3, 2, 1… ACTION! 🎬 Warning: this reading will not make you the new Steven Spielberg but it will be of great help to you in the realization of your next videos. Because yes, the video has indeed become a support essential communication: it is simply the favorite content of Internet users.
So the team We Are COM wanted to know the recipe for THE viral, catchy, captivating video… 🤓 To guide us, the experts from PlayPlay – the easiest online video creation tool – recommended us to talk to Alexis Bernard, Director social media of the Crédit Agricole SA group
Go for an enriching exchange on the social media management and the use of video in communication. Ready? Silence, we're filming 📽
???? Hello Alexis! To warm up, let's start as always with a definition. What is your definition of corporate social media?
A priori, the term " corporate communication » invariably refers to the development of a company's brand image, to institutional communication. It is often defined in relation to customer communication or commercial communication. I would qualify this distinction. It is true that in corporate communication we are more inclined to exchange with opinion leaders, medias and more broadly the communities of interests. However, the reach of our messages is constantly increasing. As the societal dimension grows, our corporate messages must provide both meaning and answers to changing societal issues, which are also concerns for consumers. Dissemination via Social Media is not limited to an audience that would be exclusively a community of experts, for example. Information digital circulate so quickly that any message ultimately turns out to be widely relayed, also affecting a public wider.
🎯 Precisely, what is your corporate communication strategy on social networks?
The stakes are above all those of the image of a brand, of a Group, of its leaders and their influence. One of the objectives is to convey a message that provides useful information and insight that is understandable to our audiences. Dissemination is carried out through the company's social accounts and also through those of all stakeholders: employees, managers, customers, shareholders, etc. Corporate speech needs to be embodied and shared. It should not be forgotten that social networks are above all a space for conversation where it is easier to communicate with real people than with brands.
Corporate speech needs to be embodied and shared
🤔 So your audiences are both internal and external on an external media?
It is obvious. Our audience is made up of all of Crédit Agricole's stakeholders and beyond that, public opinion as a whole. The border internal/external tends towards more and more porosity. Certainly the collaborators represent our first circle of influence. However, can a message sent to these 141 employees truly be considered an internal message? We also produce our content in close collaboration with the teams in charge of internal communication as well as the teams Press relations.
📢 Launch of participatory loans #relaunch : we are mobilizing all our forces in favor of recovery through investment in #SME et #ETI
— Crédit Agricole Group (@Credit_Agricole) April 26, 2021
🔴 A figure to remember: €2,25 billion
Either the participation of @CA_Assurances to their financinghttps://t.co/IXOCyGqRAw pic.twitter.com/879sYb6uI0
🎉 How do you share the institutional highlights of the Crédit Agricole SA group?
Most often, the subjects we deal with are complex, and therefore not necessarily relevant to broad and uninitiated audiences. The point of honor of any communicator is to translate, in a simple and concise manner, a message that is difficult to grasp into educational content.. For a long time, the infographics seemed to be the panacea for this accessibility exercise. However, for an infographic to do its job, it requires a lot of time and talent. Time is key, especially on social media.
This is one of the reasons why we favored video. In addition to being widely consumed by Internet users, video has become very easy to produce by communicators like you and me. At Crédit Agricole, we use the solution PlayPlay which allows us to illustrate more than 90% of our publications, and this for a quality audiovisual and a simply incredible saving in design time for our team.
Time is key, especially on social media
📺 How does video modernize your brand image on social networks?
It is obvious that video is now the essential format. It is by far the most consumed media, especially on smartphones. The advent of 5G has only increased this phenomenon. Social networks have also grasped the importance of this movement, structuring themselves more and more around this audiovisual content. The promotion of video content by their algorithms allows them to increase the connection time of social network users on their platform, so mechanically the display of contents formats. As a result, video has become the essential content for communicators due to audience usage and the greater organic reach that social platforms offer to this publication format. Getting into video means being in line with current trends.
On the Crédit Agricole SA side, we use video as a teaser to lead our audiences to more comprehensive content: studies, articles, surveys, etc. Easy to consume, this format has the advantage of appealing to the target in a unique and fun way. We use video to encourage the Internet user to go further by clicking on the link of a study or an article. The strategy Teasing is very effective in generating curiosity and therefore engagement. This is a real modernization – even a break – in the classic institutional discourse.
📣 [EXCEPTIONAL SURVEY #agriweek] 👉 https://t.co/HZNBqOSZTB
— Crédit Agricole Group (@Credit_Agricole) May 17, 2021
58% of French people think that farmers are concerned about protecting the #biodiversity. #FrAgTw#Agriculture@BVA_France @Agridemain @CreditAgricole @CA_info @JcRoubin pic.twitter.com/G0NO1qRdn7
(I.e. Have you defined a specific video graphic charter?
Paradoxically, and to be completely honest, we are not really the best students of the charter. 😀 Obviously, a charter has been put in place: it is limited to the presence of our logo. throughout the video, a range of colors and an end fade highlighting our reason for being. It doesn't take more to associate our brand with it.
This sobriety comes from a choice: We did not want to broadcast content that was too “branded” and that might hamper creativity and playful appeal. With the solution PlayPlay, I particularly appreciate this creative freedom. In addition, formats that are too "branded" are too often associated with an advertising approach that harms the clarity of our messages. We have nothing to sell, only messages to get across, expertise to promote. Finally, We are convinced that our messages are primarily about societal issues. What interests Internet users is not fundamentally our brand, but rather the answers it is able to provide them. Our brand remains extremely visible – since we are the transmitters of the message, of the post – however it must not take precedence over the information, over the content useful to the Internet user.
⏰ Between us… is it time-consuming to produce a video in-house?
La production of videos in-house is considerably less time-consuming than the brief of a creative and the endless back and forth with a agency audiovisual production. And especially when content needs to be produced quickly or broadcast regularly. Let's take a press release as an example: Sometimes we only have about fifteen minutes to put together a social media post. For more complex productions, we are fortunate to have an in-house video studio and a team specializing in audiovisual.
Producing videos in-house is considerably less time-consuming than a creative brief and the endless back-and-forth with an audiovisual production agency.
🔎 And why did you choose the PlayPlay solution for video?
It all started at the end of 2017. At the time, I had the same brief as many corporate communicators: the desire to easily produce videos "à la Brut!". For reasons of budget, time and not always satisfactory rendering, we quickly ruled out the agency solution.
By chance, a comrade working at LCL – a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole SA – mentioned PlayPlay. Shortly after, it was a friend from TF1 who explained to me the benefits of this tool. That's when I met Thibault Machete, founder of the start-up that instantly convinced me. Then just a month later, everything was up and running.
In addition to offering the best value for money on the market, This solution allows you to develop quality videos, without complicating your life with editing software, their licensing issues and the necessary training before mastering the tool. Frankly, audiovisual creation has never been my job or even a hobby. However, today I easily manage to create content that "looks good". 😀 I would say that I still don't know how to "make" videos but that now I am able to produce them.
I would say that I still don't know how to "make" videos but that now I am able to produce them.
(I.e. What is the share of organic and sponsored content in your corporate social media strategy?
The big trend remains sponsor more of what already works organically. We could sponsor everything automatically, because in 2021 without “paid” there is no salvation for established brands like ours. To control our budget, we let 24 hours pass before launching into a boost. This gives us room to maneuver, a possible recalibration. This does not prevent us from doing "dark" or responding to imperative orders. However, and even more so in corporate, it is important to focus on content sponsorships that already find an organic echo.
👀 To conclude, tell us… What are your current tips for increasing the reach of your publications?
I would say that the trick, or rather the state of affairs, which is the key to our profession is not to start from yourself: your angle cannot be self-centered. In a real or virtual meeting, via social media, those who are self-centered do not interest many people in the long term, or it would be for the wrong reasons. It must be kept in mind that social networks are a space for conversation and exchange. A corporate subject must in reality constitute a response from the company to a societal issue. It is essential to start from the issues and promote our solutions to them.
A second piece of advice that seems important to me is to remain understandable. This may seem obvious, but in fact it is not always easy to banish the jargon of a sector of activity or a company, when you are a communicator immersed in this environment. It is important for any communicator to manage to free themselves from these overly specific languages so as to never forget the language of their target audiences. Address your Internet users in a common manner, without falling into familiarity and infantilization.
3 things to know about Alexis
- > His media addiction? No, it's not Twitter but... France Info, and more broadly the Radio France stations. Increasingly, it's turning to podcasts.
- > Her favorite ad? He spent hours having fun with the Tippex ad featuring a bear and a hunter. An avant-garde communication campaign, since it dates back to 2012, it already offered interactivity to viewers.
- > His passion? History because it structures his vision of the world, the present as well as the future. This allows Alexis to take a step back. A necessity in the sector of social networks, communication and more specifically crisis communication.
