László Bihari of organiKvideo explores the secrets of successful and effective social campaign videos. organiK is a video agency specialising in social affairs, producing videos primarily for NGOs.
In high school I was in the middle league. I was unable to pay attention to what I wasn't interested in. I spent the whole school year dumbfounded, then most of my time at home studying, and finally, at night, painfully learning from a book what I hadn't paid attention to in school. The reason I didn't pay attention was because the lessons were impersonal data communications, the teachers would 'teach' the material and then disappear out of sight.
What does this have to do with video content from NGOs? Because the style and nature of many public and civic videos often resembles a boring high school lesson. People explain in a formal voice, there's no passion, humour, personality, life - in short, it's not fun to watch. But whereas in school it was compulsory to pay attention, on social media it is not, and in fact there is competition for our attention, which will certainly not be captured by a boring video. But for some reason, in the world of NGOs, the habit of making impersonal videos about important things, like a press conference, persists. It is true that this can reach a large number of viewers, but not usually enough people to form a critical mass on a particular issue. But the world is in a state where the need for a critical mass of people who want change is greater than ever.
But some people take a different path. Palestinians Mohammed and Omar have started the Omarherzshow on Instagram, where they show everyday life in Gaza in short videos. They are a few minutes of material that mixes themes of everyday life, like shopping in times of war, or the constant moving, and talks about the immediate danger of life, or the longing for a lost peace, while also showing their sense of humour, their mood at the moment, how they personally deal with what they live in, who they are. They talk about hunger, the fate of children, running out of internet while watching a match, and they demonstrate one of their favourite Palestinian recipes - on a mobile gas grill.
They shoot their videos on their phones, edit them in what feels like minimalist conditions, yet they already have 1.6 million followers. They've come this far in a few months, and there's no paid campaign on their posts. That's a group of followers the likes of which the UN Food Programme has never achieved on Instagram. And yet they are doing a lot of work on Gaza, with a serious communications staff and regular advertising. But they still have less than a million followers on Instagram. There's no question that their mission is vitally important, but the two Palestinian guys are getting the same issue to more people with a fraction of the resources.
You could say that the problem is with the viewer if they don't watch what's important. But the real issue is not whose fault it is, but what you do about the situation.
Algorithms can detect exactly what content has an impact on the viewer and bring it to more people, which are viewed further and more people like it. Of course, if an organisation has the money to pour millions into ads every day, the impact can be magnified. But that's not where NGOs are going. So it's worth thinking about what people actually want to look at.
Radiation as a tool
There is an important issue to think about when producing a video. Who lives as they talk and is not afraid of a little transparency?
My personal experience is that I have been most profoundly influenced by people who have put their lives, their personalities, their actions or their charisma on top of what they communicate to the world. For example, artists, literary authors, spiritual teachers, or activists.
There are a lot of people who work with integrity for what they believe in, who put their whole life into their beliefs, and if we could get a glimpse into their daily lives, get to know what they think about the world, it would have a huge impact. Just as my life has been influenced by such people.
While most people don't do on their own what Mohammed and Omar did, reaching one and a half million viewers with a video produced on a single phone, many can do it with the help of video professionals and the support of their own NGOs. Most people do not think of themselves as good actors, but they are usually wrong.
A good actor represents what's in their heart, and that usually happens when the way someone lives is inspiring. There is probably such a person at your organization.
If you have the choice, then:
attention must be paid to creating the best possible conditions for them in which they can develop; that is, an accepting and attentive situation in which you can feel that what you are doing is good
in advance, you need to discuss with them theri personal views on our topic and find the points that are relevant to our video and also important to the organization;
you have to think with them about what are the moments in their life, in their everyday life or in the everyday life of the organization that can be shown and would help make him more authentic;
and by no means should they be told literally what to say
We were recently asked to produce videos for a coalition of non-governmental organizations, in which, according to the first ideas, famous people were supposed to appear. However, we persuaded our clients to choose ordinary people and shoot with them, in their own environment. This is how, for example, one of the employees of the Society for Freedom Rights, who did not think she could perform well, got into the series. She was wrong. Although only a few people included the local candidates during the video (this was requested by the campaign), the actor in the video was remarkably skilled, as someone who is used to acting, and received a lot of likes.