Help people, help yourself - in the game of social media, educational content is a win-win situation. Some would say it's a great 'game-play' (see what we did there...). Anyway enough of the play on words (oops we can't help ourselves), let's get to the goodness that is how you can nail social media by creating educational content!

We've said it before and we will say it again - social media is social. Your businesses posts are popping up between your audiences Mum's photos of her garden, their friends baby photos, and sisters engagement snaps. The fact that businesses and people share the same platform means it's a very unique space, and fundamentally means that sales, pitching and blatant advertising aren't well received on social media.

"So what exactly is it for then?" I hear you asking. Relationship building!

Social media is a place for conversations and interactions. When done right, these conversations and interactions build brand awareness and brand 'love' for your brand. Here's where the good stuff comes in...

So many people get stuck in posting content that just 'informs' followers. Whether that's on current events, results (if you're an athlete), achievements etc. That content is fine, but it's a bit one sided and it doesn't facilitate those relationships that we're wanting to build, as our followers don't gain anything from this type of content.

Introducing 'educational content' - the not so secret weapon to social media success that every business, brand, athlete, or public figure can use. The idea is simple, you're creating content that is of value to your fans and future clients.

I'm going to jump straight into some examples here since I find that's the best way to describe things. Say you run an internet company for example - you know your customers are people who regularly use the internet for work and recreation, they want it to be fast (because who doesn't), you know they own technological gadgets to get onto the internet, you also know they probably own a house or rent a dwelling of sorts. Here's a list of things you could create content on:

The top 5 productivity apps - We've identified your target market are potentially busy people, running a household, working or running their own business, and they're tech savvy.

As you'll see from the examples above, all these are specifically targeted to our target audience (the people who will be paying money for our product/service), and they either tap into their wants or desires, or help them solve a problem that they have.

In posting educational content you are:

Being a helpful human/brand/companyGiving without expectation of a purchase which is generous Building brand awareness + love for your brandCreating content that's more likely to be shared around because it's helpful Positions you as the 'expert' in your field

Wins all round! Have a think about the kinds of content you could create, that will resonate with your target audience and will help to build a relationship between your brand and your audience. It's not only going to help you commercially, but it's also really fun to get creative with content. Bonus points to anyone who brings in a third party to create educational content as well - this is a great option for companies who have sponsored athletes or brand ambassadors, as you can tap into their knowledge base and fan base as well for a double whammy win!! Get thinking on what educational content you could create in your business, and then get posting, blogging, and newsletter writing up a storm.

It doesn't sound terribly ground breaking right, but one of the biggest learnings since we've been in business, is that being yourself is a totally legitimate business strategy.

We started Play Creative two years ago now. I had the marketing and communications experience, and Dan had the design, photography and videography skills, so we thought why not combine forces. It wasn't terribly official at first, we started creating a few brands for friends and slowly built up our experience, to a point where we decided to buy a camera together.

As we went through growing the business, we initially thought we had to conform to how other people did business, questioning ourselves a bit as we went along because we didn't feel like we were terribly 'official'. In hindsight, the fact that we both hadn't worked in businesses in the videography industry before starting our business, was the best thing for us. We didn't know how the big businesses operated, so we just made it up as we went along. Instead of getting caught up in the fact that we 'had to do it this way, because that's how it's done', we were able to create systems and processes that just worked for us and our clients.

I think a lot of people get caught up in the official feel of the 'business' world and forget that ultimately a business is just a collection of people offering services to other people. Our goal is always to try and make the process as simple, easy, and enjoyable as possible for our clients, whilst 'being ourselves' in all interactions.

The flow on from this is that there's no moment where we feel we have to put our 'official business hat' on, or to change our personality at all. In short, we try to be genuine, real, human-beings, and to make other people's lives easier - and hey, it seems to be working pretty well so far!

Two years on and we're working with a huge variety of different businesses and people who are all passionate about what they do. We're helping them connect with their stories, and communicate them to the rest of the world. Seeing people gain momentum from seeing their stories articulated through a video is still the thing that lights us up the most, and fuels the fire to keep producing video content for our clients.

Go be you team.

Waikato based Videographer/Video editor

We are a Waikato based videography company who craft storytelling videos which help our clients share their passions and stories with the rest of the world. Play Creative was founded by Nicky Felton and Dan Franks in late 2016 and has experienced some massive growth over the past two years.

We're looking for a creative and talented video editor who's based in the Waikato, to join our team and help us keep up with the work we're booking! This would be a contract role which would start casually (on a project by project basis) with the opportunity to grow quickly and to develop into a more permanent contract.

Basically we’re peeps who love our business, take immense pride in our jobs, love our flexibility and creativity, and love to have fun along the way. We’re after someone who shares our values above and who wants to join a young and passionate company who’s on the way up.

This role is hugely flexible – aside from meetings held at our favourite cafés, you’ll be working from home (or anywhere else you choose!) and will be in charge of managing your own time.

The role will be largely editing footage shot by us, however we often also require an additional shooter so we’re after someone who’s handy with a camera, who has a creative eye for a shot, and who’s a great communicator (so you can become BFF’s with our clients on shoots).

This role will start as a casual contract role on a project by project basis, but the right person has the opportunity to develop it into a more permanent contract. As we’re a small company who’s all about being flexible, we’re keen to work out your strengths and areas of interest so we can play to them and help you work on projects that suit you.

You must:

Be a Premier Pro ninjaHave attention to detail so intense that no badly timed shot change will get past youBe able to work independently and make executive decisionsWe don’t care if you work from bed in your pyjamas, we just care that your video is with us when you say it will be (but maybe dress for Skype calls and meeting…)Have experience making epic videos

If you’re feeling our vibe and are keen to apply, please send through a ‘one pager’ on why you’re an epic fit for this role and our team, your CV, and a few examples of your work.

team@playcreative.co.nz

Social media isn't always easy. There's a whole breed of people out there who are selling the idea that social media will change your life and allow you to reach ALL the people and get ALL the sales, and that it's not hard. This is a lie, because as much as we really love social media and are big advocates for it's benefits, there's no doubting that it's hard work and it's only getting harder. The algorithm that social media sites are imposing means posts are getting less reach and engagement, which means that even once you've gone to all the effort to put a post together and get a great photo, the chances it's actually going to get a fair chance on social media is quite slim.

Since it's not always easy, and there are so many articles floating around with fancy tactics and terminology, written by people you probably don't know... we thought we'd get real about social media, and throw down some things that have actually worked for us online, in the hope that they'll do the same for you. Here goes!

Posting often does work

The trick to making sure you do get a fair chance online is all about being consistent with your posting. So many times we've had content that we've thought would do really well online, and it's been a complete flop! Most times where we've gone wrong is that we haven't posted anything for a while before that post. The concept of the algorithm means that "the rich get richer and poor get poorer", in the sense that if you haven't posted or had engagement for a while, your next post is likely to get squashed. Vice versa, if you can consistently get some decent engagement, that's only going to build over time, but you need to keep posting.

