N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e 1 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

Natalie’s Notesfor

2015

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e 2 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

Table of Contents8 Key Takeaways from WistiaFest 2015 ..................................................................................................................... 3

Natalie Fee, Notetaker ExtraordinaireDriving Creativity with Data ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Chris Savage, CEO at WistiaDeveloping a Social Video Strategy ........................................................................................................................... 6

Phil Nottingham, Senior Consultant at DistilledUncovering Your Most Authentic Stories .................................................................................................................. 9

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfsRainy Day Q&A ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

Chris, Phil, and AnnPre-Production: Saving Your Time by Taking Your Time ...................................................................................... 12

Dan Mills, WistiaBetter Than Boring: Business Video in the 21st Century ........................................................................................ 14

Kevin Cline, ZendeskNavigating the Treacherous Path of Concept Buy-In .............................................................................................. 15

Keith Frankel, CreativeMornings BostonBuilding a More Human Brand ............................................................................................................................... 16

Wil Reynolds, Founder of SEER InteractiveManaging Video Teams and Processes .................................................................................................................... 18

Sarah Green, Senior Associate Editor, Harvard Business ReviewThe Hidden Talents of Email .................................................................................................................................... 20

Justine Jordan, Marketing Director at LitmusMeasuring Video Effectiveness ................................................................................................................................ 21

Brendan Schwartz, CTO at WistiaLead with Your Values .............................................................................................................................................. 22

Mark Dicristina, MailchimpStrengthening Your Brand Through Partnerships .................................................................................................. 24

Elliott Wiley, All Star CodeHumanizing Your Brand .......................................................................................................................................... 26

Brenton Williamson & Matt Heder, BambooHRIndex ......................................................................................................................................................................... 27

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e 3 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

8 Key Takeaways from WistiaFest 2015Natalie Fee, Notetaker Extraordinaire

Data is important, but consider what you are measuring.

Be authentic, honest, and human. Great content lasts longer than one campaign.

Story and context matter. Embrace constraints & process.

Focus. Video & branding are emotional and empathetic.

Take creative risks. It’s OK to fail sometimes.1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

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The value of creativity is rising.There used to be a limited number of ways to do it. (Expensive, out of reach, only for big companies)Today there are more options (wider audience, cheaper) but all of these options are saturated. There is a constant feed to compete with. Our competition is not our “competition”

• NY Times, Facebook, Buzzfeed (no one wants to compete with Buzzfeed!)Attention is a scarce resource

• When we get attention, we need to keep it.• Truly original, delightful

Creativity keeps attention.• Scaling creativity is hard.• It’s easy to take creative risks when you are small.• It can be scary to take risks.

Example: Behind the scenes, nothing to do with the product = 78% engagement rateSmall, easy to have chaos — I used to think creativity came from chaos, but I was wrong.Bigger

• more process• coordination• can measure more — easier to measure stuff• you’ve done it before• more shared ownership – everyone worried about the outcomes

You need a creative approach to data.Position where we only do things that you can track (track everything <---> never track anything)

• Example: never go for a walk unless you have Fitbit on to count those stepsGoal = feel confident that you are headed in the right direction

Driving Creativity with DataChris Savage, CEO at Wistia

In an era before Wistia, Chris worked in video produc-tion, where he helped produce and bring to theaters an Emmy Award–winning feature-length documentary. Chris gets amped up talking about entrepreneurship, marketing, video, company building, and behavioral economics.

@csavage

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e

D R I V I N G C R E A T I V I T Y W I T H D A TA

5 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

Did you know if the creative risk paid off?• Proactively track the right things• What things give you insight?• Look at different data points to get confident• If you’re trying to use something risky• Creatively measuring creative success

Example: DreamingWithJeff.com by SquarespaceExample: Pistol Lake – hipster clothes for surfers

• Only 9-12 items for sale• Marketing future items – posted to men’s fashion advice subreddit, then posted update tag-

ging individual contributors that provided feedback• Measure strength of brand (not just revenue)• R&D section on website (kind of weird for clothing)• Qualitative feedback from comments – builds up trust

Question what you are measuring.Champion & expect creativity, foster and hire for creativity.

