Charity Videos

One area of research that was recommended in the peer discussion was videos produced by charities. These are videos that aim to inform and raise awareness, key features that are required for this brief.

St John Ambulance, The Chokeables. This advert is informing the audience of the general public as well as more specifically, parents & carers of babies, how to save a baby's life when choking. This is done through the use of animated objects who have been made life like through the use of animation and a voice. The short clip can also features subtitles for when the video may be viewed without sound. It is common for many social media users to watch videos without sound as this is an automatic feature used by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Keeping the timeframe of the video to a minimum also means that the user is less likely to lose interest and therefore the content is reaching a much larger audience. 





War Child - Duty of Care. This is a longer video that was originally shown through YouTube and from there was shared on social media such as Facebook.  The video demonstrates the experiences of the children that the charity has worked with, through the use of the Call of Duty gaming style. In an article written by Zoe Amar, The Guardian (2015) the digital manager said that the charity wanted to reach beyond the typical audience that view charity videos. Extending the audience through the style of the video increases the number of individuals who view the video. In this case, the video was viewed more than 500,000 times. Dave O'carroll described the video as being a natural fit to their brand, 'which is younger and edgier than other charities'.  
The shocking content of the video draws in the viewer's attention. Having the familiar elements of the Call of Duty game gives the audience something to relate to, making the content feel more personal. These are features that emote feelings that are important to consider in the production of the campaign. The role of the designer here is to ensure that the content is represented in a true manor as it is representing a charity.