“Lights, Camera, Action!” A phrase all movie buffs are familiar with, but these days “the talkies” are not just for cinema or television, but are viewed as a highly effective marketing tool.

Corporate videos, or audio-visual corporate communications, are one of the most effective means of communication around, whether for in-house purposes such as staff training or for getting your company’s message out to a wider audience, video is the thing.

Commissioned primarily for use by a company, corporation or organisation, a corporate video is often intended for a specific purpose in a corporate or business to business environment and viewed only by a limited audience. The task is frequently delegated to the company’s marketing or communications manager.

However, it should be remembered that it is not sufficient to call on a member of staff who happens to have a video camera and took great images of their daughter’s wedding or some attractive holiday snaps if you require a professional result. We have all sat through mind numbingly boring presentations that would have been a great deal more interesting for some judicial, if not drastic editing!

For effective communication call in the professionals; a professional audio visual company will discuss your requirements and make useful suggestions, they are the experts and will know what has worked for other companies in your sector.

They will be keen for you to look at films they have produced for a range of clients, which will give you even more ideas! Not only do they have the facilities; studio, professional equipment, experienced, highly trained staff, audio suites and editing facilities, but they have the all-important know-how of to produce effective results.

The word effective is important here, any outlay from your business needs to produce good results, and to more than recoup that expenditure; a cheap, poorly produced video will often turn out to have been more expensive in the long run in terms of loss of image and reputation.

The growth of digital technology has led to a convergence between corporate video and other forms of media communications. Social media marketing, using the techniques developed by the corporate video companies, is taking the advertising world by storm. Your corporate video can now be streamed to a tablet or smart phone, while GPS technology can target your message to potential customers in specific geographic locations, the possibilities are endless.

By adding video to your website you will dramatically improve the volume and quality of traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and YouTube. Research has shown that an online video is fifty times more likely to hit the front page of Google than single text web page whilst time on site, bounce and click through rates are all improved.

Corporate videos are now so sophisticated that they can be produced using the same production techniques and style as a broadcast television programme, including aerial photography, outside broadcasting and time-lapse photography. To engage audiences who are used to viewing popular media, a corporate video might even be themed on a well-known television series.

A corporate video production company may typically take the client brief, develop a script or treatment (and sometimes a storyboard), liaise with the client, and agree on a production schedule and delivery date. The time and scale of a corporate video production can vary greatly. Some videos may use only minimal crew and basic equipment, whilst some large scale corporate videos may have similar (or often higher) budgets and levels of production equivalent to a broadcast television programme or TV commercial.

The corporate video production process will frequently involve the following stages:

• Pre-production, planning includes script writing and storyboarding. The budget will also be agreed at this stage between the production company and client.
• Video production, including location filming with a camera crew and director. This may also include other elements, such as actors and presenters.
• Post-production and video editing - the filmed (live action) footage is edited together. This may also include recording an audio voice-over, adding graphics, composing a music score or soundtrack, and including 2D/3D animation sequences with the finished video.

So whether you want to produce an in house Fire and Safety film, have a record of your latest conference and awards ceremony or run a major promotional campaign for your business or a new product range, you cannot afford to overlook the power of corporate video and its use in social media marketing.