Anna Rowe, executive producer of Smartypants, discusses how the production company worked with Delta Airlines to help document its pandemic-era difficulties.

How does the desire for brand authenticity dictate your production choices and style?

Overall we encourage our clients to show and not tell as much as humanly possible. Whether scripted or docustyle, we ask for the clients’ business goals and what they want this project to achieve. Then together, we aim to find a story that can embody those goals.

Suppose the client wants to tell a story about a core value of “resilience,” for example; rather than have someone talk at the viewer about resilience, we encourage clients to find a story of someone exhibiting that resilience in the face of a challenge. Whether it’s a story from an employee, a leader, a customer, etc., this mode of storytelling gets audiences emotionally invested. It’s tough to argue with someone giving their first-hand account of their own experience. Our job is to make people feel something; to get them in the mood, like a palette cleanser. Of course, if you need specific details to be hidden within the film, we often do that–but we go for the “hide the veggies” approach, where we take key elements about a company’s culture and wrap them up in an entertaining format. When possible, we encourage clients to use our film as a primer and let a separate presentation speak to further specifics.

Whose perspectives are important to hear from in these types of projects?

It can depend on the messaging and the project itself. There’s usually a person (or story with multiple people) who is the living embodiment of the values or the message our client is trying to get across. In some cases, hearing a customer story will do a better job than hearing from a leader, and in other cases, hearing the personal perspective of an executive is best suited. We aim for storytelling that showcases humanity at its core, in a way that feels authentic and engaging.

How did you get company executives to feel comfortable speaking in a vulnerable way?

We understand we’re usually asking questions that, given their leadership position, they’ve answered dozens of times and for which they have their set “talking points.” Often we start from a place of touching on those talking points they’re comfortable with, yet still trying to get them off their script in an unexpected way while respecting their boundaries; we never want to make subjects uncomfortable!

Our directors/interviewers always do their homework and understand our client’s industries and jargon to ensure we can guide an interview appropriately. We come into an interview knowing what we’re talking about, while still maintaining a level of genuine, outsider curiosity. Our goal is for executives to leave feeling like they had a fascinating conversation (which they often say to us afterward!).

How was your approach to working with an airline different from how you would approach filming for other companies?

The difference is less that they are an airline and more that they are a client whose films have to speak about a vast and diverse pool of employees. Delta Air Lines has over 100,000 employees (all over the globe!), and our messaging has to resonate with everyone.

Whether it’s a client like Delta with 100k employees or a client with 50 team members, representation is important. We want every employee to feel that the film is speaking to them, while still telling a story that is engaging to outside consumer audiences.

It can be as overt as making sure we have employees from a variety of employee groups represented, or it can be as simple as telling a story that will resonate across groups.

What was the measurable impact of this campaign?

The film resonated with customers, which is always our goal as well. Impacted Delta customers made no secret of their love for the film, flooding social media platforms with posts and articles sharing how the film touched their hearts. Heather Maxfield, a technologist and multi-committee and coalition member for companies like Atlanta BeltLine, Microsoft, and the Georgia Department of Education, wrote on LinkedIn, “The documentary not only encapsulated the gravity of the moment, a behind-the-scenes look at the airline industry but also showcased Delta’s unwavering commitment to its employees, the city of Atlanta, and the aviation sector as a whole.” “The Steepest Climb” was covered upon its release by outlets spanning homegrown and industry favorites like Georgia Trend Magazine and Simple Flying, all the way to national media properties like MSN, documenting its impact despite being released ‘over the air’ (on Delta flights).

We were cognizant that, when making a film like this, we would compete with all eyeballs flying Delta. As we want Delta customers to watch the film, we’re up against every other film offered on Delta flights–which is already a robust offering. Knowing this, we knew it would have to be an interesting film to watch regardless. You want it to be entertaining, even if there are important messages to share. Still, audiences should just be able to sense these messages–they should intuit the imperative takeaways couched in an enjoyable project to watch.

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