Testimonial Videos are a Win Win for Everyone
by F. Andrew Taylor
Jon Nigbor has come up with a way to make money by making videos for companies for free. There’s no wonder he calls the company Win Win.
Much of Nigbor’s business is testimonial videos. Often when they try to get a testimonial a business owner will say they’re too busy to do that. Win-Win is a way to overcome that obstacle.
“For instance, if we’re working with Castrol and they’ve got a car dealership that is using Castrol instead of some other brand, we contact the car dealership on Castrol’s behalf and say ‘Hey, congratulations, You’re doing an amazing job and Castrol has hired us to come out and shoot three free videos for you,’” Nigbor says.
This is usually when they ask ‘What’s the catch?’
“We tell them there isn’t a catch, but while we’re shooting the three free videos would they mind saying why you like Castrol?, Nigbor says. “They usually say ‘Well heck, if Castrol is sending a crew out here and they’re going to shoot some video, we’d be happy to say why we’re working with them.’”
The result is that Win-Win’s client gets its testimonial and their client’s customers get three promotional video to use as they please. The first video is an overview of the company, in the case Nigbor cited, the service department of a car dealership. For a car dealership, the second video is usually a tech recruiting video, because there’s a shortage of techs. The third video is a testimonial from a customer saying why they commit to that business. The original client only pays for one video, the testimonial they were seeking in the first place. Win Win does the other three for free, in part to secure the testimonial, but also to show their skills to a new potential client.
It’s really a win-win-win situation, because all three companies benefit from the deal. Nigbor thinks that it’s a model he can take to the tradeshow industry.
“Because the dealers want to have our video front and center at their tradeshows, they put us in contact with their exhibit company,” he says. “As a result, we kind of came in the back door in the exhibits industry.”
In his conversations with exhibit companies, Nigbor has heard that there is a lot of competition coming from China. “Exhibits are being made cheaper and faster there and exhibit companies in the U.S. have got to figure out a way of keeping their customers and being a little smarter about what they do for their bills, their marketing and their brand development,” Nigbor says. “We hope to help these U.S. companies compete with innovation and services that we can partner on. You’ve got to be in the place to shoot the video and understand the market.”
Although Nigbor’s Media272 and Win-Win are based in Portland Ore., he has videography employees and subcontractors across the U.S. and internationally who are well versed in his videography technique and business model. He hopes that will make connecting with exhibit companies easier.
“I’m hoping exhibit companies will come to us asking to shoot video in, for instance, Denver,” Nigbor says. “We can do that because I’ve got a crew in Denver, so there’s no travel cost. We can shoot it. It seems like a natural for us to be more aligned and collaborating with the exhibit industry since in many cases, that’s where the video goes.”
Nigbor notes that he’s surprised how powerful the end result is. Because it’s a testimonial, people will often surprise a client with more praise than they expected. He cited one client who received a testimonial from a customer who had been a bit prickly in person, but in the testimonial heaped effusive praise on the client.
“He told me it made him cry, because he had no idea the customer actually liked him that much,” Nigbor says. “He told me that no one had ever made him look this good and then he gave me a bear hug. He said the video was the best thing that anyone had ever done for him.”
It’s this kind of personal touch that makes Nigbor happy to come to work. “We’re happy to get paid for this stuff, but finding out the way we make people feel is almost better than money.”
For more info, call (800) 372-7222, email jon.nigbor@media272.com or visit visit www.winwinvideos.com.
This story originally appeared in the July/August issue of Exhibit City News, p. 66. For more pictures and original layout, visit http://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/ecnflipbook_julyaugust2018_web?e=16962537/62860459
