ZEISS V8 with Paul Childerley

I planned, directed, filmed and edited a story-led V8 video and photo shoot with a UK hunting ambassador, giving ZEISS authentic local content for social media, a show banner and print advertising.

The need

Hunting audiences notice details. A non-native tree in the background, a landscape that doesn’t look British, or a riflescope designed for driven hunts that you’d rarely use in the UK: any of these tells a hunter the content wasn’t made for them, and they stop trusting it.

That was our problem. The material we had for the ZEISS V8 featured hunters from Germany and Sweden. It was good content, but when I talked to customers about it, it didn’t resonate with the UK market in the same way.

The V8 had also just launched, and we were hearing questions in the field about how the new generation differed from the previous model. We wanted to answer those quickly, in the UK, ahead of the British Shooting Show in February 2022.

My role

I owned the project end to end. I planned the shoot, directed it on the day, filmed the video and photography, and edited the final video myself. Paul Childerley, a UK-based ZEISS Hunting Ambassador, was the face of the content.

Key decisions

1. Choosing a recognised local face.
Paul has a strong presence in the UK hunting market and an existing relationship with ZEISS. A familiar, credible name in the industry does something a stock model or an imported hunter can’t: it tells the audience this is for them, from someone they already know.

2. Showing real work rather than a staged demo.
The video follows Paul managing deer numbers on his own land while using the V8. Hunting audiences enjoy story-driven content, and a real working day gave the product a natural setting. It also meant the scenery, the terrain and the practice were all authentically British.

3. Short-form video built around a clear hook.
The aim was to tell the market the key differences between the old and new generation V8 shortly after launch, so short-form was the right fit. The hook was the difference between the two models, told through Paul’s own opinions. He explains the main selling points and gives an honest view of the V8 compared with the previous model, rather than reading out a spec sheet.

4. Planning the shoot for more than one output.
I worked to a shot list based on the content we needed from the day, which kept us to our timings. The photography was planned with print in mind. I considered the ZEISS print advert template and left negative space in the images where headlines and other elements would sit, so the photos could go straight into layout.

The output

The video went out on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

The same shoot produced a set of photos that did a lot of work:

Local UK content for social media

A suspended banner for the ZEISS stand at the British Shooting Show in 2022

Print advertising inside a number of large UK hunting publications

One day of planned shooting became video, social, show and print content. Because the photography was framed for the banner and ad template from the start, the output needed little rework to fit each format.