I know it sounds like I am gushing and I suppose that I am a bit, but Duke Long as come a long, long way in a short time with his video series, "The Real State of Real Estate."
His newer videos evidence a focus on using the visual medium of video to enhance his message. Furthermore, he seems to have thought out what he wants to accomplish and what message he intends to convey through each of his videos.
For example, The key message that I got from Duke's, "Bricks & Slaughter" video was that shopping center owners better start consider the growing effect of online sales as part of their overall strategy for their centers. While verbally expressing himself on the video, the visual presentation of the empty parking lot and the locked and apparantly abandoned store fronts, said as much, if not more than his verbal comments. Not only that, the video had significant emotional impact, maintaining the audiences attention.
Duke's, "Wabash Landing" is another example of a thoughtfull mix of the conjunction of visual messaging and audio content. The message that is conveyed to me in this video is that if you are an owner of a shopping center, it might be worth your time to give Duke a call to get some help. This video enhances Duke's personal brand. More videos like this one may serve to increase business for his day job, which is being a broker.
My third example of a Duke Long video is his, "Super Bowl Central. Georgia Street". Duke isn't even in this video which is fortunatly, hosted on screen by Leslie Bonacker of Cresa Partners. The clear reason for this video was to promote a.k.a. market the "newly redeveloped Georgia Street". It seems to me that its purpose is to get people to lease space on Georgia street. To be frank, I am not as enamored with this video as I am with the prior two. The audio script wouldn't motivate me to lease space nor is the visual component of the video, showing an empty lobby and two people walking down the street compelling. While I have no problem with Leslie giving some background and describing what is going to be happening on the street during the Super Bowl festivities, it seems that the purpose of the video would have been better served by adding some drawings or video of what one would expect to see during the Super Bowl. My gosh, its the Super Bowl. The street should be mobbed and the visual element should convey that message. Now if I were a retailer, I would want to lease space as fast as I could if I believed that street would be as crowded as I expected. In this case, I believe the video detracted from the message rather than enhance it.
