The Value of Visual Communication

The earliest known form of visual communication was cave painting in southern France around 40,000 years ago. About 37,000 years later, hieroglyphics were introduced, giving some structure to this art form, launching an entirely new system of communications. The 18th century brought us lithography, which meant we could share communications on a broader scale. And the pace of progress has evolved rapidly ever since—printing press, mass media, Internet—increasingly powerful and expansive new ways to pass stories to one another. Cave paintings, at global scale. 

The paradox is that with an exponentially greater number of ways for brands to communicate today, consumers are drowning in messages. As marketers today, we are faced with the critical need to cut through the very clutter we create.

• Digital marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to anywhere between 4,000-10,000 ads daily

• Consumers spend more than 5 hours a day on their cellphones, where they also have twice as many interactions with brands as anywhere else

• Including the word “video” in an email subject line increases click-through rates by 13% and video is one of the top shared pieces of content on social media

• 90% of web consumers say that a video helps them make a decision to buy a business' product or service

• Today’s marketing rule of thumb suggests we have 3-6 seconds to capture someone’s attention

Thankfully, we humans possess a secret weapon for today’s frenetic world of communications. Our brains have tremendous capacity to process what our eyes see (and transmit to our brains). Not only do our brains translate images into information well, our brains do this quickly. A team of neuroscientists from MIT found that our brains have the ability to process images 60,000 times faster than text, and the human brain can process entire images in less than one second (in as few as 13 milliseconds, according to the research). 

There’s more. People are more likely to remember concepts when they are presented as images rather than words. Research shows when people hear information, they’re likely to remember 10% of that information 3 days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with the same information, people retain 65% of the information 3 days later.

Brands can tap this secret superpower. Because the human mind processes things in images, visual communication is the most effective way of sharing information. When marketers choose visual communications to tell their brand story—whether through images, videos, illustration, graphics and other design choices—we increase our chances of people seeing, understanding and remembering more.

This is a big reason we encourage people to sketch their ideas during our innovation workshops. Even a visual prototype can communicate volumes, and do a better job than a written description in engaging someone in a conversation, about the ideas we want to communicate.

There are caveats, of course. To be successful, we need to be thoughtful and strategic. To be effective, visual communications need to be:

Relevant. They need to meet people where they are (physically, emotionally and whenever they are on their brand journey with you). Visual communications should reflect something that matters to them.

True. What you showcase needs to true about your brand, service, product or experience. People need to believe what they see for visual communications to be credible. 

Differentiating. It’s critical to stand apart so that people can find and choose your brand from a sea of options. When identifying distinguishing characteristics of your brand, it’s also important to keep in mind your competitive set may not just be others in your category. We are often competing for the heart and mindshare of people who are making choices a

Appealing and entertaining. Videos are an especially powerful form of visual communications because we can engage people through entertainment. Videos grab peoples’ attention and hold it longer, allowing additional opportunity to engage them further in meaningful brand-inspired content. 

Authentic and Purposeful. These two go hand in hand. With so much more access to information people are demanding more from brands. In milliseconds, people are asking themselves: are those real people (or people who posed for a stock photo)? What am I supposed to do with this information? Brene Brown might be the greatest thing that’s happened in the vulnerability market. When people know you are being authentic—with your intention and action—they are more likely to trust you. This is a cornerstone for building enduring relationships with your customer.

There are a LOT of messages flowing to the people we aspire to reach, across many media. People have a secret superpower for taking in the many stories they see. And we have the ability to tap into this superpower with strategic visual communications. Visual communications allow us to break through the clutter with purposeful, authentic and differentiated visuals. And when we do that, the possibilities for engaging new audiences and engaging our current audiences more deeply are endless.

We love telling brand stories with visual communications. Drop us a line if you’d like to explore how to tell your brand story in visually powerful new ways.

Case Study: Custom Stock Photo + Video Collection for PBS KIDS

In an increasingly competitive children’s entertainment landscape, PBS KIDS wanted a visually striking, memorable and uniquely compelling way to express their brand—to inspire audiences to watch, share, download and engage more deeply with its content.

PBS KIDS sought one-of-a-kind photos and video clips to convey meaningful, high-impact moments in preschool education. They wanted images and videos versatile enough to use  for brand, marketing, social media, fundraising and other communications.

The project kicked off with a focused strategy session to ensure that the new photos and videos would reflect PBS KIDS’ unique core brand values, as well as showcase authentic learning moments featuring STEM in the curriculum, technology in action and diversity in the classroom  From there, we reviewed current visual assets and identified gaps and opportunities to tell the brand story through still and video images. The strategy was crafted into a creative brief, which served as the strategic touchstone for the project. 

To capture authenticity, our team scouted 8 different schools and conducted real people casting. To minimize disruption in the classroom, it was also critical to assemble a lean team who could work together seamlessly to capture the scenes, situations, people, brand values and the relevant key moments outlined in the brief. Our team worked directly with the school to ensure that the production would not compromise the learning needs of young children in their everyday school environment.

