A Video Is Worth a Million Words
On Friday a video of Donald Trump exposed the truth about his personality. The 2005 video exchange between Trump and Billy Bush clearly showed a braggadocios and misogynistic personality. This behavior had been written about for months, yet so many choose to ignore it. The attitude was he seems like a “nice guy.” They had heard, but never really seen it. The words were never absorbed.
Video moves people. Trump’s video went viral instantly. Women and men around the world were appalled. You see video doesn’t lie. I am not endorsing any candidate, although those who know me, know where my heart lies. This essay is not about a democrat or republican. It’s about getting the real story. Visuals and actions speak much louder than words on paper. We can clearly see who a person is, there is no hiding or misinterpreting words
Hours after the 2005 video was released, Donald Trump issued a video apology. I decided to read his statement before I watched him deliver it. I wanted to see if there was a difference. I read the transcript of his speech and it sounded sincere. His words on paper were humble, except when he blamed it on Bill Clinton, but that’s politics, you have to expect a zinger or two. It all changed when I watched the video. All I can say is OMG, the difference was astounding.
Trump’s body language was defiant. His face was that of a three year old forced to apologize to his little sibling. There was not an ounce of sincerity in his voice. It did not match the transcript at all. He didn’t believe a word he was saying, except the part about Bill Clinton.
I co-founded Vidlet, a mobile video insights platform company, with Patricia Roller. We were both executives at frog design. We had seen first hand how businesses were abandoning qualitative and ethnographic research in favor of the easier and less expensive quantitative research. Clients would say “how could data be wrong?” Well now we got to see in living color how it could be wrong.
We knew from years of experience that seeing someone say something visually means so much more than how it reads on paper. Product failure rates remain high and we have always believed that if companies actually talked to their customers to find out their true problems they could develop better products and services. We developed an easy, inexpensive software platform that allows you to do exactly that. Market research is becoming a scam. It is expensive, overblown and delivers uninspired findings. Patricia and I felt video, combined with your mobile device and a robust backend, would bring you quality research at a fraction of the cost and with better results. We are absolutely seeing those results as true. We also believe that qualitative research combined with quantitative research delivers more accurate results.
Video is authentic. You can’t sugar coat it. This was so clearly evident during the events on Friday. Not only did Trump stun the world with his video about his success as a predatory sexual abuser; but also his apology video revealed his true feelings. He didn’t think he had done anything wrong. He reiterated that stance during the debate on Sunday evening.
I’m not advocating who you should vote for but I am telling you that video is real and it makes a difference. There is no hiding behind 144 character, words on paper or just data alone.
Think about video and Vidlet the next time you really want to really understand people and please if you are a United States Citizen, get out and vote.
