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Why you need a video for your business

2nd August 202028th October 2024By beast No Comments

A video is a great tool for your business’s marketing strategy. A corporate video for your business is an affordable way to add some character to your company. Talk to any corporate video production company and they would tell you it’s full of benefits. But some people still struggle to see this. In fact, quite a few business owners feel that video is quite expensive and complicated to get right, but that isn’t the case at all. So in this article we thought we would cover a few points as to why you need a corporate video for your business. So many people admitted to having watched a corporate video. The platform of video allows for a clear and concise message to be sent through engaging images, sounds and words. It’s basically a marketing triple threat. So let’s get into it… Why do you need a corporate video for your business? Improve search engine ranking with a corporate video Having a corporate video, either on youtube or your website can greatly boost your ranking on search engines. In fact having a video on the front page on your website is 80% more likely to turn traffic into clients. Google also loves video so including it in your marketing strategy is great. Another great way to boost search engine rankings for videos is to use transcriptions. Posting your content in video and text formats helps show potential clients you know what you’re doing. In addition to this if your video strategy is thoroughly documented with a good description and relatable tags, as well as providing results for what online surfers are searching for, then it can help boost your SEO substantially. Having your business rank well on search engines is arguably one of the best ways to gain more customers and clients. Gets you social media traction Having a corporate video is a great way to get some extra traffic and engagement through social media. Sharing it on social media platforms like Linkedin, Instagram and Facebook is a perfect way to start a conversation with potential clients. You also benefit from the fact that people may share your video giving you essentially free publicity. Perhaps consider resizing your video for different platforms, as the better the video looks the more likely the video will perform well. One thing to watch out for, especially on instagram is time limits, so if you are going to put out your video on instagram perhaps consider using igtv. One thing to consider however is that the number of videos being watched on mobile devices continues to rise each year. So you need a professional corporate video production company if you want to get it done right. A few years ago, it had an increase of 400% to be exact. As more and more people carry a smartphone in their pocket, this means more videos regularly being watched. So make sure your video is refined to fit mobile devices Chance for a call to action This is less of a benefit, but more of a necessity of a corporate video. To really make the most out of a corporate videoyou need to include a call to action, perhaps get people back to your website to look at your products, or send them to a signup screen for a course. You’ll find you benefit greatly from having a CTA as it gives viewers a reminder to spring into action while your video is still in their head. Tell your story with a creative corporate video When making a corporate video, you have complete creative control in what you do, there are no time restraints like if you were producing an ad. So you really have a chance to show what your company is about and the people that work there, people love to work with companies they feel they have a connection with so using your corporate video to show customers what it’s like, can lead to more people coming towards your company. Having a corporate video production is also a great way to explain your company’s objective to your clients as well. Create brand awareness Ask any corporate video production company and they would say it’s a great way to create brand awareness. A good corporate video can help make your viewers feel they have experienced a product even if they’ve never bought it. Out of all the different ways to build a brand, a good corporate video is the most powerful because of its production techniques. Perhaps include some customer testimonials as well to show your viewers the positives of your product. A corporate video gets you new clients When it comes to marketing the objective is to convert clients. Video does this very well. In fact, according to a case study, if you have a video on your landing page you’re 80% more likely to convert traffic to clients. The simple strategy of having a corporate video produced for your company and putting it on your site’s landing page can help increase your sales. Videos also accounts for two-thirds of all internet traffic. So what does that mean for your business? It means if you aren’t using corporate video production, you are losing out on loads of potential client traffic. If you have a video on your website, it means you are 75% more likely to get traffic. More traffic equals more clients! Great return on investment Ask any content agency and they’ll tell you, a corporate video is one of the best ways to get clients, like our previous points have mentioned, so you’re going to get a return on your investment. Ask any business and they’ll tell you the same. As Long as your video is highly professional. It will increase the credibility of your company. it’s highly shareable to a target audience. Because of these reasons, you will find it will generate more clients for you and therefore you’ll get a very good return on investment. So hopefully after reading

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How to use video to boost your in-store sales