The day of the shoot was energetic, productive and fun. We directed 6 teachers and 60+ preschoolers in 3 classrooms. We filmed with two, 4k video cameras, and 1 still, digital camera. We embraced a documentary style and minimal lighting to deliver images and video that felt as natural and authentic as the real-world setting we were in. Behind the scenes, our dedicated crew, which had been hand-selected for their talent and experience working with children, made sure everyone felt safe, comfortable and had the opportunity to be themselves. Go behind the scenes on this shoot with this video.

With the shoot behind us, we curated, tagged, named and organized into searchable categories video clips and still images that best shined a light on the unique values of PBS KIDS. The result was a one-of-a-kind photo and video collection with 90 minutes of video and more than 300 photos that were ready to “plug and play.” The collection is broad and deep in its representation of kids, learning moments and, importantly, the unique role PBS KIDS plays in the lives of educators and their young students.

PBS KIDS was so happy with the final product they returned to us to create a collection featuring middle school education. Go behind the scenes of our middle school shoot with us in this video.

The Possibility Shop is honored and delighted to partner with the extraordinarily talented teams at Cat Eye Productions and Rebecca Drobis Photography to deliver one-of-a-kind Custom Stock Photo + Video Collections unique to your brand. Learn more about building Custom Stock Collections here. And if you’d like to explore how custom photos and videos amplify your brand story, please drop us a line. We’d love to explore the possibilities with you.

Behind the scenes on a custom stock photo and video shoot with real students, real teachers and authentic learning moments.

A Case Study in Brand Engagement: CEO

Despite their relatively small size, the brand had evolved to mean different things to different people, and members themselves couldn’t fully articulate the distinct value of the organization beyond naming the beautiful destinations they had visited for CEO events over the years. This made it hard to grow their network, which, in turn, impacted the value of participation for existing members.

Our assignment was twofold: first, to go deep, to understand the most meaningful value of the organization for members, and translate that into a clear and compelling value proposition. Secondly, we needed to surface new ways to engage people with the organization, so they could fully realize all the benefits of being part of this intimate network of executive leaders.

Chatper 1: The Journey
We started by launching a member survey to gather current perceptions of the organization as well as to learn where members spent the most time and energy within the network. With which programming did they most often engage? What were their most valued takeaways from events they attended in person no matter where they took place? Which other organizations did they belong to and how was CEO different?

We continued our learning through deep dive empathy interviews among members. We asked members how they make decisions about how to spend their time? Why do they travel? Could they tell us a story about something on their bucket list—something they’ve already checked off the list or something they were eager to do?

Through our quantitative and qualitative research, we saw some clear patterns emerge. Importantly, we learned travel was frequently a means to more valuable ends—the value members placed in the close-knit size of the membership (despite geographic distances), the depth of the learning experiences with people and places they could only access through this network, and the lifelong friendships that formed as a result of their active participation with the organization. In other words, personal engagement.

Chapter 2: The Breakthrough
This was a key insight—the value members took from CEO was often a reflection of how engaged they themselves were within the organization. We used this insight as the jumping off point for two brand innovation workshops. So, with an eye toward strengthening engagement, we designed workshops to identify and prepare to test 3 new ways to engage new members and engage existing members more deeply.

With a task force of members who had volunteered to conduct the deep dive empathy interviews prior to our workshops, we started with empathy mapping, to create profiles that reflected segments of the target audience. These empathy maps helped workshop participants walk in the shoes and see the world through the eyes of the people we aspired to have join the network. This allowed us to do truly breakthrough brainstorming around the kind of engagement opportunities that would be most relevant and meaningful to them.

Among our favorite ideas were those that engaged current members in getting in touch with newer or prospective members to learn more about them, and serve as unofficial ambassadors for the organization. We hoped this approach would help make those new or not-yet members more inclined to engage. In exploring this idea further, we also realized the very act of serving as an ambassador deepened engagement by the current member.

Chapter 3: The Results
Prioritizing more than 150 ideas co-created in that first workshop, we filtered them by their potential for measurable impact against the resources available to implement. Within a month, we launched 3 pilot programs to test the ideas, and within just 2 weeks of launching the first pilot, an ambassador program, one new member joined the organization as a result. Our second workshop resulted in nearly 100 more ideas and action plans to experiment with another 5 projects this year.

In addition to these results, we crafted a new brand value proposition statement and the team has embraced empathy as a core part of their member engagement strategy. The new board president of the network has declared 2019 The Year of Engagement! And one of the volunteer task force members shared that he found deeper value in the organization for himself through his personal engagement conducting empathy interviews with other members.

By going deep into what was important in the lives of the people CEO hoped to engage, we were able to find new ways for the brand to deliver value for them, thus driving engagement and, ultimately membership value. In other words, we didn't survey or interview them just about their opinions about the brand. We did our best to get to know more about them and what drives and fulfills them. Then we were able to find ways for the organization to add value in their lives.

The Possibility Shop was honored to be a part of the CEO journey. The end of our engagement marked a new beginning and we’re thrilled to know our collaboration catalyzed new thinking, new organizational goals and new programming that continues today.

We’d love to brainstorm breakthrough ways for you to engage your audiences more deeply. Drop us a line any time and we’ll explore the possibilities together.