Getting strategic about what you post is key

Social media is social for a reason - people don't want to be sold to all the time. More often than not, the posts that do well on our feed are the ones that are photos of Dan and I together, working on projects, or updating our people on our life! This makes sense because your supporters initially are family and friends, and it's important to know that this isn't a bad thing, in fact you need to use this to your advantage! With the point above in mind, before you're about to drop a great piece of your content (for us that's likely a great video we've made that we want people to see), we'd post a photo of us to get the engagement on the page up which will hopefully mean our next post does well! Get smart about the type of content you're posting, and long term plan, not just the short term outlook.

Likes aren't representative of the conversations happening offline

We've had so many people chat to us and mention specific posts or events that have happened lately, which we thought no one was really taking notice of! People we don't even know are constantly telling us that they've been following us online for quite some time and are finally ready for a video - who knew! If we looked at our likes only, we wouldn't be super stoked with our numbers, we're no influencers, but we're creating impact offline despite this and people are talking about our business without us present in those conversations.

We've built our business on our network, and our social media - it does work

We've paid a grand total of $40 for FB ads over the past two years, we don't do any other form of advertising apart from putting our work on our website and our social media sites, and we've built a full time business from just that.

Investigate FB ads

Yes social media is free, but if you really want to get some traction or reach specific audiences, ads are a great way to do this. They're cost effective, you get great targeting options, and a whole lot of feedback from your ads that you wouldn't get in traditional advertising (e.g print media) so it's well worth investigating. HERE is a great podcast on "Facebook ads 101" that will tell you the ins and outs of FB advertising - Stevie is a pro on this, and puts everything into language all business owners can understand!

Ultimately social media is the way you start the conversation and introduce people to your brand, then the conversation needs to continue and you need to seal the deal in other ways rather than just online. Social media won't make you a success if you don't follow up, be a good human, have a good product, or engage with your people!

Our advice would be to LEAN IN, enjoy creating some content and sharing news about your business regularly, but keep in mind it's only one avenue of communication in your bigger marketing plan!

Nicky returned to her old stomping ground at Waikato University last week as an 'alumni' to talk to some current communications students about the journey after University, into the 'real world'. It was a great time to reflect on the journey that we've embarked on in starting Play Creative 18 months ago, so we thought we'd summarise a few of our key learnings below, for anyone who might be toying with the idea of starting their own business.

Don't overcomplicate it.

It's quite easy to get caught up in thinking that starting a business is a big and daunting task that takes a special person, and a perfect situation to start a business. Whilst we understand that some businesses are much more tricky to start than others, don't get us wrong, we're also huge believers in keeping things simple and real. We avoid complicating things as much as we can, and just try and be really real in our business, putting one foot in front of the other. We started with graphic design work, moved to photography, and then progressed to full time videography - the goal was always to get into video, but we didn't have a massive plan or goal, we just started and took jobs that got us closer to where we wanted to be. We both 'donated' a bit of our savings to buy our first camera, and we just started doing projects. No fancy words like 'startup capital' were spoken when we started our business - don't get daunted by not having a plan, or all the knowledge or funds in the world, keep it real and use what you have to just start.

Do stuff for free, (or just cheap) to build a portfolio.

The only way you can get experience is from actually working with clients and creating videos (or whatever it is that you do/sell). The best way to do this is to start actually working with clients and creating video...simple! Find some cool friends who are doing cool stuff and need your help, and then help them. With a few projects and 'clients' under your belt you'll be much more confident in the service you're providing, how to go about each phase, you'll have some great content to show future clients, and you'll get some sweet shout outs on social media to start boosting your brand.

Our naivety was, and still is key.

We said yes to projects, then worked out what we'd got ourselves into, then put a plan in place to actually deliver - sounds romantic, it wasn't, but we learned a lot. We've been told recently that the video's we're producing are better quality than videos that teams of up to 10 people are working on together - maybe if we'd known this at the start, we'd have thought we'd need 10 people to complete those same projects, and may have turned them down because we thought we couldn't deliver. We've also taken on some seriously massive projects and committed to some deadlines that have seen us (well Dan...) pulling multiple all-nighters in a row to finish in time. The beauty of not really knowing what you're doing is that you just make stuff happen and take things one step at a time.

Pricing is always tricky - just start somewhere and go from there.

One of the main questions we get asked by people who want to start freelancing or working for themselves is "How much do I charge!?". Unfortunately there's no nice answer for this one, you really just have to start somewhere. If you're really just starting out, break the project down into how long it's going to take you, then work out an hourly rate, and build your price on that. Our motto in our first year of business was always, "Under price and over deliver", because we knew every project would teach us something, we were still building our portfolio and brand, and our main priority was not to make money while we were starting, it was to deliver our clients exceptional results.

Keep in playful (pun fully intended)

Starting a business is SO MUCH FUN! Yes there will be stressful times when you don't know exactly what to do, or you find yourself in a sticky situation, but these are totally outweighed by the insanely rewarding experiences. I've personally vowed never to lose sight of how lucky we are to be running our own business, and we quite regularly just take a half day to go adventuring to remind ourselves of the situation we've created for ourselves by starting our business. We've met so many of 'our' people in our clients, people who are also running their own businesses and are on the same wavelength, and we're constantly inspired by them! Have fun, don't take things too seriously, do great work, and be playful!

The best camera is the one you have on you all the time. And seriously, who goes anywhere without their phone these days!? iPhones are amazing tools for capturing photos and videos when you're on the go, anytime, anywhere. In an age when content is king in the world of social media, your phone is your secret weapon, and we're about to give you some ammo which will up-level your gram game! VSCO - Photo editing app

If you haven't yet downloaded VSCO onto your phone, please stop reading this right now and go and do so. VSCO is the easiest photo editing app, that's free, and allows a lot of editing options. There are millions of photo editing apps out there, and we've tried a bunch, but personally find VSCO is the easiest to navigate (as it's very similar to the Instagram editing layout), whilst being free, and it doesn't crush your image quality like many free photo apps do.

I've popped an example of an image I edited quickly, below. What was already a pretty nice image (since the space was beautiful), was enhanced nicely to make it warmer, more bold, and more luxurious.

ALSO, for the photo pro's out there who want to up their game, you can actually shoot photos and video in RAW mode in VSCO meaning you can play so much more with colour grading!

Portrait mode - a photo function in iPhone 7+, 8, 8+, and X.

What distinguishes professional images from amateur images is often the 'fuzziness' of the background of an image. Professional portraits only focus on the object in the foreground and 'blur' the background of the image which creates a focus point and really crisp image. WELL the magical people at Apple have built in a 'blurring' feature into the latest iphones, and it's called 'Portrait' mode (you can access it by swiping left when you're in your camera function).

