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Every day marketers sift through dozens of headlines, posts, and slacks telling us about the latest and greatest trend we should be following.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and like you have to figure it out by yourself. But you don’t have to do it alone. Content Matters with Nicole MacLean (Compose.ly’s CRO) is your digital partner for filtering the trends and focusing on the content that matters most — creating connection that drive results.
For more, head to our site: https://compose.ly/content-matters
Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/
[00:00:00] Drew English: I think what it misses both in writing or image generation, for example, when you're talking about AI image generation, it misses a core part of storytelling and I think that is framing. So I think our jobs as storytellers and marketers, which I think go hand in hand, I think a big part of that is framing. And so context framing how, how you position something. So if you're writing, it's that maybe how your opinion or your unique understanding of a world blends into what you write.
[00:00:31] Nicole MacLean: I am Nicole MacLean and this is Content Matters. Created in partnership with Share Your Genius. This show is your digital partner for filtering the trends and focusing on the content that matters most, creating connection that drives results. Let's cut through the marketing chaos together.
[00:00:50] Drew English: I'm Drew English.
[00:00:51] Drew English: I am the CEO at Charter & Company, a video production service company, and then Forge Virtual Studios. An up and coming virtual production studio business.
[00:01:01] Nicole MacLean: We are going to dive into what all of that means, um, on the show, but very excited to get some video insight when it comes to content. 'cause we talk a lot about writing, but video is very important as we have a holistic strategy.
[00:01:14] Nicole MacLean: So I think we'll have a good discussion. But may, just to kick us off, how did you get to where you are now, especially like building your own agency?
[00:01:24] Drew English: Yeah, great question. So I came out of both the creative side and the marketing side, which has kind of merged to where I'm at today. So growing up I had a love and a passion for creative and specifically creating with a video camera and video editing systems.
[00:01:38] Drew English: So self-talk in that regard. Did not go to film school, but learned everything online and as I was going trial and error. But I went to college for communications and studied, uh, writing, studied communication theory, and out of college, I took that view of those skill sets to a software company. I worked in ed Tech on a four person marketing team.
[00:01:58] Drew English: And while my official title was a video producer, I was handling everything from video production itself to work on HubSpot, and we had ported our website to HubSpot, CMS, uh, recently, everything from grid design to web design. But because of that, I really got to touch, uh, kind of both sides of that job, the video creativity side, as well as the marketing integration of those creative assets side.
[00:02:23] Drew English: And that's where I think I really fell in love with. You know, the power that great creative content can have in a marketing workload, a marketing funnel, and just being able to watch the long-term impact that video can have on a business's, you know, growth trajectory.
[00:02:38] Nicole MacLean: Yeah. So a little bit of a philosophical question.
[00:02:40] Nicole MacLean: We're just gonna dive right into it. I took some photography classes in for my minor in college, and I remember talking about photography, but also like video ethics. And I had one professor that would not allow us to do any editing. Like you had to just capture what was like what you could capture with your camera.
[00:03:02] Nicole MacLean: And I had another professor that was like, if you don't edit, what do you do? Like that is a skillset in itself. Like you should be editing every image or every video to have like the best output. And especially in the today's world with AI and AI image creation, like I'm curious where you sit on that line of.
[00:03:21] Nicole MacLean: Editing versus capturing what's real? How transparent are you, like when something is used to edit and not, like, have you come up against that in a real world example yet?
[00:03:32] Drew English: I absolutely love that question. Um, 'cause I've been thinking about it a lot in relation to writing and video content and all, all elements of artisan craftsmanship, creativity.
[00:03:44] Drew English: So obviously, you know, in the writing world, you can totally go to chat GPT, you can go to Gemini. And you can have it output a 2,500 word blog, and that would be my equivalent of, you know, rolling a video camera and taking 60 minutes worth of footage and then publishing that as is. It's factual, it's accurate.
