We spoke with two of our astute ACF campaigners to get the lowdown on their hints, tips and tricks on making a killer video that will connect and engage, and convert your viewers into donors. Let’s continue, shall we?
Sydney Chamber Opera
Sydney Chamber Opera used archive footage to draw together a powerful showreel video that showcases their work and highlights their critical praise. This works not only as a great campaign tool but sits in the centre of their broader fundraising strategy.
Has creating a video helped the success of your campaign? How so?
Anecdotally many people, including donors, comment that they have enjoyed watching the showreel. We feel that it renders the art more tangible, and therefore more attractive to potential donors.
Did you make a video especially for the campaign? Or have you used a pre-existing video?
Our showreel video is both for marketing and fundraising and was put together for the benefit of private donors and funding committees, as well for our own record. It is derived from archival films taken from our shows.
Why is video content important as part of your campaign?
Our video content consists of a showreel of our previous work and serves to give a summary impression of what we do. It allows potential donors to get a real sense of our artistic product.
What were the most vital components to include in the video?
It is important to us that the video showcases our best work, and is edited such that it is both engaging and brief, showing a wide variety of work.
Visit Sydney Chamber Opera’s campaign, here.
Geraldine Hakewill
Shadow / Self is a short-film collaboration between some of Australia’s most distinctive female creative talents. What better way to showcase their project then in its native medium! Writer/performer Geraldine Hakewill gave us her insights on why they chose to use video and how it has impacted their campaign so far.
Why is video content important as part of your campaign?
Our video enabled potential donors to see a glimpse of the content of our project. As our project is a hybrid piece that spans a few disciplines, it was important for us to be able to explain it well so that anyone donating money knew exactly what they were supporting. It also helped to prove that we were well under way in the process of making the project and so any money donated would go to something that was actually going to be made.
Did you make a video especially for the campaign? Or have you used a pre-existing video?
We made the video specifically for the ACF campaign from pieces of footage we had shot for our own use as we choreographed the piece. So the footage already existed for a practical purpose but we cut the film specifically for the campaign.
What were the most vital components to include in the video?
Our video is very simple and comprises only of choreography set to music. The key elements we wanted to get across to viewers was the style of dance we were using for the film, the track from Jane Tyrell that was the score of our film and also we wanted it to be in black and white as that is what our finished product will be.
Has creating a video helped the success of your campaign? How so?
Yes, I believe it very much helped the success of our campaign. It gave people a very clear window into the style of dance film we were making and proved to everyone that it was going to be a beautiful piece. People were happy and excited to donate because they could see where their money would be going and that it would be worthwhile.
Visit Shadow/Dance’s campaign, here.
For more tips on how to plan and execute a successful ACF campaign visit our resources page.
Happy campaigning!
The ACF Team
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