September 30, 2025 • 48 mins
In this insightful episode of the Stuck In My Mind Podcast, host Wize El Jefe welcomes Tim Bradley—co-founder of Pennant Video and creator of the Video Marketing Trifecta—for a masterclass in modern video marketing, authentic storytelling, and building impactful campaigns that drive real business results. Whether you’re a startup founder, B2B marketer, or any leader feeling “stuck” in the noisy world of digital marketing, this conversation is packed with actionable wisdom, practical frameworks, and a fresh perspective on connecting with audiences in today’s attention economy.
A Marketer’s Journey: Tim Bradley’s Origin Story
Wize El Jefe kicks off the episode with a warm welcome and immediately dives into Bradley’s journey. Tim recounts his early days, growing up with a dad who always had a camera at family gatherings, sparking an early love for visual storytelling. From making stop-motion Lego movies in the backyard as a kid to entering the world of YouTube just before its Google-era explosion, Tim found himself at the intersection of creativity and technology right as digital video was transforming how brands communicated.
Leading Creative Teams: Lessons in Fast-Paced Storytelling
Tim shares lessons from leading a 25-person creative team, detailing how high-speed, high-stakes content creation in video marketing taught him the importance of intentional storytelling. Unlike long-form narratives, he explains, most marketing videos have just 60 seconds to grab attention, build trust, and empower decisions. One key takeaway? No single video can do it all. Instead, the secret lies in delivering the right story, with the right information, at the right moment along the buyer’s journey.
The ‘Aha’ Moment: Why One Video Is Never Enough
For many businesses, the common mistake is packing too much into one video—trying to appeal to every stakeholder, answer every question, and check every marketing box. Tim describes how this leads to bloated, unfocused videos that end up being more like boring PowerPoint presentations than compelling narratives. His solution was to develop frameworks (and learn to say “no” to client bloat!), ultimately leading to the creation of his flagship approach: the Video Marketing Trifecta.
Introducing the Video Marketing Trifecta
Tim lays out the Trifecta framework—a strategic, repeatable system that breaks down B2B video content into three distinct but connected pieces:
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Anthem Videos: These flagship “why we exist” stories live atop websites and at the center of major events, rallying audiences by tapping into beliefs, values, and mission. They’re designed to speak to the audience’s heart and reflect the viewer’s aspirations back at them.
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Explainer Videos: Where anthem videos build emotional resonance, explainers serve the mind—clarifying “what do you do?” and “how do you do it?”, tailored for different roles, industries, or pain points.
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Endorsement Videos: The gut check and validation, where satisfied customers become storytellers. These testimonials are powerful trust-builders, showing prospects people like them succeeding with your solution.
Together, these three content pillars differentiate, demonstrate value, and validate your brand, stitching together a buyer’s journey that doesn’t depend on just one magical piece of content.
Solving Real Business Problems—Not Just Creating “Flashy Content”
Tim makes a compelling distinction between flashy, high-production-value videos and genuinely effective content. The former might get attention, but if it isn’t audience-first and aligned with real buyer concerns, it’ll fall flat. Authentic storytelling, built on knowing your customer, using consistent frameworks, and grounding content in actual buyer needs, is where true ROI happens—especially in complex B2B sales that can last up to a year.
Learning from Mistakes: Focus and Adaptability
From failed attempts at all-in-one videos to wasting resources chasing every social channel, Tim is candid about how early missteps shaped his approach. Now, his focus is on being highly intentional—meeting audiences where they are, focusing efforts on platforms and moments that truly matter, and ensuring each piece of content has a clearly defined role.
The Power of the Mid-Funnel: Unlocking Hidden Value
One of the most powerful insights from the episode is Tim’s emphasis on the neglected “mid-funnel.” While brands invest heavily at the top (awareness/advertising) and bottom (customer nurturing/thought leadership), the critical middle—where trust is built, decisions are made, and engagement happens—often gets overlooked. This is where the Video Marketing Trifecta shines, filling a gap ignored by many in-house teams, especially in long B2B sales cycles.
Actionable Advice for Startups and Small Budgets
Tim’s advice isn’t just for For
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:44):
Welcome to another episode of Stuck in Mind. Today's
guest spent nearly 20 years storytelling and
strategy. Tim Bradley is the co. Bradley is the co founder and the creator
of the video marketing traffic, a framework that helps framework that helps B2B
brands close
curiosity conversation. He's worked with giants, he's worked
(01:06):
with Phillips as well as Phillips as well as startup, scrappy startup.
Proven that the right one doesn't just look good, doesn't just look.
It drives real business, drives real business results. So get ready for a great
think about content and the stories and the stories your business is telling. Let's
welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Tim Bradley. Tim Bradley. Well, thanks
(01:27):
so much for having me, man. Thanks so much for having me. Pleasure's mine, man.
Pleasure's mine, man. Excited? I'm excited. Let's jump right into
this. Tim used in video
marketing into this world. Yeah. Yeah,
man. I love that guy, man. I like that question. I, I actually like to
throw, I actually like to throw my childhood, my childhood where I was sort of
like privileged enough that my dad, that my dad.
(01:52):
Right, yeah, so. Right, yeah. So is that I always saw him with that, I
saw him with that family gathering family guy and eventually when
I was old enough, when I was old enough, he let me try it on
for size. Make little videos in the backyard of my bro
or my brothers or work with Legos. Stop motion, stop
motion. Things like that. Just kind of getting creative, like creative at
(02:13):
your bug or whatever. Bug or whatever age. But then
yeah, it was, but then, yeah, it was, you know, going through school and I
got out real world, so. Real world, so to speak. It was just
like at the turn of, at the turn of, you know. Right. So just
like this is 2011, let's say. And I was just kind of
saying just kind of that, you know, you know, emergence of YouTube, emergence of
(02:35):
YouTube player, you know, player. You know, I think it was pre,
pre Google at that time, you know, still maybe known as like the, the destination
for cat videos. Right. But these, you know, the, just the
digital landscape was, was really evolved at that point. And so
that was also the same time as like DSLR cameras were becoming a bit more
like affluent in the marketplace. And so I was just really fortunate to be,
(02:57):
to be there at that moment to just like, you know, sort of take that
bet on, on the medium and that bet on myself and just haven't really
looked back, you know. So you, you've
led a 21st, 25 person creative team. What did those early
experiences teach you from teach you about storytelling and, and
pressure. Yeah, I mean they go hand in hand, let's say.
(03:19):
But no, I mean it's working in video marketing
is such a unique landscape that, you know,
not too dissimilar to advertising. Most of the stories you're trying to
tell are in that kind of, you know, 60 second, two minute
sort of sweet spot, right. Where it's like you're trying to
equal parts like stop a, stop a scroll on social media
(03:42):
or like, you know, really try to build trust with, with an audience
with each of the sort of stories you're telling, you know. So I learned
pretty early that like no single video can be
that, that silver bullet to answer all of the questions, you know. So like
what's the sort of. So alternatively, what's the best way to
give the right amount of information at the right moment in
(04:05):
the sort of buyer's journey? And the way you're engaging with an
audience and answering those mission critical
like who, what, where, when, why in
individual sort of assets or videos. Right.
So that was always the, like the
evolution of not only the industry, but of myself and how I approach
(04:27):
storytelling is like how to deliver the right sort of
moment to empower decision making. Right. That's kind of our
whole mantra is like, we're here to help these marketers empower
decision making for their audiences and prospective
buyers, you know. Yeah. So what was that moment? You realized
one video is never enough? Well, a
(04:50):
lot of it was would be when, you know, sort of God bless them, but
that these marketers would be like, we need to talk to this
stakeholder and make sure we have buy in from, from this, you know, all
these internal people and make sure that we're answering all of these questions.
And suddenly this, this story is very bloated, you
know, and therefore there's no like tension and there's no
(05:13):
sort of like moment of resolution. It became just sort of like a
PowerPoint presentation of like, feature, feature, look
at this, look at me, look at us. And it's like, if I'm the audience,
what's in it for me? Or what do I care? You know, So a lot
of it was just going through the motions of creative
and sort of my younger self of saying
(05:34):
early days saying, yes, like, sure, we can do that, we can do that, we
can do that. And that didn't actually benefit the audience, you know, and
so now having like frameworks and structure and guidance
and sort of bit of maturity, right. Like that just that
advisement goes a lot further I think now.
So how did the insight lead to creating the video marketing
(05:57):
trifecta? Yeah, I mean that we've sort of been talking a lot about it here
where it's just that when you put yourself in
the audience's shoes early and often like you're
creating this work on behalf of the audience. Like sure, the brand
is you know, paying my, you know, paying our invoices, right? So
like we are doing this work on behalf of the brand. Brand but like really
(06:19):
it's about the audience and like how can we answer the right questions at the
right moments to ensure we're building trust and ideally
this leads to a sale. Like as you mentioned in the intro, right.
