I spent years making “hero” videos to launch campaigns.

Here’s why that’s a bad idea and what to do instead.

Why you should stop making one big campaign launch video

❌ Betting on one video is a huge gamble

Our video Five Ways to Disrupt Racism got 35 million views but it was actually our backup idea, after our main video concept flopped. Why put all your eggs in one basket?

❌ You don’t have insights before launch

Posting lower cost social media content lets you understand what language and messages resonate with your audience.

❌ Timing is everything

A video does much better when it connects to public conversations instead of being uploaded on an arbitrary campaign launch date.

❌ Consistency is key

A hero video commissioned externally often doesn’t bear much similarity to other campaign content. Meaning the audience that loves the video may not convert to loyal supporters.

What you should do instead

✅ Explore creative approaches with low-cost formats

Start with text and image posts to quickly see what creative approaches cut through with your audience.

✅ Upcycling assets for social and video content

Successful Twitter threads can be turned into Instagram carousel posts and press releases can be adapted into video scripts

✅ Make more videos

Adopting simpler video styles like smart-phone presenter videos means you can create several videos for the cost of one higher budget video.

✅ Build internal capacity to respond rapidly

Building in-house skills will let you jump on current events and massively improve your performance.

Thanks to everyone who joined our webinar on rapid response videos co-hosted with NEON, and thanks again to our fantastic speakers.

Below you can find all the recordings of the speakers, and here are the Presentation Slides and the Video Worksheet.

If you want more support to create rapid response content then read about VideoRev’s new Campaign Content Accelerator programme.

Three ways rapid response video can help campaigners win

Why rapid response videos are so important?

Richard Roaf, VideoRev

Five steps to create a rapid response video

Richard Roaf, VideoRev

How videos can build your media profile

Kevin Smith, NEON

How Zoe Gardner creates videos

Zoe Gardner

How to create viral news clips

Richard Roaf, VideoRev

How messengers, location and actions can help you go viral

Richard Roaf, VideoRev

Join the Campaign Content Accelerator

If you’re looking to put some of these lessons into practice then we’re launching a new course to help.

In the Campaign Content Accelerator we’ll take you through a step by step process to create a suite of social media content for your campaign including text posts, images, videos and campaign actions. You’ll learn alongside a group of like-minded people working in campaigns, communications and digital roles.

Thanks to everyone who joined our “How to use video to help the climate movement at COP26” webinar, and to our fantastic speakers Wambui, Hugo and Samuel. Below you can find all the recordings and presentations. Here is the original video tutorial that launched the webinar.

There has been such interest we’ve created a Slack channel to continue to share knowledge and find ways to collaborate at COP26, so please Join the COP26 Video Slack.

Richard Roaf, VideoRev

Richard presented on “5 key styles of video to reach people at COP26” and “5 steps to creating viral videos at COP”. Check out his presentation for links to 20 successful social media videos.

Wambui Gichobi, Survival Media Agency

Wambui presented on SMA’s global rapid response work that brings powerful grassroots stories to audiences with policy changing and resource diversion power.

Hugo Duchesne, 350.org

Hugo presented on 350.org’s work to support impacted communities and gave practical advice on how to set up a team to create rapid response videos.

Samuel K, Video Presenter and Filmmaker

Samuel presented on what makes a video successful on social and gave practical advice to create political videos that cut through with wider audiences and where to source footage.

Get in touch

We hope you found the session useful. If you’re looking for further help with videos for COP26 then just drop Richard an email and we’d love to jump on a call: richard@videorev.org

Short – 15 seconds

Making the ad slightly longer gives you time to quickly explain the crisis before delivering the call to action (CTA). Strong ads will powerfully show the need and include a theory of change. Check out these examples, including one of our Christmas ads for Freedom from Torture:

Long – 30-60 seconds

Longer ads allow you to tell more of a story before delivering your CTA. With these ads it’s crucial to hook in the audience, and give them strong reasons to keep watching, otherwise the majority will stop watching before you can deliver your ask. This type can work particularly well for a regular giving ask. Check out these examples:

2. Key creative lessons for successful video ads

Hook people in, and lead them to action

Create a strong hook that grabs your audience’s attention and drives action. You can use our Hookbook for this, and see our video tutorial on How to hook people into your video.

We also use the four-stage Crisitunity structure to make sure we have a clear narrative linking the donation to impact with:

• Crisis: What problem are you trying to solve?
• Opportunity: What could overcome this problem?
• Theory of Change: How could the audience take action to help bring about the opportunity?
• Ask: What action do you need the audience to take?

For Freedom from Torture’s Christmas campaign last year, we applied the Crisitunity structure to create and test lots of different videos – this helped them to raise £300K, 150% more than the previous year.

Cut to the chase

Whilst some will watch a video for longer, average view time for a post on the newsfeed is just 1.7 seconds. So whether it’s a direct fundraising ask or lead generation, present your CTA as quickly as possible in the video and/or surrounding copy. For a 5-second ad your video may only consist of the CTA.

Most people watch videos without sound so always use overlaid text to reinforce your message, as well as for accessibility. Make sure you also take up screen space with a square or Stories portrait format.

3. How you can create impactful video ads quickly

Fancy ads don’t necessarily perform better and there are ways to save time and keep things straightforward:

• Try simple styles such as animated versions of your image ads made in Canva or slideshows made in Facebook

• Create footage yourself by using your contacts to film remotely or filming yourself (check out our blog for Tectonica Organising Network on Three ways you can create authentic campaign videos from home)

• Re-use and re-cut parts of existing video

• Ask contacts if you can use or buy their footage or find stock footage on sites like Videvo.net or Stocksy

• For quickly testing different ideas, replicate content but just change the hook and first couple of seconds as this is the most crucial part

Getting started with video ads

You have all the fundraising know-how already on how to drive responses, and video is just giving you a little more time to grab attention and get your message across.

This isn’t about the next award-winning film, but applying some proven approaches to make sure your next fundraising campaign is driving as many results as possible. Start simple and build up your skills from there.

Let us know how you get on and if you’d like to discuss how we could help with video ads, just drop Richard an email and we’d love to jump on a call: richard@videorev.org.

Thanks to everyone who joined our “How to use video to help the climate movement at COP26” webinar, and to our fantastic speakers Wambui, Hugo and Samuel. Below you can find all the recordings and presentations. Here is the original video tutorial that launched the webinar.

There has been such interest we’ve created a Slack channel to continue to share knowledge and find ways to collaborate at COP26, so please Join the COP26 Video Slack.

Richard Roaf, VideoRev

Richard presented on “5 key styles of video to reach people at COP26” and “5 steps to creating viral videos at COP”. Check out his presentation for links to 20 successful social media videos.

Wambui Gichobi, Survival Media Agency

Wambui presented on SMA’s global rapid response work that brings powerful grassroots stories to audiences with policy changing and resource diversion power.

Hugo Duchesne, 350.org

Hugo presented on 350.org’s work to support impacted communities and gave practical advice on how to set up a team to create rapid response videos.

Samuel K, Video Presenter and Filmmaker

Samuel presented on what makes a video successful on social and gave practical advice to create political videos that cut through with wider audiences and where to source footage.

Get in touch

We hope you found the session useful. If you’re looking for further help with videos for COP26 then just drop Richard an email and we’d love to jump on a call: richard@videorev.org