Anatomy of a leadership video

There’s a lot of talk about the need for leadership right now, and not just in political circles. Getting your own organization’s leaders talking—to employees, customers, media and the general public—has moved to the top of communicators’ to-do lists.

Video is a great medium for what our industry likes to call “thought leadership,” and potentially quite effective at a time when town halls, press conferences and other live meetings seem like quaint events from that bygone era … also known as February.

But producing good video at a time of social distancing and working from home presents its own set of problems.

Determined to overcome those obstacles, the news team at Pittsburgh International Airport began planning for a series of videos featuring CEO Christina Cassotis. The videos would run on Blue Sky News, the airport’s brand journalism site, and on social media.

I work with this team, so I had a bird’s eye view of this whole process. Or should I say, a FaceTime view? (More on that in a minute.)

Here are a few takeaways from a typical video shoot made anything but ordinary by the global pandemic.

1. Start with a good reason for video.