Author: Mike Capbarat
Beyond Representation
As storytellers focused on social impact, we at Duke & Duck and our clients often find ourselves making video content about specific regions and countries. When considering how to tell these location-based stories, authentic representation is always a top priority. Not only does an authentic story give the work a sense of cultural accuracy, it imbues it with a specificity and richness that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. But the trick is exactly how to put this philosophy into practice. How do we as producers ensure that our videos are grounded in cultural legitimacy?
For us, the answer is simple – we partner with local creative talent on everything from illustration to animation to voice talent. Doing so not only ensures a story that is true to a particular culture, it also unlocks a host of unexpected benefits.
One particular project of ours where this proved especially true was the Nestlé Global Families Video Campaign. Six regional segments came together in a :30 spot, celebrating Nestlé products at the heart of family traditions around the globe – specifically in Malaysia, Egypt, the USA, Central America, West Africa, and Switzerland.
Our team for this project included Eri Hashimoto (USA), German Gonzalez (Colombia), Camille Bovey (Switzerland), Mariam El-Reweny (Egypt), Hanson Akatti (Ghana), and Ong Lyn-Hui (Malaysia)
And so, as is our practice, we reached out to illustrators, animators, and voice actors in each of those regions and assembled our global creative super team. The quantity and quality of positive results surprised even us.
Cultural Connection You Can Feel
As a creative agency, we often partner with international artists on projects because of the abundance of creative talent from Brazil to Beijing. This case was particularly special because the goal of the project was to celebrate the traditions of each artist’s particular place of origin. The outpouring of passion and creativity that followed was astounding.
Personal family stories flowed forth from illustrators & animators during preliminary brainstorming sessions. Special attention was given to specific details around the depiction of locations, foods, and people during traditional family celebrations — from Egyptian feluccas to Malaysian plate patterning to Colombian architecture. Every character design, every animated gesture, every turn of phrase from a voice actor; every creative micro decision during this project was influenced by someone deeply immersed in the culture they were depicting. And whether consciously or not, the audience can feel the cumulative impact in the final video.
While only 30-seconds long, the video showcases a wealth of regional traditions in a way that feels uniquely inviting for the audience. The specifics of each family celebration give the video a sense of welcoming the viewer to join them at their family table. And because the creators were so connected to their work, the audience feels an equally strong sense of connection not only with each of these global families, but also with the Nestlé brand.
Had we not worked with local artists on this project, yes the look and feel of the piece would still have been beautiful and appealing. But it would have lacked the level of personal connection and cultural resonance that it has thanks to the contributions of those intimately familiar with each region.
Financial, Creative, and Social Empowerment
The final product speaks for itself as a celebration of different cultures thanks to the contributions of local artists. But another often overlooked benefit of working with local talent on video content is that it also benefits the very regions that the video celebrates by empowering them financially, creatively, and socially.
By choosing to partner with artists in each region that we celebrate, we are directly boosting the local economy by paying the artist we’re working with, and indirectly by helping pave a pathway for future work for those artists and others with whom they’re connected. From Egyptian artist Mariam to Ghanaian artist Hanson to Malaysian artist Lyn, every local partner that we worked with voiced the importance of being able to increase the visibility of their portfolios through experience working with well-known international partners. And when one artist thrives, it inspires another, and another, helping to foster a local creative community.
More importantly, working with local talent gives a voice to those in often underrepresented cultures. Every artist’s work has something culturally specific to say. So by giving an opportunity to a local artist, we are giving them a platform for their own self-expression — and the self-expression of the region that they represent. This, in many ways, is just as important as the message of the final video that they’ve worked on.
A Company Culture of Credibility & Inclusion
When working with artists from the region that a project depicts, you learn and grow from the experience. The members on the project learn key facts about a particular culture, make networking connections with members of that culture, bring these learnings to future projects that they work on, and become ambassadors of this practice of authentic representation. In other words, by putting our money where our mouth is and hiring artists from the regions we celebrate, we are reinforcing a company culture that promotes both credibility and inclusion.
On the Nestlé Global Families campaign, we again found this to be especially the case. Staffing this project was no small task — it required a significant commitment of time and resources to conduct all outreach, seeking portfolios and availability for artists across the globe. But in the end, we found that we had grown collectively as a result. We’d interfaced with people in countries with whom we had never interacted in the past. We’d learned about the unique needs of artists in Columbia versus those in Switzerland. And by the time we began our project, we found ourselves with a list of potential partners for future projects that was far broader than we’d anticipated. What’s more, we had newfound confidence that we indeed have both the ability and the obligation to pursue partnerships with anyone, anywhere in the world.
Work That Is More Than Worthwhile
Is it always easy hiring creative partners who are from the specific regions that we hope to depict? Certainly not. In fact, assembling a team of artists from around the world can prove incredibly challenging.
When staffing for foreign illustrators, animators, and voice talent we face language barriers, currency issues, timezone misalignment, and limited availability; the list of obstacles can be overwhelming, especially when working on a deadline. And let’s be honest, there may be reasons not to work with local creative talent.
But it is always worth it. For the creative connection and cultural richness with which local artists imbue the final product. For the financial, creative, and social empowerment that the work itself provided for the artists and their communities. And for the credibility and inclusion that it infused in the culture of our agency and that our client’s company. By the end of our engagement on the Nestlé Global Families Campaign, we found ourselves echoing the immortal words of Jimmy Dugan from the film A League of Their Own:
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…is what makes it great.”
