Our approach to creating a fully loaded video campaign for the largest independent vehicle sales company in the UK; Wilsons.
Client: Wilsons
Production: APVideo
Location: Epsom, Surrey
Video & Media Production Brief
We were set the talk of creating and capturing media across all of Wilsons operations, from new vehicles, showrooms, service and repair through to the new click and collect operation.
Adapting with Wilsons across Covid-19 restrictions, we developed an acquisition strategy that would benefit Wilsons in the short and long term. This encompassed HQ photography and video production over all their departments:
Showrooms - Hyundai, Jeep, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Dacia, Nissan and Peugeot.
Servicing and repair centre.
Preparation centre
Used car sales
Van centre
Production
We allocated each day of filming to a specific department of Wilsons, which included aerial filming when the weather was on our side! The filming also included on-location shots of the top line vehicles around a local beauty spot. This gave us the chance to get really creative and ‘Top Gear’ with the shots.
Michael, our aerial cinematographer had a specific shot list to cover. These would provide a sense of perspective and scale of Wilsons operations and the vast range of vehicles available.
The staff at Wilsons were extremely friendly, helpful and welcoming throughout, which really made the shoot flow. It felt like we were part of the team while working on site.
The filming and photography was spread over five days to give us the maximum amount of time to capture the storyboarded images, as well as additional footage that can be used in future productions. More on that later.
A CAM: Panasonic EVA-1 and Blackmagic Video Assist 12G for 4K Prores recording.
B CAM: Sony a7III and Atomos Ninja V for 4K Prores recording.
MOTION: Zhiyun-Tech Crane 2S/Manfrotto 60cm slider.
DRONE: DJI Mavic Pro.
Zhiyun-Tech Crane 2S
We’ve been reviewing this brand new gimbal for a little while now, and it’s an impressive piece of kit. When it is balanced correctly, the Crane 2S can handle weight of the a7III and Tamron 28-70 lens and shoot for a whole day on one set of batteries. It has a few mounting points which is very useful for accessories like the Atomos Ninja V and a microphone if needed.
It is very responsive to movement with adjusted smoothing settings. The follow mode is a particular favourite for tracking subjects and orienting around the vehicles in the showrooms.
Post-Production
1.6 terabytes of data?!
Yes, that is the amount of video footage and still images we captured during the shoot. Over a couple of weeks that footage was edited into 10 separate sequences; short and long form advertising reels which included staff with and without facemasks for longevity. An individual for each brand showroom was cut together too.
The Wilsons marketing department provided timely edit feedback which could be actioned upon and reviewed swiftly.
Social media platforms are very important for the brand, so we also produced versions for Instagram in addition to standard 16:9 format videos. This gives Wilsons the best exposure to potential customers in marketing campaigns.
As the business adapts, we adapt with them
With varying tiered lockdowns in place across the UK, Wilsons reached out to us to produce a video to communicate the new ‘Click and Collect’ operation. This new initiative allowed Wilsons to continue to sell vehicles to customers in a safe way.
The good news about this is that we had plenty of existing footage that could be included in this new production. It also involved filming the new procedures on site with Wilsons staff.
Voice over recoded on location provided the narrative for each video. It provides the additional information about the brands, services, thorough customer service and new protocols.
Delivery and Reception
The Wilsons team were extremely happy with the results of the video productions. It reflects the new brand, look and feel of Wilsons while communicating the end-to-end customer journey.
The range of deliverable media also gives Wilsons a selection of videos that can be used across future promotions and media campaigns.