5-1/2 Questions to Ask Before Making a Video: The Pagano Video Method

5-1/2 Questions to Ask Before Making a Video - The Pagano Video Method 

Question 5: What Do We Want the Audience to Do?

Welcome back!  We're almost at the end of our discussion of the five and-a-half questions you need to ask in order to make a great promotional video.  I call it the Pagano Video Method.  It works!

So far, we've created a back story, and we've learned about the company and product, established our goals, and learned something about the target audience.  With all that in mind, we move on to one of the most important questions:  What do we want the audience to do after viewing the video?  

Until you answer this all important question I can guarantee you one thing:  Your video won't get results. 

For an effective promotional video, there has to be something you want the viewer to do.  We've touched on it a little bit in question 3, which deals with intent, but now we want to get the viewer to take action.  We've already wowed them with our story, the benefits of the product and so on.  Now we have to tell them what to do. 

Possibilities include...  

• Buy our product
• Call for information
• Visit our website
• Tell your friends about us
• Like us on Facebook
• Write to Congress

You can even ask the viewer to check back next week for another video.  What you want them to do is up to you, but the important thing is you have to ask them to do something.  In marketing, it's known as "the call to action." 

If you're doing your job well, you'll have a script that's powerful, a video that's worth watching, and you'll have given the audience lots of reasons to act.  But they won't act unless you tell them what to do.  Tell them!

And with that, we've covered the five basic questions in the Pagano Video Method.  But there's one more -- an important yet funky half-question that we'll get to next time.  See you then!

Best, 

Fred Pagano

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The Pagano Video Method has worked for companies all over the world!  There's only one place you can get it -- that's from Brown Cow Studios of Boston.  Visit our website or call me personally at (617) 230-4019.  

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Want to learn to write snappy advertising copy? Sure you do!  

Download your FREE COPY of Fred's Advertising Clinic today 

and learn the tricks the pros use! 

Download Fred's Advertising Clinic Here

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Copyright 2013 Fred Pagano & Brown Cow Studios of Boston.  All rights reserved.  This copyrighted article may be redistributed provided all text, credits, and this copyright notice are intact.  Please let us know you've linked to us.

Ski Vacations in July!

Yes, it's that time of year again.  Temperatures across North America are in the 80s and 90s.  Girls in mini skirts ... guys in shorts.  Flip flops, cookouts and watermelon.  It's summer time.  And you know what that means...

It's time to start booking ski vacations!

Why don't roofers advertise when it's snowing?

Many businesses are seasonal in nature. Swimming pool installation, home remodeling, and beach resorts are just a few examples.  Most of these seasonal enterprises spend the majority of their advertising dollars during the high season, which is entirely reasonable.  After all, the time to sell new roofs is during the summer, when the weather is good and putting them up is easy.  So, we don't hear a lot of roof installers advertising in December, just like ski resorts don't advertise in July.

But maybe they should.  

One of the hazards of seasonal-based advertising is the tendency for customers to forget you during the off season.  After hitting them with your message all season long, suddenly your advertising disappears.  Customers forget you.  And when it's time to start your next high-season ad campaign, it's just a little bit less effective, because you have to re-educate the consumers all over again:  Who are you?  What do you do?  Why buy from you?  After all, your customers have had six months, and maybe longer, to forget you!

That's why off-season advertising should be part of your marketing mix.  Odds are good that yours will be the only swimming pool company that's advertising in January.  As a result, you'll have the market to yourself.  Second, you'll continue to build important brand awareness throughout the off season; customers won't forget you.  Third, it can save you money if your off season coincides with the media's off-season: There's plenty of discounted ad inventory available in January after the holiday ad rush is done. 

And finally -- this is a big one -- you might just be lucky enough to generate some cash flow when you need it most. 

Next time in BullShots! we'll talk about some possible off-season campaign ideas for TV, radio, and the net.  Meanwhile, answer this question for me:  If I book my ski vacation now -- in July -- how much will you save me? 

Off-season advertising is easy with Brown Cow Studios!

