When you hear the word “deepfake,” you might immediately think of the ethically ambiguous, fraudulent, or even downright unsettling videos that have bobbled across the internet over the last few years. But as deepfake videos – and the AI technology used to power them – only get more sophisticated, it’s imperative that marketers and creators across every industry learn how they work and explore how they can be applied to get and stay ahead in our changing climate.

For the uninitiated, deepfakes are synthetic media that have been digitally manipulated to replace or replicate a person’s likeness convincingly – resulting in the ability to create videos that look and feel real, but aren’t. It’s understandable, then, that they might get a bad rap for spreading misinformation or exploiting peoples’ likenesses. 

Like any technology, though, it’s all in how you use it. Forward-thinking marketers and creators are already using deepfake technology — responsibly and ethically — to create new art forms, tell new stories, and improve their own video campaigns. 

In this article, we’ll cover some examples of deepfake technology being used for good, as well as ideas on how to experiment with the tech yourself.

What is a deepfake?

A deepfake is a video, or audio recording, of a person whose face or body has been digitally altered. Deepfakes use AI to create likeness, relying on pattern recognition to match expressions, tone, and movement. 

Other terms for a deepfake can include synthetic or artificial media, or AI-generated content.

A brief history of deepfakes

The invention of the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) began the trend of realistic deepfakes back in 2014. GANs are made up of two artificial intelligence agents that forge images and detect forgery, allowing the AI to improve over time. 

Deepfakes can also be created using a deep learning computer network called a variational auto-encoder (VAE). VAEs are trained to encode images into low-dimensional representations of the subject and then decode those representations back into moving images. 

The term “deepfake” wasn’t coined until 2017, and in 2018, the media almost collectively sounded the alarm over deepfakes – with the first viral deepfake videos featuring Barack Obama and Donald Trump making the rounds on social media.

But deepfakes also have uses that are becoming more and more relevant to everyday marketers – not just hackers or internet trolls trying to spread misinformation.

How do deepfakes work?

Machine learning AI is a critical part of developing a deepfake. Deepfakes depend on this tech to spot trends in visuals and information. 

To make a deepfake video, a developer needs to provide these machine learning algorithms with hours of actual footage, which then trains the deep neural network to recognize patterns, tone, facial expressions, and more. The next step involves combining those learnings with graphics. 

It doesn’t take much to create a deepfake, just existing video or audio of the person you’re trying to recreate. And although it may seem difficult at first, constructing a deepfake doesn’t require complicated tools – only basic graphic design knowledge and video editing skills.

Examples of artful video deepfakes

Marketers are still in early stages of adopting deepfakes and other AI technologies for video and digital marketing. The following deepfake examples don’t exactly fit into a marketer’s toolbox just yet, but they showcase the power of these AI technologies right now.

1. Chris Shimojima’s “Dolche – Big Man”

This stunning Staff Picked music video from filmmaker Chris Shimojima takes deepfake technology and turns it on its head, incorporating faces from 14 different performers (and 40 contributions) to tell a single story. The result is an artful, unexpected combination of tech and human expression.

2. David Beckham’s many languages

Malaria Must Die used AI to manipulate soccer star David Beckham to speak in nine different languages, leveraging deepfake technology to make a big splash and markedly increase their campaign’s reach.

3. Salvador Dali’s museum greeting

It took over 1,000 hours of machine learning for the Dalí Museum to get their deepfake version of Salvador Dali exactly right. This innovation gives museum-goers a new perspective: they get to learn about art from the artist himself!

3 everyday uses for deepfake video tech 

While some applications of deepfakes may be beyond the average marketer’s reach, there are many creative and exciting ways to leverage deepfake tech in your own work. 

• Fix flubbed lines in post: For anyone with even cursory editing experience, you know the trials and tribulations of cutting together polished audio from a more conversational interview. Whether your subject misspoke or simply didn’t answer with a full sentence, using deepfake technology to fill in the blanks is a great way to keep your post-production process moving without the need for reshoots. (Just make sure you get the subject’s permission first, of course!)
  
  
• Personalize customer videos at scale: Marketers can implement easy personalization by sending welcome or product videos that include prospect’s names or their company names. All you need is their names and enough audio from your on-camera talent for deepfake tech to add it into any video.
  
  
• Localize your videos: Deepfake tech introduces a new world of easy translation. Instead of relying on subtitles, artificial intelligence can insert translated, spoken audio, either created from an audio bank or from the initial actor’s voice.

New tech, new opportunities

We may not know exactly what the future of AI will bring, but one thing is certain: deepfakes aren’t going anywhere. Just as with other AI-powered tech (chatGPT, anyone?), those willing to experiment with deepfakes with eyes wide open to potential pitfalls will be well-suited to compete in the changing video landscape.

Create captivating videos with Vimeo

Human memory is tricky. You may have heard that when people learn new information, they forget approximately 75% of it within two days. 

Research suggests that repetition is the key to boosting memory, and video makes rewatching (i.e., repetition) simple. By creating training videos for employees, you can increase the practice of repetition and help your team better retain knowledge, expand their skill set, and do their jobs better.

In this article, we’ll walk through everything you need to know when producing your employee training content. We’ve also included tips from learning and development professionals on how you can set every learner up for success.

What is a training video?

In a business context, a training video provides employees (both new and existing) with the guidance to learn a particular skill or area of knowledge.

When it comes to corporate training, the quality of content and the delivery method matters.
In order to make your training videos impactful and engaging to your staff, we have two main tips.

First, keep it short and sweet. If a video is under 60 seconds, 62% of viewers will watch it to the end. While longer videos may be packed with more information, they may not always be engaging for your audience. Only 26% of viewers will completely watch a video more than 20 minutes long. 

Second, you should consider video trends, like interactivity. When you create training videos for your employees, make sure you’re taking best practices, and your audience’s preferences and learning styles into account (more on this later).

The better the training, the more impact employees can have doing their jobs. By making video content short and sweet, you’re guaranteed to keep your audience’s attention. With interactivity, your team is brought into the story of the learning and helps cultivate an immersive learning environment. 

Investing in a robust training program with video can help your team feel more supported at work and fuel a positive employee experience.

Why make a corporate training video

One of the most important factors to consider during employee training video production is matching the right kind of training with the trainee. Most people are visual learners in some capacity — 90% of the information that is transmitted to your brain is visual in nature. However, people learn in all different ways, even within the medium of video.

Online training tools like videos can result in better information retention, higher engagement, and lower cost for training. Below, we’ve listed some of the top reasons businesses choose videos to train their workforce.

1. Easier to retain information

Video helps people recall information. Combining visual and auditory/verbal content allows learners to make more relevant connections and associations that assist with memory. 

One study shows that three days after learning, 65% of verbal/visual presentation (video, in this case) audiences can recall presentation information. Compared to only 10-20% who recall information that was spoken or given as a lecture, and 10% who recall only written information, it’s clear which method works best.

2. Higher engagement

People watch, on average, 17 hours of online video each week. Even branded video — 66% of consumers have viewed marketing content to learn about a product or brand.

When it comes to building brand advocates (which your employees should be), viewers are 52% more likely to share video than any other type of content. When you’re looking to create an engaging training experience, data says to look to video.

3. It’s cheaper

Since we’re talking about business here, one of the major benefits of using training videos instead of having in-person training sessions is that it keeps costs down — especially if you produce your own training videos.

In 2022, the Training Industry Report predicted a 6% increase in training budgets for this year and expected the global training market to grow by 2%. These days, remote training with video is about as useful as it can be — but you still need to maximize its benefits. 

So, what type of training video would be best for your organization? Let’s take a look at the different kinds you can use.

5 tips to master the art of online training videos

If you want to create the best training videos for your employees, there are a handful of considerations to keep top of mind. Our team chatted with Elizabeth Hodos and Emma Wisehart, Senior Sales Enablement Managers at Vimeo, to better understand what makes a successful video training program.

1. Understand training goals

The first step to making a great training video is matching the content to the learning outcome you want your employees to achieve. Before beginning the creation process, identify the main messages you’re trying to convey. For example, if you’re training a sales organization and want your sales team to learn how to create customer accounts using all the different tools in your tech stack, that means you’ll need videos that touch on your organization’s account setup process.

2. Make training content for all learner types

Employees’ ability to learn directly correlates with their ability to retain and apply the information they’ve recently acquired. Although there are additional (and hybrid) ways your team can learn, educators and leaders typically refer to four main styles:

• Reading/writing learners work well with text-based data and information through reading and/or writing. 
• Auditory learners excel when they’re able to listen to content.
• Kinesthetic learners are hands-on and rely on their tactile senses to learn.
• Visual learners — the most common type of learners — respond best to images, graphics, and video.

Video can actually help with all of these styles. For instance, you can supplement video with one-sheeters and other educational resources and activities.

3. Make training actionable

Learning means very little unless employees can put what they’ve learned into practice. When it comes to employee training videos, you want to design them to be actionable.

Leadership teams should immediately encourage employees to use what they’ve learned to reinforce their education. For example, once you’ve taught your employees how to use a tool from your company’s tech stack, make sure you provide a relevant test (or real-life) scenario for them to work through using the tool.

