Context for the Past Year
During the year of 2024, many things changed for Around the Corner Productions. The business changed its website, updated its professional reel, hired two new members of the team, and acquired many different clients with a new variety of needs – which were all met by our team because of, and in response to, the many changes made earlier in the year.
Due to these changes, the business had to have many conversations about what “we” meant, where we wanted to go, and how we wanted to present ourselves to clients and other businesses in the area to continue to differentiate ourselves as the best video production company around. That means we have to push ourselves in new and different ways in every facet of our operations, and our team, brand, and communication has to match that. “We do video. Period.” was created to encapsulate that vision.
Why not “Let’s Tell Your Story”?
“Let’s Tell Your Story” has taken us incredibly far. We were the first video company in the area to center authenticity in our video productions and we have reaped the benefits of that approach. Our “doc-style” videos have been a point of pride for almost 20 years. That doesn’t need to stop; authenticity is a core value of the team because we love video- and all the people we can showcase through video even more so.
At the beginning of the 2024 brand refresh, Around the Corner Productions received feedback from clients, family, friends, and trusted media professionals at the urging of our web developer, Aaron Beck Brunk, to consider clarifying ourselves as a business. Their feedback set us off in a great direction with lots to think about. The respondents of the survey mentioned their dislike for “film | edit | finish”, discussed potentials for “warming up the website,” with one user mentioning: “The best part about what you guys do is that each project is unique. Capitalize on that.” With this scale of feedback, we addressed the points we had the capacity for at the time, heading into our busiest summer season in the company’s history.
ATCP branding 2006
ATCP branding 2012-2024
ATCP branding 2025
Concerns with “Lets Tell Your Story” began to escalate when “authenticity” became a cultural buzzword, not a true value. It seemed that every business we worked with in the area touted “authenticity” with no genuine follow through or understanding of the term. This concern came to a head when other video production companies, web developers, photographers, and podcasters increased their use of the phrase to promote themselves. For reference: there are over 20 pages of search results on google with the phrase “Let’s Tell Your Story” as a catchphrase for a business. We knew we needed something to set ourselves apart.
We recalled the branding advice Aaron had given us earlier that year. The phrase “Let’s Tell Your Story” is unclear. What does this company do? What do they specialize in? Are they good? Those questions were unanswered.
In order to sustain the growth that boomed at the start of 2024, looking ahead to clients that would determine their willingness to reach out to Around the Corner on first impression alone, with feedback from clients and professionals, we knew we would have to change our catchphrase in order to address the many branding concerns the company was facing.
“We Do Video. Period.”
“We do video. Period.” emerged from the growing reality of “Let’s Tell Your Story” keeping us in a box, grouping us – on first impression – with a vast and diverse group of companies and artists. During the summer of 2024, Around the Corner leaned into our ability to provide large-scale video for our clients without becoming our client’s competitors. We were the perfect solution: what sets us apart is the fact that we are a full team that solely does video. Any aspect of video production a client might want – we offer. Nothing more and nothing less.
During a meeting with a new agency client, Eric used “We do video. Period.” for the first time. After using it colloquially around the office during proposal request responses, internal discussions of client management and outreach, and staff meetings, a prospective agency heard it for the first time – and they breathed a sigh of relief. The team smiled, confident that they had the right impression of us without any uncertainty from the client. At the end of the meeting, they told us their choice was Around the Corner Productions due to our video production expertise. We had succeeded in assuring a client of our capabilities confidently – all with a single phrase. That interaction began a campaign-long relationship that continued into 2025.
The meaning of the catchphrase is dualfold. It is clear and precise, and captures exactly how the business wants to present itself to agency clients: “We do video”. It also enforces a confident attitude- a no-nonsense experience that you can rely on when you contract Around the Corner Productions: “period.”
Why not a more detailed phrase? The answer is simple. We do not want to fragment ourselves by advertising production, post production, or editing services individually, as we do many different combinations of services on a client by client basis, and any more complicated explanation might limit us due to client confusion. We do video, and video is what our client’s want. Consider a fast food restaurant that specializes in hamburgers. “We do burgers. Period” is their catchphrase. We know that that will probably be a pretty good burger, with everything a burger could have on it. Their phrase is not “We do buns, lettuce, onion, tomato, beef patties, and cheese. Period.” That might suggest they do each component separately, and it is unclear that those components end in the product of a “burger”. Using “video” as a term that encapsulates all facets of video production, we meet our clients where they are.
Where Does This Catchphrase Take Us?
“We do Video. Period.” has already caught the attention of several of Around the Corner’s most frequent clients, and it has the potential to take us much further. In addition to the relationships already built, an industry wide audit of potential clientele created by the Around the Corner team identified over 30 different companies or agencies that could use a solo video vendor. With this phrase, we are meeting a need not yet addressed in the video market in Iowa.
Typically, advertising agencies hire individuals with a wide variety of skills. Oftentimes, a full service media agency needs to have a staff that can cater to many needs. If the project calls for more serious focus in one area over another, they can bring a specialist in to address that client’s needs. Contractors and doctors are similar. When a client needs high- end video that their internal team doesn’t have the capacity to complete, this creates a need that Around the Corner Productions can uniquely fill as video specialists. We knew that we needed to better position ourselves to fill that need.
Tear down for the final shot of ATCP’s promo video.
Altogether, positioning ourselves to grow our client base fills our needs as well: the desire to be creative in our video applications, the need to grow and become better, to show our work to a larger audience, and create more meaningful relationships with those in the same industry. At Around the Corner Productions, we view this relationship as symbiotic.
This new catchphrase brings Around the Corner right back to where we started: the authentic experience of person centered video – including the people that make up the Around The Corner team. We still tell stories- except now, we embrace and clearly communicate that video is the vehicle to get us there.