In-the-moment street video interviews with the public, also known as vox pops, have always been a key offering to our clients. That’s why last year we launched Vox Pop Syndicate shoots – so that clients could share the cost of a shoot by sharing 2 x questions into the same day of filming. Our expert editors rapidly turn around stunning edits and clients receive their videos just a week after sharing their questions. This model worked really well for both ourselves and our clients. But…
Syndicate Video Diaries for 2021
The recent pandemic and lockdowns has meant that socially-distanced street shoots aren’t viable. So, for the months of lockdown, we are doing Vox Pops Syndicate shoots a bit differently – through remotely filmed and carefully moderated video diaries. This format is a great way of remotely capturing content and seeing into consumers’ lives. It also allows us to seamlessly capture insights from a broad range of regions and locations in the UK in one “shoot”. We’ve created a cost effective way of using our own substantial and growing pool of respondents who have delivered well-rounded, honest and thorough responses for our previous video diary projects.
For our January clients, we captured content that explored; financial changes and challenges that people have undergone and how they have dealt with and overcome them, current attitudes towards sustainability and in-home efforts and lastly, how much people feel a sense of customer loyalty and why/why not. In responding to these themes, video diarists were able to show as well as tell – through illustrative footage – anything related to what they were talking about – making for edits that were as engaging as they were informative. For clients, we incorporate their brand guidelines to create graphics and elements that bring the footage to life styled with the client’s own look and feel.
Last month, we put a couple of questions forward ourselves, which we’re pleased to share. The first was, “What are people buying more or less of at the moment due to the pandemic?” We wanted to know which products people have been forgetting to top up and which they’ve been picking up more of – or have purchased purely because of the huge changes to our everyday life (hint, home treadmills seem to be on the rise)! And secondly, for a cheerier look at lockdown life we asked, “How are people connecting, bonding with friends and family and romancing with partners at this time?”. Watch our edits below to find out about inventive ways of spending time together at home, Valentine’s Day activities and family planning!
What’s the process behind making video diaries?
We’ve conducted video diaries just like these to great effect for huge brands who have wanted personal content to share with employees in order to; illustrate the attitudes and lives of their segments, get personal insights into consumers’ changing lives and behaviours, see how customers were reacting to products and changes in the market, explore purchasing needs, choices and attitudes, share company updates from employees for employees and much, much more.
We’ve run video diaries both within the UK and internationally. The process goes something like this:
1. Project review
We review your needs and documents and create a screener (a kind of questionnaire) which we use to recruit respondents to fit your criteria or segment for the project.
2. Recruitment
We work with one of our partner recruitment agencies in the UK or abroad to secure respondents for the project. Each respondent is paid a cash incentive for their efforts and time.
3. Task guide
Similar to a “interview questionnaire” this is a carefully structured document which we create by carefully structuring questions, probes and filming tasks designed to get both face-to-camera responses and illustrative show-and-tell footage to meet the client’s objectives.
4. Briefing
Once recruited, we talk with each respondent individually to brief them on their requirements, give them a chance to answer any questions and share best tips for filming. We keep in close contact with them throughout filming and review and aid their content to ensure we get the best responses. If we are doing an international project, we work with international project managers who speak the native language that participants are filming in to ensure the excellence of quality and depth of insights.
5. Filming
The amount of time we give respondents to film generally depends on the amount of content needed. Usually, we give 1 week which includes filming of all responses and tasks, moderation and any re-filming or extra filming that may be necessary.
6. Edit
After organising, cutting down and selecting the best footage, we create a first “long” edit of each video deliverable the client needs. The client reviews this and either feeds back content to change or lose – or trusts us with condensing each edit further into a final piece. We then colour grade the content, add a graphic intro, branding, and any further on-screen information such as name straps or labels or decorative graphics/motion graphics that are required.
Think Vox Pops Syndicate could be right for your business?
Please do get in touch about putting a question forward for our next video diary syndicated shoot in February. Or let us know about any ideas or plans for your own video diary project – we can provide costs and options for a range of budgets and needs.
