Some of what we do, how we do it, and what it means to clients.
Sony Corporation
The Situation – Sony Global Leadership is a week-long seminar series for up-and-coming Sony executives held at the Anderson School of Management on the campus of UCLA. Sony University needed to document all instruction and collaboration to share it with those who could not attend and to promote future participation.
The “Staylor-Made” Solution – Staylor-Made Communications suggested to Sony’s HR Director use of their new DVCAM format with 3-hour tapes so we would not distract anyone or miss anything while changing tapes. Team Staylor-Made strategically placed lights and microphones around the lecture hall, and used three cameras to capture lectures, audience participation, and slides. With a line-in of computer generating graphics on a remote switching system, we laid down a mixed master while simultaneously sending the signal to a duplication station. Pre-built video graphics and pre-labeled tapes helped overall efficiency. We also gathered footage of break-outs and networking.
The Results – Staylor-Made quickly assembled a promo video showing highlights from the event. It was met with high approval from executive management in Japan. Sony representatives were able to walk away with complete sets of 35 lectures for worldwide distribution. Our client was a hero. For three years in a row, Staylor-Made videotaped Sony Global Leadership at UCLA. (The program was then moved to Sony Headquarters in Tokyo.)
ENCAD, Inc.
The Situation – The leader in wide format ink-jet printing, ENCAD, needed its first video produced in time for an international trade show in 3 weeks. The Director of Marcom, Dave Larson, chose Staylor-Made Communications.
The “Staylor-Made” Solution – Creating the four-color labels would be most time consuming, so SMC initiated label design immediately. Staylor interviewed ENCAD’s principals the next day. By assembling a top-notch team of production professionals, SMC was able to create a compelling and comprehensive script, capture powerful video images with exciting graphical support, and provide a scintillating sound track.
The Results – Going from Dave saying, “Hey, let’s do a video” to Jim Staylor saying, “Here are your 2,500 labeled and boxed videos” in record time, the video earned a national Telly award and the AMY Award for video of the year from the San Diego Chapter of the American Marketing Association. ENCAD used the video for marketing, recruiting, training, and investor relations. SMC produced six more ENCAD videos including a product sales demonstration translated into five languages and delivered on CD-ROM.
SeaWest WindPower, Inc.
The Situation – SeaWest WindPower is the world’s leading developer of utility-grade wind energy farms and was a well-kept secret. VP, Dave Roberts wanted to educate utility companies, government entities and investors about the power of wind as a financially viable source for energy.
The “Staylor-Made” Solution – Staylor-Made Communications worked with Dave to develop a script to first introduce and define the wind energy industry then highlight SeaWest’s credentials and promote its services. Jim Staylor and crew were sent to Laramie, Wyoming where SeaWest had several wind farm projects in various phases of construction and operation. Beautiful wind project footage was combined with stock film clips and images from headquarters to tell the history of wind energy and explain the value of SeaWest’s expertise. SMC produced a CD-ROM containing the video, several QuickTime Virtual Reality files showing 360-degree views of wind energy farms, contact information and a link to SeaWest’s website. A couple years later, SeaWest WindPower decided to have a new Staylor-Made DVD with chapters to address the specific needs of key stakeholders such as: utility companies, government entities, landowners, investors, etc. using existing video and new Palm Springs wind farms footage.
The Results – The SeaWest video earned a national Telly and The Communicator Award of Distinction. It was played at a press conference with then California Governor Gray Davis. The SeaWest DVD also won a Telly. Dave was quoted as saying, “Whenever I need video, I’m having it Staylor-Made.”
Frazee Paint & Wallcovering
The Situation – Paint is paint. How do you make it more enticing to customers? Frazee Paint & Wallcovering determined the answer is service. The Director of Human Resources, Pete Lawley, knew he wanted no ordinary customer service training. He also needed to teach the basics of paint — how it’s made, how it’s used, and how to help customers select the right paint.
The “Staylor-Made” Solution – Creating a spoof of sports coverage complete with announcers, coach, ref, waterboy, mom, cheerleaders and a marching band using only items found in paint stores, SMC was able to teach the fundamentals of customer service through the compelling story of a rookie associate’s journey to excellence. The story of paint was told through a spoof of TV’s Frasier using a radio call-in animated can of paint. “Dr. Frazee Paint I’m glistening.” At one point the viewer literally watches paint dry — in fast motion, of course.
The Results – These videos have earned a Bronze Award in Media Excellence from Media Communications Association International (beat out by UPS and Taco Bell) and a Gold Aurora Award. Store associates are able to name and implement the key learning points after viewing the customer service video. Frazee saves a lot of money by not having to bring each new employee to headquarters to see the paint manufacturing process. Pete was so pleased he had another video on Service Priorities “Staylor-Made” along the lines of the TV show ER to help store employees triage their duties and responsibilities.
Factory 2-U Stores, Inc.
The Situation – A rapidly growing retailer, Factory 2-U Stores realized they could better serve their training needs with video and multimedia. The cost of sending trainers to each store far outweighs providing tapes or DVDs.
The “Staylor-Made” Solution – With a tight budget and fast-approaching deadline, SMC found a way to creatively and effectively cover over three hours of new-hire orientation information on seven videos. Staylor wrote nearly 200 pages of video scripts from the existing printed materials. A pair of energetic young co-hosts delivered each entire script in a studio with a green screen over an animated background. SMC sent multiple crews to several Factory 2-U locations to cover as much b-roll, dramatizations and scenarios as possible to enhance the training. These elements were then married with music, graphics, text support and effects on four editing systems working around the clock.
The Results – The video programs were delivered in time for the holiday rush and have received rave reviews from managers and associates. Factory 2-U also considered taking advantage of the capabilities of DVD by adding a Spanish language track. SMC began the process of translating and narrating the scripts in preparation for final compression toward DVD encoding. After placing DVD players in all it’s nearly 300 stores, Gary Willison, Factory 2-U’s Director of Training and Workforce Development, has also hired Staylor-Made Communications to produce several more DVDs for internal communications and training.
Cable Television Public Affairs Association
The Situation – Based in Washington D.C., the Cable Television Public Affairs Association chose the Loews Coronado Resort for one of its annual conferences with an awards banquet. They wanted multi-camera coverage and projection of various elements of the conference, multimedia support, and a vanity video to document the event.
The “Staylor-Made” Solution – SMC assembled a team of experienced professionals to provide CTPAA with everything from staging, lighting, live-switched video projection with pre-built graphics to narrated musical interludes, computerized presentation support and on-site editing for their vanity video, shown the last night of the four-day conference.
The Results – Everything went off without a hitch. Due in part to SMC’s planning and execution of the video, lighting, projection and multimedia support, association members raved about this event. According to Sara Breaux, Executive Director of CTPAA, one participant said, “This was the best one of these conferences I’ve ever attended.”