How Research Groups Can Be More Strategic About Video

In February our CEO, Vern Oakley, sat down with Founder & CEO of Science+Story, Bob Lalasz, to discuss video strategy.  Below is an excerpt from their conversation:

Bob Lalasz: First off, what does Tribe Pictures do — what’s it’s mission?

Vern Oakley: Our mission is to humanize companies and their leaders through the power of film. We believe that businesses (and I’m including universities and non-profits in that definition) are one of the key drivers of the world becoming a better place. In the past, our society has relied on religious organizations or government. But now many businesses serve not only as employers but a way to give people purpose. If they’re run ethically, if they hold themselves to high standards and if they effectively communicate that purpose to the outside world, they can help shape society as we move forward.

Tribe Pictures provides a critical tool for businesses in this new purpose-driven environment. With video, we help our clients tell their most powerful, consistent story across different functions of a business — from recruiting or onboarding to mission, vision, values, and investor relations. Purpose told in well-crafted story form creates a cumulative effect over months, weeks, days, years, and decades to inspire people to do with business with those companies.

Bob Lalasz: How do you get clients to make this move from “We need a video” to “We need a video strategy”?

Vern Oakley: Video should always have strategic priority for your organization. But of the 20–30 companies we’ve worked with in the last three years, only two have had a video strategy.

Before you rush to communicate with video, it’s helpful to take that half-step back and ask, “Shouldn’t there be a company narrative relating to an organizational purpose that runs through this?”

Instead, we find clients are making videos in one division or for one purpose without anything knitting that together with all the other strategic work being done elsewhere in the company. Before you rush to communicate with video, it’s helpful to take that half-step back and ask, “Shouldn’t there be a company narrative relating to an organizational purpose that runs through this?”

Bob Lalasz: What are the benefits of having that video strategy?

Vern Oakley: Strategic storytelling creates a persona and brand identity for the company. Look at Apple and Steve Jobs. In 1984, they started with an incredible TV commercial. Over the years they evolved their styles of storytelling, but all of them expressed the company’s ethos and purpose again and again: Revolutionizing the world through making the computer a democratized creative tool for the every(wo)man. That consistency and persistency of story is what really builds a connection among employees, customers and all stakeholders.

To read the complete discussion please visit the Science+Story Medium post.