A New and Important Content Marketing Tool: The Video Infographic

A Video That’s Worth 1000 Content Marketing Words

By Paula Crerar | Published: August 30, 2011

Video infographics are shaping up to be the new powerhouse of content marketing. Chances are you are already familiar with them and have seen at least one example after it has gone viral.

What is a video infographic?

By definition, a video infographic is a visual representation of data and knowledge in the form of an online video. It’s content marketing in a unique, high impact form. A video infographic hits the audience with morsels of high-value information, which, after viewing for as little as 90 seconds, could improve their perspective on the subject matter. Because it’s an entertaining combination of audio and visuals, viewers are more likely to make an emotional connection to the message and are more likely to respond to it, share it with friends and colleagues, and even view it multiple times.

Why do users like video infographics?

Infographic or not, it’s safe to say that video is steadily becoming a larger piece of the marketing arsenal — and for good reason. Our brains are programmed to absorb a combination of visuals, movement, and audio very quickly. In fact, according to the Weiss-McGrath Report, if you present information using voice and visuals (i.e., in a video format), retention is staggeringly higher after 24 hours. For this reason, and many others, video is simply the most efficient way for people to absorb information.

How do I use video infographics in content marketing?

To give you an idea of how to best leverage video infographics as part of your marketing strategy, here is the thought process we used on a recent project:

GOAL: Distribute our latest thought leadership piece — a white paper detailing the trends behind video, mobile, and social — as widely as possible. Some specifics:

We were looking for an attention-getting way to promote it via as many channels as possible (email, blogs, social media channels, etc.)
We wanted a highly visual way of promoting the white paper on our website
Video was a key topic of the white paper, which was also rich with data

Creating a video to promote the white paper was the obvious choice, but why did we choose to use the infographic format? Our reasoning:

People like sharing infographics, which extends the potential social reach
A video infographic is the perfect medium to repurpose some of the content we worked so hard to collect: Some of the eye-opening stats could serve as a great teaser for the document and/or could be consumed by those not interested in reading the whole white paper.

Since we’re lucky enough to have a rapid content creation platform, it was pretty quick and easy for the writer and the graphic designer to collaborate using PowerPoint and to repurpose the content into a dynamic video infographic.

Below is a 2-minute guide on the process we used to build our infographic, which goes through the script, design, audio, and publishing processes.

Some quick tips:

Keep your script as concise as possible
Consider the size, angles, and animation of your text
Have a simple slide background with enough contrast to your text

After our video infographic was created, placement was crucial. We built a new landing page designed to fuse the video and the white paper, and then we used the information from the video to provide a taste of our white paper content.

Because video infographics are more impactful, we knew the audience would want more information, which would boost our white paper registration rates. We also felt the audience could use the infographic to help them make an informed decision on whether the white paper would be worth their time and registration.

A quick tip

Keep in mind, we don’t expect viewers to memorize the statistics in our video infographics. Instead, our goal is to bring home our key message: that video, mobile, and social media should all be key components of their marketing strategy. In turn, this helps us achieve our marketing goal: getting users to move to the white paper. The entire process requires research, creativity, and a little bit of time, but the return is well worth it.

T.man

I think you are right about the power of video, but I think the example you have created is pretty lame, to be honest.
Dodgy typography, regurgitated statistics, cheesy music – just animated text powerpoint slides with a voice really, hardly a crafted, image rich infographic!!!
http://twitter.com/pcrerar Paula Crerar

T.man, we are certainly stretching the definition of infographic with this example. But that’s the point. We wanted to show other ways to present information. It’s a content marketing piece that almost anyone can create, even if they are not versed in Flash or similar solutions.

Will my text based infographic replace a highly polished, stunningly graphical infographic that takes weeks to produce? Of course not. This type of communication will work with some audiences and not others. You also have to consider what you’re trying to achieve with it. This is simply another option in your content marketing toolkit.
Marsh

Can we see the finished example somewhere?
http://twitter.com/pcrerar Paula Crerar

Here’s a direct link to the finished example: http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=zH1zbPB6oz2ZLyz0
http://humanwebsite.com.my Kent

Great article. This is first time I learn about the video infographics. The world changed so fast!!!
Dane Frederiksen

This confirms what us video producers know, but I’m really glad to see everyone else is catching on! I think the myriad of uses of video for business are going to make a serious impact for savvy companies who are ready to use this powerful communication tool.
Natalie Collins

I think video info graphics can be really effective and I agree with the points you make in the piece. When creating infographics it would also be useful to think of our hearing or sight impaired colleagues. Unfortunately, if there is no transciption or captions the lovely video info graphic is not effective.

It’s food for thought and quite easy to include…
Thanks
http://commetrics.com/articles/2011-trends-get-better-roi-with-facebook-twitter-and-youtube/ Urs E. Gattiker

Dear Paula

This is an interesting post. I watched the video twice and then I did a test with our crew here (PS: not scientific, of course):

- showed the video/presentation see link here: http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/08/video-infographic/#comment-299071548 to 3 people

Thereafter I asked them (independently of each other) to list what they could remember or what the main message was….. in this video.

The findings showed that people where so distracted from the movements on these slides that the ghist of the message (I think you have some great info in there) got lost.

Did you guys test this with some clients/users and what were the response, did they do better than my small sample?

Mind you I like your presentation but I wonder, how much can we give the audience and when does it get too much and they tune out?

I have tried to address this on one of my blog posts including videos to illustrate why doing an infographic presentation using a video is a real challenge:

==> http://commetrics.com/articles/show-me-the-numbers-but/

What you think, maybe you could leave a comment on the above blog post and let me know your thoughts please..

Paula, thanks again for sharing this important information.

http://twitter.com/pcrerar Paula Crerar

Good point. In our case, we used the infographic to generate excitement to read more and directed viewers to download a free whitepaper which included all the data shown, plus trends and implications. If the purpose of your infographic is to teach, then the pace would be slower and perhaps include narration.

http://commetrics.com/articles/2011-trends-get-better-roi-with-facebook-twitter-and-youtube/ Urs E. Gattiker

Thanks for the reply Paula

I agree, for educational purposes it is probably not the right approach and as you suggest the pace has to be lower.
Nevertheless, if people do not get the message you want to share, will they not tune out as shown here:
ACM research: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1835449.1835513

Merci bien.

Stephen

From Stephen Gamble at http://www.frameconcepts.com
Agree with the sentiment on the power of infographics and video for engagement purposes. I have created an offering specifically for B2B offerings to provide custom animated infographics to explain the point of a company’s complex offering to the business user. You can see samples at my website – http://www.frameconcepts.com. Feel free to inquire at support@frameconcepts.com