Jan '16 | The Steps to Successful Video Production

A Video Production Case Study

San Francisco Video Production Company Delivers 45 Videos in 10 Days

The Customer |  DocuSign is the most widely used e-signature solution in the world, allowing customers to securely sign and manage documents online from any device.

The Need  |  Real-Time Event Video Coverage that would play throughout Salesforce’s Dreamforce in San Francisco, as well as be repurposed throughout the year to promote other conferences and events.

Project Goals  |  Generate Consumer Awareness

• Create easily digestible content that would
• Increase activity on social media platforms in order to
• Grow consumer awareness within Salesforce’s ecosystem.

Why  |  Getting Specific

DocuSign wanted to make Just DocuSign It a household term.

To become the leader in e-signature, DocuSign first focused on partnering with big businesses and industry experts in order to get ahead of their competition. But now that they occupy the market share, they wanted to expand brand awareness to the consumer, making Just DocuSign It as much of a verb as Just Google It.

Who  |  Know Your Audience 

Once a target audience was defined, a messaging strategy could be created for that specific audience.

Previously, when it came to creating video, DocuSign focused on 2-3 minute customer testimonials showcasing the benefit companies had when implementing e-signature. But when it came to Dreamforce, they needed content on their social media platforms that would pique the interest of the individual consumer. They needed videos that would drive attendees to their booth for a demo, to their sales teams for more informative meetings, to their parties in order to promote the DocuSign brand and their own user conference.

The Challenge  |  Know Your Competition

But Dreamforce is the largest software conference ever, boasting 150,000 attendees from 71 countries across the world, spread across 18 venues, all consuming 5,000 cups of coffee per day for four days straight. So how do you gain interest from an audience that’s over stimulated in every way?

What We Did |  The Deliverables

Repetition

We needed to penetrate attendees subconscious so that the DocuSign brand was as familiar as Salesforce. We wanted attendees to walk away saying, “DocuSign’s presence was so big at Dreamforce it felt like the two companies were hosting the conference together.”

And that’s exactly what happened.

45 Videos in Total

We generated lots of targeted content, delivering 45 videos in total, all of which were under thirty seconds and geared toward their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram platforms.

Delivered Across 30 Days

From footage we captured at Dreamforce’14, we spent three days prior to production editing video content, creating a trailer and 20 social media videos. These were distributed on DocuSign’s social media platforms, peeking the interest from attendees even before they showed up in San Francisco.

Created Hype

In addition to the 20 videos created prior to the event, we created and delivered another 20 videos during the four-day conference that highlighted DocuSign as a major player, thus creating further buzz among attendees.

Examples of these videos are as follows:

• Introducing DocuSign’s Executive Briefing Center
• Day One: DocuSign at Dreamforce
• The #1 Dreamforce Party at Ruby Skye

Consistent Call to Action

We kept the messaging consistent and simple. All videos contained specific Dreamforce’15 hashtags and focused on an aspect of their conference slogan: Find Us. Meet Us. Party With Us. (Follow links to see examples.)

Created Video Content for Nurture Campaigns

After the conference, we created three 30-second wrap up videos from event highlights that were distributed by the Demand Gen Team as part of their nurture campaigns.

• Wrap Up: Consumer Focused
• Wrap Up: Developer Focused
• Wrap Up: Party With Us

Created Video Content for Future Events

While filming the above, we also captured images and video footage that could be repurposed and rebranded for DocuSign’s user conference, MOMENTUM’16.

How We Did It |  The Process

Pre-Production |  75% of the Job is Planning

We may have been on the ground, filming and editing for only ten days, but this San Francisco video production company’s veteran producer K’Dee Miller was included in several strategy sessions, in which content, messaging, audience and delivery method was determined.

The Partnership  |  Stakeholders & Result Metrics

Throughout the project, Patina Pictures partnered with appropriate staff within Field Marketing, Demand Gen, and Social Media, thus understanding three different shades of goals and result metrics necessary to suffice our direct contacts, (as well as their bosses.) Understanding the metrics and how success is determined differently within each team is highly important for the overall success of a project.

The Schedule  |  Knowing Your Distribution Strategy

Different filming styles perform better when it comes to social media, and every social media platform has its own required formats, therefore the shot list can only be determined after the distribution strategy is in place. Once in place, an upload and hand-off method was determined between our editorial team and DocuSign executives to ensure a speedy delivery.

The Team  |  Hiring Appropriately

We knew this job required cameramen that were skilled in the art of working fast, in a variety of different environments, while managing multiple elements such as talent, sound, and lights. We brought on three such cameramen, then assigned each with a specific focus when it came to capturing footage. The stedicam picked up lots of high energy b-roll, movement, wide angles and establishing shots; the DSLR’s focused on capturing interviews and soundbites; while the third cameraman focused on details and tight close-ups of happy customers.

Then, with two editors working in swing shifts, one transportation assistant delivering crew and media from conference to our media headquarters, and our producer making sure schedules and content were all being met according to specs, we were in business.

7 people total, 10 production and editorial days, 45 videos delivered, another successful Dreamforce.