In January I said 2023 would (finally) be the year of video in school marketing.

But there’s more to it than just getting your phone out and taking a few shots.

I’m not an expert on videography, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking at school marketing videos – most recently as a judge in the ‘fun video’ category for the Inspired School Marketing Brilliance Awards. So here are my thoughts on what works, with some links to winning videos for inspiration…

1. Keep it short

Videos can get across a lot of information quickly – 3 minutes of video is the equivalent of reading a whole page of A4, which is probably more than most people will take in. So you can do with a lot less. Don’t be frighted to edit long talks or conversations, especially if people repeat things. If you need to be longer, think about breaking it up into 2 or more videos.

Take a look at this video – it’s only 43 seconds long…

2. Think about your audience

Always keep focused on who you are talking to and what they need to know. If you’re recording a video for parents, keep jargon and discussion of your job roles to the minimum. If you’re recording a school recruitment video focus on what makes your school and the job different, not your school development plan for the next 5 years.

This video would be a technical challenge for schools to reproduce but it’s great to see how they’ve learned from TV! Yes, they do discuss teachers but in a way that the audience will understand!

3. Think about the soundtrack

One of the least thought about areas in many videos is the soundtrack – it often seems to be the last thing added and stock audio can grate. Here are 2 different approaches – one school recorded its own, the other spent a lot of time getting a soundtrack to complement the video.

 

4. Tell a story

If you’re going to create a longer video it’s important to create an story that engages and brings people in. This was my personal favourite entry, although it didn’t win a prize overall. 


5. Use humour

And finally, done well, humour can be very effective across cultures. Here’s a good example!