Elevate your annual report by creating an impact video
Producing an annual report is no small feat. Months of planning, writing, reviewing, and designing goes into it. (How many months, you ask? The answer is at least three to four and we break that down here.)
And after all that work, you have this incredibly impactful document filled with insights and stories that truly showcases your efforts and the difference they’ve made. Then it’s distributed, either physically or digitally, to the board and attendees at the AGM and uploaded to your website.
Now what?
All of that time and effort should lead to a final product that has a longer life span than one event and higher visibility than being buried deep in your website.
One of the ways non-profits and associations can get more value from their annual report is by creating an impact video that brings the stories and data to life. For more insight on this, we asked our trusted video marketing partner, Janine Harris, founder of Keyring Media.
“An annual report is months of effort and showcases a full year of successes,” says Janine. “Video is just another medium to share that information and those stories.”
An impact video doesn’t replace the written report, it elevates it by bringing some of the information to life. For example, an impact video could be an interview with one of the storytellers. Or, it could highlight some of the data and statistics, which can be difficult for the audience to understand in print — even when visually represented.
“People process visuals faster than they process written text so video gives you a way to explain complex things more efficiently, making it easier for people to get it,” Janine explains.
An impact video can be used in many different ways. The most obvious is as a companion to the report on the website but it doesn’t need to stop there. It can also be uploaded to YouTube — which is one of the top search engines — featured on your social media channels, and even embedded in email newsletters to increase reach. Each medium can then point back to the digital PDF report on to your website for audiences that want to know more.
The important thing to remember is that an impact video is not a recap of the entire annual report, but a highlight of a specific part, an extension of some of the content, or a deeper explanation of a difficult concept.
In other words, it’s a companion so keep it short.
“You definitely want to grab attention in the first 30 seconds and then the ideal duration is under two minutes. People often think that two minutes is too short but audiences can gain a lot in that amount of time. You can get a remarkable amount of information into two minutes.”
Janine Harris is the founder of Keyring Media, a video and animation studio that specializes in helping organizations communicate complex ideas clearly and with impact.