Like we primarily work with, with business to business
types of organizations and brands and they often have these
incredible incredibly long sales cycles. Right? Like it's not
(06:42):
like you're on Instagram, you see, you see a piece of clothing or
something, you like shop now buy it, you're done. It's like no, these are
like big investments that require a lot of different
decision making from like, you know, the user to like
this, the CFO and the CEO and like all these, all these
stakeholders and therefore these sales cycles tend to
(07:04):
be like nine months a year. So it's like how do you,
how do you stay top of mind and like provide
engagement and value and again, empowering decision making
along what will become like a relative journey. Right
from the moment of like oh, I've heard of you to a year later, I'm
going to buy from you. Right? So for that reason we, we
(07:27):
developed the video marketing trifecta as you described. And so this is
really a framework to help marketers. So
product marketing, product marketing, customer advocacy marketing,
you know, marketing directors, CMOs, sort of depending on the size and
scale of the organization to help them develop
a set of videos that support that buyer's journey and
(07:49):
answer those top line questions like why,
why do you exist? Why, why should I care? Right? Like
then what do you do and how do you do it? And then
who is this for and where? You know, so that the, the, the
framework of the trifecta is, is sort of double, is
mostly aligned in deliverables. So like anthem videos
(08:12):
that express that why you do what you do, why you're different
explainer videos, what you do and how you do it and endorsement
videos AKA customer stories or testimonials. Right, that,
that third party validation of who is this for and where.
So ultimately the biggest takeaway with the trifecta is it's a
framework to help brands and organizations Differentiate
(08:34):
themselves, demonstrate value and
validate their offering through the third party. Right.
So yeah, and then from there, you know, it's because you're working in
the most sort of preferred medium of video
by audiences everywhere, platforms everywhere. Right. Like that, that
investment in the, in the library and in the assets and in the, the B
(08:57):
roll and the identity overall has such like a
impressive, like ripple effect across an organization
in all their digital channels. Right. Which is really powerful to, you
know, for any marketer, but certainly for us as the creatives to see like that
impact of, of the work having such an imprint on,
on a brand or an organization.
(09:19):
Were there mistakes you made early on that shaped how you approach campaigns
now? Sure. I mean, some of it is a bit
of what I talked about earlier of, you
know, you try to fit every square peg into the round hole
of answering every type of question and suddenly you, you know, instead of a really
concise and engaging and sort of emotionally enriching
(09:43):
like one to two minute video, you have, you know, five
plus minute like slog of a piece. Right. And it's like
no one really wants to watch that. So a lot of that was just being
sort of assured in, and the amount of
content we were creating and the time into creating it.
You know, project over project, you just sort of learn what's best.
(10:05):
Right. I think the other part is like trying to engage
with every possible audience type
or every possible buyer across every, every channel possible.
You know, it's like that sort of like overall saturation
of like your time and resources is like really hard to,
(10:26):
to manage and stay engaged and actually provide value across all
these community sets. Right. And so that tighter
focus on, on like your intention and like where you can
really show up and be, provide value and be sort of authentic
to either yourself or to the brand. Right. Is, is something
that I've really embraced, especially when we founded Pennant. Right. It would just
(10:48):
like exist for, for these reasons.
So, so do you find it that you, you need to catch
the audience attention quickly, as quick as possible?
Yes. And so the beauty of like
the, the, the, the video marketing trifecta is it's meant to exist
(11:09):
just below advertising or just below awareness. Right.
So it's like I forget the data, I should really pull it up for these
things. But it's like you need to make an impression with someone
like whatever it is, like 10 or more times
before they even recognize what you are and certainly before they even
click on whatever it is. Right. So the way we describe it is
(11:31):
like you've put in the effort in advertising, like
whether it's banner ads or you know, wherever it is on social media or
email or et cetera, and you've, you've sold the click. So
like someone has clicked on whatever that thing is and now they're on your
destination, which by and large is a website, right?
From there, how do you, how do you continue with that engagement?
(11:54):
Build on trust, build on that sense of belief,
like, and answer all those FAQs, the who, what, where, when, why. Right.
And so video being the most powerful medium for that,
right? Like, because you can just express so much through
tone of voice and, and the aesthetic and creative direction
and you know, just, just all the parts that go into,
(12:16):
into an impressive video, right? It really just like holds
its weight from there. And so now you're, you're building on that, on that
intention, right? Or that, that sense of belief at
the. I will express though that like, which is part of what you're talking about
here too is at the bottom of the, of the sort of buyer's journey of
the funnel. You, you've, you've built. Like you've, you've,
(12:38):
you've sold them, you know, like meaning like they're, they're now working with you but
they want to stay included and
feel like they have, have a, have a voice in the sort of relationship
too. And so that sort of bottom of the funnel, affinity building
or nurturing is also really important. And like most brands
nowadays have internal teams, creative teams to support that
(13:00):
initiative, which is really important and powerful because like these
internal teams can, can develop content for
the thought leadership or the, or the podcast or like the
episodic work or even employer branding and recruiting
and internal communications, like these things that are
really important for these creative teams to be in house because you're,
(13:22):
you need to be top like at the front line of like what's happening, you
know. And so that, that type of creation is also really
important, you know, but like as far as the, you know,
catching attention, it just sort of depends on where you are in
that, in that buyer's journey. Right? And so that's why it's important to be like
as thoughtful and careful as you can when you're creating to,
(13:44):
to provide the most value, you know.
So how did working in high stake industries like healthcare and
cybersecurity sharpen your perspective? Yeah, a lot of
it is understanding that there's not necessarily like one
type of audience or like one buyer for any of this stuff, right?
It's like there's usually that, that, that early
(14:07):
adopter or that person that's like, has a really clear pain
point. Like they, they need to, they need to solve this challenge.
And often it's some sort of like time or efficiency
type of situation. And they're the ones that are looking for a solution
to help them in their day to day, like to just assure that they, that
they're sort of like day to day life is that little bit easier, that 1%
(14:29):
easier. Right? Yeah, but they're typically not the ones that
hold the purse strings or like have the real like buying decision per
se, you know, and so that's another level of
stakeholder or, or person that you need to
not persuade but to, to build trust with. You know, and then
there's usually the, the leaders of the organization that have the, the
(14:51):
sort of final say on a lot of these, these investments, you know,
so it's just like taking the right amount of care early. When
you're strategizing like what we need to create. It's, it's,
you know, what you don't want to do is just like, just create something
and pretend it's spaghetti and throw it on the wall and see what sticks. You
know, you want to be really thoughtful and intentional to like, okay, this,
(15:15):
this, this Persona, this type of buyer has these
challenges and, and this is the, the thing that they're looking for to
solve their, their, whatever their, their pain is. Right.
But who are the people in their, in their peripheral or in their
ecosystem that we also need to encourage and build trust with? And like how
do we strategize our creation to, to
(15:36):
assure we're talking to the whole, the whole gamut, you know what I mean?
But be efficient with the creative too.
Okay, so going back to the video marketing traffic, the
anthems explainers and endorsements, how do they work together?
Yeah, So a lot of them is like, so you've sold that click through
advertising or whatever. That anthem piece is the
(15:59):
best thing to have like on the, on the front page of your website or
the top of the fold or whatever. Or you often when we're using them
like at trade shows and in sales kickoff
situations or even in recruiting and
onboarding. Right. Like it's, it's really that, that flagship
asset that, that piece that in like
(16:20):
ideally like 60 seconds speaks to the values and
that why you exist, you know, why you're different. And
so it's a really unique challenge because, or
creative challenge because it's like while it is all about
you and the organization, it's meant to be a reflection
of your audience, of your buyers, you know, so it's like how do you, how
(16:43):
do you align all parts in this really like
mission driven, anthemic rally cry of
sorts. Right. And so it really speaks, I like to say it speaks to the
hearts of the audience. And that's like that, that early
carrot on the string to like draw them in to like want to learn more.
It's like, oh, I see my, I see myself reflected in this
(17:03):
now. I want to learn more like what is it that you actually do and
how do you do it? You know, and so that's that explainer video
from there. And those are while well, not meant to
be like, you know, just sort of bunch of
stats or a bunch of features. It's, it's more like, oh, this is how
we solve these challenges either in roles or
(17:25):
in certain industries or segments, you know, so there's typically,
typically several explainers, you know, depending on like what the,
what the end user or buyer desires. You know, there's often
different pain points and so therefore you need explainers for each, you
know, and then from there. So you've, you've sort of spoken
to the, to the minds of this audience at that point, right? Yeah. And
(17:48):
so the last part is that sort of like that gut check that, that
validation of what you're hearing. And so that of course is
best coming from, from a third party, AKA customers. Right.
So that endorsement, that testimonial that
who this is for and where storytelling is really powerful
to get closer to closing or to close it, close
(18:11):
a deal or an opportunity, you know, so we're often encouraging,
you know, our clients to have numbers like
several endorsements because there's different scales of
businesses, different industries, different users. Right. And so to
have unique, and they're all unique, so to have these unique stories
in a really sort of ideally sort of like cinematic way that's like you're on
(18:34):
site with production, you're, you're showing, you know, the beauty of
these brands and really propping them up as like heroes in their
own way. Right. It's such a powerful way to show that and provide
that validation for a new buyer. Yeah,
absolutely.
