Last updated on June 15th, 2024
Stacey Kelly is a branded content executive producer who has worked on content for many brands in her time at places such as Buzzfeed and Viacom. Stacey gives us her thoughts on what branded content is and how companies can connect their brands more deeply with their audience.
GUEST: Stacey Kelly Linkedin | Instagram | Stacey’s Checklist For Branded Content
HOSTS: The VidAction Podcast is hosted by:
– Dane Golden of VidAction.tv and VidTarget.io | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube
– Gwen Miller LinkedIn | Twitter |
SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by our affiliate partners, including: TubeBuddy, VidIQ, MorningFame, Rev.com, and other products and services we recommend.
PRODUCER: Jason Perrier of Phizzy Studios
TRANSCRIPT
Stacey Kelly:
Branded content is a form of marketing. It’s a technique that brands use so that they are connecting more deeply with their audience. It’s a way to feel organic and not feel like it’s a commercial, per se, that’s selling a product or service to you. So, the audience never feels sold to. They actually feel more of a connection to the brand.
Dane Golden:
It’s time for the VidAction Podcast. This is the podcast where we help marketers and business owners just like you get more value out of your video marketing efforts. My name is Dane Golden from VidAction.tv where we help you up your game on YouTube for business and transform your viewers into loyal customers, where we help you get a higher return on your YouTube ad spend with targeted YouTube placement lists. Along with my cohost, it’s Gwen Miller. Hello, Gwen.
Gwen Miller:
Hey Dane. It’s always a good day to chat video marketing with you and our listeners.
Dane Golden:
It is a good day. And Gwen, what do you do?
Gwen Miller:
I work with creatives and brands to use data to craft increasingly better and better videos for their unique, one of a kind audiences. There’s no better time to be in video marketing than right now. Because instead of filling out those cutting cutters marketing formulas of the past, we’re making the cookie cutters of the future, Dane.
Dane Golden:
To the future. Okay. And for you, the listener, you should know that, as always, you can follow along right on that podcast app you are listening to right now. We’ve got a transcript for you. We’ve got links. And today we have a special guest, it’s Stacey Kelly. Stacey is a branded content executive producer who has worked on content for many brands in her time at places such as Buzzfeed, Viacom, and many others. Welcome, Stacey.
Stacey Kelly:
Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here, thank you. Hi Dane, hi Gwen.
Gwen Miller:
And we’re really excited to have you because, Stacey, you and I used to work together.
Dane Golden:
What?
Stacey Kelly:
Yes, yes. Many years ago.
Gwen Miller:
We were coworkers back in the day. You even produced and directed me in a couple of videos. I remember we did a favorite books episode which is classic me. And then my favorite one was one where I modeled three Halloween costumes for you, I remember. I think one was a cat burglar, one was a mime, and I don’t remember if the last one was like Parisian something. I just know there was a beret involved or something.
Stacey Kelly:
Yes, there was. Oh my God, Gwen, you were the best. Gwen, you were working on analytics and data at…..
Gwen Miller:
Hey, you directed the video, you could wear many hats, and one of those is a beret.
Stacey Kelly:
Yes, literally. Literally many hats. Thank you, Gwen, for doing that. Oh my gosh. I remember that. Such fun times.
Gwen Miller:
And I have to say you are perhaps one of the best producers I have ever worked with. And you have extensive experience in how businesses should go about making video and how they shouldn’t go about making video. So, we want to you pick your brain today for the benefit of our listening audience. Does that sound good?
Stacey Kelly:
Yes. I’m so excited to be here and talk with you about that. Video is my thing. I love video, especially branded content video and marketing. So yeah, for sure.
Dane Golden:
Okay, so we have some questions. But first, I just want to make sure. If those videos exist anywhere online still as a counter example to what is good, I want to put those in the show notes, so send me those links.
Stacey Kelly:
Okay.
Gwen Miller:
Okay.
Dane Golden:
But let’s start with the basics. Not everyone knows what branded content is. How’s that term evolving? Not everyone knows exactly what branded content is. And if you could describe it specifically how it relates to video because we’re a podcast about video marketing.
