Videos have long been a part of the armoury of a charity. It enables them to combine both visual and audio techniques to persuade the public to part with their hard-earned money. However, I'm sure you'll all agree that some charities have more successful video campaigns than others do. The purpose of this article is to examine the components that make up a successful charity video.
To make a successful charity video, before you even begin to think about the content, the first thing that you need to do is ensure that you understand your audience. Having a firm grasp on what makes your audience tick, what they can relate to and what they can empathise with will make the whole process much easier. An example of this is a recent campaign run by Male Cancer Awareness. This campaign is aimed at 18-25 year old males, a notoriously difficult market for charities to target. The video - which has gained in excess of 3.8 million views - makes use of lingerie and page 3 model, Rhian Marie Sugden. Cleverly entitled 'Rhian touches herself', the video portrays a serious message by utilising a concept that young males stereotypically respond too.
An emotive connection to the cause is necessary; this is because a strong emotional connection is the best way to compel people to give to the cause. A great technique for doing this is by telling a compelling story and then demonstrating a tangible impact. By that, I mean if you're asking for 3 a month, explain how the 3 can tangibly help said charity. People will want to know where their hard-earned cash is going and little explanations such as this can be the difference.
The duration of the video can make a huge difference. As a rule of thumb, less is more with charity videos, i.e. people would rather watch a short, sharp two-minute video than a 30-minute epic. This is because people's lives are so fast paced in this day and age, the last thing you want to do is bore the target market away from your message before reaching the call to action. An effective way to condense information is to replace long-winded explanations with snappy data & statistics. When used correctly, stats can be incredibly effective in this context. However, you should always use statistics to support substance.
Using shock to entice donations is a technique that charities have been using for years, and it could work for you in your charity video. However, be aware that due to the masses of charities competing for the same hard earned money, the general public have started to become 'numb' to these messages. This phenomenon is known as charity fatigue.
Whether the purpose of the campaign is to encourage donations, attract volunteers or simply to share the message, the video should contain a call to action. The call to action is a direct instruction from the charity to the viewer of the video to act. Without a call to action, even the most well designed video campaign will have limited effectiveness. The next step in the process (i.e. donation, volunteering) needs to be made as simple as possible. Simple things such as including a contact number and the website address can increase the level of completion for your goal.
Finally, you need to ensure your video is distributed through the correct channels. This comes back to understanding your target market. It's impossible to distribute your video everywhere due to the sheer number of potential distribution channels, so you need to pick the ones you use wisely and according to your understanding of your target market.