We made Hotjar’s first ever TV ad!
The video has gotten 1.7 million views on YouTube right now — and lots of nice feedback!
In this blog article, we’ll walk you through the entire video production process in an interview-style fashion with eggcrate CEO Sean Aquilina.
This blog will help you understand why hiring a professional video production team will be worth it, and what goes into your investment.
The Challenge
What was going on at the Hotjar company that led them to eggcrate?
“So the idea was to acquire more, get more leads. So yep, the reason they approached us as eggcrate was mainly to produce videos in a way that can be engaging to their audience as a Youtube advert.”
The eggcrate x Hotjar collab
Why did they choose to work with you?
“Because we’re the best team (laughs).
Well, they chose to work with us I think it’s…I think the idea that we have them in previous projects helped a lot.
Well, marketing-wise, from our end can say that we specialize in this kind of advertising in order to help SaaS companies get as many leads as possible for their video advertising campaign.
Why did Hotjar choose us specifically? I think it was a mix of past experiences that luckily we had some of their team that could refer us to their own marketing team which was helpful.”
The Solution
The videos
Apart from photography on set, eggcrate delivered 3 main videos to support the strategy behind Hotjar’s marketing campaign:
- Then the main one is a 20-second advert. The strategy behind it was obviously attention span especially in ads… [attention span is] becoming shorter and shorter and the idea was to have a 20-second as the main video for Youtube.
- A 6-second video that is meant to be used for targeting, so those people who seem to be interested and kind of willing to know more would be reached.
- The last one was the longer video that lasts for almost 60 seconds. It’s a longer video where we highlighted 2 different target personas of Hotjar: entrepreneurs and product teams.
Below are the SaaS brand videos that eggcrate created for Hotjar.
Simply put, these are the solutions.
But how about the problem, you say? All is revealed in the captions.
Your website looks amazing, but why are sales so low? – YouTube
Find out what people REALLY think of your website – YouTube
Watch people interact with your website in real-time – YouTube
And that’s the power of explainers.
This Hotjar brand video gives away some of the cool stuff the app can do, all in 9 seconds (it’s actually 6, plus the 3-second slide for the logo).
Watching Hotjar’s SaaS brand videos with the heatmaps and the hot mutts – gives you a quick overview of how some features of Hotjar work and how it’ll work for you too.
Beyond the videos
Take a tour around Hotjar’s landing page. Looks familiar?
Yep, because the same strategy and concept were used. No cheesy stock photos that really don’t embody their ideal customers. Fascinating, huh?
There were also 2 dedicated user persona landing pages where the video stills were repurposed.
The landing page for entrepreneurs
And the landing page for product managers
The eggcrate process
How did the collaboration process look like?
“We tackled pretty much all except for the concepts. So basically how it worked, the team from Hotjar came up with a set of ideas that they developed as a creative concept.
They did some A/B testing with some of their existing customers and as a team, Hotjar, they listen to their customers so it was in their culture to not just go ahead and see what happens.
So, they tested some, like, hand-drawn storyboard, some audio visual kind of animatics, to see which will resonate most with their customers. They ended up choosing the one we ended up producing for them.”
Sean continues,
“From our end, when this happens, our objective is obviously to deliver and understand what they’re after because it’s very easy to get the idea and run with it, to the extent that maybe it ends up changing along the way.
So, our main focus was to understand where they would love to go and then from our end we took care of all the rest up to the delivery of the project so we took care of the creative treatment which means how will this be executed on screen.”
Who sourced the actors?
“We took care of the international casting; we got cast from all the way from Europe.
We took care of the sourcing of the dogs and the animal handlers. And the crew and locations. As seen on screen they are not the way they actually are so we need to dress them up.
We need to make it look good for the camera. We also took care of the editing and the 3d visual effects required for the production to be well understood by the customers and as engaging as possible for Hotjar’s customers.”
How did you implement your service?