Stacey Kelly:
Yes. Okay. So, branded content is a form of marketing. It’s a technique that brands use so that they are connecting more deeply with their audience. It’s a way to feel organic and not feel like it’s a commercial, per se, that’s selling a product or service to you. So, the audience never feels sold to. They actually feel more of a connection to the brand.
Stacey Kelly:
So, it’s evolving now in this day and age because obviously we’ve got videos everywhere. Right? So, we’ve got everything from TikTok. Brands can use TikToks to be branded content, to YouTube videos, straight up out of the ranks to bigger budgets like Apple. Apple TV is making branded content, technically, with shows like The Morning Show where you’re seeing all Apple products in there, but it’s a form of entertainment.
Dane Golden:
Right. Right.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah, that’s why it’s evolving, because it’s just like, yeah, that’s the brand. Apple is a brand that’s producing that for themselves.
Dane Golden:
That’s right.
Stacey Kelly:
And me as a viewer, I just brought that example because I ended up loving that show.
Dane Golden:
I watched it twice.
Stacey Kelly:
But as a viewer, I loved it. Did you? Oh my gosh, I can’t wait for season two, can you?
Dane Golden:
No. It was really good.
Stacey Kelly:
It was so good. That ending, that cliffhanger, oh my gosh. They did such a good job. But right as a viewer, didn’t you just feel so connected to the storytelling and the characters and what was happening?
Dane Golden:
Yeah.
Stacey Kelly:
They did it seamlessly. But as a producer, I kept noticing every single person in the newsroom had a MacBook Pro. And I’m still like, “Wow, this is branded content.”
Gwen Miller:
Yeah.
Stacey Kelly:
No news organization is using all Macs in real life.
Gwen Miller:
Right, right, right.
Stacey Kelly:
So yeah,
Gwen Miller:
So, I guess we could say branded content could be a broad spectrum of things. It can be all the way from, just to your point, product placement in the background of a shot or in the foreground of a shot. It could be a one to two minute integration into a video, but the rest of the video is not about the brand. Or it could be potentially, right, it could be a dedicated video where the entire video somehow involves the brand in the conversation.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah.
Gwen Miller:
Like I would say in our background, Stacey, you and I, having done a lot of women’s lifestyle, like that could be an entire hair tutorial where all products from a certain brand are used in that hair tutorial. It’s still great organic content, right, Stacey? But the brand is involved.
Stacey Kelly:
Exactly. That’s exactly it. It’s feeling organic. Basically the end result is that the consumer is getting an added value from watching that content, whereas you won’t get that from a commercial. Right? So, commercial is just selling to you, “You have to buy this to feel better about yourself.” Branded content is like, “Here’s the tips that you can go ahead and use to feel better about yourself. Here’s the tutorial. Here’s the entertainment so that you can feel joyous and feel laughter or some sort of emotion.” So, it’s something through like a storytelling element and through value added all the time as opposed to selling to you, even though it is a form of selling.
Gwen Miller:
Right. Yeah.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah.
Gwen Miller:
Yes. We all got to eat.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. Exactly.
Gwen Miller:
So Stacey, what are some of the big mistakes you see brands making when they’re really new to making branded content?
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah, so I think one of the biggest things that I’ve still been seeing. The height of views was a few years ago where it was all about the views, views, views. We have to get a million views. And I even work at Buzzfeed and I was getting viral videos for certain clients there. But at the end of the day, the view count is not the real metric anymore, because now all of these social platforms can just change …
Now it could be like, okay, a view can count after three seconds. Well, the person can see that in their feed, but not actually connect with the brand. So, you still have to find what’s your key metric for finding out if that branded content really resonated with them. It’s not going to be through just views or numbers of views.
Stacey Kelly:
And so, one way to see that nowadays is more about how people are talking about it and engaging with the brand and how they’re sharing. It’s a different kind of metric about measuring it rather than just the views. And so, when I hear brands come to me still today, they’re like, “I need to get a viral video. I need to have a viral video.” Well, what does that mean for you? What’s viral?
