Creating a conference video for a niche audience

Making videos for our clients is part of our day-to-day – but each project has its own unique challenges.

Particularly when you only have a few minutes to convey the detail of a client’s business to an audience who, like most of us these days, already has their attention stretched.

Earlier this year, our client PryceWilliams came to us with a clear brief: to communicate what they do in a two-minute promotional video for an audience of senior M&A professionals at the Mark to Market conference in London.

When you’re talking about complex services – specialist post-deal project management and consulting support for businesses navigating merger or acquisition – two minutes isn’t long at all! Distilling this into something clear, concise and meaningful requires careful thought.

So how did we approach it?

The deadline was tight, but we had a strong starting point. PryceWilliams already had an established brand, messaging suite and visual identity: one that Herron had previously created and understood. That gave us a clear foundation to build from.

At the centre of their visual identity is a stylised arrow graphic. We chose to use this as the core storytelling device. Not only would it reinforce brand recognition, but it also lent itself naturally to animation – allowing us to introduce movement, pace and rhythm to the messaging on screen. The visual concept was to travel along the contours of the arrow, using this as a structure to build the narrative on.

But at this stage, it was still just an idea in our head. The next step was to make it tangible.

Yes, these days it’s all about AI and digital tools, but like all good designers, we always start with a sketch. There’s something about the physical act of putting pen to paper that helps unlock ideas in a different way. Using a marker and some A5 paper, we explored how the arrow could move, how the narrative might unfold, and how the messaging could sit within that structure.

The messaging itself was grounded in PryceWilliams’ existing brand language, a clear articulation of their expertise and the value they bring, but carefully adapted for the specific audience and context of the conference.

From idea to execution

Our series of sketches soon became a hand-drawn storyboard, a simple but powerful tool. It allowed us to clearly communicate the concept to the client, and once approved, provided a precise brief for our motion designer.

As is often the case, what works on paper doesn’t always translate perfectly into moving images. As the animation developed, we went through further rounds of refinement – adjusting pacing, simplifying messaging, and ensuring the final piece retained clarity without losing substance.

The outcome

The end result was a concise, focused video that PryceWilliams could use confidently in a high-level, time-pressured environment.

“Herron understood the brief quickly and delivered something that reflected our business accurately.” PryceWilliams

But more broadly, this project is a good reminder of the value of having a clear and established visual identity. When those foundations are in place, from visual language to messaging, it becomes much easier to create new assets quickly and adapt them to different audiences and uses, without losing the essence of the brand.

And while digital tools and technologies are great facilitators, when it comes to the creative process, human intelligence still delivers something fundamental – the ability to understand your audience and shape communication around what matters to them.