DELTA DENTAL
DELTA DENTAL WEBSITE BENEFICIARY INFO VIDEOS
In 2015, Delta Dental became one of five dental benefits companies offering family dental plans through Covered California. They contacted RSE to design a portfolio of videos that would provide an engaging, yet informative link between their customers and how they would use Covered California for their dental coverage.
CONCEPTS
Armed with the creative brief and dry erase markers, I partnered with our Sr. Copywriter to begin spitballing concepts. I began by researching infographic-forward videos, branded content from other insurance companies, and pop culture references that were relevant to our target audience. Taking these insights into consideration during the brainstorming process, we produced a number of concepts.
ART DIRECTION
ORIGINAL CONCEPTS
TALENT SELECTION
VENDOR MANAGEMENT
Concept One: Tooth Shorts
This concept was slightly (dare I say) tongue in cheek. A larger-than-life tooth would be the recurring character throughout the videos, guiding patients through the information in a way that was fun and easy to understand. Doctors and hygienists would come in and work on the tooth to demonstrate services.
Concept Two: Simple Smiles
This concept was a more straightforward, animated infographic approach. We leaned on a quippy script and eye catching and visually pleasing infographics to explain services while keeping the viewer engaged.
Final Direction
The client gravitated towards the second concept, but enjoyed aspects of the first. What resulted was a composite of the best of both ideas. Because of the sheer amount of information we were attempting to convey in these videos, we decided the animated infographic approach would be the most successful in engaging the viewers. I worked with the client and account team to develop and refine the third concept, which would include a Delta Dental brand ambassador character.
To ensure clear visual communication of all the information that the client wanted in the video, I produced low-fidelity storyboards first. This strategic approach allowed the internal team to first align on the messaging. From there, I made high-fidelity storyboards that I presented to the client to get their buy in on the storyline.
STORYBOARDS
TEAM ALIGNMENT
STORYTELLING
Character Development
After the client approved the high-fidelity storyboards and character direction moodboard, I met with the animation studio that had been selected to illustrate and animate the videos. I provided them the storyboards and character direction moodboards from which they produced some sketches and animation examples. Through iterative feedback with SMOG, I was able to accomplish a character and animation style that was modern but timeless.
ART DIRECTION
VENDOR MANAGEMENT
OUTCOME & CONCLUSION
The development of these videos and their character’s narratives laid the groundwork for Delta Dental to build a larger body of engaging and relatable educational materials. The videos included a lot of complex information that was successfully translated into fun, engaging, and informative videos. The character and animation style, for which I led the development and art direction, have stood the test of time, and nearly three years later the look and feel still feels modern.