Balancing both logic and emotion, our Virgin Money case study video for Experian Marketing Services is a piece of flagship content that engages leads and empowers richer sales conversations.

Experian Marketing Services (EMS) is a global provider of integrated consumer insight, data quality and cross-channel marketing. They help organisations from around the world intelligently interact with today's dynamic, empowered and hyperconnected customers.

Their B2B marketing objectives revolve around using a pull strategy to attract clients to their website. This means creating quality content that is then spread through multiple channels relevant to their target audience.

The goal is to engage and encourage potential customers to learn more about EMS as well as empowering richer and more meaningful sales conversations.

A video is so much more authentic than a piece of written content with a quote in it. A live piece to camera has that emotion and is so much more valuable.

  � Stephanie Marris, Marketing Manager

The Challenge

Experian Marketing Services create different types of content for different stages in the buying funnel. Case studies are an intrinsic part of their B2B marketing strategy.

But until they contacted us, all their case studies were copy-heavy PDF documents.

They wanted richer case study content that would:

• engage leads and customers,
• make sales conversations easier and more productive, and
• help to fill the gaps in their existing content strategy.

We create frequent videos for Experian's internal comms team, and are trusted to work closely with key stakeholders. For this case study the marketing team needed a video agency that could work professionally with an important client: Virgin Money.

The Head of Internal Communications at Experian gave us a good recommendation, so they decided to bring us in to help support EMS's B2B marketing efforts too.

Our Solution

Case study videos are an invaluable type of middle-of-funnel content to encourage audiences towards sale. At this point potential customers are comparing suppliers and weighing up their options.

For Experian Marketing Services, their case study video needed to show the real partnership between themselves and Virgin Money. It needed to show how deeply EMS understands their clients, businesses and needs, and how they offer a completely tailored solution.

It had to inspire confidence in the audience.

On top of that, the video needed to reinforce Experian's brand and fit into the rest of their content strategy. It needed to support their values of professionalism and innovation, of using deep insights to help other businesses do their own work better.

The first and hardest step of any case study is getting the client on board. We organised calls between us, EMS and Virgin Money to explain what would be needed from each party, and to make sure everyone felt comfortable.

We also worked together on a series of questions to get the best from all interviewees, focused on the key messages EMS wanted to get across.

But disaster struck on the day before the first shoot.

One of the interviewees had to cancel due to a sudden sickness. We quickly reorganised and moved the shoot to make sure we would still be able to film as soon as possible.

We made sure to stay in close communication with all parties throughout the production process, so that hiccups like unwell interviewees didn't become full-blown disasters.

Luckily, the shoot itself was a breeze.

On the day of filming we travelled to Virgin Money's offices and made sure all the interviewees were comfortable and relaxed. We asked some initial questions to get them to open up, and then dove into our prepared probing. We were sure to remain flexible enough to follow any interesting lines of inquiry.

Afterwards we filmed B-roll footage of both parties laughing and getting along.

This was an honest, natural reflection of the relationship between EMS and their clients, and it also added extra life, personality and warmth to the film.

It was key to both us and EMS that we balance the two major elements of any case study: logic and emotion. The viewer needed to understand, both practically and intuitively, why EMS and Virgin Money work so well together.

Success

The Virgin Money video case study has been a massive success.

It currently sits as a piece of flagship content on the EMS website. The sales team use it extensively at events, in pitches and presentations, and during conversations with potential customers.

A piece of evergreen video content like the case study can be invaluable when engaging leads and closing sales. And it continues to work hard for as long as you use it.

For Experian Marketing Services, the video has become part of a suite of items they use regularly.

It's been a really useful tool. I can't put a value on it. The fact that we have it on our homepage, and it's the only piece of content we have there' it communicates how much value we think it lends us.

  - Stephanie Marris, Marketing Manager