1714 – Crafting Compelling Brand Videos with Brandmagnetic’s Mariana Henninger

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0:58with us right now it's mariana henninger mariana you are the ceo and founder of brand magnetic i have to also say that you're an emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker i want to i'll ask you about that in the course of our conversation uh but your website is brandmagnetic.com mariana thank Thank you so much for joining us. Hey, great to be here, Josh. All right. Yeah. Please tell us what you do, the impact that you have with Brand Magnetic. Yeah. So I am 100 % focused on this thing called brand videos. So brand video is a two to four minute video that tells the parts of your story that resonate with your audience.

1:38It really is all about creating that emotional connection, accelerating trust. You know, we talk a lot about no like and trust and we're like the no, you know, people are aware of us and they get to know us, they're hooked. There's the hook. And then we want them to get to trust so that they can buy from us super fast. And then we forget the like factor, right? It's like, why would I choose to work with this person? Why would I choose them over anyone else? And that's where understanding who that person is, their values, their mission, what makes them them, what drives them when there's resonance there, when there's connection, when there's like a feeling of this, this is a friend of mine.

2:14This is somebody who knows who I am and gets me, that's how we build trust faster. So I help folks, entrepreneurs to create a two to four minute brand video as a conversion tool for their business. Now, why video? Why is video so much more impactful than to say written copy words on a page? I think Josh, you could probably answer this question as. Oh, I know, but I want your take on it. Anyone who's been around me for any length of time knows I love short videos. I think it is just so underused, underutilized, and so powerful. All right. But I'm more interested in your answer. Well, you know, video is a medium that not only we connect with, because when most of us, when we're chatting with somebody, we're looking at them, we're, we're, there's so much that's not communicated in words.

3:06And, and a lot of that is our facial expression, our language, our vibe. And then in the brand video, I talk a lot about compelling visuals. So if we were to sort of illustrate most of us at work, most of us would be kind of in front of a laptop or an iMac or whatever the case may be. But when we're really tapping into the power of visuals to communicate emotion, we're looking at metaphorical visuals, non-literal visuals. These are kind of the things that I teach in Brand Video Academy. These are the things that really help us go from being analytical about something to just being carried away by a journey and by that story.

3:44In sort of scientific terms, it's called narrative transportation. It's when you shut off that part of your brain that's thinking dollars and cents, that's thinking, can I afford this? Can I, do I have time for this? Is this the right fit for me for all these other sort of logistical reasons? And all we're thinking about is like, this is it. This is what I need. This is my person, you know? And so really using visuals, using music, using all of these amazing layers of video to bring that person to that emotional state. And to me, the superpower of the brand video is that everything else that they see from you, every single social media post or email that you send their way, every other touch point that comes after the brand video that should kind of live at the top of your funnel is seen through the lens of that brand video.

4:36So now they're, when they see you, when they see Josh, it's like Josh, their friend and Josh, whose story they know and Josh, they've resonated with and Josh, who's Josh and not Joe and not anybody else. Right. I think we've all seen examples of when this has done very, very well. You know, you think about like, even like, you know, like I think about like American Ninja warrior and like the packages that they've put together or, you know, some of the contestants, you know, and they've got the piano music in the background and, you know, they've got the, you know, the playing with the kids and all this other stuff.

5:11And sometimes I think, you know, you can get cynical about this stuff and like, oh, come on, I know what they're doing, but it still works. It absolutely works. Even if you think it doesn't work. Even when it's cheesy, it works. It's crazy. It absolutely works. Absolutely. And, and so what are the elements of like, you know, like if we were to say, well, listen, here are the main things that are kind of the components of, you know, this two to four minute video that, that, that are going to be impactful as compared to, I think, which is easy for a lot of us to do is just do a simple talking head video, right.

5:50Where you're just, you know, looking directly in the camera, you're talking directly to the viewer and there's no cut shots. There's none of that other stuff. Yeah, no, first of all, that is still a powerful way. So, you know, as much as what I work with my students with is producing something high end, producing something really beautiful, that's very layered and sophisticated. Honestly, if you're, if you're not doing anything just to do that is super powerful. So I don't want to diminish the power of showing up on camera and sharing your story. By the way, another example that I love to think about is Shark Tank.

6:23They also do this a lot. And guess when do the sharks ever really react to something? It's when that person, when do people cry on that show? It's when they share that story. And then all of a sudden for the sharks and for everyone else, it's like, oh my gosh, look at this person behind this business, right? Look at what drove them to do what they do. Now all the pieces sort of fall into place when you hear that backstory. But anyway, to answer your question, what are the components of a brand video aside from just you being on camera. It's really thinking about compelling visuals. So the first part of the story is the most important.

