Guilford Metro 911 - Case Story

Context

As a videographer in Guilford County, specifically in the Greensboro area, we were proud to be selected by Guilford Metro 911 as their preferred video production partner to create video content for the, "First of the first responders!"

Client Request

Guilford Metro 911 was struggling to find qualified applicants to fill their need for new Telecommunications Specialists and decided they needed a video to better market the position.

Challenges

The main challenge for Guilford Metro 911 was managing their budget and expectations. Their original plan was to produce a TV spot to run on the local networks. However, through our initial planning and subsequent research into the proposition, it was found to be cost prohibitive for their budget. This challenge was overcome by crafting a creative solution to leverage organic social media reach. We observed a number of factors that made this plan viable. Firstly, as 911 was a government organization/municipality they could directly interface with the administrator(s) of any other social media page for any other municipality such as: Police, Fire, EMS, Parks and Recreation, and even the City and County profiles. Secondly, their ideal candidate would be one already invested in the community. For example, those individuals that would be following and interacting already on the aforementioned social media profiles.

Armed with those observations, the plan was simple, over the course of the campaign the Marketing Director for Guilford Metro 911 would send an email and direct message to the various municipality social media profiles and pages asking them to Share the video on their pages thereby getting their recruitment video squarely within the face of their most ideal candidates without any additional cost for advertising.

Crafting the Project

Any video production is like painting, 90% prep work. For this project our first task was to produce a compelling script. We knew we wanted something engaging that was story driven much like a movie. We decided to incorporate scenarios that would reflect true-to-life situations that the Telecommunications Specialist would encounter on a daily basis.

‍

Once our script was set, the next step is storyboarding and then pre-visualization or pre-vis. This is where we give some live to the storyboards and insert reference media or sample clips that convey the general concept of the project. We add in some very basic voice over to give the client a feel for the finished project.

With the script solid and the pre-vis green lit by the client we can move into production. We scheduled a time to film inside the offices of Guilford Metro 911. Walking into their office was like walking onto the set of the show CSI. A large room lit primarily by the cool blue tones of the the dozens of monitors throughout the area. There was a zone for fire, EMS, and Police. Due to the nature of 911, we had to film while they were still in full swing. Taking breaks filming whenever a call would come through. This was so exciting because when it came time for one of their specialists to read our script, it was so close to reality that they didn't have to act! With all the pieces finally in place, we were able to craft a compelling call to action which would motivate their target audience to respond to the call to become, "the first of the first responders."

Here is the final video!