Friends Don’t Let Friends Make Sh*tty Video with Rich Adkin

When we care about our friends, we don’t let them jump into peril.

Producing video can be just that—a long and arduous process that ends with no video traction and a tired, pissed-off team.

In this session with Rich Adkin, CEO of Flikli, you will learn:

• The best practices for video content strategy to get you started
• How to where the value of video comes from so you can make an informed decision on the best partner for the projects you have
• Three tenets of a successful video

[Transcript] Friends Don’t Let Friends Make Sh*tty Video

Gary Amaral

Rich is the CEO and founder of Flikli [Animated Video]. They are experts in 2D animation video and making killer video content that drives business objectives forward.

Rich, thank you so much for joining. Your spicy title is certainly engaging. I’m gonna let you jump right into it.

Rich Adkin

Thanks a lot, Gary. Hi, hot takes fans! I love the fact that this is the second one, and hopefully, there are going to be more!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about what you shouldn’t let your friends do, and that is, as the title suggests, “Friends don’t let friends make sh*tty videos.” I don’t like to curse very often, but I think it’s important to curse in this instance because if you make a shitty video, then you end up wasting a lot of time and a lot of money.

I wanted to introduce myself a little bit more. As Gary said, I’m the founder and CEO of Flikli animated video. A fun fact is that a while back, I worked with Steven Spielberg, and I felt the heat of three helicopters blowing up on an incredible set! I don’t know if there are any big Spielberg fans out there, but it was a great experience, so do reach out if you ever want to talk about that. 

So, why are we here today? Every year we read about the same trends in content reports about what’s trending and the progress being made through these trends. We also hear about the true channels giving preference to video and video hosting platforms because people respond really well to videos.

The main problem is that there are sadly a lot of sh*tty videos out there, so let’s keep that in mind for a minute while I talk about this small point, which is that the video marketing industry in the U.S. alone is projected to be worth north of $130 Billion dollars.

That means that people are paying attention to the power of video, so it’s important to get on board if you’re not already there and begin to harness the power that video allows you.

So what can we do about this? Well, the first step to making right decisions about video is to define “sh*tty video.” A “sh*tty video” is a video that has no impact on your audience.

That means that your audience is not taking action, they’re clicking away, and they’re forgetting you. You’re getting ignored. People are not paying attention to you if you’ve got a video that’s not working.

In order to avoid that, step number 2 involves making a plan. Making that plan is super important:

1. Who are you talking to?
2. What is the video supposed to do? What is the purpose of your video?
3. Where does your audience spend their time?

If you don’t know this, then you’re not going to be able to connect with your audience. Video content isn’t going to resonate with them, and as a result, you’re video will not fulfill its desired purpose.

It’s important that you answer all of these 3 questions before you can make a sound plan. Otherwise, you are inevitably going to make sh*tty video.

Step 3 is really important. Not many people think about it. They think we have this job that has to be done, and since everyone else is doing videos, we should create a video, and “it’s going to be easy.” Well, if you want to create a great video, part of that is avoiding a sh*tty process.

It’s true that not all video is created equal, and I’m going to highlight this through a story about my friend Donnie.

Donnie is a good marketer, but he’s a little out of his element. Donnie has a video problem, so he turns to me for help. Donnie is frustrated because he’s got very little time, his video vendor wasn’t proactive in keeping in touch with him and letting him know when things are coming down the pike, and the video vendor kept on missing feedback.

Has anyone ever done that before where they send the video back for re-editing because there is something we don’t like, and then that video feedback gets ignored time and time again, which is super frustrating?

So Donnie says, “Okay, these guys aren’t doing the job, so I might as well just do it myself.” However, by the time he spends a little bit of money to have this video produced, he ends up spending most of his time getting the job done because he needs to present that to his boss, he needs to present to his team, and then that video also needs to work for them, but he doesn’t know what to do.

So now his job is called into question because he doesn’t know what to do, and he hasn’t done the thing that he promised that he would so now Donnie’s new question is “to video, or not to video?” That’s the wrong question to be asking because you need to do the video, but you need to do the right video. 

So where do you start? How do you avoid going through a tough process and end up frustrated and not feeling good about the work that you’re doing? Where do you start? I’m going to go through each of these points.

Number one: Defining the goal of your video. What do you want it to do? What is the purpose of that video? What do you want that outcome to be?

Number two: Identifying the target audience–Something that seems very obvious, but if you don’t have a really good idea of who you’re talking to and trying to resonate with, then you might water down the video or try to fit too many things in there.

Number 3: Develop a compelling story: that comes in combination with what the job of the video is and who the target audience is. If you don’t have a story that resonates with the audience, then you’re going to lose them, and they’re going to click away from the video.

If you have those first three things in place, then you’ll need to make sure that you’re using consistent brand messaging. If you’re all over the place in your video and you haven’t thought through it, then you’re going to be sending mixed messages about your brand. 

If you use professional Video Production Studio, then they should be able to help you make sure that you’re on point with your brand messaging and everything that comes before that.

Point six: it’s really important to optimize for distribution. You’ve got different social platforms, different aspect ratios, you’ve got subtitles that you need to add. It’s critical to make sure that your video production is ready to go and distributed into the right places with a clear call to action at the end.

