In this sample, my goal was to produce a short open and close to use in a social media video marketing campaign. The videos would be posted straight to the bank’s YouTube channel. Those “bookends” I created, would then be used repeatedly with other social media content that would be produced over time. Take a look at this first video and read further to learn why this was commonly called a “donut”…
The “middle” content for this first video was obviously created to promote the rollout of the bank’s new web site. And the idea was that for each successive video to come in the campaign, that social media content between the open and close would be altered or changed to feature another product or service. In the days before the internet, these spots were known as “donuts” in the broadcast television world. Because, well, there was a “hole in the middle” of the commercial – where new creative content would reside.
And so, there was little creative barnstorming for the creation of this first spot – other than “show what the new web site will look like” and perhaps demonstrate a small fraction of its functionality. I wrote the short copy for the donut as well as hired the voice over narrator and then edited the whole thing together – using screen captures of the new site, while it was still under construction.