SpareRoom commissioned us to produce a series of videos giving their 5 million users the opportunity to quiz politicians on housing issues, ahead of the 2015 General Election.
Published: September 2015
Keen to involve SpareRoom’s customers we developed a creative treatment which incorporated user generated content (UGC). SpareRoom asked their users what questions they’d like to ask politicians, and it quickly became apparent there were core themes emerging. To reflect this we structured the content around Letting agents’ fees, Rent controls, Getting on the housing ladder, Standards in rented properties and Affordable housing supply.
LONDON STUDIO SET-UP
We set up a studio in SpareRoom’s lofty meeting room in Central London for two days. In order to maximise return on investment we also planned to film separate interviews with our parliamentary candidates, led by SpareRoom’s Communications Director Matt Hutchinson. This enabled us to create an additional ‘In Conversation’ strand of content.
For the contributors questions content we shot candidates talking straight into the camera, in a video diary style format. With a second camera to record an alternative cutaways we were able to edit between contributors and deliver bitesize films.
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
Securing each spokesperson for just one hour each meant we had to carefully plan camera and lighting setups to maximise filming time. When a contributor arrived we were able to brief them, wire them up with a personal microphone for sound and carry out both sets of filming to schedule.
The series of 10 videos successfully launched at the start of purdah, when parliament was dissolved on the 1st April 2015. SpareRoom’s Raise the Roof campaign led to the chancellor raising the tax threshold for renting out an empty room from £4,250 a year to £7,500 in the 2015 budget.