Why is the mid funnel gap such a massive blind spot for
(18:56):
brands? Everybody's focused on
awareness, which is obviously really important because
that's, that's how people become familiar with you, you know, so advertising
has its role and it always will. You could argue that the AI
is kind of like condensing a lot of this because, you know, use ChatGPT and
you can get comparisons like very quickly. But regardless,
(19:19):
like advertising and awareness have their role. And then
as I spoke about the, the internal teams are taking care
of that. That drumbeat at sort of the bottom right, like
this is the update of this event. This is a new hire, this is,
you know, a new customer we secured. This is our
sales metrics. This is whatever it is, right? Like the internal
(19:42):
communication and the general drumbeat of thought
leadership is also really important. But
that's because you already have a customer here and then you don't have a
customer yet at advertising. So this mid funnel is
where the sort of like, I don't know, it's kind of like the battlegrounds
for continuing to build engagement and attention and certainly
(20:04):
building trust. You know, like it's, it's a big jump from I've
heard of you to I'm a customer, you know. So that, that mid funnel
is, is really mission critical. And so we found that the
challenge for these internal teams is that they're, they're
very busy taking care of the C suites or like the
CEOs like internal communications and, and external
(20:26):
communications needs the sales teams and whatever sort of like
quick turn thing that they need in the moment. Their HR and recruiting
needs, their event coverage. Like all these moments that beat the
drum at the bottom of the funnel. But they don't have the like
necessarily the time or bandwidth or even
creative prowess to sort of like level up
(20:47):
their production value to support the mid funnels that
mid funnels needs, you know. So yeah,
sort of tout pen in a bit like that's why we exist is so that
we can help empower decision making on behalf
of the, these brands and marketers in the mid funnel, you know, that have
these, these incredible gaps. Especially when you consider
(21:09):
the sales cycles of that nine to 12 months, you know.
So what's the biggest difference between creating flashy content creating
versus like, like you've been talking about solving real business problems.
They both have their place, you know, and it's really like that
again that intention and really understanding your
audience. Like if you, if you're leading, if you're leading a
(21:32):
creative initiative, first of all, video first because
it's the most powerful medium but with your
audience's needs and desires in mind and
just really keep that at the forefront as a, as a creative, you know, it's
like I understand it's really, you know, I've been creative for my whole
career and it's like I want to try this tool or express this thing
(21:54):
or do this and this and it's really easy to sort of like put
yourself so much into the work because I mean it is like
an extension of us. Right. However, you have to be doing
it on behalf of the audience otherwise it's going to fall flat. So
if in the moment or in the, in the sort of like
that buyer's journey I keep talking about, if the flashy and
(22:17):
sizzly and sort of eye catching eye candy is what's going to
draw someone in to like garner that early attention,
go for it. But then you also need to follow up with that with
something that's a bit more enriching and empowering for decision making.
So they're all, I mean, I'm obviously biased, but it's all
important. And that's why like building a framework and
(22:39):
a journey is really impactful in the, in the near
term and long term. How can startups
with much smaller budgets apply these same
principles? Yeah, I mean we're very fortunate nowadays that we all
have access to, I mean reasonably all have access to good tools
by way of, you know, we're all getting comfortable talking to these little
(23:02):
green dots on the computer, you know, like largely courtesy of the
pandemic. Right. But have these tools we all have, we all have the phone,
right. So a lot of it is like putting in the practice
and habit building and like understanding, you know, the
things like delivery and posture and, and
cadence and, and a lot of it's like written too, right? Like how do you,
(23:24):
how do you write something that is like punchy and engaging and,
and full of value for the audience, you know. So I think
starting and just showing up and doing it
consistently is a really big help because then you understand
first of all you will invariably get a feedback loop like you'll,
you'll get feedback from your audience and that will help you refine. Like,
(23:47):
all right, where are my gaps in my communication? Or like where can I
sort of push some chips, slip some creative chips into like providing even
more value or more enriching or higher production value to this
moment because it's really like important in what we're trying to do
as we build our business. But the other thing is like, you
understand as an, on an individual level sort of like the
(24:10):
challenges of creating good content or unique content or
differentiated work. And so you'll understand from
a budget standpoint like year over year, like how much can and should we
invest in this medium, appreciating that the
library that you're amassing is going to sort of compound over time.
You can build on that. So it's like you got to just start
(24:33):
and learn and be exposed to how the
mechanics of these things work, and then you can understand where to best invest
either your time or resources or budget.
Right. Towards building value for your audience. Yeah,
absolutely. Even with me in the
podcast with AI and everything,
(24:55):
I've kind of used it to help me structure and cut time
on preparing for the show, because had I not, it would take
me hours to get everything done, do the research, get
questions, everything. So I've used it to help
and speed up the process and not spend so
much time doing all that. And it's helped,
(25:18):
I feel it's helped the production of the show so much more
now because now it's. I
just, I just. The fact that if I feel like it's just so, so
much more efficient and, and how I get to produce the show and, and
how I get the show flowing. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's,
it's interesting too because, like, I look back on my career and there's,
(25:41):
there's always these, these moments of, of evolution, and this is, this is
certainly one of them. So, like, as a creative, you. It's not that you
have to, like, embrace every single thing, but you at least have to, like, be
familiar to, of, like, limitations and, and what
sort of like, I'll just sort of lean
in here. It's like we, you know, we use
(26:03):
the Adobe suite, right? So it's like, you know, you have access to
AI transcriptions. Are they perfect? No, you
have access to, to, you know, closed caption animation
as an example. And it's like, are they perfect? No, but it's like,
it does help you speed up a lot of what
(26:23):
has traditionally been like, a bit more tedious process. So I certainly think
it's helped, like, shave down time or efficiencies on, like,
the tedious stuff, you know, but the, like, overall
AI generated, like the overall generated
materials and video and etc. It's like I, I always just
caution. Yeah, again, like, who, who
(26:47):
is this for? You know? So, like, is this helpful to the audience?
Is this impactful in their decision making? If it's
not, like, you're probably just doing it for your own, your own sake,
like time savings or whatever. And like, while that's not like,
wrong or invalid, it's just like, is that,
is that shortcut, building trust? Because often shortcuts
(27:09):
don't really build trust. Right. So I always just caution when you're
considering, oh, I could just do all of this in AI. And while
that's not like by fact. Wrong. It's just like,
is that helpful or important to, to the audience? And is
that, is that building trust towards, towards your overall goals? You know?
Yeah, understandable. And, and, and even though I do
(27:31):
use AI, I don't use, I use it as the tool that is. I don't
go and like, yeah, I just help me be efficient.
I didn't, I don't use it to like these people create
complete episodes of. But it's all AI. Created,
generated. Yeah, that's fine if that's how you want to do it. But I
enjoy this this much. This part of the, the other
(27:54):
creation, being able to be, to have this conversation and ask you these questions and
learn. To me, that's important. Like, that's why I, I
enjoy doing my podcast the way it is. I mean,
yeah, this isn't like a novel idea or anything or statement, but it's like,
like video is the closest medium to a
conversation and like you and I are fortunate enough to be like, having a real
(28:17):
time conversation, but like, not everybody can and especially when as
a business you're trying to scale and like reach
audiences globally. Right? So like, video is such
a powerful medium to be able to do that, but if you're,
if you're delivering it in a way that is like
not, not impactful or empowering to, to the audience and you're doing
(28:40):
it for, for like shortcut reasons, then like,
it, it's just not worth it, you know, because it's like singularly in the moment.
It's not providing the impact now, but it's also
chiseling away on any sort of like, brand equity or, or
trust that you've, you've developed thus far, you know, so it's,
it's just like, like anything, you just got to be careful like, and take
(29:02):
care in what it is that you're creating so that it's, it's
doing its best work on your behalf, you know? Absolutely.
What's, what's one myth about video marketing that drives you crazy?
Who. Yeah,
I'll throw it back to that. Like one video to rule
(29:22):
them all. Like, there's again, there's no silver bullet to this. Like any,
no single, single piece of content can, can,
can, can do all the things, you know, and video is in there
too. But what I do obviously really like,
impassioned about video is that it can be leveraged
in so many ways. Right? So it's like you produce that, that like
(29:45):
flagship asset and let's say an endorsement video or
customer story, right? It's like great. You have this like really
pulpy and story driven
tool to support you know, the, the bottom,
that mid funnel like at close like ideally that consideration to
(30:05):
decision making moment. Right. So that 90 second piece,
really impactful. But then you can have your you know, whatever
15 second, 30 second, 60 second versions or iterations
that speak to different parts of that story or different pain
points. Right. They can be used as like lead ins to
customer events. They can, these, the imagery like the
(30:28):
single B roll can be used as animated gifs or in
B roll packages sent to media like media outlets and
public relations. Right. Or you can take static frames and
do designs because most of the content or most of the, you know
even this thing like everything can shoot like 4k 8k. So
you get like such like profound resolution for any type of digital.
(30:50):
You know, use all that imagery across, across marketing and
sales decks. Right. Or in, you know, we've had some
of our motion design art be
leveraged for trade show booths where they took that art and like made a trade
show booth out of it. You know. So there's like so many ways that it
can just be like have a real like proliferation
(31:11):
across, across a brand. Which is really the point. You know, it's like
yes, you're investing in, in this moment, this,
this particular deliverable. Oh and then I forgot the written case study. Right. So
it's like you can have, have that across obviously
your website but then that's really good for SEO and everything else. And,
and yeah, so just have such an impact by
(31:34):
like being really deliberate on, on this one, on this one sort of campaign
or this moment, you. Know, and, and like how you mentioned and
nowadays it, everybody is talking about it's
hard to create content or I don't have the right proper equipment.
And you keep bringing up the phone and some of these phones
record some great video, some great content. They're
(31:57):
able to do some amazing things with their phones nowadays. So people shouldn't
use that as an excuse not to create content and stuff.
Yeah, I forget who said it but like the best
camera is the one you have in your hand, you know. So if you have
access to you know, high end professional
stuff, like great, that's amazing.
(32:20):
We, we use it as much as we can. Not every budget can afford that,
you know, but it's like the access to, to DSLRs and prosumer
cameras is like really easy. And again like
the more time you spend with the tool, the more proficient and the more
creative and more sort of like I don't know, courageous. You
get with it. And that, that's like most of the challenge
(32:42):
is like building that habit to just use it and to get familiar with
it, you know? Yeah. What
changes are you seeing in video marketing that businesses must pay attention
to? I mean, video first is
the big one, right? It's like there's so much data from like,
Wistia and then obviously you see like, you know, everything on
(33:04):
social media from TikTok and Instagram and Meta
at large. And then of course, YouTube being the second biggest search
engine in the world. It's like video has like, certainly made
its mark. So when you're, you're looking to conceive a
campaign or content, it's like if you start with the most
challenging medium, which is video, it'll have that ripple effect
(33:26):
across everything else you're doing, written or design or otherwise, you
know, so. And also just like video it because
it's. I'm sort of been. Been describing it as like a really like, thick
sandwich, right? You got like all these parts, these layers of
complexity from the, the words and the sentiment
and the tone and the, and the creative direction and then the brand
(33:48):
identity and then the visuals and the audio and the sound design and
the music. You know, it's just like, it's so stacked and delicious,
but it's like once you do that, all those, all those parts can be used
across different parts of your digital ecosystem. So the investment of
like, time and effort, like, sort of immediately provides that
roi, you know. So, yeah, just leading Video first is the way
(34:10):
to go. Where do you see the biggest
opportunities for B2B2B brands in the next five years?
Continuing to invest internally, we'll have, we'll have a big,
big payoff, you know, empowering these teams to,
to really be thoughtful in how they architect their,
(34:33):
their library and their, their sort of like, strategy when it comes to
video. Because it's like these, these files are not small,
right? So like, how do you, how do you invest in that organization and
using the metadata and the hashtags and whatever to like,
assure you you're building on, on that sound investment over
time, you know, so investing internally is really smart.
(34:55):
I think influencers, like, whatever, however you want to
use that term, I think will, will continue to play a role, you
know, in this sort of consumer space. Or B2C
obviously, like huge hu. Huge part of the market. So I think
B2B is going to start embracing that more too, because these
are, these are creators and like, having a creator sort of
(35:18):
mindset is really valuable. So I think there'll be quite a
bit of that and then repurposing. Like, I think, you know, people
are starting to. Not starting to. They've. They've. They've realized that
no single video or no single, like, piece of content
can work for everything. And also you should share
those investments regularly. You know, it's like we always
(35:41):
sort of get discouraged when it's like, you know, there's a lot of
effort and ambition and budget put into creating this, this
single video. They display it or promote it once
and then that's it, you know, and it's like you just. That is
such a good tool and like, you just happen to catch someone like those couple
people in that moment, like regularly cycle it through your. Your
(36:04):
content calendar or whatever, right. Like repurpose
thoughtfully and, and make sure that these are, these investments
are being leveraged regularly, you know? Yeah.
Excuse me. How can businesses make sure
their video strategy aligns with their
(36:25):
buyer journey? Love that question.
Just talking to people. So like, first and foremost, like, talk
to your, your, your whatever. You're sort of like best and brightest
and most tenured customers often, you know, because like,
like you, they're. They're always evolving, you know, and their needs are always,
(36:48):
always not like dramatically changing. But if you can stay
in lockstep with. With their intentions and where they're going as a business,
like, you'll. You'll understand, sure. Like where your
business also needs to go, but you'll understand, you'll start to recognize
the patterns and like the sort of stories across multiple customers, you
know, so having those honestly, just like the
(37:10):
relationships being strong is like always helpful, you know.
So having those type of like, calm interviews or
whatever just to sort of stay top of mind and like, understand where the
storytelling opportunities are with your customers is a big one.
Similarly, or like sort of like one step removed from
there is your sales force, right? Like, they're the ones that are on the front
(37:31):
lines, like hearing about pain points, hearing about
even objections like why people don't
want to work with you, right? It's like these are all really primed moments to
lean in and tell stories, right? And like help
persuade in a different way and build trust in a different way, you know, so
having those internal communications, especially as a marketer
(37:54):
with Salesforce is right. Will just like help synthesize those. Those
two groups and then just industry at
large, right? Like talking to. To friendly competitors or talking
to those partners, right? And sort of understanding the overall, like,
constant change of the landscape. Like these Are all really good moments for
storytelling too. And to like either put your C suite or your
(38:16):
leaders in a position to, to like have that visibility
in that moment, you know, or to partner up with, with that
partner and like tell, tell a story that benefits everybody, those two
parties at least, but ideally that audience, you know. So I think those are, those
are the, the best ways to do it. Just stay, stay, stay
like finger on the pulse of those most important people in your organization.
(38:41):
For someone who's watching or listening, who thinks we've, we've
tried video and it didn't work, what would you say?
I mean, I'd ask what, what do you mean? You know, it's like did it,
did it not work because it was sort of like
creatively either challenging or limit limiting or just like
(39:01):
really difficult to sort of like get your, your whatever your
vision into, into this sort of like although
it's not tangible, but into the, into this medium, you know, did it not work
because was it, you don't think the engagement was enough
or like the qualitative feedback was, was, wasn't resonant?
Right. So you know, having a dare to say that the
(39:24):
terms like KPIs or like, you know, these like indicators but like
most of the time it's just you weren't as clear on your own goals or
like your own sense of intentions and focus
in this moment, you know. So I think a lot of it is like reflect
a little bit and decide like, well, was it the creative or was it the
disconnect with the audience? Was this too like self serving
(39:46):
to the brand versus for the audience? Was it the channel
or channels that we deployed it on? Did we, do we only do it? Do
we only share it once? Should we have shared it a number of times? You
know, like did we get the right feedback
along the way? You know, so it's because it's so complicated. There can
be a couple different moments that it can be perceived as like
(40:08):
didn't work, you know, but that's not the right reason to like give up
on again the, the most preferred medium
by everyone. So.
What, what's next for, for Pen and Video and for the video
marketing trifecta? Yeah, I mean we've definitely seen
(40:28):
the trifecta really resonating with, especially with our
mark, our marketing clients, right? Where it's just like,
it's not like a finally or an aha. Like what I just described is actually
not like particularly like groundbreaking, but it's just, it's
really helpful when you're trying to build a journey that needs to take, take place
over a number of months. You know, so that, that, that
(40:51):
is, is our, is the IP that we're really leaning into.
But for us it's, it's like our own alignment as a, as a, as a
culture and a brand with, with organizations and, and
companies that have these values of safety, security
and sustainability. You know, like these, this, a lot of power of
three over on our side of the world. But that, that, that alliteration is
(41:13):
intentional because like these are the brands that are at the
forefront of like innovation and, and ideally like making
the world a better place through healthcare and, and you know, life
sciences innovations and through you know, cyber security
and, and climate technologies, you know, so these,
these brands that are like highly innovative, therefore they're in a
(41:34):
very competitive marketplace and they always have really interesting and
cutting edge stories to tell and they always need creative
prowess is to like help bring these stories to, to the
world or to market, you know, and for us that's like
it, you know, it's just, it's just great to, you know, helps you get out
of bed every morning knowing that you're helping empowering decision
(41:56):
making on behalf of these brands that are trying to make the world a better
place. Awesome.
What, what's your one piece of advice to a business leader who feels
stuck and feels stuck in the noise of digital marketing?
It's noisy. It's really noisy out there, you know, so I think
(42:20):
the first thing is like, what can you do to
not contribute to the noise? You know, Like, I think that's,
I struggle with this too. Like I'm on, I'm on LinkedIn
often and it's like I want to make sure when, when I'm showing
up that I'm not just like adding to the, to the noise, to the volume,
you know, it's like how can you make sure that you're showing up
(42:43):
with the, for the right reasons and intentionally and thoughtfully. And again, like
if you can put yourself like audience first always,
I think that's, that's the biggest thing. So making sure you're
not contributing to the noise would be the first. The first. The second is
like just making sure that you're engaging
and that you're, you're, you're, you're showing up
(43:06):
there not just to like throw things, you know,
throw things out into the digital whatever, like board
all of the time and just like, see me, see me, see me, see me.
