Bringing the ‘Real’ to your Corporate Reel

In a sea of endless boring corporate videos showing a company’s products and service offerings, how do you convey to your potential clients that you are not just a soul-less mega-corp that cranks out widgets or pushes papers on behalf of your clients? One of the core fundamentals of good marketing is connecting with your customers on a human level.

So you’re already sharing the love on Social Media and engaging with your fans. That’s great! You know the importance of showing that your organization is made of real people that care about their customers. Why then, would you create a boring corporate video that makes people think you’re a bunch of stiff business men and women instead of highlighting the personality that makes you great in the first place?

Ilfusion was recently tasked with just that goal. We were hired to shoot an updated corporate video for our friends at Joseph Chris Partners, a top-tier executive search firm. In the simplest terms, they are a group of people that find other people. There’s the core – people; the most important asset of any company. So how do you show personality and real people in a very serious executive search firm?

We took the project and ran with it. We did the typical “shoot a bunch of b-roll and interviews with studio voiceovers” scenario, but with a twist. We secretly filmed everyone getting ready before the shoots and didn’t tell them the cameras were running. We also took the chance with the CEO doing scripted voiceovers and just asked her a few questions about her business and hit record in the studio for her answers. The result is self explanatory. We captured these people being REAL.

The next challenge was editing everything in such a way that shows that the people are real without making them embarrassed while still conveying the message that they take their clients seriously and produce amazing results. We edited the film in 3 ‘acts’ using some of the outtakes combined with the interview footage for the introductions. Now we’ve established that the people are real, we wanted to start off the film showing them. We mixed in the candid interview answers from the CEO as the voiceover, combined with a lot of the B-Roll footage we shot at their office. Finally, we ended the video with a (kind of cheesy, but super fun) air high-five with a great candid soundbite from the CEO. Just check it out to see what I’m talking about!

When we’re talking about making a company seem ‘real’ through video, it can be a challenge, but that’s why we do what we do. Outsourcing video production to a company that produces great films, but also knows the fundamentals of marketing is a winning combination for a film that can really connect and make a brand more approachable.