Even though it honestly might mean less work for me in the long run, I think word of mouth advertising is perhaps the best kind of introduction to a company’s products or services. Perhaps more influential than any branding or marketing campaign…
Think about it for a moment and you’ll realize you’ve asked friends or co-workers for a referral when searching for great service. I myself depend on repeat customers and word-of-mouth references for my business. Angie’s List, Yelp and other online referral places have made it their bread and butter. In essence, we all want to know that someone else, whom we know & believe, has had a great experience with a certain car mechanic, plumber, or hair stylist before we entrust them with our business for the first time.
Enter then the TV testimonial video or commercial. We’ve all seen these and frankly they can be associated with shills, less-than-honest paid actors essentially trying to entice to make a buck. And the online form of this – fake feedback on social media or on a product’s review page on Amazon, is rampant. But I say, when it comes to content for tv commercials, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because we’ve all seen hokey or really bad testimonials, that doesn’t automatically mean the form or format itself is bad. Testimonials, if done honestly with folks that you either know or trust, is word of mouth and can be just as effective.
The key in my opinion is gaining a viewers trust. In order to do that, the first step is using real people with real feedback. Here are three :30 second tv testimonials that were shot completely unscripted – and I think as a viewer you can sense that. No one off screen was feeding these actual patients lines to say, nor were there rehearsals or prearrangements made. Certainly, trusting someone is a complicated human thing. But for this type of advertising or marketing, I think it starts when people simply answer real questions in an honest manner.
Producing these three spots, I honestly knew the folks had a very positive, good experience at Orthopaedic Associates. And they were happy to share that experience word-of-mouth. The hardest part of my job on these, was trying to cut down the many good things they had to say to fit neatly into a :30 sec spot. I hope my work captured that honesty.
You can see the other two produced spots below: