Speaking to the Demographic

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) approached us to create a video to promote their new product, the Benefits Hub, a health insurance management portal for small businesses and I knew one thing; as the owner of a small business, this area confused me so much. This could definitely make the project pretty difficult. After some consideration though, I realized that what was initially a weakness was actually my greatest asset; I was the demographic, I didn't like this part of business, it was boring and intimidating to me. Suddenly, I knew exactly what needed to happen.

The initial conversation was based around how we show off all the frills of the Benefits Hub and all the added value that it brings to a business owner. While this wasn't a bad approach, it wasn't the best. Why? Because we were focused on addressing all the little problems and in doing so we were missing the big issue they were all contained within; this stuff is confusing!

Once we got back to the big problem, the lack of simplicity, we immediately had a great creative direction; Simplicity!

We excitedly returned to the client with the idea.

"The product simplifies the lives of business owners. Let's not overload them with an ad that isn't simple. The product relieves business owners of a boring task and gets them back to the business they are excited to run. Let's make it warm and enjoyable to watch. A welcome break from the work day."

Sold. We were off to the races. We had taken the time to think through what the demographic was looking for, not just what we thought would be fun to make. We ran this idea through the filter of who we were and used those creative parameters to craft the visual approach.

It's so much stronger of a pitch to come in with the 'why' that the client identifies with and not simply a beautiful idea. I talk a lot more about that in my blog post about becoming more valuable to clients. My friends at RevThink also have a great article about being a company that delivers value and not just services. Check it out!

For me the homework to finding the demographics perspective was easy; I basically was the demographic as a small business owner. Even when the search is more difficult than that be sure to take the time to study the audience. Take a look at the present messaging and language that your client is using and ask them about it. What made them decide to approach and say things that way? Be an investigator and use your client as a resource to discover the heart of what they need.

Here's a snip from the storyboard we created for the CBIA project and the finished product: