t forget to link to your full video so users can get more information if they need it.

Stills
Stills from your video can be used to promote key messages, drive interest and hook your audience in to looking for more information. By identifying your key points, you can then use a still from the video with a quote, or caption and a call to action. You can use the same information in several different ways meaning you have a good supply of content for your social media planner.

Thumbnails
If you’re uploading your videos to YouTube or Facebook, you can use customised and optimised thumbnails to increase engagement. Choose an interesting and engaging still image from your video and add text which will connect with your audience and encourage them to click through.

When you’re repurposing your video content it’s worth remembering that each social media platform uses different sizes to be properly shared and optimised so always check the spec for the platform you are using. Correctly size content gets priority and will be more visible to users.
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Remember your goal is always to point your potential clients to your full length video to get your whole message across, but by turning it into repurposed mini assets means you can get that message out much more quickly and widely and create some great content at the same time.  If you'd like a chat with us about how to go about this just give us a shout.

During 2018 we've been working with several organisations who run events of various different types including training, networking, promotional and educational to name but a few. We’re often asked to film these events and this is a good idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, you’re capturing the essence of your offering, people can see what you’re about and what to expect from what you do, it’s a good intro to your work. This video can then be used to promote your work on your website and across social media.  If you’re thinking of creating video of your event here are a few pointers on what to think about:

Who is your video for? What are you trying to say?
As always, when creating video you need to think about who you’re making it for and what they need to know. It’s not always about what you think and not always what you want to tell them. Is it to give a sneak peak of your event, to show the benefits of attending your event or to promote future events? Each has it’s own narrative so be clear on your objective.

Your location
You know your location works for your event, but you also need to think how the venue will work on camera. You might need to notify or get permission from the venue, delegates or speakers to film there.

Create a plan
Which are the key elements of your event, do they happen in different places? Think about where you need our camera to be to make sure you don't miss anything important. Look at your event programme and create a filming schedule to make sure you can capture everything you need in your final video. 

Think about how to reach the optimal audience for your video
Have you thought about how to distribute your video and get it out to a wide audience? Will your video be on your website and social media channels? how will people know how to find your video? Thinking about the answers to these questions beforehand mean you can create your video with the end production in mind.

If you'd like to talk to us about filming your event, just get in touch.

We've been working with Developing the Young Workforce for over eighteen months now- when we won our first tender with the organisation we had no idea how the project would unfold.

We initially pitched to work with DYW West Lothian in April 2017- we were successful in the tender and went on to collaborated closely with their great team to develop a portal of information for businesses, young people, education and parents so each group could easily find information needed to support young people in to employment. Working with a flexible and scaleable online platform we were able to create strong, clean and clear design to concisely signpost users to the information relevant to them. 

Knowing it was important to capture the attention of their various users, DYW West Lothian were clear that they needed to include video content on their portal meaning the information was accessible to each relevant group. We created two series of videos for use on the portal and across social media too. The first was to showcase each of the nine main industry sectors in the West Lothian area. We filmed on location within local businesses, who were able to bring personality and insight into working within that sector. We also created videos to give hints and tips from employers to young people starting out on their way to getting a job, and another to show other employers that there are varied and tangible benefits to recruiting young people.

The website launched in the summer of 2017 where we handed over the site to the DYW team and trained them to make amendments and updates themselves, meaning they can easily keep their portal up to date with new information. DYW West Lothian continue to develop their website and have since added further video content, animations and regularly updated news.

At this point, having this base structure and branding in place, we were then able to offer portals of a similar type to other DYW regional offices, so we went on to develop portals for both DYW Borders and DYW Forth Valley. It was fantastic working with each team, who had their own ideas of how the portal would work best for their areas. Although the base website is the same, their new ideas and vision for their regional site means the websites have different feels and information, in line with what works best for their local audiences.

The most recent project we have worked with DYW on was the development of their overarching DYW Scotland website. Based again on the original design, this site  gives an overview of the objectives of Developing the Young Workforce as well as an introduction to each area of Scotland covered in the initiative. Once again video was an important factor and we interviewed each regions' chairperson at our studio in Leith for use on the site. This launch of this site was recently announced at the Scottish Festival for Learning, along with a promotional video that we created from the existing footage we had gathered.

Why event filming is good for business

Video is a versatile and cost-effective marketing tool that all businesses would benefit from utilising in one form or another, whether to advertise their services, showcase their products or educate their clients. It is also an excellent way of promoting past and future events. 

Why film your event?

If you are planning a workshop, conference or other event, you may be wondering whether you should worry about filming it. After all, it is just another thing to think about and an extra expense you could probably do without. But, it is worth considering and here’s why:   

1. Provides an opportunity for self-evaluation. Reviewing footage from your event can provide insight into how it went and enable you to assess what you may want to do to improve next time; it is an excellent learning tool.

