Our heroine felt like death warmed up. Even though the health store had padded benches to sit on while people waited their turn at the pharmacy counter, the wait could still be tedious. Especially when you’ve been ill for a week. All she wanted to do was collect her prescription and go home. It’s not a lot of fun being in a slow queue when you feel ugh.
Thankfully, she’d brought a book. For the next half an hour, she lived quietly in a world buzzing with sloppy wizards, the recalcitrant Night Watch, and an ambitious dragon.
When the electronic queue-minder yodelled out, ‘Next customer to number 5’, she reluctantly closed the book.
“What were you reading?” The pharmacist asked. “I’ve always wanted to write a book. Although, to be honest,” he continued, “It’s less about writing the book and more seeing my name on the cover.”
At least he was honest. Everyone assumes that once a book is published, the author becomes as rich as Croesus. Mostly, authors wait patiently for the reviews to roll in.
Reviews for books, and business, are important. Customers telling other customers that your product, or service is awesome, plays a huge part in the growth of your company’s brand and future. Just like your Net Promoter Score, a metric used in customer experience programmes, reviews need to come from your customers. After all, you’re not supposed to toot your own horn. Right?
Reviews are also reflected in your company’s NPS score. The average score in the media video industry is 30. Netflix’s NPS score is 88 out of 100. Opus Media? Well, we came in at 93!
That aside, here’s us not tooting our own horn about three of our favourite projects!
Champs Public Health
The brief was to tell the public what function Champs, the Cheshire and Merseyside Public Health, plays within its local community. It included:
- The history of Champs
- What organisations were involved in the collaboration
- A mention some of the people in these organisations
- A mention some of the most effective campaigns Champs had created
To meet the brief, and not bore people to death, or die of boredom ourselves with talking heads and interviews, we took a completely different route. Because location is always part of any story, we took the stakeholders to place that they felt deeply about. We hired the poet, Gareth Williams and gave each person a couplet or two from his poem to narrate. As a rhyming poem it was easier to remember, for both the stakeholders and the viewers. This was something none of them had ever done before. It stretched them and the whole shoot was a lot of fun. The result was a 2 min 22 second video-poem detailing the actions and spirit of Champs. We loved it. But what did the client think?
“The Champs Public Health Collaborative, a formal partnership of the Directors of Public Health in Cheshire and Merseyside, recently turned 20 years old and we wanted to celebrate this occasion with a special video. From the development of the concept, all the way through to pre-production planning and post-production editing, Opus Media were absolutely fantastic to work with and we are absolutely delighted with the end result, which will be enjoyed by our partners for years to come.” – Tracey Lambert, Head of Communications, Social Marketing and CPD, for the Champs Support Team
IBA Buying Group (IBA)
The brief for the IBA was very similar to that for Champs. They wanted a corporate video they could show case at the organisation’s anniversary dinner. A video that talked about their history, the founding members, and how the IBA had helped all members along the way. Once again, from our perspective, interviews and talking heads were out! So was a narrator warbling on about a company they didn’t work for, and which sounded like any other corporate history video. Thankfully, that was how the client felt as well. They wanted something epic.
“Where do you get your inspiration from?” is a common refrain creatives hear. In this case, it was the pub in which the founding members of the IBA first discussed the idea of forming the organisation. We packed the kit bags and went for a pint. Which turned out to be a great idea, in more ways than one. Others were taking a film crew with us, rather than a corporate video crew, a film gaffer to light the pub, a director of photography, and inspiration from film maker, Edgar Wright. In two of his films, Sean Of The Dead, and The World’s End, long conversations were shot in pubs. We also wanted the story of how IBA came into being to be as fun, emotive, and engaging as Sean Of The Dead. But without zombies.
Making a great conversation film talking about corporate values, rather than a stilted talking-head corporate video talking about corporate values could have been a challenge. Especially when you consider that bulk-electrical-product purchasers aren’t usually made up of actors like Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, and Pierce Brosnan. But creating the right on-set atmosphere helped enormously. The clients were excited, enthusiastic, and relaxed. They threw themselves into it.
“We have valued the service we have received to date and the products we have finished with at the end of each project have delivered to our requirements. A benefit of Opus, as I see it, is the ability work past 2 drafts in order to get to the right end result; this is really important.
Smooth delivery of a quality product; from listening to our original concept for a ‘Corporate Film with a difference’, to production. It was an enjoyable process from start to finish.” – Pam Hardman, IBA
Wirral Well Made – Wirral Growth Company
For those who don’t know, Wirral is a metropolitan borough that straddles Merseyside and Cheshire. It’s a place of alchemists, artists, creators, innovators, inventors, manufacturers and scientists, whose quality products are bought by customers all over the word. The borough even has its own slogan, ‘Wirral Well Made’.
To regenerate the Birkenhead town centre by building a new development, hopefully attracting new business to the area, the Wirral Growth Company needed to draw investment to the tune of £1bn and asked us to help. The good news? The video we created did just that. With wide, sweeping drone shots, Into The Light by The Sundowners as the soundtrack, and great photography we created an innovative fund-raising video that resembles the opening title sequence of a lovely great British drama! A place where things happen. Things you want to know about.
And the client seemed rather pleased about that, especially when planning permission was granted soon after the launch of the video.
“Having worked with several film companies in the past, Opus are a breath of fresh air. They are responsive, creative, and thoroughly professional. The quality of the films, (and subsequent photography commissions) has been outstanding and our clients have been completely satisfied with the results and the quality of service. They provide excellent value for money, work efficiently, meet deadlines, and always deliver exceptional creative results. – Jon Egan, Strategic Creative Director, Outlier Strategy.
If you’re looking for the kind of creative and professionalism these clients discovered while working with us, and that will get people talking about you, remember – reading reviews is just as important as perusing an agency’s portfolio.
Get in touch to find out more.
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