What are the best product demonstration videos you've seen?

Rather than name the best product demos, I think I will tell you what makes a good product demo. (for what it is worth, Atlassian's demo den series on Youtube from product managers is an exampel of a fantastic product demo series). Your ultimate goal is to educate, inspire, and convince the view to act in a product demo.

1. Show, don't tell. Rule number 1 in a product demo is showing the product

2. Nail the messaging - be very clear about what the product does, how it will solve pain points, and who it is for

3. Do not make it too long - it will become a snooze fest

4. We are in product marketing so tell a story! Analogies are so powerful. Use humor, pull at the heart strings, make your customers feel the pain.

5. Showcase solutions over features - ie don't show me the calendar feature on the iphone. Show me how that calendar feature will solve the chaos of being a VP of marketing, and a mom by telling me a story about my absolutely insane schedule and how the calendar is the cure.

6. Provide social proof - "oh I can see myself in these customers!"

7. Don't create just 1. Sometimes you need to speak to differfent personas about their problems. 

8. consider live chat if it is a product demo vs a 1 minute product explainer ad.

I have used QuickTime (free on Mac) to record product videos off an iPhone, iMovie (free on Mac) to make simple transitions/edits, and PowerPoint (likely provided by your company) to add copy and display the video on the same slide. I've built complete product videos using these readily available tools. It can look really clean and is highly cost-efficient to create.

Camtasia is a great screen share tool that can record your product demos. Infer has a pretty nice demo video that used to be on their website (I found it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aovjy510gJk) I think it does a good job of mixing in slides and the actual product demo with a nice voiceover.

+1 on Camtasia. 

I've just used QuickTime that came with my Mac to record videos that are a combo of me talking and screen recordings of the product, but you'd have to use some type of editing tool to put all that together (we have an experienced video editor on our team, but you could probably use iMovie for basic editing).

If you're looking for more on-the-fly video tools, Soapbox by Wistia is pretty cool because you can show yourself and your screen in the same window. Also, Vidyard makes a free Chrome extension that lets you record a video and embed it in an email right from your browser. 

The best demos are like good plays. They have a happy ending. They aren't Greek Tragedies. A good demo connects with a buyer's needs, pains, and desires. They can see themselves using the product and are eager to learn more. ScreenFlow and Camtasia are good tools for recording/editing demos. 

Pro tip: storyboard and script the demo when you record. Humans are more perceptive to subtlies in the audio than the video. Plus a script helps to prevent ums, ahhs, repeating, and searching for the right words. 

+1 for Camtasia. 

This is probably my favorite example

https://youtu.be/B4bj9HD887M?list=PLnobS_RgN7Jb-JxB-PisH4i5njW2Waj0L

As David mentions above, planning out the "story" – even in a simple product demo – is essential. I like to write a documentary style script, which has a table with voiceover audio on the left and corresponding video on the right.

As far as the tech, Camtasia is a great product, though I usually want a little more control than it provides and thus use Adobe Premiere Pro to cut the videos after recording like many above using Quicktime. I add in some standard highlighting and click/tap animations to draw the viewer's attention to certain parts of the screen (if there's a lot onscreen, you may also want to supplement with some pan/zoom effects). 

Learn about L/J cuts and frame holds to keep the video moving along, and use a service like Wistia to see what people are actually watching so that you can improve your craft and effectiveness in time.

Similar to David’s and Tom’s suggestions a well scripted (storyboarded) demo can save a lot of time and headaches down the road, as well as improve your viewer engagement, if you study the analytics data and want to improve the length at which people watch your demos and ultimately take action.

I record screencasts using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software), then cut the clips in Adobe Premiere Pro. If I know I’ll be making a series of themed videos, I make intro and outro templates or use/modify Premiere’s motion graphic templates to save time and simplify my workflow.

Here’s a matrix of competitors to OBS, Screenflow Quicktime and others with cost and features.

In answering the first question of product demos I admire, I would say Adobe’s Creative Cloud “Adobe in a 1-Minute” series are great. Here’s an example for branding titles in Adobe Rush. 

I have recently really liked ScreenFlow for making our own videos. It is very easy to use and even someone who has never recorded of edited videos before can learn fast.