The Brand
Provide is a funding platform for Doctors looking to finance, build or buy a practice of their own. Provide works in many areas of the funding journey for Doctors, giving them the financial resources they need to succeed.
The Plan
Starting with our Discovery process in November of 2021, we learned that Provide was looking for an interesting way to make people aware of their services. The word “Explainer” popped up quite a bit in those early meetings, but we saw more opportunity than a simple Explainer video.
We learned a few very important things in those meetings:
- Provide wasn’t afraid of trying something a bit different than a traditional Explainer. They also wanted to tell a great story people could really be proud to share.
- They needed some help when it came to social media content creation. Their team was already bursting at the seams with design requests.
- They were planning to grow their staff pretty substantially over the next couple of years.
The Approach
With those three important opportunities for content in mind, we put together some options on how we could use video content to help them solve some pretty big problems.
First, we’d create a Brand Film. A piece of content that would help start the relationship with their audience without being boring or cliche. The Brand Film would tell a story of the Provide journey through the eyes of one of their partners. It would showcase moments of struggle and success to create a more emotional story that Provide’s audience can really connect with. Showcasing moments of struggle and success to create a more emotional story that Provide’s audience can really connect with.
Then, we’d create an Explainer. This would be a little more traditional but still feature moments of storytelling. The idea is that the Brand Film and the Explainer would be a powerful one-two punch. They will help people become more aware of:
- Who Provide is
- The problem they solve
- The products they sell
With all of that content in place, we’d then make animated social media content to showcase on Provide’s social media pages. These would be made as templates so Provide’s design team could use them to create an infinite amount of branded content.
Finally, we’d create a live-action recruiting video. Complete with set design and animated moments that tie in ALL the above content for a branded campaign. The idea here is to give potential hires a look at the company and the people within.
The Work
We started with the Brand Film as a way to set the tone of ALL the work we’d do. Production got started at the end of November 2021. Before we got started, the first, and most crucial element to work out was the story we wanted to tell. Unlike most of our scripts, we literally started with a story of one girl’s dream to own her own practice and help people. There were some tough days in there, but she would persevere and make her dream come true.
With the story in place, we began exploring the illustration style. Using some of their previous brand images as inspiration, we developed our characters and environment to have a similar feel.
With our art direction and story in place, we moved over to storyboarding where we created our rough animatic to get our story timed properly. An ugly, but essential, step in our process. With every project, we want to get to a video format ASAP, so we can see how the story plays out as a whole. It’s in this step that we can begin the editing process and determine if we need anything new.
Then, by using animation, we gave life to our scenes, and most importantly, our character Addie. Being meticulous with our use of movement, we aimed to reflect her feelings at different moments in the story. Once animated, we tackled sound design and delivered the first part of the campaign in mid-January, 2022.
Halfway through the Brand Film, we started the Explainer. Using a very similar process, but offset by a few weeks, we delivered the Explainer at the end of January 2022. You can learn more about the differences between a Brand Film and an Explainer here.
After that, we took a bit more time to understand the social media needs for Provide. We created a series of social media templates that helped bring a cohesive look and feel to Provide’s multiple brand touch points.
And finally, with the help of our friends at Laux Creative, we developed the live-action recruiting video. With the goal for this video to give prospective employees a look behind the curtain, we conducted interviews with several Provide employees, letting them explain why their company is a great place to work. This third and final piece was delivered in early April of 2022.
The Results
After just four months, our team successfully helped Provide create four crucial pieces of content to grow their brand. For our team, this was one of our favorite projects in the history of Made By Things and we can’t wait to work with Provide again!