2. Shares your message with a wider audience. Without video, your messages only reach event attendees; your audience is small and restricted. Make a video, however, and your material will spread to a far wider audience, which will attract interest and, potentially, new business.  

3. Promotes your future events. Utilising footage from a past event to create a promotional advert for the next one is the ideal way to attract new attendees. Show off the highlights, include testimonials and perhaps even mini interviews and people will be eager to sign up for fear of missing out.

Why work with a professional video production company?

If you have a smartphone with video function, you can film your own event or get a friend or colleague to take some footage for you. But, unless the video is only for you to review, there will be a substantial amount of editing to do before you have a professional looking video ready for release on social media; it is time-consuming. And, on the day itself when you have 101 other things to think about, do you really want to be worrying about making sure you get the right footage? Especially when there are so many different angles, lighting conditions and backgrounds to play with. Why not relieve some of the stress, focus on running your event and let us take care of the video? 

With our high-quality equipment and extensive experience, we will make sure to capture your event in the best way possible and will even collect video testimonials if required. Then, after a bit of post-processing, we will leave you with a professional video that will capture your audience’s attention and make your brand and event stand out from the crowd. See our event filming page for more details, or contact us to discuss your up and coming events. 

​Georgie McCulloch of Fertility and Pregnancy is a wealth of information on reflexology for fertility in Edinburgh and we were delighted to be asked to work with her to refresh their website earlier this year. With a whole host of valuable information to get across, it was important to Georgie that the website was informative but also friendly, accessible and not too overwhelming.

Fertility & Pregnancy had a great existing brand which was a fantastic one for us to work with in developing the look and feel of the site. Georgie knew her business would likely change and evolve so it was key for the website to be flexible and easy to self-maintain so this was a key part of our brief. An excellent blogger and prolific social media user, Georgie was keen to drive users to read her articles relating to healthy living and fertility advice so the site has strong links to (and from) social media. Clients can also now seamlessly make appointments on the website thanks to an integrated booking system.

When it comes to marketing your business, video is the way forward. The benefits are vast, but for whatever reason, great video content can seem out of reach. If this is you, we have good news – video is more accessible than you think.

Why you should be using video in your business

If you’re marketing a business, the chances are you are working with many different platforms and producing a whole range of content, so why add video? It is expensive and hard to produce, right? Wrong! Before you write it off completely, read on to discover that it isn’t as complicated as you think, and consider that video can showcase your new products, increase your sales, and show your clients, current and potential, that you know what you’re talking about. Video also boosts the reach of your posts, encourages engagement and increases your chance of being found – YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and Google, which is the first, loves video. Can you really afford not to?

Having addressed the why, now let us look at the how. I have over 25 years’ experience in the creative industry. Having started my working life in design for print in Glasgow in the ‘90s, I have since worked for a range of companies, doing everything from graphic design to video work and motion graphics. My experience spans a range of projects including print, advertising, TV and marketing communications.

Five years ago, we opened Dangerous Studio. Primarily we work with advertising agencies producing professional videos for large businesses and corporations. Recently, however, we moved into our new studio in Leith and are reaching out to help small businesses get more from their video content. It started with talks, moved onto workshops, and now we have an expanded set of solutions designed to help you create video in your way. If you don’t want to delve into the world of filming yourself, we can work with you in our studio with our takeaway video package or if you are keen to learn, we can arm you the skills you need to do it yourself with our in-person or on-line workshops. Video is the perfect way to advertise your events as well, so let us know if you are have one coming up; we can film it for you!

Whatever you need, we are here to help you create video, your way. 

When it comes to making videos for your business, do you ask a professional to record them for you, or make them yourself? There are advantages to both. Hiring a professional takes all the pressure off you but doing it yourself brings more flexibility in terms of where and when you make your videos; it is also cheaper. But, where does quality fit in?

Why video quality matters

Any material you share with your audience reflects on you and your brand, video included. So, it is important that your videos give the impression you want them to. Furthermore, they have to compete with the numerous other videos out there; they need to stand out. And, a well-produced video with clear sound and a defined picture helps with both these points. It demonstrates your high standards to your clients, shows you take pride in your work and is more likely to hook and engage your audience.

Conversely, poor quality videos are associated with lower engagement levels and negative emotions. People will possibly switch off part way through and are less likely to buy into your brand, thus will be more inclined to go elsewhere.

Improving your own video skills

If you like to produce your own videos but struggle to get the quality and look you are after, there are many things you can do. Microphones will improve sound quality, using a tripod will keep the camera steady and ensuring you have adequate lighting will improve the picture, but for more tips and tricks, why not join us for one of our one to one video workshops. We offer a personalised experience in which you will learn everything you need to know to produce YouTube ready videos yourself, from content and planning to equipment, video set-up and editing. You will leave with an invaluable set of skills that will help with all your video content whether pre-recorded webinars, courses and promotions or live videos on Facebook. Speak to us to find out more.