The Storage.co.uk Award for Promotional Films

And the winners are …

Robertsbridge Container Storage

Big Yellow

Ord Storage Services

Lok’nStore

A1 Self Storage

The nature of the art

Our judges looked only at website films because the submissions received for the Awards referred uniquely to company websites (as opposed to YouTube or other platforms). This was to be expected, as this is of course the environment in which Storage.co.uk operates.

Website films are used increasingly to promote businesses and enterprises – but they constitute relatively new territory for film-making.

These films are not really advertisements as such, like the ones made for television. TV advertisements are very expensive to broadcast, so they tend to be short, made to a very high professional standard (the cost of production pales against the cost of repeat broadcasts), and attention-grabbing — aiming to reinforce the brand in public perception.

Horses for courses

Website films operate within a rather different framework. They cost effectively nothing to broadcast, so can be as long as the viewer might be expected to tolerate them. Visitors have already chosen to come to the site, so brand-reinforcement is less critical. Above all, website films are about delivering information. They answer questions that visitors might want to ask. And they do not have to be incredibly sophisticated to do this well.

In fact, small customer-friendly, family-run self storage companies may well want to present a website film that says just that in both content and presentation: a hands-on, personal, localised operation with priority given to customer relations rather than flashy branding.

This is why we liked the website film of Robertsbridge Container Storage Ltd (www.rcstorage.co.uk, see top right of their home page). It tells prospective customers all they need to know about Robertsbridge Container Storage — what it looks like, how they store their stuff, and so on — and the kind of operation it is, all related in a friendly and welcoming way by owner Matthew Lambourne himself. A model of its kind! (And we loved the self-deprecating outtakes/bloopers at the end – a hoot!)

Short and to the point

Robertsbridge Container Storage is making no attempt to match the sophistication of TV advertising. Big Yellow, by contrast, have a great track record in that field – witness the famous TV advertisement called “Tide” (viewable on YouTube).

Currently on their website they have a very different film called “Watch how self storage works”, found at www.bigyellow.co.uk/about. In just 1.04 minutes, using the simple device of writing and animated drawings on the surfaces of a storage box, plus a voiceover and soundtrack, it very effectively tells the viewer what self storage is about, and how easy it is.

And in less than 20 seconds, Ord Storage Services neatly and efficiently tell viewers what they might expect from their services, in a film posted on their home page: www.ordgroup.com/storage_home.html

Documentary style

In a number of self storage websites, videos show a professional presenter telling customers about the services offered by the company, with an accompanying slide show of still photographs in the background. These are often admirably efficient, but do not really make full use of the potential for film on websites.

Lok’nStore take this idea one step further in their two-minute film, showing a presenter with a microphone moving around a self-storage facility asking the kind of questions any potential customer might pose (see www.loknstore.co.uk/storage_videos.asp). The interviewee, Penny, comes over as an authentic self storage professional: genuine, well-informed, enthusiastic – she’s a star! The overall effect is both informative and engaging. You really feel you know what to expect at Lok’nStore by the end of the film.

The triumph of imagination

Self storage is not perhaps the most enthralling subject to film and present, so all credit to the winners above, who have taken a fairly direct route to convey their message and manage successfully to hold the viewer’s attention.

A1 Self Storage also deserve credit for taking a leap of imagination, delivering information through the narrative of “Teddy’s Story”, with charm and humour: www.a1selfstorage.co.uk/teddy.html. No voice over, just film and stirring music – simple, effective, and memorably different.