Case study: how we made the Curbside Compost Club film
Fun project breakdown: how we made this video showing the full kitchen-to-farm process of Omaha’s first residential curbside composting service, Curbside Compost Club by Hillside Solutions.
Since this service is creating a new category in the market, we needed a video that demystified the process. It had to give people a visual of the whole process so that they could then picture how they'd do it in their own home.
It was important to us not to show a landfill. We weren't going to guilt anyone into composting. And based on our research, leading with the negative when it comes to social behaviour tends to backfire.
This was always going to be a celebration. Like your neighbour telling you about this thing they're really excited about.
With that in mind, I wrote a production brief listing out preferred shots and story arc, all lined up with the company-voice branded script. We hired Brady West Westbound Photography to shoot it. My coworkers Sasha and Audrey contributed. Sasha, with her wonderfully done voice-over, and Audrey's home to give that kitchen-to-curb view.
One of the things I was most excited about: thanks to Brady's drone gear, we captured sunrise moments and steam rising off the compost rows.
How we cut the film:
The full version (a minute and 44 seconds) is now the hero on the Curbside Compost Club landing page, with a sign-up sitting right under it. We pulled three vertical cut-downs for the feeds since most don’t watch a 1:44 video on their phone.
The descriptions on Youtube and social platforms are keyword-aligned and consistent. Partly for humans, partly because AI search tends to cite what it can corroborate across multiple sources. YouTube's carrying the full film, since long-form performs better there.
The video will also be used during presentations, such as to neighbourhood community groups.
Next up, once organic sign-ups slow down, we’ll dip into paid ads like Google Ads, social, and maybe TV.
And we'll be tracking the video's effectiveness on the landing page using Clarity, and monitoring if there's an increase in page conversions.
Sasha, Audrey, Brady. Thank you. Wonderful team effort.
And I highly recommend using Brady for any photo/video work in the Omaha, Nebraska area.