Video for Employer Brand Marketing

One of the most frequently asked questions we ask when creating an employer brand video is “What has kept you here for X number of years?” Without fail, hands down, the number one answer is “the people”. Always. Regardless of industry, size of the company, position, salary or any other factor, people stay with companies when they like the people they work with. That answer - “the people’ - is synonymous with “the culture.” Culture is a (sometimes untapped) superpower for marketing any organization. Culture reflects the spirit of the organization and that spirit is what our current age of candidates and customers connect with.

Culture is arguably the most valuable resource any company possesses. So why is it buried in the last dropdown on the far side of the nav bar of our websites?

Perhaps this can be explained. After all, culture is hard to describe. After 100 hours of inward meditation and thousands of dollars in consultant fees, we usually end up with the same or similar words to everyone else. But let’s not take anything away from the value of identifying these words as a group. They are meaningful and powerful and true. But they just can’t tell the full story of who we are. Words alone can’t show you the tattoos we wear and scars we share under the fabric of our company culture.

So how do we bring culture to the front page? What is worthy of sharing with the world?

Video has the unique ability to introduce your culture to the world because video has the unique ability to introduce your people to the world. After all, they are the culture. These people that have stayed with the company for X amount of years, have stayed because they believe in the culture of the company. They are a product of the culture and the producers of the culture. Perhaps most importantly, they are the proof.

Here are some practical tips on creating a video that brings your culture to life.

Let Your People Do the Talking

Scripted voiceover has its place when producing a video, but we rarely encourage this approach when the goal is to highlight the company’s culture. Your people are the key. They are the culture and therefore they are the stars. Letting them speak in their own words is the most important aspect of bringing the culture to life.

Talk to Your People First

Before putting anyone on camera, we like to conduct pre-interviews with people at different levels of the organization to find out what aspects of the company’s culture are important to them. What is important to an executive is often not the same as what is important to a manager or a field operator or a customer service representative.

Create an Outline

While a script is not encouraged, we highly recommend creating an outline that represents the key messages captured from the pre-interviews. This way you can be sure to touch on the items that your people mentioned were important to them.

Skip the Table Stakes

It seems obvious to mention benefits that the company offers like retirement plans, health benefits and continuing education, but more often that not, these are standard expectations for a candidate and not a differentiator. This is good information for the career site but not very powerful in a video. Instead, focus on the values of the organization that compel leadership to support individuals in their careers and in their lives outside of work.

Get Personal

We encourage a personal approach to featuring people. Let them talk about their personal hobbies and passions outside of work as well as their experience at the company. This may seem too specific, but we believe this taps into a deeper connection with your people and therefore a more human representation of the culture. Viewers can then identify with your people and see themselves in your culture. They can truly ‘get to know you.’

A video that represents your culture is a video that features your people. When done right, this powerful deliverable is worthy of lifting up out of the abyss of the last dropdown on the nav bar. And the content captured during a production like this can be repurposed in numerous ways to expand the value of your efforts.

Check out one of our favorite Culture Videos and visit p3mediaworks.com to learn more about our passion for capturing culture!

Capture Your Culture