Dane Golden:
Let me ask about that. Let me ask about that. Because that word viral has been going around like a virus in our industry for a long time now. And clearly not every video can be the world’s most popular video. Only one video is the world’s most popular video, and some are the top and some are not the top. Why shouldn’t brands focus on being viral every single time? Why is that not what they should do?
Stacey Kelly:
Because now they’re putting their energy into something that’s not going to give them a real metric on if people are connecting with them. So, essentially all these different platforms, YouTube, Instagram, they change what a view count means so that it can have that “virality.” So, you can be viral if somebody sees it for three seconds now, and it doesn’t really matter if they didn’t really connect with it.
Stacey Kelly:
So, the key with viral videos is that, yeah, they can be high numbers, but the goal of branded content is to have that connection with people, to really have that social benefit going on. So, people are feeling like they want to engage with you, they want to engage with the brand. You don’t necessarily get that with viral videos. People don’t necessarily want to engage if it’s going viral.
Stacey Kelly:
So, virality is not a really effective KPI anymore. It could actually be more of a vanity metric more than anything. And that’s fine if brands want that vanity metric to say that they’re getting millions of views. But if they really want the actual deeper connection, it’s the engagement, studying how people are sharing or talking about that brand in the overall conversation.
Gwen Miller:
Yeah, so let’s dig into something that we mentioned a little bit earlier, which is why shouldn’t brands treat branded content exactly how they treat a commercial? If I’m a brand, I’m going to be like, “I want to maximize the time span that we’re talking about my talking points and telling you exactly what my product will do for you and sell, sell, sell, sell.” Why should they not do that?
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah, so the thing that branded content … You have to think about your audience. At the end of the day, your audience doesn’t want to feel sold to on the internet. They’re just going to bypass commercials. When you have that option on the YouTube video to skip video, you want that to happen right away. So, you don’t want to feel sold to. You actually want to engage. People want to go on the internet to learn something or feel entertained or laugh at something. So, they don’t want to feel sold to.
Stacey Kelly:
So, the key things that brands have to remember is that with commercials, you are outright selling your product, you are outright saying what your services are and what you offer and you need to buy this. Whereas with branded content, you’re engaging on a more organic level with your audience, and you’re really bringing them into your world and into your conversation of what your brand values are.
Stacey Kelly:
It’s more about your brand values. And that’s really exciting because it’s a different form of marketing that’s just more personable, actually. I’m trying to think of an example, but you’re sharing ideas and new innovations and making people feel excited to interact with your brand. So, that’s where branded content comes in, and it’s just more exciting, and it’s broader. You have more opportunity to have touchpoints with your audience.
Dane Golden:
And so, we talked about The Morning Show which was on Apple TV+, Jennifer Aniston and others. I just want to take a step back for a second. If not everyone really knows some examples of branded content, either some just real quick summaries of what you’ve done or what other people have done, doesn’t really matter. But just so people get a couple of different ideas of what that might look like.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. So, with Gwen I was working with Michelle Phan on her lifestyle channel. And Michelle owned a beauty company called EM Cosmetics. So, if we were to do a tutorial that was about a makeup look, and we were using all of EM Cosmetics, that’s a form of branded content right there. You’re still giving a tutorial, you’re still giving value, people are learning something about a new makeup look and how they can do something fresh and cool with their makeup and with their face.
Dane Golden:
Different from an affiliate.
Stacey Kelly:
But they’re not necessarily being told …
Dane Golden:
Different from an affiliate because she owns the brand as opposed to making it as an affiliate or sponsor.
Stacey Kelly:
Correct.
Dane Golden:
Okay, go on, go on.
Stacey Kelly:
Right, exactly. Yes, exactly, and she owns it. So yeah, so we were doing that technically for her brand in terms of that type of video. And then hair products, I see it all the time. Hair products, hair tutorials, they’ll hire out influencers, but then the influencers just using all of that hair product line to get a certain look with their curly hair or to do something. You’re still getting value on how to get a hair look or something of that nature. So, that’s definitely forms of branded content right there. So, tutorials, tips, and entertainment.
