Our videos for the European Investment Fund (EIF) demonstrated the wider benefits of business finance for people and communities.
The European Investment Fund is part of the European Investment Bank Group. It exists to help micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) access sources of finance from intermediaries and banks, and supports EU objectives to encourage, growth, innovation, research, development and employment. In 2013 alone, the organisation reported that it had helped 140,000 SMEs across Europe access funding of EUR 3.4bn.
Challenge
The EIF were struggling to demonstrate how their work created value. Written case studies and dry press releases did little to convey they real, human benefits of their work – the fact that, every day, they were helping to transform people’s lives and livelihoods.
Having found us online, they approached us with a brief to produce a series of short videos to showcase their work at events attended by intermediaries, banks, policy makers and shareholders. Each video was to give much-needed context by telling the stories behind a selection of businesses who’d received funding. The EIF wanted to highlight the fact that funding was going back into local communities and helping to create wealth and jobs.
Solution
We delivered four short videos: visiting a recruitment firm in Athens; a dressmaker in Portugal; a crane manufacturer in Denmark; and Skyscanner, the flight comparison website based in Edinburgh. Each video featured an interview with the business owner, who explained how they’d been able to achieve their goals as a direct result of funding accessed through the EIF.
A tight deadline and the amount of travel involved meant this was a tricky project in the logistical sense. Needing to complete filming in just two weeks, we called in support from trusted videomakers across Europe.
Results
The videos have been received extremely well at events and are also showcased on the EIF’s website. With case studies forming an important part of the organisation’s marketing strategy, we’re likely to be producing more videos for them very soon. They’ve also referred us to a separate organisation within the group, the European Investment Bank, who’ve tasked us with producing an animation to explain one of their new products.
