In early 2023, FloQast released it's "Compliance Module" in beta form for a select handful of FloQast super users. FloQast offers accounting software applications to assist the office of the CFO and Controller with a more effective and efficient month-end close process. To aid in the public release, in hopes of maximal reach and brand recognition, FloQast Studios was tasked with creating a one-of-a-kind video creative that could be passed around as an entertaining commercial.
The notion of creating content to improve brand recognition and drive sales is not novel, however, it is most often utilized by B2C business, selling products to consumers, and rarely done in mainstream format for B2B companies, selling products to a small subset of decision makers at businesses. Mike Whitmire, FloQast's co-founder and visionary behind FloQast Studios, understood that there was a major opportunity to create consistent high quality content as a business output, in an industry where very few companies are pursuing entertaining content as a marketing initiative.
In order to maintain SOC-2 compliance at the corporate level, but be agile enough to produce SAG authorized high quality video productions, FloQast Studios was formed. The first several large scale projects (PBC - a YouTube accounting comedy series, and Anxiety Animals - a FloQast promo creative) were done collaboratively with production company partners, however RMS Compliance was the very first completely in-house large scale mainstream production done by the FloQast Studios agency on behalf of FloQast.
Dictated by the belief that a powerful, funny, informative, engaging, and entertaining creative would be the best way to announce a new product launch, rather than a boring keynote or webinar, the corporate marketing team came to the studios team with a request to promote the public launch of the compliance module in Spring 2023.
After discussion amongst accounting thought leaders and finance professionals on the painpoint of staying compliant with regulations and accounting standards, it became clear that compliance breaches are often undetected and can wreak havoc on a company - as we've seen many times in recent years with the collapse of several start-ups and businesses. After several pitch ideas in the realm of how compliance could relate to a more mainstream struggle, the team settled upon the reference of the Titanic, which could have been saved had more compliance driven practices been followed, thus the vision became clear.
With the studio's history of featuring characters from The Office to represent the fictious company in the creative pieces, including Creed Bratton and Kate Flannery, it was decided that Oscar Nunez (the accountant character from The Office) would best represent the demographic and be an iconic face to play the CFO in the commercial.
The team spared no creativity in orchestrating an original composition for the quartet, using real players, getting the infamous door from the Jack & Rose scene, and even bringing in a real row boat and lifevests from the movie itself, to truly drive home the hyperrealism of this exaggerated office turned ship. The creative even features one of FloQast's very own employees completely drenched attempting to get into the lifeboat. The team developed the messaging of "don't wait until the ship is sinking to get your controls in place" to drive home the mission from the company in regards to the need for the compliance module product.
After two months of development an planning, the entire video production was performed in a single day, transforming the corporate headquarters office into a real recreation of the Titanic movie set, with a tech company office environment twist.
FloQast Studios was tasked with creating an effective digital marketing commercial to showcase the release of FloQast's newest software application product, "FloQast Compliance", in a way that would be maximally shareable, enjoyable to consume, and garner the most collective brand reach.
The 45 second commercial on the FloQast corporate channel recieved over 4.5 million views, and the full length studio cut on the FloQast Studios page recieved an additional 30k views, with both having over 80% watchtime retention, proving that those who saw the commercial stuck around to view the entire creative piece, attesting to the power of the content's entertainment value.
Since it's release, it has recieved overwhelmingly positive feedback from customers and prospects, and has resulted in a continued upsell of FloQast's accounting software products, with the compliance module gaining significant growth in the sector and accounting for an increasing number of purchases.