25th July 202010th March 2021By beast No Comments

Here’s a simple idea to help you boost your in-store sales, that can be applied to any luxury department stores selling higher priced products in beautifully thought out and presented retail spaces. Why not make the store much more of a presence and feature of your e-commerce website. Give your customers the experience of your amazing department store within your website with beautifully shot and created videos that are making the most of one of your most valuable assets. At Beast we know a thing or two about video, and we know how to make a good sales video. We also know for sure if used right, video can be a massive asset for your business and is guaranteed to generate more revenue. With the retail industry opening its doors again and wondering, “How can I increase sales in my store?” we thought we would tell you how to use video to boost your in-store sales. These are just some of the topics we’ll cover ● How do you make a product video?● How do you make a good sales video?● How can I increase sales in my store? How to use video to boost your sales So let’s see How to you use video to boost your in-store sales? Product Videos: How to increase sales Creating a product video for your business is a perfect way to show customers who can’t come into your store what you sell and how to purchase it. With many people refusing to go back into shops because of the pandemic, a video would work especially well at the moment. How do you make a good sales video? When making your video make sure to keep it short and sweet, because if it drags on for too long people will get disinterested, We will cover more about how do you make a product video? Later in the article. Provide relevant information about the products, and make sure that you focus on the benefits of the product. You also need to make sure that the video is correctly formatted for different platforms, if you’re posting on IGTV make sure that the video is sized correctly as if it is not, it may come off as unprofessional and people might not watch it. How do you make a product video? Well to make a product video, firstly you need the product itself of course. You also want to write a short script with a list of benefits of the product. If possible include some testimonials from customers if there are some, as hearing what other people have to say can often positively sway their decision. You’d also need the pricing of the product. We’d recommend keeping the video relatively short, keep it about two to three minutes long as this gives you enough time to go into detail on the product but not bore the people watching the video. Following these tips should hopefully inform you of how you make a product video? How do you make a good sales video? You can create informative sales videos about your retail store and the products you sell. Let’s use a current example, you could create a video going through your store opening guidelines and what customers should do in store. But the most common thing and the best thing you can use video for are to provide insight into the products you sell. Your staff or even yourself are going to know a lot about the products you sell so creating a video not only gets that knowledge out there and shows customers you know what you’re talking about while also showing customers the features of the product that they may want to buy. How can I make my video interesting? You can do a video for each department of your store, with a specific employee doing each video, this goes back to one of our previous points, make sure you find the staff that know the most about each specific department. It’s even better if you can find staff that are experts in one specific brand as you could then create brand-specific videos. Overall creating informative content is a great way to provide value to potential customers at a cost-effective rate. How can I increase sales in my store? Another thing you can do to boost your businesses sales is to post live content about your retail store, perhaps doing a weekly spot where you introduce some of the new products you get into a live audience via social media. You can also take general questions about anything. But there is no limit to what you can do. How can I make my video interesting? You could help promote a local event or charity perhaps. Going live provides a great platform to show your customers what they can get in your story. Using social media to go live is quite easy, as you can go live on Instagram and Facebook. To determine where to go live take a look at what social media platforms perform well for you, Instagram and Facebook will work great for small stores as they are very photo/video focused How can I make my videos interesting? Well by using a variety of live video and pre-recorded video. Only using live video wouldn’t be recommended, including a mixture of both live and pre-recorded videos in your strategy gives a bit of variety to your content. How can I make my video interesting? Well, a great example of an interesting live video is Starbucks live video back from September 2016 when they broadcasted national voter registration day in Rufus king park in New York. They firstly went on a tour of the park and then went to a stage where it captured Starbucks chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz and rapper, Common talking about the importance of voting. The video showed the brand’s community values. They also had a Q and A session after the talk on stage to encourage engagement from viewers. It

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Tom Hanks has no respect for people that don’t want to wear face masks to stop the spread of Covid 19

18th July 202010th March 2021By beast No Comments

Tom Hanks has no respect for people that dont want to wear face masks to stop the spread of Covid 19…and nether do we. In the film production business, all work stopped over night when lock down started and the nature of film business production which is built primarily with freelancers and sole traders who were not helped out by the UK government furlough scheme. Regardless of this, the fact is that face masks can help to top the spread of Covid-19, so whilst it may not prevent you from catching Covid-19, we now are finally talking about the fact that stopping the spread is just as important as not getting it. We feel we should start this article off with a little PSA, as you may or may not know the uk government recently announced the new uk face mask rules. A law has been passed stating that people should wear face coverings inside shops and small areas as of the 24th of July. Now you may have seen some people on social media claiming that they won’t wear one as it’s uncomfortable or because they don’t want to be “ruled” over by the government. Don’t be like them. Ask yourself, should I wear a face mask? Absolutely. Like Tom Hanks has said he has no respect for people who don’t wear a face mask. Obviously we understand that due to medical conditions, wearing a mask might not be viable for some, and that’s understandable. The whole point of wearing a mask is to save lives so if it puts someone in danger then obviously that’s not an option. Perhaps talk to your local council or a charity near you that may be able to help you or provide you with an alternative. But if you can, wear a mask not only for your safety but for others around you. While yes a mask does not fully stop you getting the virus, it will keep your particles in, preventing spread to other people, now you may think “im young, i don’t need one, i’ll be fine.” Chances are you will be fine, if you’re young and healthy, but if you have the virus and are symptomless then the little old lady you walked past in the shop might not be fine. Wearing a mask for an hour while shopping is a minor inconvenience that will help slow the spread of coronavirus and hopefully save lives. So don’t be stupid, take a look at the new uk face mask rules then just wear a mask, you could just help save a life. So now let’s get into the article, like we previously mentioned, the UK government have announced the new uk face mask rules by passing a law that means as of the 24th July 2020 all people who want to enter shops must wear a mask. But should I wear a face mask? Yes of course! This law being passed means there will be numerous videos coming up about wearing a mask, you’ll also find there will be a lot of statements from celebrities about wearing a mask, Like when Tom Hanks said he has no respect for people who don’t wear masks. So we thought we would put together an article going through the numerous video campaigns about wearing a mask, so let’s get into it #WearAMask #StopTheSpread By Beast Video Production To start off with we thought we would talk about our social message video, we produced this to go onto our websites home page, just so people clicking our website will see that we fully support the campaign to wear masks and that we value the safety of all our clients and staff. To create the video for our #wearamask #stopthespread campaign we used a combination of stock footage, footage shot by us and our DP Mike Goldwater and pictures and videos of people taken off of social media, more specifically pictures showing how some people have been affected because of the virus and some pictures or brave health staff helping fight the virus head on. We used the backing track of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” because, well everything will be alright if more people wear a mask, we also shared the campaign on social media, this was again to spread the message that we feel wearing masks will save lives. We hope that it may start a movement or atleast get even one person to change their mind about wearing a mask. If you do see the campaign on social media, please share it and use the #wearamask #stopthespread Face Masks Exemption By Disability Equality Scotland The next campaign is the face mask exemption campaign by Disability Equality Scotland, highlighting in fact that some people can’t wear face masks due to various medical conditions. Examples of that would be that people who have lung conditions and breathing difficulties will be exempt from wearing a mask as it may cause their symptoms to play up, also people who have severe anxiety from wearing masks will be exempt as well, as well as people who need to communicate with someone who relies on lip reading or if someone has a reasonable need to eat, drink or take medicine. Now of course this is understandable and the campaign does a great job of getting the word out there that some people genuinely can’t use face masks, it provides a poster as well as a card to show people who may ask you to wear a mask. The whole idea behind the campaign is that the charity were being told stories that some disabled people were being abused or called out in public for not wearing a mask, and they rightly were disgusted with this so they started the campaign. It has been shared over social media numerous times, hopefully meaning people will realise that some people really can’t wear a mask. But we would say perhaps the best thing to do would be to ask your

