At DPK Public Relations we have gradually been adding more tools to our arsenal and wanted to share some of the results with you. When I started in public relations with Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, we often advised clients of the benefits of a corporate video. It game them something to loop on the video displays in their tradeshow booths and was a nice leave-behind or follow-up for meetings with prospective customers.
But they were complicated and could be pretty expensive. I remember one we did for an energy company cost upwards of $17,000 for shooting, producing and editing -- not even counting the time for the account team to script it, coach the client and supervising the shoot.
Now that same video can be done far more efficiently and quickly -- and the results can be seen by the world -- for a small fraction of the cost of the typical corporate video 15 years ago. The editing suite is simply some software (Sony's Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0) that cost less than $100. The camera is a nice but not fancy JVC HD video camera that has an internal hard drive. We've also purchased a light kit and high-quality microphones to keep the picture and audio quality up to standards.
The bottom line is that I believe this should now be standard equipment in every public relations practitioner's office -- right alongside the laptop and telephone. Every PR person should be competent with video to deliver maximum value to clients. Writing remains critically important for reaching and influencing publics, but video can be far more powerful than the written word.