Introducing Panda Productions: Panda Group’s Video Production Service

Panda Group unveiled its video production expertise in a big way, creating 18 high-quality product demonstration videos for Master Lock…and that’s just the beginning.

Butler, WI, May, 2009 – It didn’t take Master Lock long to find a marketing firm capable of producing the high-quality instructional safety videos that the lock giant needed to demonstrate some of its lockout/tagout equipment. Master Lock product manager Jeff Von Haden worked with Panda Group (www.pandagrp.com) for print marketing in the past, so it wasn’t a surprise when Von Haden asked Panda president Kellie Hoffmeister if her creative safety marketing team could handle another medium.

“The reason we got this job is because Jeff Von Haden felt that we knew this product, and he didn’t have to babysit the project,” said Hoffmeister. “He didn’t have to be the one to storyboard it. He didn’t have to teach anyone lockout/tagout. We have been writing safety content for 14 years. We know safety. That is our connection to our industry. We had an innate sense of how this product was supposed to work.”

Added Von Haden: “We wanted to work with someone who understood the product and its application. From working with Panda on catalogs they demonstrated a well-rounded knowledge of safety products. Panda did a great job planning the shoot. They made sure the video crew focused on the key features and that the application was done as it would be in the field. The video shoots were well planned. All the sites were scouted in advance and the props for the shoot were set up for each shoot and the next. There was no wasted time.”

The result of the four-day shoot and three days of editing was the 18 superbly produced product videos that appear on Master Lock’s websites (www.masterlock.com and www.safetyseries.com). Panda managed the entire process, from storyboarding the shots to picking the background music. Panda marketing coordinator Dan Eckels even served as the on-camera talent.

DVDs of the videos were created and sent to Master Lock distributors in places as far away as China, Australia and Europe. The instructional lockout/tagout videos break language barriers because they don’t use dialogue or written English, just live-action sequences showing how the products work and script showing model numbers.

Said Von Haden: “One of our sales managers responded, ‘absolutely awesome, perfect, great job!’. We’re hoping these videos have a similar effect on our customers in the coming months as they are viewed on the web and in sales presentations.”

With one extremely successful project under its belt, Panda Productions envisions video production playing a huge role in the near future. Panda has developed a schedule conducive to manufacturers who want to shoot just one or two products but don’t have the time or money. Panda Productions schedules an entire day of filming and manufacturers can slot themselves in for anywhere from one to 50 product shots.

“This is really an exciting new marketing channel that Panda is into, and it’s affordable,” explained Hoffmeister. “With Panda’s ecommerce technology, it’s very easy to integrate these product application videos. The future is bringing these things to life. People are reading less, they need to see how products work. Master Lock realized that to do justice to products you have to see them in action. That’s where Panda’s going and we’re going to make it affordable for manufacturers.”

For more information about Panda Productions, call Kellie Hoffmeister at 1-888-TO-PANDA x101, or email kellie@pandagrp.com.