Award-winning agency expands video production capabilities to offer organizations more engaging ways to tell their story

DOWNERS GROVE, IL., June 29, 2010- Sheffield Marketing Partners (Sheffield), a boutique agency that specializes in message and content development, announced that it has launched a new extension of its brand, Navigant Films, to address the growing demand for short-form video. The unit will be headed by Matt Cornelison, Sheffield’s veteran film maker and producer. The agency recently received three awards for its work in short-form online video production and has produced more than 250 short-form videos since 2007.

“Visual storytelling is a unique art form that’s in high demand,” said Joseph McCormack, Managing Director and Founder of Sheffield. “Over the years, we have perfected the craft of producing powerful stories through online video that capture the essence of an organization’s message. The name Navigant reflects our role in leading organizations to tell their stories with a clear direction and compelling storyline.”

Extending the Sheffield Brand

Navigant Films will operate from Sheffield’s headquarters in suburban Chicago. Navigant will offer a variety of video production services for corporate and non-profit clients interested in creating video trailers, customer success stories, online ads, highlight reels, Web-based video channels and short-form documentaries aimed at a specific audience. Navigant will leverage its expanding capabilities in 3-D animation and motion graphics, and its recognized expertise in narrative development.

The short-form category has grown in recent years with the rapid expansion of high-speed broadband Internet connectivity, new delivery channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo, and mobile devices like smartphones, laptops, net books and tablets. Increasingly, organizations are embracing video as a primary online communications tool to keep their audiences engaged.

“Many viewers struggle to make a connection to today’s typical corporate video,” added Matt Cornelison, production manager at Sheffield. “The mission of Navigant Films is to produce more engaging, short-form videos that create stronger and lasting impressions with audiences.”

Industry Recognition

Sheffield’s video work recently received recognition. “I Am Lexington”, a five-minute marketing video that recounts the stories of students and alumnae of Lexington College in Chicago, won both the Platinum Hermes Creative Award and the Award of Distinction for the 16th Annual Communicator Awards. Sheffield produced this short-form video as a part of a re-branding campaign designed to increase brand awareness and enrollment in the hospitality management college.

Sheffield also received the Gold Hermes Creative Award for producing a high-impact online video called “The VSAT Advantage” for Herndon, VA-based satellite technology leader iDirect. The video combined professional acting talent with motion graphics to create a dynamic educational sales tool.

About Navigant Films

Navigant Films is a subsidiary of Sheffield Marketing Partners that crafts short-form videos for a variety of corporate and non-profit clients that are high impact and tell a powerful story. Navigant is staffed by an executive producer, director, writers and post-production editors and animators.

About Sheffield Marketing Partners

Sheffield Marketing Partners helps businesses and organizations create stories worth telling. Founded in 2006, Sheffield is a boutique agency that specializes in message and content development and offers a range of capabilities including narrative mapping, marketing campaigns, design, animation and online video production. Sheffield is located in Downers Grove, IL. More information can be found at www.sheffieldcompany.com or by calling 630-310-5190.

Agency recognized with two Hermes Creative Awards as well as a Communicator Award of Distinction for outstanding Video Production

DOWNERS GROVE, IL., June 4, 2010- Sheffield Marketing Partners (Sheffield), a boutique agency that specializes in message and content development, announced that it has received three awards for its work in short-form online video production.

“I Am Lexington”, a five-minute recruitment video recounting the stories of students and alumnae of Lexington College, won both the Platinum Hermes Creative Award and the Award of Distinction for the 16th Annual Communicator Awards. Lexington is a Hospitality Management College in Chicago. Sheffield produced this video as a part of a re-branding campaign designed to increase enrollment in the college.

The agency also was recognized with the Gold Hermes Creative Award for producing “The VSAT Advantage”, a high-impact video for Herndon, VA-based iDirect that educated maritime communications providers on the value of switching to iDirect’s broadband satellite platform. The video was an effective educational tool that was a critical part of a global lead generation campaign.

“It is very rewarding to get recognized for short-form videos that tell our clients’ story with passion and clarity,” said Joseph McCormack, Managing Director and Founder of Sheffield. “Our goal is to produce videos that are so compelling that you’d want to see them twice. We’re excited to know we’ve hit the mark.”

About the Awards

The Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition designed to honor creators and messengers of traditional and emerging media. These awards are run and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals, which consists of several thousand advertising, marketing, public relations, and communications professionals.

The Communicator Awards recognizes creative excellence among communications professionals. Specifically, the Award of Distinction recognizes projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement. Winners are selected from over 9,000 entries submitted by agencies and companies of every size.

About Sheffield Marketing Partners

Sheffield Marketing Partners helps businesses and organizations create stories worth telling. Founded in 2006, Sheffield is a boutique agency that specializes in message and content development and offers a range of capabilities including narrative mapping, marketing campaigns, design, animation and online video production. Sheffield is located in Downers Grove, IL. More information can be found at www.sheffieldcompany.com or by calling 630-310-5190.

The Sheffield Video Production team recently put together a little “sizzle reel” of our past and recent work. The purpose is to give you a glimpse into some of the stories we’ve told and the different channels we used to tell them. We wanted to show how you can take a company’s story and tell it in a variety of compelling ways depending on your audience. We worked with many exciting clients with some cool stories to tell. Check it out!

Be sure to check out Sheffield’s Video Channel on YouTube!

Many organizations exhaust tremendous energy in crafting mission, vision and value statements. These efforts are important and necessary to define who you are, where you are going, and what you want to be. Unfortunately, many of these statements are rendered practically worthless given that they are “word-smithed” to death and are basically inaccessible to an organization.

Consider a simpler approach: create a narrative story that ties all these pieces together and is easier to understand. The story of a vision, culture and values is much more interesting and should resonate immediately. What’s more, a story that simply explains what an organization is trying to accomplish, using anecdotes and analogies whenever needed, has greater appeal than something stuck in a frame or frozen in laminate. You’ll find that sharing such a strategic narrative will give employees a much easier way to wrap their minds around important ideas, rather than stumbling over obtuse concepts, catch-phrases and corporate jargon that at first glance seem boring and meaningless.