Using Video to Communicate Internationally
January 26 2010
The internet is an international medium. It doesn’t matter where the material originates from, if it entertains it’s all good. It does have distinct advantages over traditional marketing material which we shall discuss here.
The most common marketing tool used to be the brochure. It was tactile, could illustrate and describe the product or service and promote the company to those who saw it. But what happens when you’re dealing in an international marketplace? Firstly the brochure has to get translated, then the meaning has to be interpreted and anything that doesn’t translate well into the receiving culture has to be edited out.
The finished product can often end up a shadow of its former self by the time it’s finished. It’s often much easier to have a brochure designed and targeted to the particular culture and country. This can involve several versions, all saying the same thing in different ways and can be cumbersome and expensive.
A website can say so much, but still has the language issues that a brochure does, even if it has the facility to display in other languages. Images do a lot for understanding but still leaves a lot to the imagination.
The most effective way of communicating internationally, while ensuring the meaning doesn’t get lost in translation is by using visuals. A video production reaches across continents, cultures and languages like no other medium. As a species, we are visually oriented, we had to be to survive. Marketers and advertisers make use of this in their campaigns, and you should to if you’re trying to promote something.
Having a professional quality video production either as marketing material on DVD, in a booth at an expo or on a website is the best way to communicate a concept, idea, product or service across cultures. The pertinent factor there is professional quality. If you can produce it yourself, call the professionals. Having a poor quality video online is worse than having none at all.
Research for the Australian Board of Trade in 2007 found that video is up to four times more effective at communicating than a brochure, no matter what the language. As we are visually stimulated and can recall more from visual stimulus than others it’s no surprise.
While voiceovers and narration might need to be translated the video can demonstrate a service or product in “real life.” Seeing it in action is the next best thing to seeing it in actuality and removes many barriers between a prospect becoming a customer.
Making videos available on the corporate website allows prospects to access them whatever time zone they’re in and allows free access to your whole range of products and services. By being able to see the action, the prospect to connect the product to their own situation and see almost instantly if it will be suitable for their situation or not. It would take a salesman hours to do what a video could do in seconds, such is the power of the video.
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