How to HELP a company manage to communicate WITHOUT HELP

When film school graduates finish their studies, they know the basics of the craft. To succeed in the real operations of the audiovisual industry and be able to secure funding for their ideas, they need to acquire a number of soft skills as well. And also to gain connections, without which it simply isn't possible. The talent incubator MIDPOINT Institute helps them with both. It just couldn't tell them clearly on its website.

5 steps for effective corporate communication (created in-house)

At the time we met, MIDPOINT Institute had ten years of experience behind it and a network numbering several thousand professionals. The ambition was to further expand the spectrum of services offered, overcome the grounding in the Central European space, and attract more creators from other corners of Europe as well. A new website was meant to support this. Its development was understood from the beginning by the institute's management as an opportunity for further changes in brand communication. And they were looking for someone to guide them through the entire process.

Step 1

Change perspective

The focus of MIDPOINT's activities is organizing training and consultation programs aimed at various filmmaking professions and different stages of development of a future film/series. Historically, they were used to thinking about the offering of their services in categories of their own internal criteria – meaning primarily by genres and implemented grants. This was then reflected in the way of presentation. For a visitor to find out whether a specific program was for them, they had to go through the website really carefully, consume a large amount of content – and often ended up writing an email anyway.

The offer must be FOR THEM!
At first glance.

The solution? To flip the perspective and look at MIDPOINT's offer through the eyes of the customers.

What life/professional situation are they in?
What are their needs and goals?
What choices do they face, what alternatives do they have?
And what makes MIDPOINT's services unique for them?

During a series of workshops with managers and producers, we looked for answers to questions heading toward the very essence of the brand. Based on them, not only a new website structure but also a completely new business argumentation emerged.

Step 2

Setting up the arguments

After many debates, we grouped MIDPOINT's services into three areas, corresponding to the division on the homepage. In addition to that, we offered users flexible filtering. Just two or three clicks and the visitor immediately reaches all programs that are relevant to them.

The result looks natural – but to similarly elegant solutions usually leads (just like in this case) a thorny path and the need to truly understand the offering in detail and empathize with the customers' needs.

For the argumentation to work, it must be credible.

MIDPOINT has achieved great results in its ten years of existence, but references and proofs of its qualities were completely missing on the website. Why not show them?

Step 3

The website must work for you, not you for it

Alongside content, the pain of the original website was also its complex administration. The rigid CMS placed significant demands on coordination, and some even entirely routine content changes could not be performed without a coder's intervention.

Together with MIDPOINT's program coordinators, we therefore deeply addressed the website management system and its connection to the internal operations of the organization. We started by elaborating the standard lifecycle of the offered programs in detail.

Based on it, we defined 4 basic states of a program, for which we created an ideal web presentation structure. In metaCMS JellyPot we created a modular system with predefined blocks that the administrator can freely add, move, or hide. At the same time, they do not have to worry about the design or about breaking something on the website with their intervention.

What did the new website help with?

• Managing the presentation of programs is simpler, more flexible, and can be handled by any program coordinator (only one team member managed to cope with the original complex interface).
• Website visitors constantly receive up-to-date and relevant information – in every phase of the program.
• Simplification of customer service: inquiries from prospects and participants decreased because the structure of the program presentation allows all necessary information to be clearly conveyed.
• MIDPOINT now promotes and attracts applicants for each of its programs even months before opening applications (previously, promotion launched only when applications opened). This has significantly eased the work for marketers.

Step 4

Structuring the promotion process of organized programs

Communication and marketing activities at MIDPOINT were done to a large extent intuitively. The work was divided among multiple people according to individual communication channels or platforms, and only a small part of the processes was standardized, so the wheel was frequently reinvented. Also, external suppliers were hired for all graphic work, which delayed operations and cost a lot of time resolving revisions.

Following the program's lifecycle, we compiled its detailed communication strategy. For individual phases, we added what, when, and through which channel to communicate, and for individual touchpoints, we created templates and instructions facilitating content creation. Marketers were relieved of routine work and thus have more space for creativity.

Step 5

Introducing tools for in-house creation

To help MIDPOINT reduce its dependency on suppliers of graphic work, we prepared graphic templates for standardized cases (social media posts, catalogs for program participants, advertisements, etc.).

Most of the routine graphics at MIDPOINT can now be created by themselves in Figma (after a brief training) and in PowerPoint, which, given the consumable nature of the catalog, performs almost the same service as professional graphic programs. And at zero external costs.