Portrait mode basically places a fake blur on the background of an image, highlighting and putting the focus on the object in the foreground. Sounds simple but the results are pretty epic, taking an image from 'meh' to 'BAM'. See the example I've popped below, without the blurred background an clear focal point, this image is a bit messy since there's nothing to really focus the eye on, however when portrait mode was applied (and obviously I moved around the table a touch to the side) suddenly the images in the foreground really pop, and the background simply compliments that, rather than confusing it.

We really love these tools, and find they're super for capturing high quality, interesting social media content. We always encourage all our clients and friends to up-level their content creating abilities, whether it's learning to take better photos for social media, or to create quick social videos. Although we obviously take photos and create videos for clients, it's essential that you're able to create your own content to post so that you compliment the professional images and videos you have created because (1) it saves you money if you can make your own content, (2) you need to be able to create 'real time' content so you can capture relevant events in your business on a daily basis without waiting on a company to produce these for you! Get downloading and playing with some images :) We'd love to see your results, feel free to flick us a message on our Facbeook page or on Instagramto share!

I (Nicky) love social media almost as much as I love coffee, which really says all I need to say about that really because I'm addicted to coffee, so you get the idea. Now I know there will be a few rolled eyes in the hypothetical 'room' as you read that, but let me explain my reasons. Social media is a connection tool that links brands and businesses with each other and with their consumer. It allows people to have brand experiences before they've even stepped into a businesses store or purchased their products, which means it's a massive relationship building tool. Not to mention the fact that it's accessable to everyone, it's cheap, and it's creative! BUT I also get that a lot of you don't share the same addiction I have for social media, and might even feel like it's all a bit too hard, or that you don't have time for it. So I thought I'd create a bit of a user guideline with some tips for those people who really just aren't that fussed on social media, to still have a presence and utilise the tools of the social world. And hey, my sneaky hope is that in applying some of these easy tips, you might even learn to enjoy it, just a little bit... or maybe just hate it a little bit less. Here goes:

Work out what platform you're going to be on, and focus on that. We get it, there's too many social media platforms these days and various experts are telling us we have to be on ALL of them for various reasons, but I'm here to let you off the hook, and I'm asking you to pick ONE and do it well. Think about where your target audience are spending their time, do a little research into some stats on this (THIS article might help), and therefore decide which platform you're going to spend your time on. Easy - now all your efforts are going to be targeted towards this platform.

Get the basics right. Take 30 minutes to 'pull through' your current social media presence you already have. If your Facebook page is a bit out of date, update those 'about' sections, make sure your website link is there, get a fresh profile picture up. Aaaahhhh that feels better already, we've got a solid base to work with.

Start noticing the conversations you're having, and turn them into content. We get that it's hard to think about 'what' to post, but we're here to remind you that social media is social, and that it's a reflection of our lives and businesses, so you're probably already doing all the hard work around what to post, it's just about identifying the gold in there! Yep this is as simple as switching on the 'noticing' switch, and tuning into the conversations you're having with people about your business. Are there regular questions you're answering around your products, services, or industry in conversations or on email, that you could turn into a post. Are there tips you could share that would make people's lives easier, or could give information that could be useful to them? Are there specific events or milestones you're hitting with your business that you'd like to share, just like you'd tell your friends about? Write them down.Go to a cafe with your laptop, get a coffee and a slice, and set aside 2 hours to schedule your content. Coffee gets the ideas going, slice makes it feel like a special occasion, getting out of your house or office makes the creative juices flow and allows some perspective - and you've got the perfect environment to become a content creating and scheduling ninja. Take the ideas above, find photos that illustrate them, either from your camera, or from free photo sites if you really haven't got anything (check out Unsplash), pair them together (if you want to get fancy do some designing in Canva), write some words - and schedule those posts! Now you might think that your work is done, I'm sorry but there's ONE more step to this process. Reply. So many people forget that social media is social, if you start a conversation and someone engages with you, you don't just not answer their engagement or comment, so we have to also do this online! If you're not likely to be online much, set a little reminder in your phone for the days you've scheduled a post, and remember to jump back in to respond to anyone who's commented on your post. Be a human and really engage with them in your comment too, no wishy washy responses using only emojis. The goal is genuine human interaction. Do a little victory dance, because you're totally nailing this whole social thing!

Scheduling content is a great way to reduce the overwhelm, and to put a bit of structure around your social media. Knowing you've got scheduled posts going out means you can rest assured you've got some basics covered, which often leaves room for you to think of ideas and post them AS you think of them, knowing they're all 'bonus' posts, which feels great. Remember that consistency is key with this social world, so set a scheduling day each month to make sure you stay on track, or even shift it to weekly if you're wanting to step things up a bit with your posts - plus you get the coffee and slice treat more often so that's pretty win-win if you ask us. If you have any social questions, ask away, Nicky would be delighted to talk social media with you! Feel free to comment or flick us a message on our FB page.

We've made a couple of neat discoveries lately around the flow on effects of our videos, which have really fuelled our passion and made us proud of the work we're doing. We so often talk about storytelling, and have found a couple of trends from the work we've been doing with clients around their storytelling. We've found that our clients often look around at these amazing businesses that surround them, and think "they all have such amazing stories, where's mine?". We regularly have clients coming to us saying they want a video created, but don't think we will be able to make one as pretty as "*insert one of our clients videos here*" because their business is 'only small', 'isn't terribly exciting', or 'doesn't have the history others do'.

Truth is, we haven't yet found a client without a story, or with a boring story - we've discovered that their stories are just hiding! We've found that our clients stories are hiding underneath the layer of 'normal' that's surrounded them since they've been working IN their business for a while. We've realised it can be really hard to get perspective when you're sitting in your business because overtime we start to take things for granted, and with that our story hides away a bit. Then sprinkle in a touch of self doubt and suddenly people find it very hard to not only locate their story, but then to articulate it becomes almost impossible on their own.

We've been discovering and telling our clients stories through video for over a year now, and we've come to realise that so much of what we do is not only to tell the world about our clients story, but also to reflect their story back to them. Obviously our main motivation was to produce videos for our clients to use as external relationship building and sales tools, so the realisation that the videos we're creating also had a huge secondary purpose as internal communication tools was pretty neat!

We've seen clients absolutely flourish since receiving their video, not only because it's a powerful marketing tool for them, but also because it's a tool they use to find their motivation, inspiration, and to re-centre in their WHY of what they're doing. We've also absolutely loved seeing the reactions of employees when their companies video is released online; they can't WAIT to share the video to show their friends and family the work they're doing, and are so genuinely proud to do so.

We love that we're not only creating marketing tools, but are also giving our clients clarity around their story and their why in the process.

If you're anything like me, you'll open up your Facebook and be flooded with 1 million posts and ads on the latest marketing fad that 'sky rocketed' someones business, got them earning 6 figures, and that 'YOU TOO can employ'.

