Video content
Below is a selection of video assets that I’ve produced, mostly in collaboration with videographers. My role has typically involved briefing in projects, storyboarding, scripting and steering production in order to meet objectives.
COVID testing service advertisement
ZAVA
A 10-second video billboard to promote ZAVA’s COVID-19 travel test service and drive traffic to the service landing page. The asset was displayed at Bristol Airport’s departure area so customers could order their return COVID test kits ahead of time while waiting for their outbound flight.
One of the challenges we faced was communicating a lot of information in a short space such as service benefits and discount details. We also had to consider how the audience would view this (i.e. in a hurry or from a distance) and making this compete with the hundreds of messages thrown at them in an airport environment.
THE Student Festivals promo
Times Higher Education (THE)
A video promo to drive sponsorship leads for THE’s first-of-its-kind virtual events. The client wanted to push that these were a break from traditional Higher Education events with the kind of immersive activities and experiences you’d expect at a comic-con or music festival.
Basically, ‘this ain’t your mum and dad’s university fair’. No student would want to miss out, nor would any marketer trying to reach students.
We looked at Apple’s ‘Don’t Blink’ promo for inspiration to capture the bubbling energy and stacked line-ups that the events promised.
Which? staff read their personal statements
Which? University
A silly skit for social channels to promote our onsite advice content on personal statements, a pain point for university applicants. At the time, the ‘reactions’ format was quickly becoming popular among our target audience thanks to sites like Buzzfeed. We used this to give what could be a very dry topic a fun-yet-appropriate twist.
The asset racked up 58,000 views on YouTube alone (across current and old channels), drove good social traffic and was one of our most popular videos for the brand.
How I met my best friend at uni
Which? University
A compilation of user-submitted voxpops with students sharing how they met their best friend at university. The topic threw up a wonderful mix of stories and gave an authentic student voice to this personal topic. We came up with the Whatsapp visual style in the edit to make the vertical, self-shot videos we received work here. This included a running text message for captions and emojis to bring the stories to life.
This compilation saw roughly 1,000 views on YouTube (across current and old channels). Shorter versions were created for channels like Twitter and Instagram too.
Social tips videos [series]
Which? University
A small selection of caption-based videos that I regularly storyboarded, scripted and created during my time at Which?.
These assets leveraged our large editorial library to deliver bite-size tips and trail our full-length guides as the likes of Facebook and Twitter began prioritising video content.
Clearing: what you need to know
Which? University
An animated explainer video breaking down the stressful and chaotic Ucas Clearing process ahead of results day. This includes tips for how students can prepare and get a leg-up on others.
This asset saw 9,900 views on YouTube alone while several national and local outlets promoted it as part of their coverage.
How to boost your student budget
Which? University
An animated explainer video offering practical advice to those whose student loan isn’t enough to cover their living costs at university - a common anxiety among students every year.
This asset saw over 5,000 views across YouTube and Twitter.
How to choose your A-levels
Which? University
An animated explainer video offering step-by-step advice for students choosing their A-level subjects - a key decision that can shape their choices down the line.
The asset was one of the brand’s most popular videos with over 200,000 views on YouTube (across current and old channels).
An IELTS test day experience [series]
Hotcourses Abroad
Produced in partnership with the British Council to promote the IELTS English language test, this video was part of a series filmed at a language school in Brighton. We wanted to show international students what a real test day looked like. I was on hand during filming to support production with a freelance videographer.
This asset saw over 20,000 views on YouTube with the whole series totalling 30,000 views.
International study Google Hangouts [series]
Hotcourses Abroad
In 2013 I produced and hosted a series of interviews with students, universities and experts involved in international study. I then edited these full, hour-long interviews into short clips for YouTube based on popular student queries.
Google Hangouts allowed us to quickly and efficiently generate this video content with interviewees around the world without extra resource. Hangouts was a new platform at the time but we spotted its potential years before the Covid pandemic saw remote video content become the norm.
This example with a homestay host was a standout success attracting over 204,000 views after being picked up by a few high-traffic websites. The series saw over 315,000 views in total.
The series generated revenue too, becoming a part of our ‘sponsored content’ packages with university clients.
Hotcourses Abroad: Who are we?
Hotcourses Abroad
An animated promo for the Hotcourse Abroad website highlighting the service’s key features and USPs. I storyboarded the video including scripting the voiceover and steering the visuals for a freelance agency to edit together.
The asset sat on the site homepage and was used for both B2B and B2C activity across markets (translated).