NEWS
By Cristina Mercedes
VIDEO MARKETING
BIGWORK BUILDS RESTAURANT AND FOOD BRANDS WITH CREATIVE VIDEO STRATEGY
I
t is true that the ambiance, the service, and the taste of the food combine to elevate the dining experience. But perhaps the element that seals the deal is the tableware. Not only must it be a sophisticated reflection of the establishment, but it must also do the job right. Too little and the food falls off and too big and you think the establishment is being stingy. For the foodservice industry, the use of video has become a very powerful tool to promote a restaurant, showcase a new menu item, or to give their clientele an inside look into their operations. Social media platforms such as TikTok, You-Tube, and Instagram have given us easy access to target audiences based on interests and demographics. BigWork understands the features that make each company and their brand special and unique with that ability to uncover those bells and whistles they have built a track record of striving creating video based on the clients’ needs in order to engage and move the audience. That approach came from the childhood experiences of the BigWork’s
founder: Tim Gannon. He has fond memories of watching horror movies with his mother. “After my sister and I had gone to bed, my mom would wake us up late to watch scary movies with her to keep her company because she didn’t want to watch them alone,” Gannon said. “When I saw the original Invasion of Body Snatchers, I was so scared. I looked under my bed for a week thinking there was going to be a pod under there! This early exposure to movies is what first got him interested in film. When I think of the movies that made an impression on me, the first that comes to mind is ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’, ‘The Black Cat’, and ‘The Incredible Mr. Limpet’.” One day, while watching ‘Deliverance’ and discussing films with friends, Gannon’s friend mentioned that he was enrolled in film school. “You mean you can actually learn to make them?” he said. “It was a revelation; I enrolled the very next day.” After graduating from film school, Gannon got his start as a production assistant on commercials and corporate videos. He was invited to work on
76 • November 2022 • Total Food Service • www.totalfood.com
“[I ask the client] questions about their process, their sales cycle, their audience, their culture, etc. With the information gleaned from these questions I can create a video that reflects the brand and engages an audience.” — Tim Gannon a feature film in NYC and spent the next three years traveling back and forth between NYC and Minneapolis advancing his career. This eventually led to a position as a cameraman on Law & Order for five years. After a screenplay that he wrote was optioned, he landed a job directing and producing for a company. When two of the producers were laid off, he realized it was time to move on and that’s when he created BigWork. His first BigWork project was to create a new hire orientation video for Rabobank, a large Dutch agri-financial bank. Gannon and a crew of three others interviewed Rabobank’s most important clients such as premier grape producers, wine producers, and Earthbound Farms over the course of five days in California through Bakersfield, the Central Valley, and Napa. Rabobank still shows the video as part of their new hire onboarding process and over the course of a seven-year period they created fifteen more videos for them. Gannon’s approach when suggesting what kind of video would work best with the clients’ specific needs is simple: he asks a lot of questions. “Questions about their process, their sales cycle, their audience, their culture, etc. With the information gleaned from these questions I can create a video that reflects the brand
and engages an audience”. Among the latest work in the BigWork portfolio is the creation of highlights of the L Sashin/TFS Virtual Breakfast series. “Tim has been able to capture the magic of guests like wellknown restaurateur Stratis Morfogen and chef David Burke, to enable our audience to take those tips back to their own operations,” noted L Sashin’s Larry Sashin. BigWork’s diverse portfolio have given Gannon and his team a unique perspective of how video should be produced and packaged to maximize the growth of a brand. He believes that a video should be as long as it needs to be without losing the story. “Striving to make a video shorter is always a goal, but not at the expense of losing the story,” he explained. “If you lose the story, then you’re not servicing the client or doing your job. If a video tells the story in the right amount of time and with the proper content, the audience will respond. The story the client wants to be told dictates the length.” Cinematic high-quality video isn’t all that BigWork can do, they also create radio ads, web design, menu boards, event content, and print. If you’d like more information on BigWork, you can check out their website at www.bigwork.digital