Can Video Help Us Survive During COVID-19?

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Aside from affecting our health, we’ve all also unfortunately seen the impacts of coronavirus on our social lives, access to events and education and most alarming, our businesses.

At CatCow, as we’ve listened to the fears and concerns of our colleagues, clients, and friends, it became clear to us: video marketing needs to be a part of the solution that we, as a community, are creating to minimize the impacts of this crisis.

As visual communicators, our expertise lies in using video to communicate and engage. Here’s how we think video can be part of the solution to some problems popping up in today’s new reality.

Problem #1 - Sales Many B2B businesses rely on in-person sales calls. But as a client recently told us “people just aren’t going out to visit prospects.”

Thankfully, we live in a time where conferencing apps abound. But sometimes, you need extra visual support that a screen share or PowerPoint just doesn’t provide. Something short, snappy and shareable that your prospect can take back to their stakeholders.

This is where animated videos come in handy to drive a message deep into the memory of the viewer. Add a catchy song and they won’t be able to get you out of their head.

Useful forms of video for sales:

• Explainer videos
• Product demo videos
• Short social media videos

Problem #2 - Communication Now is the time to be authentic when communicating with your audience. Canned responses and vague legal language aren’t getting you any brand loyalty points at the moment.

For government and community leaders, disseminating safety information, interestingly and engagingly, that can be understood and processed by a wide range of people can actually save lives.

Animated video has long served businesses and organizations who want to tell their story in a meaningful way. Utilizing storytelling is also a technique that helps create a strong connection between audience and brand.

Useful forms of video for communication:

• PSAs
• Mission-focused storytelling

Problem #3 - Classes and Conferences With schools closing and conferences around the globe being canceled, more and more people are turning to online conferencing tools to connect. And smart companies like Zoom are offering their service to schools for free during these difficult times.

Remote working is at an all-time high, which means employees are sitting in front of their computer all day and feeling isolated. Instead of canceling or postponing your in-person conference, consider switching to a virtual one, where people can still connect and learn.For in-person classes, many schools, yoga studios and more are turning to offer online classes instead.

Useful forms of video for classes and conferences:

• Video conferencing
• Interactive video lessons
• Online training videos
• Social media videos to promote online events

Problem #4 - Entertainment Our governments want us to stay home and off the streets. To avoid going stir-crazy, most of us will be looking for novel ways to entertain ourselves and our children.

Most of us are already professionals at binge-watching but a quarantine means we can take this skill to a whole new level.

This means that it is the perfect time for streaming services to be offering extended free trials and winning back churned customers. And the perfect time for production houses to be producing new content or putting extra dollars into promoting old content.

Consumers are hungry for content and have all the time in the world to get cozy in front of their screens.

Useful forms of video for entertainment:

• TV shows
• Cartoons
• YouTube cat videos
• Online video games

How We’re Committed to Help

We're helping to disseminate information during this difficult time. We're committed to using our talents and resources to get it done, in any way possible.

Our mission remains strong: communicate in the best way possible.

Let’s do this together.

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