Things To Consider For Your Company’s PSA

If your company wants to create a meaningful social change, a PSA might be your best bet.

What you want the world to know about a social issue, behaviour, or epidemic, is imperative. Typically, a #PSA, or Public Service Announcement (or Advertisement) should aim to raise awareness and change public behaviour towards a social issue. If you’re a not-for-profit organization or grassroots movement, you might want to consider the following when coming up with a concept for your PSA:

Know your audience

 

When deciding on who you want your message to directly reach, you’ll have to know who your target demographic is. Are they aged 18-35? 40-60? Of a certain ethnicity or social class? What about targeted neighbourhoods? A bit of research might go a long way when you want to know who they are. After all, this will affect:

a) how they will consume your content, making it easier to determine how to distribute your video

b) what they would actually be interested in seeing

c) what type of video production company will be best to hire when coming together to create your vision

In a previous post, we discussed Dove’s Real Beauty sketch campaign that highlighted the way women often view themselves. Naturally, this campaign resonated with its viewers, instantly becoming the most viral ad of all time. What Dove probably did not anticipate was its crossover appeal. With over 114 million views, it quickly becoming a favourite for both men and women. One of the main reasons why this campaign was so successful was because Dove knew who its target audience was: women of all ages who use their beauty products. Everyone else was just extra.

Have a strong message

One of the last things you want is to create a forgettable ad. A memorable PSA means it has a message that resonates with its viewers. Whether it is to meant to create a high emotional response or be thought provoking, it must have a point. 

If, for whatever reason, the production value doesn’t go according to plan, you’ll want your audience to at least grasp what you were trying to say. If all else fails, a strong message should be your last pillar of strength.

Create powerful visuals

Most PSAs depend on a strong use of visuals. This doesn’t just mean visually-stunning shots on high-end HD cameras. This could just include heart-gripping shots of things we don’t normally see. Things that many of us ignore or have gone through in the past. Things that get our attention.

Some PSAs hardly make use of a script at all.

Make your script concise

Some of the best PSAs don’t actually say much.

What we mean is, often times the script in a PSA is minimal, while the ad or announcement depends on the visuals to tell the story.

Whether it is a voiceover, direct on-camera dialogue, or text appearing at the screen, make sure it is short and to the point.

Have an idea for a PSA? Contact Key West Video today!

 

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