As the year comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on everything that’s happened, which makes it the perfect fit for an end-of-year video.
For CEOs, business owners, and marketing team leaders, this is an ideal opportunity to highlight your brand’s milestones, show appreciation for those who made an impact, and strengthen connections with your audience. Other brands will be taking the same steps to show their accomplishments and set the stage for the new year. What can you do to make your end-of-year video rise above the rest? Follow these steps to create a memorable and impactful video:
Define your purpose and goals
Before you dive into planning or filming, take a step back to determine the purpose of your end-of-year video. Every video serves a different purpose, so take a moment to ask yourself: “Do I want my video to celebrate company milestones? Do I want to show appreciation for my audience? Should I use this video as a moment to launch a hopeful outlook for the coming year?”
Knowing your purpose helps define what the video looks like and whether or not you want to include customer testimonials, interviews with staff members or volunteers, or if it’s a sizzle reel recapping important moments from the year. It also helps you define which metrics you’ll use to measure the video’s success whether you want to increase sales, enhance views, or build a stronger community.
Most importantly, defining the goals you want to reach helps keep your efforts focused and attainable to give your end-of-year video a sense of purpose that resonates with your audience. Having too many goals may lead your audiences to confusion and lose their attention if there isn’t a consistent narrative and storyline. Depending on what you want to focus on, you may need to go through footage from past interviews or add time in your calendar to film interviews.
Think of your purpose as a North Star to guide you when you start the pre-production process and make a list of the content you need.
Think about how you want people to respond
Successful videos are ones that evoke an emotional response. Making a deeper connection with audiences goes a long way when they’re deciding whether or not they want to support your brand. Do you want your audience to feel inspired, appreciated, or excited by your end-of-year video? Being clear about the desired emotional impact will help guide your creative decisions.
One of the best ways to develop an emotional connection to your video’s storyline is finding ways to stay authentic. An end-of-year video can be the perfect opportunity to connect on a deeper, emotional level, but if you sound overly promotional, audiences will pick up on that. Audiences can sense when your brand is authentic and when you’re making another sales pitch to them. That’s why it’s important to highlight real moments and personal reflections that your audiences can connect with. By doing this, your video comes across as genuine and relatable instead of phony or elitist.
As you craft your video’s storyline, consider ways you can add in shared experiences and remove promotions to build a connection with your viewers.
Identify your top moments of the year
An end-of-year video makes the most impact when it captures the most memorable, meaningful highlights. What audiences remember the most are these top moments and how these moments made them feel.
With so much to potentially showcase, showcasing the most impactful moments is key. As a business owner or CEO, every moment might feel impactful to you, so which ones should you choose to highlight in your end-of-year video? Fitting in every moment into a 30-second or 1-minute video might be confusing for your audiences. Everything your company does may feel important to you, but your audiences might feel like you’re forcing a point-of-view on them.
Put yourself in your audiences’ shoes by reviewing key metrics from your marketing and customer service teams to determine which events, launches, or moments resonated the most with your audience. Go back to your purpose to evaluate whether or not the moments you want to include align with your video’s core message. From here, you can get a clearer picture of which moments mean the most to your audience and make the most impact in your video.
Once you determine which moments to highlight, ask your team for high-quality visuals and sound to enhance the overall look and feel of your video that keeps it engaging and dynamic. Was there a memorable quote or testimonial from a customer or staff member? Are there visually engaging snapshots from the events, programs, or products you want to include in your video storyline? Don’t be afraid to repurpose content that has performed well in the past. A little nostalgia can boost engagement and remind your audience of meaningful moments. Look to Community’s Year in Review as inspo for how to select content that best encapsulates the essence of the year and combine it in a powerful way.
Remember, selecting the top highlights and content showcasing these moments builds a clear story arc your audience can follow and engage with and it also gives your team a sense of content to track throughout the year so they know where to find it for future recap videos.
Recognize people who made a difference
Recognizing those who contributed to your success adds a personal touch to your end-of-year video that viewers appreciate. Whether you’re spotlighting employees, clients, or community members, acknowledging people shows gratitude and builds a sense of belonging. The desire to stay connected is something you need to consider in your video content. As Shopify knows, focusing on people and their stories both inspires and builds an emotional connection to others.
To help you figure out whom to spotlight, start by identifying significant contributors and significant moments when these individuals or teams made a difference that led to your brand’s success. You can also put your audience in the spotlight by recognizing loyal customers or dedicated supporters who have made your product or service a part of their journey. Once you’ve found people you want to honor, take time to think about what kinds of questions they might have about being a part of your video and consult with your production team to determine if you need a media release form for the participant’s permission to be featured.
During filming, remember that personal touches matter. When interviewing people for the video, ask them questions that will get to the root of the story and resonate with viewers. What you ask and how you ask it makes a difference in the kind of responses you’ll receive and help your interviewee feel more comfortable in sharing their story. If you need ideas, check out MemoryFox’s list of storytelling interview questions.
Concise and meaningful recognition with shoutouts in your end-of-year video or a few kind words for customers, supporters, and employees can go a long way in building goodwill.
Tie it all together
Once filming is done, you’re ready to pull everything together. The editing process might look like it will be an easy process, but like many parts of content production, it can be much more complicated than you might expect.
During filming there are a few things you should consider to support the editing process. One step that can go a long way is making notes of key moments you might want to include from the interviews or b-roll. Giving this information to your editor helps them find the quotes with personalized messages that will make your video feel more genuine and heartfelt. If you have existing photos or videos showcasing top moments that align with your video’s message, share that content with them along with any must-haves such as video styles, music, and motion graphics.
The editing process may require additional updates or feedback from multiple reviewers. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re all aligned on purpose and messaging long before production ever begins. Reworking the video project multiple times might lead to a less-than quality video, going over budget, and burning out your editor. Giving your production team the time they need to create a thoughtfully crafted end-of-year video gives them a sense of pride and leaves a lasting impression on your audience.
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