Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is using video to raise money for the Wikipedia Foundation and to help foster the growth of Wikipedia in the languages of developing countries around the world.
This video benefited from some excellent footage from the documentary film “Truth in Numbers”.
I was very impressed with quality of the video, and predict that this video will be a very effective fund raising tool.
Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising 2007
A Clear Goal and A Single Memorable Message
What impressed me most with the video is that it has a clearly defined goal and it presents the viewer with a single memorable message. The goal of course is to raise money for Wikipedia, and the message is that your donations will benefit people all over the world by contributing to the expansion of Wikipedia into many languages.
One of the biggest flaws people make when producing videos is that they try to say too much. Video is an amazing medium for presenting a lot of information in a short amount of time. The problem is that if you try to say too much at once, when your video is finished, all the information might just blend together, and your audience might not remember anything at all.
If you craft a video around a single memorable idea, argument or message, there is a much greater chance that your video will have a lasting impression on your viewer. You will also increase the chances of achieving your goals by inciting your viewer to take action.
Another thing that impressed me was that this video has the 4 ingredients that I think are necessary for any video to be successful.
4 part video structure:
1. Establish your character
2. Appeal to your audience’s emotions
3. Appeal to your audience’s sense of logic
4. Call to Action
In my opinion, every video needs these 4 things and preferably in this order.
Story
The last and potentially the most important quality to this video, is that instead of feeling like a commercial or a promotional video, it feels like a story. Even though he is asking for your money, Jimmy Wales feels more like a storyteller than a pitch man. People have mixed feeling about advertising, but we all love stories, it’s human nature. Tell a good story and people will remember it, share it with their friends, and possibly take action.
Watch this video again and you will see how well crafted this seemingly simple video really is.
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I think we are going to start seeing a lot more people using this method of fundraising. I would be interested to hear there results from this advertisement. They did a great job with this piece, and nice post!
