Align your video content with the belief systems and culture of your audience – Rajesh Srinivasan

Since childhood, Rajesh Srinivasan was very fascinated about storytelling, advertising and business. He completed his Executive Education from IIM Lucknow, where he won the topper of the batch award.

He launched his first book on marketing and started giving speeches on Marketing Strategies at various business conferences.

Read on to know more about him and his take on Video Marketing Strategy

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1. Tell us about your life journey, Rajesh?

I have been fascinated by storytelling, advertising and business, right from my childhood. But never thought till the age of 32, that these would be my core strength.

I won topper of the Batch award in my Executive Education at IIM – Lucknow and that further solidified my belief that I need to build my competence around Marketing and Strategy.

This was the turning point in my life. After this, I launched my first book on Marketing, spoke at various business conferences and started getting requests for marketing & business growth consulting from the entrepreneurs.

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2. So, What is the framework you recommend for Modern Video Marketing?

I believe in ‘strategy first, tactics next’ approach. It means, whatever we do in marketing has to align with the overall business objectives. That’s very basic. Video Marketing is just an extension of the content marketing efforts which again is part of the inbound marketing strategy.

Having a clear objective for the Video Marketing would help in effectively track its results and its effects on key marketing metrics like brand awareness, engagement and conversions etc.

An ideal video marketing strategy has to address at each and every stage of the buying cycle.

Awareness → Consideration → Purchase →  Post-purchase evaluation →  Repurchase.

Since videos are emotive and the possibility of the engagement is high, Marketers can strategically use it at each and every stage of the customer journey i.e to build brand awareness, acquisition, retention and loyalty.

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3. How Organizations can think like a media company when it comes to video content?

The objective of any media company is to gain the attention of their audience. Once we get the attention and establish trust, selling becomes easy.

Organizations can use videos to play the awareness game in a better way. They can create either educational or entertaining content related to their category and boost those videos using Facebook or any relevant social media for outreach.

The idea is to use video as a brand awareness tool for a specific target audience whom we are trying to sell. Once we get their attention and build trust, then we can show our product videos to convert them.

Media companies usually have different content assets like interviews, news, sponsorships and events.

If we’re in the Fashion and beauty business, we may ask.. what Vogue would do if they happen to be in our business?

If we are in the sports category, we may ask …. What ESPN or Star Sports would do if they happen to be in our business?

If we are in any B2B business, we may ask… What Forbes or Entrepreneur magazine would do if there were in our business?

This thought experiment will help us to adopt the media company mind-set and invest in various content formats to play the broad awareness game.

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4. Why is storytelling important in Video Marketing?

People love stories. In fact, without effective storytelling, some of the world’s most powerful brands would cease to exist.

You don’t become a billion-dollar company and survive for more than a century if you happen to tell your customers that you sell aerated sugary water? How else do you think Coca Cola has become one of the world’s most powerful brands? Storytelling. Coca Cola tells you through its advertising and other marketing materials that it spreads happiness. 

We can find storytelling everywhere, not just among brands trying to disturb the homeostasis of your wallet. You see it in religions around the world.

Jesus Christ was sent to the Earth to save our sins. The Hindus have their Bhagavad Gita. As a part of their storytelling, they wore dresses that made them stand out and had a way of conveying things, usually through parables (or stories). Storytelling has seeped deep into our psyche. 

Storytelling is important for the brand, without it we are just a business that sells a commodity. For a customer, they buy products of a brand because it has emotions and they can identify with the brand because of its story.

When there is no emotional driver for your customer and if the buying decision is taken only based on product features, then you will fall into the commoditization game. It is a sad game to play because people choose you only based on the price.

Nike just sells shoes. All that KFC has are fried chickens. These are just commodities. But do you see them talking about how good their shoes are or how crispy their chickens are in their respective brand videos

No, right? 

That’s because they try to capture their audience’s attention with effective and inventive storytelling. Nike has marketed its shoes as a story of aspiration and achievement. When you wear Nike shoes, here is what the brand wants you to think?

That you can score the winning goal. That you can run a full marathon. That you can score a basket. With a tagline like “Just Do It,” and a brilliant storytelling video campaign, it just cannot go wrong for Nike.

The main advantage of using storytelling in the brand videos is, it has both the visual and voice element in it and can easily tap into our emotions. People would easily connect and engage with the brand.

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5.  What advice would you like to give for Customer Engagement?

Align your content with the belief systems and culture of your audience. Be audience-centric and not product-centric. Keep telling yourself that, I am creating this for my audience who probably lives amidst the media clutter.

How am I going to get his attention? Why should he stop scrolling and start watching the video?

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