360-Degree Video and Advertising
We want more, and digital is providing more. By now, you have probably seen a 360-degree video that engages and delights you. Mine was the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live SNL 40th Anniversary 360-degree. Being able to see and hear Jerry Seinfeld tell jokes and then spin the view around to look at the audience still amazes me. You can also look at the cue-card person and the lighting grid.
For most businesses, the 360-degree video doesn’t make sense, but I believe you’ll find many ways to make 360 an interest point in your organization. Patagonia found a way to entice people with its ad in the New York Times digital newspaper.
The video is beautiful, and I’m sure it directly connects with the persona of its target audience. Yet there is so much more going on with this ad. There is a clear cause-marketing effort. In recent study by Toluna, 51% of people are more likely to purchase a brand that supports a cause we agree with. More on that topic in the next blog.
The ad is also a perfect landing page: It has singular focus and a clear call to action, “Explore & Take Action.” But all of this doesn’t come together without the immersive, beautiful and fully engaging 360-degree video. A way to look beyond the crop marks of any photo or video.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.