WHAT MAKES A GREAT TESTIMONIAL VIDEO

AUTHENTIC

  • People can spot a scripted response from a natural one
  • If the answer is too long, wordy, doesn't answer the question concisely, loses the narrative, you will lose your audience. 
  • Some people are not dynamic, photogenic, or has a pleasant demeanor required for the screen. Interview multiple people.
    • Avoid awkward people

NARRATIVE

  • In order to drive a story, the narrative needs to be clear.
  • Pacing/Tempo - The pacing should be feel natural.
  • Narrative needs to be good

What is a good story?

  • Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero of Thousand Faces, compiled and studied the most memorable stories, legends, archetypes of storytelling and broke down the ones that last.
  • Primarily all stories complete what is called a monomyth and the Hero'r Journey.(Similarly all hit songs musics hits use the same 4 chords used in Pachelbel's Cannon in D, the most memorable stories from Grendel, to Shakespear, to Die Hard follow the monomyth.

THE HEROS JOURNEY

  • All great stories, myths and exciting stories follow what is called the Hero's Journey
  • All stories arch from the ordinary world, the special to unknown world and then back to the ordinary.
  • The hero begins in his own world, moves to a world where the rules are different and faces adversity and failure, learns the rules, has a fall, conquering then the resolution return as the victor.

VARIATIONS

DAN HARMONS STORY CIRCLE

A boiled down version of the Hero's Journey Dan Harmon used to create the stories that have produced award wining shows like Community and Rick and Morty.

THE HERO JOURNEY

  • What is their company?
  • What are their problems they are facing. (STEP 2 WANT SOMETHING - STEP 3 ENTER UNFAMILIAR SITUATION)
  • How did they choose your product (STEP 4 ADAPTATION SOLUTION)
  • What did the product do for them (STEP 5 HELPED  GET SOLUTION)
  • (SKIP STEP 6: PAY A HEAVY PRICE)
  • What is the success metric. How did it fix their problem or improve? ( STEP 7 AND 8 HERO EMERGES VICTORIOUS USING WORKATO NOW PART OF THEIR ARSENAL)

PROPOSAL/SUGGESTIONS OF THE STORY CIRCLE FOR THE TESTIMONIAL ADS

BETTER FOOTAGE

  • Powerful testimonials
  • Give the questions in advance (goal: to allow interviewed customer to think about a powerful answer
  • Ask the question again in a different way to curate that ideal answer ( goal is : powerful 20 sec answer)
  • Have powerful and engaging people with high energy. Try to have a relaxed conversation that can be cut out of the B role footage.

ATTENTION SPAN

  • 3 mins ad
  • 5 min  
  • 18 min public speaker
  • 30 min tv show
Mark Tse
​2016