Here is a video on why gold will rise in price: digital currencies will fall.
The company that released this video sells gold storage. It is for very rich people who already hold gold investments, or else it is for people with no experience with gold investing, who are being asked to buy gold stored in Switzerland instead of buying bullion gold coins (which leave fewer records).
The man in charge of video marketing is utterly incompetent. But his incompetence points to an opportunity for anyone who knows a few basics of video production. There are rich people out there who need help.
Watch five minutes of this video. Then pause it. I'll show you what's wrong with it.
First, the video begins with music: a knock-off of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The music was selected poorly. The MJQ was the master group for cerebral jazz a generation ago. Its pianist and composer John Lewis called it jazz based on the fugue. Why would a video on the collapse of currencies begin with restrained jazz? This conveys the wrong message. It is like watching a chase scene in a French gangster movie. The sound track is light jazz.
Second, the lecturer is not wearing a lapel microphone. This is always a mistake. It screams "amateur production." A $20 mic would have solved this. You would not hear the echo in the room.
Third, there are charts. The charts are cluttered with unexplained lines. The printing on the charts is tiny. We cannot read them. The text must never be smaller than 30-point. As a rule, charts convey very little information without a narrator who uses a cursor showing what is significant. Charts are rarely self-explanatory.
The speaker does not interact with the charts. He does not provide a cursor. He just keeps talking.
The charts are distractions. They lose viewers.
Fourth, he has his notes in front of him on a coffee table, below the camera's angle. He keeps looking down. This says: "I can't remember this stuff." This breaks a rule of public speaking: "If you can't remember it, neither will your audience."
Sadly, he needed an outline. Then he should have posted it on a computer screen immediately underneath the camera. This can be done with free software.
Notice how good the sound is. Rule: Never release a video with poor sound.
Fifth, the video begins with a business logo. This offers no benefit. This offers no relevant information. It provokes this deadly response: "So what?"
There is no title for the talk on the first screen. There is no subject matter until screen three. There is only cerebral jazz. It's 37 seconds until we see the speaker.
Rule: You have about five seconds to grab a reader or a viewer. This is a basic rule of all direct-response advertising. Procter & Gamble calls it "the first moment of truth." Malcolm Gladwell calls it "blink." Those of us in direct-response mailing have known about this limit for decades. Advertising guru David Ogilvy was correct a generation ago when he announced that the headline is 80% of the ad.
Sixth, screen three tells the talk's title: "Physical gold, the safest asset in an unsafe world." This is merely a gold salesman's slogan. It generates a second deadly response: "Who says?" Or worse, the even deadlier "Says you!"
Gold was $1,900 in 2011. It is around $1,200 today. The viewer knows this. "If it's so safe, why did it lose 35%?" Beginning on screen three, the video is selling against people's knowledge. This is called a "hard sell." Avoid hard sells.
In direct-response marketing, you must avoid four words:
So what?
Who says?
This video violates both of these rules in the first 20 seconds.
This video says, loud and clear: "We don't understand the basics of marketing. We don't know where to go to find out. Therefore, send us your money. Lots of money."
Egon von Grayerz seems to know a lot about gold, but he needs help with his marketing. A course on public speaking wouldn't hurt, either.
CONCLUSION
People who are experts in their field think that they are experts in communication. They rarely are.
This video is proof. "Kids, don't try this at home."
Business owners, don't produce your own ads. Don't hire a cameraman who has not made a living in direct-response advertising for at least five years.
I cover this in my department on advertising, and also on a forum: Advertising and Résumés. These techniques are easy to learn. But it takes a long time to master them. If you master them, you will never be unemployed for more than a couple of weeks.
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