Eight tips to making your company Christmas video stand out

by Martin Nurser, Vice President of Qumu EMEA

December 2 2014 - As the Christmas season draws closer, company Christmas videos start to circulate to employees, customers, partners and associates. Christmas ads are making the headlines with John Lewis, Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer and other major retailers all vying for the top spot for the most talked about Christmas message and the competition is tough! When it comes to corporate videos, the quality of these videos can vary wildly - as I'm sure you've all experienced!

With so much hype around the creativity of corporate Christmas content, ensure that your contacts are impressed with your Christmas message and don't cringe when they see a sub-standard Christmas video with your team prancing around as elves. Below are eight simple tips to help develop your corporate Christmas video:

1 - Choose your style

The style of the video should run as a theme throughout. Clean cut or cheesy, make sure it fits the ethos and culture of your business. An incongruous style can turn the video into a very uncomfortable experience for your viewers! Pick a style that your workforce is comfortable with or it will show in the finished product.

2 - Get your team involved

If your staff are going to feature heavily in your Christmas message, it helps to make sure they are excited about the project! Get them involved in the early brainstorming stage to ensure they are enthused when it's time to start filming. Run a brainstorm to garner potential ideas and get your employees talking about the project.

3 - Allow plenty of time for filming and editing

It is easy to spot when a company video has been rushed through production. Animations can look slap dash, cuts can look jumpy and performances can seem impromptu and half hearted. Without enough effort your video will end up reflecting badly on your company.

4 - Preparation and props

As well as coordinating your staff and the filming of the video, it is important to ensure that you have all the necessary tinsel, santa hats, fake snow and baubles to give your message a proper Christmas feel about it.

5 - Pick a suitable space

Make sure that wherever you're shooting your Christmas message has enough space for your performers to move around and is private enough to shoot the video without having to worry about bystanders wandering into your shot. A quiet place is also essential or your audio will be spoilt by background noise, ruining the overall effect.

6 - Use a good quality camera

Poor quality images or a video beset with motion blur will substantially detract from your final video and no amount of editing can correct these errors. Make sure your video is as crisp and professional as possible when you shoot it. Will you be shooting the video yourself or will you be bringing in a video company? It's important to recognise the scope of the project and whether or not you have the capabilities in-house to deliver the final product to your standards.

7 - Pick your music carefully

A well chosen soundtrack really adds polish to your company's Christmas video. Choose a song that is too tacky or cliché and viewers will be rolling their eyes. Try to pick a subtle background track that won't detract from the video, unless you're planning a musical message in which case we recommend choosing a song that will be very familiar to your viewers!

8 - Share it

After all your hard work is finished make sure you share your Christmas video effectively. A simple and convenient solution is posting it on a video hosting website such as YouTube or Vimeo. This has the benefit of being easily shareable by email and through social media and can be used privately if you choose. Alternatively, if budget allows, you can physically send your contacts a DVD or USB stick with your video on it. However you choose to distribute your message, make sure to utilise your social networks, sharing your work with a wider audience if appropriate.

Follow these simple tips when planning and creating your company Christmas video and send your contacts a Christmas message you can be proud of.

• More Communication articles