Chills 360 opened its doors in the heart of Dallas last summer, bringing its unique brand of Thai-style rolled ice cream to Deep Ellum. The ice cream shop experienced such success since that first summer that the brand is now beginning to franchise, with its second location opening in Rockwall earlier this summer. We had the pleasure of working with the great team at Chills 360 to produce a marketing and promotional video for the brand that would cater not only to its customer base but also appeal to potential franchise owners. The challenge with this type of multi-purpose video is striking the right balance between both audiences. Often, the aspects of a business that appeal to customers are not the same as what would appeal to potential investors.
The key to the video’s approach was highlighting everything the customer knew about, but to present it in a new way. For example, many customers frequent Chills 360 and have favorite ice cream flavors. New customers, however, are faced with a menu with no pictures of the ice cream. Although going by descriptions of ingredients has worked for Chills customers until now, by featuring the individual flavors in the video we were able to help potential customers see exactly what their frozen desert will look like (and hopefully get those taste buds firing). This also appeals to potential franchise owners, who are able to quickly get a sense of the quality and craft that the Chills 360 brand represents. We also strategically highlighted the unique atmosphere of the Chills 360 experience –high-energy, colorful and vibrant – by shooting on-location during peak hours. This approach not only appeals to potential franchisees by showing them the packed locations, and sidewalk-filling lines, but also appeals to the younger crowd of Chills 360 customers that is seeking a fun and engaging outing.
We worked hard to translate the vibrancy and upbeat nature of the Chills 360 experience in the way the video is edited as well, creating colorful and bright motion graphics and text treatments. A large part of the brand’s presence is on social media, where sound is often shut off by default. We chose to forgo voice over or narration and opted for an edit that emphasized the visuals with a supporting music track. This way, even if the audio is turned off, the video still pops off the screen and engages the viewer. This approach also coincided with the fact that the video will be used at franchise trade shows, were audio can either be unavailable or hard to hear in the midst of an expo hall.
Every project has its unique challenges, and this one was no different. At the end of the day, we learned how to leverage some of the limitations of the project requirements and came away with a fun video that will have a long shelf life as both a customer facing piece and a franchise promotional piece for the Chills 360 brand.
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