On the web, TV or radio, we've got great ideas to keep you first in your customers' minds.

To learn more, get in touch with us at (617) 230-4019, or send Fred Pagano an e-mail message. 

Match Your Imagery to the Clients You Desire

In last week's edition, I wrote about matching your style to the industry niche in which you operate.  We continue the theme this week with a discussion of how to match imagery to attract the clients you desire. 

All images have meaning, and they mean different things to different people.  A photograph of a luxury car has a different meaning than does one of an economy model.  Though both cars, the intrinsic messages are different. 

The same is true for video clips and even the written word.  You can call your pet a pussycat, or you can call it your "house lion."  Though logically, both refer to the same animal, there's a difference in meaning.  You'd expect the "house lion" to be a hunter on the prowl, wouldn't you?  Not so much for a pussycat. 

When creating videos or print ads, imagery must be carefully chosen to match the audience's mind set. 

I was recently discussing plans for a new series of videos with one of my clients.  We talked about imagery and how to appeal to the clientele he wanted to attract.  We knew that people attending the local community college would have less need for his college planning service than those who would attend an expensive private university.   Once we made that determination, choice of images to use in his video was easy -- we needed shots of kids graduating from Ivy League schools.  Shots of middle class families were important as well.  The idea was to include footage that his target clientele would relate to. 

Take a look at the two photos of industrial sites on the left.  Though both depict factories on a lake, the intrinsic meanings of the images are vastly different.  Which factory would you rather live near?  Why?


So when you're developing your next project, remember to match the imagery to your target market. 

Brown Cow Studios of Boston specializes in producing high-quality

targeted audio and video content.

To learn how we can help your business be more successful, 

get in touch with Fred Pagano at (617) 230-4019. 

Fred's Advertising Clinic Part 4: Build Desire

"Wow! I want one of those!"

"That thing sounds great!"

"Yeah? So what?"

Have you ever seen or heard a commercial on TV or radio and had one of those reactions? I have. A notable one happened just a couple of months ago.

I was watching TV, and a spot for a new sandwich from KFC came on. Well, it wasn't really a sandwich, because it had no bread. Just two slices of chicken with other good stuff in between. Precisely the kind of thing this manly man wants more of!

And when I saw that spot, my mouth watered.

I even remarked out loud, "Oh yeah! That's the stuff!...that sounds wonderful" I hope I wasn't drooling, but there's a chance I was. Ask my wife.

Was it a good sandwich? I can't tell you because there's no KFC near me at which to get one. But it sure sounded good when I saw that spot. I wanted one. A lot! And the next time I'm in the mood for chicken for lunch (which admittedly isn't often) I'll definitely get one. Because....

"That thing sounds great!"

Now what about the last reaction? "Yeah, so what?" I had one of those reactions recently too. I've long since forgotten what the product was, so don't ask. What do you expect, anyway? I should remember the name of a product I have no interest in? Life's too short.

A successful spot doesn't just grab your interest. It makes you want the product. It makes you want to install new flooring, have a beer, buy a new car, eat chicken or serve your kids yogurt. It gets your saliva dripping. In other words, it follows the fourth part of our five-part advertising formula: It builds desire.

How do you build desire for your product or business? Well, first think about your product. Who is it targeted to, who is your customer? What need does your product fulfill? Then ask yourself why your customer would want yours in particular. What sets it apart from the others? When you know the answers to these questions, you're on your way to building desire for your product.

Let's take a look at the example we've been using in this series, dry erase markers. A pretty boring product, so what can you possibly do to build desire for them? Think about it. Who uses them? Students and teachers in school, business executives giving presentations, and many homes have dry-erase boards in their kitchens so family members can leave messages. That's pretty much the market for dry-erase markers.

Let's zero in on business use. What would make me desire a particular brand of marker? Suppose it could help me win a promotion, or impress my boss. Or streamline work flow or make the job easier. Any product that fills one of those needs is desirable.

A marker that can get me more money and a promotion? I'll have to look into that!

On the household front, dry-erase markers help people keep in touch. They remind Dad to pick up Junior after the soccer game, or to grab milk on the way home from work. I want my household to run smoothly, and if dry-erase markers help do that, then I want dry-erase markers. Lots of 'em!

When it's time to write the copy, key in on those desirable traits in your product or business. Tell the exec how markers can help to win a promotion, or tell parents how they can run the house better. Be creative. Have fun.

Need to build desire for your product?

You can do it yourself. Or you can have Fred do it.

For spots that sell, come to BrownCowStudios of Boston.

Fred's Advertising Clinic Part 2: Grab Your Audience's Attention!

We live in a fast-paced world...


Don't let this happen to you!


Save 65% and get Free Shipping too!


Chuck Norvell, What a Great, Great Guy!


In a different way each of these lines grabs your attention and makes you want to know more:

• What's so great about Chuck Norvell?
• Tell me how I can save and get free shipping...
• No, I wouldn't want that to happen to me, so how can I prevent it?
• How can I slow the pace of my life?

There's nothing fancy or splashy about these leads. They're quite simple. But they all have one thing in common: When you see them you want to know more.

That's what the first part of our advertising copy formula is all about -- Grabbing your audience's attention. There are many ways to do it. You can tease the audience, offer a benefit, or entertain them. It doesn't matter as long as you accomplish one thing -- Your audience has to want to know more.

Let's suppose we are writing a spot for dry-erase markers. I picked this product for our example because I've got a couple of them on my desk, and they're fairly mundane as products go. Nothing really sexy about dry-erase markers, is there?

So how do we get the listener to pay attention to our dry-erase markers? Let's brainstorm ....

Dry-erase markers come in many colors ... they are odorless ... the one I'm looking at right now has a fine point, but others have thicker points ... they erase easily ... Hey, I like that. one -- They erase easily. Can we use it? Let's try some approaches that tie into easy erase-ability:

• We can ask a question: "You're only human, right?"
• We can make a statement: "Everybody makes mistakes."
• We can set up a scene: "It's the biggest presentation of your career. Don't blow it!"
• How about a testimonial: "Dry-erase markers saved my job!"
• We can present the unexpected too: "Dry erase markers don't taste very good."

Each of these attention grabbers gets your customers wanting to know more. "Yes, I am only human -- what about it?" "What can I do about my mistakes?" Some tug at them on an emotional level: "The last time I blew a presentation the boss yelled at me for an hour!" And the last one is just too weird not to want to know more.

The key to each is that they hook you, they tease you. They make you want to know more. As a copy writer, hooking your audience is the hardest part of the job. Once you've done it, the rest of the copy flows naturally.

Your next step is to keep your audience's interest and to build upon it -- to get them interested in your product. We'll talk about that next time in part three of "Fred's Advertising Clinic."

Need to get attention for your product or business?
Fred Pagano's Brown Cow Studios of Boston creates attention-grabbing commercials,
Internet ads, product demos and presentations that sell.
Visit the Brown Cow Studios website at www.BrownCowStudios.com to learn more.
Or send an e-mail to Fred Pagano - Fred@BrownCowStudios.com

Fred's Advertising Clinic - Part One: The Formula

Years ago I had quite a chuckle when I saw a poster on the wall of a friend's office. It read, "Mankind's greatest need is to edit another person's copy."

If you've written any sort of copy - from a business letter to a commercial to an article for a science journal - you get the joke. You might write the world's greatest copy (hmm ... sounds like me), but once you submit it to the client or your boss, it's torn to shreds (hmm ... how could they!). Maybe the edits are an improvement; perhaps they're not. The only thing we know for certain is that your copy will be edited.

People who run small businesses, as always, are up against a special challenge. Not only do they have to write their own copy, but they have to edit it too. With a limited budget for advertising time, it's especially important that their commercial copy gets results.

In this series we'll take a look at copy writing as both an art and a science, and explore some techniques for writing great copy.

Unlike many things in life, writing ad copy can be broken down into a formula. This formula has been used by professional writers forever because it works. Are you ready? Here it is:

Attention - Interest - Desire -Action.