[00:04:03] Drew English: There's a lot of depth and detail and you know, information in the content. However, I think what it misses both in writing or image generation, for example, when you're talking about AI image generation, it misses a core part of storytelling. And I think that is framing. So I think our jobs as storytellers and marketers, which I think go hand in hand, I think a big part of that is framing.
[00:04:26] Drew English: And so context framing how, how you position something. So if you're writing, it's that maybe how your opinion or your unique understanding of a world blends into what you write. In video, you know how you are cropping an image, how you are coloring raw footage. Sure there's bias to it. Everyone's gonna do it differently.
[00:04:45] Drew English: I might crop or frame a video differently or apply a different look or color or feel to a video than somebody else might. But I think that's a part of how you tell the story. And if you're a storyteller or a marketer, your job is to tell a great story for the brand you're working with. And to tell a really great compelling story to your audience, one that's engaging and exciting, and ultimately hopefully connects them to your brand's value and helps both succeed.
[00:05:12] Drew English: So I think if you're talking about, you know, raw AI output, there's benefit, it's raw information, it's data, and there's a good chance. It's really factual, but I think it misses that framing, and I think that's a part that only humans can really achieve and, and be a part of right now.
[00:05:28] Nicole MacLean: Yeah, and I didn't mean for it to, but it kind of dove into the question of, I think everyone's trying to figure out where do you fit AI into a workflow?
[00:05:37] Nicole MacLean: And I think video's an interesting one right now because it has always seemed to me, and you tell me as an actual creator of video, that if you don't know how to do it, people feel like it's a really intense barrier to entry, if you will. Or like I think people are. Not as open to just like jumping into video.
[00:05:56] Nicole MacLean: I think that's come down since the say quality standard. But like I'll say the uh, the rise of the, let me take a selfie video in my car and give you my thoughts on this and post it is acceptable now versus like, let me be in a studio and it's really polished and put together. So I feel like that's made video more approachable for people to embrace and put out.
[00:06:21] Nicole MacLean: But where have you seen AI kind of fit in that video workflow where you're still really leaning into those human elements that are so special, but can also, you know, save you some time or help someone who's maybe not great at it, feel more confident?
[00:06:36] Drew English: I think there's room for AI in, in video, and there's specific places that AI generated video really does excel, especially if you're somebody that is comfortable with a keyboard, but maybe not with a camera.
[00:06:48] Drew English: So I think back to, I attended HubSpot's inbound conference last year, and Sam, the head of content over at Wistia gave a great talk about video marketing and I love how he put every brand's video marketing strategy into a one of three buckets. You are making basically high frequency, low impact video, mid frequency, mid impact video, or basically low frequency, high impact video.
[00:07:14] Drew English: And there's a place for all of those. They all serve a unique, different purpose, and they should all be a part of a company's video marketing strategy as a part of kind of their broader marketing ecosystem. And so when I think of low impact, high frequency content, you might put webinars in that, or maybe those are mid impact, mid frequency, but webinars, right?
[00:07:34] Drew English: You're, you're not totally focused on setting up everyone's zoom camera with optimal lighting and, and you know, spending. Egregious amounts of time on the background. I also think of those LinkedIn videos you mentioned where you're in the car on the go and there's a level awesome user generated authenticity to them.
[00:07:51] Drew English: You wanna be posting those frequently. You wanna be posting 'em often. That's the goal of those. And they don't have to be kind of at like ultra high impact content piece. And I think AI generated video can play a role there. I don't wanna dock something simply because it seems like it's a competitor to what we do here.
[00:08:07] Drew English: I think there's complimentary. Parts to it, brands that are using it to quickly spin up things that can push onto social that are, you know, kind of product focused or simple messages, but you add movement to them. I think that's really exciting. I think anyone, I mean, I feel like it's a win. If anyone feels empowered to use video, whether they're using a camera or a computer, an editing platform, or an ai, you know, chat bot.