Gwen Miller:
Yeah, like for example, something that might be a little less on the nose for a brand, but still works is like I’ve done ones before where it’s a fashion video where someone’s going to show you their favorite looks. But beforehand, because they’re showing off cute skirts, they’re going to show you how they keep their legs silky smooth by using this laser hair removal treatment or something like that.
Stacey Kelly:
Yes, exactly. Right. Yeah, exactly, Gwen. It’s like you have one storyline, but the brand is sneaking in in another way. Yeah, that totally works, too. That is branded content, for sure. You have to do it in a way that it doesn’t feel … Producing these things, you have to be very careful with that, right, and make sure you’re getting the right team and vision to make sure that you don’t skew into commercial territory. Because people will tune out if it feels like this is a razor thing. But otherwise, if you make it really fun and engaging and organic feeling, they’ll totally be onboard. And they’ll know it’s branded content, but they’ll be onboard with it as opposed to … Yeah.
Dane Golden:
And what else? You talked about that. What else when a brand is making a plan for branded content, what is the checklist of top things they need to be thinking about?
Stacey Kelly:
So, they need to be thinking what’s their marketing objectives, obviously, and then what kind of content will support those objectives. How can we make it organically and so in a way … Like I said, you can cross the border really easily into being a commercial. So, making sure that you’re putting the right creative directors, the right teams together that can really make it in an organic way so it doesn’t feel like a commercial.
What else? And everything is all about the planning. Right? Understanding your style is actually important. Brands don’t really think about this until they get to the creative level. But yeah, just understanding there’s just a different type of style to the TikTok versus YouTube. What’s your audience? Who is your audience and where are they engaging?
Stacey Kelly:
Sometimes I get a lot of people that come up to me and they’re like, “I just want to be viral on all the channels all the time.” It’s like it’s just this impossible RFP. Right? And I’m like, “Okay, where’s your audience? Let’s narrow it down to that.” So, I think one of the things that brands have to remember when they’re planning is just where exactly are they and how they can really connect with people on that platform. Because TikTok videos are very different from YouTube, and that’s in the style and production and production value. So, all of that has to be thought out. And a lot of brands don’t really think about that, because obviously that’s more of what the producers and creative teams think out.
Gwen Miller:
And should we talk a little bit about that on just a very high level dive into when you are thinking about who my audience is. Because I think most brands do know things like 35-year-old-plus moms are the ones buying my cereal product, so I need to go after them. But they’re not always that great about figuring out what creative they should be feeding toward that audience, and obviously that’s why they hire experts like us. But I think there’s some basic things of like knowing what platforms you go to, knowing what types of topics a mom who’s interested in cereal are likely to look into. What are some ways? Is it just as simple as “Watch YouTube, stupid? Actual spend time on the platforms.”
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. It’s really interesting because a lot of brands, yes, they’ll know their audience, they’ll know who their customer is from that market research, but they won’t necessarily know what those people are doing on different platforms. Off the top of my head, just because I’ve worked at so many different companies, generally that type of audience you can find more on Facebook, and it’s morphing more a little bit into TikTok a little bit now. Whereas if you want to target B2B, you would be making more content on LinkedIn.
Stacey Kelly:
So, that’s like so top level. But yeah, it’s surprising because a lot of brands don’t really understand that or know that. So, you have to remind them, if your audience is actually teenagers on TikTok, it’s just a very different approach for that. TikTok and Snapchat is a very different approach than Facebook videos or LinkedIn videos, per se.
Dane Golden:
We talked about some of the bigger things to think about. Are there some little details, little keys, little secrets that brands need to think about when approaching to branded content? Not something a big thing, but like those little things that can be a big difference.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. You mean in terms of the production, like how to produce it?
Dane Golden:
Yeah, like little mistakes someone might make that they shouldn’t make, those little things.
Gwen Miller:
Yeah, like showing the product properly. I see that a lot. Just the little things that we think should be obvious. But if you’ve never done this before, it can be not as obvious that we might think it is.
