Simply Business encourage their staff to get together and build software and hardware to enrich their work and personal lives. Each event is quite complex, but it’s our job to summarise what it is and create a clear and concise account of what is happening
All Hackathon Videos
A hackathon is a techy term for a group of people getting together to create something. Often it’s a piece of software or hardware, which they program, code or build. Hackathons usually have a goal or a theme; this can literally be anything from testing security on websites, applications or hardware to building something new to achieve a common goal.
As you will see below, each Hackathon has a different theme and a different objective. The events are usually held across three days in either their London office or Northampton office.
Simply Business needed us to tell the story of the hackathon and make it into a piece of video content. This was both for internal use and to post out on social media. As well as making a final piece, we also cut the interviews down to create social media content that could be used at any time of the year, across LinkedIn and Facebook. Often these hackathon events attract key people within their fields so it’s an ideal oppunity to get added value content too.The value of these pieces of content exists many levels. While it does make a tidy piece of content for social, it also helps improve the brand image for recruitment purposes, it work to build the brand making it more personable and helps current members of staff feel valued.
As you will see below, each Hackathon has a different theme and a different objective. The events are usually held across three days in either their London office or Northampton office. Previously, the videographers that had tackled the Simply Business hackathons had created a video which ran retrospectively. It began with an interview explaining what had happened and how great it was, with lots of b-roll in the middle. It made for a very uninspiring watch, so we decided to rethink the format.
Instead of covering it retrospectively, we wrote a dialog and a series of questions which would ensure we would get a narrative that runs through the video. The idea is the viewer is taken through the journey of the hackathon and engaged with the whole day with slatherings of insightful information and solid brand-building messaging throughout. We felt it much more engaging than having it explained to them as something that just happened.
How we achieve this is to introduce a person to the event, explain what the theme is, why it's behind held and what is happening. Thereafter, we establish what is happening at the event, how it is going, what challages people face and the progress. We then add in some content about why hackathon are important and we wrap it all up with the celebration of a fantastic event. This format is great as it ensures viewers are engaged throughout and they come away having learned everything they need to about a hackathon.
Simply Business are the UK’s largest commercial insurance company, insuring 500,000 businesses. In 2017 they were acquired by US-based insurance company Travelers for $490 million. This has meant their business has gone from strength to strength and they’re now set up to sell in the US.