This comes back to defining the goal of the video. What is it that you want the video to do? You can determine what the call to action is if you have that clear in mind. After you’ve distributed the video, then you can measure and optimize the video.

So if it’s doing very very well on LinkedIn, then you can go ahead and double down on video-ad spend. If you understand how well the video is performing, then you’ll be able to figure that piece out. Again, if you are uncertain about that then working with somebody who is in the space can help you. They should be able to help you.

How do you find a partner? Well, there are a number of things on this slide.

Strategy: Even if you don’t have a strategy, or if you do have a strategy, your partner needs to be able to understand how strategy should play out and where the video fits into that, and what it’s going to do throughout the video funnel.

You’ve got script, storyboard audio, and visual production. Take a look at all of those things and what the studio has done in the past and reach out to them and say, “Hey, can you send stuff that is relevant to what I’m trying to do here.”

Like I said earlier, ‘Process Management’ is key because otherwise, you’re going to get behind the eight ball. You’re not going to have the project done on time. It’s not going to be released in time with the rest of the marketing campaign, and you’re going to be left out in the cold for not doing your job.

Then think about the distribution input. Your studio should be able to help with where you should put your video and how to optimize it for those distribution channels.

Then you have the optimized output.

I see that we’re coming up toward the end of my session here. I just wanted to say a couple of things quickly about how to reach your target audience.

For example, with B2B, you’ve got professional services like YouTube, & Vimeo that allow you to share and track engagements. You can embed it on your site or email campaigns. With B2C, you have social platforms: Instagram & TikTok for young adults, Facebook or Linkedin for mid-age [adults], and seniors are probably more likely to share by email or YouTube is also a great option.

Social platforms allow you to target interests and demographics in your internal audience. For example, is it a private YouTube channel for internal audience members due to sensitive information? There are places to reach your audience that are important to consider. I

In short, don’t feel overwhelmed. There are best practices and studios out there that can help you but do not let that overwhelming feeling come into your mind or into your body.

People can help understand where the value of the video comes from so that you can make an informed decision about your partner. What is it that you need from them again, reach out to various studios to see what it is that they can offer.

Then, the three tenets of a successful video are:

1. Know your audience
2. Produce with a purpose
3. Meet your audience where they are

In practice, start with the strategic framework. Then it’s important that the studio takes the project management off of your hands. Lastly, make sure that the audience is top of mind from script to distribution.

I’ll reiterate. The key takeaway is to know your audience, produce with a purpose & meet them where they are.

With this last minute, I just want to show you a quick case study where in four months, our long-term client called Krowdfit, run by Jim Miller, had 40,000 views and 8000 signups. This is a quick 30-second video:

“With Krowdfit, you sweat; we pay! Krowdfit offers cash rewards to members living healthy, active lifestyles. Every Monday, we select winners to receive rewards of up to $5000 dollars each per winner. Earning rewards is easy. Simply track meals, mindfulness, sleep, steps, and physical activity, using any major wearable or fitness app. Download the Krowdfit app and join the crowd for free today!”

So basically, the point there was that with that 30-second video, they achieved quite a high outcome, and they got quite a high ROI on it, and that’s all because they knew where their audience and where they [the audience] were going. 

So if you need help putting video tips to work, just call me, or write to me. My name is Rich. I hope that this has been helpful for you guys. Reach out to me on LinkedIn or by email; I’d love to talk to you!

Gary Amaral

Awesome, thanks, Rich! We have one minute. We’ve got two super compelling questions that are kind of related, so I’ll give them to you both at the same time.

Our previous speaker Chris says “When do I draw a line between do-it-yourself and just hire a professional to help me” which is related to Courtney’s question which is “how much can the right partner support slow down from internal subject matter experts, etc. because that’s often our issue.”

So, when do you know DIY is better versus pros, and how does that impact timing?

Rich Adkin

I mean, I think that it’s really easy to think that DIY makes sense. I would say that if you really think that you can do it, then you should go for it and see where that gets you. If it’s going to start giving you a brain melt in the first couple of weeks, then I think it’s time to turn to somebody.

What I would do is research and reach out to a few companies, talk to them first, and once you’ve spoken to them and you really want to do the DIY or if you’ve got budget constraints, then try it, and you’ll know within a week whether or not this is going to work for you.

Talk to your teammates and see what they say about it and be willing to admit that, look, this isn’t going to work; I’ve spent three days on it, this has cost us a lot already, and if I keep going with it and I produce something that’s not going to work, then I’m putting my own job at risk.

So I think that I need to push for one of those three companies that I talked to, push them toward the marketing director or whoever’s holding the purse strings. I hope that makes sense.

Gary Amaral

Awesome! It’s perfect. Thanks so much for joining! Speakers like you are what makes Hot Takes Live an amazing event.

For those of you who are not aware, we have created a video animated series, cartoon action style, called “The Rap Squad.” Flikli was our partner in that endeavor. It was awesome, and you can check it out at breadcrumbs.io/rap.

Please check it out and feel free to get back to us. Get in touch with Rich. Talk about video, how it can help drive your business forward, or just give us feedback on the Rap Squad. Let us know how amazing it is or not, but I’m pretty sure it’s amazing.

Thanks, Rich!

Rich Adkin

Thanks very much, Gary.