What Are Lower-thirds And How Can They Improve Your Employment Branding?

I’m throwing this to the sports fans and news junkies first because #FlyEaglesFly and $ULTA (going long, #bullish):

You know when you’re watching ESPN SportsCenter or CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and you see headlines with a cool design at the bottom of the screen that changes as the TV talent covers different topics? Those, my friends, are called “lower-thirds”. And as small as they can be, they make the final production—whether a tv show, documentary, interview, YouTube video—come full circle.

So why should you care about lower-thirds? How can they benefit you and your brand?

Before I answer, I hope you have some sort of video strategy in place at your company‚Äîinternal communication video series, client video production services, corporate interviews, etc. to name a few ideas. If you don‚Äôt, then stop right here and go read why you need to have one. Stat. And read here to learn about the tools you need to execute video content like a pro.

Back to why you should care… Lower-thirds are informational

Lower-thirds (LTs) are the graphical elements that are used to display a person‚Äôs name, job title, a title of a song, place of a location, a news headline, etc. The list goes on. LTs are very informative‚Äîbut it‚Äôs just as much about branding as it is serving up information!

Think—if you’re filming a video to show off the talented employees who work for your company with hopes these videos will attract future, high-potential candidates, you have to make the viewers fully aware of the employee’s name and their position. Using a lower third to share this info will make the video much more impactful and personal.

But they are also about branding….

When designing a lower-third, you can customize the background and text with your company colors and add your logo to brand the video. The LT plays a “supporting role” to an overall production, so branding these to fit your company will really set the scene.

My tips:

• Use a sans-serif typeface for the text so the text doesn‚Äôt appear like it‚Äôs flickering (ex: Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma)

• Use a solid background color for a clean look that won‚Äôt appear disoriented as the video plays

• Experiment with motion and fade‚Äîhave the LT ‚Äúdissolve‚Äù as it appears and disappears for a smooth transition

If you haven’t produced any video for your company, it’s worth doing. We can help make that magic happen for you. Give us a shout!