What gets us up in the morning faster than a strong Americano? It’s the opportunity to work on exciting projects that genuinely deliver results for our clients and we are driven and inspired by our mantra create better. Winning awards is a by-product, not the aim.
But it’s gratifying and a validation of our strategy and approach when our work is praised by judges who know what ‘great’ looks like. It gives us a bounce, a buzz and enhances our boldness and we’re encouraged to work even harder to beat our own ‘personal best’.
So we are delighted to be Highly Commended for our Lipton and Virgin Media work in the recent Lens Awards category for Best Video in a documentary style. The Awards celebrate work that sets the standard for excellence in film and video communications.
But excellence needs to be accompanied by effectiveness - these examples demonstrate that the creativity generated by a smart concept, insightful storyboarding and high-quality filming will deliver on client goals.
In fact, to add to the plaudits, our video creative devised for the Dulux Colour of the Year campaign in partnership with AkzoNobel has been voted by consumers as one of the best digital adverts in the world in Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards. We came in fourth in a top 10 ranking and seeing how this work resonated with the end customer shows how we put a customer-centric lens on our creative processes.
Lipton hits the right note
The long-form documentary Together We Hear was developed for Lipton to engage an audience with its brand purpose of ‘quality connections.’ The brand is a partner with the UN-affiliated organisation Peace One Day and when the not-for-profit took up anti-racism as a cause Lipton asked if we could help develop an authentic and credible approach that could build brand love without risking a brand backlash.
We suggested that Lipton’s quality connections (the brand is owned by PepsiCo-Unilever) could credibly highlight the historic role of music in bringing different people together and tackle racism in a nuanced way. Redwood Studios pursued the idea and connected three pairs of musicians from different genres and eras via what Lipton’s CMO called a ‘pure purpose’ approach – brand-recessive, talent-led and real.
This approach paid back immediately with artists like Nile Rodgers, Eve, Craig David and Emeli Sandé all giving their time to the project for free. Our editorial model also secured credibility and visibility by bringing in Time Out as a co-production rather than commercial partner. The documentary premiered on Time Out globally on June 4th, 2021.
By committing to the broader issue, developing the idea as a piece of programming and letting the talent tell their own true stories at length, we were able to produce a more authentic storyline that drove brand respect and created more credible social assets.
And boy was it exciting working with the talent involved on a project of such social importance.
Talking up the power of TV for Virgin Media
Virgin Media set us a different task. As partner for the Virgin Media BAFTAs the business wanted to promote the only award voted for by the public – The Must-See Moment Award.
TV was part of the glue that kept the UK together and diverted during the tough pandemic lockdowns. We felt that the brand had not yet tapped into the true potential of this TV fan favourite award or explored its main message – ‘the moments that kept the nation talking.’
We had to make a piece of programming about TV that was good enough to go on TV. The best way to do this was for Redwood Studios to produce a long-form hero film as the central pillar and to use clips on social to drive voting. We adhered to our ‘create better’ principles when it came to producing the content quickly and on a lean budget.
The heart of the film was real people talking about the six shortlisted TV moments. But we wanted to capture the sense of escapism and togetherness offered by TV during the pandemic so we recruited award-winning travel presenter Cassam Looch to create a TV-themed travel show spanning six cities.
The social cuts generated an overwhelming response with a number of the featured actors reposting our films. Mark Hamill’s share our Instagram film celebrating Luke Skywalker’s cameo in ‘The Mandalorian’ received 120K organic likes within 48 hours.
These are just two examples of the effort we put into shaping work around our core principles. They were challenging briefs for sure but collaborating closely with the client we enjoyed cracking the problems and producing great work that genuinely meets
(or very much exceeds) the KPIs set out. You can find other great case studies on
the website.
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