It's like, well no, you need to show up and, and contribute to the conversation
and, and provide the right resources and be
part of the network. You know, like just make sure you're connecting the dots
(43:29):
in the best ways that you can so you're, you're providing that, that value
and that reason for being there beyond just like throwing
stuff out, out into the wild and contributing to the noise. So I think those
are kind of the big things and they're, they're not particularly like
tactical. Like I think that's kind of to each their own. But for
us it's like we like LinkedIn's our, our main place. It's, it's
(43:52):
where, where we show up. But I also, I love doing these podcasts because I,
you know, I have a bit of history to my career and I've
been really focused in this way for a long time. So I know that, you
know, there's expertise that I hope can provide value to
the audiences. Awesome. Awesome.
We've come to the show now, part of the show where you're about
(44:15):
to get the solo screen and you get to plug away and let everybody know
where they can find you. Website, everything. Heck
yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So I'm Tim Bradley, I'm the
co founder of Pennant Video. You can find us at pennant
video or pennantvideo.com on
the website there's a pop up that has a
(44:36):
really cool playbook called Funnel Focused and it's like, it helps
marketers in particular understand sort of where
and how to best deploy video across their, their buyer's journey across
their funnel. It's ungated, so feel free to grab that. It's a
PDF and you can find me. I'm on LinkedIn. Tim
Bradley, pennant. That'll, that'll get you there.
(44:59):
All right. Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much, Tim for being a guest. Don't leave
just yet. Let me close out the show and we'll chat. Chat a little bit
off the head, but thank you, man. He was a wonderful guest. I greatly appreciate
your time. I appreciate you too. Thanks man. No problem. Thank you.
All right everybody, if this episode gave you
a new perspective on video marketing, go check out Tim Bradley's work and
(45:21):
the video marketing trifecta. Stop wasting budget on random
content and start building trust that converts. And if you know a
founder, marketer or leader struggling to turn attention into sales,
share this episode with them. It might be the missing piece that they're searching for.
Stay clear, stay strategic, stay wise. Not your
boy wise, does it? Peace out.
Welcome to another episode of Stuck in Mind. Today's
guest spent nearly 20 years storytelling and
strategy. Tim Bradley is the co. Bradley is the co founder and the creator
of the video marketing traffic, a framework that helps framework that helps B2B
brands close
curiosity conversation. He's worked with giants, he's worked
(01:06):
with Phillips as well as Phillips as well as startup, scrappy startup.
Proven that the right one doesn't just look good, doesn't just look.
It drives real business, drives real business results. So get ready for a great
think about content and the stories and the stories your business is telling. Let's
welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Tim Bradley. Tim Bradley. Well, thanks
(01:27):
so much for having me, man. Thanks so much for having me. Pleasure's mine, man.
Pleasure's mine, man. Excited? I'm excited. Let's jump right into
this. Tim used in video
marketing into this world. Yeah. Yeah,
man. I love that guy, man. I like that question. I, I actually like to
throw, I actually like to throw my childhood, my childhood where I was sort of
like privileged enough that my dad, that my dad.
(01:52):
Right, yeah, so. Right, yeah. So is that I always saw him with that, I
saw him with that family gathering family guy and eventually when
I was old enough, when I was old enough, he let me try it on
for size. Make little videos in the backyard of my bro
or my brothers or work with Legos. Stop motion, stop
motion. Things like that. Just kind of getting creative, like creative at
(02:13):
your bug or whatever. Bug or whatever age. But then
yeah, it was, but then, yeah, it was, you know, going through school and I
got out real world, so. Real world, so to speak. It was just
like at the turn of, at the turn of, you know. Right. So just
like this is 2011, let's say. And I was just kind of
saying just kind of that, you know, you know, emergence of YouTube, emergence of
(02:35):
YouTube player, you know, player. You know, I think it was pre,
pre Google at that time, you know, still maybe known as like the, the destination
for cat videos. Right. But these, you know, the, just the
digital landscape was, was really evolved at that point. And so
that was also the same time as like DSLR cameras were becoming a bit more
like affluent in the marketplace. And so I was just really fortunate to be,
(02:57):
to be there at that moment to just like, you know, sort of take that
bet on, on the medium and that bet on myself and just haven't really
looked back, you know. So you, you've
led a 21st, 25 person creative team. What did those early
experiences teach you from teach you about storytelling and, and
pressure. Yeah, I mean they go hand in hand, let's say.
(03:19):
But no, I mean it's working in video marketing
is such a unique landscape that, you know,
not too dissimilar to advertising. Most of the stories you're trying to
tell are in that kind of, you know, 60 second, two minute
sort of sweet spot, right. Where it's like you're trying to
equal parts like stop a, stop a scroll on social media
(03:42):
or like, you know, really try to build trust with, with an audience
with each of the sort of stories you're telling, you know. So I learned
pretty early that like no single video can be
that, that silver bullet to answer all of the questions, you know. So like
what's the sort of. So alternatively, what's the best way to
give the right amount of information at the right moment in
(04:05):
the sort of buyer's journey? And the way you're engaging with an
audience and answering those mission critical
like who, what, where, when, why in
individual sort of assets or videos. Right.
So that was always the, like the
evolution of not only the industry, but of myself and how I approach
(04:27):
storytelling is like how to deliver the right sort of
moment to empower decision making. Right. That's kind of our
whole mantra is like, we're here to help these marketers empower
decision making for their audiences and prospective
buyers, you know. Yeah. So what was that moment? You realized
one video is never enough? Well, a
(04:50):
lot of it was would be when, you know, sort of God bless them, but
that these marketers would be like, we need to talk to this
stakeholder and make sure we have buy in from, from this, you know, all
these internal people and make sure that we're answering all of these questions.
And suddenly this, this story is very bloated, you
know, and therefore there's no like tension and there's no
(05:13):
sort of like moment of resolution. It became just sort of like a
PowerPoint presentation of like, feature, feature, look
at this, look at me, look at us. And it's like, if I'm the audience,
what's in it for me? Or what do I care? You know, So a lot
of it was just going through the motions of creative
and sort of my younger self of saying
(05:34):
early days saying, yes, like, sure, we can do that, we can do that, we
can do that. And that didn't actually benefit the audience, you know, and
so now having like frameworks and structure and guidance
and sort of bit of maturity, right. Like that just that
advisement goes a lot further I think now.
So how did the insight lead to creating the video marketing
(05:57):
trifecta? Yeah, I mean that we've sort of been talking a lot about it here
where it's just that when you put yourself in
the audience's shoes early and often like you're
creating this work on behalf of the audience. Like sure, the brand
is you know, paying my, you know, paying our invoices, right? So
like we are doing this work on behalf of the brand. Brand but like really
(06:19):
it's about the audience and like how can we answer the right questions at the
right moments to ensure we're building trust and ideally
this leads to a sale. Like as you mentioned in the intro, right.
Like we primarily work with, with business to business
types of organizations and brands and they often have these
incredible incredibly long sales cycles. Right? Like it's not
(06:42):
like you're on Instagram, you see, you see a piece of clothing or
something, you like shop now buy it, you're done. It's like no, these are
like big investments that require a lot of different
decision making from like, you know, the user to like
this, the CFO and the CEO and like all these, all these
stakeholders and therefore these sales cycles tend to
(07:04):
be like nine months a year. So it's like how do you,
how do you stay top of mind and like provide
engagement and value and again, empowering decision making
along what will become like a relative journey. Right
from the moment of like oh, I've heard of you to a year later, I'm
going to buy from you. Right? So for that reason we, we
(07:27):
developed the video marketing trifecta as you described. And so this is
really a framework to help marketers. So
product marketing, product marketing, customer advocacy marketing,
you know, marketing directors, CMOs, sort of depending on the size and
scale of the organization to help them develop
a set of videos that support that buyer's journey and
(07:49):
answer those top line questions like why,
why do you exist? Why, why should I care? Right? Like
then what do you do and how do you do it? And then
who is this for and where? You know, so that the, the, the
framework of the trifecta is, is sort of double, is
mostly aligned in deliverables. So like anthem videos
(08:12):
that express that why you do what you do, why you're different
explainer videos, what you do and how you do it and endorsement
videos AKA customer stories or testimonials. Right, that,
that third party validation of who is this for and where.
So ultimately the biggest takeaway with the trifecta is it's a
framework to help brands and organizations Differentiate
(08:34):
themselves, demonstrate value and
validate their offering through the third party. Right.
So yeah, and then from there, you know, it's because you're working in
the most sort of preferred medium of video
by audiences everywhere, platforms everywhere. Right. Like that, that
investment in the, in the library and in the assets and in the, the B
(08:57):
roll and the identity overall has such like a
impressive, like ripple effect across an organization
in all their digital channels. Right. Which is really powerful to, you
know, for any marketer, but certainly for us as the creatives to see like that
impact of, of the work having such an imprint on,
on a brand or an organization.
