Show Me, Don’t Tell Me – 10 Astonishing Videos & the Strategy Behind Them

It is axiomatic on the Internet, that if you want to succeed in marketing, and you have something compelling to say, it is infinitely more powerful to “show” your potential customers, than it is to “tell” them.

One of the most awesome weapons in today’s Social Media arsenal, is YouTube, (and the other video delivery juggernauts, like Hulu).  With over 150 million viewers in the U.S. alone, watching 5 billion online videos per month, this incredible audience is just waiting for your content to be delivered to them.  At little or no cost.  A company that does not take advantage of this video opportunity is foolish at best, or hopelessly negligent at worst.

Suppose you are:

• A  struggling auto company in a distressed city
• A non-profit trying to reduce poverty
• A company wishing to bring color into a drab world
• An innovative microchip manufacturer with an amazing new product
• A manufacturer with an amazing new camera
• A home improvement superstore with a vision for the future
• A foundation with a remarkable new treatment for AIDS
• A telecommunications company that believes in the power of new ideas
• An environmental scientist wishing to change deserts into beautiful grasslands
• Or, a retail chain wishing to make a big splash

What do you do?  How do you communicate your message to an enormous audience without breaking the bank?

The answer is:  You tell your story with a compelling video, and with the help of YouTube and a little viral luck, you circulate it at no cost to millions of receptive viewers.

Here are 10 astonishing examples of companies and non-profits that are doing it right.  Watch them all and learn.  As of this morning, over 13 million people have watched the videos you are about to enjoy.

1.  Chrysler Motors and the City of Detroit wanted to communicate the message that with “hard work, know-how and conviction,” a major company and it’s home town could be rehabilitated.  In the words of Eminem, “It’s not what you have been told, by people who have never been to Detroit.  Luxury is as much about where it’s from as it is who it’s for.
This is the Motor City, and this is what we do!”  Watch and appreciate the arrival of the Chrysler 200, imported from Detroit.

2.  According to Girleffect.org, when a girl turns 12 years old, living in poverty, her future is out of her control.  She is pregnant by time she’s 15, selling her body to support her family, contracting and spreading HIV.  The good news is that there is a solution!  She can be happy and healthy.  She can see a doctor regularly.  She can stay in school where she’s safe, and use her eduction to earn a living.  She can avoid HIV and can have children as healthy as she is.  This is a solution that will last for generation after generation.

3.  Letscoulourproject.com insists on bringing color and beauty into an otherwise drab world.  Watch as they vividly make their point.

4.  Intel Corporation and its revolutionary Core i5 chip makes your computer faster and more powerful.  It actually sizzles.  You could make a glossy brochure, and design a sophisticated website, or you could invite your audience to experience a visually stunning performance like never before.  Multitasking has never been so memorable.

5.  This amazing stop action video of a little girl confronting challenge after challenge, riding a bumble bee, passing through an imaginary garden with a Lady Bug watching on, was all shot from a desktop, using an amazing new camera, the new Nokia N8 using Cellscope Technology.  Imagine the possibilities as you watch this enchanting video.

6.  “In every hut there is a home,” according to the Hornbach Home Improvement Superstores.  Watch as a little shack transforms itself into a functioning work of art, complete with a Rube Goldberg bowling alley.

7.  The Topsy Foundation wants our help to provide a treatment for AIDS patients that “can give someone a second chance.”  “The effects of AIDS can be reversed,” they say.  A very compelling idea without doubt, but made much more so when you watch an AIDS patient go from thin, frail and sad — to healthy and smiling — in a reversed video showing 90 days in her life.

8. “What are you thinking right now?” So asks Batelco, a leading Middle East Telecom provider, wanting to launch into the market with the proposition of “Bringing ideas to life” — to show the potential of its offerings to facilitate global communication. “Keep thinking,” they encourage the viewers of this dramatic video. This video is as memorable and impactful as you are ever likely to see.

9. Allan Savory, a Zimbabwean biologist, farmer, soldier, exile and environmentalist wanted to explain massive environmental malfunctioning. Reversing desertification was his goal. He wanted to get the message out to the world as fast as he could. “Any paradigm shattering idea” he suggests, “that conflicts with the beliefs of authorities, is fiercely resisted.” While millions of dollars are being spent to change deserts into grassland with no results, what if you had an idea that was free and actually generated income? This is the Allan Savory story. In this video he is asking for volunteers and influential supporters to come to Zimbabwe to see for themselves.

10. What if you’re Target, and you want to make a spectacular splash. The Target Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular, that’s what. Transform a New York City building into a breathtaking kaleidoscope of color to the delight of hundreds of New Yorkers and thousands of online viewers.

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