Nick BuchheitChallenge: Finding a nimble video team on short notice who could run with my Creative and overcome the obstacles and logistics to bring it to life.
Ian Y. was the Senior Producer & Creative Director at Rosetta Stone when he needed an agile, creative, and hard-working video production company to bring a new and unique brand campaign to life for Rosetta Stone.
The vision was to showcase how one could learn and practice a new language in one’s own backyard, or at least without leaving the country. This led Rosetta to French Louisiana, where Ian had already identified a local celebrity and francophile, Louis Michot, who could lead the team as they captured the rich French culture of the region and an immersed family of French language learners in it.
“They adapted their style to my process, working with me through Google Slides and Sheets. We were able to send PDFs back and forth to one another; it was really convenient.”
The deadlines were tight, and the crew had to be ready to go to Louisiana quickly as everything was timed with the celebration of Mardis Gras. We also desired social media content to be released quickly, as we felt that this would heighten the success of the campaign.
Solution: Covalent, a nimble, creative, and collaborative video production company.
I brought them in for pre-production — just after concept approval to help flesh out the details.
Louis guided us in the opportune places to film and gave us insights to where the magic of content would exist. Covalent worked with them to make sure no detail was missed and coordinated with the locations so a schedule could be created and we wouldn’t miss an opportunity.
They also developed a shot list and storyboard to ensure we captured all the content we needed, which entailed both video and photo assets.
While we were there, we kept picking up new stories, so Covalent was a true creative partner in the process of finding the story documentary style.
“Covalent was able to take my concept and run with it while also staying true to my creative vision. They were already releasing content on social media while we were still on location.”
In the end, they delivered 12 videos and 20 photo asses. They shot the main video like a documentary; it was three-minutes long. We also shot three 60-second social media vignettes.
After filming, we worked our way through the editing process — cutting through the footage and revising it — to create a strong story. Their editing team got pieces of content out quickly, as we were already teasing on social media what was to come mere days after filming.
Results: One of the most successful digital campaigns in Rosetta Stone history.
Our documentary-style main video became the second-most viewed video on our YouTube channel. It was also the most-engaged-with video on the channel.
The engagement on the rest of the content was strong as well and we had plenty to use for a while.
Covalent was able to take my concept and run with it while also staying true to my creative vision. They explored it and expanded upon it. We were scoped to do three videos and ended up with 12 because they kept getting great content.
“I really liked their team: three active principle founders and a strong network of highly creative, reliable Pittsburgh talent in the film and art worlds.”
From Covalent:
This was one of those projects that was it’s own experience for our team. It was fast and loose, but still pointed enough to get everything we needed and more. Going in to it were were hoping to get 3-4 video and some photographs. Being on the ground and being inspired by the culture and happenings in the area, we quickly found ways to add to the content we could create.
We were only on the ground for about 2 and a half days, but we went into each one with a plan. We met our host, Louis, at his property that would act as sort of a base of our operations. The charm and beauty of rural Louisiana is something to be seen. From the landscape to the Creole culture, we truly were experiencing what it was like to stay with US and borders yet still immerse ourselves in a world that was very much outside of what most Americans know and understand.
The Creole culture is a mix of French, African, and Native Americans who were living together since the 18th century. That culture has blended over time, to what it is today. Every aspect of the place embodies that idea. Catholicism and voodoo coexist and intertwine while classical french cooking techniques are met with the improvisation and spice of African cuisine. The very people of the area have their very own distinct look that comes from generations of people from a variety of backgrounds, living and surviving together in the unforgiving swamps of the Louisiana territory.
We were mesmerized within the first moments of getting on the ground and just ran with it. We went to restaurants, art galleries, breweries and more. We ended up talking with locals and made pieces of content on the fly. We ate the local cuisine and observed the local customs. It was truly a project that married the corporate vision of content creation with the spirit of free-form documentary filmmaking that looked to show a new and exciting culture to the world.
Check out some of the work we did!