"I Guess You Just Had to Be There": Event Video as Sales Collateral for Danone

Snapshot Summary

We've all told a story that fell flat and ended with "I guess you just had to be there." The Danone sales team decided to capture the event instead, so they could show their clients why it was worth bringing to their university partners.

In order to create the most effective sales collateral possible, I was asked to join their Away From Home Division at Purdue University for the trial event and produce a video that they could leverage to jumpstart future opportunities.

Project Client

Danone North America | Away From Home Team

While the majority of this consumer packaged goods leader's teams focus on retail purchases, the Away From Home team operates like a B2B business, negotiating deals to move large volumes of product to K-12 Schools, Universities, Hospitality, Healthcare, Convenience Store, and Commercial Foodservice partners.

The Problem: Sales Support

When Danone's executive team contacted me in 2021, they were looking for a video production partner that would travel, understand the world of sales collateral, and be able to create a video showcasing the benefits of their event in an engaging way.

Soon enough bags were packed, equipment loaded, and the shoot was planned. I then hit the road and traveled from St. Louis to West Lafayette, Indiana to join their sales team and start production.

The Process

Unlike most sales collateral videos I'd done, this one was event-based, so I prioritized capturing the experience from the perspective of the end customer.

Think food, fun, and with friends.

This would "tee-up" future conversations between the sales team and their distribution partners located at other universities to discuss having the event in their network.

So I went to work. At the event, I interviewed students, worked with campus ambassadors, got footage of product and raffle prizes, altogether, if it would help deliver the message of an exciting environment for the university's interests, I got footage of it. I took the collection of footage back to the editing suite, created a sequence depicting the day and Danone's product, paired it with the client's requested music selection, and created a piece of collateral that their team loves passing around to partners.

The Results

This project was especially unique compared to my customary scopes because it gave me the chance to have fun producing a video with a mass consumer product, while the end result would be utilized within a B2B strategy.

The final cut of the video was first distributed throughout Danone's internal social platform, shining a light on their Away From Home team's efforts at the event. From there, the video made its way to food-buying partners across the country, setting up similar, campus-wide events to further Danone's customer activation campaign.

First published on the Davidson Ventures site, May 2025; lightly edited.