We're not into schemes and tactics here but we are into communications and marketing, and we're here to share some of our knowledge with you for free, with no strings attached. We can promise you this though: This isn't going to make you 6 figures overnight sorry. Straight up. But what it will do, is grow you an engaged, loyal audience, which will in turn help you to create a sustainable business.

Ready for the secret? YOU are your biggest marketing asset.

You: "Who me?"

Us: "Yes you!"

You: "Couldn't be"

Us: "Then WHO, stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" - okay we went a bit far with that (I hope people get the reference there or that will just be weird...)

Anyway - let's get to the point.

1) Most marketplaces these days are flooded; there's a product to suit most needs, and more than likely products at multiple price points to suit that need, targeting every possible demographic.

2) We are bombarded with millions of marketing messages on a daily basis; from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep we're being advertised to in one way or another.

3) Us humans are quickly catching on to the fact that not all these ads are really reflective of the product or service they advertise - case in point, who's seen an ad for a certain Warrant of Fitness testing station lately where the staff are happy as can be, dancing around and signing about being super helpful to get you and your car on the road - now compare to your latest experience with said vehicle testing station...was there singing and gleeful happiness in that experience... point made.

4) Starting a brand and business, and being your brand/businesses media outlet is now easier than ever with the availability of website building platforms and access to social media.

The four points above have lead to a super wonderful trend change in the marketing and communications space - instead of bright and flashy lights, humans want to see the REAL people behind a business. More and more people are leaning towards going local, trusting people rather than shiny brands, and are choosing to purchase from humans LIKE THEMSELVES. This is epic news for you my friend, because it means that YOU are your biggest marketing asset, and that your magic is in simply being yourself and communicating yourself to your audience! You: "Okay how do I do that exactly?"

Us: "By becoming more personal with your branding and marketing."

1) Showing the person behind your brand is a really great start - Maybe it's time to post that cute family photo you took on holiday recently and to introduce 'your gang' to your customers and followers. Chances are many of your customers also have families and will really relate to this content.

2) Telling your story and communicating your why. As you're competing for market space with a heap of other brands who are all shouting their product or services benefits from the rooftops to attract customers, rather than trying to yell louder than your competitors, try building stronger relationships with clients by appealing to them on a values based level. One of the best ways to do this is to tell your business story and talk about why you do what you do - chances are, in explaining who you are and what you stand for, your customers you want to attract are going to share some similarities and build some 'brand love'.

3) Doing the above on video is where the magic is at. Video provides so much more context than just words and photos on social media - and because of that, video is a very HONEST platform. We gather information from not only what people say, but how they say it, their accent, the way they speak, and even the gestures they use. This kind of information is unspoken and can only be 'seen' either in person or on video - this means you can create an emotional connection with your audience before even meeting them in person. More and more people are wanting to 'know' a business before doing business with them, and with video being so information rich, it really reduces the 'unknown'.

There you have it team - start utilising yourself in your branding and marketing, get honest with your content, and start building long lasting relationships with like-minded humans!

Businesses need to jump on the video bandwagon. Full stop. It's the way the internet is going, people are able to consume more information in a short video, it's more visually engaging and allows more context, Facebook and Instagram naturally push video content further, and when people are naturally time poor and are 'scrolling' Facebook multiple times a day, it's important to try and catch their attention!

And whilst you probably need us (wink wink) to create your story style videos that are suitable for website or advertising content, we ALWAYS encourage our clients and friends to up-skill to a level where you can make your own short social media videos that you can release on your businesses social channels to keep your followers engaged. The key to this is that you can create these videos quickly, think same day turn around, and therefore your content is relevant to viewers.

So we thought we'd give you a heads up on how to go about this - a few months ago we wrote a blog on capturing video, and now we're moving onto editing.

Are you ready team? Get those phones out and app stores ready!! Our #1 apps for creating snappy video content:

GoPro Quik - Hands down the easiest and quickest (name on point) app to use, which allows a bunch of editing options to create short, snappy, visually interesting videos. Download it, select some videos, and the app basically does the rest for you, adding effects and titles. Best of all it's free!

If you're short on video content and want to make promotional videos using still photos, try Ripl. This app allows you to select photos, a video theme or style, and add titles over the images to create a short video that's eye catching and has movement. Great for announcing a new blog/product/service etc in a visually interesting way.

And finally, iMovie. It comes installed on every apple product and although it sometimes takes a little getting used to, it allows you to do everything you need to in order to make great social media content.

Get downloading and give video making a go!

Videographer/Video editor extraordinaire

Contract role starting casual with the opportunity to grow quickly and develop into a more permanent contract.

Play Creative is a Waikato based videography company which helps it’s clients share their passions and stories with the rest of the world. You can stalk us at our website HERE.

Founded in late 2016, Play Creative has grown organically by word of mouth, and now has an epic group of clients on it’s books. We’ve been operating as a two-man band since we started, but have now grown too large to cope and hence are looking for an epic human to join us and make epic videos!

Basically we’re peeps who love our business, take immense pride in our jobs, love our flexibility and creativity, and love to have fun along the way. We’re after someone who shares our values above and who wants to join a young and passionate company who’s on the way up.

This role is hugely flexible – aside from meetings held at our favourite cafés (or on skype if you’re not in the Waikato), you’ll be working from home (or anywhere else you choose!) and will be in charge of managing your own time.

The role will be largely editing footage shot by us, however we often also require an additional shooter so we’re after someone who’s handy with a camera, who has a creative eye for a shot, and who’s a great communicator (so you can become BFF’s with our clients on shoots).

This role will start as a casual contract role on a project by project basis, but the right person has the opportunity to develop it into a more permanent contract. As we’re a small company who’s all about being flexible, we’re keen to work out your strengths and areas of interest so we can play to them and help you work on projects that suit you.

You must:

Be a Premier Pro ninjaHave attention to detail so intense that no badly timed shot change will get past youBe able to work independently and make executive decisionsWe don’t care if you work from bed in your pyjamas, we just care that your video is with us when you say it will be (but maybe dress for Skype calls and meeting…)Have experience making epic videos

If you’re feeling our vibe and are keen to apply, please send through a ‘one pager’ on why you’re an epic fit for this role and our team, your CV, and a few examples of your work (preferably uploaded to a google drive so you can just flick us the link).

team@playcreative.co.nz

The normal rules of business are to generally stay away from teaching your followers to do what you do, so they come to you to do it for them...but we don't really play that way! We love video, and we truly think that every business who has an online presence needs to be capitalising on the power of video online at the moment - so we thought we'd give you guys some tips so you can get started with utilising video for your business! Smartphones have totally revolutionised video in the sense that anyone who has a phone can now shoot, edit and produce their own videos, and in a super timely manner! Being able to make your own DIY videos means you can share relevant events and happenings right away, and give a very real look into the behind the scenes and happenings of your business. Utilising this very real, DIY video style compliments the use of professionally made videos, so we're encouraging our clients and friends to try out making some DIY videos.