[00:08:33] Drew English: But then I think about what we do and what we do here at at Charter & Company, the video side, we are focusing on kind of that low frequency, high impact content. So the work we do with clients, it's typically like once a year, maybe twice a year, we help them produce like a, a smash hit video for a, a large campaign, or, or if there's a big goal they've gotta hit.
[00:08:54] Drew English: And video can be a part of getting them there. Um, and, and the budgets of the projects we work on, they're not conducive to doing 'em every day or every week or every month. And so part of what we focus on is like playing in that, you know, bucket and then enabling and talking, teaching people how to make that mid frequency, mid impact content with maybe other firms or videographers and doing a lot of that kind of high frequency, low impact content on their own.
[00:09:20] Drew English: It's awesome when I see clients that use other people that they work with too, and when they're empowered to do it on their own and collaborate with us. So I think there's room for AI generated video. It's just understanding like. Where does it go? How impactful or or what are the stakes? And then how frequently are you planning to use it?
[00:09:39] Nicole MacLean: Yeah, I love that. The three buckets. I feel like it's a really kind of easy way to think about where that can fit into your strategy and that it relates the outcome of what you're trying to accomplish. Because the car driving video may not have that same high impact just, and it's all based on what you're trying to accomplish, and.
[00:10:01] Nicole MacLean: Who you're talking to and then like what you're trying to get them to take away from the video as well. E
[00:10:07] Drew English: exactly. I think one place that AI video is, is not able to replicate the results yet, and I, I don't think it will be able to for some time because of how we feel about. People and communications and relationships.
[00:10:20] Drew English: I don't think it can nail like people. I don't think it can nail a character, a person on screen. I feel disheartened every time I see a digital twin of A CEO that's being used to communicate to stakeholders like customers across LinkedIn or other platforms and people. I mean, people can snip it out immediately.
[00:10:38] Drew English: The technology's not that great. You know, it builds a sense of distrust and brand disregard, at least in my opinion. And I think I, that opinion is shared by a lot of others. You don't like hearing a message from somebody who's not real, and even as the technology continues to get better and better and maybe harder to distinguish.
[00:10:57] Drew English: Just imagine the negative credibility impacts that a brand would have if all their ads were found out to be, you know, AI generated characters or people. So I think that there's these spaces that are kind of no go zones with that, and that's where that high impact video content, where you're creating narratives.
[00:11:14] Drew English: You mentioned cars, right? But like I think of Volvo's recent commercial, they just did on safety. It's a. Three and a half minute video ad it. It's contrarian. It breaks the rules of 15 seconds, quick hit ads, but it has real characters in it. And if you go and watch it, you're hooked within 10 seconds and you connect with their emotion and their experience and by the end, you've sat and watched an ad for three and a half minutes for a product, which is a car.
[00:11:41] Drew English: And you have people basically weeping in the comments over it, and I don't think AI is gonna get there anytime soon. So I think it's just about understanding how to use a tool healthfully, but without doing damage to your brand while using it.
[00:11:54] Nicole MacLean: Yeah, it's such a good point. So I don't wanna take away from it, but you use the term digital twin, which is new to me.
[00:12:01] Nicole MacLean: I feel like in context clues, I can pick up what it means, but can you define that for us?
[00:12:05] Drew English: Yeah, definitely. There's a growing, uh, number of software platforms and, and entities that can help you make a, essentially like a digital AI copy of yourself and use that to create video content. And so some of these platforms allow you to.
[00:12:20] Drew English: For example, you know, it spends time analyzing video clips of you and photos and outfits you wear, and, and then even the way you talk through voice samples and when it's done analyzing that you have your digital twin created. And from that you can, you know, essentially type a transcript into this app, uh, and output a video file of yourself saying it.
[00:12:40] Drew English: And just imagine, I mean, I know there's been plenty of chatter online about when CEOs will do mass layoffs over, over zoom. Call right in, in like a. A very, you know, nondescript office setting. There's nothing personal about it. It's cold. It, it feels like thoughtless. Uh, and I think the same, like the reactions that people have to, that are the same reactions people will have to being communicated to by AI figures or AI CEOs.
