Crafting Videos: Marketing vs. Journalism

While studying visual journalism in school, marketing was the furthest thing from my mind. To be honest, I didn’t know much about it and didn’t care to. Advertising and marketing seemed one in the same: artfully showing the value of a product or service for sales purposes. Yuck. Two years later and here I am, mixing the journalism skills I learned with this complex industry of marketing.

As it turns out, crafting a video for journalistic use is not much different than doing so for marketing use. For instance, let’s compare a simple business profile video and a feature multimedia story. 

• Chances are – unless it’s solely a natural sound piece – both will require an interview or voiceover, some kind of talking head telling a story so that the audience isn’t lost on the subject matter. 
• Then, to supplement the interview, the video will usually include b-roll, additional footage that shows detail of what the subject is talking about. 

Both have the same basic formula: interview intertwined with b-roll. The difference is purpose.

The purpose of journalism is to inform the public on local, national, or global current events, while the purpose of marketing is to sell a product or service. Other than technical specifics, successful videos of either subject tend to contain the following characteristics:

• Story: Journalistic videos are often based on a written article or can stand alone as a story. As humans, we are attracted to stories whether they present the pressing details first (as in journalism stories) or they follow the events of a typical plot line (as in films). There has been a trend in recent years for companies to include a story element in their marketing/advertising videos. Brands are encouraged to tell their unique story through commercial videos because it gives their customers an idea of their values and how they operate as well as a sense of experience rather than plain information.

• Emotion: If it wasn't for emotion, there would be no reason for stories. We are emotional beings. Regardless of a story's content, it evokes some kind of emotion in each reader or viewer. Personally, I recall more heartbreaking journalistic pieces, while others may be more in sync with cheerful videos. Along with storytelling, companies frequently use emotion in marketing videos in order to attract people to their brand. To this day I still get a dreamy feeling when I see anything Disney-related. Perhaps I watched The Lion King a few too many times in my youth...

• Truth: Whether you believe it or not, journalism is meant to be ethical, honest, and unbiased. Unless it's from a sensational tabloid, there is truth in a news story. Otherwise, what would be the point of producing it? People want truth, not lies. Marketing is no different. For the most part, there is an element of truth in a company's marketing plan because they are trying to attract loyal customers who continue to use their product. Companies that do lie through marketing are usually rewarded with backlash and a decrease in customers. 

While journalism videos are meant to inform and marketing videos are meant to stimulate sales, both hold more similarities than differences. Next time you see a McDonald's ad (whether you enjoy fast food or not), take a moment to analyze the elements. How do they use emotion and truth in their ad to tell their personal story and attract customers? After all, there is a reason they are the number one fast food brand in the world.