From The Blog

How to create a video on a budget

1st July 202028th October 2024By beast No Comments

How to create a video on a budget? At this moment in time most business are struggling to stay afloat. What this means is that it is essential to find the right balance between cost cutting and digital marketing. Having a promotional video is a great asset for your business’s marketing strategy, it’s a timeless way of marketing as you can reuse it over and over again. You can even re-shape it by way of cut-downs or even pull out behind the scenes footage to use as a way of topping up your video content. Ask any promotional video production company and they’ll tell you how good it is to create awareness and also tell people what you do or what you are selling. So if you don’t have one yet it’s time to get one. But how do you create one? In an ideal world you’d want to hire a promotional video production company like us at Beast, but not everyone has the money for this and we understand that. So in this article we’ll go through how you can create your own promotional video on a budget. Here’s what we’ll cover: Pre production process Production Post-Production How to create a video on a budget Promo Video Pre-Production To start off a promo video, you need to take a look at the budget you are working with. If you know what you are working with, then you can plan out your costs and make sure you get the most out of your money before you even start the production. Then you need to actually decide what you want to do. Our top tip here is dont be tempted top say to much. Decide what the main message of your promotional video is and build in all of your other messaging around that central theme. So you’ll need to plan what you want to promote, although that should be easy to figure out, to figure out what you want to do its best to take a look at what some of your competitors do. Obviously don’t copy them but taking a look at what they’ve done allows you to gauge what may or may not work in your industry. Once you’ve seen what works and what doesn’t start to think of what will fit your brand, while something may have worked for one brand it might not work for you at the end of the day, so while taking a look at what your competitors do provides good insight, to make a really successful promotional video you need to tailor it to your brand. Another thing we’d recommend you do is storyboard your promo video. Storyboarding the video allows you to plan your shots so you get an idea of what the final product would look like. Storyboarding also allows you to see if you need any additional things for your video. The storyboard is like the blueprint for building a home. Check you have the right number of bedrooms and toilets before you start! Once you’ve figured out what you’re going to produce, you need to actually plan how to produce your promo video, so what do you need? Well firstly you’ll need a camera, if you already have one, great you’ve saved money already, but if you don’t have one, it can be a bit tricky to get one on a budget. So a great alternative would be your phone, if you have a newer phone then you have a high quality camera in your pocket. Using an iPhone for your promo video would be fine as it has essentially a lower range dslr quality. The next thing you would need to work out is your location, this is the easiest thing to figure out, if you’re on a budget then filming on site at your premises would be the most affordable option, but otherwise perhaps try and find a public place that suits what you’re promoting. Promotional Video Production Once you’ve planned everything it’s time to produce, this is probably the hardest part of the whole process, so that’s why we’d recommend hiring a videographer, which can be tough if you are on a budget. Perhaps hire someone starting up as a videographer, it’s a risk to take as you wouldn’t know how the work is going to turn out, but it’s worth taking the risk as you not only help someone who wants to get into the industry but you save yourself some money. Although we would say that you make sure that if you do hire a videographer they are compensated for their time. If you are filming during the coronavirus pandemic make sure you follow government guidelines and take adequate health and safety measures, we covered how to film a production during the covid-19 pandemic so give that a read if you want to learn more but, make sure all cast and crew follow social distancing laws and where face coverings. Also make sure that all equipment is disinfected as much as possible with antibacterial wipes. As an experienced film production company, our top tip is to use a clapper board to properly log all your rushes. This is an essential practise if you want to save time in post-production and ultimately through good organisation you will create better work. Most London film production companies would probably give you the same tip since its so easily overlooked when starting out in film production service. Post-production Once you’ve filmed all your footage, it’s time for post-production, you need to edit your footage. You can do this yourself, there’s loads of free software you can use however we wouldn’t recommend them, the best software to use would either be final cut pro or adobe premiere pro. These can be quite expensive so if you are on a budget they may not be the best option. If you do want to spend some money during the post-production process, hire an editor. A good editor will make

