 Here’s a creative challenge we were recently handed: We needed to develop a community-outreach campaign for a good-sized regional business. This business does a lot of great work in the neighborhoods it serves.
The campaign was envisioned for lots of media: Social. Local TV. Outdoor. Web. Print. Radio. You name it. So it was to be highly visible—by design—and needed to get the people in the community to recognize, and to remember, this great business and all they do. It also needed to convey some broader overtones, so it would be warmly received by "upstream constituencies” such as big corporate and individual donors and even the state and local government, who had a say in regulating this business. But there was only one wrinkle. The pandemic. A way around If you’ve read any of these articles from Copel Communications, you’ll know that we’re fond of the adage: “Crisis equals opportunity.” So here, we were unable to do basic things such as schedule still or video shoots. There were some serious constraints in terms of social distancing and health protocols—moreso than you might imagine. Did we mention that this business is in the healthcare business? ‘Nuff said. So. How do you create—and then execute on—a multimedia pride campaign, designed to tug on the heartstrings of all who see and hear it, when you can’t even produce anything professionally? How can you fake it, and make it look professional? Answer: You don’t. You embrace your constraints and make them work for you, not against you. A simple premise As we’d noted above, this business is in the healthcare business. So it really serves the community, not in any figurative sense, but hands-on and genuine. Incidentally, the workers at this business had been especially battered by the pandemic: Not just the safety protocols and risk of infection, but the extra hours, the stress, the feeling that they weren’t being recognized for all of their sacrifices. So they needed some pride, too. At least, that’s what we perceived. Do you see where all of this is going? Per our agreement with the client, we provided several different campaign creative concepts for them to choose from. We had a hunch they’d opt for the one we’re about to describe, and they did. This business serves the community using some of the most cutting-edge high-tech paraphernalia you can imagine. We’re talking millions of dollars’ worth of stuff. They have one gadget, for example (and we’re purposely being cagey here, since we need to maintain confidentiality), that’s one of only a few in the whole world. They’re proud of that. They should be. But—and here’s where we came in—the technology isn’t the focus of the pride campaign. If you saw a picture of that million-dollar gadget going by on the side of a bus, you wouldn’t be exactly moved. But what about the people who operate it? What about the people who take your call, to book your opportunity to avail yourself to this technology? What about the people who are keeping the lights on in the facility? Who scrub the floors? Who serve the lunches? Who hold the door for you? Aha. There’s the pride. That’s what you, as the audience, can feel proud about. And guess what? If these people are the stars of the campaign, then they can recapture a little bit of lost pride, too. Great! Book the photo shoot! Bring in the video crew! Oh. Wait. We can’t do that. What to do? When less is way, way more As we’d teased in the headline of this article, we used this apparent disadvantage to our advantage. And we can tell you how we cracked this problem with one simple, modern word: Selfie. That was the plan. Everyone has a mobile device. So we created prompts/checklists for these people to shoot selfie pics and vids, in which they would talk about their role in the company, and how they serve the community, and just how hard they work and how much they care. Then they’d simply email the results to our production team. And get this: The end product is more convincing, more immediate, more visceral, than any studio shoot. Slick productions look too slick, too cheated, too rehearsed, too fake. The selfie pics and vids, by contrast, look real. Because they are. Now, we did do a little to dress them up properly. We certainly edited them for clarity and brevity. We added nice graphics, music, and effects. We touched up the stray hair or blemish, and blurred the occasional non-licensed logo that might’ve shown up on someone’s shirt or in the background. But that’s about it. Forget about professional actors. Forget about professional photo and video crews. For this assignment, in this context, the self-shot selfies—replete with blurs, noises, and shaky handheld camerawork—were infinitely more powerful. Creativity is universal A degree of constraint is often, counterintuitively, liberating. This story is a classic example. Lacking a budget or resources forces you to find creative alternatives. And they’re often better. Have a creative challenge you need help solving? Contact us. We work on these all the time.
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