What is the process for creating video about sustainable construction?

There is ‘no one size fits all’ approach to creating videos for the low energy building and sustainable construction sector. The style of video content can be influenced by a range of factors, and more expensive videos can certainly produce impressive results. However, there is much to be said for seeking a more cost-effective and efficient approach to promoting a project or solution, to get the most ‘bang for your buck.’

In short, video content should be tailored to your specific needs and budget. Tailoring content means establishing an accurate brief, and we have developed a process that guides clients as they start to explore their ideas with us. Whether you might want to create an animation to answer frequently asked questions, or produce online training material, it helps to have some idea of what to expect – which is where this case study comes in.

Case study: animation for Cosy Homes Oxfordshire retrofit service

Home energy service Cosy Homes Oxfordshire helps households across the county to plan and carry out energy-saving upgrades. They engage trusted local contractors and expert Retrofit Coordinators to provide reliable, independent advice and help their customers’ homes to be warmer, healthier and more energy efficient.

Regen Media’s role in the project

Cosy Homes Oxfordshire asked Regen Media to produce a short, easy to consume video that explained the retrofit service and made it less daunting.

Strategy

All of our video content projects start with a strategy questionnaire. This gives clients the opportunity to set out their goal for the video, as well as the available budget. A key element to our planning is asking for a ‘mission statement’ – a single sentence message they want viewers to take away from the final video.

Challenges and solutions

Retrofit activities are inherently messy. The occasions where someone can strip a property back to its bare bones and carry out a whole-house retrofit in one go are rare. More commonly, retrofit is piecemeal, with building occupants often living in the house while the measures are carried out.

This makes them extremely difficult to film and capture well (compared to, say, filming in a new-build property that is still pristine, before the homeowners have started living in it).

You might be able to show installed loft insulation, or a heat pump that has replaced a gas boiler. But if you haven’t filmed the process, and there’s no way to make the new installation look especially attractive, then how do you really convey retrofit to a new audience? How do you make it relatable when every project is different?

For this reason, we helped Cosy Homes Oxfordshire to go down the route of animation, to help illustrate a service that is difficult to capture through filming real projects. By illustrating retrofit generically, the video explained what to expect without creating expectations based on real homes that may or may not have been relevant to individual viewers.

Regen Media worked with Cosy Homes Oxfordshire to ensure the animation script aligned with their briefing questionnaire. Video production started once the final script was agreed. This way, there would be no costly and time-consuming changes needed to the animation and voiceover.

Results

Cosy Homes Oxfordshire were particularly pleased with how the animation simplified what the service offers and brings it all together in a compelling way that also integrated their brand colour palette.

Integrating video content into wider marketing activities

Our approach to establishing the client brief has wider benefits than successfully creating a single video. As a production company with significant experience in the low energy and sustainable building sector, we understand the issues our clients face.

Where appropriate, we can spend more time in the planning, filming and editing phases looking for opportunities to create additional content for our clients’ future uses.

By maximising resources and opportunities, we can potentially turn a single filming day into a much richer source of video material for use as part of integrated marketing activities.

Even where the project output is an animation, we can look at that single output and create shorter clips that can be used on social channels and elsewhere. It really highlights the value that can be added by an experienced production company, helping to make all styles of video content a valuable resource that can be taken full advantage of by marketers.

With our understanding of how to communicate about low energy buildings and sustainable construction, we can guide you through the process of creating video content that suits your needs and budget. Contact us today to learn more.