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What types of cost-effective content can you create right now?

23rd June 202028th October 2024By beast No Comments

In the middle of a pandemic it is perhaps the right time to ask your nearest creative content agency this question: What types of cost-effective content can you create right now? QUESTION: If you start building bridge and one day you run out of money, and you need to get across the bridge to survive…what do you do? The coronavirus pandemic has hit most business very hard, there are a few types of business thriving but most are struggling. This means that many businesses have to cancel planned events and content campaigns. So what can you do to change your creative strategy to fit with the current climate? Some businesses, especially charities are having to solely focus on coronavirus specific content. But what type of content can you produce at a cut price and still stay remain creative? Well firstly we’d suggest talking to a creative content agency, like us at Beast. As an award-winning London creative content agency would take a look at your business and be able to let you know what content to produce and even make it so you can focus all your time into your business. You will always be able to have free consultation and possibly even receive some free creative in order to be competitive and win your business. But if you want to keep your video content production in house, what can you do? Here are our suggestions for your creative content strategy: Use user generated content Valuable written content Illustrate stories for a personal touch Use graphics to further your points Diamonds in the rough with stock and archive footage cost-effective content Use user generated content Firstly we would recommend using user generated content, the content is pretty much already made for you, so you save yourself a lot of time. Using content created by your users or fans is a great way to boost engagement and rapport with your users, especially on social media, people love it when their post is shared by their favourite brand so there’s really no negatives to it. But what could you post, well most content production agencies would tell you that reposting fan pictures with your products is a great start. You also reduce the risk of content fatigue because once you start you start reposting users content you’ll find fans becoming more active in your community to try and get featured which is a win win for your brand. Valuable written content Every business needs a blog, it’s a great way to provide value to potential clients and also show that you’re experts in your respective field, it’s also incredibly cost effective. You can hire a creative content agency to write it for you. Or you can write it yourself if you know what to do. But figuring out what to write about can be a challenge. If you were to ask a content agency they would most likely tell you to write about the benefits of your services or products or provide an insight into your business and what can work for other businesses. A few great examples of blogs that you can take a look at for inspiration are, the Beast Blog (of course) or Hubspot’s blog, as they both provide valuable insight into the life of a London Production Company and also provide tips to help with your businesses marketing. Illustrate stories for a personal touch We covered this slightly before in a previous article but including some form of illustration in your marketing strategy is a great way to present things with a personal touch, one thing it looks great with is when presenting a story, it allows you to illustrate your story in your own way, allowing you to add a personal touch. This is probably one of the most costly ways to add to your marketing as hiring an illustrator to create a video for you will be pricey, also once you take into account adding a voiceover to the video the cost can add up. You can negate some of the costs by doing the voiceover yourself, however its best to leave it the professionals. If you talk to a content agency they should be able to provide the whole video in a package deal which should reduce your costs. Use motion graphics to further prove your points Graphics are an incredibly underrated part of business, ask anyone at a creative agency and they will say having high quality graphics is a great way to make a positive first impression with a potential client. Adding them into a video can make a video look ten times better. Graphics in video are a great way to put your point across is a simple and visually pleasing way, a video that does well on this is a video from Slidebean: Startups 101 who go through the story of Zoom and how it overcame skype during the coronavirus pandemic. They use graphic overlays to show some numbers which relate to their various points, it’s a simple choice that works well to really get their point across. Again this is a really cheap way to improve your content as you can use Canva if you would like to make them yourself, however we would recommend either talking to a creative content agency and getting them to design it or get a solo freelancer to do it, as in most cases they would have more knowledge of what looks good etc. Find diamonds in the rough with stock footage If you don’t have the money or time to go and film your own creative content, why not consider using stock footage to create a video. It can be very cost effective as you can find plenty of free footage on the internet for you to use, or even if you do pay, it’s very affordable. Sites like Shutterstock have a massive library of videos that you can use in your videos. But how would you use them. Well it’s quite simple,

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Animation Video in digital marketing: Does it work?

