What Beverly Boy Learned from Keith Zubchevich About Building Trust Through Video
Using video to build customer trust requires more than polished production. A video must demonstrate that the business understands its audience, recognizes their challenges, and has something meaningful to contribute.
That idea stands at the center of Keith Zubchevich’s conversation with Tavares Beverly for Authority Magazine. As president and CEO of Conviva, Zubchevich works at the intersection of customer experience, real-time analytics, artificial intelligence, streaming media, and business growth.
His perspective offers an important lesson for companies investing in video marketing: the most effective videos do not simply deliver information. They make the viewer feel understood.
Understanding the Experience Behind the Data
Conviva was originally built around measuring the quality of streaming video through the viewer’s actual experience. Instead of relying only on information generated by servers and internal systems, the company examined what customers encountered while using a streaming service.
That distinction remains relevant for businesses producing video today.
A marketing team may see a completed video with strong visuals, professional editing, and approved messaging. The audience may have an entirely different reaction. If the video does not address their interests or provide a reason to keep watching, its production quality alone will not create a connection.
Businesses should therefore evaluate video through the audience’s experience. Does the content answer a real question? Does it reflect a recognizable challenge? Does it show that the company understands the person watching?
These questions provide a stronger foundation for video strategy than views alone.
Personalized Video Can Start Better Conversations
One of the most valuable examples from Zubchevich’s interview involved a VIP dinner attended by executives from major consumer brands. Rather than presenting the same sales deck to every guest, Conviva created more than 20 customized videos.
Each video addressed customer-experience problems connected to a specific company. Conviva’s team used customer feedback, reviews, and public discussions to identify those problems before developing the scripts.
The result was not simply a more creative presentation. It gave each executive evidence that Conviva had researched the company and understood what its customers were experiencing.
This approach demonstrates how personalized video can support account-based marketing, business development, and sales. Personalization does not always require producing an entirely new campaign for every prospect. It may involve adapting the opening, examples, data, customer challenges, or proposed solutions for a particular industry or organization.
A focused two-minute video can sometimes create a more productive conversation than a long, general presentation.
Start With the Customer’s Problem
Many corporate videos begin with the company: its history, services, accomplishments, or technology. While this information may be important, it is not always the best starting point.
Zubchevich’s perspective suggests a different approach. Begin with the audience’s situation and build the story around what matters to them.
Before production begins, businesses should be able to answer:
- Who is this video intended to reach?
- What problem is that audience experiencing?
- What does the audience already understand?
- What evidence will make the message credible?
- What should viewers think, feel, or do after watching?
These decisions shape the script, interview questions, visuals, pacing, and call to action. They also help production teams avoid creating content that looks professional but could belong to almost any company.
Specificity makes a video more useful. It can also make the message feel more honest.
Give Subject-Matter Experts a Role in Content Creation
Another lesson from the interview came from an internal video competition at Conviva. Employees were invited to use AI tools to explain what the company does, and a solutions consultant with deep technical knowledge created the winning video.
The example highlights an opportunity for businesses: valuable stories often exist outside the marketing department.
Sales representatives hear objections and questions directly from prospects. Customer-support teams understand recurring frustrations. Product specialists can explain complicated ideas with detail and accuracy. Executives can provide context about company decisions and long-term direction.
Marketing and video-production teams can help turn this knowledge into clear, engaging content. The goal is not to make every employee a full-time content creator. It is to establish a process that allows useful expertise to reach the people responsible for messaging and production.
AI tools can assist with research, organization, transcription, and early drafts. Professional strategy and production remain important when a video represents the company publicly, addresses a sensitive topic, or needs to maintain consistent brand quality.
Use Video Beyond Brand Awareness
Video is often treated primarily as a top-of-funnel marketing asset. Companies produce brand films, social clips, and advertisements designed to reach large audiences.
Zubchevich’s insights show that video can also support more targeted stages of the customer journey.
Businesses can use video for:
- Personalized sales outreach
- Product explanations
- Customer onboarding
- Case studies and testimonials
- Proposal support
- Executive communication
- Employee training
- Organizational updates
- Partner education
A single video should not be expected to perform every one of these jobs. A short sales video intended for a specific prospect requires a different message than an employee update or a broad brand campaign.
Matching each video to a particular audience and business objective makes it easier to determine what should be produced and how success should be measured.
Let Customers Provide the Proof
Businesses naturally want to explain their own strengths, but customers are often the most credible people to demonstrate those strengths.
A detailed customer story can show the problem a client faced, why the company was selected, what the working relationship was like, and what changed after the project. This gives prospective customers a practical example rather than another promotional claim.
Effective video testimonials should be specific. General compliments may sound positive, but stories with recognizable challenges, decisions, and outcomes are more persuasive.
Careful interview preparation is essential. Strong questions help customers describe their experience naturally without making their answers feel overly scripted.
Bring the Same Clarity to Internal Video
Trust is not limited to customer relationships. Employees and partners also need consistent, thoughtful communication.
Leadership videos can be especially useful during company changes, product launches, expansions, or shifts in strategy. Written announcements can explain what is happening, but video allows leaders to communicate context, tone, and conviction.
Internal content does not always require an elaborate production. It does require preparation, clear messaging, good sound, and respect for the audience’s time. Employees should receive the same level of clarity that the company tries to provide to customers.
Video Should Support Human Relationships
Technology can make video creation faster and allow businesses to personalize content more efficiently. However, speed and automation should support the relationship rather than replace it.
A targeted video can show that a company has paid attention. A customer story can reduce uncertainty. An executive message can give employees more context. These assets help create the conditions for a stronger conversation, but trust still develops through consistency, follow-through, and genuine human interaction.
The best strategy combines efficient technology with informed creative decisions and a clear understanding of the audience.
Team Beverly Boy’s Takeaway
Keith Zubchevich’s experience reminds us that successful video communication begins with relevance. Audiences are more likely to engage when a video reflects their actual situation instead of delivering a message designed for everyone.
AI can help businesses research audiences, develop ideas, and produce targeted variations more efficiently. The lasting value, however, comes from understanding people. Companies that combine strong production with customer insight, credible stories, and thoughtful personalization can use video to open better conversations and strengthen relationships.
Before producing another corporate video, businesses should ask a simple question: Will the person watching this feel that we understand them?
The answer can determine whether the video becomes another piece of content or a genuine trust-building asset.
This article is based on an interview originally published by Authority Magazine. Read the full interview with Keith Zubchevich.