[00:13:07] Drew English: You know, it's cold. There's no life behind it. There's no humanity behind it. So our really cool technology, I mean, I think it's incredibly innovative and obviously it could not have been done five years ago, so that's cool. But if you're out there using that for this like high impact content where it's customer facing, I would just totally be prepped to take a really big ding to your credibility as a brand.
[00:13:29] Nicole MacLean: Yeah. That some say cool. I would say terrifying, but I mean there obviously has been a huge leap in, in AI video, and I mean AI tools in general, but I remember, gosh, this was. Four years ago now, so I mean, again, maybe three years ago, but there was a string of YouTube videos made by bots, and it was like the classic Christmas movie or like your horror film, and they gave a hundred scripts of the top 100 horror films.
[00:14:02] Nicole MacLean: And then bots wrote, and then someone used, I'm not sure if they used ai, but like create a really lo-fi cartoon version of the story. And it was so ter. I mean, it was so terrible. It was good, but it was not meaningfully good in any way. And so definitely still a long way to go before we could really lean into to that.
[00:14:24] Drew English: Absolutely.
[00:14:27] Nicole MacLean: Now I'm like freaked out by these digital twin and like as someone who does a lot of interviews, webinars, et cetera. It's great, but I'm like, I am putting my myself out there now in likeness that like in theory could be training all these things. And I don't know that we think about that or like if there are ramifications of that yet.
[00:14:49] Drew English: Yeah, I mean, I think that the heart behind some of this, and in some cases may be good if I'm a, you know, A-A-C-E-O or a sales leader or you know, a, uh, a community leader and I wanna be putting myself out there more often and talking to people, but. I'm strapped for time, you know, and it's, it's easy enough to sit down and, and allow something to analyze me and adjust my likeness for a few hours, and then I can still communicate, I can still write things, but instead of having to put a nice shirt on and, and prepare and run through my lines and then record and then edit, I can do this faster and I can communicate more, and that's a good thing.
[00:15:27] Drew English: The hard behind it isn't always bad, but at the same time, I just, I think that that output. It's not perceived that way. It's perceived as, as lazy at best, but like clinical cold and, uh, disingenuous at worst. That's beyond, you know, the ramifications of loading yourself into, uh, basically an AI model. But I really think the people who are on the edge of considering this should really be reconsidering.
[00:15:52] Drew English: People appreciate, like, audiences appreciate when you put time into something, it's noticeable. Like you and I are here, are here chatting for. You know, hour. I did have to go find a nice
[00:16:01] Nicole MacLean: shirt, you know, make sure, yeah. You look good for the video. It does take time and effort. I joke about that all the time.
[00:16:09] Drew English: Totally. But it shows up and people appreciate it. Yeah. Um, and, and we can probably get to kind of like, where do I see opportunities for marketers and videos later on? But I think just the delta between the content that. People spend little to no time creating versus the content people spend a lot of time creating.
[00:16:26] Drew English: It's, it's widening. There's a big delta there. And I think that the brands that are investing, you know, in, uh, in spending time and then craftsmanship, they're gonna stand out. There's, they're, they're standing out more and more every day, which is exciting to me
[00:16:40] Nicole MacLean: and is before we get to the, the tactical opportunities.
[00:16:43] Nicole MacLean: And now that I am. Deeply disturbed with this digital twin realization. But before we dive into the tactics, I'd love to talk about kind of more video strategy. And if you're a marketer, whether you are fortunate to be on a large team and you can kind of specifically focus on video or you're maybe that jack of all trades trying to figure out how to do a little bit of everything.
[00:17:06] Nicole MacLean: W. First of all, does every marketer in 20 25, 20 26 need to have video as part of their strategy to be successful? I mean, let's start there and we'll, we'll go deeper.
[00:17:17] Drew English: That's a big question. I think that there's probably a degree of necessity for video that varies by like industry. And maybe audience size and audience preferences, but I think video is more and more essential every single year.
