Lights. Camera. Communicate!

How a little Hollywood can put some sizzle in your franchising business communications

By Bage Anderson

A video revolution is underway, and smart franchise businesses are helping lead the charge. 

Franchisors need new, more effective and affordable means of communicating with end customers, potential new franchisees, each other and the media.  Traditional print and broadcast media still work, but savvy businesspeople are also leveraging more active and direct forms of communication.  For many, video is the answer. 

The good news is, an exciting and affordable new generation of video production and distribution technologies has now emerged.  With the proliferation of broadband networks in homes, businesses and now even on the road, video is becoming an increasingly common and effective form of communication. 

Business managers in just about every industry – including forward-looking franchisors – are now using video to communicate a wide range of company, product and service information.  In the franchise sector, video is being used to build sales and increase profits, to attract and inform new franchisees, and to train and support existing franchise operators. 

Video can be a powerful marketing tool.  By putting a little Hollywood-style action in their communications, franchisors can add real sizzle to their business bottom line. 

The Video Generation

Video is the medium of the future.  More and more, the world of business is populated with people who were raised not just with television, but with computer skills, an interest in video and increasingly ubiquitous broadband Internet access. 

According to a study by the U.K.-based Point Topic, in 2006 the United States led the world with a total of 54.5 million installed broadband lines, followed by China with 48.6 million high-speed access line.  Those broadband pipelines carry a growing torrent of content – from news and information to corporate data, music and other forms of entertainment. 

Broadband is also opening the world to a vast new flow of video presentations.  Much of that video is produced by musical groups, college students or budding film directors.  But increasingly, businesses are also using the broadband pipeline to post and distribute videos to support sales, training and other business initiatives.  Video can be an especially powerful tool in the franchise business, where a good story – told in a creative and entertaining way – can mean the difference between an audience being engaged in your message and coming back for more or looking at your communication as a laborious time waster.

So how can a franchise business join the video revolution?

How to do it

First, it helps to understand a bit about modern video production.  There are three key elements to video production – cameras, editing platforms and production skills – and all are available to meet various production quality and budget requirements. 

Let’s start with the video camera.  Television stations and high-end production houses use high-definition video cameras costing $100,000 and more.  At the same time, college kids are using consumer grade cameras that cost less than $1,000 to create music or entertainment videos to post to social networks such as YouTube and MySpace.  Between those extremes, a new generation of mid-market “high def” cameras costing from $5,000 to $10,000 now delivers video quality and feature sets that rival their high-end cousins.

Editing platforms also offer a wide range of costs and capabilities.  Franchises seldom need the capabilities of a high-end, Hollywood-level film editing platform.  But most want production values above those you can get from a PC-based software program.  Fortunately, solid mid-level editing solutions are now available for about $3,000.  A good editing package will include an entry level iMac with 1 gig of memory and a 512mhz processor. Add Apple’s Final Cut Express HD software and a 300gig hard drive to the equation and you have a stable system that can handle your workload.

Add a couple of grand for lights and microphones, and you are equipped to shoot and edit videos at a quality level that is appropriate for most marketing or training programs.

But to produce an effective video, you need more than equipment: you also need skill and talent.  The fact is, a high end camera in inexperienced hands will result in a final product that looks amateurish at best.  Yet even a low end camera, in the hands of a pro, can produce a polished and effective video.  The same is true for editing equipment and skills.

So, should a franchise buy equipment and hire permanent employees to create their videos?  Or should you contract with a video production service?  That depends on your needs and your budget. 

If you plan to produce videos on a weekly or monthly basis, it might make sense to hire a “one man band” staffer who can write, shoot and edit training materials, video newsletters and press releases on your own equipment.  Or, if you need a very high-end video production, most specialized production houses charge up to $1,500 a day to shoot the raw video, and more to write a script or edit the footage. 

For many franchise businesses, which need a corporate training video or an occasional video press release, it makes more sense to hire a full-service public relations firm that also offers proven and professional video production capabilities.  By working with a good PR firm, you get video that is closely integrated with your larger communications efforts and that can be distributed directly to editors, employees or customer prospects.

In any case, select your video production supplier with care.  Review their demos and check their references.  Make sure they can meet your deadline and quality requirements, and that they can deliver your video in the format you need, whether that is DVD, MPEG, QuickTime movie or other technology. 

There are also choices to be made about where to send your video and how to deliver it. 