Okay so let's get started!

The first step is to JUST START SHOOTING - grab that smartphone and get filming! Before we start, we'd suggest you do your filming in landscape mode.

Angles and perspective - The main mistake we see people making is that they only film WHAT is happening, and only film it from one wide angle. If your filming a specific action or happening, look at what different perspectives you could get of it, and what details are involved. For example, if you're filming two people having a conversation, film a couple of different wide angle shots, then you could get a close up of each persons face, and perhaps even a close up of one persons hands as they use gestures while they speak. That way when you piece the video together, you can tell more of a story with the different shots you get, which gives more perspective to the conversation as a whole and makes it a lot more visually interesting for the viewer which will keep them engaged (because that's the goal right!).

Movement - A really simple way to add interest to your video's is to add movement, and it's so easy! Even if the subject of your video isn't moving, you can add movement to add interest to the shot and to provide a varying perspective. If you're filming a stationary object for example, rotate around the object slowly or pan your iphone camera from side to side to create a smooth shot.

Slow motion - Most smartphone cameras have a slow motion setting which is perfect for keeping your shots interesting and engaging! It's pretty incredible the details you can show with slow motion, and these shots dispersed in with shots at normal speed will add a cinematic theme to your video. Play with slow motion and get creative in thinking about what you could show with slow motion - even basic, everyday activities can be made much more interesting in slow motion!! Next up is the editing process - in our next blog we will be talking editing tools and apps. If you have any specific questions at all - feel free to flick us a private message on our Facebook page or email us, and we will be happy to help out!

If you've got a sweet video made, or you've taken the time to make one yourself, you're going to want to do everything possible to give it the best go at succeeding on social media - with the Facebook and Instagram algorithm in place and having a huge effect on how well content does, there are some specific tricks you NEED to know if you're about to upload your video and send it out to the 'land of the socials'! The three tips below are relevant to everyone, they will have a significant impact on the reach of your content, and they're super easy to implement once you know about them:

ALWAYS post organically to Facebook or Instagram

Facebook and Instagram love fresh, shiny new content - to explain that further, if no one added new content to Facebook and Instagram the same content would just keep going in circles and users would get bored of it pretty quickly, so Facebook really wants you to post new STUFF. As a result, a video uploaded organically to Facebook rather than being uploaded to Youtube and then 'shared' to Facebook, is going to go 10x better. It's a no brainer. We see a LOT of people uploading the video to their Youtube channel and then sharing the link to their Facebook page - this means that people have to go to Youtube to watch the video (it doesn't bring up a preview on Facebook), Facebook wants you to stay on Facebook so it will naturally reduce the amount of reach your post gets.

If you want the video to be on your Youtube channel as well, upload it to Youtube, but then upload it to Facebook as well - it takes longer (we know upload time is a pain!) but it's well worth the additional reach.

Upload video's to Facebook from your computer, not your phone

Don't ask us why, but when you upload a video from your phone to Facebook (even if you go through the pages app) it always uploads in lower quality than if you upload from your computer. So it's worth the hassle of transferring the file to your computer (if you're on Macs and iphones the 'airdrop' option is super easy) and then uploading to Facebook from there.

Post all content on your business page and then share on your personal page

Often we see clients so excited about their new video or photos that they put them up on their personal accounts and then share to their business accounts - this unfortunately means that the content isn't being organically posted to your page, it's rather being shared, so it won't do well on your business account. Also, our personal profiles aren't as effected by the Facebook algorithm, so posts to your personal account will generally do well, even if they're shared posts, so you don't have to worry about getting a dismal amount of likes when you share content to your personal account from your business account.

Happy posting!

Everyone in the marketing world seems to be on about video at the moment, and we thought we'd jump in to help explain exactly why that is!

Simply put, video's secret weapon is it's 'content richness' - it has the ability to transport people to places, scenes and scenarios, and to make them feel like they're actually there, because of the amount of 'information' that it exposes it's viewers to. The imagery of shots, details that are focussed on, sounds used, pace at which shots change, music and music tempo, voice over and audio, and colour grading, all provide context for a message.

When done well, video does storytelling like no other platform does.

Video is also incredibly powerful at the moment because it's much more REAL than photos are - in a world where everyone is trying to stage the best Instagram selfie, people and brands can hide behind well curated content. However with video providing much more context, we get a much more 'real' version of the story which is refreshing and honest.

And the social platforms are LOVING video right now - Facebook especially WANTS it's users to create engaging video content, so it's actually pushing people's videos further and giving them more reach. Here's a fun, and rather shocking fact: Videos on Facebook receive, on average, 135% more reach than a Facebook photo. Need we say more?

There's a few really important things to note around the video world at the moment though:

Phone camera's these days can capture great video, and are making it much easier to share to social platforms which is a win for everyone - BUT - this does mean that online platforms are getting flooded with 'shaky selfie videos' and content that's not very creative or engaging. Online audiences are becoming much less tolerant of this kind of content and are getting pretty good at scrolling past video's that don't capture their attention within 3 seconds so you've got to get it right from the start to draw them in! We're a huge fan of businesses and clients creating DIY video's from their camera's and we think it really supplements the video's that we create for them, so we're going to be throwing some of our best DIY vid tips into a few upcoming blogs to help you up-level your skills in this area. In the meantime, grab your phone and get familiar with the video functions you've got available at your fingertips, and stay tuned for our upcoming blogs. And if you're after something more high quality that's going to take your business to the next level, or you just don't have the time to invest in learning to create some of your own videos, then hey, we're here to help you out with that too.

We're the kind of people who will stop mid-sentence to point out that there's a 'doggo' or 'pupper' nearby. It doesn't matter what breed, size or age it is, it will be admired, usually in a high pitched voice with reference to the terms 'cute', 'fluffy', or 'prettiest dog in the world'.

We've also been looking for a 'give back' project for a while, a cause we can jump on board with to put our skills to use and make a difference to the world. So when the 'Waikato Pound Pups' followed us on Instagram, Nicky pounced on her phone and got her stalk on quicker than ever.

One thing lead to another and the next day we were at the pound patting puppies...

We're so pleased to announce that we've partnered with the Waikato Pound Pups to help this super organisation find loving homes and families for the gorgeous dogs that come into their care.

So many dogs and puppies are surrendered to the pound for a variety of reasons, from owners no longer able to care for them, to living conditions that aren't suitable. The team at the Waikato Pound Pups take the dogs in, give them a warm and comfortable environment, treat medical conditions and give vaccinations, do behavioural tests, and finally put the word out to find loving new families for these pups.

All of these dogs have the biggest personalities, and we believe that we can help to capture and communicate these to the world by taking photos and videos to showcase these playful companions, to help them find their humans!

PLUS it means we get to play with adorable puppies on an ongoing basis - I'm pretty sure this is a serious win win for all parties!