(09:19):
Were there mistakes you made early on that shaped how you approach campaigns
now? Sure. I mean, some of it is a bit
of what I talked about earlier of, you
know, you try to fit every square peg into the round hole
of answering every type of question and suddenly you, you know, instead of a really
concise and engaging and sort of emotionally enriching
(09:43):
like one to two minute video, you have, you know, five
plus minute like slog of a piece. Right. And it's like
no one really wants to watch that. So a lot of that was just being
sort of assured in, and the amount of
content we were creating and the time into creating it.
You know, project over project, you just sort of learn what's best.
(10:05):
Right. I think the other part is like trying to engage
with every possible audience type
or every possible buyer across every, every channel possible.
You know, it's like that sort of like overall saturation
of like your time and resources is like really hard to,
(10:26):
to manage and stay engaged and actually provide value across all
these community sets. Right. And so that tighter
focus on, on like your intention and like where you can
really show up and be, provide value and be sort of authentic
to either yourself or to the brand. Right. Is, is something
that I've really embraced, especially when we founded Pennant. Right. It would just
(10:48):
like exist for, for these reasons.
So, so do you find it that you, you need to catch
the audience attention quickly, as quick as possible?
Yes. And so the beauty of like
the, the, the, the video marketing trifecta is it's meant to exist
(11:09):
just below advertising or just below awareness. Right.
So it's like I forget the data, I should really pull it up for these
things. But it's like you need to make an impression with someone
like whatever it is, like 10 or more times
before they even recognize what you are and certainly before they even
click on whatever it is. Right. So the way we describe it is
(11:31):
like you've put in the effort in advertising, like
whether it's banner ads or you know, wherever it is on social media or
email or et cetera, and you've, you've sold the click. So
like someone has clicked on whatever that thing is and now they're on your
destination, which by and large is a website, right?
From there, how do you, how do you continue with that engagement?
(11:54):
Build on trust, build on that sense of belief,
like, and answer all those FAQs, the who, what, where, when, why. Right.
And so video being the most powerful medium for that,
right? Like, because you can just express so much through
tone of voice and, and the aesthetic and creative direction
and you know, just, just all the parts that go into,
(12:16):
into an impressive video, right? It really just like holds
its weight from there. And so now you're, you're building on that, on that
intention, right? Or that, that sense of belief at
the. I will express though that like, which is part of what you're talking about
here too is at the bottom of the, of the sort of buyer's journey of
the funnel. You, you've, you've built. Like you've, you've,
(12:38):
you've sold them, you know, like meaning like they're, they're now working with you but
they want to stay included and
feel like they have, have a, have a voice in the sort of relationship
too. And so that sort of bottom of the funnel, affinity building
or nurturing is also really important. And like most brands
nowadays have internal teams, creative teams to support that
(13:00):
initiative, which is really important and powerful because like these
internal teams can, can develop content for
the thought leadership or the, or the podcast or like the
episodic work or even employer branding and recruiting
and internal communications, like these things that are
really important for these creative teams to be in house because you're,
(13:22):
you need to be top like at the front line of like what's happening, you
know. And so that, that type of creation is also really
important, you know, but like as far as the, you know,
catching attention, it just sort of depends on where you are in
that, in that buyer's journey. Right? And so that's why it's important to be like
as thoughtful and careful as you can when you're creating to,
(13:44):
to provide the most value, you know.
So how did working in high stake industries like healthcare and
cybersecurity sharpen your perspective? Yeah, a lot of
it is understanding that there's not necessarily like one
type of audience or like one buyer for any of this stuff, right?
It's like there's usually that, that, that early
(14:07):
adopter or that person that's like, has a really clear pain
point. Like they, they need to, they need to solve this challenge.
And often it's some sort of like time or efficiency
type of situation. And they're the ones that are looking for a solution
to help them in their day to day, like to just assure that they, that
they're sort of like day to day life is that little bit easier, that 1%
(14:29):
easier. Right? Yeah, but they're typically not the ones that
hold the purse strings or like have the real like buying decision per
se, you know, and so that's another level of
stakeholder or, or person that you need to
not persuade but to, to build trust with. You know, and then
there's usually the, the leaders of the organization that have the, the
(14:51):
sort of final say on a lot of these, these investments, you know,
so it's just like taking the right amount of care early. When
you're strategizing like what we need to create. It's, it's,
you know, what you don't want to do is just like, just create something
and pretend it's spaghetti and throw it on the wall and see what sticks. You
know, you want to be really thoughtful and intentional to like, okay, this,
(15:15):
this, this Persona, this type of buyer has these
challenges and, and this is the, the thing that they're looking for to
solve their, their, whatever their, their pain is. Right.
But who are the people in their, in their peripheral or in their
ecosystem that we also need to encourage and build trust with? And like how
do we strategize our creation to, to
(15:36):
assure we're talking to the whole, the whole gamut, you know what I mean?
But be efficient with the creative too.
Okay, so going back to the video marketing traffic, the
anthems explainers and endorsements, how do they work together?
Yeah, So a lot of them is like, so you've sold that click through
advertising or whatever. That anthem piece is the
(15:59):
best thing to have like on the, on the front page of your website or
the top of the fold or whatever. Or you often when we're using them
like at trade shows and in sales kickoff
situations or even in recruiting and
onboarding. Right. Like it's, it's really that, that flagship
asset that, that piece that in like
(16:20):
ideally like 60 seconds speaks to the values and
that why you exist, you know, why you're different. And
so it's a really unique challenge because, or
creative challenge because it's like while it is all about
you and the organization, it's meant to be a reflection
of your audience, of your buyers, you know, so it's like how do you, how
(16:43):
do you align all parts in this really like
mission driven, anthemic rally cry of
sorts. Right. And so it really speaks, I like to say it speaks to the
hearts of the audience. And that's like that, that early
carrot on the string to like draw them in to like want to learn more.
It's like, oh, I see my, I see myself reflected in this
(17:03):
now. I want to learn more like what is it that you actually do and
how do you do it? You know, and so that's that explainer video
from there. And those are while well, not meant to
be like, you know, just sort of bunch of
stats or a bunch of features. It's, it's more like, oh, this is how
we solve these challenges either in roles or
(17:25):
in certain industries or segments, you know, so there's typically,
typically several explainers, you know, depending on like what the,
what the end user or buyer desires. You know, there's often
different pain points and so therefore you need explainers for each, you
know, and then from there. So you've, you've sort of spoken
to the, to the minds of this audience at that point, right? Yeah. And
(17:48):
so the last part is that sort of like that gut check that, that
validation of what you're hearing. And so that of course is
best coming from, from a third party, AKA customers. Right.
So that endorsement, that testimonial that
who this is for and where storytelling is really powerful
to get closer to closing or to close it, close
(18:11):
a deal or an opportunity, you know, so we're often encouraging,
you know, our clients to have numbers like
several endorsements because there's different scales of
businesses, different industries, different users. Right. And so to
have unique, and they're all unique, so to have these unique stories
in a really sort of ideally sort of like cinematic way that's like you're on
(18:34):
site with production, you're, you're showing, you know, the beauty of
these brands and really propping them up as like heroes in their
own way. Right. It's such a powerful way to show that and provide
that validation for a new buyer. Yeah,
absolutely.
Why is the mid funnel gap such a massive blind spot for
(18:56):
brands? Everybody's focused on
awareness, which is obviously really important because
that's, that's how people become familiar with you, you know, so advertising
has its role and it always will. You could argue that the AI
is kind of like condensing a lot of this because, you know, use ChatGPT and
you can get comparisons like very quickly. But regardless,
(19:19):
like advertising and awareness have their role. And then
as I spoke about the, the internal teams are taking care
of that. That drumbeat at sort of the bottom right, like
this is the update of this event. This is a new hire, this is,
you know, a new customer we secured. This is our
sales metrics. This is whatever it is, right? Like the internal
(19:42):
communication and the general drumbeat of thought
leadership is also really important. But
that's because you already have a customer here and then you don't have a
customer yet at advertising. So this mid funnel is
where the sort of like, I don't know, it's kind of like the battlegrounds
for continuing to build engagement and attention and certainly
(20:04):
building trust. You know, like it's, it's a big jump from I've
heard of you to I'm a customer, you know. So that, that mid funnel
is, is really mission critical. And so we found that the
challenge for these internal teams is that they're, they're
very busy taking care of the C suites or like the
CEOs like internal communications and, and external
(20:26):
communications needs the sales teams and whatever sort of like
quick turn thing that they need in the moment. Their HR and recruiting
needs, their event coverage. Like all these moments that beat the
drum at the bottom of the funnel. But they don't have the like
necessarily the time or bandwidth or even
creative prowess to sort of like level up
(20:47):
their production value to support the mid funnels that
mid funnels needs, you know. So yeah,
sort of tout pen in a bit like that's why we exist is so that
we can help empower decision making on behalf
of the, these brands and marketers in the mid funnel, you know, that have
these, these incredible gaps. Especially when you consider
(21:09):
the sales cycles of that nine to 12 months, you know.
So what's the biggest difference between creating flashy content creating
versus like, like you've been talking about solving real business problems.
