The Best Ways To Use Your CEO In A Video

How To Generate Several Types Of Promotional Videos From A Simple Interview With Your Brand’s CEO


This promotional clip featuring interviews with the company's directors is a prime example. With more than 250K views, over 2K likes, and a comments section filled with "This is beautiful!" and "How was this made?", it's clear why using your CEO in a video is a good move for your brand.


As part of a marketing and advertising team, we know how prevalent messages are when they come directly from popular CEOs. Visionary leaders can leave a lasting impact on a large audience by generating discussion of the latest ideas and technologies and providing an outlook for their brand.


But have you ever wondered how these interviews manage to turn viewers into potential customers? 


The answer is pretty simple:  Interviews like these provide a more intimate connection between a brand’s head, its consumers, partners, and workforce.  


By providing better insight into the inner workings of a company, as well as its vision, more people are inclined to trust (and become interested) in said company. 


One simple video interview with a brand head that imparts an air of authenticity can become a wonderful catalyst for promotion - one that can be shared with a large number and wide range of people.


Now you’re probably wondering, why doesn’t every brand do this? What’s stopping a business’s marketing team from creating a platform of dialogue for their CEO? 


The #1 reason stopping brands is: 


Their CEO is too busy for long interviews & the prep required to produce them. 


Everyone knows how precious time can be! But what if we told you that one simple interview with your CEO could produce up to eight quality promotional videos.  


All you need is a little careful planning, and you'll be able to create enough content for multiple videos - with only an hour or less of interview time.


Here’s a list of video ideas you can develop, plus relevant interview questions to help you capture what you need during the interview process:


1. Company Culture Insight


One of the most underrated (and underused) forms of content marketing is interviews that express company culture, also known as “recruitment videos”.


There are plenty of available paths you can take if you want to take advantage of this marketing technique. For one, you can do an interview that focuses purely on your company head. 


This kind of video will feature your CEO sharing their views about the brand, as well as their experience working and managing as its leader. You can create critical motivators if your CEO climbed the corporate ladder themselves, or if they are one of the company's original founders. 


If you want to enhance the interview with additional visuals, you can feature a b-roll or any similar type of shots that capture your company’s working environment.


*BONUS IDEA:


Another type of video you can work on includes more than just one key speaker. You can choose to utilise workers from all levels of the workforce - from newly hired individuals, right up to upper management. 


This kind of video will give your brand the opportunity to show how a wide range of its members benefit from being a part of the company. 


 

  • What is the company culture? 

  • How good are the career advancement prospects?

  • Will I feel welcome here?

  • Is the mission inline with my personal values? 

 


You're essentially offering your audience a narrative that (hopefully) puts your brand in a good light. In this format, your “CEO” content is supplemented and supported by interviews from other employees.


Regardless of what type of video you choose, here are some basic interview questions that will help you incite more interesting content from your brand head:


 

  • Describe the reasons why you enjoy your role as the leader of this brand.

  • What are the key differences that set this brand apart from the rest?

  • What characteristics do you want from a potential employee?

  • What kind of person will thrive in this company?

  • If a person is debating between choosing a job in this company or your competitors, what reasons can you give to encourage them to work for you?

 

 

2. Thought Leadership


Marketing through thought leadership is seen as a regular practice when it comes to B2B advertising. People under this type of business often utilize this kind of marketing to become authority figures in a specific niche. Thought leaders need to be able to effectively convey their insights coming from an executive position.


Through video content, you can capture these insights while interviewing your CEO, while fostering and maintaining a more authentic connection between the brand and the audience. 


Here are some interview questions to help you spark insightful thought leadership that discusses a certain topic (remember that the blanks should be the topic that acts as the focal point of the video, the main thing you want your audience to be interested in):


 

  • For the audience who don’t know about ________, how can you explain this in your own words? What is the essence of ________?

  • What do you do as the head of ________?

  • How does the brand address ________?

  • What do you want the audience to know about ________?

  • How can consumers take advantage of ________?

 


After you’ve pooled the answers from your brand head, you can integrate this video within any relevant content like a landing page, blog post, or guest post, to act as a supplement to the video (or vice versa). Additionally, you could explore a few more branching topics to create a future video series - where each clip or episode covers specific items of discussion that, while intrinsically linked, are better served individually.

 

One path you can take is to appeal to your general audience with good business practices and an emphasis on sustainability. For example, if you’re a company that sells recyclable water containers, you can pull focus on how your products are environmentally responsible. If your brand supports a charity, you can share how a portion of company profits are allocated to assist them. This way, the general audience is given additional incentive to use your products or services.

 

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3. Onboarding Introduction


When businesses manage to acquire new customers, onboarding is a very important step. It acts as a “jump-start" in the business-customer relationship. Making a video using a CEO interview can be utilized to introduce your brand, assist the initial process, and create an overall inviting atmosphere. 


If your brand is trying to sell a service or product, your CEO will have the capacity to highlight the key things that will help customers get started. 


Here are the typical questions interviewers ask when creating this style of marketing content:


 

  • How can customers successfully use this product?

  • Do you use this product personally, and do you recommend it to your friends and family?

  • How can customers express their questions and concerns about this product (online support, email, phone line, etc.)?

  • Are there any useful resources that you recommend to your customers (knowledge base, community forum, etc.)?

 


Introductory videos with questions and answers such as these are best utilized as a part of your company's website or email newsletter, as part of the initial greeting of your brand new customers.

 

4. Industry Trend


This presentation type allows you more room to cover a variety of different subject matters - from the latest business trends, to your new company policies. 


It can also be used beyond its original format of “talking head” by including b-roll footage, slides, and other visual elements such as diagrams and charts, to gain more audience attention.