There's nothing more playful than an excited puppy - Play Creative and Waikato Pound Pups, we think it's a perfect fit!

#adoptdontshop

p.s - Yes this little guy and his two brothers are up for adoption, does it get any cuter than this!?

A picture can tell a thousand words, we've all heard it before, and yet do we really UNDERSTAND the power of imagery?

In this flooded online market these days, visuals are what make customers and clients 'stop scrolling' or 'scanning' and inspire them to take notice of your posts - something we most certainly want!

When we're talking social media and imagery, it sounds a bit crazy but it's pretty much make or break. How come you ask?

WELL - Images (and video's) provide all important context for viewers, that your post content often doesn't implicitly state. A well composed, balanced, and crisp image communicates to the customer/viewer that you're serious about what you do, you're a brand focussed on quality, you have style and attention to detail - all without you having to state that yourself!

In fact your viewers will actually build a relationship with you based on these qualities portrayed through your imagery.

Likewise a low quality image has the opposite effect, causing distance between you and your customers, and downgrading the value of your product.

It sounds pretty cut throat but it's true - customers are expecting more and more online as technology improves and the social space becomes more and more crowded!

So you've basically got two options: 1) Learn how to use a camera like a pro so you can capture your own images, or 2) get a professional in for a photoshoot and build up a bank of images to post!

Both options are great. If you have the time to spend learning how to use a camera, and have access to a good camera then GO FOR IT! This will mean you'll be able to get fresh, new content, whenever you want! If you don't have the time or creativity, get a professional in to get the job done for you. Photoshoots are affordable as you can gain a bunch of social media images which you can then store and call on whenever you need them - a super investment.

Whatever option you choose, get posting some high res images on your social accounts today and see what a difference it makes!

Here's an image from our recent photoshoot with The Bikery Cafe who approached us wanting some images to spruce up their Instagram feed - great call team, and we had SO MUCH FUN on our shoot with them - I may or may not have had about 3 coffee's, someone had to drink them after we photographed them!

I'm pretty passionate about helping people build their businesses - there's nothing more rewarding than seeing someone turn their dream into a reality and being part of that journey with them.

I'm also hella passionate about communications and social media - so quite naturally I've been gravitating towards doing social media education, and have done a bunch of one on one sessions, and workshop style sessions lately which I'm loving!

The world of social media can be pretty intimidating for someone starting a business, with all the different channels that exist these days - often I find the clients that come to me are scared into a space of stuckness just because they're so overwhelmed. SO I always break it down to the most basic but most important level that we should all be focussing on.

I'm about to tell you the SECRET to social media, are you ready? Get your note taking devices poised!!

Social media is about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. In fact BUILDING BUSINESSES is about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, and social media is a TOOL to do this.

Let me explain - to get more business, the most powerful thing you can do is to HAVE MORE CONVERSATIONS with people about your business, and social media is a tool that allows us to dramatically boost the amount of conversations we have with people.

But the key words here are RELATIONSHIPS and CONVERSATIONS.

All too often I see businesses trying to use social media to, sell, sell, sell! If I met you in the street and you tried to sell to me straight away, I'd be pretty turned off by that and would probably have a pretty negative view of your company right? So why are you doing exactly that online?

The marketplace of social media is so flooded now and consumers/users are very careful with what pages they like and give their attention to as a result. If I stumble across a new page, I want to know what benefits I'm going to get from that page, and will decide whether to follow it based on the return I get for giving it attention. Therefore I'm looking to see if that company is 'like-minded' and is going to 'add value' to me in some way.

1) Talk to your followers like they're the people they are! Sometimes because we're sitting behind a screen it's easy to forget that all the likes and comments on your social media are actual PEOPLE who have their own lives, interests, passions and challenges - chat to them about this stuff!

2) Build relationships first - don't jump straight into 'sell' mode! People you've built long lasting relationships with will already want to buy your product/service to support you and it will be a much more positive and long lasting transaction than one they feel they've been forced to make.

3) Be a real human/brand and be relatable - it's the only way you'll stand out in the online marketplace these days!

Social media is WHERE IT'S AT for businesses these days, we all know that it's where businesses connect with and communicate with their target audiences on a daily basis, and it's only going growing! The biggest complaint we get from small businesses and individuals when we give talks or presentations on social media is, "But I never know what to post!?". So we thought we'd go ahead and give you a few tips and tricks in this area!!

First up, there are a few different types of posts you should be posting:

Information - Posts to keep people in the loop and to update people on upcoming events, sales, products, markets etc.

Entertaining - Those posts that are designed to reduce the 'distance' between you and your audience and to make you more relatable, they make you more human!

Educational - Adding value to your audience is SO important and it's something that businesses often don't capitalise on enough!

We're going to elaborate on the 'educational' type below: These days there are SO MANY organisations on social media that it's easy to get lost in the noise, and it's getting harder to convince customers that they should follow your business or brand in the first place. BUT the good news is that as businesses/athletes/or brands, there are a number of areas that we can add value to our audience to increase their 'brand love' for our organisation or brand and therefore increase the chances of wanting to realise our brand by purchasing a produce/service.

What are the things that you take for granted, that you could share with your followers and they could benefit from? The little tips and tricks you use each day, the 'insiders' look into you business/sport/industry?

Sometimes talking to someone who isn't in your industry, doesn't know your sport, or is a little behind you in your development, is the best way to dig down to find out these tips and tricks which you can use as educational content. Have a general chat and see what questions they ask and what areas they're interested in, then turn those areas into content!

Be helpful, add value, and your audience will have a reason to follow you, and will love you for it!

Okay so how do we go about doing this? We thought we'd share a few tips and tricks with you guys, our peeps, so help you on your way. So lets get started!

Your followers are going to want to know who you are and WHY they should follow you within the first few seconds of them finding your page, so you need to communicate this super clearly and efficiently. Even if you're not 100% sure just yet, find a way to confidently communicate what you do know to your audience (fake it till you make it right!?).

How do we do this you ask - here's a couple of tips:

1) Nail your 'about' section - on Facebook you've got the 'short description' and the 'long description'. The short description shows up on the right hand side of your page when someone is visiting your business page so it's what they see immediately - it needs to be concise and PUNCHY so they know who you are and what you do right off the bat. The Long description is what they'll see when they click on your 'about' page so this is where you can be a bit more wordy and descriptive because the people visiting here obviously want to know more about you.

2) Put a link to your website in your about section. Some business page types don't allow you to put your website link on your main page (in the little info section on the right hand side) so if this is the case, sneak it into your short description so people can see it straight away when they get to your page.

3) Pin a post to the top of the page wit a welcome note for new visitors! This is a great way to directly target people who are visiting your page for the first time - you might want to thank them for checking your page out, tell them what type of content you'll be posting, and some fun facts about you/your business so they know straight away what you're all about.

