Customer experience - Through the screen | Video

Double Fine Adventure is the new pin-up for all aspiring game developers.

If you've not heard, the story goes that Double Fine studios posted a video pitch on KickStarter.com - "A new way to fund & follow Creativity". In practise, a crowd sourcing website, where you pitch an idea and request that "the crowd" fund the project.

They pitched for $400k and reached that figure in just under 8 hours of posting the pitch. At the time of posting this article, just a day and a half of the pitch being online, they've now raised $1,247,221. Sure, the guy who's doing the pitch has a huge following, as does another member of staff at the company - but still, it's pretty impressive!

Since I started this post 10 minutes ago they've received another $7k... Another $2k in 5 minutes... "How?" you ask: by performing to the customer.

Click here to take a look at their pitch 

The beautiful thing about this pitch is the video. In fact, it's the main element to this pitch as it's the first thing you see. It's funny, it's personable, it's self aware - as in, they know they're making a video, they're not pretending that they've rocked up in your living room and are striking up a conversation on your couch. It's great to watch. I've shared it with my friends and now I want to give my money. The goal of the video is surpassed by quite some way!

So let's look into why this method has been successful, as ever, from the customer's experience.

First of all, it's well edited and shot. The sound quality is great (where a majority of self-made ad's fall down). This adds to the trust-factor of the pitch and the perceived legitimacy of their company. These guys have clearly put money into this production so it looks like something you might see on TV, a medium which people trust. If this was filmed on a camcorder, shakey with terrible sound then the professional and trusted veneer would not exist. Not all businesses will have the funding to be able to make something like this - they might think - but put out some feelers and you could easily string together a film student, sound recordist, a semi-pro photographer who'd relish the opportunity to get some credited work out there. If you can, they should be compensated - you'll get custom from this video, fair is fair.

Video is a disastrously underused method of getting a pitch across. It's also used quite disastrously some times. I'm talking here about the struggling entrepreneurs, the small shops, the sole traders. There are some very lucky examples of small companies and individuals making terrible adverts and them going viral (see Flee Market - Montgomery, Chuck Testa).

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Unfortunately, not every terrible video goes viral and it can serve to discredit and over-shadow your business. That's why it's important to think, get a creative person or people on board and spend as much time as is needed to get that video polished - that is critical. Do not rush it out because you've got a deadline in mind, or for any reason. Once it's on the internet, it's there forever, as this internet meme attests to (above left).

Recording a video and posting it on-line gets your business into the comfort zone of the audience, too. Be careful not to abuse it. You should consider your video being watched as the equivolent of the customer inviting you into their home. You wouldn't walk into their home and start rambling on about your deals and offers, trying to get their money... I hope.. It will also be there forever, so steer clear of anything which may date the video - "This January we've got a mega sale on..." You can plan to make more videos to supplant that one and that gets around that problem, but ideally, they should be timeless.

So, what to do? That depends on your customer reach strategy and your business type. A law firm may not need their customers to relate to them on a lifestyle level, but a Cafe might. A gym may want to tap into the energy and aspiration of their potential and current customers, whereas a car-cleaning firm may not as much.

A video gives your customers an insight into the way your brands mind works. If your video is poorly edited, clearly shot "on the cheap" sounding like voice in a tin can, then you'll need to revisit it and certainly don't post it! If your video is the visual and audible representation of your brand to the dot, professional, well made, then congratulations, you've done it!