A product video focuses on showcasing the product’s tangible benefits to its audience. However, getting a perfect shot for a product commercial within seconds is not an easy task, especially without proper planning.
It’s even more difficult when you need to create a video that lasts long for both visuals and branding messages. For businesses, it takes resources to create an ideal commercial that targets the audience with the right insights.
Over the past year, we’ve got the chance to see amazing product commercials coming from both in-house and external advertising agencies. For us, we can never forget how special Burger King’s Moldy Whopper commercial was in 2020 that left the audience in awe of the Whopper’s transformation for 34 days.
With that being said. Whether it’s a simple or complex concept, before getting your team to start shooting, you should always have a plan. So, what makes a good product commercial?
There are many things that you can take into consideration. But always remember to consider the following steps when it comes to creating a plan.
#1 – Set goals for your commercial before planning
The very first step of any plan is to have clear goals to achieve. With proper goals in mind, you can easily navigate the next steps for creating a good product commercial.
To get started, think of an action that you expect from your customers. Instead of making a general video, think about making an educational video that will prompt the audience to become aware of your product or service. See the difference?
The goals for the commercial should also be measurable. “What do you expect to achieve with this video?”. It can be to increase website traffic, gaining more subscribers on the mailing list, or simply having more sales. Whichever comes, it will help you navigate your creative thinking in making a video that wows the viewers.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
#2 – Spend time learning the product
Very often, we sometimes forgot the importance of spending time trying to understand how a product works.
A product comes with unique characteristics that were initially created to solve problems. For the commercial to best describe how the product can become a perfect solution, you should examine its main functions in different situations, and even in the least expected ways to use the product. It might come in handy if you want to create a humor-appeal commercial to attract more brand awareness.
In our recent BTS video for Aveeno, besides showing what a shooting schedule would look like, we also mentioned the importance of understanding the client’s product inside out.
Video by Cinemetrix
#3 – Think of a suitable video type for production
Questions about the video format are common as we tend to think of them in the beginning. For us, we think it should be the third step because once you have your goals and a certain understanding of the product, you’ll have the information you need to make a decision on the video production type.
So, “How will this video be delivered to the audience?”
There are many video formats that businesses can think of to make their product commercial stand out. From live-action video recording to a big hit of animation, there are endless options. Check out our previous post on Top 3 video marketing trends in 2021 to explore the trends that can be applied to your commercial.
#4 – Create a compelling storyboard
For this final step, you’ll need to incorporate a story that will serve as the backbone of the commercial video. Stories bring us together through meaningful lessons that help us to understand ourselves and others.
A commercial pulls insight from the audience’s daily problems and shows the viewers how they can have a better life with your product in it. It’s an ideal vision that customers look for while browsing through hundreds of products on shelves. This is where your story becomes a point of difference.
Creating a video storyboard shouldn’t be painful. By sketching out your ad shot-by-shot, you will thank your storyboard later when it comes to production. Throughout the process, you’ll notice elements that might work or not based on the proposed story. It takes time to make a storyboard, but we suggest you follow this basic framework:
- Draft a story: Remember the story we mention above? You can now bring it in as the general storyline
- Think of the scenes: What will be the main focus? What are you trying to convey to the audience via specific shots?
- Add more notes… and notes: Within each slide, you can add notes and script to match with the scene accordingly
Photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash
Start planning a product commercial with Cinemetrix
With our expertise, Cinemetrix provides high-quality Toronto video services that help your brand to tell an appealing story in the most exciting way for the audience to hear.
Looking for a way to develop your brand’s storyline? Don’t hesitate to leave us a note and connect with one of our experts right away.