[00:17:32] Drew English: Clearly, surveys show, uh, it's how people want to consume content. It's how people desire to be communicated with. You. Think about even, uh, really just personal communication applications like Snapchat or FaceTime, even Instagram. These are visual first platforms and in more and more they're changing to video first platforms.
[00:17:54] Drew English: LinkedIn's shift. Instagram shift to reels and maybe they really wanna push video and promoting and cheering video content. So I, I look at that and I have to just go where the data goes and say people want videos. So brands should be investing in figuring out how to meet people where they're at. So I do think it's, it's essential, you know, in 2025 and beyond to start putting together a video strategy of some sort.
[00:18:19] Nicole MacLean: Yeah, I think I would a agree. It's just so. Natural. You know, there are so many ways. I feel like it has kind of made it easier for the average marketer to create video, whether that's using an AI tool, it made that high, high frequency, low impact category. It's webinars, it's, you know, video podcasting. I mean, I started podcasting six years ago now, and there was no video.
[00:18:46] Nicole MacLean: That was not the norm. Part of why podcasting I think was successful is 'cause it wasn't the webinar and people were like, okay, cool. I can just, you know, be wherever and and do audio. And now I feel like that switched is that 95% of the podcast I probably see, especially in B2B is a video first so that you can repurpose, which I'm sure we'll get to repurposing.
[00:19:08] Nicole MacLean: So if you need that video in some capacity, obviously your target market, your go to market strategy is probably gonna impact how and where that shows up in your strategy. But where would you recommend people lean in? Like do you create video first and then repurpose that video into social content, blog posts, et cetera?
[00:19:29] Nicole MacLean: Do you start somewhere else and figure out how, how it can show up on video? Maybe both and.
[00:19:37] Drew English: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you've been marketing, you know, for a long time or you have a marketing team that's existed, you've probably, as you've nodded to, you've been involved in other channels. You've been writing blog content, you've been publishing images and, and captions on social media.
[00:19:54] Drew English: You've been running email marketing campaigns, and, you know, hopefully if you're in tune with, uh, you're a good marketer, you're watching the stats, you know, you're seeing what's, uh, being opened. You're seeing what's being clicked. So I think you just start where the data is. I could give a overarching recommendation that might be generally helpful, but if you're a marketer that's got data, if you got likes, impressions, clicks, opens, like start on what are the messages that are working for your audience, what is interesting to them, what's resonating?
[00:20:23] Drew English: And then I think from there it will become clear that, you know, you, your next step might be a product, video, you know, a product or a specific product is what's. Resonating in what's interesting right now, or it might be a specific message that, or a value that your brand holds. And then the more you're communicating that specific value proposition, people are engaging.
[00:20:44] Drew English: And so you can start to think, okay, what are the ways I can use video to share that value proposition? And you might think, okay, a motion graphic, you know, an animated video. That would be a really easier lift. Those are typically, if you work with a company like us, it's a lower budget project. You can still do it extremely well.
[00:21:02] Drew English: You can convey your brand really well through that and your brand identity, and you can use words which are awesome. Or you might think, man, I, I, I really feel locked in on and convicted around this value is what's resonating with my audience. I wanna go do something that's top funnel, very brand awareness level.
[00:21:20] Drew English: Let's craft a narrative. You know, let's work on a concept that. Really can build broad awareness and it's not, you know, bottom funnel, kind of like next step call to action focused, but it's something that's going to build that regard, uh, and build awareness of you and your values and you, you might consider going that route with the insights you gained from email or social.
[00:21:42] Drew English: So yeah, that's, that's my thoughts. You know, start where the data's at. You've probably, as a marketing team, got a plethora of first party data and I think it's a great place to start making decisions about where to focus your video efforts.
[00:21:54] Nicole MacLean: I love that. Start where the data is at. It's a good, good reminder for lots of things.
