Healthcare Startup Videos: Cerula Care
Every video project has its challenges. Typically, they’re no big deal. Just something to be aware of while working on the video(s).
Then, there’s Cerula Care. A healthcare startup that had us wondering if we should even take on the project.
WATCH: Cerula Care is a healthcare startup that presented us with a few challenges. You’d never know it seeing the end result.
The Opportunity
Cerula Care is a healthcare startup focused on a noble pursuit, improving the quality of life for people living with cancer.
Company leaders were in the process of building a company, raising capital, but most importantly, delivering critical care to patients who really need it.
Promoting a service like that is something we were really excited about.
The Challenge
Typically, when we talk with customers about video strategy, we start with the audience. We want to narrow down the audience as much as possible. The better you do that, the easier it is to create effective videos
Of course, there's an exception to every rule.🤪
Cerula Care had a few challenges:
limited funds
limited opportunities to shoot raw video (B-roll)
and finally, needing a single video to serve three distinct audiences
If you’ve ever been a part of a startup, this probably sounds familiar.
Our Process
Step 1: discovery
As usual, we started with a virtual meeting. In this case, it was super important because we learned a few things.
Budget. Like a lot of startups, money was tight. Having said that, they did have a budget for the video project. It wasn’t a big budget, but it was realistic. With some cost savings ideas on our end, it was doable.
The video shoot. While Cerula Care was up and running at the time of the production, they didn’t have a ton of customers and partners.
We would have loved to shoot in a few oncology facilities with patients receiving care. We would have loved to record some virtual therapy sessions. And we would have loved to conduct all the interviews in-person.
However, that wasn’t going to be the case here.
Multipurpose video. Cerula Care had three distinct audiences that could benefit from seeing a video: patients who use their services, oncologists who partner with the company, and potential investors.
The big question was can we create a video to effectively serve all three at the same time?
Our Process
Step 2: lights, camera, action!
While Cerula Care might not have had a ton of customers and partners, their early adopters were all-in to help with the video.
We suggested a few things:
secure 2-3 customers (patients) to give testimonials. We would record virtual interviews to save the company some money.
secure an oncologist to give a testimonial. Preferably someone who could get us access to an oncology center where we could conduct an interview with them, someone from Cerula Care, and to shoot a little B-roll… even it’s just empty patient rooms.
instead of presenting the patient testimonials as traditional virtual interviews, allow us some creative freedom to make those interviews more visually interesting.
Finally, since we knew we wouldn’t have much B-roll to work with, we proposed using some royalty-free video to help fill-in potential editing gaps.
Thankfully, the Cerula Care team was onboard, and they delivered on all three things we needed from them.
Our Process
Step 3: story time
The first raw material we had to work with were the customer testimonials.
Whew!
What a big relief… they were awesome! This is when everything started to take shape. We had a storytelling theory that could work for all three audiences.
We would be interviewing a Cerula Care leader who could give us the basics on the company, two patients who could talk about their customer experiences, and an oncologist who could offer why Cerula Care’s services are valuable and how they help him as a doctor.
Our thinking was that those three voices would serve all three of our audiences: patients, oncologists, and investors:
Patients. Hearing from other patients in their shoes would be a powerful message. Also, hearing from the oncologist would reassure them that adding Cerual Care to their healthcare team is sound medical advice.
Oncologists. Hearing from a fellow oncologist would make Cerula Care a more attractive partner. Seeing how patients love the service would confirm how effective the services could be for their own patients.
Investors: Seeing and hearing from both patients and doctors would confirm that this is a company that can deliver on its value proposition.
We then went about crafting a story that would be a fit for any/all of these audiences.
What we learned.
We’ll be honest, working as healthcare video specialists, we have it pretty easy most of the time.
We usually have a ton of compelling B-roll to shoot. The audience is easily defined. And the stories we tell are important and meaningful.
Sometimes it’s good to be pushed out of your comfort zone.
In this case, we knew we had an important and meaningful story to tell, but the rest of it… not so much.
And that was okay.
It forced us to get creative. We made the most of the budget we had to work with. We pushed ourselves to shoot video in different ways.
We learned that no matter what challenges a company or organization has going into a video project… there are solutions.
The Results
We’re happy to report the video was a hit.
Don’t take it from us.
Just look at the email we received from the Co-founder/CEO a couple of months after the project was completed.
Let us help you.
Limited budget?
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We are a resource you can turn to.
We are the Healthcare Video Specialists.