Doing the dishes the other day, my daughter Scout and I were singing a John Denver song and she tried some fancy vocal stunt and I told her to knock it off.
"You don't have that in your bag," I told her.
"What a mean thing to say," she told me.
I shrugged.
Similarly, when I saw this funny and communicative and even poignant video created by communicators at the Dutch paints and chemicals company AkzoNobel to mark the departure of their longtime chief executive, I thought to myself, "Most corporate communication departments don't have that in their bag."
It's sophisticated, it's brilliantly produced, it's well acted (by employees, who were thus well directed) and it's actually full of ideas and contradictory truth. Oh, just watch the damn thing:
Well of course I don't have that in my bag, you say: That's a professionally made film and you're a communication generalist. But would you know who to hire to do such a film—and could you have guided the filmmakers through it?
If not, I think you must ask yourself, in this age of growing sophistication in corporate storytelling, why not?
Brilliant.
Posted by: Ron Shewchuk | December 13, 2012 at 10:16 AM
Yeah, not your father's corporate video, is it? Thing is, I'm in search of great videos for a Video of the Week feature at the Strategic Video Awards website (http://strategicvideoawards.com) and I'm having an easier and easier time finding videos like this one, that blow my doors off.
Posted by: David Murray | December 13, 2012 at 10:19 AM
And just like that I'm thinking I might like to work at AzkoNobel. Although, maybe not so much under the new guy...
Posted by: Rueben | December 13, 2012 at 12:24 PM
Love it. Never underestimate how much the right musical choices can add an emotional punch.
In my experience, you not only have to have this tool in your bag, but you also have to have executives that are willing to go out on a limb and try something new.
Might have shown you this before, but we did a video to kick off our strategic plan launch a couple years back with a spy theme: http://vimeo.com/15252806. One video guy in our department, two volunteer stunt men, and a little cash to buy a thrift store tux.
Posted by: Vincent Rhodes | December 14, 2012 at 06:51 AM
Yep, that was a good piece, Vincent. But as I motorcyclist, I must tell you. "Volunteer stunt men" is just another word for "motorcyclist."
Posted by: David Murray | December 14, 2012 at 07:34 AM
True, but they needed another line on their resumes!
Posted by: Vincent Rhodes | December 14, 2012 at 08:30 AM