[00:21:59] Nicole MacLean: Probably not just video, but Right, right. For video as well. As a sales and marketing leader, I'm always interested to hear about a team's tech stack. At Compose. We use Apollo with HubSpot to fuel our outbound outreach. My team loves it. It consistently provides accurate contact information and is incredibly user friendly.
[00:22:20] Nicole MacLean: If you're thinking about changing your data provider or just wanna hear more about our experience, connect with me on LinkedIn or check out the link in the show notes of this episode. Improve your Inbound, increase conversion and keep your marketing database squeaky clean with Apollo Very specific question.
[00:22:37] Nicole MacLean: You mentioned product demo, which I think comes up a lot in this idea of. I feel like in, uh, the writing side, we, there's this like to to gate, to not gate. And I think most people nowadays have landed in not gating a lot of content. Just putting it out there with product videos, walkthroughs, things that obviously would be probably really interesting to bring that buyer in.
[00:23:03] Nicole MacLean: And just to kind of showcase value, do you have any recommendations on. Just put it out there or like you don't want competitors to see it, or you wanna be able to withhold like just enough that gets them to convert. Like use the power video to show the masses versus knowing kind of when to hold back and when to make it public.
[00:23:21] Nicole MacLean: Does that make sense?
[00:23:22] Drew English: It totally makes sense. If you're totally convicted that your product or your service has. You know, like unique, distinct value compared to your competitors. You know, I wouldn't be too scared about sharing, you know, that value or more specifics about that product through video. Like creating a professional video is a high lift if you're working with a.
[00:23:42] Drew English: Video production provider, service provider. Hopefully they're taking a lot of the headache out of that, but it's still a large effort project and there's probably budget behind it. So I think about the idea of gating, something like that behind an email field, and it just makes me so sad. Everyone should see that.
[00:23:59] Drew English: Everyone should see the, the hard work that your team and your video provider put together. But what I think is, is really unique, and you talked about repurposing, is if you craft kind of a multilayer strategy in which the main asset might live somewhere like a YouTube and, and might even be like a, let's say a YouTube ad and you're gonna run a campaign through Google and you're gonna.
[00:24:19] Drew English: Play that 62nd overarching piece through a YouTube ad. You keep it general. You don't focus on bottom of funnel per se. You're not trying to drive a demo or a calendar appointment, but you sit and you kind of analyze, uh, anyway, you let Google's engine analyze who's engaging with this, right? Who's watching the majority of the video, who's clicking to rewatch it, who's even clicking through to your link.
[00:24:42] Drew English: And from there it's really simple to cut that video into 30 or 15 second pieces with. Call to actions that are more direct, that are pushing that kind of book a meeting call today, schedule a demo, and basically only sending those messages and maybe even deeper, looks right at a product or a service to people who are engaged and and appear to be potential buyers.
[00:25:05] Drew English: So I think there's ways to kind of lead with the demand gen philosophy of give it to everyone and get them excited and they will come to you. But then to use retargeting and repurposing with video cut downs to really take more of a lead generation strategy to it, if that idea makes sense.
[00:25:22] Nicole MacLean: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:23] Nicole MacLean: And yeah, lead gen strategy is always a, a big, big focus when it comes to video. I would imagine that ROI is a big conversation around video. How would you coach someone about the metrics or the KPIs of success that they should be paying attention to, to get that internal buy-in on why video's important?
[00:25:43] Drew English: Yeah, absolutely. I think you have to understand what the objective of the video you created is. There's a problem, and we run into it all the time with prospects we're talking to, or customers where I, oh, I want my video to hit all my objectives. I want it to build massive awareness, and I want it to go viral, and I want my CFO to see.
[00:26:00] Drew English: That it brought six x ro apps in and, and were the best marketing investment they made all year. You can't focus on all those objectives. Right. And the easiest way to to frame it is kind of that top, middle, bottom funnel segment and those objectives that come with each unique stage. Um, and so I think the metrics you are watching for are different depending on what level of content you're creating.
