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"Tom Clifford is by trade a filmmaker. For most of his life, he rarely wrote anything longer than a brief comment in the margin of a script. 

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Saturday
Apr212007

What are the Two Biggest "Dips" in Every Corporate Video?

DateSaturday, April 21, 2007 at 08:00PM

Imagine this. What would happen if you knew ahead of time when to quit something: a project, a job, a relationship?

Seth Godin's new book, "The Dip," helps you figure out exactly that. When to quit... and when to stick.

The "dip" is that "long slog between starting and mastery." The "dip" separates the beginner from the expert. It's that place where people quit just when a little extra effort would take them through the "dip" and on to the "other side." To become a superstar. To be a winner. To be, as Seth says,"the best in the world."


banana_dip.gif

Here are eight "dips" facing every organization or individual:
1. MANUFACTURING DIP
2. SALES DIP
3. EDUCATION DIP
4. RISK DIP
5. RELATIONSHIP DIP
6. CONCEPTUAL DIP
7. EGO DIP
8. DISTRIBUTION DIP

Now, let's plug in your corporate video. What are the two biggest "dips" facing every corporate video project? And when do they occur?


1. The "RISK DIP." This happens at the beginning of every video project.
2. The "DISTRIBUTION DIP." This happens at the end of every video project.

The "RISK DIP" occurs when you go for "safe." Instead of risking an authentic story with un-scripted interviews, many corporate videos take the safe route...crafting predictable, disengaging and unemotional messages. Bang! They hit the "RISK DIP." Decide in the beginning to take a risk. Decide where the risk is. And then decide if the risk will help you create a video that's the "best in the world." If not, why bother?

The "DISTRIBUTION DIP" occurs when you realize few people can actually see your story. Decide in the beginning you need to create a"best in the world" distribution system for your video. It's not brain surgery. What IS hard is figuring out how you are going to distribute your "best in the world" video when you are done with your project. Bang! You just hit another "dip:" the "DISTRIBUTION DIP."

Knowing your "dips" ahead of time can help you create a corporate video that's the "best in the world" and worth talking about.

---Tom

AuthorThomas Clifford | Comment1 Comment |
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Reader Comments (1)

Tom, as a former on-staff corporate video writer/director/producer, I sometimes found that there was a "production dip" as well. With one company in particular, for whom I produced over 100 projects in 3 years, we'd start off with a great concept and approved treatment (fortunately, no fear of unscripted interviews here - we used them consistently!) but as production went on we'd find that second thoughts from leadership might creep in, forcing us to pull back a little on the humor, or the overall creativity, or something that would take away from the vision of the original idea. I think we always managed to end up with a well-produced product in spite of it, but sometimes the creative edge would be missing. It was frustrating to see them start out eager to differentiate and end up losing their nerve. Great post, and nice tie-in to Seth's new book! ~ Janet
April 23, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterJanet Green

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