Client Spotlight: Salesforce.org
At Corduroy Media, we like to align ourselves with companies that share our values: giving back to the community, helping those in need, and generally doing good in the world. So we’re proud to have such a steadfast relationship and build an amazing client portfolio with the Salesforce Foundation.
Ya Salesforce, you may have heard of them. Giant Tower, Dominant CRM, Political Goliath. Well, Salesforce.org is their non-profit foundation, which donates time, technology and the all mighty dollar to non-profit organizations and higher education institutions.
Over the 3 years, we’ve produced more than 30 Customer Story Testimonial Videos to raise awareness of what they do and who they help. So it’s safe to say we’ve gotten to know them pretty well. We’ve also discovered that building a long-term relationship with a client like Salesforce.org has a lot of added benefits – for them and for us.
Understanding our client
The first step to telling a compelling story is understanding the goals, objectives and audience – and when we’re producing a video for Salesforce.org, we’ve got that covered. Working closely together on so many projects has bred a deep familiarity with their product, their mission, and their goals. And it also helps that we share so many common values.Take, for example, the video we created for Project Open Hand, a nonprofit organization providing nutritious meals to seniors and the critically ill in the San Francisco area. With 3,000 volunteers and 16,000 donors, it takes a lot to make sure their services run smoothly – and Salesforce.org is a crucial part of keeping their business in order.
As a San Francisco video production company, the city and the people who live here are important to us. By including everyday scenes of urban life in this video, we emphasize the real-world impact that Salesforce.org’s products are having on the city we know and love.
Pushing the limits
But just because we know their brand and business well, it doesn’t mean we’re churning out the same thing over and over again. We’re constantly pushing the limits of every single story, finding new ways to highlight Salesforce technology while featuring the foundations incredible partners. One of the most impactful ways to do this is by telling the most emotive story possible.
We’ve talked before about the challenges involved in creating relatable narratives for tech companies such as Salesforce.org. The key to telling a powerful story is to focus on the way technology affects people, how it makes their lives better. So when we developed the testimonial video featuring Blue Star Families, we centered it around the people that Salesforce.org helps: military service members and their families.
The heart of this video is not in the software itself; it’s in the human connections that are established, the peer support network that is built, and how Salesforce.org enables those relationships to thrive. By consistently digging deep for the most evocative imagery and the most meaningful story, we’re able to keep things fresh over the long-term.
Trust on and off set
All the time we’ve spent together has inspired a trusting relationship – one where Salesforce.org has faith in us to deliver a final product that’s on the mark, every time. Although we’ll often work collaboratively, developing ideas as a team and tossing ideas back and forth to come up with the strongest approach for a given project, there are times when they need us to turn something around quickly. And because we know their brand, their business, and their vision, we can create powerful collateral in a flash.
That trust is also important in front of the camera. Since most of the work we do for Salesforce.org is documentary-style, we conduct a lot of on-camera interviews – and for people who aren’t used to being put on the spot, that can be tough. So we make it a point to get to know all the people who are involved in our productions, like Brittany Pakeman, a Salesforce.com intern we featured in the Year Up video.
Before the camera even rolls, we take the time to talk to our interviewees so we can learn more about them, understand their experiences, answer their questions, and put them at ease. After the hundreds of interviews we’ve done for the Salesforce.org videos alone, we have to admit we’re pretty good at establishing a rapport with each person so they become comfortable enough to give us their most authentic selves when the camera finally rolls. It just keeps getting better every yearOur relationship with Salesforce.org is one of mutual respect and admiration. Over the years, they’ve become not just clients, but friends, and we genuinely enjoy spending time with them. They’re awesome people doing awesome work, and we’re proud to give the world a window into everything they have to offer.