The tech industry has been around long enough to make an unmistakable cultural impact. We recognize an Apple product in a millisecond. We know what Google is capable of and how it consistently applies its brand vocabulary. Thinking of Meta, Microsoft, Amazon; we intuitively understand what these companies do and recognize them as innovators. But not because of the products and solutions these brands tout, but because they consistently share their vision and stories that make us think of them in this way.
When I started as creative director with Choreograph in March of 2022, I inherited a fresh brand book, purpose built to define our new data space. I also inherited a shortlist of creative initiatives to support Choreograph in bringing our own story to market. These included establishing a newsletter, evolving our social media presence, and developing our editorial voice to support a strong content play across our media channels.
Another bullet on this list was video. While we had a handful of internal assets, shot by a few ambitious teams — covering topics specific to those teams — there wasn’t much speaking to Choreograph’s approach to data as a brand. And, while I may work with some of the smartest data scientists in advertising, my teammates might not read cue cards as naturally as they “leverage 2.22 billion synthetic identifiers for privacy-first local activation.” We needed a brand movie, and we weren’t going to script it.
The clearest path forward would be to sit my colleagues down and have them tell our story in their own words. We would shoot two short documentaries and introduce Choreograph to the world; one to introduce the brand, the other to showcase our culture. These two micro-docs had to be savvy enough to catch the attention of the world’s biggest brands, to attract some of the world’s most talented people, and to pique new interest in an established global data industry.
Easy right?
With a healthy dose of nervous excitement and a dash of creative inspiration, I reached for my phone and pinged my longtime pal and collaborator, Fabrizio Costantini. Fabrizio is the driving force behind Trillium Productions, a video production company based out of Detroit, MI.
“These two micro-docs had to be savvy enough to catch the attention of the world’s biggest brands, to attract some of the world’s most talented people, and to pique new interest in an established global data industry”
Why Fabrizio? He knows how to capture a story better than anyone I’ve ever worked with. He began his career as a photographer for some of the biggest news outlets in the U.S. before founding Trillium and branching out to work on major motion pictures and some very big-name ad campaigns. All while keeping his photojournalist instincts intact.
A quick chat later, we hit the ground running: preliminary remote interviews with 50 choreograph thinkers and doers from around the world. Executive leadership, data scientists, marketers — we gathered a digital mountain of transcripts loaded with insights that helped us craft a story about who Choreograph is and what we do.
When it was time to move into production, we shot two rounds of interviews. One in NYC and another in our London offices. With Fabrizio serving as our director of photography and Channon Hodge as producer/interviewer, we captured the footage that would become our two finished pieces.
Emerging AI, machine learning, and the other advanced data tools we use at Choreograph can feel like magic — and they certainly deliver like-magic results. But in order for our partners and clients to fully appreciate what we do, we need to make these tools accessible. And that’s why we’ve given the people who build them an opportunity to share why they love what they do (and how they do it). I hope these videos leave you as inspired and energized about the future of data as they’ve left me.
Many thanks to our trusted partners at Trillium Productions and our incredible team and colleagues across Choreograph who helped bring these films to life.
Be sure to watch our brand and culture films above and on our homepage, and on our about page. But before you do, check out some behind the scenes photos below:
