Many of our clients like to highlight stories of major donors, committed volunteers and institution-builders. Such profile videos can serve to honor service to the organization as well as provide inspiration for others to emulate that service. The video below is one of two profiles we produced for Georgetown University, which used the video to honor committed members of the business community at a fundraising event aimed to raise scholarship money. Below the video are three techniques to building a successful short profile story:
1. Begin with a compelling visual introduction that doesn’t reveal too much.
Your audience doesn’t need to know all the information right away. Some element of mystery in the very beginning keeps them watching to learn more about the individual profiled. In the very introduction, we used a collection of abstract visuals to get a hint of place and action as it relates to the individual. We coupled that imagery with commentary that spoke of her big-picture inspiration more than the specifics of where she works and what she does, information we provide later in the video.
2. Dig into what compels people to do what they do.
Usually the passion and drive behind a career choice can be more compelling than the specifics of the vocation. Most people we’ve interviewed throughout the years have a philosophy developed from some experience in their life: a death in the family, a challenge, or a mentor that inspired them. Dig into that story as that’s the information that will connect people to the character and keep them interested in watching.
3. Widen the lesson of the micro-story.
Individual impact stories can be a very effective tool for connecting individuals to your organization, but it’s important to make a connection between the single micro-story and the wider communication goal of your organization. In this case, the wider goal was to fund scholarships for the next generation of Wall Streeters. Georgetown as an institution takes pride in educating students who are “men and women for others”, a value that this honoree has demonstrated in her work and passes down in her teaching. So at the very end of the video, we utilized comments focused on the students receiving these scholarships, and why they would best be poised to address the problems of the global economy in the future. This brings it back to to subject of the profile, a woman who has addressed these problems throughout the course of her career.
