Land Rover: “King of the Mountain”
Land Rover wanted to showcase the on and off road credentials of their new Freelander. They appointed the UK’s largest direct advertising agency Wunderman to manage the campaign who in turn brought in Mallard Productions to handle the video production.
The brief was simple: show two Freelanders racing against each other; one using the road, the other off road, both finishing at the same time.
The turnaround time for the brief was more of a challenge.
Mallard Productions had just 10 days from receiving the brief to find the location and be on site, ready to shoot. It was going to be tight.
After whittling down the countries in mainland Europe to a handful including Poland and the Pyrenees, Mallard’s Director went to scope out Mont Ventoux in Provence, France.
Mont Ventoux, nicknamed the ‘Bald Mountain’, was the perfect choice for the shoot. As the largest mountain in the region, stripped of its trees at the summit, the backdrop allowed the Freelanders to stand out against the stark grey. Well-known for being the gruelling incline of the Tour De France race, the winding road on Mont Ventoux was also in excellent condition, perfect for demonstrating the car’s cornering abilities.
The location was ideal…apart from two things: 1. Being end of the summer season, the risk of forest fires lower down the mountain was very high. 2. The mountain road would need to be left open for the endless amount of cyclists arriving to conquer the famous route.
After some careful negotiation and research by the Mallard team, permits was granted by the local police, forestry commission, mayor of the village and various private land owners…but with caveats meaning the already tight schedule and shot list had to be drastically re-thought, quickly.
After some incredibly fast rescheduling, Mallard flew into action arranging the shoot. The nearest UK registered, right-hand drive Freelanders were in Italy. The best helicopter pilot was in Paris. The most suitable camera rigging for the car was in East Germany. The specialist tracking vehicle was in the UK.
Mallard brought them all to set in just 5 days and, despite looming cloud cover at the mountain peak, shot the two-car race from sky and road.
Not only were Land Rover blown away with the phenomenal turnaround of the production, they were ecstatic with the result of the film and showcased the video on their website for 3 months.
View the stunning 2-screen, fully interactive video here for yourself.
Knorr: “Marco’s Little Black Book”
Unilever’s leading brand Knorr set themselves the ambitious task of increasing traffic to their stockpot website and turning that traffic into £millions in sales of their new stockpot range of products.
After a previously unsuccessful venture with another production company, Knorr sought the talents of the Mallard Productions crew to work directly with their celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, alongside leading London digital agency TMW.
The brief was to produce regular, short films for Knorr’s website featuring Marco cooking seasonal dishes, from scratch, using Knorr’s stockpots as a main ingredient of each recipe.
In essence, the campaign would function as a TV series, encouraging repeat visits to the website – as if tuning in to watch the next episode of a favourite cooking programme.
As such, the critical element of the campaign was to film each video in high-definition TV quality, to give the viewer the same experience online they would expect to only see on television.
This was music to the ears of the Mallard Productions crew who strongly believe standards of video production should be improved online. Mallard always use the same crew, cameras and technology for online video as they do for TV without compromise on quality regardless of platform, network or channel.
The campaign owes a great deal of its success to this stunning quality of production but wouldn’t be where it is today without the trusted relationship forged between Mallard and Marco Pierre White.
This mutual respect between the crew and chef has transformed the shooting schedule and efficiency of the project enabling each recipe to be shot in just one take, from beginning to end, without any cooking trickery or costly delays.
As a result, ten recipes can be produced in a single day allowing Knorr to spoil its loyal visitors to the website with a great choice of videos to watch.
The campaign has truly exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Knorr won a prestigious marketing award for their online stockpot promotion, smashed their sales targets by £millions, generated a staggering increase in web traffic and secured many loyal fans of the product.
And three years on, Mallard, Knorr and Marco Pierre White continue to attract the big viewing figures proving how valuable high quality video production is for website content.
If you want to find out how online video can help your website, call us for a chat.
Web content and the rise of online video
There’s been a lot of chatter surrounding online video this year.
According to countless reports, online video advertising is growing faster than all other advertising – at the expense of historically untouchable television advertising budgets.
So, why the sudden shift in focus?
In a world where time is precious, a culture for ‘instant’ information has been born. Video conveys more information per minute than any other media so its rising popularity makes complete sense. But to who?
It’s no big shocker that the YouTube generation prefers to watch video. With Facebook and Twitter added to the mix, you can see why their patience for reading more than 160 characters is pretty low.
What is surprising however is the attitude of senior decision makers towards video.
A study conducted by Forbes found that 60% of business people would watch video before reading text on the same webpage, with 22% preferring video to reading text at all.
Online video is, apparently, the popular choice for everyone.
And why not?
Online video has the ability to engage an audience on a website far more than a text-only site. And, with added features and mechanics, the online video experience offers an interactive, measurable experience that traditional TV simply can’t touch.
The cherry on the cake with video is of course the social and viral aspect. Make a good video and the world becomes your sales force – sharing your brand and your message with everyone they know.
That is why online video is the strategy you simply cannot ignore in 2012.
The cost of online video production
Calculating the cost of online video production poses an interesting dilemma.
Do you spend out on a top crew for TV quality, high-definition video even though it’s only for the web? Or, do you keep the budget low and ask a start-up video company to do the best they can with a hand-held DVD camera?
It all depends on the image you want to portray, the standards your audience expects to see, and what you want your video to do.
The case for spending money on your web video is pretty clear.
Firstly, it’s worth considering that a growing number of people are turning to the web to watch their favourite TV programmes courtesy of websites such as BBC’s iPlayer and Channel4OD. Consequently, these viewers are becoming more and more used to seeing quality video on their computer.
Secondly, with the rise of online video advertising increasing faster than every other advertising medium, competition is going to get tough. Showing cheap quality footage will make your product look inferior compared to those who have spent the money doing it properly. In fact, forecasts and studies show that companies are now shifting their TV ad budgets to online video to make sure that is the case.
It’s not just about the cameras used either.
When you pay for a crew who know what they’re doing, you get the creative input, project management, scheduling, assistance, set-up, direction and expert editing that will make your video look incredible – rather than forgettable.
Yes, you can save some money if you’re looking to produce an in-house corporate video. Experiment. See how it comes out. But don’t cut corners on the video you plan to use online.
Good quality film makes a video watchable, repeatedly. Bad quality video, amplified on a poor resolution screen, will simply turn a viewer – and your video – off. The detrimental cost to your brand could end up being far greater than anything you pay out for production.
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