Stacey Kelly:
Right. Yes. So yeah. Yes. For sure, product placement. Quick question for both of you. Did you notice all the Apple computers in The Morning Show? I’m just curious about that.
Dane Golden:
My world tends to have all Apple computers anyway, so it’s pretty common. I guess I don’t notice it as much. That’s just the world I live in. So, not as much, no. But I definitely notice that everyone was on an iPhone, that’s for sure.
Gwen Miller:
I have heard rumors, and this may or may not be true, that Apple doesn’t let villains use their products. I don’t know if there’s any villains in the show, but I’d be interested to see if they were maybe the only ones not using Apple products.
Dane Golden:
Steve Carell was a villain and he was using an Apple product.
Stacey Kelly:
He was using an iPhone.
Gwen Miller:
Yeah, well maybe it’s just one of those shows that’s morally ambiguous. He’s not like the classic rub your hands together villain. Is it obvious I’ve never watched the show? Never watched the show. But maybe they don’t let like Cruella De Vil isn’t going to get to use an Apple product, but if you’re a nuanced bad guy, maybe you do. Who knows?
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. Yeah, that actually is a good thing. So yeah, for sure. Like I was saying before, product placement starts to feel a little bit like a commercial. Right? So, again, it’s about being subtle. And like you said, you didn’t really even notice it. I mean, I think I noticed it because I’m producing branded content, but I don’t think most people noticed that about The Morning Show or even understood that it’s technically branded content in a form of entertainment. All the little things that make it feel like …
Stacey Kelly:
I know brands come to me and they just want to share what all their services are in one piece of content. Well, again, that’s teetering on commercial. So, how do we make it feel like we want to share one aspect of your product or one aspect of your service. And you have five different things. Let’s actually make a tip video and have one of your services be a part of one of those tips. So, it has to be very embedded and subtle so that people are feeling value more than anything more than they’re feeling sold to in that way.
Stacey Kelly:
So yeah, that’s something that for sure a lot of brands come to me and they just want everything all of the time out there. And I’m just like, “No, it’s a marathon. Let’s not rush this. Let’s actually make this a series of videos. And let’s put in what your different services … Yeah, build that relationship with your audience. It’s really important.
And it’s interesting. Like you said, most people don’t think about that. So, when you’re constructing that and constructing that strategy for them, there’s a lot of pushback with like, “I just want everything out there all the time.”
Gwen Miller:
All right. So, let’s get into the meat and potatoes on the practicalities of how to do this. Because this is where I think a lot of businesses come in with some misperceptions or maybe not a total clear idea of the commitment and the investment that they are making. So, as someone who has built a lot of video teams in your time, including one that I was on, can you tell us approximately how many people it takes? I think brands have this illusion they can take their person who’s writing Twitter copy and make them into a video social media producer, and that is not the case. Can you just give some real talk on practically what they need to do this right?
Stacey Kelly:
So yeah, essentially when you want to go all in, there’s two aspects. Right? So, brands can go the agency route, and then the agency just does everything for them. But when they want to have an in-house content studio, which I what I build out for brands, at the very base, very skeleton, video strategy, it definitely involves a team, whether it’s YouTube or TikTok, whether it’s small or large like that, it’s going to take a village of people. It’s usually not just one person.
Stacey Kelly:
So, at the very smallest type of crew, what I’ve seen that’s like most effective is a producer leading the team, a writer that’s on the storytelling and running point on creative, people who do the crew roles that are needed to make videos such as casting the talent, a camera operator, a gaffer who’s doing the lights, a sound person you definitely don’t want to skimp on, somebody who’s doing art direction. And then from there, as the crew and as the storyline is bigger, if it’s more complex in different locations, I would definitely recommend a script supervisor. These are contractors, so these aren’t people that are in your studio every single day. They’re on the day of the videos.
