The Video Brief & The Project Plan
Propel Apparel are a brand of casual menswear that have a very distinctive motivational message behind their brand. Propel came to us wanting to share their message of motivation and self-development through the form of a short brand film.
The joy of brand films as opposed to straight up product videos is that they serve to capture the customers’ imagination rather than just inform them. Informative content is important for all businesses, however, if you can get your customers to align with your core brand message and believe in the reason why your business does what it does, you’ll develop a much stronger relationship in the long term.
To turn Propel’s vision into a reality we approached the project as if we were creating a short film. The aim of this video was to elicit a strong emotional reaction amongst the audience. This is exactly what films do time in and time out, therefore, to harness the power and emotion of film, core filmmaking techniques were utilised through this process. As we worked through the project we sought to develop an engaging narrative that drew the audience in and ultimately communicated Propel’s core brand beliefs.
How It Was Delivered
Aa previously mentioned, approaching a project like this and filming it in the style of a short film means planning it in a cinematic style. A storyboard was created to ensure the key elements of the narrative were included throughout. Propel wanted to make sure their company’s Founder’s origin story was included whilst at the same time maintaining their core brand message of motivation and self-development. Storyboarding therefore allowed us to visualise each shot. This was very helpful as we could create a consistent narrative whilst at the same time developing a clear picture of how all the visuals would come together.
Location planning is also very important with a shoot like this. Again, much like a short film, to capture footage that matched with the storyboard as closely as possible, we needed to ensure the locations were as strong as possible.
This involved identifying a household location for our main narrative elements as well as searching through numerous external locations that we thought would provide a powerful backdrop for the motivational messaging. Once this was established, we could pair the storyboard with the real-life locations and have a very clear view of how we would produce the video on the day.
The shoot itself was completed over the course of a day and required a small crew. As we already spent the time in pre-production ensuring the narrative was consistent and the brand message shone through well, the main focus on the day was capturing the emotional cinematic feel.
This involved artistic lighting, working with the director to get the best out of each subject, all the while ensuring the video kept its consistency so that the narrative really shined through. Even though we were shooting in the style of a short film, the branding still needed to be noticable. It is very easy to forget when shooting a brand film that the branding is still at the core of the film. Therefore taking the time to capture extra footage of close-ups of branded material and relevant cutaways was entered into the schedule for the day. This meant that when we came to the edit we had more than enough footage to create the overall video that we wanted.
The End Result And How It Was Utilised
The final edit produced a brand film of just over 4 minutes. The shots of the narrative sequences amongst the first location blended with the motivational speaking pieces to camera shot at the outdoor locations. this was then paired with appropriate music and on-screen graphics to achieve the end goal of an emotive and motivational brand film. It was important to maintain a good balance to ensure the narrative could be followed whilst at the same time the messaging came through clearly.
The fantastic thing about producing a full-length version, is that it allowed us to produce various cuts that could then be used for different marketing purposes. For example, the final version was used as the part of the main marketing campaign across YouTube and Facebook. Then off the back of this, multiple teaser versions were created that could be used continuously across social media posts as well as for social media adverts which are very effective for fashion and e-commerce businesses online.
By creating the long version of the video piece and then utilising shorter cuts from it, it meant the marketing capabilities from the one shoot went much further then they would have if just a short version was produced.
Propel were able to get their core message through in the brand film in the way they wanted whilst producing extra content they can use continuously to help with ongoing sales and launches of new products.
As you can see, approaching video marketing material in this slightly different way is a brilliant way of connecting an audience with the values of a brand. A less direct approach to marketing is effective at creating emotion amongst the audience which allows them to buy into your main messages. If this is something you’d like to explore with your brand, just drop us a message and the creative ideas will be flowing in no time.