4) Be PERSONAL - you really want your brand voice to shine through in your about section so that your audience connects with you straight away. Use THEIR language so it hit's them right in the 'feels' and remember not to try and target everyone, just speak directly to those people within your target audience as you'll be far more effective that way.

A couple of months ago Dan and I sat down at Punnet cafe (one of the favourites!) and had a chat about where we wanted to go with Play Creative - the answer was that we both wanted to create more amazing video's with more amazing people! We both decided that it's time to level up and play bigger.

So naturally the next step was to invest in some new gear - much to Dan's excitement and my nervousness (spending a decent amount of money on stuff you know nothing about is much less fun than you think...)

So anyway, a couple of the purchases have arrived and we thought you might like to see our new additions to the team! We hope this might also be helpful research for anyone starting out in the video world, we highly rate these products!

#1 - The Gimbal | Zhiyun Crane

The Crane is a hand held stabiliser so we can get silky smooth shots of 'stuff on the move'. Dan is so excited about this one that he's pretty much followed people and things around non stop to test it out - it's mildly creepy but I totally agree that the resulting footage is pretty epic!

#2 - The B Camera | Sony 6500

This one I'm much more excited about because while this camera's official title is 'Our B Camera' it's fondly known as 'Nicky's Camera'. It's essentially the 'baby' version to our A camera, it's super compact, it has excellent photo quality, and great video quality as well. This will allow us to have two cameras at most shoots and will also allow us to get video and photos at the same time without the hassle of changing settings and lenses!

We're super pumped at these new additions, and have a few more goodies which are expected to arrive this week! Stay tuned...

Instagram is officially taking over...and we love it!!

The gram has been around for quite a while right and although it started off as an arty-farty, alty platform where people shared over edited photos of themselves, it's now carved it's way to being an essential in any business or influencers toolkit.

We're loving the gram at the moment, specifically for the Insta Stories feature that's become a hit recently. We were sceptical at first, don't get me wrong I thought that Instagram was just copying Snapchat and totally didn't understand why we would want to have the SAME feature on two platforms - but I can tell you that I'm well and truly converted now.

To give some context, Instagram Stories allow you to post a bunch of different photos and videos, that come together into one 'story' that lasts for 24 hours and then disappears. (If you go to instagram they're the circles at the top of the page).

To prevent this from being a full on, feature length fan-girl novel on Insta stories, I've picked a few reasons why you should love Instagram Stories as well, and bullet-pointed them below:

1) Its real time, and real life - on a platform that was dedicated to the best selfie takers and posers, Instagram Stories injects a sense of 'reality' back into the mix by allowing users to get a look into the real life lives of the brands they follow.

2) It only lasts for 24 hours so you can be more bold with your content! Unlike the rest of the content on the internet that lasts forever, Insta Stories only last for 24 hours which means what you put on there doesn't have to be your BEST stuff, it can be the stuff you don't want to make a public, permanent post about. That means we get more creative freedom to PLAY with content which we love!

3) You can include video, photos, boomerangs, emojis, stickers and scribbles into your story which makes it a lot of fun! The other super thing is that Instagram allows you to use all the photos and video's you've taken on your phone in the last 24 hours, which means you can go about your day getting snap happy on your camera, and then craft up your story from the content you've taken throughout the day - super handy!

4) You can TAG other people in your story and they'll get a notification that they've been mentioned, but even better, users can now click on that tag and follow it to that person/business which makes collaboration on Instagram much more achievable than ever before!

5) You can then EXPORT your story for the day into a nice little video file to use elsewhere like to post straight to Facebook - how cool is that!? **FAV FEATURE ALRET**

5) We all know about the old Facebook algorithm where if someone doesn't interact with your content they'll see less of it overtime - well Instagram has brought the same algorithm in (they're just a bit less 'cray cray' with it than Facebook). Instagram Stories however provide a super way of increasing your engagement with your audience as if someone watches your Insta story, it's classed as engagement on your content so it will help you build your following!

So there you have it team - the slightly condensed version of our fan-girl novel on Insta stories. Now we're setting a challenge to everyone out there to get a Insta story happening today - if you've never done one before then now's the time to start, and if you've had a play already but aren't too sure, get creating some fun and fresh content!!

And at the very least - head over and follow us on Instagram so you can see our stories!

If you want to find out more about Insta stories and HOW to do them, have a read here.

Okay straight up, where has the year gone!? It's April already!?

I worked out yesterday where the year has gone - it's gone into working with the 15 clients we've worked with already this year. 15 brand new clients, companies and inspirational people who we've done an assortment of graphic design, photography and videography projects for.

What a lot of you don't know, is that Dan is still studying FULL TIME at University, and Nicky has a communications role for an Australian company which takes between 25-35 hours a week. So yea, that's where the year has gone!

And just as the saying goes "time flies when you're having fun" - we've loved every second of it!!

Some BIG news from us:

When we origionally started Play, we began by doing graphic design work before we bought our beloved camera. Once we started producing videos we found that was our speciality and what we really loved doing so we switched our focus to videography, and as we'd got so busy we thought we'd have to drop the design aspect. What we found though, was that many of our video clients also needed graphic design work done as well, and we struggled to find someone to send them to to get this done. With Nicky's communication skills she could really work closely with them to work out what they needed, we then just needed someone to do the MAKING of the design work. So we're super excited to announce that we've found a sweet designer and are now offering in house graphic design services as well :)

We're also super excited to announce that we've brought on board an additional editor now that we're pretty much fully booked with projects. This will allow us to produce MORE amazing videos, and work with MORE inspirational clients to help them share their stories!

Here are a few fun facts on the work we've done so far:

Sports: BMX, Rowing, Show Jumping, Evening, Thoroughbred Racing, Dancing, Outdoor Education

Shoot locations: Melbourne, Whakatane, Karangahaki Gorge, The Mount (Tauranga), Katikati, Cambridge, Raglan

Thank you for following our journey so far - we're so excited about where Play Creative is heading and love that you're along for the ride with us!

Nicky and Dan

So you've got a business idea you want to get started on, or a brand you need to build (athletes I'm talking to you!), what next?! Well in todays day and age, you'll need a super online space to showcase what it is you do or make - que social media and a WEBSITE!

Now back in the days we'd have to get some web expert to code a website for us, which would sit there static forever, and we'd never really be able to change that - and that's hella expensive. Luckily for us these days there are much simpler and easier ways of creating a websites, in fact you can make one yourself from the comfort of your own home!

Now don't get us wrong, if you're trying to build a website with an extensive online shop, with a user interface or login system, or anything super technical like that, you may be better off going with a web expert who knows what they're doing. BUT if you simply need a space to showcase what you do, to tell the world who you are, and to blog about all your fav things...then building a website is a super option for you!

Often when we tell people they can build their own websites, we get some kind of "don't be silly, I wouldn't be able to do that" response in return - but trust us, you can, and we've got a great web building site which will make it nice and simple for you!

