Storytelling is human nature. For entrepreneurs, it must be your lifeblood. Whether you might be creating content material for patrons or speaking technique, storytelling is probably the most highly effective device entrepreneurs can wield.
As a digital consulting firm, Publicis Sapient prides itself on reimagining the shopper expertise for its purchasers. Turning the lens to its artistic efforts, it too acknowledges the ability of storytelling. In October 2022, Publicis Sapient launched Impact Films, a new documentary movie initiative that brings these tales to life and humanizes digital transformation. The first documentary, Never Done, tells the story of how digital expertise helped a single mom prone to eviction. Impact Films locations storytelling firmly on the coronary heart of its content-creation course of.
Never Done documentary hero Kersten (CREDIT/Publicis Sapient)
Teresa Barreira, Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, tells the story behind Publicis Sapient’s brand-new storytelling studio in a Q&A with ClickZ.
Q1: What is Impact Films and the way will Publicis Sapient measure its success?
Teresa Barreira: Through Impact Films, we’re demonstrating that expertise could be a drive for good – if created with folks in thoughts. Our objective can be to indicate that expertise just isn’t the enemy, however an enabler. We ought to implement expertise in service of individuals. Finally, we need to problem and encourage all to embrace expertise and use these instruments to enhance our lives and create a higher world.
To ensure, we’re interested by views and engagement with the movies themselves. But the amplifier impact of those movies is much more thrilling. It’s opened doorways for us to speak about ourselves at locations like The New Yorker Festival, The Nantucket Project, and different movie festivals and in press shops like Variety. We have given our shopper companions a dialog starter when speaking to potential purchasers. It has supplied us with a new body of reference to consider ourselves and our work. It can be rallying our complete group and has change into a level of pleasure for workers.
Q2: Why did Publicis Sapient need to create a longer documentary sequence?
Teresa Barreira: Our marketing group is continually ideating to problem the established order and escape of the norm. We determined to launch Impact Films, a sequence of documentary movies, as a disruptive method to create content material, reinforcing the worth of our work through a highly effective, entertaining, and inventive medium – movies. Our objective was to disrupt the previous, conventional means of making case research and shopper tales by specializing in the constructive influence that expertise can have on one particular person. By creating tales by means of the lens of 1 individual, we had been in a position to deliver emotion and humanity to the work we do to assist companies remodel digitally. Impact Films marks a essential step in evolving our video-first content material technique.
Q3: Why did Publicis Sapient give an exterior director full editorial management?
Teresa Barreira: Digital enterprise transformation isn’t just about huge enterprise serving to huge enterprise. Transformation is for folks, about folks, with folks. When we determined to indicate how digital enterprise transformation advantages actual folks versus enterprises, we reached out to movie director Ben Proudfoot. What we admired about Ben’s quick movies is that they’re stunning and highly effective tales advised by means of the eyes of 1 individual. When we requested Ben to search out a story from a record of our shopper tales it was necessary for us to relinquish editorial management and belief in Ben’s artistic interpretation and execution of our influence tales.
This autumn: Why did you resolve to construct a video marketing campaign utilizing storytelling ideas?
Teresa Barreira: We have reframed the best way Publicis Sapient tells tales and the best way we speak about what we do. It’s a differentiated method to marketing as a result of what we’ve created with Impact Films is non-branded content material. Nowhere in our documentary movies is Publicis Sapient referenced. Instead of branding our content material, we’re surrounding the content material with context and our marketing, making the story of the person the hero and, finally, driving better model consciousness for Publicis Sapient.
Never Done documentary hero Kersten (CREDIT/Publicis Sapient)
Q5: How did Impact Films construct in your present storytelling technique?
Teresa Barreira: At Publicis Sapient, we assist giant organizations like Lloyds Bank, Marriott and Walmart remodel digitally. During Covid, and with social distancing measures in place, we realized we needed to remodel ourselves to achieve and join with our audiences. In the summer season of 2020, we launched The HOW Channel to deliver rapid worth to our audiences by means of content material. We noticed everybody rapidly embrace digital, however our objective wasn’t to create extra webinars. Our ambition was to develop a video platform that highlighted quick movies of enterprise leaders to tell, educate and entertain. Our ambition was to inform tales that mattered to our clients.
Q6: What was the objective of The HOW Channel?
Teresa Barreira: We wished to search out that intersection of participating our audiences whereas connecting with them to humanize our content material, make it simply digestible and present what “digital enterprise transformation” means and appears like in follow. Our information advised us video was outperforming our written thought management content material, so we rapidly pivoted to launching a video-first platform.
Developing enterprise content material that’s participating, academic, and intrigues viewers, all whereas creating a great expertise, is difficult. However, we noticed that snackable video enterprise content material, lower than 10 minutes in size, gained probably the most traction and what we delivered by means of The HOW Channel was a wide selection of friends and matters from completely different industries and various backgrounds.
Q7: What success has Publicis Sapient seen with its storytelling to this point?
Teresa Barreira: In the eye financial system we dwell in immediately, probably the most highly effective connection we will make is for our viewers to decide in to spend time with us. That means considering extra like a streaming platform, measuring views, watch time, and engagement. Much like Netflix, we leverage information to be taught what our viewers needs, ship on that, and use the correct mix of media channels to interact our viewers. Engagement requires not simply data, however leisure.
We have a sturdy in-house information group that may attribute video engagement to driving the gross sales pipeline. Using our first-party information, we’ve been in a position to show which viewers of The HOW Channel movies lead to gross sales alternatives. We’ve seen that quantity climb 920% because the channel’s launch in the summertime of 2020. It’s an unbelievable testomony to the truth that these movies are altering folks’s minds about our model and provoking them to need to begin a enterprise relationship with us.
Q8: What suggestions are you listening to from purchasers concerning the docuseries?
Teresa Barreira: What we’re listening to from our purchasers is that our method to placing folks on the heart of every thing we do is resonating with them. How we’ve reframed the best way Publicis Sapient tells tales and the best way we speak about what we do is gaining traction with our purchasers. And when it comes to total influence to this point, we confirmed our first Impact Film Never Done on the Nantucket Project to a nice reception. The movie additionally not too long ago had its world premiere at The New Yorker Festival to a sold-out crowd. And it was admitted to the Raleigh Film & Art Festival. We’re simply getting began.
Never Done, title nonetheless, (CREDIT/Publicis Sapient)
Q9: Where will Impact Films go subsequent?
Teresa Barreira: The energy of Impact Films is that it opens doorways to conversations and locations that Publicis Sapient in any other case would have a robust time accessing. That’s why we’re within the movies being seen far and huge past simply our owned & operated channels. We’re enthusiastic about exploring distribution with streamers to attain the widest potential attain for these movies and to assist begin a international dialog concerning the matters and themes that the movies tackle, together with the constructive influence that expertise can have on folks.
Q10: How could Publicis Sapient’s method to video evolve sooner or later?
Teresa Barreira: Our model goal is to “assist folks thrive within the courageous pursuit of subsequent.” Impact Films exhibits, quite than tells, what we imply by these phrases. Every choice we make, huge or small, might be guided by asking “how will this assist folks, in no matter form the long run takes?” Whenever there is a chance to offer audiences with data, inspiration, leisure, and neighborhood, in new and weird methods, these are the ideas that may assist pave our means.
For extra data, go to: publicissapient.com
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