Give us a brief overview of your agency. What sets you apart in the corporate video space? 

We are 100% focused on impact. We use the phrase 'creativity means business' to describe it. This means that, when you tell the right stories, in the right way, you can move mountains for your clients – and we see through measurement and analysis that our films achieve extraordinary results - like product sales, behaviour change and brand growth.

We have a substantial in-house team of over 80 film professionals, including roles like film directors, directors of photography, sound designers and production designers that many of our competitors would freelance. The benefit of this is that we can be incredibly flexible and nimble, and even lower-budget projects can get the benefit of that expertise. And we can scale quickly. 

Walk us through the creative process. How do you take a new project from an initial idea to delivery?

We call our process 'intelligent creative'. It is objectives-based – in other words, the focus is on what impact the client wants to achieve with this project. We research the market, the competition and the audience. And we ask, what does the audience need to think, feel and do so that the business can meet its objectives? We create a strategy around that, and then we unleash our creative teams. They focus all of their creative energy on designing powerful approaches that fit the strategy and will achieve the objectives. When the project goes into production we have a very efficient process using our in-house team of producers, directors, art directors, crew, editors, animators, sound designers, production managers and more. We also have four fantastic studios and a warehouse full of cameras, grip, lighting and other equipment.

Though we’re not limited by that, we have a huge list of tried and tested folks and partners who we’ll work with when it makes sense; after all, we’re shooting around the globe. Post-production usually takes place at our hubs in the Midlands and London where we have over a dozen edit suites, grading and audio – with all of the resources to deliver projects to any spec for any requirement. Some projects will go for testing before they go live – this could involve camera-based analytics, which works brilliantly to measure a test audience reaction. Once the project is live we measure all of the data we can, analyse it and compare it to our client’s original objectives. 

Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest trends in corporate video over the next few years?

Overall, we care about the impact more than anything else and will create whichever kind of content will move the needle most for the client. That normally means powerful human storytelling that touches people and makes a profound emotional connection, so we will continue to do that whatever the format or channel. But there are some emerging trends that are clearly going to be big. This includes using AI to personalise content, something we’ve been doing successfully for the past year, including a hyper-personalised social campaign for Tesco featuring Dame Jessica Ennis Hill.

You’ll start to see more AI Avatars speaking in multiple languages, something our innovation team has been spearheading. We’re looking forward to making more broadcast-style TV shows, immersive experiences and social-first content. And there’s still plenty of room for big cinematic storytelling and documentaries too. You’ll also see more films using AI scenes, and, while this will become much more common we think there will be a push towards “authentic” content production to balance it.

Any predictions, objectives and plans for the upcoming 6-12 months?

Over the past five years, we have invested heavily in the film and animation team and continue to see this as a growth area for the agency. The communications and media industry will continue to be turbulent over the next 6 to 12 months, and we will continue to look for opportunities to invest and continue our growth both in the UK and internationally.