How to Create Great Video & Idea Pins
Idea Pins and Video Pins are booming at the moment! And the good news is, that Pinterest wants to promote them over traditional static pins. Which also makes it an easy way to get exposure for your brand or service.
But before you start making them, there’s a step everyone misses. It’s the ideas stage. And in Part One of this blog, we’re going to walk you through our three-step process on How to Create Great Video Pin Ideas.
Check out Part 2 – How to Use Storyboards to Create Video & Idea Pins.
Prefer How to Create Great Video Pin Ideas as a downloadable Guide? Get it Here!
Index
Why Ideas Matter Most
Step 1 – Inspiration & Research
Look at what is around already
Insider Pro Tip
Step 2 – Coming up with Ideas
Six Insider Tips & Techniques
Thought starters for getting ideas
Bringing it all together
Step 3 – Review your Ideas
Why Ideas Matter Most
After working in Advertising Agencies for years, I wanted to pass on some methods and ways to create great ideas for your video pins.
We won’t go into the building process in this post, as there are so many different tools and programs to create a video pin.
Instead, we will focus on what matters most – the idea itself – as great ideas sell!
In Part 1 of this post, How to Create Great Video Pin Ideas, you will learn how and where to get inspiration and techniques for coming up with ideas.
In Part 2, you’ll learn how to make your ideas even better by Storyboarding them, as well as pointing you to our favourite, royalty-free video and image resources.
Step 1 – Inspiration & Research
Look what is around already.
Getting a lay of the land can help spark ideas or directions you have not thought of yet. It also gives you an idea of how your competitors are selling their products. Plus, it helps to differentiate your product from the competition.
- Go to Pinterest and type in your product or service as a search, e.g. ‘Surface Pattern Design’ or ‘Illustration’.
- In the search results – look at how other people are displaying their work. In the example above, we highlighted in blue some video pins.
- Look at how the big brands in your space are advertising their products or services. Not many video pin results coming up? Great, this means you are one step ahead of the competition.
- Make a Secret Board and save the video pins that stand out or grab your attention.
Insider Pro Tip
Big brands spend a lot on advertising agencies and marketing budgets. Use this to your advantage – they have done the hard work for you!
Don’t copy them exactly, instead try and look at how they are promoting their products.
They often promote the benefits that their products enable the customer to have, rather than just the products themselves.
Take an activewear brand. Instead of only showing the apparel, they may include a runner looking at their watch, having just reached a personal milestone.
For a Surface Pattern Designer, you could have a stark room and add your patterns as prints on the wall, on pillows and on throws showing how your designs can bring life to a room.
Step 2 – Coming up with Ideas
Six Insider Tips & Techniques
Below are some of our favourite ways of coming up with great ideas.
1. Use a Pen and Paper – No Computers!
Using a computer is a left-brain activity, and will hamper your creativity (right brain). At this stage, you don’t want anything in the way of getting your ideas down fast.
Insider Pro Tip
Loose sheets of paper can work better than a sketchbook, as you can shuffle the order easily. Make different stacks with YES, NO and MAYBE. Then stick the pages up on a wall for an overview.
2. It’s a Numbers Game
Creativity is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. – Thomas Edison.
A photographer can shoot 100 images – but only get a select few from this.
It is the same with ideas. And the best creatives in advertising will also agree. A bigger pool of ideas means more great ones to choose from.
3. Set aside 1-2 hours (or more)
Make a nice cup of coffee or tea, and give yourself time and no distractions!
4. Don’t try and say too much
Try only saying one thing about your product per video pin.
Each video pin should be a new idea. This means you can run multiple versions, all with different selling points.
In advertising, this is called a single-minded proposition. – aka one point per ad.
My product will (put in one point here)
E.g. My product will:
‘Bring the Christmas spirit home’.
‘Welcome in the new season, Spring’.
‘Tie your room together‘.
Remember, grabbing the attention of customers is hard enough.
If you have multiple messages per video pin, you will cloud your messaging, confusing your customers with what you are trying to communicate.
5. Write down each idea as a single sentence
Start writing down ideas using the thought starters below.
Don’t worry if it is good or bad at this stage just, get every idea down in simple sentences on paper.
Most of your ideas won’t be great, but this is the same for everyone. Even the pro advertising creatives!
It is important to keep writing ideas down for several reasons:
- Getting ideas down helps weed out the obvious ones early.