Stacey Kelly:
And then your team when you get everything done and you’re in post production, you definitely need a solid editor. What’s really great is a motion designer that’s really advanced with After Effects. That’s getting too technical, probably. And separately, again, if you the budget for it, ideally you want a separate colorist and a sound mixer. And what I’ve seen a lot in the digital world is that we’ve combined a lot of those roles. So, I’ve seen if you could find a good editor who knows something else, like they can color and sound mix. I’ve seen it packaged that way. But ideally, you want these to be separate people so you get the highest production value out of your content.
Dane Golden:
Wow. I think you should be doing your own YouTube channel about how to run teams like this, because this is really, really amazing.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah, yeah.
Dane Golden:
Don’t you agree, Gwen?
Gwen Miller:
Yeah, I’ve been trying to get her to do a … Yeah, I’ve been trying to get her to do a YouTube channel for years. She once had the idea of doing a sunglasses channel where she never appeared in it, which, Stacey, was not your most brilliant idea of all time. But this might be a better concept.
Stacey Kelly:
That was supposed to be a fashion channel featuring other fashion bloggers. But yeah, I don’t want to really be on video. I like being behind the camera. That’s the issue. Right? How do I make my YouTube channel when I’m not in it?
Dane Golden:
We’re going to help you figure that out. We’re going to help you figure that out.
Gwen Miller:
See, I just seem to remember this pitch being like it was all just like the sunglasses and you’re shooting the sunglasses. And I was imagining like they maybe they talk to us with a voiceover. It became a whole thing in my head is all I’m saying.
Stacey Kelly:
Oh my gosh. Well, I was a child back then. It might’ve been that.
Dane Golden:
So, diving more into the equipment side of the studio that you’re building in house, which I think is just such a specialty. It’s really interesting that you do this. What goes into it? What goes into a build out? First of all, let me ask this question. Maybe this is not even one you’re going to talk about. What technically is a studio? Is it just an empty office? Is it something on the campus of the office? I know most people are not in offices right now, but let’s imagine it’s in the future when everything’s back to normal. What does the room look like?
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. So, at every company I’ve been at, basically we would first find a designated spot in the same company space where we could film, like where we could have enough space to have at least like a nine-foot seamless background and be able to film that with two people. So, you need a pretty good size room for that. And then on top of that, ideally you want to be able to have soundproof walls. So, that’s a bit of an investment. But just getting that padding in so that you’re always having the best sound quality and don’t have to worry about it.
Stacey Kelly:
So, on the very low end, I’ve been at places where it’s in real startup mode and you’re literally in a closet. And you just were in startup mode, so we just have to figure out with what we got, and that’s totally fine. And then I’ve been at big places like Viacom where we had access to a separate studio on a different floor and we could just use that as needed and have that designated for. So, it just depends on the budget and what the brand is. But generally for most brands that are in startup mode, it’s usually a very small closet or conference room and just finding a way to cover that wall so that you have really good sound around you the whole time.
Stacey Kelly:
To answer your previous question, all of this stuff that I’m talking about actually, again, it’s stuff that brands don’t really think about because why would they. But yeah, investing in a team and investing in equipment is something that is grossly overlooked. Because a lot of times I get a lot of RPs, and they’re like, “Well, since you’re digital, you can just do all of them. You can just do all the roles. And you can just use your phone camera.” And I would say that’s one of the biggest mistakes. I’m sorry I’m answering your previous question, but I think that’s one of the biggest mistakes is putting all of this … It’s not sustainable for one to two people to necessarily be multiple roles to make a high production value piece of branded content for long term.
Gwen Miller:
But same thing with equipment, right? Yeah.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah, so to answer the equipment …. yeah. Sorry. So, to answer the equipment question, totally depends on your style, your budget, your distribution platform. If you really want to be in startup mode and not invest that much. If your audience is on TikTok and you just want to do super lo-fi, not highly produced. Usually these are with solopreneurs that I’ve worked with. If you’re just talking in front of a camera with a simple light and a phone camera, that will do. And you can do really fun, quirky storytelling or jokes types of things. You can do anything with TikToks and do it with a phone.
