Tale Production

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in undergraduate recruitment at Loughborough University. We provide higher education for students in the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tale Production?

We were trying to widen participation by showing different classes and career paths to students who may not be considering going to university.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Tale Production to produce a series of videos for us, which we aimed to use to reach out to career advisors and share resources with them to help them in their discussions with students who may be having doubts about what they’re going to do after 16.

Our goal was to open up their minds and give them information that they could choose from and discuss with their career advisors. The videos featured stories of alumni who were in the same position as them ten years ago and the different pathways that they’ve taken. Tale Production interviewed the participants online and handled all pre- and post-production work.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Alex (Founder) from Tale Production.

How did you come to work with Tale Production?

I found Tale Production through word of mouth. They were recommended by somebody who’d had similar videos made. We had a meeting where Alex presented what he could do. Essentially, it was the ideas Alex came up with that we went with in the end. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but Alex suggested things that were exactly what I wanted and solutions that I felt. That was why we went with him.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about £8,000 (Approximately $9,700 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2021–July 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The videos have only just been launched on our website, so we have no metrics yet. However, I’ve received positive feedback and excitement from our team and some of the teachers I’ve shown the videos to.

Personally, I think the videos are great, and they tell nice stories. Alex obviously knew how to work with people — he knew what we wanted, and he managed to get the best out of our participants.

How did Tale Production perform from a project management standpoint?

Tale Production did a fantastic job in terms of project management. They met all the deadlines. In fact, I was the one that held them up a couple of times. The communication was also incredibly easy. They always let us know when they were going to be away, and they responded very quickly to messages. It really felt like we were working as a team.

We typically communicated through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with Tale Production’s understanding of what we were looking for and who our audience was. They understood the age group and market that I was in, as well as the backgrounds of some of the students that we were addressing through the video, and they came up with suggestions to better appeal to that market. The technology and videography were excellent, but it was Tale Production’s knowledge of what we wanted and who we were talking to and their ability to come up with an impressive solution that made them stand out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. There's nothing that I would change about the way Tale Production worked with us. I'm very grateful for what they've done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to regularly catch up with them. As Alex worked through our project, he had a ton of suggestions throughout, all of which we went with. I think doing it personally and building up that personal relationship where he understands what you want would be my recommendation. It’s great to work as a team, and that's what I really enjoyed about the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Senior Enterprise Manager at Durham University. I lead on extra-curricular innovation and entrepreneruship services aimed at students and graduates.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tale Production, and what were your goals?

Our support for student and graduate entrepreneurs has grown significantly over the past four years and we wanted to showcase the impact of this work.

We have a number of case studies of highly aspirational entrepreneurs that are doing amazing work to tackle some of the world's biggest problems. We wanted a short video that would bring these case studies to life in an engaging way.

SOLUTION

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

I first got to know about Tale Production through Linked In. What made them stand out when it came to procurement was their passion for student and graduate entrepreneurship.

Tale Production was set up through the start-up programmes of another university and they had completed projects for student entrepreneurship teams at different universities and so understood what we were trying to achieve.

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

We had an initial chat about the video and its intended outcomes. We wanted a video that would engage a wide variety of stakeholders, including students and graduates, colleagues within the University, our alumni community and external partners.

I had some ideas for the structure of the video and Tale Production we able to build on these ideas for the video. When creating the video, Tale Production provided very clear documents to capute the information they needed from me.

They also had a great system for pur entrepreneurs to upload promotional content relating to their businesses that could be used in the video.

We needed to run interviews with our founders and Tale Production used some very useful software that allowed interviews to be caputred in high quality even when internet connection wasn't great.

Finally, to produce the video, Tale Production stuck to the Universtiy's branding guidelines very well.

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

We worked with Alex Lees, the founder of Tale Productions. Alex was brilliant to work with and was very responsive to changes that were requested.

He was able to not only incorporate our ideas but also bring them to life in ways we couldn't have thought of.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The video was showcased at our Celebration of Enterprise Dinner this week. It gave a great introduction to the event and a number of people commented on how great it was.

It also had the desired impact of letting people, who weren't previously aware, know of the quality of our startups. The video was also edited in such a way that it allows us to use it on social media, during lectures etc. to hopefully get more students interested in exploring entrepreneurship

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

Very prompt communication. Started off with a zoom meeting but following this email was our primary channel of communication. Good level of communication, not too much but kept up to date on developments. Always availabile if I had questions.

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

Passion for the project and desire to make it the best for what we needed. Abilitiy to clearly state this is what is needed from our side and then to efficiently take this content and develop a great video in the desired time frame.

Also give great confidence that they know what needs doing and that they have the capabilty to achieve a great end product.

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

Honestly, nothing springs to mind. I have been very impressed and will use Tale Production again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at an educational institution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tale Production?

I was trying to communicate and market an internal project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tale Production made an animated video for us and many infographics that could help us communicate our offer. They also designed and developed a logo and general branding efforts. We started by having a long conversation with them about the project, the key messages we wanted to convey, and how it would be developed.

After our initial conversation, Alex (CEO) went away and spoke to this team to work their magic. Consequently, they came back to me with an initial design to see whether I liked them or not. I then gave my comments and feedback to that product, and we did that process a couple of times until they nailed it.

What is the team composition?

I only worked with Alex.

How did you come to work with Tale Production?

They did some work for the university I work for, so my colleagues recommended them to me. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around £10,000 (approximately $13,600 USD) with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Some of the infographics they made were published in university brochures, and others are now on our website. Overall, I loved working with Alex; he understood our position and the vision we were after, which enabled him to communicate our messages. He also customized the details and the video he made, and sometimes you don’t get that by working with other marketing companies.

How did Tale Production perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic with project management; they understood my purpose since day one. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

They truly grasped the concept of working with universities in the UK, which translated into quality work production that complied with our budgets and guidelines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — they were great. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Be specific about what you want and have that idea in your head before you have your initial conversations with them — you need to know yourself before you can tell someone else. They can help you tease out the information they need, but you need a clear idea of what you’re trying to achieve.