What’s your favorite viral video or television commercial? Why is it so memorable? Chances are good it stays in your mind thanks to good storytelling, using the elements of strong emotion, surprise, or even fear to stop you right in your tracks and make you pay attention—then share it with your friends. Unfortunately, in the vast world of content marketing, creators sometimes forget to put the art of telling good stories front and center. Most commercials you see these days have interesting visuals and audio but lack a clear and distinct main idea. To produce effective video, you have to stay true to your central story. After that, everything else becomes secondary but still contributes to communicating one idea.

History of Video in the Industry: In 1981, MTV launched the prophetic one hit wonder, “Video Killed the Radio Star”. Remembered by its catchy tune but personified by the sentiment that traditional media was dead. The lyrics, “Rewritten by machine on new technology” seems timeless as marketer’s struggle to adapt to new technologies in the B2B domain in 2017. With an ever-cluttered advertising space, how do companies differentiate themselves in content marketing. The answer is video. From a study done by Animoto, 4 times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. The concept of video marketing originated on the television screen in the 1940’s. However, the 21st century has been defined by a different black mirror: the cell phone. The dot com boom brought about the great social media companies that occupy our every waking moment. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram make up the conglomerate that governs both social and video marketing today.