When you decide to embark upon a digital branding journey, it’s best to set a goal that will help guide the entire creative process. This way, if anyone involved feels like something is getting off track, they can simply re-root in the goal. “Why did you choose that image?” – “Because it aligns with the goal.” “How do I know that I’m asking the right questions?” – “Because I wrote the questions with the goal in mind.” “I feel like that doesn’t fit there.” – “Get back to the goal!” You get the point. In the case of PM Realty Group (PMRG), setting the goal was simple. The entire marketing team was on the same page from the outset, making the creative process painless and the rest of our job pretty easy.
PMRG is a privately held commercial real estate firm, focusing on creating value by offering a full spectrum of real estate services, including property and facility management, leasing, marketing, development, investment sales, construction management and engineering. That’s the description you would find on their website anyway. But what makes them different from their competitors? And how should they use what makes them different to help brand them as a company? And thus the goal was determined – Brand PMRG by showcasing the PMRG Difference through motion. Obviously, the end goal was to brand them – after all, that’s the goal of a lot of companies who set out to create video content; video is a powerful branding tool. But the true compass was to showcase the PMRG difference. Along the creative path to finished videos, your objectives become increasingly refined and you implement more and more guide posts, but the original goal remains the foundation.
We are currently producing an eleven video series for PMRG. These videos consist of everything from a branded sizzle reel for their home page, to overviews of the two main segments of their businesses, to individual managing directors giving their thoughts on their particular areas. To accomplish all of this, we’ll utilize three main components – Interviews, Stylizes Shots, and B-Roll. All videos will be delivered in black and white for an aesthetic that is simple, forgiving, sophisticated, and most of all, different.
Interviews are the key to most corporate overview videos. They’re important because they lend emotion and credibility to your story. If you get good interviews, the rest is a piece of cake. We spent a couple of days with the executive team and the managing directors at PMRG, and everyone came across as smart, sophisticated, and passionate about their line of work. These interviews will be used in multiple ways. First, everyone’s interview dialogue will be stitched together into a voice over for the sizzle reel. They’ll also be used in conjunction with one another in the different overview videos to help re-enforce points. Finally, these interviews will all be used as stand alone videos, speaking to one particular market or business segment.
Often times, the best way to differentiate a company through motion is to literally do something different. PMRG was excited about the possibility of doing something edgy that would truly split them from their competition. We proposed a concept that would work to symbolize their large scale involvement in the development and property management spaces in major cities around the country. These shots will be used primarily for the sizzle reel but also will be used to characterize the different executives and managing directors at the beginning of their individual videos.
B-Roll is a necessity but it can also be a double edged sword. A video that’s just an interview is too boring to hold peoples’ attention, but a video with too much b-roll feels contrived. B-roll that makes no sense at all feels forced and awkward, but b-roll that’s too literal makes a video feel like a documentary. It was absolutely crucial that the b-roll used in PMRG’s videos was intriguing, was used sparingly, and fit with the other symbolic themes present. So we opted to shoot the executives in their spaces, solitary, but working on something much larger. Additionally, some creativity was applied to otherwise boring buildings and other inanimate objects to make shots which were abstract, cinematic and symbolic.
As you can see, PMRG dove deep into the digital branding pool and is going to surface at the other end with a plethora of video assets which they can utilize across a variety of platforms. If this sounds like something that could benefit you or your company, give us a call today and let us help you Market With Motion.
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