• Don’t rely only on interviews; practice project-based hiring.Make “headroom” for experimentation.If you aren’t failing from time to time, you probably aren’t taking enough risks.

• lowers the stakes a little• permission to get weird

Example: Wistia Office Show & Tell• 30 minute all-hands meeting• Show off things in progress, things that failed• If it’s risky, get qualitative feedback

Embrace measurement.Don’t obsess over success or failure of individual projects.The only way to fail is to never fail.

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Top 5 Questions1. Why has my campaign failed?

• come up with entertaining idea• produce it• upload it• judge success based on views and shares

Content was dramatically inconsistent, didn’t make sense to the target audienceDramaturgy

• contextually broad = retains value, recommendation-driven, passive (social)• contextually specific = requires prior knowledge, demand-driven, active (on-site)

Does a video make sense when viewed in isolation?• The most effective social videos are compelling irrespective of context.

Youtube is not a unique demographic.Social video is not TV – unique identities and unique approaches

• Being Played ≠ Being Watched• Varied context of user / device• Not limited to 30 seconds• “Skip Ad” button• Interactive elements

2. Should I upload my Wistia hosted videos to YouTube & Vimeo, etc.?Syndication splits viewcounts & shares and cannibalizes search.

• Canonicalise, don’t syndicate.Don’t start with a content idea, start with the platform to make better, more focused content.Platform First Approach

Developing a Social Video StrategyPhil Nottingham, Senior Consultant at Distilled

Phil is the in-house video marketing expert and chief meme generator at Distilled. Coming from an eclectic background in theatre dramaturgy, broadcast technol-ogy, video design, stage-combat, and social media, Phil now combines marketing prognostication with ranting both in the written and spoken forms.

@philnottingham

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e

D E V E L O P I N G A S O C I A L V I D E O S T R A T E G Y

7 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

• Work out where your target market is active.• Choose platforms to focus on.• Create content for the platform.• Cross-promote on other platforms by linking, not republishing.

3. Which social platforms should I care about and why?Everyone should be on Youtube and Facebook.Don’t bother with: Vimeo, Daily Motion, etc.

• One exception – production house – Vimeo = creative network• Youtube is designed for finding things, but also conversation and collaboration.• Entertainment and education

Consider interactive elements in pre-production• Annotations (Example: Travel Europe)• Cards• Playlists

Youtube is self-canonicalising.• Original is on YouTube – can’t share non-YouTube on YouTube• Think of it as building promo for YouTube, not your site

Everyone: Maybe:YouTube

Self-CanonicalisingInstagram

content restrictionssimple, short, visually

compellinghyperlapse

Vineheir to the gif

SnapchatWalled garden for tem-

porary contentEnsure you’re highly

confident you’re hitting your audience

FacebookMobile videoCross-promotingPortrait – don’t feel encum-bered by 16x9Must be compelling when silentComposite CC

Look at silent films for storytelling cues

TwitterCurrently pictures more

shareable than videos

Meerkatfirst mover opportuni-

tiesintegrate and canonical-

ize to Twitter

Periscopefirst mover opportuni-

tiesintegrate and canonical-

ize to Twitter

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D E V E L O P I N G A S O C I A L V I D E O S T R A T E G Y

8 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

4. What should I be trying to achieve?Brand = make impression

• You want the right kind of attention“The essence of strategy is sacrifice.” –David OgilvyYou have to focus5. How can I measure success?

• Engaged Action Rates: (Shares + Visits + Comments + Subscriptions) / ViewsUnruly Analytics = toolsMetrics often based on viewcounts, but easy to fake – shares beget sharesSmall budgets can get great returns.Unruly Shareback – predict if it will work, but expensiveRun your own social motivation survey

• Shared Passion• Social IRL• Social Utility• Good Cause• Zeitgeist• Kudos• Self-Expression• Opinion Seeking

Strategy isn’t sniping:• Ready• Fire• Aim• Retarget

Think of existing videos as tracer bullets.You’re not going to get it right the first time.People’s don’t remember failed social campaigns.The opposite of success in social is not failure, but apathy.The only route to failure is inaction.

