UC&D recently approached me for the creation of videos to help increase brand awareness and provide a sales tool that will make it easier to convert leads into customers. The first step was a deep dive into understanding UC&D’s business and how current sales are generated. Their usual way of getting business was word of mouth and public adjusters. My job was to create content that they could promote to increase brand awareness where victims of fire and water damage would think first of UC&D before anyone else. This was UC&D’s first foray into any sort of marketing or advertising work. I was excited because I would directly contribute to the growth of a brand by solidifying brand colors, fonts, creating icons, brand language, and really giving the brand a tone and a voice that would keep on shaping how customers would view the company far in the future.
The process started with initial concepting, scripting and storyboarding for their main video which would be an in-person sales tool, and the various cut downs for shorter broadcast and social versions. Throughout the process UC&D was getting more and more excited how these videos will help turn leads into sales much more quickly. When we were both satisfied with the state of the storyboard, UC&D presented a list of former customers that would be happy to give a testimonial on the professionalism and quality of the renovation process along with a set of houses in various stages of renovation that would fit our production schedule. My producer and I quickly got to work on identifying how all these now real life locations, b-roll, and interviews would fit in our storyboard and if anything would have to be adjusted.
Production involved driving to multiple locations in and around the New York City area and meeting with people that were in various states of their home being renovated after significant fire or water damage. One of the biggest challenges was not being able to rely on electricity 100% of the time. In locations that only recently experienced their damage, the electricity was shut down to prevent any more harm. Coming from a run & gun documentary background, I had multiple battery powered LED panels to provide enough illumination to film the necessary b-roll. I used my EVA1 as the main camera during the interviews and my S1H as a b-cam. But when we filmed b-roll I used the S1H as my A-cam with its full frame sensor and cleaner high-iso levels. Most interviews were filmed with an Intellytech LiteCloth 2×2 LED flexible mat as a key light and smaller led panels as fill along with a reflector when needed. For audio, I used a Sennheiser MKH 50 P48 Microphone as a boom mic to capture customer and employee interviews.
As the interviews and b-roll were filmed, I started working on the first edit of the main video. It started coming to life with music, color correction, motion graphics, a few clips of stock footage, and a temporary voiceover by yours truly. When the video was in a good state as deemed by my producer and I, we presented the video. Initial feedback was very positive and next steps were finishing touches like presenting voiceover options, and the client doing a final review of the script now that the video was real. It was during a follow up chat that a UC&D team member let me know they had already used a version of the draft video to successfully close a sale with a customer. The immediate objective for the creation of a sales tool was already done and proven! When the script was locked down, and a professional voiceover delivered, I presented the final videos to UC&D along with a specific strategy on best practices of where and how to use them on each platform, along with tracking to prove our second goal of increasing brand awareness.
I loved this opportunity to directly contribute and help shape UC&D as a brand and I would love to do the same for yours!