“For us, it’s important to have some kind of control in order to promise the success of the videos. So, ideally for us, the client doesn’t have to have a kind of script or creative concept. They don’t need a creative concept to approach us.
We’re a video production agency, not just a video production house, so a client can effectively come to us with a problem.
Let’s say they need to get more leads, and they’re trying to figure out how to do that.
We can help them do that through video ads. We will help and guide the client literally from understanding what the problem is, and then we get into the creative concept, the creative treatment, how it will look, the pre-production–getting anything required for the filming.
The idea is to use live action in order to humanize the product, in order to sell real emotion and make that advert more engaging. And to utilize and optimize the idea of animation, we are not saying that animation is not a good medium.
The idea for Hotjar…we mixed live action with animation to get the best out of both media.”
The collab challenges
What challenges did you encounter during the transition?
“I think the major challenge was out of everyone’s control because we started this amidst a new wave of Covid and it was unfortunately postponed twice.
In terms of technical challenges, not much.
We’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now so we know how to preempt and prep ourselves in order to make it a seamless and comfortable experience even for the client.
[So far] the most challenging [thing] in this kind of shoot was – working with dogs.”
How did you do the shoot?
“This production was entirely shot remotely so the clients weren’t physically on the set.
They didn’t need to waste hours of their time and day to come to us and fly back home, so they were still working comfortably at their home office.
Like Hotjar, they were still working comfortably in their home office and we were sending live transmission on what’s happening on set. The process was pretty smooth.
We were discussing as if they are physically on set, but everything was happening remotely. They were able to give us approval of a particular shot without the need for them to be physically on set with us.”
Were there initial results? What were they?
“The videos have done pretty well on social media.
There were people even commenting that this is a bold move for a company like Hotjar, to attempt this kind of video style.
On the link of Hotjar, if you go to the people who shared them, one of the people who shared it mentioned that it is a bold move in a good way because this is the way that this kind of software should be getting themselves out there.”
The Results
The eggcrate impact
How did your service change their business?
“Now, they can sit more comfortably because they work with us (chuckles).”
What has it meant to your overall operations?
“We do this very often, very frequently so in no way that it is more challenging or scary… we do it all the time.
In terms of business, for us it’s a good step mostly because it helps us validate that the idea that we’ve been working for is actually doable. The fact that Hotjar did it, and it is Hotjar, I think it will help us gain more trust. It’s a good case study to help us in our sales process.”
What advice would you have for others considering your service?
“This marketing, at the end of the day, is branding so apart from attracting effective and potentially-qualified leads, you’re also helping how your brand is being perceived. So that’s a win-win.
Our intention is to help these kinds of brands [small and medium brands] take the leap and start seeing results.
The main advice is that, now is the time for companies to jump onboard this ship.”
What’s your advice to SaaS who are not yet sold on live-action videos?
“I strongly believe that if SaaS companies require attention, and need a tool to get new leads they need to stir the pot and so far, only big companies are doing that.
And the smaller brands are holding back…It would end up being more challenging to attract those leads when everyone is doing and using the same technique. So this is the time for [small] brands to jump into the opportunity.”
To add, TV ad has gotten a spotlight at sTARTUp day 2022.
According to Sarah, one of the attendees, it was refreshing to hear from Kęstutis of Vinted, that TV ads still work for SaaS in this digital age. When done right, they are still cost-effective and generate better ROIs.
Ready to create your own TV Ad?
So, there you have it – our video production open house, straight from the CEO.
If you followed us this entire way, hopefully, you now have a better understanding of what goes into making a great SaaS video.
We know video production can be overwhelming and we wanted to provide as much transparency as possible.
At eggcrate, we want our clients (you!) to be involved in every step of the process so that when the final product is delivered, your fingerprints will be all over it.
Our team of producers, directors, editors, and animators are excited to work with you and make your SaaS unforgettable.
Shoot us an email or give us a call– let’s get crackin’ on those videos!
