I am the marketing coordinator for a real estate brokerage and one of our target audiences is potential agent recruits. Last year I ran a series of ads on Instagram that directed viewers to a recruiting landing page we had designed. One ad showcased a photo from a particularly successful event we had a few months before. The photo showed a packed room filled with smiling, excited faces. It focused on a few key people who were beaming as they received awards. The tagline at the bottom of the ad stated, “we have amazing people.”
This ad visually tells the story of what our brokerage has to offer its agents. The excitement and joy seen in the faces of the agents in the photo create the narrative which sells us to our audience.
The right candid shot, or piece of video can showcase real, unfiltered human emotions and there is a truth, a raw humanity in these types of visuals which is at the heart of good storytelling. A picture is worth a thousand words and marketers can use candid shots to convey true emotions and to enhance any narrative their campaign is attempting to communicate.
Some of the best visuals in past marketing campaigns have been candid shots of unforgettable moments at our company. Such as the shots of a group of us who gathered to put together the new Ikea furniture in our office last year during an office makeover. We used shots of the team putting together furniture at our new office location to tell the story of the journey our company has taken to transform and rebuild.
The same can be said for video content. When it comes to video content the narrative can be further enhanced through music and creative editing. I have found that the heart of a story can be captured in a candid moment or 10 seconds of video and that the more real and raw the footage, the better it is at capturing the universal message in the narrative. We have relied on the use of captivating visuals to aid the story in many of the features we have put out on our blog, Top of the Coast and on our YouTube channel.
If used thoughtfully and correctly these visuals can reach across the screen or page and tug directly at the heart strings of your audience. Candid photos and videos can capture a variety of emotions and tones which marketers can use to communicate their message. A candid shot can capture humor, joy, success and real comradery in a company in a way that posed and packaged marketing simply can’t. It can be a marketers best asset when creating a visual narrative.
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