If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video which is emotional, compelling and engaging, must be worth a million. That’s perhaps why Catherine, Princess of Wales, chose this medium to mark the end of her chemotherapy treatment.

The production values were high. This was no hand-held home video, filmed on a mobile phone. It would have taken time to film the variety of shots, including establishing landscape footage of the Norfolk countryside and a variety of locations with the whole family. Editing would have required a similar investment – that must have been a lot of work in post-production, shots having been put into slow motion and some treated to look like old cine film.

Whilst I thought it was well shot, personally I didn’t like the latter effect. It looked like a copy of the beginning of Succession, home-made movies from decades before. It didn’t work because the Wales family looked the same in the Cine film as they did in the modern day footage.

Authenticity 

On the plus side, the Princess of Wales came across as authentic, helped by the fact she narrated the video, rather than be interviewed. Catherine never looked into the camera though – looking straight into the lens creates an intense communication, as if you’re having a one-to-one conversation. Instead, because you watch Kate whilst listening to her voice, you could feel a little voyeuristic, as if you’re hearing her thoughts.

We always ask when we're planning our PR videos, who is your audience, and what are your key messages? If Catherine wanted to show she was well and back in form, she achieved what she set out to do. We see her capable, in charge, driving her car, handing out the picnic food and with her arm around her husband, rather than the other way round.

Body language

The body language of the adults and children gave us a tight knit family and an impression that all is well in the world. There was a lot of touching – hands, arms, removal of a bug from a child’s head. All in all, it gave us a glimpse of personal family life in all its natural form, for example, the children peering into the camera and asking if it was on.

The film was lengthy at around three minutes. This breaks with the norm for social media content which more typically runs around 30 seconds to a minute, any more than that and the viewer's attention span wanes. Really, it is a testament to the compelling content with such personal footage that the film flew by and didn't get boring.

Royal reputation

It was cheesy, though. Catherine wandering knee-deep through a cornfield, her hair moving in the breeze and letting a butterfly fly from her hand, could have been an advert for shampoo. According to his LinkedIn, the man behind the camera, Will Warr, has made adverts for Red Bull, PUMA and Uber Eats. In his own words, he tells stories “that attract and influence the modern consumer,” and I think he’s achieved that goal with Kate’s video.

Unlike the Mother’s Day photo taken by the Princess of Wales earlier this year, which was strangely criticised because she’d edited it, video is more likely to be accepted as seen. The Royal Family has exposed itself in the media to detrimental effect in the past (think Princess Diana’s and Prince Andrew’s Panorama interviews), but Kate has perhaps here found new middle ground, issuing a statement whilst creating compelling video.