2019 has been yet another amazing year at Anvil Media, with the team working on some great video content across genres. Every video produced is an opportunity to connect with the human aspect of the story.
Here are some of the highlights of 2019, hope you enjoy watching them as much as we have enjoyed producing them:
For northern NSW the current dry is the worst period of drought the area's been through in the past 50 to 70 years, according to agricultural consultant Greg Rummery from Walgett. Every drought ends and they all end the same way - it rains, but what till then?
The idea of GRDC’S 'Dealing with the Dry' forums was to bring together smaller groups of growers for a quick but information rich session. Specialist speakers were lined up to address the issues that growers face during drought.
This video with agronomist Garry Littlejohns, who until recently worked with a bank for 12 years, gives growers insight to debt management. Garry's messages included, keep in regular contact with your bank, have your financial records up to date and have a professional farm business plan so that when the drought breaks you are in the best position to apply successfully for finance.
How Komatsu responded to two worker injuries in 2019 is a lesson in great workplace safety.
The incidents in Western Australia saw Komatsu Service employees injured in the course of maintaining clients' machines. Both incidents resulted in the hospitalisation of the worker.
While both workers made a full recovery and returned to work, the incidents could have had much more serious consequences, and were preventable.
As part of its response, Komatsu asked Anvil Media to produce training videos to reinforce the lessons learned and the real danger of small deviations from safety procedures. The videos were to connect strongly with the impact or potential impact of such incidents on the lives of the injured worker, their families, and workmates.
Anvil Media produced two videos, one about each incident. This one recreates Sean Ward's injury, suffered from burns caused by pressurised hydraulic oil and flames.
Each video dramatised the incident and retold it in the words of those who lived it.
The story confronted the audience with the actual and potential impact of the incident. Through what we might call "suggestive re-enactment" the video was to make each viewer "experience" the event and shudder in recognition of the circumstances.
The aim of the exercise was that Komatsu's workers understand that small deviations from the procedure, or minor details, could have damaging, potentially permanent impacts.
When a major organisation or peak industry body holds a flagship event, it's a unique opportunity to engage their audience beyond the walls of the conference venue.
Video will be a crucial part of that, and getting the video content right gives your social media program for the event a serious leg-up. But what does getting the video content right look like?
In November, more than 500 red meat farmers and other stakeholders converged on Tamworth for Meat & Livestock Australia's, Red Meat 2019. MLA’s annual conference has national significance for farmers and their communities.
Anvil Media was the embedded video production provider. In 3 days we delivered 11 individual videos - from 30 seconds to over 4 minutes - for MLA to generate national engagement, predominantly across Twitter and Facebook. By the end of the week, MLA featured all the videos in a special-edition EDM to its 24,000 subscribers. Within a week, we'd published every session video.
There were four keys to getting this right:
Anvil Media came into this project with an intimate understanding of the livestock farmer audience and their industry. That enabled us to create video content that the audience would watch and engage with, because it provides real value. There is no substitute for hard work in gaining this kind of understanding.
It's critical that your event video producers understanding your channels and what it takes to generate and maintain a stream of content to engage your audience across the course of the event and in the days and weeks after it. Our videos for Red Meat 2019 were a mix of highlights packages, targeted interviews and quick grabs that picked up on the key themes and moments.
You don't deliver comprehensive professional video content in 3 days without the right team and gear. Anvil Media's team in Tamworth included 5 multi-skilled professionals, three HD cameras, a drone, broadcast edit suite, and almost 30 terabytes of fast data storage. From data wrangling to motion graphics and skilled storytelling, making the most of a flagship event takes a team with the capacity and capability to deliver.
An increasing proportion of marketing videos contain animation. We all see it. You don’t need us to tell you it’s true.
What Anvil Media saw in 2019 was just how huge that trend is, evidenced by the kind of clients opting for animation and the sheer amount of animation we’ve created.
Our new animation director, Damien, has at times been the busiest member of the Anvil team, creating animation and motion graphics from the simple, like the Australian Hot Water series above, to the more complex.
Even where the video is predominantly filmed content, motion graphics or animation are no longer nice options. They’re totally expected by viewers.
What’s driving the trend? A combination of technology that makes animation faster to create, and the need created by social media channels with silent playback. In short, animation is more available and it’s more necessary.
2020 is shaping to up be another year of working on some exceptional video content for team Anvil.
How's the new year shaping up for you as a brand? How are you using video in your corporate content mix? If you think it could use a more strategic approach, do get in touch, we would love to work with you!