- Creating more concepts helps spur more ideas.
- Statistically, your best ideas won’t be your early ideas.
In the process, you’ll write down some ideas that you know are winners – but don’t stop! Mark them as good and keep moving. Remember, your best idea is most likely to come.
Your greatest ideas will probably come from somewhere that seems unexpected, just a passing thought you may have at the end of your idea session, or pop into your head when you are doing something completely unrelated.
6. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes
People do not know as much about your product or service as you do.
Imagine you are explaining your product or service to a stranger. Better yet, get a friend or a potential customer to give you feedback and see if they understand what you are communicating.
Thought starters for getting ideas
One way I find to come up with great simple idea starters is to imagine someone is asking you questions about your product.
You can run through the list below and spur several ideas for each.
Idea generator 1
In this step, we are trying to find something unique about you, your product or your service.
This could be something unique from your competitors. Such as the big-box store alternative. Or it could be something unique about you as a person, where you grew up, or where you or your brand originated.
Question: What is unique about your product?
Some sample answers:
‘Every piece we make is one of a kind’. – Glass artist.
‘The colours, shapes and subjects in my designs are from the environment around me’. – Patternmaker from Hawaii.
‘My patterns feature my cats and other neighbourhood animals. – Surface Pattern Designer.
‘My designs are all created in watercolour’. – Surface Pattern Designer.
‘My illustrations represent life in my garden’. – Illustrator.
Now it’s your turn
Write down one sentence for every unique thing about you or your product.
Idea generator 2
Question: What is a benefit your product or service has for your customer?
Some example answers:
‘You will own a piece that no one else has’ – Glass artist.
‘My bright, energetic prints will brighten up any room’ – Surface pattern designer.
‘My background as a teacher makes my illustrations educational as well as fun’ – Illustrator.
‘You get to experience the Hawaiin environment wherever you are’.
– Patternmaker from Hawaii.
Now it’s your turn
Write down one sentence for every benefit about you or your product.
Bringing it all together
Say it Straight – then say it Great!
Now it’s time to put a creative spin on your sentence answers above.
Taking your sentences above – try and do the following:
1. Say the same thing but with some creative flare.
2. Condense it down to as few words if possible.
3. Try looking at the sentence from a different angle.
An Illustrator that creates children’s decals.
Straight-line: I create bright, colourful designs for children’s rooms featuring places, animals and characters.
Creative Line: Create wonder.
Glass artist:
Straight-line: Every piece we make is one of a kind.
Creative line: As unique as you.
Patternmaker from Hawaii:
Straight-line: All my prints are inspired by the birds and nature around me.
Creative line: Your slice of paradise.
Surface pattern designer:
Straight-line: I have always used strong, saturated colours in my designs.
Creative line: Be bold.
This new creative line is your campaign idea!
You can use it as the headline for your video pin. And it helps guide you with what complementary imagery to use.
Give it the overnight test
At this stage, you probably think every avenue has been exhausted for ideas. It is time to step away and give it the overnight test.
Your subconscious will keep working on ideas.
New ideas will come when you least expect them, and usually when you are doing something completely mundane and unrelated!
The following day
Revisit all the ideas you had the day before. You’ll now have a much better idea of what is good, and you may even get a new idea or two just by reading over everything.
Prefer How to Create Great Video Pin Ideas as a Downloadable Guide? Get it Here!
Step 3 – Review your ideas
Final Review
Now you have given your ideas the overnight test it is time to revisit and pick the best of the bunch.
You may even find you have a few more to add now you are looking at them fresh.
Read over everything and see which ones are interesting, unique, or grab your attention. See if you can imagine them on a video pin.
Underline them or use another coloured pen.
Insider Pro Tip
Not all your ideas will be picked, but don’t throw away your rejected ideas!
When culling down your ideas, you may come across good ideas that are not quite right for this video pin but may be perfect for one to come.
Keep a folder of good ideas.
BONUS Coming up with Ideas Overview.
You did it!
That’s a wrap on How to Create Great Video Pin ideas. How do you feel now?
Do you have a selection of ideas that you can’t wait to turn into video pins?
But before you do, there’s a way to turn your ideas into a story that will create even better video pins! And we show you how in Part 2 next week.
Where to now?
- Download our How to Create Great Video Pin Ideas PDF here.
- Want to try Red in your Branding? Go Here.
- Is Blue in Branding more your style? Visit Here.
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