There are a bunch of free website building platforms out there, and all have their merits and disadvantages - but to create simple, eye catching, well designed websites, we use Wix.com.

Head over, sign up, choose a template, and get playing! Now here's the thing, when you want to add your own domain name (i.e www.playcreative.co.nz), you'll need to purchase that (around $20 per year approx) and you'll need to upgrade your Wix site to 'premium' to attach it to your site, which will cost you around $80 per year. This is totally worth it as it will also allow you to view your analytics for your site so you can see who's visiting and reading your stuff!

So there you have it - p.s YES our site is created on Wix, incase you were wondering!

Every good sportsperson (and builder!) knows you need the right tools and equipment for the job, and the same can be said for running businesses. Just like every athlete has their 'must haves' in their gym bag, we've got some 'gear' of our own which we can't do without!

We've developed a little collection of our fav tools and tips, and we thought there's no point in keeping them to ourselves, so let's share and care! So whether you run your own blog, personal brand, athlete brand, or full blow company - we know these will help you in some way or another.

Google Drive - this one isn't super glamorous but it's a huge key to our business!

So you know how getting photos from your phone to your computer, and vice versa can be a total pain? AND you know how when people are collaborating on a document it's a massive hassle to email it backwards and forwards to make changes? We do, and that's why we love Google Drive.

Google Drive is a cloud based storage app for documents, photos, and videos.

Within Google drive you can create folders like you would on your computer, and can share them with other people. The best part is that collaborators can make changes to documents and they're LIVE, which means you can see other people making changes!! This means you've always got the most up to date version of your document, in one place, and collaborating with other people on one document is seamless and easy.

The other super neat thing is that the Google Drive app means you can have access to those documents super easily, anytime, from your phone. It also allows you to transfer large files easily between phone and computer, or even to clients. We use drive to send all our photos and video's to clients and it makes life SUPER easy!

Read more here: https://www.google.com/drive/

Every good sportsperson (and builder!) knows you need the right tools and equipment for the job, and the same can be said for running businesses. Just like every athlete has their 'must haves' in their gym bag, we've got some 'gear' of our own which we can't do without!

We've developed a little collection of our fav tools and tips, and we thought there's no point in keeping them to ourselves, so let's share and care! So whether you run your own blog, personal brand, athlete brand, or full blow company - we know these will help you in some way or another.

First up we have a super little app which makes creating content for social media just so much easier! CANVA is an app which allows you to put text, shapes and objects on top of images, to create killer social content, and best of all you can use it for free!!

We love Canva because it allow you to choose a variety of different content dimensions so it's super easy to create content that's the right size for the platform you want to use. To explain a little further, content for Instagram vs Facebook differ in size for example, so it automatically sets you up with a template to suit the size you want to create.

Canva can be used on the computer, or as an app on your phone, and once you've had a little play with how everything works, it's super simple and easy to produce eye catching 'stuff' for social media.

So there you have it - add it to your repertoire of tools and have a play!

When fellow athlete and all round good human, Toby Cunliffe-Steel got in touch with us to talk about a project he was creating, we we're instantly thrown into a flurry of excitement and 'idea-having'!

We were even more excited once we'd met up with the wonderful Vera from Laszlo boats NZ to talk the project through. It was pretty clear right from the start that this was something special - Toby and Vera were clearly passionate about the project, and couldn't wait to show the world what they'd created.

Long story short: Combine a passionate and driven rower, with an innovative and totally game-changing boat production company, and then throw a local artist in the mix and actually physically give him the boat to 'do art' on... yep it's something totally left field, and we LOVE the result.

We love innovation, and can't get enough of businesses and people like this who are driven to change the norm and challenge the boundaries - it's right up our alley.

We feel incredibly humbled to have had the opportunity to tell this special story to the rest of the world, and we can report back that the world loved it... the video is currently at 175 shares!

Fun side note: Toby is actually the person we 'blame' for getting Dan and I together in the first place - long story short he was involved in a fundraising event and he invited Dan to be a part of it as well, and it just so happens that Nicky was helping out with the event organising!

Here's a little behind the scenes image from the shoot at 5am!! Head HERE to watch the video in full.

Meet ‘our child’, a.k.a our camera. Like any good parent we might be biased, but… how pretty is she?!

We made the investment back in September, purchasing this beauty off Ebay…after a few weeks of wondering if we’d been scammed, running through crazy scenario’s in our heads, and avoiding discussing all of the above with each other for fears that if we said it out loud our worst fears would come true… she ARRIVED!

For the peeps who know stuff about cameras:

Sony A7S II

For the peeps who don’t have a clue about cameras:

She looks little but rest assured she takes great photos and video’s

We’re at the start line and we’re so happy to be here!

Like any good game, there's been a lot of prep that has gone into getting Play Creative off the ground.

Play Creative started pretty organically really. If you haven’t already guessed yet, Dan and I are not only business partners, but we’re also partners in life too! Pretty early on in the relationship we would find ourselves having in-depth discussions on athlete communications and media, finding we had two unique but complimentary perspectives on the topic.

Dan comes from the athlete side, as a New Zealand High Performance BMX athlete. Dan was the New Zealand reserve for the London 2012 Olympics, and finished 10th at the 2013 BMX World Championships – so he’s been involved with high performance sport for some time. During his career he’s managed his own social media and communications, and has built up quite the following over the past few years. Dan’s passion for producing his own short video edits of his riding has lead him to study a Bachelor of Media and Creative Technologies at Waikato University, which he’s completing part time which allows him to continue competing.

I come from a strong sporting background as well, having competed to a high level in Equestrian Eventing, however my Bachelor of Communications degree and experience working within NZ sporting organisations gives a different perspective. I’ve worked as the Marketing manager for the Avantidrome in Cambridge, and then as the New Zealand Eventing Sport Manager. I LOVE communications, particularly social media, and have always fallen into an advisory role for our athlete friends, offering ideas on creative communications.

I always joke that I’m the only one who’s NOT an athlete, as I seem to always be surrounded by them! My sister (Samantha Felton) is a very successful Equestrian eventer, her partner (Brayden Lissington) is a hugely successful footsal player – such a power couple, I know! We also happen to live with 5 New Zealand Rowers, 3 of which attended the Rio Olympics. So yea, it’s safe to say we’re surrounded by sport 24/7!

We began doing little projects for friends and family, whether it be logos, videos or photos. We quickly realised we really enjoyed working together on these projects, and that our ability to understand where other small business/brand owners needs made us really good at what we did.

Then we made the biggest investment of our lives so far and bought a camera, a.k.a 'our child'.

So here we are… Starting our own creative agency! We’ve been working with a bunch of clients for the past few months so we put our own branding on the side line for a wee while, but we’ve got our act together and have made it to the launch.

We can’t wait to see how this all plays out. Stay tuned for our next move. (…see what we did there?)