I [heart] Basecamp customer videos May 23
9 comments Latest by JF
We recently went out and filmed some of our customers talking about why they love Basecamp and the positive impact it’s had on their businesses. It was really great to meet these fans in person and hear their eloquent descriptions of how Basecamp helps them get projects done.
The first group of video profiles:
- R.BIRD, a consulting firm with 25 years of experience in packaging design and branding.
- Atelier Weddings, planners of top-notch weddings in NYC.
- Elsewares, an online catalog of unique products from independent designers, artists, and entrepreneurs.
- TransactTools, the commercial technology arm of the New York Stock Exchange.
Why video?
Why did we decide to do these videos? Benefits over features. Tours and screenshots do a great job of explaining what Basecamp does but we wanted to do a better job of showing how it makes people’s lives better.
Video turned out to be a great way to do that. There’s nothing like seeing real people talking about how easy Basecamp is to use and how valuable it is to their businesses. These people talk about how they love Basecamp and we’re proud of that. (As Richard Bird commented to us, how often is the word love used when describing software?)
Btw, while we conducted the interviews, the videos were shot and edited excellently by our friends at Coudal Partners. Kudos to Coudal’s Steve Delahoyde for doing a great job on ‘em. Stay tuned for more of these clips in the future.
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Over 1 million people use 37signals' simple web-based software to collaborate on projects, track contacts, and organize their business with an intranet.
9 comments so far
Gayle Bird 23 May 07
Aside: I can’t express the consternation I feel at seeing “Richard Bird” in print at 37signals and around the web, it being my last name and my uncle’s entire name (and not at all common).
Great videos! I like your “benefits over features” reasoning – I find it so hard to switch focus like that, but you give me inspiration to try!
dave 23 May 07
Nice work by Coudal. The videos are really nicely done. Looking forward to a few more.
Richard Bird 23 May 07
Matt Linderman and Steve Delahoyde certainly do deserve recognition for a job very well done. It’s not easy to make these “little” video projects look and feel as smooth and cohesive as they are. In our case, there’s about three hours of their time on-site in our office setting things up and capturing content… all brought down to a perfectly simple, informative and entertaining little clip. Nice work.
Mike 23 May 07
Vastly superior to the pouting Apple video that featured 37s awhile back. Nice to see people smiling instead of brooding and not looking at the camera. Can I get a troll cap?
Kyle Cordes 24 May 07
Fantastic idea!
But Firefox crashes when I try to view them. Other QuickTime video generally works, so I don’t know why this doesn’t.
I suggest going the way of Google Video, YouTube, and many others: ditch the QuickTime, and use Flash Video.
Dave Greiner 24 May 07
Awesome idea guys, I agree communicating the benefits rather than the features is an important and tricky thing to master. The quality of the editing really finishes it off.
War-N 24 May 07
These videos nicely convey the whole tone of Basecamp (and all 37Signals apps) simplicity and transparency. Brilliant choice of music too … simple and fun.
Jeremy 24 May 07
For the love of all that is good and holy, flash video please! I’m on a fast internet connection, on an updated version of FFox, on a non-buggy XP machine, with an updated version of quicktime… and I can’t get through a darn video. Even after letting it fully cache.
JF 24 May 07
If someone wants to convert these to Flash please feel free and email them back to us. We’re happy to post Flash, but we don’t have the right software to do the conversion.
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