Here's how it happens most of the time. You've got a meeting, the marketing department is there, and someone from leadership says, okay, we need a video for this.

Then the marketing person asks, okay, what does this video need to do? And they come back with: this video needs to show people that we grew, we hired, we're the best. We need to show the office, we need to show everything, and people need to get that we're the best in the business.

So basically, they'll just say numbers, facts, proof points, credibility, whatever.

Then you ask that same person what made them care about this company, this organization, this field. Almost 100% of the time, they get to a story. A person, an employee, a mentor, something someone said to them a long time ago that stuck with them.

It's always a person, it's always connection. So they know what moved them, but they don't think it will work on anyone else, because "they won't get it."

There's actually a study in a book I love, Made to Stick (Chip and Dan Heath). Highly recommended, by the way.

You know Maslow's pyramid, right? Food, shelter and safety are right at the bottom, so the basic needs. Go up a little more and you've got belonging and status. And right at the top, you've got meaning, purpose, what you're meant to be.

They brought in a bunch of people and framed a $1,000 bonus three different ways: what the money buys you (the bottom), the security it gives you (the middle), and being valued, because it shows the company values you (the top).

Then they asked which one would motivate them most at work, and they said being valued. But then came a follow-up question: which one do you think will work on someone else? And most of them now chose the money. Same person, same list. When they're asked about someone else, a completely different answer.

The book argues that this means we all think we've got the penthouse, that we're living right at the top, and other people live at the bottom, so they just want the basic stuff.

Now go back to the briefing room. You show them the video, and they say, "That's beautiful, that's amazing. I want to cry." But in the same breath: "Can you just include a little bit about this and that, the office, the hiring numbers? We need to show the numbers. People won't get it. We need to give more context." And it blows my mind.

Thirty seconds ago, they were crying. What happened?

And I'm trying to be fair here. People will say, okay, sometimes nobody knows about our company, so we need to show them, tell them we're the best or that we're growing, because they don't know us. Yes, I get it.

But that argument is about the proportion in the video, not whether it should be there or not. At Puggers I use a ratio for that, and I borrowed it from another filmmaker, Jasper Klaus. It's called 90/10: 90% story, 10% messaging. The 10% only exists because the 90% was good enough to carry it at the end. Most videos look the same and feel the same because it's the other way around, 90% message and 10% story.

The story should be carrying everything. The message is just a little wrapper that makes people remember the things they need to remember, and the numbers are what make the story credible.

So what should you do with all this? At your next meeting, your next brief for a video project, please do this. It just takes five minutes. Before you talk about the duration, the specs, the platforms and everything, ask them: can you finish this sentence for me?

When someone finishes watching this, they should feel ___.

That's it. Not learn, not know. Feel.

And it is harder, it's not that easy. Sometimes they'll come back with facts wearing feelings' clothes: "I want people to feel that we grew." But that's just pushing information again. We've got to push back and protect the story.

So dig a little deeper. Ask more questions until you have the feeling you're pursuing. Once you have the feeling, you potentially have the protagonist, or the story you want to tell. And when you have the one thing you want to say with that video, it's easier to have a powerful message after that.

To wrap it up: next time you're planning a video for the company, ask yourself, will this video move me? If the answer is no, maybe go back to the drawing board and start again, because it won't move anyone else.

That's my rant.

David Balista is the video director and co-founder of Puggers Video Production, a Vancouver video production company that makes films for foundations, health care organizations and associations, each one built around one real story.

Watch the video: [add the YouTube link when it's live]

See the work: puggersvideoproduction.com/work

First posted on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidbalista