Questions & Answers !

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Alliance Media Boston
NONPROFIT MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

         Question: How do most nonprofits actually use a video about their organization?

Answer: The basics are unchanging.  A short video at the beginning of a presentation quickly familiarizes an audience with your organization and establishes a receptive mood for personal interaction. In fundraising, from ongoing support to capital campaigns, video is highly effective in an individual or group presentation or sent by mail to a major donor or corporation.  In marketing, a video can introduce families to hospice and your hospice residence or dramatize and promote the merit of your new curriculum. Other uses include community education, recruitment, training, orientation, and "video flypaper" to attract visitors to your organization's conference booth.

Through a compelling script, on-camera interviews, music, and professional narration, a custom video about your organization by Alliance Media offers dramatic impact and the limitless ability to tell your story.  Video brings the mission and merit of your organization to life, on a TV screen, on a computer monitor, or projected larger-than-life onto a movie screen.

Nothing tells the nonprofit story as powerfully as video.
No one tells the nonprofit story better than
Alliance Media.

         Question: What are some of the newest ways organizations are using their videos?

Answer: Through emerging technologies and the fertile imaginations of Directors of Development, there are new uses for an organization's video production every year.  For example, while TV screens and VHS cassettes are still ubiquitous in the nonprofit world, some organizations are having their videos transferred to CD or DVD to expand a production's flexibility and utility.  Some organizations are also using all or part of their productions as a featured portion of their Web site. FYI: Alliance Media has been shooting and editing entirely in the digital domain since 1999.

    Question: Why do you write the script before shooting a video?  Shouldn't you base your script on what the video team has shot?

Answer:  We would, after some initial planning, but only if we had been asked to produce a documentary.  A documentary presents an organization from the producer's or filmmaker's point-of-view.
Alliance Media presents an organization from the organization's point-of-view and with very specific goals, such as eliciting support for a capital campaign or presenting the uniqueness of a school's curriculum to a parent unable to make a personal visit.

Following an Intake Meeting and teleconferences with a client, we create a script which focuses the production's entire efforts at the project's target audience (e.g., potential funders, educators, legislators, members, volunteers) and the organization's goals for the video.   After the client approves the script, we shoot scenes and interviews which support it.  (Narration in the script is then adjusted depending on content covered by interviews.)

Through this marketing-based approach, our clients consistently achieve a wide variety of goals, and our productions consistently come in on-time and on-budget. 

                Question:  Who's going to write the script?

Answer:   Cameras, lighting, sound equipment, and all the other trappings of video production are simply the necessary tools.  We believe the main reasons to hire a professional firm to create your video are writing and experience.  Just as individuals hire attorneys to write wills because they have years of training and experience in the laws and language of the courts, nonprofits need to hire nonprofit marketing communications professionals to create effective materials.
Alliance Media writes video scripts based on our years of training and experience in the languages of marketing communications and fundraising.  We combine the essentials of sound marketing communications with the power of compelling storytelling to hold a viewer's attention and motivate that viewer to act - to fund, join, volunteer, change their opinion, or place their trust in you.
                               

          Question:  What special experience does your production team have?

Answer:  Because 100 percent of our videos are shot on location, our video team has been in hundreds of different venues over the years, including classrooms, boardrooms, living rooms, hospice rooms, hospitals, playgrounds, marshlands, and inner city neighborhoods.
Alliance Media's cameras have been in the dirt behind second base at a third grade softball game, by the bedside of an elderly woman receiving visiting nurse care, and up on the roof of a high-rise apartment capturing a city panorama.  These opportunities to direct, interview, light, videograph, and capture sound, all as unobtrusively as possible,  have allowed us to interact with a wide range of populations in a wide range of environments. 
 

        Question:  Most of your videos don't go over ten minutes.  Why is that?

Answer:  Videos used in fundraising, capital campaigns, marketing, or other areas where an action is hoped for from the viewer, such as helping fund a new hospice residence or donating some acres to a land trust, must respect the "12-minute rule."  Focus groups and marketing studies continue to find that you can hold the attention of viewers watching a non-entertainment production for about twelve minutes before they start to squirm in their seats.  Of course, length is just the first basic consideration for holding a viewer's attention.
Alliance Media combines a well-crafted script, good pacing, and many other creative and marketing techniques to motivate your viewers to fund, join, volunteer, or take some other action to support your goals.

                Question: We know how valuable a video would be for our organization, but there's no way we can pay the high prices we've heard about.  How do others do it?

Answer: Perhaps the others who can do it are some of our clients! When we formed our company in 1990, we realized that funding a video was a major obstacle for a majority of small and medium-sized nonprofits.  In fact, that was the reason we formed this company: to create professional print and electronic marketing communications materials that would help nonprofits accomplish their missions and that were within their financial reach.
The new video technologies that emerged a decade ago continue to evolve today and help Alliance Media clients achieve the on-screen impact that conveys their stories powerfully at rates dramatically lower than those of commercial studios.

Question: One of our board members says we should give a local company a chance to produce our video. What do you think?

Answer: It makes sense to consider local status or other political issues when it comes to vendors such as printers but not for certain highly specialized or creative services, such as fundraising software or videos. In the latter case, you need to know that your video producer has extensive nonprofit experience in specific areas like capital campaign, educational, or historical productions as well as the ability to tell a nonprofit's story in a compelling way that gets results. That is, the video producer must have a track record of having helped nonprofits motivate the viewer of a video to fund, join, volunteer, understand, change their opinion, or lend support in some other way.

Question: We’re convinced that your marketing knowledge and experience in telling the nonprofit story are the right combination for our video, but you’re in New England and we’re in the West. How can you work with us?

Answer: It’s true, distance used to be an issue.  Lugging a video camera, lights, and sound equipment, in addition to personal luggage, used to be a chore. But with each passing year, the capabilities of digital video equipment get bigger while the size of the equipment gets smaller.  For example, the camera we use today is just one quarter the size of the camera we used just five years ago, yet is more powerful.
The Alliance Media director/videographer and writer who visit you are the same individuals who conceive and write the script and direct the shooting and final editing of your production. This approach ensures that the message and impact you get on-screen are consistent with what we've discussed and agreed on together.

Alliance Media Boston
NONPROFIT MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

        Question: I worry that the materials we produce in-house don't represent our organization as being professional and highly qualified. But we can't afford an ad agency or PR firm.  How can you help?

Answer: Since Alliance Media works only with nonprofits, we are accustomed to creating materials that are attractive and effective, but much more modestly priced than those done by an agency or PR firm. Most nonprofits don't want to project a glossy, expensive-looking image. You need materials that are visually appealing, have an effectively targeted message, and are written in a compelling way.

   Question: We have so many different programs and services, and for that matter, we have several different audiences we target with our materials. How can we afford all those brochures?

Answer: First, your organization may need less printed material than you think. One of Alliance Media's most helpful assets is our ability to organize, prioritize, and distill information. You don't need a textbook containing every minute detail about your organization and its services. We can help you identify and express the key information which is important to everyone and that which is relevant to each particular target group. We can also help with practical design approaches, e.g., using a simple folder with some general information and interchangeable inserts to fit each specific need.

Question: What if we just can't afford soup-to-nuts professional help even with a simple brochure?

Answer: If budgetary constraints dictate that you absolutely must design and print out your own materials, we can at least be involved in the initial creative and marketing strategy and writing so that the message in what you produce will be on-target.

           Question: We definitely need concept/writing/design help, but our organization has a strong relationship with a local printer who gives us great rates. Can we use them to handle the printing?

Answer: Absolutely!  When our clients have had ongoing relationships with a printer, we've encouraged them to take advantage of that relationship. We also have printers with different areas of expertise that we use when clients want us to take a project through completion. In either case, we always design with a balance of your budget and printing costs in mind.

            Question: We have some really competent and creative people on staff. Once in a while, though, they're overextended and simply can't take on a needed project. Or they may not have expertise in a particular area. So our need is really sporadic. Can you help?

Answer: We can. We'll take on a single project or a coordinated campaign, and you pay only for what you need when you need it! 

Alliance Media Boston
NONPROFIT MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

         Question: Some of my best volunteers are not effective speakers. How can I help them with community presentations?

Answer: A script, planned by those in the organization who set "editorial policy" and written by Alliance Media professionals, ensures that content is appropriate, thorough, and consistent with other presentations. And whether the presentation is formal or informal, a script lends confidence to the speaker.

    Question: Why not just write our own presentations? 

Answer: Alliance Media brings objectivity to decisions about content to be included.  What's most important to the client is often not most important to the audience! Our marketing knowledge aids in the development of strategies for reaching the target audience. And our writing ability makes the message compelling and memorable, one that gets the desired result.

        Question:  We're lucky to have some very knowledgeable and effective speakers; the only thing they lack is preparation time! What can you do for them?

Answer: Alliance Media can take a client's information and marketing message and create a speech for a particular speaker, written in a style that's comfortable for them.

                       Question: What about a situation where our presenter will be interviewed, such a radio talk show?

Answer: Alliance Media will develop a list of suggested questions for the presenter to give beforehand to the interviewer and an outline of points to be covered in the answers so that the presenter can be prepared with thorough, but succinct responses during the interview. Presenters feel more confident with this type of preparation. And interviewers like it because it saves them preparation time.

Alliance Media Boston
   NONPROFIT MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

         Question: Although we know we need help developing our story and our message, we've always had to create these brochures and other materials ourselves.  How can we afford you if we can't afford an ad agency or PR firm?

Answer: 100 percent of our clients are nonprofit organizations, small and medium sized organizations.  Our experience tells us that clients value us not just for the particular projects we do, but for our ability to help small and medium sized organizations clarify goals and create materials with a unifying theme and a fresh approach at a modest cost.
Alliance Media's expertise and objectivity help you prioritize target audiences and approaches for each, identify your strengths and "expert testimony" that can support your efforts, evaluate current communications materials, and make recommendations to help you make the most of all your "in house" projects.

                Question: Those within our own sphere, like referral sources or colleague organizations, know about us.  But we really need to do a better job reaching the people of our community.  What can you do? 

Answer: We can help you clarify who you need to reach, what you need to tell them, how to reach them, and how often to reach them.  Whether you're in a larger city or a smaller one, every nonprofit has been accumulating accomplishments and fascinating, interesting, and moving stories that every community wants to hear about.
Alliance Media will help you develop an annualized plan that will enable you to reach your goals within a budget that fits your needs.

© 2000-2008 Alliance Media

Non Profit Video Production Services - Boston MA Non Profit Video Production Services
Boston Massachusetts Non Profit Video Production Services