New Marketing Trends

Marketing Ideas for Non-Profits and Libraries

The M Word helps librarians learn about marketing trends and ideas.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Library PSA: Baby Come Back

Here in NJ we are always looking for ways to create quality marketing products within a tight budget. We also happen to have some incredibly creative students. With the help of Paul Patwell from the Newark Public Library, the State Library partnered with NPL and four film study schools to create PSAs geared for teens. This is the winning video made by Malcolm X. Shabazz High School. You can read the write up here.




We're airing the PSA on the public TV stations around the state and inviting libraries to post them on their sites. The project not only helped us to see the library through the eyes of teens, it also helped the teens to see the library in new light. And of course, there is the Word of Mouth factor that comes whenever you involve a network of people in a project - this time we have the Newark community, the schools and the library as stakeholders.

Here's the second place winner:




There are lots of ways to get high quality videos made for your library. The key phrase is "high quality". It doesn't have to be HD video, but it does need to have a message tell an appealing story and should be speaking to a specific target audience. Most of all, it needs to be short! We stretched the time limit to 60 seconds because it is really tough for kids to edit something down to 30 seconds. Videos must be short. Try to keep you videos to a minute or shorter.

If you are having a tough time getting your videos down to a minute, here are a few time shaving tips:
  • Replace rolling credits with a captions at the beginning of the video.
  • Tell one story with one message- lots of videos I see could actually be edited into several shorter clips. Don't be afraid to edit your video into a series of clips. It makes viewer easier and more enjoyable for the viewer.
  • Look for silent pauses - in video two seconds of silence is deadening. Look for pans that go on too long or still shots that linger for a few seconds and cut them
  • If you must have a longer video, then consider creating a 30 second commercial to promote it.

2 comments:

Marketing Elements said...

What a great way to tell a story and draw attention to the Public Library.

Thank you for sharing these videos with us.
Cheers,
Delaina

Nancy Dowd said...

Welcome! Would love links to other commercials if anyone wants to share.