Finance Shoots

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the programme manager for a global entrepreneurship and innovation challenge that runs multiple times per year, focused on different industry themes, in order to support startup and scaleup companies develop their solutions.

For what projects/services did your company hire Finance Shoots, and what were your goals?

As part of the challenge, the a shortlist of entrepreneurs are invited to compete in a pitch day to a panel of expert judges. In order to announce the winners of the challenge, we wanted to host a live awards ceremony, providing background on the particular challenge theme, and inviting the participants from all across the world to have a visible ceremony where they could accept their award and relay their priorities for the development of their business.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We reviewed suppliers based on their experience, alignment to our organisation (and third party client) values and Finance Shoots were the best fit for us on expertise, availability, costs and quality

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

Initially starting with a project kick off, the details of the challenge theme were shared and milestones, deadlines and actions agreed by all parties. One of the most valuable parts of the process was being able to trust the team would deliver on expectations and be pro-active with tasks. Scripts were drafted and shared, and we also captured video footage from entrepreneurs, pitch day panel members and other key speakers to incorporate into the virtual awards ceremony.

Communication between our host, participants and client was always professional and efficient, with the Finance Shoots team being accommodating to any flex or new requests. Rehearsals were conducted in advance to ensure all technical elements were checked and troubleshooted before the main event.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with multiple members of the team, each supporting on a different section of the process. Communication and feedback was always prompt and efficient.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The live awards ceremony is streamed on YouTube and we have experienced our highest view rate so far. It provides great exposure for our organisation but most importantly, the winner entrepreneurs from the challenge. In addition, a consolidated video is created to retain the content and is often used to promote further challenges and support business development.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Following a meeting to determine actions, milestones and deadlines, we predominately communicated via email to provide updates and outputs. Shared spaces were particularly useful to upload and review draft content as multiple users could access simultaneously.

WhatsApp was another effective method of communicating with the team and participants in the days nearing the live event, as this allowed quicker responses and action. Finance Shoots managed this very well and was hugely valuable to free up our time internally to support other challenge activity happening at the same time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Exceptional quality and experience. They were friendly, accommodating, and flexible team members, making Finance Shoots very reliable and enjoyable to work with. As we've multiple iterations the live awards ceremony, the output is now a tried and tested, with the team working as well oiled machine. It is very reassuring for our organisation to know that future projects are in safe and reliable hands with the Finance Shoots team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The team is small and close knit, and often communication is shared with all members. At times (particularly around an upcoming deadline) clarity of who messages are best presented to would be helpful. E.g. one main point of contact and distribution of messages managed internally. However, we appreciate that with last minute changes or requests and tight timeframes, this is not always feasible or most practical.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Marketing Executive at FINBOURNE Technology. The company was founded in December 2016 with a mission to reduce the cost of investing and increase transparency. In five years, we have grown from seven founders to over 170 employees, with entities in North America and Asia-Pacific. Leveraging SaaS technology and a secure cloud infrastructure, our Modern Financial Data Stack empowers investment data processes and drives operational growth for emerging hedge funds to established global institutions.

For what projects/services did your company hire Finance Shoots, and what were your goals?

We worked with Finance Shoots to create a new brand video for our website to capture our company mission, and our value proposition. Our website is a key workstream therefore our goal was to replace our old video, with a new and attractive video to our increasingly growing audience.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

This vendor was recommended to us.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

The various steps of production included an initial brainstorming session, script writing, animation, voiceover recording and then various versions of drafting and tweaking before we came to a final version.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We mostly worked with Jack Whitehead who was extremely responsive and easy to work with throughout the project. He and his team understood the brief and captured the correct tone in work produced. He was accommodating and understanding of our feedback and changes throughout.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our video, now that it is live on our site, has been a good success and has been widely watched with a high engagement rate throughout the whole video.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used Vimeo to provide feedback as well as Google Docs for document sharing / script writing.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

As mentioned, they were very easy to work with, responsive and prompt in meeting deadlines.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Senior Content Manager at ComplyAdvantage, a financial crime risk detection firm helping companies globally to meet their regulatory requirements around money laundering.

For what projects/services did your company hire Finance Shoots, and what were your goals?

We hired Finance Shoots to produce a video outlining our vision for our products - the goal was to create hype and excitement around the direction of our product portfolio. Specifically, the video was designed to be used at our annual customer conference, and our internal all-staff kick-off event.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We interviewed a number of companies, but we chose Finance Shoots because they are FinTech specialists, were connected with other consultancies we work with and trust, and because they work with customers of ours. We also felt a good connection to their team, and felt they understood our vision for the project.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We started with a briefing, outlining the content of the video, our brand style and how the review and development process would work. As we only had a month to complete the project from start to finish, after that we moved quickly, iterating on a draft of the script over email.

Finance Shoots helped us to build out the visuals to go with the script, and find a voiceover artist. We completed review cycles on drafts of the video in 24 hour windows, iterating for the final week until the process was complete.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with Finance Shoots' creative director as our sole point of contact, which made the project really efficient. They were quick to respond to questions/feedback, and were also not afraid to push us out of comfort zone with some of their ideas.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We completed the video in a very tight turnaround time (4 weeks from brief to completion) but no one who watched the video would feel it was rushed, or that compromises had been made. It appealed to a wide range of internal/external stakeholders, and pushed the creativity of our brand.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

As we worked on a tight turnaround, we mainly collaborated over G-Suite products: Gmail and Google Docs. Finance Shoots were efficient, direct and upbeat, keeping us well informed and helping me to manage the team internally.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their creativity - it's so easy with B2B and tech content to resort to easy, generic visuals and overdone, cliche ideas. Finance Shoots elevated our video by ensuring we effectively told our story.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can't think of anything - with more time we could always have iterated more, but the tight turnaround was dictated by our team in this case.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Projects Manager for a trade association in payments. We provide a community and various platforms for payments companies to connect and engage.