Stacey Kelly:
If you want a YouTube series, that’s where you’re investing a little bit more. I’ve seen YouTubes obviously where [inaudible 00:31:01] blog. But as a brand, if you want a YouTube series, investing in a DSLR or a mirrorless type of camera like the Sonys and quality lighting and definitely quality mics, that is all stuff you cannot skimp on with YouTube. And especially with sound.
Stacey Kelly:
I’ve worked with brands where they’ve been a little bit more established, but on the very low end, you can spend like $5K, $5,000, to start. And then I’ve seen up to $25,000 and then probably more. I’ve seen $50,000 for really bigger brands. But in terms of investing in your startup. If you want a YouTube series, you have to get quality, and especially quality mics. You could even skimp on okay kind of video. But once you have bad sound, your audience will think that you’re …
Gwen Miller:
You’re done.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah, you’re just done. They’re going automatically think your brand is not high quality because of the sound more than anything.
Gwen Miller:
Right.
Stacey Kelly:
And that’s a tip from the filmmaking side. I learned that working in Hollywood. Because you can make The Blair Witch Project with crappy visuals, and that just works for the storyline. But if they had bad sound along with it, people would’ve just thought, “It’s low budget horror” and write it off, whereas the sound makes everything, so you have to invest in that.
Gwen Miller:
For sure. I always like to tell people, if you have to prioritize, if you have a limited budget, the first thing you invest in is sound. Look, iPhone cameras are decent at this point, and you can always open a window for light. So, the first thing you invest in is sound, the second thing you invest in is lighting so you have more flexibility of where you can shoot, and then the third thing you invest in is a camera.
Stacey Kelly:
Now obviously if you’re a brand, you probably should just invest in all three because you got a budget and you want people to think high quality thoughts about your brand. Whereas a regular person might want to portray the image of being a little bit more like “I’m doing this in this basement or just friends” whereas a brand needs to be a little bit more professional looking. Right?
Stacey Kelly:
Exactly.
Gwen Miller:
So yeah, I think all these things. And the thing that I also think that I want to make sure that we touch on here, because this is a big one, is that I don’t think brands fully always understand the time commitment it takes to make video. They’re just like, “It’s a 10-minute video. It’s going to take 10 minutes, right?” Wrong. Can you give us a realistic idea of what time commitment it’s going to take to actually make these videos?
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. So, I would say first it’s always about your location. So, if you want your entire series shot in front of a backdrop, and it’s the same setup, you can easily batch shoot probably four videos in a day, like four quality YouTube videos. That’s what I’ve done for many different brands. And that includes equipment set up time. You have to think about that. It takes time to set up equipment, set up the sound, setting up the look for the different types of people and who’s in front of the camera. So, none of this happens in 10 minutes just because it’s a 10-minute video.
Stacey Kelly:
And even if you’re the fastest person setting this up, it’s still four videos. And I always recommend batch shooting a bunch. But four videos in one day can easily be a 10-hour day or a 12-hour day with all of that. So, you always want to be thinking about that. If you want multiple locations, if you want to be outside of that, if you want to be there in that studio space but also on the rooftop and down the street with, I don’t know, the ice cream shop behind you having a street vibe and having urban feel, that is definitely going to take some time. Because now you’re setting up the camera and possibly a moving, roving light and the sound in different locations. And that time spent moving is eating up time out of the day. So, filming videos is never just one quick and easy like one and done because this is simple and short.
Stacey Kelly:
Even TikTok videos. When I was at Viacom, I would produce a month’s worth of content for TikTok in two days, but they were all super short, like 15, 30-second videos. Right? And they were super short. But because we had props and we had jokes and we had timing. This was the TikTok world at the time. It was all about entertaining Gen Z and making them laugh. So, we were doing very short skits. But even with very short skits, now you got props involved. So, now you got to walk around with the props in different locations.
Stacey Kelly:
And so, I would say if we did 30 pieces of content, that would definitely be two to three days right there, even though it’s short and on TikTok. You know what I mean? So, all of that, it feels like when you watch the final product, of course it feels like it’s easy because if it’s done right, it’s supposed to. But that is the final what you’re seeing. The actual process of making something look easy, whether it’s for TikTok or whether it’s a TV show, runs the gamut. It’s always going to take time to set that up and to get the shot and make it look right and sound right and feel right for the final product.
