American Express wanted to reinforce its “win” philosophy for its Global Corporate Services Conference in Cannes in February 2008. It wanted to capture “live” the successes of its sales team as they occurred. The problem was how to do this in a cost-effective and efficient manner without disrupting the very sales effort that they were celebrating.
We recognised that it wouldn’t be feasible to send camera teams to fourteen countries around Europe – not least because we couldn’t predict when the ‘gem’ stories would happen. Having consulted with American Express, we felt that high-value results could be achieved by supporting the production of user-generated content. Giving basic equipment to untrained operators was a potential risk but, by giving active support to American Express, the risk paid off!
American Express worked with Fullrange to develop a “diary room” approach where team members could self-record entries as and when they had achieved success. The entries documented the sales approach, the key actions leading to the “win”, and the subsequent thoughts and feelings of the team.
The project demonstrated the huge potential for film professionals to add value to user-generated content. In this case – as with a great deal of internal communications work – the client was the one with the lively and engaging content; we at Fullrange were able to edit, process and output it as high-quality content.
Fullrange identified, sourced and dispatched Sony miniDV cameras to American Express offices across Europe. A web-based instruction video was developed to assist and guide the sales team to achieve the best possible video entries. The completed tapes were then collated, formatted and edited using our dedicated post-production facilities.
Using our dedicated and secure on-line preview website, American Express leadership reviewed initial video-rushes prior to choosing entries for final inclusion. Meanwhile, Fullrange developed a consistent style and theme for the film-series using approved motion graphics, music and idents.
The end result was ten 3-minute clips of high impact film that were smoothly integrated into the keynote conference address.
Jeremy Simmonds Marketing Director EMEA Large Market - American Express
We had very good feedback on the whole event. The How I Won videos played a major part in really involving the audience in the event and the films supported the whole feeling that people weren't being preached at. Everything went really well and the videos went down a storm. Each one was applauded and cheered!