Having had the opportunity to review a large amount of videos made by Inventors hoping to get a company interested in licensing their idea I wanted to give some advice Inventors may find helpful. Many Inventors have great ideas but allow distractions to hurt their chances of success. They don’t consider how they come across in a video presentation when your audiences focus is not on the actual product but the background you are in, the background sounds, your actions, what you are wearing or your language.
I have seen videos where the Inventor is explaining or demonstrating the product where they had dogs in the room barking as they were describing the product or kids running through the room screaming as they pass by their Mom who is trying to explain the product.
I have seen people do a great job explaining their product in a video but the T-Shirt they were wearing at the time had a number of highly vulgar words in big bold print on it. This is not something you can show to a prospective client looking for a children’s product. Have seen a Dad doing a video of his exercise product and yell off camera for the kids to “Shut the _ _ _ _ up!!!” and then calmly go right back to his presentation. Do you want to show that video to a prospective company for licensing?
Saw a video where the person was shooting it in their den area and all you could do was keep staring at the huge holes in the sheet rock where you could see into the next room and the Police Caution tape in the background. You wanted to know what the heck happened there.
Had another video where the person picked their nose while demonstrating a kitchen utensil. And another where in the background the Mother was helping her child on and off the toilet and wiping their butt as the Dad is demonstrating the product. Granted this is an everyday function when you have small kids, but should it be in your video promoting your product?
Some people like to use music as an overlay as they speak. This is fine unless it is a song with words that would make a sailor blush. Or the volume of the music overrides your talking. And you have to remember just because you like a particular style of music does not mean everyone does.
Superimposing large scrolling words across the video screen as you demonstrate the product may be a distraction especially if they are totally different than what you are saying at the time. The viewer may not know which to focus their attention on and miss an important point you are trying to make. Or the words are so large they can no longer see the product demonstration.
Having your video showing your product in action and seeing your product fail to perform as you described is not the time to look at the camera and say “I’m sure you guys can fix that problem”. Or filming your product so far away from the camera that it is hard to make out what is happening as you describe it.
Had one Inventor show himself in a video just talking about the product for 4 minutes and then at the end tell the viewer if they wanted to see the product in action they would need to do it in person and fly him and his wife to their location and pay for a hotel and all their expenses. This was on a product that had no patent, no PPA and a prototype he stated was in need of repairs.
Having a video that is 18 minutes long and the first 12 minutes are you talking about how you came up with the idea, the ones that didn’t work, how you used your cousins garage because your wife kept complaining about how much space your project took up in your garage are all things the viewer does not care to hear.
All any company wants to know is if the product will make them money. Make your presentation short, concise and to the point. You want it to grab their attention so they “GET” the idea and can see its market value. Inventing is a business, treat it like one.