MA

RK

ETBRAND

Challenger EstablishedD

ynam

ic

DifferentiationYou’re different

AwarenessYour stuff is awesome.

Stab

le DisruptionEveryone else sucks

MindshareCool story, bro

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Bats turned upside down, dancing – kind of sassy, aren’t they?• Get inspired to think about it a little differently

Statistics on Content Marketing• 86% of B2B organizations are using content marketing• 55% plan to up content spend• 70% creating more than a year ago — awesome, but kind of awful = so much noise• 38% know their content is effective

Top challenge for last 5 years: creating engaging contentWe need to tell better stories.Articles can be the bedrock of your program, but think more broadly.Focus on empathy, experiences, relevant, inspired, useful

• useful x empathy x inspired = great content4 Fun Facts to guide your effortsFact 1: The most effective organizations have a documented content strategy.

• Find your bigger story.• Disjointed, “bolted on” or seamless• Example: NY Public Library does this well• Who are we trying to reach and why?• Only we ___ for those we want to reach• Examples: Florida Hospital, PFLAG Canada• What if we went away?

Takeaway 1: Be strategic, find your rallying cryFact 2: The most effective organizations are relentlessly audience focused.

• Set your goal – guiding bonfire on the beachhead

Uncovering Your Most Authentic StoriesAnn Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs

Ann Handley is a Wall Street Journal best-selling au-thor, keynote speaker, and the world’s first Chief Con-tent Officer. Ann speaks and writes about how you can rethink your business’s marketing strategy. She is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, a training and education company with the largest community of marketers in its category.

@annhandley

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e

U N C O V E R I N G Y O U R M O S T A U T H E N T I C S T O R I E S

1 0 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

• Content GPS (where’s home)• So what? Because ____.

• Until you’re asking questions best left to licensed philosophers• What’s in it for me (WiiFM?)• Empathy hack—you’ve worked your viewer into the story

Takeaway 2: Customer-centric trumps corporate-centric.Fact 3: The most effective organizations are useful.

• What will people thank you for?• Even just to make a decision• 1. Info they need, want, desperately seeking• 2. FUQs – frequently unasked questions (may not know enough to ask)

• Examples: Ask a Mortician, Rex Express (Urgent vs Emergency Care FUQ and Video)Takeaway 3: Be irresistibly useful.Fact 4: Use content as a filter, not just a magnet.

• If you covered up your logo, would you recognize you?• Content can attract the likeminded & repel the timid.• Examples: M+R, Levenfeld Pearlstein• What does your data tell you?

Takeaway 4: Build audience, not just “leads.”Bonus Fact: The most effective organizations are investing in becoming better writers and telling better stories.

• Good writers make great marketers.Bonus Takeaway: Tell true stories well. Words are your ambassadors; don’t squander them.

Cat Hats: “So What?”I want to drive awareness of and interest in our new

hat patterns for cats, bceause we want to sell more

hat patterns for cats to cat-hat knitters.

“So what?”

Because our new patterns make it stupid-easy in

three specific ways for novice knitters to quickly

produce awesome cat hats, which makes for happi-

er, less frustrated knitters and warmer cat-noggins.

“So what?”

Because inefficiency and complexity are a pain to

deal with, and they cause frustration and suffering

for novice knitters.

“So what?”

Because pain... it hurts. And suffering is... Umm...

bad.

Possible video: Deconstructing the Stylish Hat that

Catapulted Mr. Fox to Feline Today’s Best-Dressed

List

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e 1 1 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

Most people love to see people take risks; they are rooting for success. —Chris Savage

Whatever you do with integrity, there’s really no risk. —Phil Nottingham

If it bombs on one platform, it very rarely will make magic on another. —Phil

Take risks internally that won’t be public-facing. Show it doesn’t have to be very scary. —Chris

Creativity doesn’t have to be edgy, just different. Pitch it as “different” — language matters when you are pitching. —Ann Handley

You are the advocate for the audience. Ask great follow-up questions. (Can you explain that in a more concrete way? etc.) —Ann

Be crisp in defining responsibilites and give that person more latitude in taking risks. —Chris

If they don’t know you well, make it shorter and show you can provide value in a short amount of time. —Chris

Rainy Day Q&AChris, Phil, and Ann

Impromptu post-keynote Q&A: Chris, Phil, and Ann take the stage again to field questions while attendees go in groups to the lunch trucks.Photo by @LMHill.

