Strategy & Direction OLV Case Study

The Opportunity

Online videos were essential for our major campaigns and grand openings. Our initial goal was to position Going, Going, Gone! (GGG) as the premier destination for savings on top brands. However, during Holiday 2025 planning, our video production budget was severely cut to 18,000. This was not enough to replicate our previous year's approach, which involved a professional shoot, hired talent, and staged stores. The cost just to hire a videographer to update existing footage consumed almost the entire budget, leaving nothing for voice-over and editing. Our challenge was compounded: we needed to create four seasonal versions (Grand Openings, Summer, Back-to-School, and Holiday) in a single, cost-effective production shoot, which created planning issues like securing holiday product in the spring.

Strategy & Concept (Brainstorming & Direction)

To meet the $18K constraint while targeting Millennial parents and fitness-minded consumers, I researched low-cost, high-quality alternatives to traditional video. My exploration included:

• Stop-Motion Photography

• Organic Social-Style Approach

• Text-Based Graphic Approach (No Imagery) (See Mockup)

• Meta-Commentary (Calling out the low-budget nature, e.g., 'We saved money on this ad to give you the best prices.')

We presented three options (Good, Better, Best). Our shareholders ultimately selected the 'Bag with Hands' concept (our 'Best' option). This approach prioritized product visibility while adding a crucial element of humanity. We saved costs by using only a hand model for brief, product-placement segments, which successfully introduced a human connection without the expense of a full-scale talent shoot. We also intentionally incorporated our green GGG shopping bag for an additional logo impression.

Execution & Scalability

The core production challenge was filming four seasonal videos in one shoot. We achieved this through a modular approach:

• Product Swapping: During production, we efficiently swapped out products, added seasonal props (e.g., snow for holiday, sunscreen for summer), and quickly changed the accompanying graphics and voice-over scripts.

• On-Set Direction: This systematic approach allowed the production team to rapidly place product and direct the hand model.

The detailed storyboard was the foundation that allowed me, as the creative lead, to efficiently guide the two-day shoot, ensuring consistency across all four versions and a rapid turnaround for post-production.

The Final Product & Takeaway (Results)

• Creative Leadership: As the creative lead, I directed the two-day shoot in Pittsburgh, collaborating with the Director of Photography (DP) to ensure every shot met the approved visual language and budget constraints.

• Key Metric: The 15-second Summer video achieved a remarkable 77% View-Through Rate (VTR). This significantly outperformed industry benchmarks for a skippable ad unit, validating our strategic choices in pacing and visual narrative.

• Strategic Impact: The captured footage established a versatile visual language and look-and-feel that could be easily re-cut for A/B testing and became the foundation for the entire creative direction for the following year.

• Learning: This project allowed me to succeed as a creative problem-solver, delivering not just a video, but a scalable, long-term content solution that successfully elevated brand presence within a severely limited budget.