20th June 202021st April 2021By beast No Comments

Does Animation video in digital marketing really work? Did you know that 76% of marketers say that animated marketing videos increase profitability? No, well the stats don’t lie, using animated videos in your digital marketing is great way to not only cut costs but give a refresh to your marketing strategy. So does it work? That’s what we will cover in this article. We’ll go through a few points What is the right style of animation to use? What are the benefits of animation for digital marketing? Animation Video in digital marketing So, let’s get into it. Firstly you need to take a look at a few things, like what style of animation video to use, ultimately this decision should be made by yourself, but take a look at what some other businesses in your industry are doing to see what may work for yourself. The main options will be 2D, 3D, stop motion or motion graphics. Let’s take a look at the differences between the different styles. 2D animation is simple, and the most cost effective type of animation, it has its faults though, it can be a lot less dynamic than a 3d animation style. But a benefit of that is that you can create more complex shapes as it’s easier to make than 3d animation. 3D animation allows for a more realistic style of animation, which is why its common place in marketing of real estate companies and pharmaceutical, it allows a more in depth view of products, so perhaps if you have a new product and want to provide an insight then 3d animation is the way to go for you. The next type is stop motion animation. This is commonly used in animated explainer videos, this is good if you’re promoting a service, as it allows you to easily show what you’re capable of. Finally you have motion graphics, these are a great way to keep your animated videos within your brand guidelines, and this style is definitely more corporate than the other styles so perhaps this would be better if your business is aiming for more corporate clients. All of these styles have their pro and cons and it’s really down to you to take a look at what message you want to put across in your marketing. Let’s do an example, if you want to make a video showing how your company was founded, why not use a hand drawn 2d animation, in this example that would be a great way to show the passion behind the company, while also having a personal touch on it, obviously if you’re targeting corporate clients then this style wouldn’t work and we would suggest a clean 3d animation. What else do you have to think about? Pacing is a crucial part of animation, you need to take a look at the video you’re doing and see how you want to pace it, people have short attention spans, so make it too slow and people will get bored, make it too quick and people will lose interest as they’ll be confused, so getting the pacing right is paramount. Make sure you put your key points first, that way if people do lose interest, they will at least hear your key points which could keep them watching. You also have to consider what music to use, firstly don’t use copyrighted music, unless you have a license for it, we’d suggest use royalty free music, which you can find pretty much anywhere. But then you have to match it to the video, so look at the style of video and match the music to it, if we go back to our example of the 2d hand drawn video of your company’s history, perhaps have some happy music over it. Matching the music can really help create the effect you want your video to make so that’s something to think about. What are the benefits of animation for digital marketing? Animation can be a really cost effective way of getting your message out there. The difference in costs between animation and live action can be huge. The cost of a small crew for 1 day of filming plus locations and talent is usually going to start at around £10,000. Where as a simple 2D animation might start at around £3000. Ask your London production company for entry level costs for animation and live action and by and large you will get the same answer. So then it comes down to the tone of the animation – can you find the right tone and approach to sell your product, brand and message? Thats where engaging with a creative video agency will help as they will be able to asses what is the right creative approach within your budget constraints. Animation is a great way to add a personal touch to your videos, this is because you can have your own unique style of animation on your video that sets you apart from everyone, making you videos look… well personal. Another benefit would be that they hold attention better. Around 65% of people are visual learners so creating visual engaging content like animations you hold peoples attentions for longer. Animation is one of the most cost effective methods of marketing. When using animation you don’t have to pay for a location to film in, cast and crew, the only real cost would be paying an animator to create your video, and perhaps voice over artists, but even then you can do it yourself if you wanted to, obviously we would recommend an animator over doing it yourself as their quality of animation would in most cases be a lot better. Google loves video Did you know that that one third of all online activity time is spent watching videos? Making high quality Animated videos are the perfect way to engage potential customers since they provide a way to present essential information in an attention-grabbing and interesting manner. Also using animation allows

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How to start a successful Kickstarter campaign