Meanwhile, the Wistia Umbrella Brigade came to the rescue, leading at-tendees to the lunch trucks under an improvised canopy of umbrellas.Photo by @eugevon.

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e 1 2 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

Pre-production is the process of writing the recipe for your video.• Leave room for creativity, etc. but be SUPER prepared.• You’re not procrastinating!• Get faster at every level

Brainstorming & Concepting• Embrace limitations = key beginning step of brainstorming & concepting

• time• who will be in the video?• budget

• Get the bad ideas out of your system.• “Get Loose” moment• Don’t be afraid to bring something up• Doubt shows up in every shoot• Mock it up.

• Pull out iPhones and quickly shoot what it might look like• Communicate great idea or find out it looks good on paper but terrible in video

Scripting• Know your audience• Questionnaire• Where is it going to live? How will they receive it?• Take advantage of context.• Keep it conversational – write the way you normally talk.

Pre-Production: Saving Your Time by Taking Your Time

Dan Mills, Wistia

@danmillsmusic

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P R E - P R O D U C T I O N : S AV I N G Y O U R T I M E B Y TA K I N G Y O U R T I M E

1 3 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

Table Read• Get collective energy• Read it out loud• Adjust language to fit talent’s voice• Be super critical

Misc Shoot Prep• Schedules – minimum amount of time as possible, meal times, daylight/location• Props (example: “Ben-definition Ben” needs to bring suit to work)• Shot locations• Make shot list• After effects

Ongoing experience of playing with your brandThink about why it’s getting hardThere’s no reason you should ever be married to an idea, there’s a million of them out there.Envision your edit.Really think through why you think it’s a bad idea, plead your case (language may be vague)What are your expectations for people coming in to brainstorm?

• “Great. . .  I should have just done it myself.”This is a forever learning curve.Picking music

• Mute video and cycle through tracks on music licensing site (Marmoset, Tunefruit)• If you can’t get licensing, why do you like it? Tempo, mood, etc.

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Creating language and defining valuesWe inherit traditions (marketing, news, filmmaking, education, etc.)Sesame Street = the original explainer videoWe’ve reached a point of saturation with stock photos (Example from Zendesk: “let’s make fun of this pretend reality of people using iPads on mountains”)You may not be able to talk about the endurance of the human spirit (like Nike) with your brandNever fear, purveyors of boring shit: Boring is BeautifulStay Human – empathize

• Lofty, elusive idea• What does it mean to be human?• How do you stay human?• (Discussion: draw on emotions, use plain language, be specific)

Give yourself a compass, draft it, and ask those questionsPointed consideration of your ideas is not the same as procrastination.Example from Zendesk: lion on desk shows some piece of the larger world, became a symbol for the brand, breaking the fourth wallRhythm in monotonyWatch out for green screen, it kinda looks whack sometimes.“Whistle handclap music”Resources

• Tony Zhou — “Every Frame a Painting”• Film Riot• Indy Mogul• NoFilmSchool.com

A video is not always the answer.

Better Than Boring: Business Video in the 21st Century

Kevin Cline, Zendesk

@thekevincline

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Ultimate goal: to no longer need to pitchTrust is the only way to get there.5 Problems

• Multiple concepts• Poorly articulated (muddy presentation)• Long periods of consideration• Excessive input• Lack of faith in creative team

How To Fix• Establish the role of the creative internally• Improve the concept pitch so as to support this role.

• The problem with “and”: caused by excitement and/or fear• Fear-induced “and” syndrome confuses people• “Oh, he’s thought about it all already, thought about the problem”• Pull inspiration from one video• Think it through & break it yourself, know how to respond when others try to break it• If you don’t like it, we’ll go back to the drawing board but it’ll be worse.

• Successfully execute on the concept• Earn the trust to be empowered to create without excessive buy-in.