4. Identify knowledge gaps for learners

When an employee lacks the information they need to be able to complete an important business task, a knowledge gap forms. And if it’s not addressed quickly, it will lead to a skills gap and an inability to perform their job well.

To identify employee knowledge gaps, provide different types of skills assessments for them: pre-training, post-training, and self-assessments. Once employees receive the training they need, use video to share your company’s institutional knowledge. 

5. Find ways to track learning

With modern video production platforms, tracking video analytics is easier than ever. In fact, 83% of today’s companies use some form of analytics. Typically, organizations track functionalities like performance (views and engagements, for example) and CTA click-through rates.

For employee training videos, it’s important to see if your employees are watching all the way through and, if not, where they dropped off. Using this knowledge, you can make any necessary adjustments to your training materials.

6 types of training videos

When you’re creating employee training videos, you’ll quickly find out that certain skills are better learned through specific training approaches. Whether your video is lecture-style or an interactive presentation, each type of video serves a unique purpose in your training.

1. Tutorial videos

Tutorial or instructional videos can help your new employees understand step by step how to perform a certain task or follow a process. Great tutorial videos often include interactive visuals, quizzes, annotations, and more to help improve retention.

Even within tutorial videos, there are a couple of different approaches you can take, including:

• Animated videos. These are usually quite short and work well for data visualization, where having a real-life person explain might confuse viewers.
• How-tos. These are the most common type of instructional videos. These explain how to do something, usually in numbered steps.
• Demos. Similar to a “how-to,” demonstrations are what you’ll want to use if you want to show a process or product in action.

Tutorial videos are pretty flexible, and you can cover almost any topic with them.

2. Just-in-time training

Elizabeth Hodos, Senior Sales Enablement Manager at Vimeo, describes just-in-time learning as “serving up information for people when they need it.” She says the most important question to ask is, “What’s the one thing viewers need to remember?” 

With just-in-time training, employees are provided “microlearning” videos at specific touchpoints that help employees learn in the flow of work. This way, they’re more easily able to integrate what they’ve learned into their everyday roles. And since we already know about ol’ Ebbinghaus, we know it’s also important to serve up just-in-time training videos frequently because people will forget.

3. Live virtual trainings

The digital workforce is alive and well, as 97% of employees are open to onboarding virtually. And HR and onboarding teams agree — 69% find live video training to be most effective outside of in-person training. Creating a “virtual classroom” with a live streaming event can be a highly effective way to train a remote team. To best make use of your trainees’ time, consider including some pre-work in the form of presentation decks, reading material, visuals, or instructional video that your teams can sift through before meeting live. 

4. On-demand training

With on-demand training, employees can access video courses from wherever they want and at their own pace. On-demand training is also a great way to reuse and repurpose live training sessions that employees can catch later. Hosting your on-demand videos in a centralized place like a video library can help trainees search and find information quickly.

5. Interactive training

Interactive video is a way to let your employees interact with your training content within the video file itself. According to 47% of marketers, interactive video (and live streaming) is the most effective type of interactive content.

The main thing that sets interactive video apart from other video content is its nonlinear nature. Interactive video allows trainees to jump around and choose their own educational adventure.

6. Screencasts and screen recordings

Screencasts and screen recordings function the same way, but serve different types of training use cases. 

If you want to make short, quick explainer videos around a small computer-based task, screencasts or screen capture videos are for you.

For screencasts, presenters record their screen while explaining or performing a task. These recordings can be shared with specific team members who need them. And while quick explainers are the most obvious use case, there are a few others use cases including:

• Website walkthroughs
• HR explanations
• Project deep-dives
• Technical walkthroughs

These are also some of the easiest and budget-friendly types of training videos to produce and a great way to provide more training material for your team. 

Screen recording is great for capturing longer remote sessions like educational webinars. But if you have in-person presentations like product launches, you’ll also want to record those for playback.

Recording live events to keep inside your internal knowledge base is a great way to ensure valuable sessions are available for everyone, both for those who couldn’t attend and for future employees.

How to create an effective training video

So, now you know what benefits you can get from making training videos and what types you can create. Let’s take a look at the steps involved in training video production.

1. Choose a format

The very first step you need to take when producing a training video is to decide the format for it. Thinking about the types of videos we’ve already gone through, try to match one up with the type of training you want to provide.

One format, for example, can be using Vimeo Record. You can create a screencast-type training video walking the new employee through your customer interface.

However, if you want to use an animated instructional or interactive video (but you perhaps lack the skills of a professional animator), you can check out a Vimeo Create template for employee trainings.

Emma Wishart, Senior Sales Enablement Manager at Vimeo, shared the types of video learning content that work best for training sessions:

• Short-form video
• Repeatable, straightforward “process information” 
• Information that won’t change much (e.g., organizational definitions, etc.)
• Personalized content
• Marketing content that’s professional and inspirational
• Human-focused content

2. Film your video

So, here’s where you’ll start recording your training video unless you opt for an animated one (which you can make with Vimeo Create). In which case, at this step, you’ll be working through your template.

If you’re using Vimeo Record, all you’ll need to do is click on your Vimeo Record Chrome extension, decide if you’re recording just the screen, just the camera, or both, then hit Start Recording.

With other types of videos, like presentation captures or HR onboarding videos, you’ll likely want to invest in high-quality cameras. You might cringe at the initial costs, but you’ll be saving money in the long run since you only need to record these videos once.

3. Editing

The beauty of producing your own training videos is that you’re in control of how they come together. After filming or putting your animations together, you can edit the video files using video editing software.

While you don’t always need a video editor, especially for screen recordings, it can help polish the video up by adding branding, transitions, and editing out speaker pauses.

Some of the best video editing software tools on the market include:

• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Apple Final Cut Pro
• Apple iMovie
• Pinnacle Studio
• CyberLink PowerDirector 365
• Vimeo Create

Any of these tools will help get your video ready to train new employees in no time.

4. Host and distribute your training video to stakeholders

Once your video is filmed and edited to your liking, you’ll need a place to host it and share it with others in your organization.

If you need more privacy (say the training has sensitive company content) or easier ways to organize, find, and share your videos, Vimeo’s Video Library can help you out.

You can make sure your videos are only accessible by specific people or teams and use SSO.

For a free option, you may consider creating or publishing to a YouTube channel dedicated to employee training. Your training videos can be uploaded as YouTube videos, which are pretty easy to share. If you need them to be private, you can always keep the videos unlisted — just be aware that anyone with a link can watch them.

5. Follow up to ensure understanding

The final step in producing training videos is making sure the content does its job. When using videos to train new employees, it might not always be easy to gauge how well they’ve understood the content (unless you’ve included interactive quizzes).

However, one great feature of hosting videos on the Vimeo Video Library is that users who have access can comment on the videos they’re watching to ask questions at specific time codes.

Along similar lines, you can always ask your new employees to comment at the end of the videos or fill out a quick form to say they’ve watched and understood the content of the video. If you end up with lots of questions or feedback, it’s a good indication that you might need to go back over the content of the video and improve it.

Training video templates to try

If you’re still struggling with ideas on how to build an effective training video, you can always try out one of Vimeo’s corporate training video templates. These templates can help you hit the ground running and get a video set up in minutes. Here are a few you can take advantage of:

1. First Day:

The First Day template is a great option to help you give an overview of what an employee can expect on their first day and virtually tour the office.

2. First Six Months

Many new employees worry about expectations in their first few months. Help put their minds at ease with a friendly guide.

3. Workplace Safety

To cover the essentials, you can use the Workplace Safety Training template. You can use this to cover health and safety, food hygiene, fire safety, or any industry-specific safety standards.

Find more templates: Corporate training video templates

Creative training video examples

Before you go ahead and start creating awesome videos, let’s take a look at some examples of creative training videos to help fire up some inspiration.

CDS Agency Training Video

CDS Agency provides a neat and professional onboarding training video with a strong narrator explaining the expectations of its concierges.

Worksafe NZ

This training video covers health and safety in the construction industry. But despite the serious topic, they’ve managed to include humor and engaging graphics to hold your attention.

Greystone & Co

These types of videos help new employees get to know key people in the organization. They can help offer them motivation as well as inspiration from leadership. What’s more, they’re relatively easy to produce.

Training videos FAQ

Use video for your employee training

Video takes your organization’s training program out of the boring slideshow rut and into the modern business world. 

You don’t need a massive budget to create a range of engaging and effective training videos for your new employees. You can even start with an everyday smartphone or recording your screen and webcam using Vimeo Record.

If you’re short on time or you’d rather use a tried-and-tested format, check out the variety of corporate training templates available in Vimeo Create.

Learn how to boost team performance with video

Originally published on October 15, 2021 and updated June 6, 2023.

Employees want to work from anywhere. In fact, 39% of staff members would immediately quit their job if their WFH/WFA options were revoked. According to a Gallup report, only 20% of remote-eligible staff members are currently working in-office and fully on-site. 

With more people working remotely than ever before, businesses need to adapt their internal communications strategy and how they communicate with their teams, regardless of their location. We’re seeing that when companies leverage internal communications tools like video, communication as a whole becomes more effective.

In fact, video-savvy teams were twice as likely to say their organization’s collaborative environment and staff training is “excellent” and 75% more likely to say that they experience “excellent” employee engagement at work.

