The Stepping Stones Group:
Transforming Lives Together
What began as a bit of a recruitment video turned into a brand anthem
When I received the call to pitch this project, I quickly realized I didn't need to pitch a creative way to hone the project's vision, I needed to pitch the vision.
The need, the budget, the production company were all in place. The only thing lacking was what to do and how to do it.
I poured over the list of requests and references, I dove deep into the websites and past materials, I tore up and reassembled the client's proposed voice-over script and found that at the core, the brand is about "transforming lives," but I was left with the question: "What does it mean to transform a life?" That is exactly where my pitch began.
The Pitch
To pitch a brand, it's easy to start with the question: "What do you do?" but that's not so simple when what that brand does is transform lives.
The Stepping Stones Group focuses on placing education and healthcare professionals, who are passionate about delivering special and specific care to children with developmental and learning disabilities, in positions where they can truly do their best and most effective work–we all have gifts, some need more attention than our society tends to offer.
What I was asked to pitch was something along the lines of a recruitment video that could double as a pitch to potential school systems and investors.
I looked at the needs, I looked at their existing content, and I looked at the established budget to know what we could pull off.
I offered to pitch a brand anthem as the most effective use of all of the above. This is a taste of what it looked like:
The Next Steps
With all the stakeholders on board, next came the script & storyboard.
Here is an example of our first version:
With stellar storyboard skills and use of strong references, I whipped up this storyboard.
Through this process I intentionally created "blank spaces" where the client and I worked together to inform these characters and actions.
The Production
There are two reasons clients should have a question on set:
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The creative was not clear enough
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They care about the finished product just as much as I do
This was certainly a production that followed category #2. Thanks to an incredible executive producer and a stellar Director-of-Photography who both made this production an exceptionally smooth process.
Post-Production
While I did not pitch this project expecting to handle post in-house, I was incredibly happy when I was asked if we could. This also provided incredible value to our client where we could leverage all of our conversations, together with the Executive Producer, to streamline the entire post-production process.
From Idea to Deliverable
What began as a bit of a recruitment video that might have been a "walk-and-talk" with the CEO who's budget grew to support a... alright, enough text, let the piece speak for itself:
Conclusion & Take Aways
The original brief and budget requested a "walk-and-talk" with the CEO and limited room for talent while relying on real employees. My initial pitch to the client provided ample room for these requests. After that pitch, I was surprised to hear that the client was willing to expand the budget to secure all trained actors–the client saw something special in this pitch which, of course, struck a chord for me. Every project has its own journey and every process is one to learn from.