18th June 202021st April 2021By beast No Comments

How to start a successful Kickstarter campaign If you have an exciting low budget movie proposal then one way to get your movie production off the ground is with a Kickstarter campaign. If you cant find the right production company to make your movie…then make your own production company! Films like Anomalisa, Boy Howdy: The Story of CREEM Magazine and The Babadook are films that came to be because of successful crowdfunding with Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website provides a platform for filmmakers to source money so they can start a film project, but how do you get funding for your film. Well in today’s article we’ll go through how you can start up your own Kickstarter project and succeed at that. So what we will actually cover? · What funding goal should I set? · How long should my Kickstarter campaign last? · How can you reward your project backers? · How should I promote my Kickstarter campaign? · Is there anything I can do out of Kickstarter to boost my campaign? How do I figure out my Kickstarter funding goal? So firstly you have to set yourself a goal for funding, the average film on Kickstarter raises around the twelve thousand dollars mark, with short films raising slightly less at just under six thousand dollars. So perhaps aim for something around that mark, but you would also need to take a look at how much you would have to spend yourself, so look for the price (if any) of the locations you want to film in, and how much you have to pay your actors as you may find that this twelve thousand dollars might not be enough, always try to raise a bit more than you actually need as it will give you a short of backup of funds that you can use should your situation change, but make sure you let your campaign backers know that any money over a certain amount will be ‘extra’ and tell them what it will be used on, such as more music licensing rights or more actors. How long should my Kickstarter campaign last? When starting your campaign you have to take a look at the money you need and think about how long it will take to raise, in an ideal world you would reach your funding goal straight away, which some campaigns do, but it’s very rare. The average length of a project seems to be around 14 to 35 days so a number within that range should work perfectly. A rule of thumb would be the more money you need to raise the longer your campaign should be, so let’s say you want to raise twelve thousand dollars, it would be best to make it around the 30 days mark. Another thing to consider would be that not all campaigns do well straight away, so if you set you campaign to last two weeks it might not get traction until it’s too late, so we would recommend to add a little more time than you think you’ll need to accommodate any late boost of sorts. How can I reward my Kickstarter campaign backers? People will not back your Kickstarter campaign unless they get something back for themselves, well that’s a lie, diehard fans will back your film just to see the film but some other people will want something back for their hard earned money, and that’s fair enough, people want to see some return on their investment. So what can you do to make people want to back your project? Well offer something back, perhaps offer backers some sort of behind the scenes content to show how you make the film, this also gives you a bit of creditability as it shows backers where their money has gone to. You can also give some big backers a chance to come on set and see the production in the flesh, or even give them a part in the film, not the lead of course but let them play an extra, this is a great way to get fans involved and improve your rapport with fans, which in turn may lead to more backers. A good example of a reward would be one from Ricky D’Ambrose who offered backers’ pages of the original script of his film Notes on an Appearance. This is another great way to reward your fans as it gives them a collectable from the film for them to keep. How should I promote my Kickstarter campaign? There are plenty of ways to promote your Kickstarter campaign, one way would to be for you campaign to become a ‘project we love’ which is a campaign that Kickstarter themselves like and feature on the home page, which leads to massive growth quickly, the Kickstarter website states that to become a project that they feature you have to have an engaging project. It doesn’t have to be the best but they say you should show that you’re confident in your project. Basically to sum to up, you need to show that you are passionate about your project. But what else can you do? Well, social media can play a massive part in promoting your campaign, perhaps show a short part of your films trailer on Instagram to provide an insight into the film to get more traction. If you have the money even some paid traffic onto the campaign can help, perhaps use Facebook ads to get some more likes on the films Facebook page to show it to more people, or use google ads to get more clicks on your films website, that leads us on to another you can do, try and set up your own website for the film, with this you can provide much more detail on your film within the limitations of Kickstarter, make sure you provide a call to action on your website to get people onto the Kickstarter campaign. Is there anything I can do out of Kickstarter to boost

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Digital Marketing During A Recession: Should You Do It?

17th June 202021st April 2021By beast No Comments

Digital Marketing During A Recession: Should You Do It? With most of the world in lockdown, the economy has taken a massive downturn, with predictions in the news that the UK will go into the worst recession in 300 years it can be quite scary to think about spending more money on your business. But the show must go on, so how do you adapt your digital marketing to work during a time where let’s face it, people won’t have much money to spend. In this article we’ll cover exactly what to do to make sure your business stays relevant during these challenging times. We’ve broken down our tips for digital marketing during a recession into the following chapters: Prioritise your profit Adapt to succeed Change your creative Check your competitors In the long run Digital Marketing During A Recession How can you prioritise your profit? Every business has products or services that perform well, while also having products that don’t perform well, that’s normal, at the end of the day you still market both to maximise your potential to get profits, but in a recession that most likely will have to change, with money being tighter it’s worthwhile to look at what you offer and see what performs well and what doesn’t, then from there market the more popular service or product to make sure it stays popular, however if you notice that your less popular product is actually more relevant to the current times then it’s probably best to market that instead, now that may seem like conflicting information but it just depends on your situation what you do. How can you adapt your digital marketing to succeed during a recession? In a way this point is similar to our previous point, in fact very similar, but during a recession you need to take a look at how you’re getting paid traffic to your website and social media pages. Do you have an ad set that doesn’t perform well? Scrap it! Put the money you typically spend on that ad set into the better performing ads or just save it for the hard times, whatever you do just make sure you don’t keep put money into something that doesn’t perform, that isn’t typically an issue but when money is tight within business you need to cut costs where you can. Also take a look at your social media accounts and perhaps allocate some more time to the pages that are the most successful in terms of reach and engagement. We’re not recommending you to stop running all pages but just think about what performs well and what doesn’t. Change your creative strategy The landscape has changed massively in the past 3 months and so the tone of a current and relevant advertising campaign in todays world will be completely different to 3 months ago. There are also many market trends to be aware of. Social media usage is up 87% because of the lockdown measures, so people are consuming a lot more content, have you thought about the current creative campaign you are using? Have you asked yourself if it is suitable for the world that we ar currently living in? Stats have shown that posts with photos or graphics on twitter and Facebook perform a lot better than posts with just text, get around 200% more engagement in fact, so why not start putting together some photos and infographics to share on your pages, perhaps make an infographic that goes through some of the changes you’ve had to make because of coronavirus and the restrictions and how that will benefit your customers/clients, but make sure the content you do post provides some form of value to prospective consumers as that is the best way to turn organic traffic into paying customers. Competitors Pretty much all businesses look at what their competitors do, in most cases it’s to take a peek at their marketing strategies and what they promote. But in a recession you need to watch what your competitors so closely as one right move from them and one wrong move from you can lead to an increase in business for them and a decrease for you. Make sure you don’t copy what your competitors do, but if you notice they make a move that works for them, why not do something similar and see if it has the same effect on you. An example of this would be how some business began offering discounts to health service workers as a thank you for their work during the coronavirus crisis, this lead to great publicity for those companies, so their competitors began to offer a similar discount to get there selves some publicity. Which you guessed it, lead to them getting some good publicity as well. In the long run You should always be in it for the long run with marketing, as you want to find the right, most profitable client or customers that comes back for more time and time again. Coming into a recession these clients will be key to keeping you afloat as they’re loyal to your brand, so don’t alienate them while changing your marketing, make sure you keep these customers in mind while also finding ways to find your next profitable client. Using our tips will definitely set you on a good start, but really depending on your business you may need to tweak a little bit. One short final tip would be to just hold out, in a recession most businesses will struggle but times will always get better, it’s about holding out and not shutting down, this will help you prepare for when things go back to normal. So let’s answer the question. Should you be increasing your marketing during a recession? Absolutely, as this article mentions you’ll need to make some changes to your strategy, but if you were to stop marketing then your business would struggle and be left behind when the economy goes back to

