Easy Festive Holiday Video Ideas to Connect with Customers & Employees
'Tis the season to engage your employees, investors, and customers. With OpenReel Capture you can easily film a holiday video that’s low-lift, that will engage and delight your customers and employees, and is fun to create!
Why should you make a holiday video greeting?
Opt for a video greeting over a snail mail or email card for the same reasons you shoot any videos:
- Holiday videos are more authentic and personal than written notes.
- Holiday videos give your team an opportunity to add personal touches to your greetings.
- You can make use of festive songs and visuals in a video to effectively set the holiday mood.
The end result? A more impactful, memorable end-of-year message that builds stronger relationships between your company and your clients. Here are a few ways to approach your own holiday video.
5 holiday video ideas that will connect with your audience
Remind customers of major wins from the past year
A year-in-review style video allows your brand to showcase the work you have done in the past year without being overly promotional. There are two simple ways to do this type of video well. You can frame your major achievements as customer-first or for the greater good, or you can actually tell your clients’ stories as a lens into your brand’s own big wins. Salesforce has done both with its annual Year in Review videos. 2019’s took the first approach; while using news clips and interviews from both clients and staff, the video highlighted achievements throughout the year in a way that ultimately evoked a feeling of empathy and helpfulness from the tech giant. 2020’s video, featured above, recognized the way clients had pivoted and succeeded during the pandemic — by using Salesforce’s tools.
Align your products or services with the holiday season or the upcoming year
The end of the year is also a natural time to look at what’s to come for your brand and therefore for your customers. Consider making a video about how you will support them in the coming year — or even just during the holiday season. For a simple approach, showcase what your team can bring to the viewer immediately during the season, whether through holiday sales or a campaign that gives back to your brand’s community, as our partners at Association.TV are doing above with donations to a favorite local charity. If you want to go more in-depth, focus on the entire year ahead by highlighting your roadmap, noting major team changes that impact a customer’s work with you, and discussing planned initiatives.
Thank customers for their support
A simple thank you message is the most traditional corporate holiday greeting. And for good reason: whether you’re saying thank you to clients or to your employees, both made it possible for your business to thrive in the past year. Because this is so classic, finding the right way to stand out is important. This year at OpenReel, we talked with our team about what they love most about working with our clients — and then gathered over half of the team to read the note of appreciation. By introducing so many faces to the video and adding specifics, the thank you message is incredibly personal for each of our clients. A thank you video is also a great time for the CEO or other high level leadership to speak directly with clients, or you could film short, truly personal videos from Account Managers to each of their accounts.
Align your brand with festive traditions
Holiday traditions may vary based on family or location, but they all evoke a certain level of nostalgia. A festive corporate video is the perfect chance to align your brand with those emotions — and have fun doing it. Draw inspiration from Hootsuite’s 40-minute long video of a fire crackling for an atypical holiday video that’s simple, memorable, and begs to be replayed again and again in the background while enjoying other holiday activities. You could also film your team decorating the office — or their home offices! — share family recipes, or ask team members to take turns reading a favorite end-of-year book. Each idea introduces clients to your team members and your team’s own end-of-year traditions, while tapping into your audience’s emotions.
Make customers feel closer to your team with personal touches
No matter what style of holiday video you opt for, a major goal should be to let your company’s personality and team shine. Have fun filming, like Animoto did in this video. The video is simply team members goofing off and enjoying each other’s company, all with festive holiday vibes. Combined with text-on-screen messaging, this simple format gives the viewer a great feeling about the company itself and the people who work there.
If you’d like to discuss how OpenReel enables you to quickly and easily film a holiday video, simply drop us a note or join our open office hours everyday at 2pm ET. From video conception to completion, our team is ready to help you ditch the standard greeting cards for more authentic video connections.