If you want to energize your workforce, boost team performance, and drive efficiency at your business, consider these five important reasons you should use internal communications videos at your organization.

1. Effectively train and onboard teams

A distributed workforce comes with challenges. A recent report compiled by Vimeo and GlobalWebIndex found that 35% of HR professionals face significant hurdles with training employees virtually.

Insufficient training, onboarding, or sales enablement for current or new employees can have a serious impact on employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention. When team members don’t have a positive experience as a new hire, they’re twice as likely to look for a new job. 

To make sure your team doesn’t miss out on crucial education, mentoring, learning company values, and other insights about company culture, consider virtual training and onboarding videos to amp up your new-hire training.

Building an on demand training hub using high quality video tools can help boost employee training and comprehension. For example, Global coatings company Axalta provides customers with sustainable and innovative solutions — and this passion shines through in their products, practices, and training. For the past few years, Axalta relied on virtual training videos to reach their technical workforce of 13,000 professionals and provide effective internal communications. 

“Technicians don’t always want to travel to our training centers, it’s not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ for our diverse group of learners.”

Steve Hamaday, Virtual Training Manager at Axalta

Important technical training techniques – like the finesse of wielding a spray gun – are best communicated through high-quality visuals. “We found that missing those fractions of a frame was a huge deal for our painters, as they could be missing important learning points.” Steve Hamaday said. Investing in a high quality video hosting platform allowed Axalta’s team to provide the experience and training their teams needed to be successful.

When organizations turn training content into interactive video, they can improve team engagement. And repurposing events as on-demand enablement content allows employees to continue learning, refining skills, and work more productively.

2. Engage a global workforce

An engaged workforce can have a powerful impact on your business. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report states that businesses with engaged workers have 23% higher profits compared to other businesses. To facilitate more connective moments with your teams, you can use video to produce a town hall to highlight your executive team, host an internal virtual live streaming event with speakers and activities, or share important information asynchronously with recorded video.

Scaling corporate communications can feel like a challenge for even the biggest brands. Thankfully, a hunger for innovation coupled with the right tool for corporate communication videos can turn a workforce with thousands of employees into a strong, centralized community.

For example, Rite Aid rewrote its corporate playbook by pivoting from in-person meetings to virtual town halls. The result? The ability to reach more associates and a desire to run more live events. 

“Our first town hall on Vimeo was a pivotal moment that allowed us to reach more associates than we ever could through live, in-person events.”

Peter Strella, Director of Communications & Creative Media Services at Rite Aid

You can create stunning corporate videos, internal communication tools, and other video communications resources with easy-to-use production, editing, and live streaming tools. 

3. Close the communication gap

The data shows a sharp disconnect between senior leadership and employees in how they perceive the effectiveness — and frequency — of their communications. Specifically, 54% of execs say that they stream major company updates at least weekly, while only 20% of employees agree.

To bridge the gap, executives should consider increasing communications across all channels. Just keep in mind that your communications method — creating or doubling down on an internal comms or video marketing strategy — is only as effective as the content of the communication itself. Leadership teams should lean into authenticity and transparency to help get their message across.

“What we hear from employees is that what they want is more frequent communications, but my sense is that what they really want is more transparency.”

Anjali Sud, CEO at Vimeo

Authenticity combined with video creation can have a real impact on the future. Employees at video-forward companies were over 70% more likely to say their company was ready to face the future of work.

Executives have the opportunity to use video to close the communication gap not only through explainer videos but also through:

• Personable screen recordings and message videos that include company updates
• Q&As for global town halls
• Quick, asynchronous communications
• A video library of searchable content

For more executive comms strategies and tips, check out our Workplace Communications Workshop with leaders at Outreach, Meetup, Care.com, and Vimeo.

4. Drive efficiency with internal comms video

Work and collaboration have fundamentally changed over the years. And with that, teams are on the hunt for tools to increase efficiency, streamline communications, and adapt to any workplace environment.

From our experience, we’ve discovered two impactful ways to use video as an employee communication tool and help drive workplace efficiency: live streaming and screen recording.

Live streaming

Both Rite Aid and Paychex found success creating and live streaming company events (like town halls). 

Rite Aid used Vimeo to successfully facilitate its first virtual town hall. Its event was attended virtually by nearly 3,000 corporate and field leadership staff members.

Paychex traded in its travel expenses for live streamed events and reached 10 times more employees than it ever did in person.

Screen recording

The second efficiency driver is screen recording. When you add tools like Vimeo Record into team workflows, it can minimize the number of meetings and provide training opportunities, all while keeping projects moving.

“My team is using Vimeo Record to share product demos internally and to give our customers a preview of what’s launching soon. We love it! It adds a personal touch that you just can’t replicate with email or a chatroom message.”

Trevor Wolfe, Director of Product at Mailchimp

5. Scale knowledge-sharing opportunities

Knowledge sharing is important for nurturing employee growth and happiness. Whether for training, mentoring, or onboarding, employee knowledge that comes from within facilitates employees’ workplace success.

Hosting video recordings in a video library can make information more accessible and provide both new hires and legacy employees with the needed tools to succeed at work.

Our comprehensive guide, The Essential Corporate Comms Toolkit, can help you make sense of how companies of all sizes leverage live video to create engaging meetings for every employee, no matter where they are.

Organizations that are able to centralize their company knowledge effectively maintain consistency between current, new, and future employees. When you add video to your knowledge-sharing culture, those comms become even more efficient.

Wrap-up: Redefine how you work with video

The distributed mindset calls for a change in how you work, communicate, and collaborate with teams. All-in-one video communication solutions and corporate communication tools can help provide secure and flexible communications (and quality video) to keep business moving.

As the definition of where we work changes, don’t get caught up in outdated forms of communication. Reimagine how to make teams successful and bring the tools and transparency that help them achieve their best work. 

Discover more employee communications solutions

Originally published on June 12, 2019 and updated on June 1, 2023.

Live events are often a whirlwind of keynote speakers, networking, and breakout sessions. 

But, before you know it, the weeks of preparation are over in a flash –– on average, companies need between 3-6 weeks to prepare and promote a small virtual event. Creating event recap videos are one way to ensure your content lives on, long after your event wraps up. 

Event recap videos are also a way of boosting brand awareness, promoting future events, and reaching more of your target audience. 

In this post, we’ll share tips, best practices, and examples so you can create shareable event recap videos that not only help attendees remember the highlights but also encourage people to sign up for your next event.

What is an event recap video? 

An event recap video is a short video summarizing an in-person, hybrid, or virtual event. 

Event recap videos are usually around one to three minutes long. They’re designed to give viewers a clear idea of what the event was like. 

During the event, a videographer captures all the visual and audio content. Depending on the event, a videographer may capture keynote speakers, audience reactions, breakouts, and Q&A sessions. Later, an editor then uses the footage, sound bites, and key moments to create a unique event recap video. 

These edited clips are then combined with on-brand graphics, and music to create a memorable snapshot of the event. Here’s an example from Vimeo’s event in collaboration with The Vendry in Los Angeles.

Why create and distribute event recap videos? 

Recap videos help marketers capture the essence of an event. Participants can relive the experience while those unable to attend may feel motivated to sign up next time. 

Event recap videos also help your event production budget go further, so your event continues to entertain, educate, and delight after the final curtain call. 

Maximize ROI and create evergreen content

Following weeks of careful planning, you don’t want your event to be forgotten as soon as it’s over. Recap videos help maximize your event’s exposure and ensure it remains at the forefront of your audience’s mind. 

They’re also a way of repurposing event footage into evergreen content and getting more value from your initial investment. Use event recap videos to create social media posts, website content, newsletters, and future promotional campaigns. 

Boost the reach of your event and increase conversions

By publishing event recap videos, you’ll reach a broader audience of people who didn’t attend your event. People who couldn’t attend or who weren’t aware of the event can still experience its highlights, get an idea of its value, and perhaps be convinced to attend your next edition. 

Plus, a well-produced event recap video may be highly shareable, and generate buzz across your chosen social media platforms. 

This increase in engagement may lead to conversions like more event registrations, subscriptions, or sales. 

Latha Youngren, CMO of event management software Tripleseat, says the recap video of their annual conference, EventCamp helps them across multiple digital marketing campaigns and for promoting their company culture. 

Show the success of your event

Recap videos are a visual representation of a successful event. By showcasing attendee testimonials, positive feedback, and the overall energy of the event, marketers can build trust that there’s value in their events. People who haven’t attended in the past get the chance to see what they’ve been missing out on. 

How to create and distribute event recap videos

The trick to a captivating event recap video is all in the preparation. Know what story you want to tell and to whom before you begin creating. Then, create a well-thought out distribution strategy so you get it in front of your target audience. 

Plan your recap video before the event has wrapped up

Before the event, make a clear plan for capturing the key moments you want to include in your recap video. 

Latha of Tripleseat explains that the secret to a successful event recap video is plenty of planning. Before the company’s annual conference kicks off, they already have a clear vision for their post-video content. 

“At Tripleseat, the planning begins long before EventCamp starts. We identify the types of visuals we’d like to include in the video, the most appealing locations within the venue, high-profile speakers, and attendee reactions”, she says.

