If credibility and trust is central to your marketing then video interviews should be an important tool in your promotional campaign.
Interview videos can be testimonials, talking heads and vox pops, involving keynote speakers, subject matter experts, people on the street and kids of all ages. I generally categories any video that features someone responding to a question as an interview. The great strength of interview videos is that they place a face to the words and this adds a level of authenticity to the message. If your subject is popular you can leverage off their popularity.
There are a few distinct types of interviews and each one has a unique purpose.
The talking head interviews is what most people imagine an interview to be like. The interviewee is usually sitting in a setting that sets a context to the discussion, responding to your questions. If more than one person is involved in an interview then I refer to this setup as a panel discussion, which is the perfect format for introducing a debate between two (or more) opposing views.
Talking head and panel discussions are great for promoting conferences, presentations and events, by promoting the keynote speakers and establishing the points of discussion. They introduce the experts in their field, promoting their key messages and establishing the debate, which generates excitement for your event and an atmosphere of importance. They're also educational and can be archived and accessed in a pay per view model adding value to a conference even after it has finished. Great residual marketing.
However when it comes to marketing products and services the vox pop and the testimonial the way to go, especially when credibility is fundamental to the message.
Vox Pops comes from the Latin word 'voice of the people'. These are generally short informal interviews with random people on the street. Put together these short snippets are meant to reflect popular public opinion. Because of this there is a broader target audience and vox pops can be great for marketing products/services that are aimed at the general public, the comments acting as a form of public endorsement. Community announcements, health and political campaigns are great candidates for vox pops. Even Hollywood has used vox pops to promote their blockbuster films.
For a more targeted approach the video testimonial is a very powerful but underused format.
Video is a particularly powerful medium for capturing testimonials. Let's face it, written testimonials can be written by anyone, but on video you can tell from watching the facial expressions whether someone is being genuine. Also, because the audience is being addressed directly, video testimonials are more likely to maintain views and create a personal connection with your product and service. Video testimonials are even more powerful if the person is popular.
Whether you use talking head, panel discussions, vox pops or video testimonials, video interviews are a great format for adding credibility and authority to your promotional campaign. Talking heads and panel will generate excitement around conference or presentation. Vox pops emphasises that you are in tune with popular opinion and video testimonials will add legitimacy to what you have to offer.
