When coming up with concepts for a video, we do a bunch of brainstorming here at Demo Duck. Oftentimes in those sessions, we consider a variety of different frameworks for how the video could get across content including: use cases, metaphors, straight forward walk throughs, etc.
In most cases, when one exists, a metaphor can take the content to a whole new depth. It’s an efficient way to make the subject matter more relatable, understandable, and usually a lot more interesting. However, during our pitch, we often hear from clients that a metaphor, visual or otherwise, will be too distracting and/or the audience won’t really understand what the product or service is unless we explicitly say and show it.
When we pitched a nautical metaphor concept to Criteria Corp for a video about their pre-employment testing service, they saw the potential in the idea and we both thought it would get results. Here’s the story of how the video came together to increase their free trial signups by 22%.
Let’s talk a little bit about the different components of the video and how we think each played a part in achieving that result.
Metaphors can help you stand out
There are a lot of tools in the recruiting industry that claim to help you ensure you’re bringing the right person on to your team. And most of the hiring tools out there aren’t necessities, so it’s important to demonstrate a strong value proposition. In a crowded industry, Criteria Corp wanted to create a video that engaged viewers quickly and set them apart from the competition. Using a visual metaphor would allow us to take a creative approach to an established industry.
Metaphors create deeper connections faster
The ability to relate to a video or value proposition should be made as simple as possible for your prospective customers. That’s why you hear so many startupsleveraging metaphors when giving their elevator pitch (i.e. “It’s Uber for ____”). Nearly everyone understands what Uber does, which in turn makes it easy for prospects to quickly understand what you’re offering. This also rings true for how you use metaphors in your videos.
The right concept goes a long way
Our nautical concept came up pretty naturally during the initial conversations with the client because a lot of the common terms used in the recruiting world lend themselves well to the ocean world. “Tip of the iceberg”, “Deep dive”, and “hiring a shark” are all terms used (or alluded to) in the video and expressions I used in my prior life as a recruiter. As mentioned above, the audience was also able to quickly pull a lot of things from this metaphor (i.e. the sea can be dangerous just like hiring can be dangerous), so it helped us reinforce the problem early on.
It’s okay for the video to change course slightly
With a lot of our videos we tend to change the tone of the video once the solution is introduced and we run through the at the benefits the product or service is offering. Once we get to the benefits around the 34 second mark of the HireSelect video, we are able to use more recognizable and streamlined imagery to relate to the audience of hiring leaders and managers. Often times, the metaphor imagery hooks in the viewer, and once we have their attention we get more into the nitty gritty of the value proposition.
Tracking results is just as important as production
HireSelect is all about using relevant, objective data to help businesses make more informed hiring decisions and stop trusting their guts. Being a data-driven company, Criteria Corp tracked the results of their new video and came up with some pretty impressive results. Using Optimizely to track results, They discovered a 22% increase in HireSelect free trials signups after adding the video to their website.
Here’s Wayne Chuen at Criteria Corp to give us more insight, “For us, the Free Trial form on our site is the primary source of lead generation, so this was a huge win. More Free Trials means more Sales, which means more Revenue. We frequently A/B test our site to optimize conversions, and no test before or since has had such a large impact.”
We love hearing about awesome video results, so what are some success stories you have? How about lessons learned in the production or release of your video to get more from it?