“We contract a local videographer and brief them on what to film, the vibe of the background music, the scope of work, and deadlines.” 

Determine your target audience and key message

An event recap video created for past attendees may look different from one designed to convince future attendees to sign up. Before your videographer begins filming, determine the purpose of your video and its target audience. 

Is it a highlight reel, social proof, a teaser for next year, or something else? When you know exactly what message you want to convey with your recap video, it’ll be much easier to build your storyline. 

Nebojsa Savicic, co-founder of video automation software Plainly, says the event recap video should make your audience feel like they were there.

“You have to come up with a plan. Think about what you want your audience to take away from the video. Is it the highlights of the event, the keynote speaker, or the behind-the-scenes action? Once you have a clear idea of your goals, you can start mapping out the content for your video.”

If you want to help recent attendees remember your event, you may choose to feature key learnings and highlights from Q&A sessions. But a teaser designed to encourage future sign-ups may include more testimonials and footage of the overall energy of the event. 

For example, Snap uses their event recap video to generate excitement for their latest feature releases.

Format it according to channel specs

How you format your video depends on the distribution channels you use. So, think about whether landscape or vertical video orientations are best for your chosen platforms.

For example, if you plan to post your recap video on Instagram, you’ll likely want to use a vertical orientation. If you plan on embedding it into a blog post, you may prefer to format it as a landscape video. Always double check each platform’s specs before posting. 

Skincare brand Dermalogica shared a vertical event recap video of their Skin Speakeasy event. The brand later shared the vertical video on their Instagram Stories to promote in-person appointments at their LA clinic. 

Build a distribution strategy 

Creating a distribution strategy helps get more eyes on your video. Before you hit publish, list out all the channels you want to use to promote your recap video. Post it on those places where your target audience is most likely to spend time. 

Currently, 60% of marketers use social media to drive virtual event registrations –– if your target audience spends time there it’s worth posting your recap video. 

Get creative and think about how to repurpose the video content into Reels, image carousels, written actionable takeaways, or blog posts.

Latha Youngren explains how Tripleseat shares the video in several places to maximize its exposure. 

“We share our recap video follow-up emails to attendees, publish it in multiple social media posts, encourage employees to promote to their networks, embed it in a recap blog post, and on the EventCamp website,” she says. “We also tag speakers and attendees featured in the video so they’re aware of it and can share it with their networks.”

If you’re sharing the video on your site or blog consider how you can best optimize it for search. Maria Harutyunyan, co-founder & Head of SEO at Loopex Digital explains how they made their recap go viral. 

“We optimized the video by using keywords like ‘marketing conference recap,’ ‘industry insights,’ and ‘networking success.’ Then we transcribed the video, created an SEO-friendly landing page on our website, and embedded the video alongside a compelling blog post,” she says. 

“Our recap video went viral, generating buzz in the marketing community and attracting thousands of views. It boosted our brand’s visibility, established us as a thought leader, and generated leads.” 

Maria Harutyunyan, co-founder & Head of SEO at Loopex Digital

Time it right

When you post your recap video depends on your goals. If you want to engage with recent participants and remind them of the event’s key learnings and highlights, it’s best to post shortly after the event so it’s fresh in their minds. 

If your goal is to encourage sign-ups for your next event in three months, post the video in the weeks leading up to the event. 

Event recap video best practices

Ready to create an event recap video? Follow these three best practices before you get started. 

1. Make it short and sweet

Your event recap video is a short summary of all the action –– not a blow-by-blow account of everything that happened. 

Be mindful of your viewer’s time and attention span. For example, Nexus created a recap video of just two minutes and included perspectives from attending industry thought leaders. 

If you’ve got leftover footage, you can repurpose it into social media posts or other promotional videos and save on your video production budget. 

2. Include social proof 

Incorporating elements of social proof can help you win brand credibility. When potential attendees see the positive experiences recent participants enjoyed, they may be more likely to sign up for your next event. 

Online business community Tweak Your Biz, includes social proof in their recap video by asking attendees and speakers to share the highlights of their experience. 

3. Showcase big names

If you hosted any well-known industry thought leaders, brands, or influencers, feature them in your content. It’s a form of social currency that might convince other people to sign up for your next edition. 

There’s also the bonus that if you tag these people or brands in your content, they may reshare the video with their followers, expanding your reach. 

For example, the creative festival SXSW includes well-known film and television personas like Robert Downey Jr, Elizabeth Olsen, and Eva Longoria in their daily event recap. 

The wrap up

Event recap videos can help non-attendees feel a part of the experience and encourage them to sign up next time. They’re also a way of keeping your content alive for participants long after your event has ended. 

From highlight reels to attendee testimonials, event recap videos help broaden your event’s reach. Keep these tips and examples in mind to showcase your events’ highlights, create social proof, and boost sign-ups. 

Host your next virtual event with Vimeo.

57% of Americans watch videos in public. If you’ve ever watched one while walking, working, or in transit, you know what that means — that video needs to be designed for silent viewing.

The solution? Captions. They draw viewers in and hold their attention, even with audio off.

In fact, 80% of people react negatively to Facebook video ads that blast loud audio when they aren’t expecting it. And LinkedIn confirms the majority (80%) of their video views happen in the sound-off mode. 

This makes it a solid case for captioning your videos. But there’s more to this story too — because captions not only encourage viewers to watch your video but also improve your message’s understanding, accessibility, and compliance.

We’ll walk you through it.

1. Meet your viewers’ expectations

First things first, you need captions because your target audience expects you to include them in your videos.

Young generations, in particular, are four times more likely than older viewers to use captions. In fact, four out of five viewers between the 18-25 age bracket say they use subtitles all or part of the time.

And if they don’t see captions enabled in your content? They’d hit exit faster than you can say knife.

What’s also important to understand here is the environment in which people watch videos these days. For one, 90% of people watch videos on their mobile devices — a nod to the fact that most consume videos on the go.

Lots of folks also view content with a snoring partner beside them or a baby they’ve only just put to sleep. And dare I say, some consume them in boring meetings while others watch them while waiting in line to grab their Starbucks (Spanish iced latte, anyone?).

To add, distractions have only just skyrocketed over the years. Meaning: viewers can easily miss a vital detail in your video. Thankfully, captions play a significant role in solving this. They make it easier to process your video in a sound-sensitive environment like a train station.

It’s no wonder LinkedIn found that videos designed for silent viewing are 70% more likely to be consumed all the way to the end. Facebook’s internal research echoes the same sentiment:

“Captioning videos increases their view time by 12%.”

Facebook research

2. Improve your content’s accessibility

In the US alone, roughly 15% of the American adult population (aged 18 and above) report having trouble hearing. On a global scale, over 1.5 billion people live with hearing loss in at least one ear — that’s 20% of the total world population.

Captioning your videos makes your content accessible to these folks.

Also, while research doesn’t confirm captions improve accessibility for folks with ADHD, it does conclude that video subtitles help them retain your message better.

3. Increase content stickiness

Captioning your videos improves their impact by helping you:

• Capture and hold viewers’ attention
• Improve your message’s comprehension
• And, boost your content’s memorability

In short, video captions aren’t just important for getting your audience to watch your video but also retain your message.

Interestingly, this applies to both native and non-native speakers with research confirming that native speakers with no hearing impairment also use captions when watching videos. In fact, the same study concludes video captions improve students’ learning experience.

And a Preply survey confirms — 61% of folks use video captions to understand accents that are difficult to grasp for them.

The takeaway? No matter who you are targeting, you need captions for all types of videos you create — educational, sales, ad, or quiz videos. Because, at the end of the day, captions improve your content’s viewership and memorability. 

4. Reach and engage a wider audience

Subtitling videos opens them to people who are hard of hearing. But there’s more. By adding captions, you can also open your content to your target audience in other countries.

The idea is simple: use the same video but add native-language captions for your target viewers in different countries. On top of improving your reach, this also improves your content’s ROI.

(Easy, isn’t it? And also fast and accurate because human-created captions are 90% accurate. So you only need to review the transcript file once and you’re all set to reach a broader audience  )

5. Create compliant video content

Yet another benefit of captioning videos is checking off compliance from your list — a super smart move for saving yourself from lawsuits.

Essentially, for all website and social media marketing content you create, you need to comply with the standards set in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

It outlines the need to make your content, especially, video content, accessible to people with disabilities. Besides including captions, WCAG also states it’s crucial you make sure the subtitles are:

• Perceivable. That is: there are displayed in a way that they’re easy to read
• Operable. People should be able to view your captions in whatever interface they use
• Understandable. The captions are presented in an easily digestible way 

6. Boost discovery by fixing your video SEO

Google deploys bots to review published content (technically called ‘crawling content’) to understand whether it’s worth ranking for a specific keyword.

The problem with video content? It’s visual by nature and Google’s bots can’t read it or understand what’s in the video. It’s why a simple yet effective way to improve your video ranking is to include transcripts.

Subtitles are text-based, therefore, easily readable for Google’s search bots. In fact, transcripts not only show your video contains the target keyword but also synonyms and related keywords. These further boost your ranking.

In short, add captions to your video to improve your discoverability.

But remember: you need to add stand-alone transcript files in SRT, VTT, and similar external formats to drive video SEO benefits. 

