Vidyitis. It’s that familiar pain in the neck that flares up each time word comes down that your department needs to drop everything and create a video for your company.

Luckily, help has arrived. For fast, effective relief, simply reach for these 10 helpful hints for avoiding the health hazards commonly associated with producing health care video and animation content.

Health Hazard 1: Video Attention Deficit Disorder

Examine your current advertising campaign and diagnose the best way to integrate video into its overall strategy, tone, messaging and look. Avoid opting for a quick, easy, cheap way out. Most of your customers (not to mention 73 percent of all Americans) prefer to get their information via video rather than printed material. Give it the attention — and budget — it deserves.

Health Hazard 2: Brand Bruising

Like peaches, brands bruise easily. Make sure, when evaluating creative approaches, that the video will end up looking and feeling like it comes from your company. And that it communicates a simple, compelling message that gives the audience a strong reason to respond. In short, that it showcases the sweet, tasty, goodness of your brand rather than its pits.

Health Hazard 3: Creative Narcissism

Create any given video for your audience, not for yourself. Your talents and tastes are important in evaluating the script, storyboard and edit flow of the project. But it’s all about the customer on the receiving end of your appeal. And that requires knowing your audience — and letting their desires rule — in order for your video to succeed.

Health Hazard 4: Production Anemia

When it comes to production, try not to overdo it or underdo it. Your video doesn’t have to rival “Avatar.” But it also shouldn’t rival a YouTube cat video. There’s no need to be extravagant in terms of the shooting locations or post production. On the other hand, don’t make your video or animation look so anemic that it reflects poorly on your organization. Find the balance.

Health Hazard 5: Hyperextension of the Budget

Some ad agencies shoot for the moon — and take your budget with them. Beware. Also be wary of the one-man video/animation band — the guy who writes, shoots, edits and cleans your carpeting — all by himself. For best results, hire an entity that combines creative expertise with production experience in order to stay on brand, on time and on budget.

Health Hazard 6: Tunnel Vision

Shot, repurpose, repeat. That’s the three-step process for efficient video and animation production — best achieved by treating each video project as an opportunity to provide content for the next video project. So avoid tunnel vision by seeing it less as a “one-off” and more as an opportunity to build an archive of elements cost-efficiently and repurposable into future projects.

Health Hazard 7: Audience Myopia

Website visitors. Trade show goers. In-person sales prospects. Investors. Current customers. New employees. Current staff. TV viewers. Even radio listeners. Savvy marketers today avoid audience myopia by considering all potential video and animation audiences — then versioning that same content to flow through the best medium with which to reach the largest numbers.

Health Hazard 8: Social Anxiety

Now that you have the project completed, it’s time to consider the platforms by which to deliver it to your audience: TV, radio, your Website and/or YouTube are givens. But don’t shy away from repurposing that footage for distribution via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest and others — not to mention on-line streaming networks, satellite radio, video pre-roll and in-office narrowcasting. Consult with an experienced media planner if the nuances of social media placement cause you anxiety.

Health Hazard 9: Exploratory Surgery

Having video footage and animation is of limited benefit if your stakeholders can’t, with surgical precision, explore and access elements for their own use. Think about implementing a digital asset management system that allows for easy searches, quick retrieval and convenient downloads by internal staffers for PowerPoint presentations — and by your production resources for high-res commercials and sales projects.

Health Hazard 10: Overprescribed Testing

Avoid over testing. Instead run analytics on the most important factors — like viewings, web visits, click throughs, sales conversions and image/awareness — to gauge the effectiveness of your productions. These stats empower you to make adjustments to content on the fly, rethink your media plan and enhance your offers. (They can also make you look good to the boss.)

A Healthier Approach to Video and Animation

As creative video and animation professionals with over two decades of advertising experience, Beard Boy specializes in writing and producing video content for all kinds of clients, all across America. Along with — or apart from — their ad agency. On a project basis. At a fraction of the cost agencies charge.

Clients, past and present, include Anthem Blue Cross, Miller Beer, Bank of America, Carl’s Jr. Restaurants, Butterball Turkey, Stater Bros Markets, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Marriott Hotels, Boston Scientific, California Department of Health Services, Olympus Cameras, Microsoft, John Deere, Lexus, Pacific Sunwear, Teledyne Controls, West Coast University, Orange County Business Council, Disney Home Video, Books on Tape and over 100 regional shopping malls.

Simple, Affordable, Impactful

“Our videos, animations and TV spots are a simple, affordable, impactful way for clients to position their brand and, in so doing, position their products and services,” stated Mike Smith, executive producer/creative director of Southern California-based Beard Boy Productions.

Beard Boy has won scores of national, regional and local advertising awards on its way to producing hundreds of TV spots, radio commercials and videos for clients nationwide. See samples of Beard Boy’s work click here