Barry M
Brief: To produce a cute kitten-tastic Christmas social media video ad that features a host of Barry M cosmetic products including the WILDLIFE eyeshadow palettes.
Barry M are a leading UK cosmetics brand and they wanted a Christmas social media video ad to promote a selection of their products including the WILDLIFE eyeshadow palettes. We produced, shot and edited the ad and it was directed by Nick Sneath of TV Commercials UK. The location was a beautiful rural barn conversion in Sussex which we had for two days. Day 1 was used for set dressing, lighting and camera setup and then day 2 was the shoot.
When creating social media video ads it’s so important to know who your audience is and create content that will interest them and be shareable. Barry M’s main customer demographic is teenage females so social media was the obvious outlet and in particular Instagram.
It’s also important to create channel specific content, using a portrait video as a YouTube ad or a landscape video in Instagram Stories is a waste because the majority of the phone screen will be blank and it’ll look clunky. YouTube is suited to longer form content as people searching on YouTube will usually be looking for something specific. Instagram needs to pack a punch within the first few seconds so it captures someones attention as they are flicking through their feed. The content should also be targeted at your audience as it’s all about likes, comments and tagging of friends. Facebook is the same as Instagram except it has the added benefit of having a sharing option, so engagement can be very strong.
The WILDLIFE eyeshadow palettes set the tone for the entire production. They feature a tiger and snow leopard on the front of them so kittens were the obvious choice when it came to selecting an animal star. We managed to source Bengal kittens through a film and TV animal handler. As the name suggests they resembled Bengal tigers and the litter also included some light coloured ones which helped to tie in the snow leopard element. When working with animals it’s important to consider their well being so a key aspect of this production was to have a vet on set to make sure that the kittens were safe at all times and that their welfare was met.
As the campaign was to be run over multiple social media channels we had to create various versions of the video ad to ensure maximum engagement could be reached. The main social media video ad ran to 52 seconds so it was used on Barry M’s YouTube channel, in their main Instagram feed and on Facebook. We then created 8 portrait videos for Instagram stories and 8 traditional landscape videos to be used for YouTube video ads.
If you’re a brand looking to produce creative social media video content please give Will or Andy a call or email. They would love to discuss your vision and offer some ideas on how best to engage with your audience as well as a free no obligation quote.