Contents
In this article, we will look at the entire process of creating a promotional video script, and explore each step in as much detail as possible.
For illustration, let’s take a company and a product for which we will create a promotional video. Let it be an advertising agency that provides business promotion services.
Step #1 Concept of a Promotional Video
The creation of a scenario starts with the development of the general concept. At this stage, we:
- Describe the target audience.
- Set the goals of the video.
- Create the main idea.
If you already have a description of the target audience, you can go to the goals description. Answer the question: “What do you want from the viewer?” Try to formulate only one or two goals per video.
Promotional Video Goals
For example, our goal is to “attract customers’ attention to our company”. Further, we plan to convert all the attracted users into buyers.
Based on this goal, we should create such a video that:
- Surprise the audience
- Intrigued the audience
- Encourage the audience to contact the company
All goals can be divided into two categories: commercial and informational.
A promotional video can sell directly, for example: Branded clothing at 50% off – call now!
A video can sell indirectly, for example: Check out a new look from the fresh summer collection – check out the full list of models!
Searching for Ideas
To find an idea, let’s use a technique called “What does it mean?”. Remember that our imaginary company provides business promotion services.
This technology is about finding the answer to the question “What does it mean?” or its alternative version “What is it?”. You need to put your product inside these questions, e.g.:
- What does “your product” mean to the customer?
- “Your product” what is it?
When you have written down your first answer, ask yourself that question again. Now substitute your product for your answer, thereby diving deeper into the meaning.
The technology "What does it mean?" in used
What does it mean to promote a business?
It means developing and implementing a marketing strategy, finding promotional tools, testing hypotheses, and so on.
What does it mean to test hypotheses and finding promotional tools?
It means selecting the most effective promotional tools, testing and running hypotheses using budget to achieve a client’s goals.
What does it mean to select and launch promotional tools using a budget?
This means that some promotional tools may not work or show poor results. Some of the solutions may require improvement and higher investments for better results.
Analyzing our answers, we can imagine the following situation: a dark office, a marketer sobbing over a report. A falling sales graph is visible on the screen.
Let’s try to describe the concept of a future promo video.
Promotional Video Script. Example No. 1
Late evening, office. In the dark office of the marketing department: a girl sits at her desk and cries.
She is crying because she has spent the entire budget on promoting the company, advertising, and marketing, but there are still no sales.
She says through her tears: — “I’ve tried everything, but nothing works. I give up, I’m a failure. Marketing is not for me…”
She stands up abruptly from her desk: — “It’s over. It’s time to change jobs…”
But suddenly she hears a bird tapping its beak on the window. The girl turns to the window and sees a pigeon. He is sitting outside the window and has a business card in his beak.
The girl comes closer, takes the business card, and reads it. The text on the business card: “Your business will fly up with us!” And next to it is a picture of this pigeon and a phone number.
The girl dials the fone number, and starts a conversation: — “Hello, do you use pigeons to deliver advertising?”
The answer in the tube: — “Yes, we can do more. The most important thing is that it promotes your business. Let’s discuss your problem.”
Company contacts on the screen.
By playing around with this technology we can get a completely different video script.
Promotional Video Script. Example No. 2
A young man sits in an empty room (new office) on a chair with a laptop and searches a search engine.
- How to register a company?
- How to hire employees?
- How to set up advertising?
His eyes are running left and right. His face radiates happiness. A desk, a closet, a printer suddenly appear in the room, and his clothes change from a T-shirt to a suit.
A black screen reads, “3 months later…”
His happy face changes to a sad one. And his search engine queries change, too:
- How to save money on office rent?
- How to fire employees without a scandal?
- How to file for bankruptcy?
Suddenly, a pigeon comes knocking on the window. In its beak is a business card. The guy carefully takes the card and reads: “Your business will fly up with us!” And next to it is a picture of this pigeon and a phone number.
The guy dials the fone number, and starts a conversation: — “Hello, do you use pigeons to deliver advertising?”
The answer in the tube: — “Yes, we can do more. The most important thing is that it promotes your business. Let’s discuss your problem.”
Company contacts on the screen.
This concept is not the final video script. A detailed script contains: location description, camera movements, character descriptions, storyboards, texts, credits and other details.
Step #2 Detailed Script of a Promotional Video (example)
In the scriptwriting process, you will change some details, and editing, and that’s perfectly normal.
By the way, don’t miss our article about video testimonial script.
Step #3 Checking the Effectiveness of the Script
Let’s chek our script in terms of attention capture and retention.
Hook of attention
The hook is realized by using sadness as a bright emotion. Our main character is a girl and she is crying so loudly. This scene cannot remain unnoticed and therefore it opens our video. We try to fit in the first 6-8 seconds. Additionally, we can use emotional music, dramatic lighting, and a flying camera effect. In other words, we use several artistic techniques at once.
Contrast №1
In the next scene, we use the "contrast" technique. We change a smooth, static scene into an action scene. At the same time we use the powerful trigger "a bird knocking on the window". If this happens in real life, we can't leave it out.
Breaking the pattern
In the meeting scene our main character looks at a pigeon with a business card in its beak. Here we used the technique of "breaking the pattern". Have you ever seen promoter pigeons?
Contrast №2
In the next scene we duplicate the "contrast" technique. We show how the main character's emotions change. Sadness and sorrow change to wonder and gladness.
Call to action
At the end of the video, we use the "call to action" technique. In this case, we directly indicate what you need to do, i.e. - use the phone number. In the credits, we duplicate the call to action. We show more contact details.
Every few seconds we give the viewer an incentive to watch the video to the end.
Conclusion
Now, you have some examples of a promotional video script. Use this knowledge and start practicing your scriptwriting skills for your projects.
There are many techniques for finding original ideas for commercial videos. We will tell you about them in the next post.
I have been doing internet marketing since 2009. Since 2014 I have been creating videos for businesses. I help small and medium-sized businesses promote their products, services, and brands on the Internet with the help of video content. I am the author of this blog.
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