First… What is a Visual?

The Term Visual started to surface the most recently in the realm of Music Videos.  The music video genre is broken up into 3 Main Categories The Narrative, The Performance, and Experimental. Most modern music videos fall under a mix of these categories such as experimental/performance or narrative performance and so on. The term Visual came into play when the musicians didn’t have the budget or the time to shoot a full music video and decided that they jus need some kind of video to go over their music track so they could publish them as soon as possible and get their music out. This rush to release new music combined with the with video becoming the new norm gave birth to the quick music video aka the Visual. Since it’s coining around 8 yers ago the term visual now stretches across multiple categories and has become senonomous with social media content as a whole.

What Visuals Can Do For Your Business.

Visuals can provide a great touch point between your brand and it’s audience. Visuals are a great way to provide stimulating and engaging content that attracts cold traffic and entertains already warm leads. One drawback to Visuals is even though that they are very creative, very experimental, and often times highly stimulating they are often not properly branded content. If you have an established brand better produced and strategic content will be the recommended route to take. Visuals may be too experimental in nature to provide a consistent brand message. When Building a Brand that is trying to break through visuals are a perfect solution. .

Elements of a Great Visual

1. Engaging
2. High Energy
3.  Fast Tempo Music
4. Attention Grabbing
5. Entertaining
6. Memorable

Bonuses of Visuals

1. Shorter Production and turn around time
2. More cost effective than fully produced Content

Who Can Benefit from Visuals?

Many different types of Businesses can benefit from the use of Visuals. They are great for promotional use such as product promotions and sizzle reels. Musicians and smaller sized record labels are the primary benefactor of The Visual Craze. Music Artist are constantly putting out and testing music, so the ability to add visual stimulation on top of their already crafted music is the icing on the cake. Visuals are typically lower cost than a fully planned and produced music videos which involve several people and various stages of production.

How Do I Know If I Need More Than a Visual?

Here’s a simple guideline you can go by to aid you in making your Visual Decisions. Use Visuals if you are at the beginning stages of your branding process, as they can get your brand, music, product, or influence plenty of attention fast. If you already have an established Brand, one with a mission, tone, voice, and a message be sure everything that is created for your brand has those factors at the core of the decision making. Throwing up random images is not recommended there Still needs to be some type of method to the madness. Typically this is where the Visual upgrades into the Production. When Branding has to be considered before the Content is Created in order to stay in alignment with the Brand or move it forward, This falls under Strategy which exceeds the pay grade of a Visual. If you have Strict Brand Guidelines you will want to seek Expert advice only, you may even want to seek out a Professional that specializes in Brand Strategy to get the initial Strategy before seeking the team to produce the Content.

In closing we’ve figured out what a Visual is, who can use them, and how to benefit from them. We also dove into the it’s strengths and limitations to find out when they are the best option to choose and when you need to upgrade to a more calculated Production.