They both have their place, you know, and it's really like that
again that intention and really understanding your
audience. Like if you, if you're leading, if you're leading a
(21:32):
creative initiative, first of all, video first because
it's the most powerful medium but with your
audience's needs and desires in mind and
just really keep that at the forefront as a, as a creative, you know, it's
like I understand it's really, you know, I've been creative for my whole
career and it's like I want to try this tool or express this thing
(21:54):
or do this and this and it's really easy to sort of like put
yourself so much into the work because I mean it is like
an extension of us. Right. However, you have to be doing
it on behalf of the audience otherwise it's going to fall flat. So
if in the moment or in the, in the sort of like
that buyer's journey I keep talking about, if the flashy and
(22:17):
sizzly and sort of eye catching eye candy is what's going to
draw someone in to like garner that early attention,
go for it. But then you also need to follow up with that with
something that's a bit more enriching and empowering for decision making.
So they're all, I mean, I'm obviously biased, but it's all
important. And that's why like building a framework and
(22:39):
a journey is really impactful in the, in the near
term and long term. How can startups
with much smaller budgets apply these same
principles? Yeah, I mean we're very fortunate nowadays that we all
have access to, I mean reasonably all have access to good tools
by way of, you know, we're all getting comfortable talking to these little
(23:02):
green dots on the computer, you know, like largely courtesy of the
pandemic. Right. But have these tools we all have, we all have the phone,
right. So a lot of it is like putting in the practice
and habit building and like understanding, you know, the
things like delivery and posture and, and
cadence and, and a lot of it's like written too, right? Like how do you,
(23:24):
how do you write something that is like punchy and engaging and,
and full of value for the audience, you know. So I think
starting and just showing up and doing it
consistently is a really big help because then you understand
first of all you will invariably get a feedback loop like you'll,
you'll get feedback from your audience and that will help you refine. Like,
(23:47):
all right, where are my gaps in my communication? Or like where can I
sort of push some chips, slip some creative chips into like providing even
more value or more enriching or higher production value to this
moment because it's really like important in what we're trying to do
as we build our business. But the other thing is like, you
understand as an, on an individual level sort of like the
(24:10):
challenges of creating good content or unique content or
differentiated work. And so you'll understand from
a budget standpoint like year over year, like how much can and should we
invest in this medium, appreciating that the
library that you're amassing is going to sort of compound over time.
You can build on that. So it's like you got to just start
(24:33):
and learn and be exposed to how the
mechanics of these things work, and then you can understand where to best invest
either your time or resources or budget.
Right. Towards building value for your audience. Yeah,
absolutely. Even with me in the
podcast with AI and everything,
(24:55):
I've kind of used it to help me structure and cut time
on preparing for the show, because had I not, it would take
me hours to get everything done, do the research, get
questions, everything. So I've used it to help
and speed up the process and not spend so
much time doing all that. And it's helped,
(25:18):
I feel it's helped the production of the show so much more
now because now it's. I
just, I just. The fact that if I feel like it's just so, so
much more efficient and, and how I get to produce the show and, and
how I get the show flowing. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's,
it's interesting too because, like, I look back on my career and there's,
(25:41):
there's always these, these moments of, of evolution, and this is, this is
certainly one of them. So, like, as a creative, you. It's not that you
have to, like, embrace every single thing, but you at least have to, like, be
familiar to, of, like, limitations and, and what
sort of like, I'll just sort of lean
in here. It's like we, you know, we use
(26:03):
the Adobe suite, right? So it's like, you know, you have access to
AI transcriptions. Are they perfect? No, you
have access to, to, you know, closed caption animation
as an example. And it's like, are they perfect? No, but it's like,
it does help you speed up a lot of what
(26:23):
has traditionally been like, a bit more tedious process. So I certainly think
it's helped, like, shave down time or efficiencies on, like,
the tedious stuff, you know, but the, like, overall
AI generated, like the overall generated
materials and video and etc. It's like I, I always just
caution. Yeah, again, like, who, who
(26:47):
is this for? You know? So, like, is this helpful to the audience?
Is this impactful in their decision making? If it's
not, like, you're probably just doing it for your own, your own sake,
like time savings or whatever. And like, while that's not like,
wrong or invalid, it's just like, is that,
is that shortcut, building trust? Because often shortcuts
(27:09):
don't really build trust. Right. So I always just caution when you're
considering, oh, I could just do all of this in AI. And while
that's not like by fact. Wrong. It's just like,
is that helpful or important to, to the audience? And is
that, is that building trust towards, towards your overall goals? You know?
Yeah, understandable. And, and, and even though I do
(27:31):
use AI, I don't use, I use it as the tool that is. I don't
go and like, yeah, I just help me be efficient.
I didn't, I don't use it to like these people create
complete episodes of. But it's all AI. Created,
generated. Yeah, that's fine if that's how you want to do it. But I
enjoy this this much. This part of the, the other
(27:54):
creation, being able to be, to have this conversation and ask you these questions and
learn. To me, that's important. Like, that's why I, I
enjoy doing my podcast the way it is. I mean,
yeah, this isn't like a novel idea or anything or statement, but it's like,
like video is the closest medium to a
conversation and like you and I are fortunate enough to be like, having a real
(28:17):
time conversation, but like, not everybody can and especially when as
a business you're trying to scale and like reach
audiences globally. Right? So like, video is such
a powerful medium to be able to do that, but if you're,
if you're delivering it in a way that is like
not, not impactful or empowering to, to the audience and you're doing
(28:40):
it for, for like shortcut reasons, then like,
it, it's just not worth it, you know, because it's like singularly in the moment.
It's not providing the impact now, but it's also
chiseling away on any sort of like, brand equity or, or
trust that you've, you've developed thus far, you know, so it's,
it's just like, like anything, you just got to be careful like, and take
(29:02):
care in what it is that you're creating so that it's, it's
doing its best work on your behalf, you know? Absolutely.
What's, what's one myth about video marketing that drives you crazy?
Who. Yeah,
I'll throw it back to that. Like one video to rule
(29:22):
them all. Like, there's again, there's no silver bullet to this. Like any,
no single, single piece of content can, can,
can, can do all the things, you know, and video is in there
too. But what I do obviously really like,
impassioned about video is that it can be leveraged
in so many ways. Right? So it's like you produce that, that like
(29:45):
flagship asset and let's say an endorsement video or
customer story, right? It's like great. You have this like really
pulpy and story driven
tool to support you know, the, the bottom,
that mid funnel like at close like ideally that consideration to
(30:05):
decision making moment. Right. So that 90 second piece,
really impactful. But then you can have your you know, whatever
15 second, 30 second, 60 second versions or iterations
that speak to different parts of that story or different pain
points. Right. They can be used as like lead ins to
customer events. They can, these, the imagery like the
(30:28):
single B roll can be used as animated gifs or in
B roll packages sent to media like media outlets and
public relations. Right. Or you can take static frames and
do designs because most of the content or most of the, you know
even this thing like everything can shoot like 4k 8k. So
you get like such like profound resolution for any type of digital.
(30:50):
You know, use all that imagery across, across marketing and
sales decks. Right. Or in, you know, we've had some
of our motion design art be
leveraged for trade show booths where they took that art and like made a trade
show booth out of it. You know. So there's like so many ways that it
can just be like have a real like proliferation
(31:11):
across, across a brand. Which is really the point. You know, it's like
yes, you're investing in, in this moment, this,
this particular deliverable. Oh and then I forgot the written case study. Right. So
it's like you can have, have that across obviously
your website but then that's really good for SEO and everything else. And,
and yeah, so just have such an impact by
(31:34):
like being really deliberate on, on this one, on this one sort of campaign
or this moment, you. Know, and, and like how you mentioned and
nowadays it, everybody is talking about it's
hard to create content or I don't have the right proper equipment.
And you keep bringing up the phone and some of these phones
record some great video, some great content. They're
(31:57):
able to do some amazing things with their phones nowadays. So people shouldn't
use that as an excuse not to create content and stuff.
Yeah, I forget who said it but like the best
camera is the one you have in your hand, you know. So if you have
access to you know, high end professional
stuff, like great, that's amazing.
(32:20):
We, we use it as much as we can. Not every budget can afford that,
you know, but it's like the access to, to DSLRs and prosumer
cameras is like really easy. And again like
the more time you spend with the tool, the more proficient and the more
creative and more sort of like I don't know, courageous. You
get with it. And that, that's like most of the challenge
(32:42):
is like building that habit to just use it and to get familiar with
it, you know? Yeah. What
changes are you seeing in video marketing that businesses must pay attention
to? I mean, video first is
the big one, right? It's like there's so much data from like,
Wistia and then obviously you see like, you know, everything on
(33:04):
social media from TikTok and Instagram and Meta
at large. And then of course, YouTube being the second biggest search
engine in the world. It's like video has like, certainly made
its mark. So when you're, you're looking to conceive a
campaign or content, it's like if you start with the most
challenging medium, which is video, it'll have that ripple effect
(33:26):
across everything else you're doing, written or design or otherwise, you
know, so. And also just like video it because
it's. I'm sort of been. Been describing it as like a really like, thick
sandwich, right? You got like all these parts, these layers of
complexity from the, the words and the sentiment
and the tone and the, and the creative direction and then the brand
(33:48):
identity and then the visuals and the audio and the sound design and
the music. You know, it's just like, it's so stacked and delicious,
but it's like once you do that, all those, all those parts can be used
across different parts of your digital ecosystem. So the investment of
like, time and effort, like, sort of immediately provides that
roi, you know. So, yeah, just leading Video first is the way
(34:10):
to go. Where do you see the biggest
opportunities for B2B2B brands in the next five years?