7. Amplify the content experience you offer

With 91% of businesses using video as a marketing tool, the space is increasingly becoming competitive.

Besides ensuring your video content’s quality is exceptional, it’s important to pay attention to the nitty-gritty details to refine your target audience’s experience with your brand content.

The first step: subtitling your videos. But here’s the thing, you can boost experience by taking care of the small details too when it comes to adding video captions. Follow these tips:

• Choose an easily readable font size and type

Use at least 22 pt font size and steer clear from a fancy font type. Stick with easily understandable fonts like Arial, Times, Verdana, and Helvetica Neue.

• Position captions for maximum readability

After having added subtitles to your video, review them to ensure none of the text interrupts your content. Also, break long subtitle lines down into short ones so they’re easy to follow on the screen.

• Choose the right color contrast for your captions

Pick a font color for your captions that doesn’t blend in with the rest of the video’s colors. WCAG recommends using a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 so the subtitles are readable to color-blind folks too.

In a nutshell, no matter which device your viewers use to watch your videos, ensure the subtitles are easy to read and digest. 

Ready to add captions to your videos?

Remember, good subtitles play the same role as a video’s audio by:

• Increasing your watch time and engagement
• Boosting content accessibility and compliance
• Offering a superb content experience

So make sure you add subtitling to your content in your video production workflow. Of course, manually adding them would be a total time suck. But adding Vimeo’s automated captions to your videos is a sweet solution to that problem. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s a time saver with multiple benefits — a marketer’s dream, really.

Auto caption your videos with Vimeo. 

As today’s workforce continues to evolve — and turnover rates remain steadily high — organizational leadership teams worry about holding top talent. 

In fact, 93% of companies worry about employee retention. A key avenue to promote retention is to provide career growth with development opportunities, training, and sharing domain-specific knowledge.

According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, the primary method leadership teams use to improve employee retention is through learning opportunities. One way to enable more learning opportunities is with knowledge base software. With the right tools and resources at their disposal, teams can get the information they need fast, learn important skills, and grow alongside your business. Similarly, your customers and users can leverage a knowledge base to deepen their understanding of your product using helpful resources.

If you’re looking to add knowledge base software to your tech stack, there are a few things you need to know. Discover knowledge base-ics (dad jokes, anyone?), use cases, benefits, and examples of knowledge base software in this guide.

For internal stakeholders

Managers and leadership teams can improve internal operations — in the following areas — using knowledge base tools.

• Explaining HR processes and legal policies
• Sharing IT and tech information
• Storing brand or sales presentations
• Training and onboarding staff 

Knowledge bases are especially important for employee upskilling, reskilling, and professional development.

For external stakeholders

Your company can use knowledge bases to provide external stakeholders like users and customers with self-service support and 24/7 customer service. This could include:

• Troubleshooting how-tos and guides
• Product and service tutorials
• Contact information
• FAQs

When it comes to self-service options, there’s a gap in what customers want and what businesses think they provide. A recent customer experience report from NICE shows that although 40% of companies believe they have ample customer self-service options, 81% of consumers expect more. According to Zendesk’s 2023 CX Trends report, 37% of customer service agents say customers become noticeably frustrated, stressed, or angry when they can’t complete a simple task without agent assistance. A knowledge base that encourages your customers to self-serve will help increase customer satisfaction and likely reduce service costs, helping to strengthen your bottom line.

What are the uses of a knowledge base?

Typically, a knowledge base will serve one of two core purposes: employee education or customer education.

Employee education

Expanding teams anywhere in the business can be a daunting task for any HR or legal representatives. A knowledge base can store essential training information (for new and existing staff) so that all of the basics are covered.

Customer education

These days, when a customer has a question, the first place they’ll go for an answer is the internet. A knowledge base can be a valuable tool for customers seeking self-service assistance.

Benefits of knowledge base software

There are a lot of great benefits to using knowledge base solutions depending on industry or use case. Streamlining communications, lowering overhead costs, and engaging your audience are a few reasons why businesses invest in knowledge management software. Below, we’ve broken out some key benefits for both.

Internal benefits of knowledge base software

• Lower training costs. When you create a solid knowledge base that’s regularly updated and maintained, you’ll reduce overhead costs associated with basic employee training. Your knowledge base can answer common questions from new hires, helping you reduce how much time (and money) you spend on in-person training.
• Higher customer success rates. When customers get quick answers, it can increase your resolution and success rates considerably. It will also help free up space for more complex customer support tickets and serve as your customers’ “single source of truth.”

External benefits of knowledge base software 

• 24/7 customer service. A common pain point customers go through is not being able to contact support teams outside of office hours. Knowledge base software helps solve that problem since it lets your support services “stay open” 24/7.
• Better customer experience. Has your team ever thought a customer query was simple but had to spend several minutes (or even hours?) helping solve it by phone or email? When the customer can self-serve using knowledge base software, they can get their queries answered immediately.
• Easy to host. Building and maintaining a knowledge base on your website is relatively simple with the right tools.

Three knowledge base examples

There are many great examples of public knowledge bases from both an organizational and a customer perspective. While these examples may differ in design specifics, they all share a few common features:

• Internal search engine and search bar
• Topical (or customizable) organization
• Contact information

Here are our favorite knowledge base examples you can use to find inspiration for building a knowledge base for your organization’s content management needs.

1. Toggl Track

If you’re into productivity tools, chances are you might have come across Toggl Plan, a time-tracking tool to help you figure out where your time really goes. Currently, its knowledge base is organized simply by topic, which then includes subtopics related to using its product.

Interestingly, it has a different knowledge base for each of its products, which can be a pro or a con depending on the user’s perspective. If someone wants to get a bird’s-eye view of the available solutions, they may prefer a consolidated knowledge base.

2. ManyChat

If you’ve ever encountered a chatbot powered by Facebook Messenger or Instagram (collectively known as Meta Platforms), there’s a strong chance that the website or social media page used ManyChat to build it. Building a chatbot can seem pretty daunting. ManyChat knows this, so it has a large knowledge base to help boost the user experience.

It covers topics from the basics of using its product to more advanced topics like using widgets, plugins, and API dev tools. So if you’re building a chatbot-based knowledge base for your organization, ManyChat has a ton of resources to help.

3. Vimeo

Of course, Vimeo also has some extensive knowledge base content where customers can get information on just about everything Vimeo. Users can find anything, from uploading creative videos, learning how to live stream, to different ways of watching Vimeo video content.

For internal teams, Vimeo uses a video library to store video content. Creating a hub of internal content, events, resources, and updates allows teams to organize, share, and find video content easily and intuitively.

Three questions to ask before you create a knowledge base

Since knowledge bases can differ according to the needs of your business (and its internal and external audiences), we’ll cover three main considerations to take into account when creating one.

1. Should I use video in my knowledge base?

Many people consider themselves visual learners and prefer to see exactly what you’re talking about rather than reading about it. It’s a good idea to incorporate video (and video transcriptions and captions) into your knowledge base wherever possible. 

You may want to consider using video in your knowledge base if your content:

• is easier to “show” than “tell”
• has high traffic or requires frequent access
• benefits from an emotional connection or “human touch”
• does not change often
• includes many smaller pieces of content (e.g., documenting a process over time)

Video content can be used in a number of ways, including:

• Introducing or launching a new product or service
• Explaining a process (e.g., “how-to” videos)
• Demonstrating a use case or a product or service

You can turn existing content into videos and embed them on the same page (and host them in a video library) to help give customers a choice of how they want to learn.

In this case, it’s usually worth having a dedicated knowledge management team or person who works to create and maintain these videos.

2. Should I build an internal or external knowledge base?

Deciding whether to create an internal or external knowledge base depends on your audience and use case. Below, we’ve outlined some of the key benefits of both types.

We’ve discussed the overall uses for internal knowledge bases, but it’s worth getting a bit more specific. If you’re trying to figure out if you should build an internal knowledge base, first determine if you need to accomplish one of the following.

Staff onboarding:

• An internal knowledge base is a great place to talk about employee benefits, products or services, and company guidelines.
• An internal directory can let new employees feel more confident about asking the right people for help if the knowledge base doesn’t cover their questions.
• The base can also store blank versions of legal and HR documentation for onboarding purposes and review, saving time on both sides.

Staff training:

• Creating standardized workflows can help with initial staff training and serve as a reference point when they forget the information (happens to all of us).
• Knowledge teams can create videos on how to properly use any of the company systems and cover common troubleshooting issues.
• When you release a new product, service, or feature, you can use the internal base to keep demonstrations and key bullet points for staff members to reference.

3. What is the best knowledge base software?

The short answer is that it depends on your answers to the above questions, and different knowledge base software options offer various features to serve those needs. In general, ask yourself the following questions to find out the best fit for you:

1. How much does the software cost, and does it fit within our budget?
2. Can it assign different levels of access for specific users?
3. Is it easy to navigate?
4. Does the software include any metrics or reporting features?
5. Do we need to worry about integration?
6. Do we need community forum functionality included?

Getting answers to these questions will help you narrow down the list of options.