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Top Five Team Building Exercises for your Company

13th June 202028th January 2022By beast No Comments

When running a small business you have to make sure that your staff are happy. Here are our top five team building exercises. Running a company involves a lot of problem solving and often some high pressure situations on set and even in pre-production. What this means is you have to know when and how to let of some steam. It’s really important to down tools every so often, cut loose and have some good old fashion fun. It is your staff that really keep the gears turning so making sure they not only work well as a team but enjoy working together is crucial to the success of your business and certainly to our creative content agency. So now and then it’s great for your staff to do some team-building exercises or go on an ‘away day.’ So we have searched the internet for the best team building exercises for your staff to do while also throwing in a few paid experiences for your business. Our list features the five favourites we have found, which fit a few different price points and would suit a team from a creative video agency or production company. However not all of our suggestions may fit your business, if not we recommend you ask your staff what sort of thing they would like to do and go from there. Number One: Paintball We start off our list with paintball, the famous shooting sport, it may seem a bit counter intuitive, but it appears getting your staff to shoot at each other works wonders for morale within your squad, but why is that? Perhaps the biggest benefit of it is that your staff has to work together in a team in an environment without much pressure. Many of these skills can be used in the workplace, and certainly one of which is the need for communication to bring greater cohesive understanding and humility. In paintball, it’s so important to plan your next move and work together to achieve a united goal. Communicating well during shared projects and especially in pressure situations will help you to achieve infinitely better results. Another benefit of paintball for your staff is that it is a great healthy alternative to having a party or food-based team-building exercise. When you play paintball you experience a full-body cardio workout that boosts your endurance levels because of the extended amount of time spent playing. Paintball also aids in weight loss. The intense exercise gained from a session of paintball can improve sleep cycles and boost metabolism. Apart from burning more calories, exercise through paintball also reduces the risk of heart diseases, blood pressure and depression. A good place in LA that is good for paintball are Critical Paintball, based in Northridge in south California. Number Two: Football The second sport, that turns out to be quite good as a team-building exercise, on our list is the most popular sport in England, and most likely the world…football. The sport that has been played for hundreds of years provides similar benefits to paintball for people but could be a more popular option for people than paintball. It also burns more calories than paintball, with football burning anywhere from 600 to 1200 calories an hour while paintball can burn a max of 680 calories an hour. But it doesn’t have to be just normal football, there are plenty of different types for you to play or even watch. One example would be five-a-side football, which provides a quicker game than traditional football, or zorb football which is a funnier way of playing football, another option for a football-based team building day would be an ‘away day’ to go and watch a game of football, going to watch your local team in a box is a nice way to have a bit of fun, especially around the Christmas period. While football isn’t a traditional sport in America there is still plenty of places for you to either watch or play football in LA, you can watch one of the two LA MLS Teams, LAFC and LA Galaxy Number Three: The Bear Grylls Survival Academy This more unorthodox team building event put together by Right Angle is an experience-based off the TV shows created by bear Grylls. The Right-angle website describes the experience like this The challenges this experience entails are, the Gross Eat Challenge, Stalking, Air Crash, Shipwreck, Land Rover Pull, Stretcher Race, Knot Tying Challenge, Navigation Challenges and Raising the Flag, all these challenges are great for team spirit as they are all competitive events, which excellent for your staff, like the other events we mentioned it’s perfect for teamwork which is always good when doing a team-building exercise. Number Four: Make Your Own Short Movie and post it on social media. This team-building exercise is perhaps a better fit for a more creative office than others, but even for the least creative offices it’s a great bit of fun that brings people together and also allows people to show off some of their skills that people may not know about. You dont have to be a professional London production company to do this. In fact, it’s probably better that you are not! Of course you can search YouTube for tutorials on basic film making and animation to get some ideas about how to create your own feature film movie trailer. And when its a wrap why not post it and see if your movie trailer will go viral? Also, this option is either incredibly cheap or even free if you would like to be. One way to deepen the idea would be to have two teams who compete and both make a short movie, which then a few people in the office vote for what movie they prefer and whoever wins will get a small award. Check out this 2D animation tutorial. Number Five: Cocktail Making Class Our final option for team building is definitely one where you can have a bit of fun