Continuing to invest internally, we'll have, we'll have a big,
big payoff, you know, empowering these teams to,
to really be thoughtful in how they architect their,
(34:33):
their library and their, their sort of like, strategy when it comes to
video. Because it's like these, these files are not small,
right? So like, how do you, how do you invest in that organization and
using the metadata and the hashtags and whatever to like,
assure you you're building on, on that sound investment over
time, you know, so investing internally is really smart.
(34:55):
I think influencers, like, whatever, however you want to
use that term, I think will, will continue to play a role, you
know, in this sort of consumer space. Or B2C
obviously, like huge hu. Huge part of the market. So I think
B2B is going to start embracing that more too, because these
are, these are creators and like, having a creator sort of
(35:18):
mindset is really valuable. So I think there'll be quite a
bit of that and then repurposing. Like, I think, you know, people
are starting to. Not starting to. They've. They've. They've realized that
no single video or no single, like, piece of content
can work for everything. And also you should share
those investments regularly. You know, it's like we always
(35:41):
sort of get discouraged when it's like, you know, there's a lot of
effort and ambition and budget put into creating this, this
single video. They display it or promote it once
and then that's it, you know, and it's like you just. That is
such a good tool and like, you just happen to catch someone like those couple
people in that moment, like regularly cycle it through your. Your
(36:04):
content calendar or whatever, right. Like repurpose
thoughtfully and, and make sure that these are, these investments
are being leveraged regularly, you know? Yeah.
Excuse me. How can businesses make sure
their video strategy aligns with their
(36:25):
buyer journey? Love that question.
Just talking to people. So like, first and foremost, like, talk
to your, your, your whatever. You're sort of like best and brightest
and most tenured customers often, you know, because like,
like you, they're. They're always evolving, you know, and their needs are always,
(36:48):
always not like dramatically changing. But if you can stay
in lockstep with. With their intentions and where they're going as a business,
like, you'll. You'll understand, sure. Like where your
business also needs to go, but you'll understand, you'll start to recognize
the patterns and like the sort of stories across multiple customers, you
know, so having those honestly, just like the
(37:10):
relationships being strong is like always helpful, you know.
So having those type of like, calm interviews or
whatever just to sort of stay top of mind and like, understand where the
storytelling opportunities are with your customers is a big one.
Similarly, or like sort of like one step removed from
there is your sales force, right? Like, they're the ones that are on the front
(37:31):
lines, like hearing about pain points, hearing about
even objections like why people don't
want to work with you, right? It's like these are all really primed moments to
lean in and tell stories, right? And like help
persuade in a different way and build trust in a different way, you know, so
having those internal communications, especially as a marketer
(37:54):
with Salesforce is right. Will just like help synthesize those. Those
two groups and then just industry at
large, right? Like talking to. To friendly competitors or talking
to those partners, right? And sort of understanding the overall, like,
constant change of the landscape. Like these Are all really good moments for
storytelling too. And to like either put your C suite or your
(38:16):
leaders in a position to, to like have that visibility
in that moment, you know, or to partner up with, with that
partner and like tell, tell a story that benefits everybody, those two
parties at least, but ideally that audience, you know. So I think those are, those
are the, the best ways to do it. Just stay, stay, stay
like finger on the pulse of those most important people in your organization.
(38:41):
For someone who's watching or listening, who thinks we've, we've
tried video and it didn't work, what would you say?
I mean, I'd ask what, what do you mean? You know, it's like did it,
did it not work because it was sort of like
creatively either challenging or limit limiting or just like
(39:01):
really difficult to sort of like get your, your whatever your
vision into, into this sort of like although
it's not tangible, but into the, into this medium, you know, did it not work
because was it, you don't think the engagement was enough
or like the qualitative feedback was, was, wasn't resonant?
Right. So you know, having a dare to say that the
(39:24):
terms like KPIs or like, you know, these like indicators but like
most of the time it's just you weren't as clear on your own goals or
like your own sense of intentions and focus
in this moment, you know. So I think a lot of it is like reflect
a little bit and decide like, well, was it the creative or was it the
disconnect with the audience? Was this too like self serving
(39:46):
to the brand versus for the audience? Was it the channel
or channels that we deployed it on? Did we, do we only do it? Do
we only share it once? Should we have shared it a number of times? You
know, like did we get the right feedback
along the way? You know, so it's because it's so complicated. There can
be a couple different moments that it can be perceived as like
(40:08):
didn't work, you know, but that's not the right reason to like give up
on again the, the most preferred medium
by everyone. So.
What, what's next for, for Pen and Video and for the video
marketing trifecta? Yeah, I mean we've definitely seen
(40:28):
the trifecta really resonating with, especially with our
mark, our marketing clients, right? Where it's just like,
it's not like a finally or an aha. Like what I just described is actually
not like particularly like groundbreaking, but it's just, it's
really helpful when you're trying to build a journey that needs to take, take place
over a number of months. You know, so that, that, that
(40:51):
is, is our, is the IP that we're really leaning into.
But for us it's, it's like our own alignment as a, as a, as a
culture and a brand with, with organizations and, and
companies that have these values of safety, security
and sustainability. You know, like these, this, a lot of power of
three over on our side of the world. But that, that, that alliteration is
(41:13):
intentional because like these are the brands that are at the
forefront of like innovation and, and ideally like making
the world a better place through healthcare and, and you know, life
sciences innovations and through you know, cyber security
and, and climate technologies, you know, so these,
these brands that are like highly innovative, therefore they're in a
(41:34):
very competitive marketplace and they always have really interesting and
cutting edge stories to tell and they always need creative
prowess is to like help bring these stories to, to the
world or to market, you know, and for us that's like
it, you know, it's just, it's just great to, you know, helps you get out
of bed every morning knowing that you're helping empowering decision
(41:56):
making on behalf of these brands that are trying to make the world a better
place. Awesome.
What, what's your one piece of advice to a business leader who feels
stuck and feels stuck in the noise of digital marketing?
It's noisy. It's really noisy out there, you know, so I think
(42:20):
the first thing is like, what can you do to
not contribute to the noise? You know, Like, I think that's,
I struggle with this too. Like I'm on, I'm on LinkedIn
often and it's like I want to make sure when, when I'm showing
up that I'm not just like adding to the, to the noise, to the volume,
you know, it's like how can you make sure that you're showing up
(42:43):
with the, for the right reasons and intentionally and thoughtfully. And again, like
if you can put yourself like audience first always,
I think that's, that's the biggest thing. So making sure you're
not contributing to the noise would be the first. The first. The second is
like just making sure that you're engaging
and that you're, you're, you're, you're showing up
(43:06):
there not just to like throw things, you know,
throw things out into the digital whatever, like board
all of the time and just like, see me, see me, see me, see me.
It's like, well no, you need to show up and, and contribute to the conversation
and, and provide the right resources and be
part of the network. You know, like just make sure you're connecting the dots
(43:29):
in the best ways that you can so you're, you're providing that, that value
and that reason for being there beyond just like throwing
stuff out, out into the wild and contributing to the noise. So I think those
are kind of the big things and they're, they're not particularly like
tactical. Like I think that's kind of to each their own. But for
us it's like we like LinkedIn's our, our main place. It's, it's
(43:52):
where, where we show up. But I also, I love doing these podcasts because I,
you know, I have a bit of history to my career and I've
been really focused in this way for a long time. So I know that, you
know, there's expertise that I hope can provide value to
the audiences. Awesome. Awesome.
We've come to the show now, part of the show where you're about
(44:15):
to get the solo screen and you get to plug away and let everybody know
where they can find you. Website, everything. Heck
yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So I'm Tim Bradley, I'm the
co founder of Pennant Video. You can find us at pennant
video or pennantvideo.com on
the website there's a pop up that has a
(44:36):
really cool playbook called Funnel Focused and it's like, it helps
marketers in particular understand sort of where
and how to best deploy video across their, their buyer's journey across
their funnel. It's ungated, so feel free to grab that. It's a
PDF and you can find me. I'm on LinkedIn. Tim
Bradley, pennant. That'll, that'll get you there.
(44:59):
All right. Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much, Tim for being a guest. Don't leave
just yet. Let me close out the show and we'll chat. Chat a little bit
off the head, but thank you, man. He was a wonderful guest. I greatly appreciate
your time. I appreciate you too. Thanks man. No problem. Thank you.
All right everybody, if this episode gave you
a new perspective on video marketing, go check out Tim Bradley's work and
(45:21):
the video marketing trifecta. Stop wasting budget on random
content and start building trust that converts. And if you know a
founder, marketer or leader struggling to turn attention into sales,
share this episode with them. It might be the missing piece that they're searching for.
Stay clear, stay strategic, stay wise. Not your
boy wise, does it? Peace out.
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