Dane Golden:
And here’s a rapid fire question. In 15 seconds or less, what platforms are businesses not thinking about maybe but they should be thinking about?
Stacey Kelly:
Oh my gosh.
Dane Golden:
Quick, 15 seconds.
Stacey Kelly:
100%, video on LinkedIn. Video on LinkedIn, 100%.
Dane Golden:
All right.
Stacey Kelly:
There’s not enough businesses on there. LinkedIn will push your video out to more people, and you can get so much more traction if you do original videos on LinkedIn. It is such a wide … I don’t know why more businesses … I tell everyone, go on LinkedIn. People are on there. You’ve got, I don’t know, a half-a-million people that are on LinkedIn. And the more that you push out videos, the more that that algorithm will actually help you. I have done it and…
Dane Golden:
Okay. Other platforms, what other platforms? Go. This is a real test here.
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. So, in terms of just other … So definitely TikTok for video, another really good algorithm, more because it’s not just for teenagers anymore. And it’s a really great algorithm for pushing you. If you go out there, it’ll push you out to more people as well. So, I’ve heard brands are scared of TikTok or think it’s just for kids. It’s not. Go on TikTok. Put your brand out there. Do it. Do it today. You will definitely get more traction if you’re on TikTok right now.
Gwen Miller:
Yes.
Stacey Kelly:
That’s for video. Then I also like Clubhouse which obviously is not video. But brands are starting to just express their brand values and give value added content like crazy on there. So, that’s helping brands a lot that I see. That was a bonus.
Dane Golden:
Fantastic. Stacey Kelly, this has been a great, great example of what branded content is, telling us all the ins and outs of it. How can people continue their education about it by finding out more about you, following you on your Instagrams and other places?
Stacey Kelly:
Yeah. So, mostly you can definitely follow me on LinkedIn. You can follow me on LinkedIn, just my name, Stacey Kelly, and on Instagram, @thestaceykelly. And I’m starting to post more about how to post your own content and how to do hacks around it. And I also share case studies of past brands that I worked on on LinkedIn. So, people are really learning a lot about how I actually produce these videos on LinkedIn. And then can I share my website?
Dane Golden:
No, no. Of course you can. Of course you can.
Stacey Kelly:
So yeah, you can go to my blog at staceykelly.co. That’s C-O, not dot com. And you can also sign up for a checklist to see how your content is doing by signing up at staceykelly.co/checklist, and you can get that for free.
Dane Golden:
And we’re going to have these links in the description of the podcast. But I’m just going to spell out your name, S-T-A-C-E-Y K-E-L-L-Y. No E at the end of the Kelly. So, S-T-A-C-E-Y K-E-L-L-Y, right?
Stacey Kelly:
Yes, dot C-O.
Dane Golden:
All right. Dot C-O. All right. Thank you, Stacey Kelly.
Stacey Kelly:
Thank you.
Dane Golden:
Thank you. My name is Dane Golden with my cohost Gwen Miller, and we want to thank you, the listener, for joining us today, right, Gwen?
Gwen Miller:
Yeah, Dane. Doing this podcast with you is like getting to audit a college course on video marketing with great new teachers every single week.
Dane Golden:
We bring it for our listeners. And the only one thing we do ask of our listeners, Gwen, just one thing, is we ask them to click those three dots on their app and give us a review. You can do the stars, of course, but I want to actually know what you think about the podcast, what you’d like to see more of. Just put that right in the Apple Podcast review. Gwen and I do this podcast and our various other YouTube videos and projects because we love helping marketers and businesses just like you do YouTube and video marketing better. Thanks to our special guest, Stacey Kelly. Thank you, Stacey.
Stacey Kelly:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. This was so great. I love talking with both of you. I could talk with you guys for hours, so thank you.
Dane Golden:
We loved it. Until next week, here’s to helping you help your customers through video.