Description
Developed during the height of the pandemic—when virtual filming was all but necessary—this customer video series leverages motion graphics and animated sequences to help bolster Zoom-quality footage and contextualize complex ideas. The result was a highly-regarded set of videos, utilizing an engineered a visual language that helped raise the bar for Cloudera's customer videos during the pandemic and beyond.
Client
Cloudera
Agency
Gantry
My Role
Creative Director / Director, Cloudera
Year
2021-2024
Type of work
Customer Video / Strategy
challenge
In 2020, production at Cloudera (and most other places) ground to a halt as the world dealt with a global pandemic. With on-location and in-person filming no longer an option, Cloudera needed to find new ways to tell their customer stories in a way that accommodated virtual filming. That included not only upleveling under-speced Zoom-style footage, but also finding ways to add texture to the storytelling that didn'y rely on filming b-roll.
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Inspired by longer-form editorial and edu-tainment formats, the team at Cloudera began development on a new series of customer videos, affectionately named "Movers & Makers". The name of the series highlights the waves that their customers were making by utilizing their data.
Unlike the corporate mini-doc style that Cloudera used pre-pandemic, this series utilized a few distinct elements, making it part interview, part animated explainer. Cloudera partnered closely with Gantry to develop a style with the following principles:
Elevating remote filming by sending out plug-and-play camera kits
Combining interview footage with graphical treatment, helping to mask deficiencies in footage
Incorporating animated and motion graphic sequences and stock footage to fill in storytelling gaps
A narrator to help maintain story flow and add an "editorial" feel to the piece
Each customer feature would include a set of videos, tailored for different use cases. These would range from the full, long-form version down to a 15-30 second social-use version.
DEPLOYMENT
Utilized widely across: • Cloudera's site • Social platforms • Sales motions
Results
The Movers & Makers series succeeded in its mission, producing high-quality customer videos that were used widely across Cloudera's site, social, and sales platforms.
During its run, over 70 videos were produced. Virtual filming sessions were held across the Globe, including areas like South Africa, Thailand, England, and Canada.
The visual language cemented itself at Cloudera and went on to inform the next generation of animated explainer videos for the company.
Ultimately, the format proved popular enough that it continued even when normal production resumed, as it accommodated customers that couldn't give much time or access.