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The Best Courses for anyone wanting to get hired

7th June 202028th October 2024By beast No Comments

The Best Video Production Courses for anyone wanting to get hired. If you’re trying to break into the video production business and want a London production company to hire you then the more you know about all aspects of video production the better. If you can wear many hats that will stand you in good stead and give you an advantage over the next person so why not take the time to learn a few new tricks? The competition for places is always really fierce. But here’s the great news, you can learn about so many different aspects of video production, just by doing some online courses. Doing online courses in video production is a great way to learn in your own time, courses can range from £10 to £200 but if you don’t have much money or just don’t want to spend your money, there are plenty of free options out there. Websites like udemy offer paid courses alongside free ones. So what courses are best for you, we’ll show some free ones that we think are great, along with some affordable paid courses. We also choose the ones with the most positive reviews. Why Are Online Courses Beneficial To You ? Online courses are beneficial to anyone who chooses to do them, you can do them in your own time, on any device. As most courses are cheap and relatively affordable it opens up learning opportunities for anyone, and with courses teaching anything imaginable there’s no shortage of what you could learn. Video Production By Ryan Stone This course is the first course that shows up when you type in free video production course on udemy and you can see why, with over 1,220 ratings with an average of 4.1 stars. The course is only an hour long but in that time it manages to teach you all the basics in video production. One reviewer left the following comment: “Excellent course (free or not)…you will learn some very useful knowledge from an instructor who has clearly worked in the field and knows what he is talking about. Having seen this free course, I would feel very confident about purchasing one of his other courses knowing that I will get great content.” The Complete Video Production Bootcamp By Phil Ebiner This course is the udemy best selling course for video production, taught by an industry leading expert called Phil Ebiner. The course costs £29.99, but for this price you get over 9 hours dividing into 75 lectures. The course has over 4,300 reviews with a 4.4 rating. One reviewer Said: “The course is well designed and itself is a useful demonstration of the concepts and techniques that are taught. It’s good to have several instructors, each with their own style and expertise. I already had several years of experience but I still learnt so much and have definitely improved my video production workflow and creativity.” How To Edit Your Videos: Udemy Official Course The ‘how to edit your videos’ course is a course produced by the udemy team themselves. Over 550 thousand students have enrolled in the quick 36 minute course which claims to take your edits from good to great. As this course is made by the Udemy team you can expect great quality. The course provides a few pieces of downloadable material that you can use to help you with the process. It also mentions that the course is aimed at people who want to start their own udemy course however looking at the description the tips really apply to any form of video editing. One reviewer left this comment: “Lovin’ it. Didn’t know many of things being taught here and by learning am encouraged to start recording videos :) Thanks for the great course.” Premiere Pro CC for Beginners: Video Editing in Premiere “Before taking this course I had no prior knowledge of Premiere Pro CC. As soon as I downloaded Prem Pro I started the course. I have enjoyed the course so much. It is incredibly well put together, Phil has done an amazing job. The pacing is perfect and everything is so easy to follow and understand. Phil is such a great teacher, I really hope he does a second part to this to take us to the next level. I feel so confident now using Premiere Pro. I obviously still have a lot to learn. But the software doesn’t seem so intimidating anymore lols. If you’re reading this because you are considering taking this course… I say go for it you definitely won’t regret it.” Video Storytelling Creative Excellence Class This course created by Andrew St.Pierre White will teach you everything from the different types of camera to how to avoid the ‘amateur traps.’ The course is just over five hours long and is currently discounted (as of october 15th 2019.) The course currently has over one thousand five hundred students enrolled with an average rating of 4.7 over 300 ratings, one reviewer said: “I was doing many of the amateur mistakes mentioned by the tutor here because – I am an amateur starting out with video storytelling! I am glad that I chose this course over many others that focuses on equipment and techniques. I just realized what I always knew – Story and emotions are more important to create a great visual experience just like how they are in creating a great audio, reading or any other experience. Take this course before you obsess about the equipment and techniques required to make good films. You’ll save a lot of $$$.” Well we agree completely with this point of view – story is key, if you have the tools to tell a good emotional story that will set you apart from your peers. In a business where in London alone there are over 16.000 registered london production company, you have to make every effort to stand out from the crowd. At Beast agency we are always on the look out for new

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