Knowledge base FAQs

Creating a knowledge base is probably easier than you think

Now you have a broad understanding of what a knowledge base software is and the benefits of a knowledge management solution. Depending on your use case, you may consider an internal knowledge base, external knowledge base, or both. Implementing a knowledge management solution is a great way to provide the knowledge autonomy your employees and customers want. 

Put your internal and external stakeholder resources to good use by building your own knowledge hub with the help of a developer or with a secure, enterprise video solution.

Tour Vimeo’s Video Library solution today

Originally published August 15, 2022. Updated May 24, 2023.

We’ve all been there: you’re at an event, and speaker after speaker drones their way through a dull, text-packed PowerPoint presentation, with little time to breathe between each. You leave the event feeling frazzled, foggy-brained, and worn out.

For neurodiverse individuals (such as those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or learning disabilities), other events can feel just as draining. And yet, many event marketers fail to take neurodiversity into account when planning their events — meaning they’re potentially underserving up to a fifth of their audience.

Below, we’ll explore the importance of planning events that accommodate neurodiversity and diverse learning styles, and share a few tactical ways you can do so before, during, and after your event.

But first: what is neurodiversity?

Neurodiversity refers to the idea that there are a wide range of natural differences in the way that individuals’ brains function, which impacts the way people think, learn, and behave. Some of the neurological differences that impact the way people consume information and interact with the world can include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette’s, and learning disabilities.

Neurodiverse individuals can have varying comfort levels with different types of sensory input, such as lights, sounds, smells, and textures. They may prefer structure and feel overwhelmed by a lack of routine, or prefer certain types of social interaction. Others may have processing differences, where they find it more challenging to absorb information through certain mediums (such as text, audio, or video).

“It’s important to recognize that not all neurodiverse people are alike—just like any other group, there are different types of neurodiversity,” says Will Yang, Head of Growth & Customer Success at Instrumentl. “Some people may have trouble seeing or hearing; others may have trouble communicating verbally or nonverbally; others may have trouble staying focused for long periods of time.”

It can be helpful to consider the fact that everyone thinks and engages with the world in different ways. Even if a person is more neurotypical — or has a brain that functions in a similar way to the majority’s — they may be more introverted, more extroverted, prefer consuming information in certain ways, or have trouble concentrating for longer periods of time.

Why do inclusive event experiences matter?

Considering that 15 to 20% of the general population is neurodiverse, it’s likely that you’ve had neurodiverse attendees at every event you’ve ever hosted. Ensuring that your events accommodate neurodiversity helps ensure that your events are inclusive and welcoming to all participants, and that more attendees are able to fully engage with your event’s content.

As a result, your event will likely enjoy a boost in attendance, engagement, and retention.

“Inclusive design benefits everyone, not just neurodiverse individuals,” Bruce Rose, head of audience at Live Group, told AMI Magazine. “I think about Rory Sutherland’s point on all of us being differently abled at some point in our lives — a door built for someone with arm impairments is just as useful for somebody holding two cups of tea.”

In other words: the steps you take to make your event more inclusive to neurodiverse individuals will usually benefit other participants, as well. For instance:

• Offering participants multiple ways to network (or not) can benefit those who are less comfortable with social interaction, as well as those who are more introverted
• Making post-event content available in multiple formats (such as audio only, video, and text) can benefit those who have processing differences, as well as participants who only have time to listen to a session while commuting to work
• Making your in-person event accessible virtually can benefit those who are overwhelmed by travel, as well as participants who can’t travel for an event due to family commitments

Making your event more inclusive will also likely increase the diversity of attendees at your event, which can spark richer discussions, a stronger sense of community, and higher levels of engagement.

“In my experience, I’ve seen that when you have a diverse group of participants at an event, there’s a greater chance that they’ll engage with each other in meaningful ways…They’ll take away something different from the event than if they had been surrounded by people who think exactly like them. When people come together from different backgrounds and perspectives and make connections with one another, those connections can lead to some pretty amazing things.”

Will Yang, Head of Growth & Customer Success at Instrumentl

How to personalize your event for neurodiverse attendees pre-, during, and post-event

As you may have guessed, due to the many shapes neurodiversity can take, it’s impossible to take a “one size fits all” approach to planning an event that honors neurodiversity and different learning styles. However, there are a few actions you can take to help ensure that neurodiverse attendees feel comfortable at your event.

Before the event begins

Ask participants what they need

“Aiming to be accessible by default is a great goal to strive for when planning events,” says Emily Owen, operations manager at an accessibility company and co-founder of neurodiversity blog The Wyrd Sisters. “This means any neurodiverse or disabled individuals will automatically be accommodated for, without having to request it.”

However, don’t be shy about (additionally) asking participants how you can accommodate them.

Neurodiversity can take many different forms, and it can be helpful to ask attendees if they have any specific accommodation needs. Build this into your event registration form, so that participants don’t need to hunt down contact information or go out of their way to request accommodation.

Let participants know what to expect

For many individuals, it can be helpful to know exactly what to expect at an event. Make sure your event’s landing page carefully details your event’s agenda, session formats, and any on-site (or virtual) resources for participants. That way, attendees can prepare in advance for the event and create a routine for themselves during the event.

Make sure you also include a section on accessibility on your event page, where attendees can understand the resources available to them. Looking for an example? Microsoft does a great job of this with their flagship events’ accessibility considerations and accommodations page.

Make this information freely available, and don’t forget to send out as much information as possible about your event before it kicks off.

Consider making your event hybrid

If you’re running an in-person event, consider streaming your sessions virtually, too. 

“The more options you can offer in terms of attendance, the better you’re going to serve the (very diverse) neurodivergent crowd,” says Ben Michaels, VP of Operations at Michael & Associates. “The ability to attend remotely, to gain access despite physical disabilities, and to take in the event in a way that is less intense from a sensory perspective are all key to accommodating this demographic.”

During the event

Offer flexible ways to engage

For some individuals, nothing sounds more daunting than joining a 150-person networking hour — or having to ask a speaker a question in front of a large virtual audience. Instead, offer participants flexible ways to engage with the content, speakers, and one another, such as:

• Hosting smaller breakout rooms
• Using color-coded wristbands at in-person conferences to indicate participants’ openness to networking
• Letting attendees take part in games or activities rather than simply mingling in a room
• Allowing participants to submit questions through a chat box or form

“If the event is virtual, do not force people to have their cameras on, or call out individuals to participate, as they may not be in a position to do so,” suggests Owen.

Both in-person and virtually, ensure that your speakers know not to call out attendees who may choose not to participate in traditional ways. While well-meaning, this can make participants feel isolated and misunderstood.

Prioritize accessibility

Whether you’re running an in-person, virtual, or hybrid event, consider the many ways you can make your event more accessible:

• Create quiet areas where attendees can take a break from any sensory stimulation
• Add live closed captioning to any livestreams
• Make software available to dyslexic attendees that lets them make visual text auditory
• Use softer lighting and avoid any strobe lighting or sudden sounds
• Offer participants sound-filtering earplugs

Make your event easy to navigate

Large events — both online and in-person — can be difficult to maneuver even at the best of times. For those who prefer predictability and routine, this challenge can be even more stressful. You can ease this stress by making your event easier to navigate.

“During the event, make sure all locations are signposted well,” suggests Owen. “Then, throughout the event, ensure you have processes in place that allow attendees to ask any questions they may have.”

At in-person events, use clear signage and have staff available to direct attendees and answer their questions. For virtual events, give clear instructions ahead of time on how to navigate your event platform, and have an always-on virtual room available where participants can go for any questions or assistance.

After the event ends

Make content available in multiple formats

Even for the most focused of individuals, most events tend to pass in an all-too-quick blur. Make sure attendees are able to revisit event content by making it available in a variety of formats, including:

• Video recordings
• Audio-only recordings
• Slides
• Transcriptions

You can make post-event content even more digestible by sending attendees bite-sized, skimmable recaps and takeaways. This can often be easier for participants to process than re-watching (or listening to) a full session again.

Follow up with neurodivergent participants

Finally, close the loop on your accessibility efforts by asking participants how you did. Reach out to attendees who identified as neurodivergent and request feedback — ideally shared in a quick phone call or email. 

The more detail you can get, the better. This will help you understand where your event excelled, where it may have fallen short, and how you can improve your efforts for your next event.

Make sure your next event includes (and celebrates!) neurodiversity and diverse learning styles

Vimeo’s virtual event platform makes it easier than ever to plan and host an inclusive event. Make your in-person event hybrid, host accessible virtual events, and create inclusive registration forms using our flexible and personalizable virtual events platform.

TikTok is still the wild, wild west of social media. A place where day-in-the-life videos, lip-syncs, beauty tutorials, and hilarious skits all coexist in perfect harmony.

It’s the perfect terrain for brands looking to make a splash with engaging and creative content and capture the attention of billions of users worldwide.

Still, navigating this popular social media landscape can be tricky, especially when it comes to making money. In this guide, we’ll show you the ropes of TikTok marketing and how your brand can strike gold.

1. Create engaging TikTok videos

When it comes to marketing on TikTok, there’s one golden rule: make sure your videos aren’t boring. TikTok users value authenticity, creativity, and humor. So, if you want to stand out from the millions of other videos out there, you need to serve up content that aligns with these values. Essentially, anything that’s going to stop someone from mindlessly scrolling and say, “Hey, this is worth watching!”

