The Rise of the Promotional IT Video

We received in our email inbox last week an announcement from FEMA about a video it recently produced on its Flood Map Modernization program. The 8-and-a-half-minute video, "made its debut at the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) Conference in Norfolk, Virginia on June 6, 2007," according to the email. The email said the video "provides valuable information and resources."

The agency gave no specifics about what kind of valuable information and resources the video provided. But one thing is for sure, the video, a flashy production that includes lost of charts and acronyms, promotes FEMA's IT program to upgrade its computer systems that monitor and predict floods.

Who would be interested in such a video? On FEMA's information resource library site, where you can download the Flood Map Modernization Video, FEMA says the audience for the video includes the general public and homeowners; floodplain managers; state, local and tribal representatives; the insurance industry; mapping professionals; FEMA regions; hazard mitigation officers; contractors and vendors.

That's a lot of people. But one group that that may have been left out is Congress. IT programs are big money for agencies, and Congress obviously holds the purse strings. Videos help sell the projects.

Other agencies producing glitzy, high-paced videos (with thumping soundtracks) for IT programs include the Coast Guard. The guard developed a video for its $24 billion modernization program Deepwater, in which the Coast Guard lays out the reasons it needs to upgrade its fleet with high-tech boats and planes. The Army, which has become the master at using the video medium to recruit and promote itself, has used its videography skills to develop at least four videos, which use real actors, to promote its $70 billion-plus Future Combat System. (A rather maudlin video called "Safehouse" shows an earnest doctor saving sick children in Southeast Asia.)

Army's "Safehouse" video on Future Combat System

Not surprising, NASA, which offers dozens of videos on its Web site, has become quite skilled at the promotional video, too. A video produced by Goddard Space Flight Center doesn't focus on an IT program but rather promotes how numerous NASA technologies have boosted the Maryland economy.

What's the common theme here? Lots of money for IT and, at least for Deepwater and FCS, programs that have been criticized for mismanagement, according to this Government Accountability report and this one, respectively.

Does all this promotion work? It just may, as a recent mark up of the fiscal 2008 spending bill for FCS shows.