With another April Fools Day behind us, I wanted to take some time and talk about one of my favorite types of online video.
Not explainer videos. Not customer stories. Not even gassy baby videos.
I'm talking about fake business videos.
And at Demo Duck, we love them so much that we even created our own a few years ago. Are you ready to try out...The Beak?
That was some good acting on my part. We actually still have The Beak around the office somewhere...
Why do I get such a kick out of these videos? Well, first off—they're usually pretty darn funny. But also, they create an opportunity to poke fun at some tired tropes or cliches within the industry—which mean mean its time to avoid them in your own projects. After all, even the freshest design or editing styles eventually become a little oversaturated. For example, "The Beak" was a reaction to how prevalent slightly twee top-down shot videos had become during a certain time, especially amongst social media influencers. Having a sense of humor about the work we do—and the ability to do some self-reflection—is important to our team at Demo Duck. Oh, this genre of video is also great because the production quality is usually pretty slick. If you want to pull off a perfect parody, you need to have that attention for detail.
Looking for some more examples? Here are six of my favorite fake corporate video productions ever from some of our industry peers. There's an animated explainer video for a “new startup”, a product launch video from a tech giant, and a bunch of laughs throughout.
WellDeserved Pitch Video
As part of Comedy Hack Day 2015, which is an event that pairs makers and comedians, this explainer video shines a bright, satirical light on the tech culture of San Francisco. The execution and on-the-nose concept behind the platform would even make Mike Judge proud. Speaking of…
Pied Piper Explainer Video
This animated video by Wezank was uploaded right after the second season of Silicon Valley aired, soon after the made up company, Pied Piper, seemed to be getting their footing (despite Richard being pushed out), so even the timing of this video is inline with the narrative arc of the series.
If you have never seen the show, it’s understandable to think this animation was for an actual, complicated startup because it follows the explainer video scripting formula so closely. We love metaphors in explainer videos and the “moving apartments metaphor” works very well in expressing the value in Pied Piper’s unique algorithm for data storage.
Generic Brand Video
When you’re crafting a branding video as a relatively new company, it can be tough to find the right balance between saying too much and not saying enough. This video by Dissolve, pokes fun at the latter, and says a whole lot of nothing.
The main reason we’re fans of this video? Most entries on this list were made purely for fun, without any real purpose of promoting an actual product or service. But, Dissolve is a stock video company and this video helps them encourage viewers to move away from the generic clips we’ve seen a million times, and towards some of the more unique footage they have available.
Exploozy Explainer Video
We have to be honest, this may be our favorite fake explainer video because it hits so close to home. As a video agency that creates handcrafted animated and live action business videos, Demo Duck often hears about other companies who are a “cheaper option”, to which we always wonder about the drop in quality this involves. Luckily, the good people at Planet Nutshell use Exploozy to cheekily demonstrate an age old concept: you get what you pay for.
Even though this was an April Fool’s joke, their commitment to promoting Exploozy in the comments and the balance between those that “got it” and those that didn’t (we don’t blame them by the way!) shows how well they struck a chord with their audience. This is just a gem of satire that, while a bit inside baseball, makes us smile from ear to ear.
Gmail Tap Product Video
There is a new April Fools Day video rolled out each year by these search engine pranksters but this one seems the most plausible and real… until LL Cool J makes an appearance towards the end. But it doesn’t seem that far fetched does it? Morse code is a form of communication after all, right? Maybe we’re hoping we weren’t the only ones fooled upon first watching this…
The tone, pacing, and style are all spot on for a product launch testimonial and given all the inventive things they are doing out there in Mountain View, we don’t blame the commenters who were excited to get their hands on this new technology.
LIVR Testimonial Video
“If you’re inebriated enough, we’ll let you into the app” is just one of many lines that are delivered flawlessly by the actors portraying the founders of this app that infuses getting sauced with getting social. Kudos to these two guys who perfectly matched the tone and cadence of app creators who are excited about their revolutionary product.
The Perfect Parody
At Demo Duck, we take our video projects seriously, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously, and it’s good to see that other people feel the same way. The fake corporate video is an art form, and honestly, a great creative exercise too. It's an opportunity for some industry self-reflection and examine some of the tropes that we're all guilty of from time to time.
A sense of humor goes a long way. Besides a video production parody, we love adding humor to our videos with playful scripts, visual gags and more. If you're looking to inject some funny into your business video, drop us a line. We hope a few of these videos brightened your day and maybe inform how you approach your next video project.
Itching to learn more about video? Here are other great posts:
5 Inspiring Marketing Videos that Will Warm Your Soul