“The Way Up” Video Series
Goal: Square needed to prove its products can handle any business owner’s dream — launching a merch line, opening a fifth location, or serving 20,000 daily customers.
Approach: My team created a video series and a supporting multi-channel content strategy that highlighted six iconic independent businesses and their growth journey. We partnered with Guy Raz who interviewed each business owner and authentically pulled out their hurdles and key milestones, like he’s known for on his podcast, Wisdom From The Top.
Before shooting, I pre-interviewed guests to provide Guy with the right moments to explore in his interviews on set. This process was key to building a supporting editorial strategy. Using content from pre-interviews and shoot day, I ensured each video episode launched with multiple content pieces built for a specific stage of the customer journey:
A Q&A with Guy Raz, which teased out the video series and highlighted his lessons in entrepreneurship
Customer-authored advice articles where the business owner covers a topic from their episode more in-depth
Case studies highlighting how the business achieve a specific goal with help from Square products
A downloadable eBook that combined all of the interview insights in one educational asset
With support from an agency, I pulled the most compelling parts of each episode and translated that into snappy episode descriptions and landing page copy. We designed the webpage and series rollout so viewers were prompted to sign-up to get each episode’s content via email as it released every week. On the backend, I was responsible for making sure every episode launched seamlessly and on time.
Outcome: Through paid and organic distribution, the series resulted in 257,298 views on YouTube. It helped improve the company’s overall brand perception with business owners across food and beverage and retail, and it strengthened customer advocacy and engagement. The episodes gave our quotes and content that we continued to use and repurpose across other several other projects.