We first started using video about three years ago. Since there are lots of different aspects to our brand we thought video would be a good medium for us to use to convey our values. Our first piece had high production values and was based on us taking a short road trip to the I Love Pies stand at the Matakana Farmers' Market. Our brand started at the farmers' market, so we wanted to capture that in way we thought would appeal to our core target market, which is families. The video was linked to a competition where people could win a weekend away in Matakana, and we saw a big uplift in followers and shares on our Facebook page with that.
Since that video was produced we've found it easier and quicker to make videos inhouse. We were finding that video has a really short shelf life on social media, so it didn't make sense to spend lots of time and money on it. We felt producing something ourselves was also more authentic for our consumers.
How have you produced the videos inhouse?
We've taught ourselves how to put videos together using our iPhones. We downloaded loads of different apps and spent our weekends playing on them to learn what to do. We've found the apps that are available and their functionality evolves over time, so using them requires a bit of trial and error, but it's lucky it's something we actually really enjoy doing. We come up with the creative idea together, I usually film and edit them and Maree is often the gaffer and hand model.
It's one thing to produce video, but another to get people watching it? What have you learnt about that?
Videos need to be fresh and selecting great music is really important. People don't have lots of time to sit there watching something about your brand, so your video needs to be short, punchy, on brand and get messages across quickly and concisely.
The timing of your posting is important too. We try to make videos that are relevant to what's going on at the time and what people are interested in and talking about. So, for example, we recently made some videos about the Rugby World Cup and had a great response to those.
Humour is important because it's integral to our brand and it's also entertaining to watch; if we can make people laugh they're more likely to watch our next video. Some of our most successful videos have been a bit random - like a lot of things are on social media - and sometimes they're the ones that took the least time to make.
