The Career Development Institute (CDI) is the single UK-wide professional body for everyone working in the fields of career education – career information, advice and guidance, career coaching, career consultancy and career management. It aims to create a single voice for the Career Development sector.
The CDI wanted a film that could live on their website, be used as an introduction to the company in presentations, play at trade shows, and everything in between – a one-stop-shop about who they are and what they do. We therefore proposed a ‘video business card’ film which comprised of several elements.
First we planned a key interview with Chief Executive Jan Ellis. This was to clearly get across all the information that the CDI was keen to promote without needing to use voiceover, and the idea was to illustrate each point with supporting shots. But crucially we tried a more personal approach to dig into what the company does by beginning with the ‘why’ instead of the ‘what’. Why do they help people with their careers? This provides a much better way in to why the audience should care.
Jan started by reminding us how challenging and damaging it feels to be stuck in the wrong career – there’s no point in not enjoying what you do for ten or twenty years. She also confided that her own lightbulb moment when starting her career was when she went to see a careers advisor herself. She found herself thinking “You’re just not asking me the right questions – I could do what you do, and I could ask better questions to help people decide what it is they want to do”. It is this ‘why’ that hooks the viewer and warms them up to then hear about what the CDI does.
As Jan sets out what the CDI can provide to its membership – training, courses, mentoring, support – we see a selection of supporting shots, starting with the team in action at a trade show promoting from their stall. This footage was great to show the company being active and not just sitting in a passive office and is a good example of how you can use an event you attend to get some extra mileage when filming. Similarly, screen recordings from their website’s membership area and footage from a recent awards ceremony (the UK Career Development Awards) showed how big the network of professionals that use the CDI really is. Several shots from school careers meetings with students shows the impact that the CDI’s training and accountability has as it trickles down.
Finally we got some invaluable members’ testimonials at the trade show, and this really sells the organisation better than if we had only heard from its internal spokespeople. Never be afraid to ask your clients and members for these, as they can do so much heavy-lifting to build trust and credibility. By integrating these through the piece it gave much more of a sense of collective voices from many walks of life all part of the same professional group – an “extended family of careers professionals” as one interviewee puts it.
The finished film was a great success and the CDI continue to use it to promote their work.