7:00It's the core story. It's the part of your story that resonates with your audience. It's really understanding two things. We wanna ask ourselves, what feeling do we want our audience to have after watching our brand video? And the way you answer that is not by guessing, it's by really talking to your audience. It's really understanding what are the components that need to be in place emotionally for them to be ready to buy from you. Sometimes it's like having the confidence that they can do it. Sometimes it's feeling like they're going to be taken care of and they're going to be coached and they're going to be in good hands and they're going to be in the hands of somebody they trust.

7:38This is why we talk about trust, right? Anyway, so for everyone, it's a little bit different. Oftentimes it kind of falls into this sort of universe of feelings that I mentioned. But the core story is then, again, the parts of your story, understanding what resonates with your audience, what's the language that they use that you also can use that sort of aligns with what you've been through and what you're passionate about, and that you know will kind of create that connection. The second part that isn't available if you're just speaking on camera are the compelling visuals. And so most of us, when we're working, we're kind of in front of a laptop, we're in front of a computer.

8:16And that is a very boring visual. So we want to try to think about the visuals that sort of express those emotions. And this is what any good documentary or film will do to create that sort of narrative transportation is to understand what visuals can create, can evoke those emotions. So a lot of it might be in nature. A lot of it might be, you know, non-literal visuals. So to give you an example, I have a student who is the podcast teacher, but ironically, she doesn't have a podcast herself. She just like does it really well and has done it for other entrepreneurs. And so now she's teaching you how to create your own podcast.

8:57And so she, she came to me and she was like, well, what's my story? I don't have a podcast. Like, what can I possibly say? And I asked her, so what's one of the questions that we kind of went over was what's your hobby? And she was like, well, I love jigsaw puzzles. And she kind of went on to other things like, okay, jigsaw puzzles, perfect. Because you're looking for things that have movements. So when you're thinking about a jigsaw puzzle, you're like, you're moving the pieces around. And then very metaphorically and beautifully, a jigsaw puzzle is something that you go from chaos to something beautiful that's like connected and put together and make sense.

9:33And you have a roadmap to get you there, which is exactly what she does with the entrepreneurs that she helps create a podcast that she takes them from being confused and chaotic and having pieces all over the place and not knowing what they're doing, not having a roadmap to crafting this awesome thing that's put well together. And she's going to hold your hand. So the idea that she loves systems and she loves organization, all those things we tap into, you know, you might have an overcome story where you've overcome a challenge where you might have a passion story where you're like incredibly obsessed and passionate about what you do and all the aspects of it.

10:08So those are, those are the two main components, obviously, you know, a good, good editing is kind of an entire day that we could talk about good editing, but you know, the right music, the right sort of when, when do you cut a shot? All those things are kind of a bit more advanced, but those are the two really important components. Yeah. And so someone might be listening to us and they go, oh my gosh, yes, I totally would want one of those. I wish I could. I wonder what it takes to get that done. So if we want to just be very realistic about kind of like levels of quality, can you talk about maybe what's involved in regards to production, investment, time in order to get a really well-polished video versus, I don't know, is there something in between?

10:57And what are the consequences potentially? And also just kind of figuring out the business plan of should someone move forward with this? Yeah, no, absolutely. That's a great question. So I primarily work with entrepreneurs to create something that's really high-end and polished and really beautiful and where we are kind of carried away into the story. And by doing so, we're not thinking about the weird visuals. There's nothing kind of distracting us. And there's a reason why there's so many movies in Hollywood that are successful that are really well done versus like there's a once in a decade Blair Witch Project, which is kind of shaky and all over the place, right?

11:40We love being transported. And that's kind of what high-end cinematography will, that's the power of it right that said um i've also created a course where you can learn to do this on your phone if you're not quite ready for that bigger investment of a more high-end brand video um i've been able to like break down how to film this and how to edit this all on your phone again we started this conversation by saying even if you're going on camera and that's it on your phone to share your story that will have impact so you know just by adding some visuals and kind of understanding how to, how to craft your story in that way.

12:19That's going to be a conversion tool. All of that sort of included in my program, but you know, essentially you want to think through those things to get to a brand video, whether it's done on your phone or done with a cinematographer that comes and films you for a day. Um, and so if I were to talk a bit more about this latter option or this latter sort of a way that I work with clients, it's, uh, we, we craft your core story, we really understand word for word. We create a script. You don't memorize the script, but you do practice it. So it sounds conversational on camera. And then part of that interview too, is not only you're going to read the script to camera, but then you're also, I'll, I ask a couple of questions just to get a bit of like the non-scripted sort of conversational aspects that aren't always in the script and just kind of make sure it sounds like really, again, really conversational.

