Rye and Tribeca, NY Intelligent Video Solutions is thrilled to announce the completion of the redesign of their website. Working with talented designers from Tallan and digital consultant, Brian Manning of Centric Digital, LLC, IVS created a clean and optimized site that highlights their extensive professional services experience, especially with law firms, as well as showcases their web videos. Tallan created the site on SquareSpace to allow Orton to manage and update the content herself. Intelligent Video Solutions is using Fliqz to manage their growing number of client videos. Tallan made the integration with the SquareSpace platform work cleanly. “Working with Tallan was a joy” states owner, Linda Sedloff Orton. “The process ran on military time using web-based project management tool BaseCamp. If anyone would like a referral to Tallan, we are happy to provide an introduction."

Rye and Tribeca, NY

April 22, 2009

The Story of Britain’s Got Talent: Susan Boyle’s Video & What Law Firms and Other Professional Services Firms Can Learn From It

One week after it’s post on YouTube, over 37 million people watched a heartwarming viral video where a not-so-glamorous, yet charming, 47 year-old Scottish woman swept critics’ hearts on “Britain’s Got Talent”, the UK’s version of “American Idol”. This video is compelling and “viral” because it has five distinctive qualities:

 

1) It’s about an underdog

2) The underdog is genuinely talented

3) Audience and judges’ facial reactions narrate the story to provide context and conflict without dialogue

4) The story is visually interesting, yet concise

5) The video is professionally produced with music

 

The power of video as a marketing communications tool is obvious when you see how Susan Boyle’s story impacted viewers around the world. Lawyers, accountants and consultants should create engaging video narratives to attract potential clients and stay connected to existing ones. Linda Sedloff Orton, president of Intelligent Video Solutions, comments that people are partially reacting to the story of Susan Boyle, but the real story is the video that Britain’s Got Talent made and posted to YouTube. Their production team created the viral video; Susan is just one piece of it.

This is a skilled and complicated process. The key is to educate, entertain and engage viewers with relevant, simple and exclusive stories. This point was recently emphasized by nationally known political consultant, James Carville, at the recent Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference in Washington, DC. Carville co-presented the keynote with his wife, Mary Matalin where he talked about the marketing messages he teaches his politician clients. He reiterated that your core message must be repeated. In the world of web videos, this is where effective web distribution and Video SEO come into play.

Susan Boyle’s video proves that (a) you capture an audience’s attention with a story, and (b) video is the most effective storytelling vehicle today because by nature, it is uniquely dynamic and interactive.

 

While Susan Boyle’s video is entertaining, it is also educational about how to make a successful web video in general. This highly produced piece tells a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It has emotionally charged music, creative editing and powerful transitions. Because it is cut to show bursts of human emotion throughout, it feels like a movie trailer, not a video.

 

The video begins with the protagonist preparing for her debut, giving us context and a connection. Next, there’s conflict, in the form of doubt and condescension by viewers. When Susan’s big moment to sing arrives, we experience anticipation. The second we hear her voice, we’re hooked. The resolution is clear, there is a happy ending: Susan’s dream comes true and her beautiful voice wins the hearts of the audience. There is also a moral lesson here: “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

 

Paul Gladen, president of Muzeview, a competitive intelligence firm that tracks the marketing activities of over 100 of the world’s leading professional services firms, states that “less than 1% of their marketing outputs are currently video. This number is poised to explode in the coming years.” Ultimately, every professional will have a professional online video to tell their story, the same way every professional currently has a static online biography. Think about the emotional impact Susan Boyle’s story had on the world, and imagine the difference if you only read the words on a page.

 

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