For what projects/services did your company hire Finance Shoots, and what were your goals?

We run a project open banking working group, where several payments executives come together to discuss open banking developments and also deliver a work programme of activities for the association. We sought to deliver a thought-leadership whitepaper on open banking 'use cases' to convey how open banking is solving problems for businesses and consumers.

As part of the research we interviewed several stakeholders over zoom to collect insight.

How did you select Finance Shoot and what were the deciding factors?

We have worked previously with Finance shoots on a separate project and were impressed by their professionalism and understanding of our company brand.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

Finance Shoots organised a KO call where they asked us how we would like the videos to look, how long they would be and whether we wanted to create shorter clips to use on our social media platform. A brief was created and then I shared the recorded interviews via google drive. I was then in touch with some of the Finance shoots team every couple of days to be kept updated on process.

I was shared the first draft of the videos and then provided feedback to get them closer to our preferred design/look.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with their Director on the brief for the videos, before being introduced to a more junior member of the team who edited the videos. They shared the video files via Vimeo which allowed us to comment on the videos frame-by-frame, which was a useful and quick way for us to provide feedback.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We included links to the videos in our thought-leadership whitepaper which was downloaded hundreds of times. The videos really added to the slick design of the whitepaper. The stakeholders interviews also thought the videos were well produced when we shared them for approval. Shorter clips we put on social media were also well received by our followers.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Their style of finance shoots is clear and punctual, from the start to the end of the process. A clear brief is created and shared at the start of the project (which includes clear and broken down costs), invoices are shared promptly using Adobe sign and Vimeo is used for file sharing of the videos so we could provide feedback.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They understood our company brand and messaging just from a short call and were able to clearly communicate that through their video production.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They could perhaps offer other alternative options to their choices and explain (in greater detail) why they chose particular aspects of the design.

Please describe your company and your position there.

BOOST&Co is an alternative lender that provides term loans and growth capital of £1m to £10m for UK SMEs, particularly those in the tech sector. I am the head of content and marketing at the firm.

For what projects/services did your company hire Finance Shoots, and what were your goals?

We hired Finance Shoots for our #BolderThanTheBanks campaign. This used our bright, characterful, distinctive visuals to show how we differ from traditional lenders. We have an in-house art director and senior graphic designer, but we needed external help to transform their storyboards into a one-minute animated video.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Finance Shoots was recommended by a former employee who had previously worked with the firm. We were new to commissioning videos, but were reassured by Gabriel and Jack's approach. They explained the process clearly and transparently, quoted a fair price and set out swift, detailed timescales for completion of the work.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

Our in-house art director and senior graphic designer created a detailed storyboard for Finance Shoots to work with, also liaising with Gabriel and Jack on our desired completion date.

Finance Shoots established a detailed schedule, setting dates for delivery of the various drafts and receipt of our feedback. They provided drafts in the form of links, which proved much easier than downloading large files each time, and Jack made the process of choosing a soundtrack simple by providing a shortlist of potential tracks, again saved in an accessible form online.

The work involved animating a series of fun, hand-drawn images (for example, a unicorn fighting a flock of sheep) and adding captions throughout the video.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

After establishing the process and costs with Gabriel, we worked with Jack to provide feedback on each draft. This was a smooth and simple process, given the detailed schedule that he had established for delivery of each draft and receipt of our feedback. All feedback was incorporated swiftly.

There were only a couple of occasions where clarification was required: in these cases, Jack asked the right questions and quickly made changes to reflect our requests.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have had a good number of impressions since posting the video on our website. It has also been popular on our social-media channels, where the bright colours, fun animation and well-chosen soundtrack have helped it to stand out in the feed.

We also paid to promote the video with two major national business publications – on their websites and Twitter accounts, and in their digital newsletters. These instances also received a good number of impressions and we received excellent verbal feedback.

The animation was also well-received internally and its success has given us the impetus to reserve part of our budget to create more videos in the future.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I found Gabriel and Jack extremely easy to work with, thanks to their pleasant, friendly manner and impressive organisational skills. They met each of the deadlines they had set to provide drafts, asked questions when they needed to clarify any of our requests, and went the extra mile to ensure that the animation was as good as it could be and also exactly what we had envisioned.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I have worked with many agencies where communication is an issue, causing delays because the production process is either unclear or not adhered to. It was therefore refreshing to work with Finance Shoots, who promised swift delivery of high-quality work at a fair price and delivered on this. I would highly recommend them and I will work with them again.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There was a misunderstanding between me and their head of finance at the beginning of the project, but Gabriel swiftly smoothed this out. I'm a perfectionist and very fussy about external suppliers, but I honestly can't think of anything they could have done better.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Communications at Britannia P&I which is a mutual marine insurance club with our membership made up of shipowners and ship operators.

For what projects/services did your company hire Finance Shoots, and what were your goals?

To plan and organise a virtual event consisting of pre-recorded video talks with our senior managers as well as live Q&A sessions with all the speakers. Our goal was to provide less experienced and more junior staff at our Members with an introduction to Britannia and our key departments and activities.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was contacted on social media and I liked the work showcased on the company website.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We planned both the videos and live event in a series of virtual conference calls. We had two days' filming at our offices and then Finance Shoots edited the videos with regular feedback from our team. We had a set-up and rehearsal day ahead of the live events which were also in our offices.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with s film crew of two and one editor. The feedback process was very effective.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We surveyed participants following the event and feedback was very positive.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The team was very approachable, reactive and generally very easy to deal with.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was particularly impressed with the editing process and the addition of branding/graphics to our video talks.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Perhaps a little more direction during the filming of our video talks to get the most out of our spekaers.