5 Promotional Videos That Keep You Watching
August 22, 2017
22nd August 2017 by CH
Every man and his dog knows video content is on the rise, especially online with consumers now spending more time watching video ads than ever before.
But a lot of online videos and TV ads are just plain boring or too try hard and obvious. The trick is to create a video you’d show your friends, something memorable.
So what’s the secret to a great promo video that keeps your audience engaged enough to watch the whole thing?
At CH, we’ve had almost 13 years experience producing promotional videos for big brands and we know what works. But instead of a big checklist, we’re going to let video speak for itself.
Here’s 5 promos that should keep you watching:
- Volvo Trucks – The Epic Split
This is epic. After all, it’s got Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits, Enya’s iconic ‘ Only Time’ and a great feeling of calm which draws you in instantly. Four years later and the video which went viral on social media counts over 86 million views on YouTube alone.
- GoPro: Red Bull Stratos – The Full Story
GoPro and Red Bull partnered with Felix Baumgartner to break world records and capture images unlike anything else seen before. A truly memorable moment, celebrating people’s ability to achieve incredible things.
- TEMPTATIONS ™ – Keep them busy
The gradual build-up of tension created with the help of sharp editing, sound effects and music that suddenly changes from a Christmas carol to heavy rock keeps you watching. Plus, cats – who doesn’t like cats? The overall result is a funny video that is short enough to be perfect material for sharing on social.
- So Yeah, We Tried Slack…
We’re a little biased as we use Slack and love it but whether you like or hate this video, you have to admit that it’s executed well. An excellent example that B2B videos don’t have to be stiff or boring, this uses honesty and humour to showcase a product. It’s ‘making of the making of’ approach also makes for a memorable video.
- McCafé | TV Ad | McDonald’s UK
Probably an advert you’ve seen a few times on TV. McDonald’s usually get it right. Here, they’re using a provocative kind of humour to make fun of the present coffee market and highlight the simplicity of McCafe instead. Simple but clever because most people can identify with it.
Which one of those videos did you like best and would you add other examples to the list? Let us know on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram
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When Euronics came to us with a brief, it was a good one: take a true story about an extraordinary delivery and turn it into something worth watching. The Brief Joe, a Euronics delivery agent, had been tasked with getting a chest freezer to a customer in rural Wales. The road ran out. He carried on anyway, on foot, through fields, across rivers and over hills. The customer was delighted. The story deserved to be told. Euronics asked us to produce a short comedic video retelling that journey. The challenge was finding the right visual language to match the scale of the tale. The Concept We pitched several approaches centred on a comic-book aesthetic, bold, energetic and a little tongue-in-cheek. It felt like the right fit: a story that was equal parts heroic and absurd, told in a style that leaned into both. The concept paired real interview footage of Joe with AI-generated visuals to bring his journey to life. Where a traditional shoot would have required location days across Welsh countryside, generative AI gave us the tools to illustrate the story scene by scene. Creative Wrangling We filmed Joe against a studio blue backdrop, letting him tell the story in his own words. His delivery did a lot of the heavy lifting (puns intended!), dry, matter-of-fact and quietly brilliant. The AI-generated visuals were built around detailed multi-angle reference sheets for Joe, the Euronics van and the chest freezer.
Generative AI can easily open doors to help create bespoke, crafted content to elevate a video beyond the usual approaches. Recently we tested the latest AI tools to create vast scenic landscapes, humorous underwater worlds and visual effects shots for several campaigns. The tools have advanced a long way over the last few years and the barriers to creating believable or imaginative worlds are fading away all the time. Need an underwater disco full of dancing fish? Got it. A speaking anthropomorphic clown fish? Absolutely. The Key is Consistency It was key to ensure a good amount of consistency across each video. We created multi-angle reference sheets of characters and key objects and use node-based tools to link these, and additional brand references, to ensure the look was maintained throughout. The tools are now in a place where you can also direct and control the results much more closely. Camera moves, lens choices and lighting can be defined and adjusted to get closer to the image or video that you’re looking for and as the creative options expand, options for creativity within each shot expand infinitely.
We're thrilled to announce that we won not one, or two, but THREE Lens Awards at Communicate Magazine's prestigious awards event. We won awards for best One-off Video Campaign (Bronze) and Best Lifestyle and Wellbeing (Gold) for our work with Essity , a global hygiene and health leader that trusted us to transform essential H&S by producing a fresh and memorable induction video for visitors to their historic Oakenholt Mill. Delivering key messages with humour and heart, our approach stars children from real Essity employees as the mill’s pint-sized operators. It was a silver for Best Live or Experiential Video, celebrating our cinematic event work with PepsiCo . The Away from Home team’s breakout room at an international conference contained five ultrawide 4K screens stretching nearly 30 meters. Where we delivered 20 videos and nearly 70 assets overall, blending real footage, AI generated visuals, and synchronised side-screen magic. A panoramic feel that supported our client’s event in a whole new way. Thank you to our awesome team of in-house creatives. Photographed, a delegation from CH attended the event on behalf of the whole company.
