The short answer: use one production company that can run local crews in every country under one producer. Agree one story template and one look before the first shoot, film close to each customer with crews who speak the language, and edit centrally so every film meets the same standard. Casual films customer stories this way from eight offices in seven countries, and has filmed in 396 cities across 67 countries and territories.
Why multi-country customer stories go wrong
- Each market hires its own crew, so the films look and sound like they came from different companies.
- No shared story structure, so some films are about the customer and others are about the product.
- Legal, brand and regional sign-off happen at the end, and re-edits pile up.
- Versions, subtitles and cut-downs are an afterthought, so social teams get nothing they can use.
How to do it well
- Write one story template. Before: what was hard. The change: what they did. After: what is different now, with a number if you have one. Every film follows it.
- Approve one treatment for the whole series. The look, the music, the graphics and the interview questions, signed off once by every stakeholder before anything is filmed.
- Use local crews, one producer. Local crews know the language, the permits and the customer's culture. One producer keeps every shoot to the same plan.
- Edit centrally. One edit team keeps the standard, and footage can move between offices so work carries on overnight.
- Plan versions at the start. Subtitles, local-language cuts, vertical clips and quote cards come from the same shoot.
Examples
- Prudential: 13 films shot in 13 countries across Africa and Asia in six weeks, to one narrative and one standard, delivered ahead of a fixed investor-day date.
- GoDaddy: a customer-led documentary series and a repeatable model: more than 100 short films, each following a real entrepreneur, all to one standard across markets. On Clutch, GoDaddy's programme manager said the series grew from "around 15 stories in a year" to "about 80 stories in a year", each with "about 4 to 6 different deliverables".
- Glean: customer films with TIME and Booking.com that influenced US$116M of sales pipeline, with twice the industry-average click-through rate across 32 million impressions.
- FrieslandCampina: three ambassador films in the Netherlands, Nigeria and Malaysia in about six weeks.
Questions people ask
How long does a multi-country customer story series take?
Most of our projects take four to eight weeks. Prudential's 13 countries took six. What slows a series down most is sign-off across many stakeholders, so agree the treatment early.
Do we need to fly a crew from head office?
Usually not. Local crews cut travel cost and carbon, and know the place. Your producer runs every shoot to the same plan, and you can watch over an HD remote dial-in if you can't attend.
Can you make versions in local languages?
Yes. We film in the customer's own language where that sounds most natural and deliver subtitled and local-language versions for each market.
What does it cost?
It depends on countries, shoot days and versions. See our published ranges in the cost calculator, or ask about a yearly programme, which starts at US$10,000 a month.
Planning customer stories in more than one country? See international video production, or brief us and we'll reply within two working hours.