A master class from Calder Stewart in how to make video case studies work for your brand

Case study videos are versatile marketing tools. They help you win new clients, celebrate great projects, and share entertaining content. If you ask the right questions, they even give you valuable business insights that can help you improve your products and services. That’s a heap of ROI from one marketing asset. 

The client

Since Lance Calder and Bruce Stewart built their first barn in 1955, Calder Stewart has constructed thousands of industrial buildings for New Zealand businesses. We worked with their creative agency Thrival to make three video case studies about key Calder Stewart projects. 

Their challenge

Calder Stewart’s stronghold has traditionally been the South Island. Now they’re evolving into the North Island, where they’re a new brand in a competitive environment. We wanted to show Calder Stewart’s broad capabilities. They provide end-to-end property services and go way beyond cookie cutter solutions. 

We also aimed to inspire businesses to bring Calder Stewart in early on projects. They can use Calder Stewart’s experience and knowledge to work out better building solutions, rather than spending money on consultants. 

Our approach 

Build the Calder Stewart brand with authentic stories about client partnerships.

Show don’t tell. Property construction can be complex. It’s difficult to explain without examples of projects. Case studies provide space to tease out more detail. 

Find the human story at the heart of a project. Who’s the hero of your story? What’s their challenge? How did you help them resolve that challenge? And how do they feel about their outcomes? 

Don’t play it safe. All human decision-making leads with emotional connection. B2B decision makers respond to emotive storytelling just like anyone else. Playing it safe isn’t a safe choice because you’re throwing marketing budget away on bland content. 

Have a good angle. What does your audience of potential customers want to know? What’s going to be interesting for them to hear? What’s going to make them engage? 

Help everyday people tell great stories. We keep interviews low key and conversational because we don’t want people delivering rehearsed corporate soundbites. We’re after human perspectives, natural responses, and authentic feelings.

Show the why behind the what. Case study videos can share important things like company values in an emotive story driven way, by showing, not telling. 

Enhance your brand with quality production values. Calder Stewart offer high end property and building services and their brand image must align to their quality product.  

What our clients say

Thrival founding partner, Richie Connell  says, “The sign of a Resonate video is the professionalism and the quality of the storytelling. Resonate bring a distinctive style to their cinematography. It’s thoughtful, and it gets to the heart of the message.” 

“The Resonate team are good humans, super down to earth, and generous with their expertise. They always deliver on their promise, and they take pride in their work. Whether it’s a television commercial or a brand video you’re getting a quality product that reflects well on your brand. Anybody can do video, but not everyone can tell really well-crafted stories. That’s Resonate’s superhero strength.”