Tamgram

So what do you get when you mix a beautiful spring day with the concept of giving? It’s Sprinksgiving, of course! It’s a new tradition at Santa Clara University and it comes complete with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce sandwiches that were absolutely delicious.

Sprinksgiving is celebrating its second year at SCU. It’s an opportunity for students to give thanks to donors who help fund their student experience. This includes everything from new buildings to scholarships to academic and athletic programs and equipment to student initiatives, just to name a few.

This was the second year that Tam Communications was called in to help document the event and to create a video that could be shown to those that help make that experience possible — friends, family, and supporters of the University.

There were a few unique aspects to this project. First, it’s about thanking donors for what they’ve already done versus the typical “ask” most fund raising videos include. Will it encourage the supporter to give again? You bet!

Secondly, it puts a face to the donation. Supporters can see who is being helped through their financial commitment. It’s not just an organization’s executive director or president listing off what was done with their contribution.

Finally like last year, we arrived on location not totally sure what to expect. Sure, we had objectives, questions, a schedule, and a location. But the organic nature of the event requires that you go with the flow…making certain the magic is “in the can”.  That organic nature delivers authenticity and makes this year’s story different from last year’s. Different people; different stories; different notes of gratitude. In the end, it made it a powerful illustration of how much these students really do care about the support they’re given. It feels really good to help create that connection.

It’s been an interesting decade and corporate video has evolved as a result enabled by all of the technological advancements, many of which were born right in our own backyard. As I said, it’s been interesting.

I remember “back in the day” working with high tech Silicon Valley companies that were (and many still are) chasing the elusive “Smaller, faster, cheaper, better” in a never-ending game of leapfrog with their competition. Nowhere has this slogan been truer than in the video arena. After all…just about anyone can own an HD video camera (a lot of us have one in our phones). And just about anyone can own the equivalent of an HD editing suite on a beefy laptop or desktop. And anyone can get a video up on YouTube. So does that mean that anyone can tell creative, compelling, and powerful stories that can effectively communicate key messages in a way that supports the overall brand? Of course not.

So you’re probably thinking I’ll now tell you that’s why you need to hire Tam Communications for all of your video work. Actually, just the opposite. I believe a lot of companies would be well served to have an in-house producer (if they don’t already) that can tackle, at a minimum, many internal videos and external product demos, white board discussions. Depending on the hire, he or she may fill the role of producing or just managing bigger projects, hire out-of-town crew, or screen production companies for projects that are outside their core competencies. We believe there’s an excellent opportunity for today’s freelancers, shooter/editors, and independent producers to thrive in a corporate setting, where they can enjoy the steady work, employee benefits, and the possibility of a paid vacation (what a concept!).

With YouTube and other Content Delivery Networks (CDN), companies can distribute training, education, product demos, a whole world of content, to a worldwide customer and perspective customer base at a fraction of what it used to cost. And they have metrics that were simply impossible before – who watched the video, from where, in what language? But the ease of producing and distributing simple videos in-house does not mean that all video communication should be “just the basics” or “good enough”. That same CDN can help you define your brand to people who may have never made their way to your industry trade show to learn about you, to meet you and get to know your products. That money you spent on a video that wowed at the product launch or trade show floor for three to four days now has a life as long as…well, who knows how long.

At one point I realized that when someone asked, “Do you produce ‘YouTube’ videos?” it was code for cheap. I’d like to see more and more companies realize that you can use that same infrastructure to create content the whole industry will be talking about and sharing.

For this particular project, we wanted something fun…something that reflected the 4INFO branding along with the people that are served by 4INFO’s technology–young people in that sweet spot when it comes to advertising (18 – 34 years old). Like many of the projects we work on, it was enlightening. This time learning about SMS–short message service–and the amount of people reached by mobile advertising. Now a little text alert may not be as sexy as a 3D-based commercial but the exciting thing is that the 4INFO text messaging service can reach customers wherever they are and then lead them to that 3D commercial. And unlike the spam that drives me nuts every day, 4INFO alerts are totally opt in, sending text messages that mobile phone users WANT to receive. It’s one of the things I love about my job. Not only do I get to learn something new literally every day, I get to learn about COOL things every day.