From One Hero Video To Many: How We Turned Six Hours With A High Profile Spokesperson Into A 16 Video Campaign
Strategic Video Campaign
Catapult Homes
Catapult Homes was preparing to launch a campaign around a new Queensland Government first home buyer initiative when Marketing Manager Kara contacted The Video Box.
The team had already secured former NRL player Sam Thaiday as the spokesperson for the campaign. With strong recognition across Queensland, a big personality and an existing level of trust with the audience, Sam was a great fit for the promotion.
But access to Sam was limited to one six hour production day.
During our Video Growth Chat, it quickly became clear that this was a significant investment for the brand. Our job was to plan the production carefully, use Sam’s time well and make sure the campaign was not relying on one hero video to do all of the work.
The result was 16 finished video assets, a matching photography library and media that was rolled out across social media, YouTube, landing pages, brochures and even a billboard.
A High Profile Spokesperson
Is A Big Investment
Kara initially came to us with the idea for one hero video for the company to promote.
The campaign had several key messages that needed to be communicated, along with mandatory wording around the financial offer and government initiative. There was a lot of information to fit into the campaign, but it still needed to catch attention online and feel entertaining enough for social media.
I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to align the filming of this advertisement with our Strategic Video Campaigns. Catapult Homes had already made a significant investment in hiring Sam. I wanted to make sure the six hours of access we had to him was utilised effectively and the most amount of content was captured during that production day without stress!
Building The Campaign Around Sam
Without Making It About Sam
Sam’s recognition was one of the biggest strengths of the campaign, but it also presented an interesting creative problem.
People were going to notice Sam first.
We needed to use his personality and familiarity to catch attention, while making sure people still understood the Catapult Homes message and the offer being promoted.
Sam is known for being cheeky and having a big personality. He is also very obviously a former footballer presenting information about a financial offer for a building company.
So we did not try to hide the fact that it was an ad.
We leaned into it.
For the opening of the hero video, we deliberately showed Sam standing on a construction site surrounded by a film crew. The whole set up was obvious and a little tongue in cheek, which gave Sam room to be himself before we moved into the more detailed campaign information.
It gave us the attention grabbing opener we needed, but the Catapult message still drove the rest of the video.
Hero Video
Planning More Than One Video
Before Production Started
We identified several ways the marketing team could use the same access to Sam:
- One main hero video to introduce the campaign and explain the offer.
- Three shorter social media variations using the key campaign messages.
- Six 10 second pre roll ads built around individual hooks and time sensitive information.
- Six creative 15 second pre roll ads that gave us a little more room to explain the offer.
- A photography library captured throughout the production for landing pages, brochures, website banners and wider campaign advertising.
I wrote the main campaign script, the short pre roll scripts and designed the shot list around everything we needed to capture within the six hour window.
This was where the pre-production became particularly important. We did not want the day to feel rushed or turn into six hours of pushing a spokesperson from one setup to another.
The shot list and schedule were planned in detail long before the crew arrived.
The photographer could work around the video setups and capture natural campaign photography while we were already filming.
For the short pre roll ads, we used a teleprompter so Sam could concentrate on the delivery rather than memorising multiple variations of 10 and 15 second scripts. Because the messages were short and the setup was simple, we could capture several options without adding a large amount of time to the schedule.
The result was a full production day that stayed relaxed, while still giving the marketing team 16 finished video assets and a complete photography library.
Short Reels
Photography
The Main Campaign Generated
14,000 Organic Views On Launch
When the main campaign launched on Catapult Homes’ Facebook page, it generated more than 14,000 organic views.
For us, this was a great result because the video still had a lot of information it needed to communicate. There were key figures, time limitations and mandatory messaging that all needed to be included, so we knew the creative opener had an important job to do.
Leaning into Sam’s personality and the obviousness of the film set gave us a way to catch attention before moving into the more detailed campaign information. The audience stayed for an advertisement that could have easily felt very information heavy, while the Catapult Homes offer remained the focus of the campaign.
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- Built around a single marketing objective
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- Planned, produced and delivered as one complete project
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- Ready for your team to put into market
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- Have content ready to post when you are
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