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Movers 2022 - TikTok!

Trade School Custom Production for The Home Depot | November 2022

Also known as... the "last-minute add-on project."

We were well underway on all of our concepts for the planned Movers shoot... and then were thrown a curveball specifically targeting Renters and First-Time Homeowners using social-first Creative. I had come from all-social teams both at Publicis and Wunderman Thompson, so this was an ask well within my comfort zone... even at the eleventh hour.

We had our storylines pretty much set already for the main videos, so now we had to develop concepts that could be shot with the same talent and using the same props / SKUs.

We brought in a second director/DP—Daniel Oramas—just to shoot the TikTok videos; and Jasmine and Ben accompanied him the entire time since his feed wasn't being broadcast into video village.

The Details

These videos were targeted specifically at our Renters and First-Time Homeowners audiences, and we concepted and shot four for each.

To see the full project insights and details, visit the main Movers 2022 page.

We wanted these videos to feel like they fit in on TikTok, so in the end we provided two versions of each to the clients for some A/B testing of the content. The "A" versions were all blank to allow the overlay text / supers to be added natively in-platform at activation; and the "B" versions had supers built-in using The Home Depot's core brand colors (but still feeling platform-endemic). Below are a mix of both the blank and built-in supers videos.

Another consideration we had was using The Home Depot's "Beat" (or equity track) against the same video with platform-provided, brand-safe music. Jasmine listened to HOURS of music to choose the alternate versions.

The Execution

Renters

Our one Renter couple was only cast in two videos, so this was a really fun opportunity to allow them to have more screen time. The voiceover was provided by our Editor Kevin Fermini's girlfriend.

We knew shopping within TikTok was going to be a feature The Home Depot would want to test eventually, so concepted and shot this video with the intent of having either tagged products or a product carousel activated in-platform.

We knew we wanted to have at least one POV-style "finger point" video, and we thought the funniest version was via arranging furniture.

Everybody loves a listicle-style video! This allowed us the most room to highlight both individual Smart Home products and show some app features.

First-Time Homeowners

Somehow we got a doggy door approved as a first-time homeowner DIY project in the main shoot... and we wondered how adorable it would be to tell the story from the dog's POV.

These two had amazing chemistry and were all in on making these videos fun.

A little "do this with me" mixed with some stop motion. Kevin had the idea to add small lines of animation in some of the videos, and they work perfectly without being too much.

I REALLY, REALLY wanted a shot from inside the washer or dryer so we could do a spin transition. I'm still not sure how Daniel was able to get the opening shot without completely disassembling the washer, but he did it.

My Role

Both Ben and I had been on the team that concepted the original launch of The Home Depot's TikTok channel, so I was really glad to have him on this project because he knew the background of what the clients were trying to achieve using TikTok and other social channels. Plus, he's really funny and we were given free rein to have a lot more fun with these videos than we could have in the seventeen main videos being filmed.

For that reason, I FOUGHT to get Ben and Jasmine on-set for the days we were filming our Renters and First-Time Homeowner content. Even if they couldn't bill every hour to the project itself, it was valuable experience for both of them to get to be on set and influence the content they had worked so hard on.

In the end, it was a moot point, as they became essential as Daniel was doing his run-and-gun shooting behind the main crew. There is no way I could have been running the main shoot from video village and supervising the TikTok shoot.

So my biggest contribution after initial concepting and storyboarding was on the post-production side making sure every video was as tight as possible and met the delivery deadline.