I led a major campaign to share the stories of entrepreneurs who had grit—a magical combination of passion & tenacity—that helped them get through trying times. Shooting a docuseries during COVID-19 was ambitious, and our agency partner Belief was up to the challenge. See how we did it and distributed a major omni-channel (OTT campaign) across the Verizon Media Network all while working from home.

Why and how

Keap hadn’t rebounded from the organic traffic dip after rebranding. After identifying our new target customer from research, we needed to pique their interest to listen to people like them. Our brand would then ‘sail by association’ as the right platform for entrepreneurs with the right mindset.

I researched infotainment that improved branded search for Mailchimp (a direct competitor) and Wistia (brand content wizards).

After serious digging, I found hard numbers on the improvement to these brands’ organic search, time-on-site, engagement, and traffic. Brands are going beyond the superficial “hard sell” to produce branded content that deeply resonates with their target market and it’s working.

I got CMO/Co-founder buy-in for spend on the campaign, then managed our partner agency Belief from end-to-end.

Keap’s target market is ‘Entrepreneurial Small Businesses’—hard-working small business owners with tenacity and growth mindset. To reach more of them, our successful customers needed to tell their real, gritty stories.

We interviewed 3 customers who’ve seen success because of their grit (with a little help from Keap). Our 4th episode was a story of grit from the Keap Co-founders themselves as an emotional bridge into our brand.

Belief worked with us to craft authentic stories rich with “survival information” (like any good fable)—which is essential to make these compelling and shareable.

Our fourth story was from Keap’s Co-founders, Clate and Scott.

It acted as an emotional bridge to the brand.

How we shot a docuseries during a worldwide pandemic

None of us expected COVID-19 to continue through 2020 and into 2021. Originally, we planned to shoot stories of entrepreneurs who’d come out of the pandemic stronger. As the pandemic failed to end and the “return to normal” stalled, our team shifted tactics to tell broader stories that focused on perseverance through trying times of all kinds.

Belief mailed interrotron-style setups to our interviewees. This gave us an intimate documentary feel, while safeguarding crew and customers.

We interviewed our customers over Zoom calls and sent a backup camera for secondary angles—enrolling their family members to shoot b-roll. In the end, everyone had a great time, and our collective grit really shined through as a team. The low-fi shots suited this campaign perfectly (quite serendipitous).

We’re sending traffic from our “Big Grit” campaign to this landing page. Here, visitors can watch more stories, see how these customers use Keap, and are led to a specific section of the website messaged for them.

Advertising

I partnered with Junction 37 to market “Big Grit” to the proper audience. We used YouGov and benchmarks from similar campaigns and spends to set up a media distribution plan across Verizon Media.

While Belief was editing interviews, my team used still photos to cut teasers and start creating ‘buzz’ around the campaign before having any footage. When you’re on a tight timeline, use what you’ve got!

Ads needed to bridge the gap between Big Grit’s ‘look’ and the Keap brand ‘look.’

We distributed ads for new top-of-funnel audiences and a retargeted audience across Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube in static and animated forms.

Suspect nurtures

I worked with Email Marketing and Product Marketing on the suspect nurture. By providing additional resources and educational content, we’d stay top-of-mind with these entrepreneurs. Some entered demos, free trials, or visited our homepage to learn more.

Results

🎉 21K+ pageviews & 13K+ uniques to our landing page in 2 months

🔺 Performed significantly above Verizon Media benchmarks

🔺 Organic branded search increased

🔥 Lead quality improved for Sales floor

📰 Article in ‘Small Business Trends’