The more engaging the content, the more likely users are to watch, like, comment, and share it. And the more engagement a video gets, the more likely it is to be recommended to other users by TikTok’s algorithm, leading to more views, more engagement, and eventually more sales.  

If you can master these tips, your brand will be well on its way to TikTok fame (and fortune):

• Be authentic: TikTok users can spot a phony a mile away. 84% of TikTok users come across content they can relate to on the platform, so don’t be afraid to show off your brand’s personality and values in your videos.
• Keep it short and sweet: limit your TikTok videos to 60 seconds. According to research, the average TikTok video length for most accounts is between 32.4 and 41.9 seconds.
• Use trending music and sound effects: TikTok is known for its viral music trends and sound effects, so use them to your advantage! In fact, 58% of TikTokers are more likely to share an ad or talk about a brand if a video features a song they like. 
• Be creative with transitions: Learn how to creatively edit your TikTok videos and make transitions like a pro. Try experimenting with different transitions like the “Inverted” or “Spin” transition effects to add a bit of flair to your videos.
• Use eye-catching visuals: TikTok is a visual platform, so use bright colors, bold text, and visually interesting props to grab viewers’ attention.

Crocs does a great job of creating fun and playful TikTok videos. Their videos often include fast and creative transitions, engaging visuals, catchy music, and lots of humor.

@crocs Do other shoes even exist anymore? #MyCrocsEra ♬ How about take a photo? – Official Sound Studio

2. Build a strong relationship with your followers

Don’t be a TikTok wallflower! TikTok is all about interaction, so if you want your content to be recommended to other users, you need to show some love to your followers. According to research, 73% of global users “feel a deeper connection to brands they interact with on TikTok, compared to other platforms.”

Plus, engaging with your audience builds trust, credibility, and fierce brand loyalty. People will buy your stuff and rave about it to their friends and fam when they feel a personal connection with your brand.

Let your followers know that you’re listening and care about their feedback by answering questions and responding to their content, comments, and messages.

You can also participate in TikTok challenges to show off your brand’s creative side and engage with your audience in a playful and interactive way. Look for challenges that align with your brand’s values and resonate with your audience.

Chipotle’s collaboration with the “Corn Kid” (real name Tariq), is a great example of creative and authentic brand engagement with fans.

When Tariq broke the internet with a viral video in which he declared his love for corn, Chipotle took notice and decided they needed to be part of the conversation in a natural and genuine way. And after discovering that Tariq visits his local Chipotle in Queens once a week, the brand connected with him to create a sponsored video, and the rest is history.

The video is now Chipotle’s top organic TikTok video of all time.

3. Sell your products through TikTok Shop

There’s a reason why #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt exists. According to research, 55% of users use TikTok to discover new brands or products. And two out of three users are likely to buy something while on the platform. Selling products on TikTok is a great way to rake in some serious dough.

Some of the products that people sell on TikTok include fashion and apparel, beauty and skincare items, handcrafted and artistic goods, and digital products like e-books and online courses. These are all things that today’s content creators are using to make passive income and land partnership deals with brands.

And TikTok Shop makes it easier for users to discover and purchase products directly from the app. TikTok Shop provides three easy ways for brands to sell their products:

• Shoppable videos: These short-form videos include clickable product links. Viewers can easily make a purchase by tapping on the link in the video.
• Product showcase: This is a dedicated page where brands can feature their products in a visually appealing way. Brands use this page to highlight their products, showcase their brand identity, and encourage viewers to make a purchase.
• Live Shopping: This feature allows brands to host live streams to showcase and sell their products in real-time. During the live stream, viewers can purchase products directly from the stream and interact with the host and other viewers.

Benefit Cosmetics regularly hosts a series of live shopping events on their TikTok account. 

In one instance, when the brand used a live event to launch their TikTok Shop, it received 62.5k live audience views and 2.5k new followers.

4. Tap into the power of TikTok ads

TikTok ads are the perfect way to expand your audience, target specific demographics, and show off your products in a visually pleasing, thumb-stopping way. According to a survey, compared to other social media platforms, TikTok ads are better at capturing people’s attention, with 67% of respondents agreeing that TikTok ads are eye-catching. 

Here are the different types of ads you can use to expand your reach and make bank on TikTok.

• In-feed ads appear in the user’s “For You” page feed and can be up to 60 seconds long. These ads are great for creating brand awareness and driving traffic to your website or product pages.
• Brand takeovers are full-screen ads that pop up when a user first opens the app. They are highly effective for promoting a new product or service or for building brand awareness.
• Branded hashtag challenges are for brands that want to create their own hashtag challenges and promote them using in-app ads. They are the perfect way to encourage user-generated content and engage with your audience.
• Topview ads are similar to brand takeovers, but they appear after a user has been on the app for a few seconds. These ads are highly effective for promoting new products or services and building brand awareness.
• Branded effects and filters can be created for your followers to apply to their videos. This is a great way to build brand awareness and encourage user-generated content.

And here’s an insider tip: Vimeo Create provides customizable TikTok ad templates you can use to create ads that put your products right in front of your target audience. When NaturalAnnie Essentials, a maker of vegan candles, started using Vimeo to make video ads, the brand saw its conversion rate jump by a whopping 5.5x in just a few weeks.

“We don’t need expensive equipment and tools to get our message across. Vimeo helps us take our production in-house, without a budget..”

Annya-White Brown, founder, NaturalAnnie Essentials

5. Build authentic partnerships with influencers and content creators

Partnerships with TikTok influencers and content creators also generate revenue on TikTok. And influencers are often worth their weight in gold, especially on TikTok, where they have a higher engagement rate than on other social media platforms. 

Contrary to popular belief, influencer marketing doesn’t require a large budget. Collaborating with micro-influencers is the way to go for smaller companies with limited budgets.  

Micro-influencers offer more affordable rates than larger influencers. And while they may not have the same level of reach as top TikTok stars, they often have a highly engaged audience that trusts their opinions and recommendations. In fact, they have even higher engagement rates on TikTok, with an engagement rate of 17.96%, compared to 3.86% on Instagram and 1.63% on YouTube. 

You can partner with influencers on various types of content, such as sponsored posts, affiliate marketing partnerships, influencer takeovers, giveaways, or contests. 

For example, skincare brand Bubble frequently showcases TikTok tutorials featuring small creators and micro-influencers.

@bubble

The verdict is in. Our Level Up moisturizer definitely lives up to the hype and we’re not surprised one bit.

♬ original sound – Bubble

Frequently asked questions

Strike gold on TikTok with Vimeo

The bottom line is that TikTok is a gold mine for brands that know how to mine it right. By crafting content that captivates, teaming up with TikTok influencers, and selling digital goods, you can reach unprecedented audiences, ultimately driving more sales. With the continued growth of TikTok’s user base and its innovative features, there has never been a better time to hop on the app and start cashing in on its potential.

Create captivating videos with Vimeo

Published November 2021, updated May 18, 2023.

Rayka Zehtabchi’s career path has been, to put it mildly, anything but ordinary. “Everyone has their own journey,” says Rayka. “Some people’s journey starts at the Oscars when they’re 25 years old.” She’s referring to her stunning documentary “Period. End of Sentence.,” which took home the statue for Best Documentary (Short) at the 2019 Academy Awards when she was still in the early days of her filmmaking career – and made her the first Iranian-American woman to win an Oscar. 

“I was really young,” explains Rayka. “I had just left my job as a PA and an Uber driver. It was a very strange out-of-body experience.” But as improbable as the win might have felt to Rayka at the time, it was in no way an overnight success. “It was a project that we’d been working on for years at that point. But I don’t know that we ever thought it was going to be possible to even be a part of the Oscars conversation.” 

And while production of the short was a long-won labor of love, the visibility and notoriety associated with that kind of win did come fast and furious – leaving Rayka in need of a reset. “I came away from the Oscars really feeling like I needed to take a step back, and I needed to actually continue to explore my voice as a filmmaker,” she says. 

Four years on, Rayka has reemerged as a prolific documentarian with a unique eye for story and craft. We caught up with the filmmaker to learn more about how she found her voice and what keeps her creative fire lit. 

When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker? 

Rayka: I was 15, I think. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in film. I was like, directing sounds fun, producing sounds fun, production design sounds fun. I dabbled in a couple different things while I was going through school. But I think one of the biggest things that happened in my life that really gave me this idea and confidence that I could actually be a filmmaker, was this mentorship program, this film program when I was in high school called Film at Academy of the Arts.

I was really fortunate to have that program because you start to learn about the craft at a really young age, and all of a sudden it doesn’t feel like such a huge mountain to climb. You feel like you can see yourself in that position. I was like, “I want to do this and I don’t want to do anything else.”

You specialize specifically in short documentary. What is it about that medium?

Rayka: Honestly, I love the short format because first of all, there’s a low barrier of entry. You don’t need a huge budget or anything to go out and make a short film. The stakes are not as high. I think what that allows for the artist is more freedom for creativity. More freedom to really explore your voice, and also not be so precious. Go out and try different things. 

I think every film that I’ve made is different, or exploring something new. Maybe not so much in the themes, but in the craft is exploring something new. And I think that’s really fun and exciting, and I don’t know that you always get the opportunity to do that so readily with longer form projects. 

