Our new brand film for Cambridge University Press’ Better Learning division illustrates perfectly the power of emotional storytelling to connect a brand with its audience.
As announced earlier this year, we won our pitch to develop a robust content strategy for Cambridge University Press’s Better Learning brand, which concentrates on English Language Teaching (ELT). The brief of the education brand marketing film was to depict their strapline: “Better learning, building brighter futures together.”
The brand works across the world with offices in Brazil, Asia, and EMEA. So a vital element of the brief was for the film to work effectively with very little speech, saving on translation. The Cambridge team also wanted to avoid an English-centric piece to ensure we reflected the global nature of the brand.
Delivering a content strategy
To kickstart the formation of a new video strategy, we led a messaging session in Cambridge with the Global Marketing Director and all teams involved in the Better Learning brand. From this interactive workshop, we gained an understanding of what needed to be covered in the campaign and how it would play its part on the broader content strategy we were helping to develop.
Our winning concept centres on the aspirational driver of how learning a language can open up opportunities. The story follows a young woman’s journey to becoming a pilot. By learning English, she turns her dream of flying into reality, while also inspiring her younger brother to follow his own path through language education too.
Watch the brand film here:
High-end production meets rock-solid strategy
Our film is built on high video production values from the rich colour grade to pitch-perfect casting and acting. Hurricane planned and managed a complex filming schedule over three days in various locations we sourced in the Cambridge area. To achieve our creative team’s unique visual look and story, director of photography, Ben Coughlan and director, Rollo Hollins, were brought on board.
Intricately layered audio helped us build the atmosphere and narrative, with a bespoke track and sound design. At the start of the video, the main character is asked “What brings you here today?” at her job interview. The film follows her practising her response to the question word by word. The audio is lined up as she improves her English and combines to make up her winning response at the end of the film. The sound and visuals intertwine and build up to the emotional crescendo when the lead character succeeds in her goals.
Strategic social video
We worked closely with the brand’s social media team to ensure that the video was distributed effectively, creating assets and trailers to be shared across all social channels.
The video is already at over 17,000 views. Keep an eye on the blog, to find out more about our content strategy for Cambridge University Press.
If you’re looking to develop a content strategy and brand film, we’d love to chat.