Chattanooga Perfect - The Making of the Films

For a behind-the-scenes view at what it is like to film a commercial in Gig City, check out our photo blog from "MouthTime" and "Undo Button" for the ChattanoogaPerfect.com campaign.

If you curious how the campaign did, read more here. 

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20k Views in a Week, Half Organic

Yesterday, the Chattanooga Chamber launched a second PSA film for the ChattanoogaPerfect.com campaign. It's an economic development campaign that's designed to attract tech and manufacturing companies to relocated in Chattanooga.

To date there's been over 20,000 visits to the landing page, with 40% of the traffic coming from out of the region (a big success for Economic Development team), and it's almost half organic. There's also playful social elements like a kissing quiz and listicle.

Undo is the second film to feature "Mr. Perfect," an overconfident and unaware narrator, telling the story of a fictional business that's had unbelievable success after relocating to Chattanooga.  

Also, we're honored to announce that Travelier Anthem, a brand story that we filmed last Fall, won Best in Show at the local ADDY Awards and a Silver regionally. (Below are a few pictures of Chris and friends that commemorate the moment.) 

Chattanooga’s New Ad Campaign

Pathfinder has partnered with our friends from the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce for over 5 years. And we were super excited when the Chamber's economic development team came to us in January with the brief for a series of slightly irreverent PSAs, designed to grab national attention for "what's really going on in Chattanooga."

See what's really happening in Chattanooga

Our creative team brainstormed with the Chamber developing the "Chattanooga, Literally Perfect" campaign. The campaign features "Mr. Perfect," an overconfident and unaware narrator, telling the story of a fictional business that's had unbelievable success after relocating to Chattanooga. We couldn't have done it without warm support from the business community - our friends at Whiteboard.is generously hosted us in their new office space for production of "MouthTime," the first PSA in the series.

Watch the Film

Literally Perfect is not that far from reality - see what's really happening in Chattanooga: chattanoogaperfect.com 0 Likes

Our Trek on Mt. Kilimanjaro

Happy Friday! Many of you know that Lucky and I where recently in East Africa climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. If you haven't seen it yet, here's a photo blog of our adventure. Enjoy the weekend!

Your friend at Pathfinder,

Leif

Tips for Making an Explainer Video

You know video is "must have" in your online marketing mix, but when things get busy it's tempting to cut corners. A quick online search reveals scores of discount providers competing with each other in a race to the bottom.

Example of Bad Video

Anatomy of a Flop

A flop is born when you decide that you don't have time for proper creative. "We just need a video, it doesn't have to be perfect. Can't we just hire a company to make a quick Explainer video?" 

The problems start with the script. Exhibit A's script is the same rehashed formula that 95% of Explainer videos use:

• "Are you having trouble losing weight?" -or- "Finding a car loan is hard." 

• Followed by, "Have you tried [insert buzzword features X, Y, and Z]?"

• Ending with a utterly horrible call-to-action borrowed from an infomercial, "Call today. Bulk orders enjoy deep discounts." - or- "Don't wait, lose 100lbs overnight!"

Red Flags

With a cardboard script it doesn't matter if you have snazzy visuals, high-quality animation, or hire a celebrity voice - it's a flop. Ask yourself, was this written for a real person or for a "key market demographic?" Your customers don't love working with you because of trending keywords or deep-discount pricing.  

How to Avoid a Flop

Instead, craft a script that's based on your understanding of why your customers buy from you. What keeps them coming back? Write it for a real person. Think of one of your best customers by name. How do you talk to them when you want to inspire them, solve a problem, set goals, or plan for the future?

Recently we worked with Exio, a service that helps owners sell their company. The script and video we created are structured similar to the first example but the language is much more nuanced. It's framed from a business owner's perspective addressing the common pain points that owners experience when trying to divest.

Example of a Better Video

Let's look at how the language is working: 

1) It describes the problem. 
"Personal networks." When an owner tries to sell a company the first place they try selling is to a competitor. That's often a dead end.
"Cheap listings." Frustrated owners turn to free listings, hoping somehow the right buyer is going to find them.

2) It alludes to how life could be better. 
"Systematic way." An owner's deepest fear is that no knows the business like they do. We use language to comfort them. With Exio there's an established process and methodical steps to acquisition.
"Increase valuation...where multiple buyers competed to make you an offer." An owner's biggest hope is that other people will recognize the real worth of their company. Exio's goal is to make sure the world sees and appreciates that.
"Shorten time on the market." An owner's major risk is spending years trying to sell their company while it slowly dies, so we're reassuring them that Exio understands that risk and has a plan to mitigate it.

3) It confidently calls them to action. 
"We'll do the work, you pick the right fit." The phrasing is subtle, and it reassures the owner that they'll stay in control of the final decision to sell. 

Now you know a few pitfalls to watch out for, so how do you find the right video agency to help you?

Who to Hire

Find a provider that's interested in your business first, and your production needs second. If your provider jumps straight into talking about cameras, style of the visuals, production days, and the size of crew; you've got the wrong provider. They're already blindly thinking about what's in it for them, not what will help you accomplish your goals. 

Hire a video provider that you want to work with across your product / service offerings. By doing this you're committing to a longer term relationship. That partner can afford to invest time in learning about your industry, your customers and what you value. You've given them permission to come alongside you and think big picture as a trusted advisor. 

Applying these two mental frameworks when deciding who to work with is a win for everyone. At Pathfinder, we've seen clients say things like: 

"Other providers look at us as a client to bill hours, with you there's trust. You able to see from the outside where we might have weakness or room for improvement. We don't have to micro-manage, instead we can focus on expanding the company."  -Roald, Founder & CEO of Exio

Travelier: The Making of the Film

A few weeks ago I sent you a peek at our newest film, "Anthem" by Travelier. Today, you can take a sneak peak at how we made it. We've been using the photo story platform Exposure.co for all of our BTS (industry lingo for "behind-the-scenes"). The folks at Exposure loved it so much it's one of their featured posts!

New Film: Spend Less Time Looking Down

What company wants you to spend less time with their product? The team at Travelier, a new discovery engine for the traveler, took the contrarian approach. They believe that you should spend less time in an app searching and more time experiencing life. That's why recommendations are tailored to each traveler - if you're into fly fishing, you're not going to be bombarded with alerts for the aquarium. Our team was excited to partner with Travelier to craft a brand story for their launch. We were tasked with capturing their mission to help travelers live a rich life in a 120-second anthem film. Scenes from the film are used as key branding elements within the Travelier discovery engine, press kit, and messaging on social platforms. Nine days of production, three weeks in post, featuring some of our favorite spots in East Tennessee - we're excited for you to see the film! Read the article - Nooga.com: Chattanooga companies help with launch of national travel website