Marcel van Hove
Co-founder of Visual Friends
Co-founder of Visual Friends
When Frontline asked me to help them explaining their business model in a short video, I was instantly in it. Frontline is a not for commercial profit, member based retail buying group, working on behalf of the retailers and supplier.
Frontline helps in areas such as accounting and administration, negotiating discounts and trading terms, group buying opportunities and new technologies, particularly in online retail and wholesale websites.
I met the Digital Division Manager from Frontline and we had a short kickoff session in which we talked about the key message. This may sound simple but it isn’t. Quite often your key message a bit hidden between the lines. So instead of getting to that directly – try to listen to stories and try to scribble it on the fly. We had heaps of fun!
Inspired by the initial scribbling session, Frontline came back with their own scribbles and a great story about a couple that runs a shop together appeared. Fred and Fran were born! We selected “Being connected with other retailers” and to “Get help whenever needed” as strongest key messages. Even better Frontline also prepared the text for the voice over so that I knew how much drawing roughly is possible. Even if you can adjust the speed of the video, if there is only one sentence and you have a whole page to draw it doesn’t look so well.
With that raw story and audio outline I went home and started drawing myself. Whenever I had a slide ready I quickly flicked it through with my iPhone to Frontline and got instant feedback. At the end of the day I had the drawings ticked off.
Every slide needs to get drawn once again to get recorded. I used my Canon EOS M camera mounted on a microphone stand over the drawing table but my other videos are recorded with and iPhone5. The most important thing here is light and that the camera is exactly over the paper. In this way you have less problems with shadows. After the cutting we met at Frontline for the sound over…
If you call Frontline today you talk to the same person that did the sound over. This fact underpins the idea of being connected. So the same person that Fran spoke to in the video. You can speak to yourself. I love this little fact!
Here is what Digital Division Manager, Fleur Vickers says about the work we did:
“In just over a minute, our new video clearly communicates a business model many of us have struggled to explain for years! Marcel was fun to work with, and helpful in turning our receptionist into our voice over girl. So much so that she may consider leaving us for a new career. Good one Marcel.”, Fleur Vickers, Frontline 
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
