The Video That Launched A Life-Saving School Communication Tool

You can’t put a price on your child’s safety–or, can you? While every parent would tell you–myself included–that they’d spend any amount of money to ensure their child is safe at school, Badge Messenger aims to make that hope a reality across the nation.

Stephanie Pederson, a teacher herself, first came up with the idea of Badge Messenger while having a conversation with her husband, Greg. She was telling him about how difficult it was for teachers to reach the main office at school, and how that could be problematic in case of a real emergency. If only there was a new technology to help bridge that gap.

The solution needed to be easy-to-use and accessible, but still portable and lightweight without a steep learning curve. Most teachers don’t always have a cell phone on them, and in an emergency, seconds make all the difference. The solution? Create a device that could be worn with a school ID badge, a piece of identification and access nearly every single educator already wears.

And so, Badge Messenger was born. 

The Challenge: Create an effective way to explain and educate users on what Badge Messenger does

Badge Messenger already created a simple, empowering communication and alert system for schools, but they knew that in order for the message to get across loud and clear, they would need to go the extra mile to showcase all the ways their product could help a school’s communication protocol.

There are many solutions out there for communication within schools. But the fact of the matter is a lot of existing solutions are flawed. Many require you to access an app on a phone, often forcing teachers to use their personal devices and ensuring apps are up to date. Some solutions include a phone system within the school. If you’ve ever spoken to a teacher about emergency situations, they’ll tell you that an app or desk phone presents more challenges than solutions.

Sometimes you only have seconds to call for help, and that’s where Badge Messenger’s product stands above the rest. Acting as a badge holder, the messenger is always on the teacher’s person. With the press of a button, you can instantly request help in areas like medical, security, and maintenance. Each teacher also has the ability to call a lock-down within seconds. On top of all of that, the product doesn’t require WiFi and can’t be hacked.

It sounds simple, but this product is a radically new technology and unheard of in the market. So while Badge Messenger was nimbly navigating the world of a product start-up (R&D, manufacturing agreements, user-testing, pilot programs, and more), they also needed to figure out how to market the product. That’s where Leighton Interactive came in.

When Leighton Interactive teamed up with Badge Messenger, it was like superheroes joining forces. Harnessing Hubspot and video to tell their brand story and promote this awesome technology for good? All in the name of school safety? Team Up Supreme!

But in all seriousness, we couldn’t have been more excited or in awe of what the brand was aiming to do in today's world of security challenges in the most important places, like schools. Right away Leighton Interactive saw the potential for this product to change the world, and we knew we had the resources to help bring Badge Messenger front and center in school safety.

The Solution: An impactful, animated video on a website platform built for results

Who run the world? Video. On average users spend about 40 minutes a day watching videos on social media platforms, and a whopping 85% of those users watch without sound on. So how do you reach users? That’s where easy-to-digest, animated videos come in. By delivering content in a way that users can read and follow along with, it creates a more impactful impression.

For the explainer video, we had 3 goals:

• Teach users what Badge Messenger is and how it works

• Provide scenarios on where Badge Messenger can be used

• Explain how Badge Messenger is different from other tools

And do it all with beautiful animation.

But before we could dive into the end goal of a video, we needed to establish the look and feel of Badge Messenger. Design plays a huge part in brand and communication, and Badge Messenger invested early in this aspect of the branding process. We established colors, fonts, icon style, and a logo through persona data, user surveys, and market research. Once these pieces were identified, we were able to move into the next phase: the website.

When you’re a start-up, you’re in a constant whirlwind of activity. There are so many things that need to be created, organized, and maintained. We knew that, amidst all this activity, attempting to put together a large-scale website would only slow the process. Instead, we decided to build a single-page website that would truly focus on the most important thing: the video and the forms. We wanted to create a funnel for users to watch the video, understand the product, sign up for updates, and ultimately to inquire about the product.

The HubSpot COS was the perfect platform for this process. It allowed us to create a website page that was easy to maneuver on the back end. We knew we'd also be able to quickly upload and place the animated video directly on the website through the VidYard integration. Which brought us to the final phase: creating the video itself. 

Our video creation process is a well-oiled machine. From outlining the vision to creating the storyboard to executing the production, we place a huge emphasis on the most important aspect of video: the content. Throughout the process, we asked ourselves: "Will this communicate the product in a way that is both clear and inspiring?"

Check it out for yourself:

In addition to the video itself, we put a huge emphasis on distribution. Distribution can make or break your video content. For Badge Messenger, we outline a detailed plan of how we were going to get the video in front of as many targeted users as possible. It included things like uploading to a variety of video platforms (Vidyard, Wistia, YouTube) and sharing on social platforms (both by uploading natively and by sharing external links). 

The Results

Since adding to the website on February 18, 2019, the “What is Badge Messenger” animated explainer video has had 134 total plays with 68% average engagement. To put that into perspective, in the same timeframe, their website has had 881 new users, which means that 1 in 6.5 users played the video!

Social media saw even greater success with the videos. Uploading the video natively to Facebook and pinning it to the top of the page generated 962 views, and uploading it natively to LinkedIn generated another 390 views. That's 1,352 total views!  In addition, the Facebook video also generated 65 reactions, comments, and shares and has reached 2,255 people. To put that into perspective, their new Facebook page only has 78 current followers! This shows the power a good video can have on social media.

The Badge Messenger team has incorporated the video into their pitch process, and it's become an important sales tool for them- a way to communicate the product in a quick, memorable way. It's become a focal point for the tradeshows they've participated in, and they've included it within the various facets of their communication- such as email signatures and sales emails. 

Since the website and the video launched, we've seen a huge increase in awareness for the product. Badge Messenger has landed four incredible PR opportunities with news outlets, and have even more pending. Can you say #viral?

Impact Beyond Metrics

Perhaps the most impactful thing that the video has done, however, is helping the Badge Messenger team align on their own communication about the product. Through this process, both the Leighton Interactive team and the Badge Messenger team explored and uncovered the best way to talk about the product: complex in nature, yet so simple to use. It's hard to put an ROI on something like that. 

So what next? Get Badge Messenger into as many schools as possible. This product can truly save lives, and it's not very often a marketing agency gets the opportunity to work with a company doing that. It's difficult to put into words the kind of passion that drives this movement. The Badge Messenger team has harnessed their special technical expertise and devotion to children and teachers to create a truly unique product. Every teacher who has used the product has leveraged their influence and dedication towards education to promote this solution. 

And our team at Leighton Interactive? We're grateful and excited to help bring it to life. 

Check out this video from our client if you didn't get the chance up above: 

ARE YOU IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING A NEW AND EXCITING PRODUCT? WE'D LOVE TO HELP BRING IT TO LIFE (AND MORE IMPORTANTLY: BRING IT TO MARKET).