5 Powerful Product Demo Video Ideas to Inspire your Marketing Strategy

In today’s shifting world of Marketing to go all-digital, breaking the noise to communicate the unique qualities of your product can often be deemed a mountainous task. Covid-19 has ignited, in many of us, a love affair with online video technology. Wyzowl.com insists that 68% of consumers say the pandemic has impacted the amount of video content they’ve watched online, with the overwhelming majority (96%) saying this has increased. 

So, what exactly is a Product Demo Video? A product demonstration video pretty much does what it says on the tin. Illustrating how your product works by displaying it in action. Focusing predominantly on the product’s features in-depth, this type of format is a compelling way to communicate your product’s purpose and value to prospective buyers.

Pair this with the elimination of the need for the customer’s own cognitive efforts. Such as reading lengthy tutorials or listening to explanations on how the product or service works. A brand’s use of video content can be a key contributor to easing potential customer experience. In the wake of Covid-19, consumers have found it difficult to gain physical access to onsite shops and see how products work tangibly in real life.

Subsequently, much of the consumer shopping experience has had to transfer to the virtual world, where demo videos have become a crucial part of a brand’s overall marketing strategy in their establishment as a powerful tool for audience engagement, customer loyalty, and generation of sales.

There are many different types of Product Demo Video and subsequent avenues and themes from which your own PDV could be inspired. Here are five examples that only break the surface in terms of the vast potential of the Product Demo Video and all that it can achieve for your brand’s image in a mere matter of minutes:

1. Ring Door View Cam

An impressive example capturing the essence of showing rather than telling viewers what your product can do. A key benefit of the wonder of demos. The short clip shows a variety of everyday people using Ring’s Door View Cam in an abundance of ways through the dynamic mobile interface: from benefiting from the built-in speaker, being able to see who is at the door before opening it, and even the potential to avoid danger through the camera. Simple, quick, and straight to the point. How much better can you appeal to a potential buyer?

KEY POINT: Show, don’t tell.

2. Headspace

Drum roll, please… Welcome to the Animation Station! Animated explainer video is rapidly increasing in popularity in today’s video content climate. We may be slightly biased, but it is undoubtedly our favorite way to display an ad.

Meditation & human psychology is intangible and thus complex to explain. Yet, this modern demo immaculately copies designs, characters, and animations from the app itself to give watchers a real feel for the product and its overall style.

The beauty of animation is that it always offers a simple and jovial message. Appealing to a large range of audience demographics. The clip insists the app’s offer of a “healthier, happier life” and reveals how the service works for a diverse range of users with differing goals and time restraints.

It’s an inclusive video that communicates a lot without overwhelming the viewer and a beautifully poignant reflection of what the app stands for as well as the service it offers: the opportunity to flexibly meditate whenever you want, wherever you are, in just a few minutes a day if that is all that you can fit into a busy schedule.

The entertaining animated video clearly explains the benefits of meditation. It introduces Headspace’s guided version as an offer of help and support towards a path of self-care, no matter who you are.

KEY POINT: Get creative with Animation.

3. Zoom

Covid-19 threw us all into a global remote-working experiment. How could we not include an example from Zoom following its BOOM in usage throughout the pandemic?  

The clip epitomizes the standard product demo video in its solid, feature-heavy, scripted voice-over dynamic. With the future of the workplace relying on Zoom, the clip is effective in its instant display of how professionals can use and benefit from the video platform in an immediate appeal to the brand’s prior-researched target audience.

While other videos work well due to their inclusivity, this one is specific and still effective. The suave depiction of professional employees almost encourages a popularity contest-inspired rush for organizations to hop on to the newest trend within the corporate world.

The viewer simultaneously sees the product being used as they listen to how it works and is left with a clear picture of what Zoom can offer them by the video’s end. That is a ‘transformation [of]…. communication experience’ within the professional environment.

KEY POINT: Know your audience.

4. Duo Lingo

Duo Lingo is a language app that uses gamification to maintain user engagement. Building momentum and motivation within the learner by changing their approach to a seemingly intimidating task. In 41 seconds, the app is explained quicker than a person could request where the toilets are in Spanish!

The beautiful execution of this demo lies in its simplicity. It displays difficult features of an app in a clear and easy-to-understand way. Showing the customer that they can download the app and get started almost immediately. After watching eliminates an element of difficulty faced with the task of learning a new language.

Opening with a testimonial from The Wall Street Journal that claims the app is “Far and away the best free language-learning app,” viewers are drawn in by what they can deem as social proof of the effectiveness of the service – that it really is ‘The Best Way to Learn a Language.”  The short, sweet, and utterly sufficient description of the platform’s features echoes the demo’s insistence that it is quick and easy to learn a language with Duo Lingo.

KEY POINT:  Keep it simple.

5. The Origins of Nike

Storytelling, as we know, is an extremely powerful communicative device

“Engineered for modern motion”: Nike’s recent video introducing its new design, Nike Free, is a canny example of how a company can include its brand story in a product presentation.

The product demo video combines a plethora of brand identity. Presenting the brand idea, mission, and manufacturing process within a timeframe of 2 minutes and 33 seconds. Modern marketing is becoming more social, creative, and personalized than ever before. Human-driven authentic stories are thus massively impactful to the viewer, even if only captured within a short space of time.

KEY POINT: Tell a story.

Wrapping Up

Video continues to be an essential tool marketers leverage to communicate and connect with their audiences and customers. As is hopefully encouraged by this blog, explainer videos can help brands voice their product stories, translate performance, communicate mission, and drive the target viewer’s interest. All clearly, concisely, and within a very short amount of time.

Product demo videos are the ultimate masters of the multi-task: as informative as the written instruction can be, it simply cannot do all this all at once. While they may take a bit of time to plan and execute, once live, they can be an utterly essential cog within the overall clockwork of your brand’s video marketing strategy. 

KEY POINT: Not yet using Video Content as part of your marketing strategy? 

Get to it!