This marketing idea (and dollars) will work for 5 years. Video booth testimonials. We are sitting on the best “already tested” idea, waiting for the right marketing director to find us. 97% of the way through this project, our client had a change of admin command, and squashed this corporate gold mine. It never saw the light of day.
I feel passionately about this marketing idea. You will too after you talk to me.
We designed the very best video booth in all of the U.S. and Canada. I know, because I researched every god damned video booth in two countries. I wanted (desperately) to purchase one, but none were up to our standards, short of a $55,000 video booth in Canada (plus shipping, if I remember right.)
We didn’t have $55,000 to spend on a new video booth, especially for a marketing test.
I discovered inferior products. Here are the problems we faced trying to find one:
- Video booths are hard to find. Most are for photo.
- Video booths have open sides, interfering with audio capture
- Video booths have crap lighting and improperly positioned mics
- Video booth cameras are poor quality, as they’re mostly for party rentals
- Software limits the number of questions you may ask.
Video Booth Rental for Testimonials
We created a high quality studio in the space of a motorhome bathroom. You try to record 4K footage with great sound and beautiful lighting in a 4′ x 4′ closet.
Our video booth recorded 240 patient testimonials in 5 weeks. We changed the interview questions remotely, depending on the responses we were monitoring. We moved it to 3 locations during that time.
The marketing director and I reviewed the dailies every morning from our own kitchens. We cried. We laughed. Both of us underestimated how engaging this footage was going to be. It was worth all of the hard work.
These medical patients felt safe inside of this private setting; delivering extremely vulnerable footage. I actually worried to myself, “Are they crazy, spilling their tea for the world to see?!” You will never get that kind of consistent openness on set, not with a film crew staring at you.
The Marketing Idea That Keeps On Giving
Besides the original 10 testimonials we were after, we accumulated an enormous amount of footage, on a plethora of topics. Not “if”, but when the client needed a new video on a random topic – chances are, we had the footage already in the can. For $2500 in editing expenses, boom, there you go. A new completed video in a matter of a few days.
Because we shot against a green screen inside our booth, we could switch up the background for future edits, and add branding. If the company changed its branding in a few years, it would be easy to change these lasting videos to match.
Just because you choose a customer to give a testimonial, and they agree, does not mean they are going to be great in front of a camera. A booth allows you to shoot greater numbers of testimonials and choose amongst the customers who are engaging and tell a good story.
Regional Marketing Idea
The video booth concept may be a regional marketing play. You cannot dictate who your customers are going to be. Unless you are in charge of the volunteers who step into the booth, you cannot control the look of your customers. Florida residents look and act differently than midwesterners; who dress and talk differently from people in Maine. A lot of times these different regions don’t relate to one another.
One solution we thought of was to place a clothing rack with an assortment of shirts for customers to quickly put on.
Test it. After this idea proves itself in one region, place our semi-automated booth in another area. That was our plan. To date, no one has ever done a project like this, except us, and it’s never been published.
These confessions are so poignant you will be a super hero after your analytics and sales kick in.
If you’re a marketing director reading this, and our video booth testimonial sounds interesting…please give me a call. Hand to God, this marketing idea is way better than my words can describe. 🙂 Tracy. 305 300 5065