[00:26:23] Drew English: And kind of what your objective is at that level. So for a top funnel video, we're working on a project right now for a client that's part of a large rebrand campaign. And so they've launched a new website and they are ready to roll that out to, you know, the world. And they're, they're kind of stepping, stepping away from the old identity into a new identity.
[00:26:43] Drew English: And they're looking to promote that with like a, a really thoughtfully put together narrative, a 62nd ad. Kind of commercial piece with a couple of those cutdowns like I mentioned. And when I think about that video and, and how do we measure success, that's a long-term bet. That video, I don't think success should be measured by dollars spent and the checkout cart on the website, but it's really like, how many views have we seen of that video?
[00:27:08] Drew English: How many impressions or comments? That's directly on like a video upload page with a YouTube. But then even from a search perspective, you can go in and, and look for a lift in branded search. I think that's a great indicator that a video is generating, uh, better awareness. So if you're tracking search metrics in like a Google search console or trends, and you see a lift in people since the start, that video is posted to, to date.
[00:27:34] Drew English: You see a lift in people searching for your company name, that's a really great sign, right? And if people are searching on an engine like Google and it's a higher intent, kind of like action, and I would say that's pretty easy to say, Hey, that that probably will link to website browsing and potentially a purchase down the road.
[00:27:52] Drew English: So like a top funnel brand ad commercial, you really gotta judge it by things like that. How many people have watched it? How many people have commented, engaged? Have you seen like a lift in branded search? But if you're making product videos, 15 second motion graphic product loops that you're putting onto meta, and you've got a CTA button that's driving a checkout now, and I, I have been absolutely a, a partaker in the, you know, quick Instagram purchase that shows up in my door, you know, two days later.
[00:28:21] Drew English: I'm not sure how it got there. But that's, I mean, those videos, you're, you're looking for dollars, right? You're looking for conversions, you're looking for checkouts. And that video does not do the same thing as that 62nd like huge production value, brand awareness ad. So I really think you have to choose your objective and then look at what are the ROI kind of metrics that should be tracking at that level of the funnel.
[00:28:43] Drew English: So
[00:28:44] Nicole MacLean: that's really helpful. And it goes back to context is everything. You know, you can't just have one measure of success for your video strategy. It needs to be like based on where and funnel the journey, et cetera. So I think that's a good call out. One piece I think actually kind of wraps a lot of what we've talked about together is we've talked a lot under the assumption you have someone internally that's willing to put themselves out, whether as an actual real human person, I guess, makes.
[00:29:11] Nicole MacLean: You can't see that I'm real and not a digital twin, or it's a digital twin, but if you don't have someone that's either like willing or has the, I don't wanna say skillset, but wants to be that external face either. Do you have any tips in encouraging people to kind of put themselves out there? Or, hey, if an internal thought leader isn't in the cards for you, just based on where you are now, how you can still take advantage of video in a really authentic.
[00:29:40] Nicole MacLean: Way.
[00:29:40] Drew English: Yeah. I think when it comes to you gathering kind of that support system to get an internal employee on for a video, like a talking Head video where somebody's representing your company, my advice is always to shoot broad with kind of a message throughout the whole company saying There's a video project going on.
[00:29:58] Drew English: We're looking for somebody to talk about X, Y, Z. Who wants to join in the casting call? I will tell you the best video interviews we've done for more corporate style videos have come from employees that I don't think the marketing team ever would've imagined would've been up for the job. That's so fair.
[00:30:15] Drew English: And they've been thoughtful responses and their insights on the company or the topic are so unique and they, and sometimes they're so well spoken. I don't know if some of these people are like aspiring actors who just haven't gotten a chance yet, or if they're just really passionate about where they work or what they do or the subject matter.
[00:30:32] Drew English: But if you can't find anyone in your 50 to 50 plus person company, it's because you haven't asked everybody. That's the reason. There's somebody at every company, and it might not be a C-suite level executive, but there's somebody at every company who would jump at the chance to represent the brand or represent the idea on video.
[00:30:51] Drew English: And so I think you just have to open up that filter and you know, see who might want to be involved and, and empower anyone to get into that seat.
