Events...we have all been to our share of them. I think it is fair to say that some you would absolutely attend again, and some you would avoid like the ex who is still trying to gift you a gun rack!
When it comes to your event, it is often location, location, location. Frequently more focus is placed on the conference center instead of the place where the venue is located. I can tell you that all conference centers, whether it's London, Dubai, Shanghai, or Los Angeles all look the same. They are, for the most part, white-walled, tile-floored, with lots of natural light (if you are lucky) and not much else. I have filmed events all over the world and learned that if you get attendees excited about the location rather than the venue, people will flock to your event.
If you are filming in Barcelona, for example, you need to show footage of The Rambles, the coast, the hustle and bustle of the city because that is what attendees will experience when they arrive.
Obviously, you must show footage of your event, but you should remember that attendees are going to be spending up to a week of their life in this city. They will want to know the exciting things are happening around them other than just at the event or conference.
Another critical thing is interviewing attendees, exhibitors, and staff at the event because those are the people that will build your attendee numbers in subsequent years. You need to be thinking about capturing your footage for next years event marketing this year. Creating trailers and engaging social media content will grab attention and generate interest for your event. This can happen months before you have even booked your guest speaker!
Think about creating a promo video that differs from a standard event highlight reel. We've moved into producing really punchy trailers that could literally live anywhere and that are all about the visual. We've had requests to do videos that mimic the instantly recognizable movie trailer. With event videos, our goal is simple. Create an engaging, modern video that merges all of the things that we see on social media; text-on-screen, videos without audio, visually stunning footage, attention-grabbing sequences. These are some of the popular video techniques.
In the above spot, the main focus was the location, Los Angeles. What stood out to me was the client saying, "We really want people to come to L.A." Not the event...L.A. We thought, "let's really push this to try and incorporate all the things that make L.A., L.A." You have skateboarders, restaurants, people driving convertibles, beaches. We wanted to show so much footage that there wasn't enough time in the spot to do it all. So what do you do? You split the screen.
We aspired to the "I Love L.A." and "Come to California "spots that you've likely seen. The great thing about this video is it shows more than just event, and because of that, it really serves its purpose. On its own, this spot could still work if you replace the end graphic with another L.A. based business.
All this working in tandem, people want to come to the event because they want to see that "thing" in L.A. from the commercial. The event happens to be there also, so it works for both the L.A. tourist board and the event organizers because you are driving people to the city.
As a side note, this commercial also uses an extensive amount of stock footage. We have to spend an incredible amount of time seeking to find the right clip that fits our video. You need to understand the full vision of the video you are creating to find the right clip to fit the video. It takes a professional to search the proper clips from around the world that are produced by many different creatives. It takes an expert to make it appear as if they are all meant to be together in the same video.
By Michael Lunt | Mike is the owner of Parasol Media, a video production company in Columbus, OH. He has spent over a decade assisting small businesses with realizing their creative vision for video content. From social media videos to broadcast commercials, Mike's industry experience has placed him all over the world to create content that moves.