Video Is a Fantastic Marketing Tool
It’s ability to show the personality behind a project is where the bulk of it’s power lies.
It humanises your brand, and by doing this is builds trust between you and your audience.
However, because video content focuses so heavily on people, your brand itself can sometimes fall into the background.
Take us for example.
It’s very easy to see all of Incite Video’s content as more of a project undertaken by Adam King: The Video Master, but the fact is every video that we produce is the result of a combined effort by the whole company.
When we create videos like our showreel or testimonial compilations, we use an ident so that our branding makes an appearance.
The Importance of Building Trust in Your Brand
As we’ve already said, video provides your audience with valuable content that, over time, builds a significant amount of trust.
You want all of that to be synonymous with your brand, as well as any particular individual associated with it.
What Is an Ident?
If you want to strip it right back to the bare bones, an ident is an intro that plays before the main body of your video. Of course, it’s not that simple and it’s significance should not be underplayed for a second.
An ident can be a major factor in winning over new viewers and growing your audience.
You want your ident to be a seal of quality for your brand.
The most successful and famous idents are ones that people recognise instantly, regardless of whether they’re a devoted fan of the brand in question or not.
Take the TV show Friends, for example.
Everybody knows that theme, and they know that whenever it plays, what’s about to follow is six people hanging out in an apartment with a ton of coffee for the next half an hour.
Granted, we are thinking big here, but the same concept applies no matter what size brand we’re talking about.
Your ident won’t necessarily give away any hints about the contents of the video that will follow, but people will know that whatever it is, the quality will be exactly what they’d expect from your brand.
People Trust Your Brand, and an Ident Is a Reminder of That Trust
If you want to grow an audience and have them buy into your content, persistence and consistency are two conditions under which that growth will thrive, and an ident with notoriety is a fantastic place to start.
When it comes to creating your ident, you’ll want to make sure your logo takes centre stage. This is also a time to pay close attention to your branding guidelines. Just select your font and colour palette and you’re already halfway there.
One Thing to Be Mindful of Is Duration
As important as your ident is to your video, it shouldn’t be the key component.
If your ident lasts much longer than 5 seconds, it could come across as too salesy.
You also don’t want to lose your audience before your video has even started, which will likely happen if the first 15 seconds of anything you produce is basically just your logo with a bit of animation sprinkled in.
Believe the old saying, ‘Less is more’.
How Do I Create My Own?
Creating your own ident is super easy as there are so many customisable templates available to you. However, if you take only one piece of advice away from this blog post, let it be this – avoid any 3D renders of your logo like the plague.
There was a time when these were the ‘in’ thing, but not anymore. They’re boring, they age terribly, and they have a habit of lingering on-screen for far too long, which, as we’ve pointed out before, will do you no favours when it comes to audience engagement
Featuring b-roll or any imagery you may have of you doing your thing is always welcome.
Again, it all boils down to brand identity – what do you want people to think of whenever they see your logo and branding? And before you resign yourself to the idea that you don’t have any of these extra elements, I dare you to scroll through your social channels and then try to tell me that same thing.
The type of ident you use will make a huge difference as well. You don’t want it to look out of place in comparison to the rest of your video. Let’s say you’ve put together a set of instructional evergreen videos, with you presenting to camera whilst sat at a desk. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but you’ll want to keep any additional elements such as an ident in line with the rest of the video so that it compliments the content and doesn’t become a distraction.
Don’t Forget to Add Music
So many idents are built to a specific song, so if you’re decided to start from scratch, a good starting point is to find a song that gets your toes tapping and go from there.
You don’t always need a whole musical number however. Sometimes just a sound effect will do the job – look at Intel!
As always, the one golden rule to follow is to ensure everything remains on brand. If your content is centred around extreme sports, you’ll want to avoid anything that could feature as a soundscape on Downton Abbey.
Above all else, remember to have fun with it. Putting your ident together should be a fun, creative way to express yourself and your brand. Your content marketing strategy will thank you for it, and when you see how the perception of your brand glows golden, you’ll be thrilled too.