[00:30:59] Nicole MacLean: I think that's such a good reminder. Because, yes, as I think back to moments and especially client testimonials are I think a great way to do this too. But it's always someone on your account management or client success team.
[00:31:13] Nicole MacLean: There's always someone that's so good in front of the camera and they're the ones closest to the client. So they also bring a level of thought leadership that you don't expect. But even outside, I've been blown away by even some like engineers that you typically think that, you know, they wanna go in their hole and code.
[00:31:32] Nicole MacLean: But they, they kind of just come alive and bring a really authentic experience to the camera.
[00:31:37] Drew English: Absolutely.
[00:31:39] Nicole MacLean: Yeah. Or also just, you know, hire more theater kids.
[00:31:43] Drew English: Absolutely. Yes. It's, it's a bonus, right? In a video first world if theater is totally a bonus.
[00:31:49] Nicole MacLean: It is. If anyone listened to the episode with Jillian, we talked about that as both former theater kids, that it definitely helps just having that, that background.
[00:31:59] Nicole MacLean: And you're really good at, you know, having to wear multiple hats, making costumes, finding weird props, like it all translates.
[00:32:06] Drew English: Absolutely.
[00:32:08] Nicole MacLean: This has been so great. I mean, even for compose, I feel like some really great takeaways for us to consider in a video strategy, but maybe any tips or just kind of advice that you would leave for folks.
[00:32:21] Drew English: Yeah, I think there is a big shift happening in marketing, a swing back towards brand. Over performance. I think of some of the brand era of legendary commercials and ads and the Nike level, like philosophical. You know, you watch an ad from them and you just feel like, man, I'm so inspired to go do anything, including buying Nike shoes.
[00:32:43] Drew English: I think there's a swing back to that. And so we've been, I think ever since like the late 2010s, and especially with the pandemic. In this frenzy for performance as marketers and everything's gotta drive an action and everything's gotta prove ROI, but I think there's this big swing back to brand. And so if you're a marketer and you're feeling the pressure to basically create stuff that converts, create stuff that performs immediately, just keep an eye, keep a pulse on where things are going, because I really think that the people who are investing in great story.
[00:33:14] Drew English: And big ideas and contrarian ways to go about telling that story and promoting their brand. I think they're gonna be big winners. You know, I think that the amount of noise, the amount of performance noise, that's all the internet right now from, you know, just poorly done UGC videos to, like we talked about, just AI, for lack of a better word, AI slop videos.
[00:33:37] Drew English: They are absolutely ruining people's attention span and people have just such a low bar and low expectations. So if you've got a great idea as a marketer, I think swing big, whether it's a, a written piece or it's a, you know, an image set, an ad image set, or it's a video swing big. I think with that low bar and low threshold where people are at your ideas have 10 x for chance of succeeding, then they did back in the big brand days.
[00:34:03] Drew English: So that would be my advice is just like. Green Greenlight, your wildest ideas. Get excited about things that promote brand at a big level, take chances. And I think where we're going with marketing, I think that's gonna be rewarded.
[00:34:17] Nicole MacLean: That's so inspirational. Like that is such a great heartwarming as a marketer just to kinda hear that.
[00:34:24] Nicole MacLean: That I agree. I do think that brand is going to play a bigger role in the next few years and that I think it's a good reminder to swing big. I think we're a little risk averse right now. I just feel like, I think marketers are just so desperate to be able to put up ROI and that almost makes us kind of go into our shells.
[00:34:45] Nicole MacLean: I think it's a good reminder that it's the It's okay to take risks.
[00:34:50] Drew English: Absolutely. When people are risk averse, that is the best time to take risks.
[00:34:57] Nicole MacLean: Thanks for listening to this episode of Content Matters created in partnership with Share Your Genius. If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with a friend.
[00:35:05] Nicole MacLean: Otherwise, you can find all the resources you need to stay connected with us in the show notes Till next time.