Where to put it

For most franchise businesses, a marketing video should be seen as an important element in their larger communications effort, which may include strategic market planning, traditional print advertising, public relations, media relations and in-store materials.  Once basic messaging has been developed for those efforts, that same “story line” can be refined and condensed to create dynamic and powerful videos.

Franchise businesses can then leverage an exciting and growing selection of distribution opportunities to tell their video story to the world.  

Video Press Releases

Some people prefer to read their news, while others would rather get their information in a more active and visual format.  To capture both audiences, smart companies are now converting their traditional print press releases into dynamic one- and two-minute video press releases.  The video press release can then be converted into an .mpg or .mov video format suitable for across-the-Web streaming. 

When you send out an email pitch or press release, you can include a link that will lead editors or readers to your video.  It helps to have a working relationship with a journalist, and to let him or her know the link is on its way.  Spam filtering software sometimes spots a hyperlink and prevents an email from reaching your target audience, so it may be better to have a reporter or editor copy and past the URL into their web browser.  It’s also smart to make any streamed video available in both major formats (Windows Media Player for PCs and QuickTime for Macs).  

On the Web

Many franchise businesses may choose to put their video on their public Internet or their corporate Intranet sites in a streaming-capable format.  When doing this, make sure the video opens in a new window, so if the viewer wants to exit the video, they can do so without leaving your website.  Some businesses like to use Flash presentation technology, because this embedded format launches the video automatically when the viewer clicks on the page, although some web viewers are annoyed by this presentation format. 

At a Tradeshow

Videos are a great addition to any tradeshow presentation.  A good video can help draw a crowd, hold viewers while reps are handling other visitors, or to play-on-demand as visitors stop by.  To deal with conference floor noise, and to give each visitor a private and hygienic experience, it’s a good idea to offer a bank of four or more over-the-ear, noise-canceling headphones in your booth. 

In Training Programs

Videos can be a great way to bring an employee or franchisee training program to life.  Viewers listen to and retain information that is presented in a concise and entertaining format.  By illustrating the right and wrong ways to do things, and by using humor and music, you can make training videos fun and productive.  Use the video format to be inventive and creative.  Your viewers will enjoy it and learn more. 

On Social Networks

Companies can also use social networks like YouTube and MySpace to distribute their video messages. Advertising can be expensive on those sites, but nothing prevents a corporation from creating an account and posting corporate messages and videos.  Some companies post a video on YouTube, then link to that presentation from their MySpace account, and refer to both in press releases and emails.  Of course, anything posted on these social networks is available to “the world”.  These sites may take an overly commercial spot down and commenters can respond to your content in positive, and sometimes very negative, ways.  So use social networks advisedly.

How to send it

There are a number of ways to distribute your franchise video message.  You can copy the video to a DVD and deliver a copy to each franchise location.  But DVDs can be cost prohibitive if you have a large number of franchise owners, and DVDs are impractical as a delivery channel for the media or general public.  Here are a few alternatives:

FTP.  Create a corporate File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site, then send links to franchise owners, editors or others via email or other messages.  You can set up security permissions, so that franchisees can download the video to their own company Local Area Networks (LANs).  An example of this method and an effective marketing piece can be found here. Type the following URL into your browser: http://ehandersonpr.com/autogas/fueland.mpg

LAN.  You may want to store the video on your own corporate LAN.  You can use passwords and permissions to allow some or all employees, franchisees or partners to find and view the video. 

PODcast.  You can create a video PODcast and upload it to iTunes or your corporate intranet.  This requires the creation of a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed from your corporate Intranet.  You can then provide key employees with video iPods and have them subscribe to the PODcast to receive your latest and greatest video message. 

A full-service public and/or media relations firm should have a solid understanding of the many ways in which a video can be distributed to news outlets, trade publications, employees, franchise partners and other target audiences. 

It’s a Wrap

Video can be a great way for any franchise business to tell their story to the world. 

Video technologies are more powerful and affordable than ever, and franchise companies can create their own videos or hire professionals to write, produce and distribute those video communications.  Growth-oriented franchise companies are using video presentations for sales, marketing, training or public relations, and to find and educate prospective new franchisees. 

Video is the wave of the future.  By adding a bit of Hollywood to your communications, you can add sizzle to your franchising bottom line. 

Bage Anderson is an Emmy award winning video photographer that specializes in video production and corporate communications with E.H. Anderson Public Relations.