It's known throughout the ad world by its acronym, AIDA, and it's a blueprint to effective copy. Just follow the steps in order.

1. Attention - The foundation of all effective ad copy is to get your listener or viewer's attention. So you write a catchy headline, or ask an important question. Amuse them, question them or shock them. How you do it doesn't matter as long as you grab your audience's attention.

2. Interest. Once you've got your audience's attention, your second step is to keep it and build interest in your message. In part, you're building on your attention grabbing lead, and you're setting the audience up for the next step.

3. Desire. This may be the most important step of all, because if you don't build a desire for your product or service, your audience won't want it. I find it's often the hardest part of the formula to write.

4. Action. This is the windup. It's time to get your audience to act, so tell them what they should do. Buy your product. Visit your store. Call for more information. Or cross only when the light is green. If you've done the previous steps well, that's exactly what your audience will do.

In principle it's a very simple formula. But some take years to master it, and others never quite do. That's where good copy writing becomes an art form.

Start practicing the formula now by applying it to daily life situations. Use the AIDA formula as the structure of your next letter or e-mail. Try it on your next sales call, or even with friends and colleagues in everyday conversation. Instead of just talking about last night's game over the water cooler, see if you can instill a desire to attend the next one or watch it on TV. Just follow the formula and see what happens. It's good practice.

Check back for the next article in this series, as we take an in-depth look at step one.

By the way, did you notice this article uses the AIDA formula? I'm sneaky that way. Thanks for reading!

Fred Pagano's Brown Cow Studios offers complete creative and production services. From great copy writing to creative audio production and lots more, let the creative herd at Brown Cow Studios of Boston help grow your business. Send an e-mail to Fred@BrownCowStudios.com, or visit our web site, www.BrownCowStudios.com.

Tell Us Where to Find You!

Here's a fun little exercise, and the results will surprise you.

Take a look at the circular from any major chain store that you've got hanging around the house. Maybe one that was mailed to you, or one from the Sunday paper.

Now see if you can find any indication of where the nearest store is located. I'll give you 2 to 1 odds that you won't find any locations listed at all!

The big box stores are the prime offenders, but the problem extends to department stores and smaller chains too. The stores seem to assume you already know (how? by osmosis?) where their stores are located. Personally, I find it aggravating. And from a marketing standpoint, it's foolish.

I get a circular in my Sunday paper every week for OfficeMax. They used to have a store a mile away, but closed it about two years ago. I like OfficeMax, but haven't shopped there since the local store closed. Why? I don't know where they are! But they keep putting a circular in my newspaper anyway.

If you're lucky, a chain store might, in its circular, provide a telephone number you can call to find its store locations. "Press 1 to find a store within 10 miles of your home; Press 2 to find a store within 20 miles..." Frankly, It's not a call I'm about to make.

I find this amusing: When a department store, and Macy's is a prime example, runs a sale there's always a section on the last page of the circular that lists all the exceptions in very small print - "domestics not available in Hanover, shoes not available in Brockton" and so on. It's written to satisfy the lawyers, not the customers.

With a little rephrasing that back page disclaimer could satisfy both the lawyers and the customers:

Hanover open daily 9-9 (domestics not available); Brockton daily 10-10 (shoes not available).

Wouldn't that be useful information?

If you're serious about increasing sales, don't forget to tell your customers where to find you!


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Coming Up Next Time: "Fred's Advertising Clinic - Part One"

Brown Cow Studios of Boston offers complete creative services

including copy writing, scripting, and advertising production.

Please visit our website at www.BrownCowStudios.com

Radio Excels at Positioning, So Use it to Sell Your Image

Some advertisers, especially shops that are locally owned, are addicted to "price list advertising." Their radio commercials drone on and on about what's on sale for how much. You've heard them. They sound like this:

"This week at Super Mega Value Shop Mart ... Denim jeans for guys $19.99 ... for kids only $12.99 ... SuperMegaValueShopMart brand laundry detergent just $1.99 ... Dog collars 89 cents or three for two dollars! And SPF 30 suntan lotion $3.99! ... Fifty paper bags for only 39 cents!"