Don’t come to the table without an idea you are confident in and can defend the shit out of.

Navigating the Treacherous Path of Concept Buy-In

Keith Frankel, CreativeMornings Boston

@thekeithf

“AND” SYNDROME1. One of the larget online stores on the plant for almost any product you’d want to buy.

2. An ecommerce store and a maker of hardware devices (Kindle, etc.) and also a cloud computing provider and a marketplace where you can sell goods (digital & phys-ical) and...

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e 1 6 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

I got started with just me in my apartment in Philadelphia. I threw some videos up on YouTube with no calls to action, no “how long are people watching so I can say ‘Buy some shit from me!’” People called me and said, you’ve been helping me for three years but I can’t do it by myself anymore. They felt like I was helping them when I was sleeping. You can’t do that with a written piece of content.Find people in your company who freaking love what they do.

• Find teachers – [as a teacher] you gotta get good at presenting to people who don’t want to hear from you.Authenticity

• Some things just aren’t trackable.• Companies are freakin wusses – they don’t like to say what they believe.

Tail of Two Airlines – Virgin vs United• It’s in the execution• Your video is consistent with the people who live it out

How to Get Buy-In from Douchey CEOsIf I want to do my geekery, I have to stop being a geek for a minute.Ask them a question that brings out emotion. There’s a toughness and authenticity in the interview.

• Why do you do this every single day?• Why do we exist?

Understand the problems of their customer and show how video might solve that problem.We don’t do video to SELL (directly.)Where do you start?

• Find what you love• Give people a room and the right tools

Change the “why don’t they get it” to “how can I explain this better”

Building a More Human BrandWil Reynolds, Founder of SEER Interactive

Wil got his start in internet marketing in ‘99, when he joined a web marketing agency and began spearhead-ing SEO strategies for Fortune 500 clients. He is pas-sionate about driving traffic to sites by doing what he terms “RCS” and analyzing the impact that traffic has on the company’s bottom line.

@wilreynolds

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B U I L D I N G A M O R E H U M A N B R A N D

1 7 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

• Change the frame of how you talk to themIt went helpful and I’ll take that any day over viral.Lower their risk.

• Make the case by focusing on SUX (Search User Experience)• “We can help more people” & show social proof• How much time do people save using your product?

Brands sort out the cesspool of the internet.• Google’s getting smarter at understanding brands.• Example: Wayfair is changing the way people search for their brand.

Get campaign thinking out of your mind.• Don’t do it once and stop doing it. Keep doing it year after year.• Great content continues to help people in perpetuity.• Authenticity is why.• Think of ROI in shelf life.• Taking shortcuts will never produce authenticity.

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HBR’s mission is to rid the world of bad management.We spend more time at work than home, with coworkers than friends, talking to our boss than our spouse.Two-thirds of us want to be told what to do by someone else.Lessons1. Make your video team as small possible, not as large as possible.

• The mysteriously expanding video team• Video is often cross-disciplinary• Organizational politics and/or enthusiasm• Power associated with managing large team• Ringelmann Effect – 8 people do not pull harder than 6 people• Other social psychologists call this “social loafing”

• The more people in the room, the less invested we all feel in the outcome• “Protect the project” from getting too watered down• Advisors who rotate around the project like moons• Involvement vs. Commitment: In a breakfast plate of eggs and bacon, the chicken was in-

volved but the pig was committed.2. Overcommunication is almost impossible.

• Alex “Sandy” Pentland, MIT: Prerequisites for peak-performing posses• Communicate frequently, formally and informally• Explore for ideas and info outside the group (involve)• Talk and listen in equal measure, equally among members• Communication is easier in small teams

• Cognitive miser

Managing Video Teams and ProcessesSarah Green, Senior Associate Editor, Harvard Business Review

Under her tenure as the host of HBR’s IdeaCast, the podcast has twice been nominated for a National Mag-azine Award and routinely tops lists of the most pop-ular business and management podcasts. Sarah also manages daily content for HBR.org, edits articles for the website and magazine, edits books and ebooks, and manages the video program.

