COVID-19 has turned the world upside down in just a few months. With states now issuing stay-at-home orders, and most businesses now operating remotely, teleconferencing has seen an unprecedented surge. And by far the biggest name in that virtual meeting space is Zoom.

Founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, Zoom has seen its usage (and worth) skyrocket due to the massive demand for online meetings. It’s the go-to platform, even with its privacy and security issues, (even the FBI is concerned) and if you’ve had any kind of teleconference recently it was almost certainly done on Zoom.

But now, with brands everywhere struggling to engage customers in the lockdown, Zoom is being utilized for a different purpose; one that it was not designed for, and barely equipped to deliver. That new purpose is content creation.

Zoom: The Duct Tape Fix For New Content.

Right now, Zoom is being utilized as a fix-all for new content, primarily because production crews are on the back-burner until the COVID-19 crisis ends. But the end results are less than stellar.

This is not a knock on Zoom. It’s a videoconferencing tool, and a great one. But it’s not built for capturing high-quality video content that will engage fans in a way that’s consistent with the brand’s standards. A recent example of this comes from AdWeek, and again, it’s by no means a dig. They’re doing what they can to connect and stay relevant, and they used Zoom to do it.

USAA also pushed out an excellent ad recently highlighting the commitment of their employees to its members, and again you can see that the footage was captured through webcams and teleconferencing platforms.

However, although the authentic content in both cases is wonderful, the execution is not. Zoom captures grainy, lo-res footage that’s way below par (unless you have a powerful computer and request full HD to be enabled by Zoom Support). Some would say that it’s ok in these trying times to make do, but there’s no reason to sacrifice quality when creating content, even in this crisis. There’s a much better way.

iPhone Quality Video Collaboration: The Real Solution.

The latest iPhone is a technological marvel, and puts a professional quality video camera in the hands of millions of users. By combining it with a crowdsourcing tool like Cinebody, you can capture the kind of HD footage that looks great on the big or small screen, and do so without spending any money on expensive production crews (which are shelved right now anyway) and high-end equipment.

Take those examples we looked at earlier from AdWeek and USAA. The same content could have been captured by users and employees using their smartphones and the Cinebody tool. Through the app you can create shot lists, give real-time feedback, and receive their files instantly without any loss of quality.

Look at John Krasinkski’s recent Facebook show “Some Good News.” It seems apparent this was shot on his iPhone, but then the Zoom call with Steve Carrell was a dip in video quality. Using a video collaboration tool like Cinebody could have upped that quality, delivering content from his famous friends, his fans, and the Facebook community around the world.

There’s no doubt that this COVID-19 emergency is making life difficult for us all in so many ways. But every problem also presents an opportunity to use modern technology to innovate and overcome.