So let me ask you a question: Do you remember those spots or are they just part of the commercial jumble? Five minutes later, do you remember what was on sale for how much? Do you even remember the name of the store? Right now, without looking back, can you tell me the price of the laundry detergent?

A list of anything more than one or two items and their prices is too much for a radio spot. Our memories aren't that good. To catch all that information requires strict attention. But radio listeners are a distracted bunch. We do most of our listening while we drive or are getting ready for work in the morning.

If a listener pays attention at all, he or she probably ends up wondering, "Did the announcer just say there was a sale on bananas or hammocks? Or was it ham hocks? $29.95 is a good price for hammocks, but way too much for ham hocks! ... Hmmm, I'd like to get a red bandanna ..."

Here's where radio ads work: Positioning and image building. If your store is the low-price leader, your listeners need to know that. But you don't have to give dollar and cents proof that you've got the lowest prices on No. 24 rectifiers. The only people interested in the price of No. 24 rectifiers are those who are in the market for them. And that's not most people.

Just tell people your prices can't be beat.

To make your positioning stand out, give yourself a nickname or a slogan that tells the world what you're all about. Then plug the bejeebies out of it in every spot, every time.

• For the lowest prices, it's Rectifier Rick's.
• Larry's appliances: The low price kings.
• Nervous Ned! What a great buy!
• With the money you save at Joe's garage, you'll get that limo in no time.
• Bill's exterminators: Bugs. Dead. Now.

If addiction to price list advertising is hard for you to kick, here's the cure: Buy a newspaper ad and put all that item and price stuff in it. Then, tag your radio spots with "find out what the Low Price King has on sale this week - see our ad in the daily newspaper."

Take advantage of radio's theatre of the mind effect. Use it to position your company's image in the listener's mind. Hit them often, hit them hard, make it interesting. Soon, everyone in town will know your prices are the lowest. Or even better for you - they'll think they are!


Need help positioning your business with radio spots that sell? Come to Brown Cow Studios of Boston. Creative services to complete production and media buys. Get in touch with Fred@BrownCowStudios.com today!

Go Back in Time to Find Something New

Recently, I borrowed a couple of books about business writing from the library. I had hoped to find some good examples of moving sales letters and the like. But as I browsed them, I was quite disappointed. The letters weren't special; they were the kind of business letters we see every day.

They were a far cry from the letters in a two-volume set I came across a few years ago. The letters in this set, written in the 1920s or 30s, were creative and moving. To my 21st Century eyes, they were powerful and exciting.

Chances are they were typical business letters for their era, and had I perused the books when they were new I probably would have thought they were not anything special. But these days, they seemed refreshing.

A few weeks ago I was browsing radio station sites on the Internet, and came across one that was reusing a tag line from the early 70s. Back then, San Francisco top-40 station KYA was billing itself as playing "Music for the People." But in 2010, it was a news-talk formatted station that was using it. Their version was simply, "... for the people."

How appropriate that line seemed to be for a news-talk station today. "Of the people, by the people, for the people." I get it.

So all this got me thinking about some of the great ad campaigns of the past and how they might be adapted for use today.

For example, iconic 60s artist Peter Max once licensed his art to 72 corporations for use in their marketing. Though Peter is still going strong, his work isn't as ubiquitous as it once was. But it's still powerful. A campaign based on a similar, psychedelic style would seem refreshing today.

What about the anti-drug propaganda movie "Reefer Madness." The crazed, totally out of control drug users it portrays seem laughable to us today, but the producers were absolutely serious at the time. So what if an advertiser, let's say one who sells soap, were to spoof Reefer Madness: "This could happen to you if you don't use Cleano!" Or if you don't drink Red Bull. Or sleep between cotton sheets.

A great idea then is a great idea now. Find one, update it and make it your own. You'll have success.


For more great advertising ideas, come to Brown Cow Studios of Boston. Our full creative services and professional production bring in the sales. Drop a note to Fred Pagano and learn more!