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How did the project start?
The project was arranged to coincide with the launch of Sage Payroll 2009. The Sage brief was to produce a product tour that would explain the benefits of the updated software (Sage Payroll 2009) to new and existing Sage customers.
What options did you consider?
After reviewing existing Sage product tours and a collection of similar media from additional software providers Leighton storyboarded a number of approaches to the brief. One of these approaches was to include various self contained video player environments. This solution did present tangible ‘video library’ benefits but restricted the individuality of the tour. The outcome, presented by Leighton and agreed by Sage, was to create bespoke tours for each product thus allowing for more creativity and individual design to each specified tour.
The preferred video presentation method was to use a strong one-to-one style by using an appropriate actor/actress to convey the solutions features, benefits and improvements, time-synced with an additional animated presentation layer highlighting keywords and phrases from the script and demonstrating screenshots from the application. Screen tests were carried out to find the most appropriate actor/actress, a recording studio with green screen facilities were found and an independent cameraman sourced who could shoot and provide high definition footage.
The resulting assets were then keyed out within Adobe After Effects and combined with animation sequences created with Adobe Flash.
What help and expertise did you receive?
Sage produced a full script for the product tour, which was based upon the initial draft storyboard presented by Leighton.
Leighton undertook responsibility for the direction of the video shoot and worked with an experienced cameraman to provide suitably enhanced and formatted video files.
We then went on to manage the full post-production of the virtual tour in-house and worked closely with Sage to ensure that the final product was in-line with Sage’s expectation.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
Producing such rich video content creates larger file sizes, which can be managed with secondary level loading. However, the complex nature of the Flash animations and the embedded video caused legacy processors to play the video out-of-sync with the audio.
This was overcome by outputting the combined FLASH and Video elements as a single embedded video file.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
The product tour is a core driver in sales for the Sage 50 Payroll product tour. It has also become the bench mark for future product tours due to the positive reaction it has received from Sage.
What are your plans for the future?
With a number of key product launches on the horizon, Sage and Leighton will work closely together to produce future tours that will use the Sage 50 Payroll 2009 tour as a bench mark. Discussions around the most appropriate product releases have already begun.