13:11You want to feel when you're watching a brand video that you're having an intimate coffee with someone, that they're sharing something that you're getting to hear as a friend. And that's sort of the tone that we want to bring to it. From start to finish, it's about a four to six week process. You know, editing is a little bit like building a house where you don't want to rush it. You don't want to use cheap materials. You really want to take the time to craft it. And so we don't sort of rush the edit so that you have something quick. We prefer to just spend a little bit more time on it. And this part is basically me with my team of editors going back and forth.

13:49I'm used to working on documentaries for months. And so I'm literally looking at every single second of a brand video. I'm like, let's crop this shot here. Let's add this little thing here. The music isn't quite right. Let's try again. Let's look for something like this. Anyway, so it really is like a labor of love to get it to that perfect place. Um, yeah, so like a four to six week timeframe is, is sort of the minimal that we work with. Um, and then to, sorry, to answer your second question though, Josh, which is really important is like, how does this work in your business? Right. Where, where does it go?

14:23Should I, should I answer that? Or do you want to ask? Yeah. You know, and, and there's the other thing too, you know, when we talk about, you know, kind of the ROI is also setting realistic expectations, uh, in regards to what would it cost to do this? So everything is either going to be an investment of time and or investing in experts that can absolutely produce a very polished product because this is just what they do. And there's rules of video and video storytelling that there's just, I mean, it's going to be really, really hard to master, even with a really good guide, which can kind of point you in the right direction.

14:56But just helping someone who's maybe they're on the edge. They're like, I might do this, but I kind of want to know, am I ready for it? I don't want to waste anyone's time if this is clearly not on my budget. But maybe, again, we could think about, you know, kind of what that path forward might be. Yeah, for sure. So I typically work with founders, with businesses that are in kind of like the multi six-figure, seven-figure range in their business. This is a sort of a high-end advanced marketing tool, the brand figure that we work on together. and it is when you're ready to in to invest in something that's differentiated that's going to make you stand out from everyone else like when I sort of left the documentary world uh last year to start this business I was just blown away you know we see sort of branded video which is what the corporates I've worked on some projects with like Microsoft and Hulu and Wells Fargo and they call it branded video because it's supposed to look kind of documentary it kind of does it doesn't totally look like a commercial, but those are incredibly detailed, you know, like there's a lot of nitpicking, sometimes way too many cooks in the kitchen.

16:07And so unfortunately, if you're an artist and you kind of know that term, the work suffers a little bit sometimes when there are too many opinions involved, but either way, I was blown away at how the actual like really essence of documentary filmmaking isn't used in the entrepreneurial space, isn't used in the business space, not nearly enough. You've got some folks like Russell Brunson who invests in feature-length documentaries for his business that bring an incredible ROI. I follow a coach that says immersion causes conversion. There is the power of being immersed in somebody's world, immersed in their ideas and kind of their emotional journey.

16:55But in terms of ROI, again, so if you're kind of in the multi-six figure, maybe going on to the seven figure range, this is a tool that will set you apart. It's a little bit what people do on social media, I call it micro dosing, where people have to watch a lot of your content to kind of try to do, listen, you're making your audience do all the work. When they have to piece together who you are through the value that you're giving constantly. Like you're constantly doing value, value, value. You're the expert. Great. We get it. You're the expert, but who the heck are you? Right. So let's, that's what the brand video does.

17:32It packages your story in a way that you're not focusing on your story throughout your marketing process. This is the one video that they need to watch in the beginning of your funnel. Once they come into your universe and everything else that they see after that, every email, every social media content, everything else is framed through the lens of that brand video. And what that means is like, they've gotten to know you. So now when they get an email from you, like I said before, it's Josh, not somebody else. It's Josh, their friend who they've gotten to know. You see the difference? Yeah, yeah.

18:06And again, I don't mean to, so let's just talk generally for the industry. Are we talking something that's generally, you know, for a great, well-polished three to four minute, is it something that's normally more than$25 ,000 or around in there? Sorry, I don't want to make you a talk. No, that's fine. You want to know the price. So as of today, in September, my price is$10 ,000 for this and it will go up. So it really is because I want to get as many case studies as possible and folks coming in. So that's the price point at the moment and it will go up over time. Yes, it will. For your level of skill, that is actually for anyone that happens to be catching this quickly in 2023 when we've recorded this, get on that.

18:54Mark out of your website, brandmagnetic.com. When somebody goes there, what would you recommend they do? Well, there isn't much for you to see at the moment because we're revamping the website and creating a lot around it. But right now what there is, is the brand video starter guide. It's the thing that will most be of value to you as you start thinking about your brand video and your story, all the things we talked about today, how to pinpoint the things that resonate with your audience, how to think about compelling visuals, how to bring that all together. That is the brand video starter guide that you can grab right there on brandmagnetic.com.

19:27Yeah, excellent. Mariana Henninger, thank you so much for joining us again. Once again, your website, brandmagnetic.com. Mariana, thank you so much. Take care of that. Thanks.

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