In early 2015, the Marketing Communications team at Inkling was thinking deeply about questions of brand and identity. We were new to the B2B enterprise business space, and our culture was still deeply influenced by our roots in publishing and academia. In short, we were a bunch of nerds passionate about sharing knowledge and cultivating curiosity—and we wanted to keep it that way.
The team was also new to video, and eager to explore its storytelling potential. We decided to test the waters with a video on Inkling culture to see how far we could go with just our in-house skills.
Step 1: Focus and Strategy
We realized early on that we needed to narrow the focus of this video
in order to be successful. So we turned our attention inward—our goal
was to give a glimpse into Inkling culture through the eyes of the
Marketing Team.
As we watched other B2B culture videos for inspiration, we found that the most compelling ones used a combination of interviews along with shots of office action. We didn’t need to look far for our own subjects; unsurprisingly, Marketing was teaming with charming brand advocates.
Step 2: Finding the Story
We looked to the Inkling brand pillars to help shape the video theme:
Curiosity, Optimism, Empowerment, and Delight. Together these pillars
dictated the tone of the video, and Curiosity in particular helped
shape our interview questions. I was most interested in the idea that
curiosity is what binds us together as Inkblots, and what drives us to
build the best possible products for our customers. We drafted a series
of leading questions and let the spontaneity of our interviews do the
rest.
Step 3: The Nitty-Gritty
What does it take to direct, shoot, and record an in-house video
interview?
*More on sound quality here
**Big sheets of foamcore will also work in a pinch
Step 4: Assembly
You never know quite what you’re going to get with interview
footage—thankfully ours was full of natural, genuine moments
that provided the building blocks of the story. I shot b-roll
in and around the office to fill in the gaps and visually
connect the scenes. For music, we called upon a talented
Inkblot Josh Maccombs who delivered an upbeat track that set
the mood perfectly.
The team’s first totally in-house video production—an inside look at Inkling through the eyes of Marketing’s own Amelia Salyers and Megha Narayan.
Password: inkling
See live on the inkling blog
Videography, Editing: Chloë Dalby
Creative Direction: Anne Donnard
Talent: Amelia Salyers, Megha Narayan, Wally the Dog
Music: Josh Maccombs