September is here and our studio will soon be celebrating it’s fourth year in business! Since our beginnings, developments in digital marketing have been happening faster than ever and we have learnt a lot on the journey.
The most important lesson of all? Visual storytelling is the most relevant and effective marketing solution to communicating complex ideas.
Applying this lesson to a B2B context, a few months ago, Nucco Brain collaborated with the agency Mindshare, to design a campaign for HSBC’s new China’s Belt & Road Initiative. This ambitious multi-faceted strategy aims to boost the flow of trade, capital, and services between China and the rest of the world. Involving over 65 countries, HSBC’s campaign targeted an international audience of stakeholders and business partners. Our studio was asked to create a video to explain the strategy in all its complex features:
Using this campaign as a case study, and to celebrate our four years in business, here are Nucco Brain’s 4 best practices to turn any B2B communication campaign into exciting content everyone will want to watch:
1) Always tell a story your audience can relate to...
The main challenge with this project was to deliver a coherent outline of China’s Belt & Road Initiative to a multicultural audience with different business customs. To ensure everyone could understand, we chose to open the video by making a parallel between the new initiative and the ancient silk road, which, as the video says, “everyone knows about”. Just like the new China’s Belt & Road: “Its routes forged paths between east and west creating international connections that helped shape the development of the world”.
2) Visualise data...
Our team’s approach with facts and data is to transform it from complex and dull into simple and engaging content using visual storytelling. The video we created for HSBC required an explanation of the opportunities and risks associated with the Belt & Road Initiative as well as features of China’s currency, the Renminbi, to businesses unfamiliar with the country’s economy. Our team worked with HSBC in order to translate stats reports into engaging animated graphics. Woven into the silk road narrative, this approach enables the core information to transcend any language and cultural barriers.
3) Generate lead & provoke a response...
The ultimate aim of any campaign is to entice an audience to take a specific action; and this aim should be incorporated within the visual narrative approach. Brands no longer compete against each other but the entire media landscape, creating a unique visual style that will grab your audience's attention and provoke a response is therefore important. Provoking a reaction also means engaging the audience enough that they will want to share the content online with their own networks.
With China’s Belt & Road, the objective was to explain the new initiative well enough to convince HSBC’s stakeholders to take part in it. This is clearly communicated with the call to action at the end of the video: “Take a step into the future of global economy”.
4) Measure successes to improve future campaigns...
Essentially, did the campaign reach its aim? What proportion of the targeted audience took the action desired? Did the campaign generate lead? Overall, HSBC’s China’s Belt & Road campaign was well received by its stakeholders. The success of this campaign has led HSBC to commission a second video for some of their other B2B activities.
Other case studies and insights from our experience with visual storytelling and B2B communication will be featured in our next blog posts. Meanwhile, if you would like to know more about producing online branded video content, have a look at Nucco Brain's recipe for a successful branded content YouTube series.
Stefano Marrone & Alizée Musson
Managing Director & Marketing Executive