If the purpose of your video is highlighting industry trends in the realm of your service or product that haven't yet been released to the general public, you can simply go over these subjects by using non-specific motion graphics to convey the general concept. 


If your team doesn’t have a talented motion graphics designer, you can utilize the many freely available tools online or enlist the help of an agency (like ours!) to help you make quick visuals that enliven and enhance the original content.


In contrast to the 'thought leadership' theme that was discussed previously, the 'industry trend' video type will direct its focus on current trends and explain how the brand intends to position itself for future prospects. We recommend that, whenever possible, emphasis is placed on new opportunities rather than potential challenges. 


If you decide to go with the latter, you should be able to demonstrate a clear and concise plan to meet those challenges head-on. Instead of providing opinions or subjective definitions, videos that focus on goals and highlight industry trends will shine a positive light on a CEO’s vision for their brand.


Here are a couple of questions you can utilize as a guideline for this video type:


 

  • What’s the biggest trend this year within your industry?

  • What do you think acted as a catalyst for this trend?

  • How long do you think this trend shall last? Do you think it’ll only get bigger from here, or will it soon subsist?

  • Has this trend created an impact on your brand in any way?

  • How will you position your brand to take advantage of this trend?

 


A major challenge every business faces is attributing the right revenue for their marketing and advertising plans. Oftentimes, consumers will wonder how a particular brand will react to the latest trends. 


By being upfront and outlining everything in a video, you can keep your audience (and potential new customers!) satisfied and informed.

 


5. FAQs


To address the concerns of your customers and provide them with readily available information, it's beneficial to create FAQ pages for your brand.


One effective approach to enhance the overall user experience is by incorporating video content into your FAQ page. Video has proven to be highly effective in communicating information to a wide range of people.


To streamline the process of creating your FAQ videos, you can leverage the interview content obtained from your session with your brand's leader. By featuring your leader and presenting relevant answers concisely, you can establish a strong connection with your target audience.


To gather specific answers for your FAQs, it's recommended to ask your CEO the right questions. Providing them with written answers they can read or interpret in their own words is a good approach.


We suggest keeping these answers brief, preferably within a minute. The video format is not intended to be a comprehensive guide, but rather a means to offer assistance and guide viewers towards further support if needed.


If you're seeking additional ways to engage with your audience, encourage your interviewee to look directly into the camera. This creates a personal and direct connection, making it feel like they are addressing the viewer's concerns in a one-on-one setting.


 

6. Company Vision


Effectively communicating your company's vision is vital both internally and externally. It's important to convey your company's vision to every potential customer so that they can understand what sets your brand apart from others in the industry.


For example, if you work for a technology company, it's crucial that potential customers are aware of your plans to release new features, improve the user experience, and explore various integrations.


It's equally important to communicate this vision to your employees. After all, if your employees are unaware of the direction the company is heading in, it becomes challenging for them to contribute effectively towards achieving the company's goals.


Here are a couple of questions you can utilize as a guideline for this video type:


 

  • How is this brand different from its competitors?

  • Can you share the areas your brand is currently focusing on?

  • What is your brand’s current priority this year?

  • Are you going to implement changes in the future any time soon? 

  • How do you see your company evolve in the next decade?

  • What’s the main issue you need to solve, and how will you do it?

  • What’s your brand’s vision?

 


shane yeager ceo of cinesalon video production agency


7. Event Promotion/ Invitation


Live events can be highly effective in captivating your target audience. However, organizing and managing such events requires significant resources and time investment. Therefore, it's crucial to make the most of it by inviting attendees who can positively represent your brand, such as lead developers and CEOs.


One strategy to generate more interest in your event is to prominently feature your CEO in the invites or promotional materials. This can be achieved through video formats, which can further enhance the chances of attracting attention and engagement.


Here are a couple of questions you can utilize as a guideline for this video type:


 

  • What’s your role in this brand?

  • What will happen at this event?

  • Can you tell us what this event is for?

  • Who else will be in this event?

  • What is the time and location of the event?

  • How will this event be able to help its attendees?

  • Who do you recommend this event for?

  • Will there be any amenities for the attendees?

 

 

8. Product Intro


When brands launch a new product, it's common for the CEO to take the lead in introducing it. This is particularly true in the technology industry, where keynote speeches and events are frequently utilized to unveil new products.


Nevertheless, introducing a product can still have a significant impact even if it's presented indirectly through video content. You can incorporate this content into your landing pages, social media platforms, or email lists of your current contacts.


Here are a couple of questions you can utilize as a guideline for this video type:


 

  • Explain why this service/product was developed.

  • Who will benefit from this?

  • What is the specific problem consumers have that will be solved by this product?

  • How big is the difference between owning and not having this product (explaining how much time, money, effort, it can save)?

  • Will we see any new features or updates for this product in the coming years?

  • Briefly explain what your product does.

  • What specific features do you want to share, and how will these features benefit its users?

 


Introducing a new product in this manner, through a reliable source, helps build trust for your brand and strengthens the promotional aspect of your product.

 

Final Thoughts


Incorporating executive interviews into your brand's marketing strategy can add an additional voice of expertise and influence. These videos, featuring your brand's leader, can be a valuable tool to guide your customers on their journey, increase brand awareness, and differentiate your brand from others in the same industry.


CEOs have the opportunity to share your brand's vision, strengthen recruitment strategies, showcase your latest services and products, and project a sense of leadership for the entire company.


With a well-planned and prepared interview, you can generate a significant amount of content that can effectively reach potential customers and prospects. It's important to ensure everything is organized and thoroughly checked before finalizing a date with the executive. Prepare backup questions in addition to the ones you already have and ensure the flow of these questions makes sense.


If you need help planning or capturing your executive video, give us a shout.

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