[Editor's note: The 4Cs apply to more than a diamond ring. Videographer and entrepreneur Derrick M. Guest points out that the 4Cs play an important part in the success of telling your brand stories via video as well.]

Creative: If you want to get your core audience’s attention, you have to stand out. Become the hay stack not the needle. Think of an interesting way to make a marketing video that is either entertaining, deals with current affairs, or makes your viewer want to share your message with others. Here are some examples:

• Piano stairs
• Google Webmaster Central Channel

Consistent: I don’t know of any marketing campaign, whether video or not, that works well without consistency. You cannot build trust with any client, potential or present, if you don’t have a consistent message. Think about it, would you trust someone who, every time you talk to them, their story has changed about themselves or what they do? This is why we see and hear the same commercial ads over and over again.

Committed: Marketing of any kind is not for the faint of heart. You must stay committed to your video, social media, online campaign. Think of your marketing campaign as a long-term investment, and depending on what your goals are, how you will be able to gauge your return on that investment.

Compelling: (See creative) you must think outside the box. Don’t just think about building a campaign, build a movement. Example, Apple Productions is built around the movement of innovation while Groupon is built on the movement of social commerce. Think of a way to move people with your campaign message, and watch the seeds of your labor grow, here are some more examples:

• Will it Blend?
• Groupon

Derrick M. Guest is president and CEO of Griot’s Roll Production, a New York City-based film/video production and post-production company. This article originally appeared in his blog.

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I was in a class this afternoon and the instructor asked if anyone suffered from SOS: Shiny Object Syndrome. Of course, I immediately made a note to ask the question here:

Do you suffer from Brand Shiny Object Syndrome?

For too many brands, the answer is probably (and sadly) “Yes!” Take this Brand SOS quiz and see how you score. Be honest and give yourself one point for every yes answer. And, like golf, a lower score is preferable:

1. Do you jump from marketing activity to marketing activity, barely pausing to review metrics?
2. Do you confuse tactics with strategies?
3. Are your marketing efforts “episodic” and disconnected rather than “serial” and directly connected?
4. Do you get excited about new metrics, despite how small or nebulous they can be? (“We got a dozen new followers!” “Three people liked us!”)
5. Do you refresh your website, but reuse the same old copy?
6. Do you change your logo because someone in your industry changed theirs?
7. Do you update your tagline at midnight because you had a sudden burst of inspiration?

We are all guilty at one time or another of some of these, but if you scored more than a 2 it’s time to pull over, wave the brand flag and surrender for a little team or agency help.

What about you? What other kinds of brand shiny object syndrome behaviors are you guilty of? Post them below in the comments!

Is your marketing collateral a lot like that old Sesame Street game that went,

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

I’ll bet that if you walked into a conference room with samples of your collateral — business cards, brochures, flyers, posters, eBooks, case studies — and placed them across the length of a table, you would discover that many things did not look like they belonged. And that is a problem. Your marketing collateral is a customer-facing representative of your brand story. Each piece needs to share a high level of consistency with every other piece. Otherwise, you are telling a fractured story.

This was evident to me during a recent trade show we attended where old and new business cards mixed with old and new brochures and banners — all in the same booth — over and over again. It is tough to let go of collateral, I understand, but if you are concerned about the environment, recycle the old materials that do not match — and stop printing so much stuff in the first place!

Because the worst thing that could happen is that prospects see your lack of consistency as a lack of focus or caring.

What do you think?

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If you have children, or have ever entered a room with children (or adults who behave like children), you’ll be familiar with what I like to call I-am-the-Center-of-the-Universe-itis.

This affliction causes the person afflicted to behave as if everything revolves around her little world. Wander into her orbit and you are assumed to be there to visit, listen to or cater to her every whim. And why not? She is the star of her universe and you are a mere nomadic satellite.

When you stop chuckling, consider how you market to your prospects…

Do you assume they have wandered by your trade show booth / website / 3 foot bubble of networking space because they desperately want to know all about you? Do you hand them your business cards / marketing collateral / price lists immediately upon meeting them?

Don’t worry. You’re not alone.

We all suffer from varying degrees of I-am-the-Center-of-the-Universe-itis. We make assumptions about why a prospect has wandered into our marketing orbit. My best advice? Don’t assume. Instead, ask where he was going. You may find that you can help him get to where he was headed. And you may just get to tell him your brand story along the way.

We tend to like to see things as black and white, night and day, wrong and right. But there is an entire spectrum of perception between two absolutes. And given that, is it wrong to think that a story you’ve told – or the positioning statement, the speaking notes, the message points – could be misunderstood?

We like to think that we are in control of our messages. We like to think that, when we say something, the person we are communicating with hears and understands every nuance of our message. But it is very rarely the case. And if you have children, you know that it is almost never the case.

So given the gulf between what you’ve said and what the person you are communicating with understood you to say – what are you to do?

Simple. Ask.

Ask for feedback. Ask for a response. Ask the other person to repeat what he or she has heard. I think this is why consumer generated content (a term I dislike, but I don’t have another handy) is so powerful for marketers. This is the metric for our work. This is how we truly learn whether the communication that we have so thoughtfully crafted actually contains shared understanding.

So, leave me a comment and let me know whether you understand what I’m saying.