Your work is often issue-based, but you never sacrifice form for story. How do you balance those? 

Rayka: I think my collaborators and I are always thinking about form. How do we push the craft in some way? Especially with documentary, a lot of times what happens is it can start to feel a little formulaic, or you’re leaning more into journalistic sensibilities. So, the craft is sometimes it’s secondary. I think with us it’s like we’re always thinking about how you can put the craft and the storytelling first. 

Because the project should feel, technically, really sound. They should take you on a journey. They should be entertaining. They should be a visual feast. So, for us, it’s just filmmaking is the best way that you can infuse all of the art form, along with the humanity. So I feel like every project we do has to have both.

What has your creative life been like in the wake of your Oscar win? 

Rayka: I mean, it’s been challenging. It’s been great. It’s been filled with hard times. It’s been filled with growth. But I think it was a necessary step for me to take. You need to take a step back and you need to just shut out all the noise and you need to say, “This is who I am. What do I want? What’s important to me?” 

For me, I realized what was so important to me was that emotional connection to what it was that I was doing, whatever that may be. And so, taking a step back really allowed me to look inward, reflect, do the painful, challenging, almost therapy work of figuring out what your voice is, who you want to be, and what kind of projects you really want to put your energy into.

What keeps you going? 

Rayka: Honestly, it’s the stories. You think long and hard through the story before you decide that you’re going to go out and make it. Because it takes so much time, and energy, and effort, and emotional energy too. For me personally, even if I’m doing a job, I get really emotionally invested in the project and I don’t say yes to a job unless I feel emotionally connected to the project in some way.

You really have to be driven by the story that you’re telling, the message that you’re putting out into the world, the conversation that you’re putting out into the world. Do you feel like it’s something that you can shoulder for the time that you’re making the film? 

You received your first Staff Pick after winning an Oscar – how did it feel?

Rayka: It was a project that my partner Sam [Davis] and I did after the Oscars. After “Period. End a Sentence.” It was this small mockumentary. And it was sort of in response to the spectacle of the Oscars. We were like, “Okay, now we want to do something really small and really fun and quirky and intimate, and how do we just get creative?” And we made a fun project called (SHn(y)o͞of). And that was our first Staff Pick project.

I remember just being so elated, because even though we just came off of the Oscars, it was a project that really just came from our brains. We got so creative and fun and scrappy with. I think our budget was a few hundred dollars. So getting a Staff Pick was really great because it just felt like, you know, got that validation.

How do you use Vimeo in your day to day? 

Rayka: I use Vimeo almost every day, in some way. Whether it’s because a friend has sent me a film, or a Staff Pick that’s wonderful and I need to watch it for inspiration. Or because I’m uploading my videos, and using the review tools. 

Or if I need to find talent. I mean, I remember I had a project during the pandemic, and I really needed to find an animator who did a really specific style of animation. And I went down the Staff Picks rabbit hole in the animation category. I think I searched through 30 pages or something. And I found an amazing animator who we actually ended up hiring for the project, and I would love to work with again. I use it as a tool, a resource. It’s always in the diet.

What’s your advice for other filmmakers trying to find their voice? 

Rayka: I think it’s easier now to make a film than it has ever been. Especially for people who are just starting out. We have so many tools at our disposal, and you really just have to start making stuff and finding really what sticks and what matters to you.

It’s a process. It’s not like it happens overnight. You really have to get to work on it, and spend a good amount of time really discovering what it is that you want to say in the world. 

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Dan Covert is a man of a thousand disciplines. A talented artist and graphic designer, co-founder of the wildly prolific production company Dress Code, and a filmmaker whose work spans short branded projects, commercials, and a recent feature film profiling the art and life of Geoff McFetridge – Dan has experience and insights in spades. But the secret to success isn’t in his artistic acumen (though that certainly helps) – it’s in his work ethic.

“Nothing’s going to make itself,” says Dan. “The quickest way to build your career is just keep making stuff. Even if it’s doing a bunch of favors for friends to make stuff, that’s how you stay active as a director.” 

It’s an ethos that has led Dan through an impressive career dotted with accolades from AFI, SXSW, and, of course, Vimeo Staff Picks. “Vimeo made our careers,” says Dan. “That sounds crazy, but it’s true. We never would’ve had an audience for any of this stuff. We just bought cameras and learned how to make things.” 

Shortly after the release of his first feature documentary, “Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life,” which won the Audience Award at this year’s SXSW, we had a chance to chat with Dan about his process and his creative north stars. Check out highlights from the chat above and read the full conversation below. 

You started out as a graphic designer. How did you get from there to feature filmmaker?

Dan: We started a company 16 years ago that was a graphic design company that then became a motion graphics company that then became a production company. So it’s this long evolution. And all along the way we made shorts, and a lot of them were Staff Picked on Vimeo.

We were just experimenting and learning what our voice was as a company and as directors and then I was turning 40 and was always like, “I’m going to make movies someday.” And I was like, “Maybe I’m not going to make movies unless I start.” So I just was looking for stories and this film kind of just happened. 

16 years is a long time to be making stuff in this industry. What keeps you going?

Dan: It’s just genuinely fun to do this work. Even until recently, I wasn’t like, “Oh, there’s going to be this blow up moment where my career changes and I’m at the Oscars.” I don’t think about that stuff. It’s just like, “Am I having fun in the moment? Am I enjoying the ride?” 

Because once a project it goes out in the world, you can’t control how people respond to it. It’s just like, “Did I make the best thing that I could? Am I hanging out and working with people I love and respect? Are we trying to be honest and authentic?” I’m always the lots of irons in the fire kind of guy. I have a business. I am a commercial director. I’ve been making this feature film. I have a pretty successful art practice. But it’s all about just slowly just doing these things that I enjoy and then like, “We’ll see where they go.”

But I’m not as concerned about the ‘where they go’ part because that can just eat you alive. Because ultimately in the end, who cares if you’re famous or successful? It’s like that’s not the stuff you’re going to remember when you’re 80. 

What’s your creative north star?

Dan: We constantly are refining this, but it’s really storytelling acumen. It’s craft and visual artistry. And those are kind of vague terms, but it does have a lot of meaning. It’s like, “Can you tell a story?” A lot of times people come with a half-baked concept and we, as storytellers, are kind of pulling the story out.

The idea of commercials and art, they’re somewhat contradictory forces – but not at the highest level. It’s more about emotion and how you do that with beautiful cinematography. But we each kind of have our own voice. But the stuff that really truly excites me is character and story.

How do you work with a brand without compromising your vision?

Dan: In the beginning I always thought it was like, “Oh, they’re hiring me to do what they need.” And then over time I realized, “No, they’re hiring me because they need some help and I know what I’m doing.” So it was a big shift of trying to understand what the company’s needs were and what their aesthetic was. That’s still obviously important, but then the more and more I’ve climbed as a director, I realized that they’re coming to you for your personal voice to really sort through all this stuff and be like, “What you guys need to do is this.”

Are there any brands that you’re still hoping to collaborate with?

Dan: I think that’s tricky because I don’t really care about that stuff. It’s like, “Is it a fun, interesting project?” Some of the most boring assignments that I’ve been given have turned into the best pieces. I did a film centered around a type historian at Syracuse, it’s a Staff Pick video we did. It was like this dude who was in a basement who found this font and then Pentagram turned it into the logo for Syracuse University. That guy’s amazing. I want to talk to people like that.

Everyone wants to do jobs for Nike and all these amazing brands. Sure that is fun, but I also like finding these unique stories and kind of giving them a platform. 

Can you tell us about your experience with Vimeo Staff Picks? 

Dan: Our first staff pick was for “Font Men.” The film we premiered at SXSW in 2014. I remember we had the first screening. I woke up the next day and saw that the film had been Staff Picked, media had picked it up, and that was a huge deal. I was a graphic designer who started co-directing with my business partner on films about other graphic designers.

I never learned how to be a director. So it was a huge validation as a creator to have 300,000 people within a few days see this movie that we made. And it’s like, “Oh, my God.” You know what I mean? We didn’t even make it as a short film. We made it for a client project and just slightly re-edited it, and I saw this audience.

Dress Code has been on Vimeo for a very long time. What keeps you on the platform? 

Dan: It just seems like the platform where all the creators are who see our work. A lot of this stuff on the short film side, we’re self-funding, kind of putting out these little trial balloons, and then other creatives see them. It’s always shocking. Somebody from an ad agency will call and be like, “Hey, we saw this thing. Can you do this commercial project for us?” It’s like a one to one. If we’re putting work out like that, the right people are seeing it and then kind of elevating it and giving us a platform.

Where do you get your inspiration? 

Dan: I get the most inspiration for my work through art. I actually don’t watch a ton of videos anymore. I find that it’s kind of taxing and then I want to mimic things, so I just really try to find things that are very outside of what we do or even look at feature docs for commercials or look at fine art for framing and visual techniques. 

What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten? 

Dan: There’s a quote from Steve Martin where he says, “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.” I’ve always loved that. It’s just like a lot of people want this quick fix of just to make something and then one and done. Where for me it’s more about just kind of slowly putting the time into building up a body of work and then being so good that someone will find you. 

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