@skgreen

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M A N A G I N G V I D E O T E A M S A N D P R O C E S S E S

1 9 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

• Repeat yourself at least twice before people understand what you want from them.• Those who used multiple methods got stuff done much more quickly.

• People with formal authority tend to just send email and expect action.• People without formal authority use multiple methods and are more popular.

• You CAN over-collaborate.• Decisions always made by consensus• Accountability unclear• Execution is slow• Meetings are a bit aimless with no clear agenda or follow-ups• Meetings are plentiful and mostly held for “updates” or “discussion”

3. It costs a lot to be cheap• Cheap is a mindset, not a budget number.

4. Embrace your constraints, but question your assumptions.5. A process is always a work in process.

• Parallel processing• Document how much time things really take• Relying less on email and having fewer meetings• Process can be liberating and prevent perfectionism• Process makes it possible to motivate people more easily.• Progress is motivating; “you won the day”

GOOD

BAD

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#thefear = the crippling fear that can only come from sending hundreds of thousands of people an email with a broken link or a typo in the subject line and not being able to fix it no matter how much you Google “change email after sent.”Emails are not tanks or weapons of mass destruction. They are not a blast or any other negative, horrible thing.My design can affect how a business operates. This graphics stuff does have meaning.Emails are a unique beast, and need their own special attention.Email is invitation to websiteSix Parts – not a thing that lands in the inbox

• From Name > Subject Line > Preheader > Open > Tap/Click > Page/SitePersonal medium – it wasn’t born as spam, it was born as a way to send a message to another personMetaphor: Credits and debits from the trust bank of your brand (you want more credits than debits)Onboarding process for video – great way to leverage existing product videoTell a story – enrich the experienceExample: WhatToWear.io (Boston weather)ResponsiveNever ever use “no reply” as your senderShould you put video in your email?

• HTML5 works in some clients, but doesn’t work everywhere.• You have to use a fallback – have a contingency plan.• Neat tricks are for both B2B and B2C.• Animated gif – Outlook only shows the first frame

Email really has the power to connect.

The Hidden Talents of EmailJustine Jordan, Marketing Director at Litmus

In addition to being an email critic, cat lover, and explain-a-holic, Justine is also marketing director at Litmus. You can find her organizing the world’s only conference for people who make email, editing Litmus’ latest blog post, or speaking at industry events. She’s strangely passionate about email, hates being called a spammer, and isn’t scared to belch on camera.

@meladorri

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Video is good for business.Video is a super emotional medium.Faith motivates, keeps you going, and allows you to pioneer.Data proves to ourselves that video marketing is working.Play count is a vanity metric, not really telling how people interact.Hours watched is a better metric (engagement x plays), but there is still a big leap of faith here.Turnstile placement

• 25% at start – 16% conversion rate• 26% at middle – 24% conversion rate• 49% at end – 3.4% conversion rate

Timeline actions: call to action, turnstile, annotationsMore sophisticated tools and ways to analyzeMaybe you need to do some fine-tuning, not blow the whole thing up.

• Move the turnstile, tweak, etc.• Car analogy – don’t throw out the whole thing, repair the part that gives you problems• Better data makes it clear what actions need to be taken.• Better data makes it so success and failure are not black boxes.

New & Returning views• New plays over time, are they converting?• Returning plays over time• Core audience for the library

Measuring Video EffectivenessBrendan Schwartz, CTO at Wistia

At Wistia, Brendan relentlessly pursues simplicity in the product, technology, and design. He thinks a backend service should be less like a Swiss Army knife and more like, you know, a single knife that’s really, really good at the one job it has to do. Talk to him about self-driving cars, fly fishing, or bizarre hypothetical questions, and he’ll get really riled up.

@brendan

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Brand = gut feeling about product, service, or company• Gut feeling focuses on the customer, not the company• Gives a whole bunch of people the same feeling• Requires coordinated effort• Consistent experience

How can we develop a point of view that can be shared across everyone in the organization (not just the marketing department?)

