Hero-ing business solutions
CLIENT Vodafone business
THE CHALLENGE
Vodafone Business Security Enhanced – a specialist unit within Vodafone Business UK, dedicated to strengthening the cyber security position of organisations that form the UK's Critical National Infrastructure. Even though they are a division that has been around for 25 years, they wanted to raise their profile and help explain what they do and how critical cyber security operations are in the world we live in today. One of the main challenges we had to overcome is that it is difficult for VBSE to disclose too much about their customers – so a typical ‘case study’ approach just wasn’t feasible.
So, with this in mind, the brief wasn’t as simple as ‘we want a video to raise our profile’ however. It had to be curated in stages, in which we defined as: Excite, Explain and Demonstrate. Firstly, create excitement and intrigue around the brand… secondly, explain what they do and how they support their customers… and thirdly, demonstrate their success stories by using real-life case study examples. We worked closely with the VBSE marketing team to help define the target audience, key messages and the potential ways in which to execute all the different video elements.
THE CREATION
By starting off with the excite part of the campaign, we wanted to personify the business solution by giving VBSE a face. Enter Wayne. Wayne was cast from Sandra Reynolds agency and we felt he fitted the role perfectly. A strong and confident character but relatable and safe at the same time. The concept for our ‘hero’ video came about by playing around with projections, using environments and situations relevant to cyber-security and business, without having to film in multiple locations and obtain clearances etc.
We hired a studio that already had the capability to project what we needed. The beauty of this approach was that it was totally in our control (apart from our actor losing his voice!) but all in all, we felt in control. There was meticulous planning from our Creative Director, Mark Poole (see image) for each shot, each angle, and each flicker of the projection to create something with extremely high production value.
The beauty of this approach was that we could edit the visuals on screen to project, which would then cut into Wayne delivering his lines.
Post-production involved a full-colour grade, a brilliant sound mix that really highlighted all of the different environments and situations, and a slick, smooth edit.
On to the ‘Explain’ part of the campaign, it was important to dig a little deeper into how VBSE could be the right fit for a business. This involved quite a bit of work around scripting, ensuring the delivery was on brand with Vodafone’s tone of voice, that spoke to the correct audience without scaring them off with VBSE jargon.
Leading on from our Excite content, we wanted to utilise the connection that the audience already has between VBSE and our ‘hero’ actor, Wayne. So, by submerging him into some of the locations we had already seen on the first video, we filmed him in and around central London, shooting 3 scripts in 2 days, that explained the 3 key solutions from VBSE.
The demonstrate part is a journey we are starting to embark on which will see customers using the technology and showcasing the solution and how it is delivering business benefits.
THE OUTCOME
A powerful and intriguing excite video posted front and centre on the VBSE website, 3 more in-depth explainer videos within the sub-pages of the site and multiple social edits to pepper through social media. The feedback from the client was fantastic and this is just the start of the VBSE journey. We have since been commissioned to create a VBSE recruitment video to help them recruit a staggering 60+ staff members across a number of roles due to a big bid win. We had a lot of fun creating this content with the team and we are just as excited as them to support them on their journey!
