Understanding your Marketing Client means Listening and Observing.

A few years ago I got a call to do a marketing video for an ambulance company that was making a pitch to the Regional Medical Center.   They were pitching to be the first choice in ambulance service for the Medical Center and wanted to stage themselves above several other ambulance service providers locally.  The big problem.....I only had three weeks from pre-production to delivery.

I had to understand this client very very quickly, get as much knowledge about their method of doing business, technology and their vision.   This meant a lot of listening and perceiving.  Making a great marketing video is so much more than having a great camera, jib, lighting, editing suite, etc...   It all first comes down to; Can you understand your client and convey their mission and vision in a powerful way?

We sat down for lunch together, and I listened to what they wanted to share with the Medical Center,
"We care about people."  We treat our patients like family."  were sentences I heard over and over again.  In addition to this, I knew that I needed to raise the bar for their image as professionals.
It's one thing to be "caring" but are you  "caring professionals"?   I spent a lot of time on the phone with this client asking questions:  What is your average response time?  Why did you start this company?  What is your passion? Why do your EMT's work for you and not the other guy?
I also asked a lot of questions from the EMT's themselves.  These interviews opened up a lot of deep story to this company, very powerful stories.   You'll see in the video that one EMT actually became interested in becoming an EMT because much of her family was killed in a car accident and an EMT saved her sister's life in that accident.

All these questions and more helped WollwerthFilms make this short but powerful 3 minute pitch for the Medical Center.  In the end, the client wanted NO CHANGES or deviations from the video we created.  They saw that we understood their vision, and conveyed it powerfully, even making tears come to the eyes of the viewers.


After the presentation, people came up to the owners of this Ambulance Service and asked if they could use them as an example for their business model.....Wow, the power of a well told story!

But to tell someones story, you have to first listen to what they want to say.  
Looking back on this whirlwind marketing experience really makes us appreciate the fact that God gave us two ears to listen and only one mouth to speak.