• The best way to start is define values.Approach for MailChimp: be about something more than email

• Make work fun!Figure out what your point of view is, what is our take on this particular industry / product / service that makes us stand out.Values for MailChimp

• Creativity• Independence• Humility

Looked to our culture for latent things we already believe and consistently come back to, don’t com-promise on“Listen Hard, Change Fast” – motto is distillation of our valuesIf my product were a ___. . .  — Food, Animal, Celebrity

• Jot down adjective that describes why each is a good representation of your product• This exercise gets people thinking about where you are and where you want to go

This Not That• Take adjective descriptions and qualify with something that helps illuminate your ideal

Lead with Your Values

Mark Dicristina, Mailchimp

@markdicristina

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L E A D W I T H Y O U R VA L U E S

2 3 @ n at f e e w r i t e s

• Expert but not bossy, Fun but not childish, etc.Audience

• Who is your ideal audience? Who do we really want to get this message?• Tune the brand message to them.• May not be demographic, may be psychographic• Develop personas

3 Things I Learned1. You don’t own your brand

• Any brand is successful because they figured out how to make people feel the way they want-ed them to.2. Consistency matters

• Over a long period of time3. Tell the Truth

• The best way to stand out is to be honest about who you are and what you believe• The truth goes a long way with people.• Find a way to tell story that rings true with everyone in the organization over and over again.

Q&A: What if you want to change the culture?• Find a sandbox you and upper management can agree is safe for experimenting.• Find little ways to plant that thinking.

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Sometimes the brand message needs to be somewhat of a disguise.Partnership can make it more shareable / viewable.It starts around people you know.Activity 1: What relationships and/or partnerships have been important to your personal success?

• How have these partnerships contributed to your business success?Activity 2: What brands would make great partners for your business?

• What do you have to offer each other?Why Brand Partnerships Matter:

• Connect multiple brands into one story for consumer• Give a wider group of people brand information• Strengthen own brand’s position• Create long-term relationship with partner brand(s)• Realize production and promotion cost savings• Reach customers outside of core business• Create new content and sales distribution channels• Establish or change brand value/price perception

Activity 3: How can you collaborate with a brand partner to make a huge impact through video?A marketing effort or partnership is when companies join forces to use each other’s best technology or content to benefit all brands and the final product.

• Creating content and getting it out there can be as valuable as production quality.You can become an unofficial sponsor.You want your brand to be the hero to the problem.Emotional PositioningLogo placements can be cost effective – earned media impressions

Strengthening Your Brand Through Partnerships

Elliott Wiley, All Star Code

linkedin.com/pub/elliott-wiley/27/129/813

N o t e s b y N ata l i e F e e

S T R E N G T H E N I N G Y O U R B R A N D T H R O U G H P A R T N E R S H I P S

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Biggest goal: partnership or campaign that lasts longer than one campaignHow-To videos can be mutually beneficial

• What did I learn? What can I take away?It’s the connectivity of stories – cohesiveFormula: brand creative + video production + executionA partnership has to be mutually beneficial.In general, transparency in business plays pretty well.

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It’s easy to hate an entity, it’s hard to hate a person.• 1. Showcasing your people• 2. Video most accurately depicts your brand voice• 3. Video evokes emotion

Screen for people to find natural talent.Work around non-acting skills with writing and concepts.Employees get used to cameras and become prepared – image release in employee contract, camera at meetings and in hallwaysSales team has own logins to Wistia, can send demo video to prospects and see heat maps, which chapters they watched, if they watched at all

Humanizing Your Brand

Brenton Williamson & Matt Heder, BambooHR

@bleewilliamson

@mattheder

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IndexAaudience 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 21, 23authenticity 16, 17, 23, 25

Bbrand 8, 13, 17, 22, 23, 24, 26

Cconcept 12, 15, 26content 6, 10, 17, 24context 6, 12creativity 4, 5, 11, 12, 15, 22

Ddata 4, 21

Eemotion 14, 16, 21, 22, 24empathy 9, 10, 14

Ffailure 5, 8focus 7

Hhuman 14, 26

Llimitations 12, 19

Ppre-production 7, 12process 4, 19, 20

Rrisk 5, 11, 17

Ssocial 6, 11, 17, 24story 9, 10, 20, 24, 25strategy 8, 9success 5, 8, 11, 23, 24

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Thank you , Wistia!Hope to see you next year!