‘Everards Home of Independent Businesses’ became the title and mission statement for a new recruitment campaign for Leicestershire’s large family-run brewery. These are challenging times for the hospitality industry. During the first UK lockdown in 2020, the team at Everards reached out to us to discuss how video could help them reach new potential business owners.
Change means opportunity . . .
Despite those challenges, Head of Marketing, Erika Hardy and her team recognised an opportunity. Enforced lifestyle changes, like furlough, can provide more time to re-assess life goals. Some individuals might want to pursue their wider aspirations. Aspirations like ‘starting their own business’ or ‘running their own pub’. The team’s instincts proved to be correct. Now they needed to build a campaign and knew that video should play a key role.
Consider video early in the project . . .
We’ve been fortunate enough to work with Erika and the team since 2014. Over that time and multiple projects, we’ve come to recognise that campaigns are more effective when video is considered at the outset. With this in mind, we were able to collaborate at a very early stage and brainstorm the creative treatment together. We produced test concepts for possible visual styles, including stop frame animation and other graphical treatments. However, the more we drilled down, the more we realised that people should be our focus. Real existing business owners would be the star of these films.
Home is where the heart is . . .
Everards already describes itself as the ‘home of great beer and great pubs’. What many people don’t realise is they also provide support and premises to a wide variety of other kinds of businesses. These include coffee shops, pizzerias and delis. After discussion, we realised that ‘Home’ should be the theme for the recruitment campaign too. The word itself evokes an emotional response and thoughts of ‘safety’, ‘protection’ and ‘stability’. It also emphasises the nurturing environment Everards creates for its independent business owners.
Establishing a visual identity . . .
Ask a child to draw a home and they will probably draw a simple shape we’re all familiar with. That was the image we wanted to tap into and use as a recurring motif throughout the films. A house-shaped photo frame, the decoration on a cappuccino or using the shape to trace the outline of a pizza oven. In collaboration with Everards, the ‘Home’ theme was also built into the script. Each business owner delivers a short scripted piece to camera, reflecting their business story and journey with Everards. We were careful not to ‘over-direct’ performances. Instead we put business owners at ease to allow for a more natural, ‘real’ delivery.
Home of independent businesses
Thanks to the hard work of the Everards marketing team and the buzz created from their social media and video strategy, the campaign has been a huge success. Since March 2020 to date, almost 20 new business owners have found a new home for their venture with Everards. Kia Ryan, Communications Co-ordinator for the campaign had this to say about the experience and success of the films . . .
“MGL have been amazing as always. They helped us to brainstorm ideas and pulled together a script really quickly. They hit the nail on the head with the message we needed. The videos have helped us attract some really high quality leads that are already progressing to business plan stage! Filming was all carried out during an eased version of lockdown and both Wayne and Matt were great in making sure government guidance was adhered to at all times.
Filming felt safe yet still fun!”
Kia Ryan, Communications Co-ordinator, Everards
It’s a terrific example of how, even in times of huge change and difficulty, a well thought-out marketing strategy and lovingly crafted video content can combine to create opportunities and good news stories for any business. In fact, the campaign is set to run again with new films currently in pre-production. Watch the short promo to see how the whole thing came together.
What about your business? Do you have a story to tell or a group of potential customers you want to reach? Get in touch to find out how MGL Media can help you create your next campaign and find a home for your next big idea.
