We partnered with Lime Media and Entertainment 360 to capture a King’s Hawaiian activation at a Minnesota Vikings home game. The experiential marketing event served up giveaways, special guests…and a whole lot of sliders.
While the purpose of documenting this activation was to create quality consumer-facing brand content, we also wanted to show the very real fan reactions. To do this, we made a point to interact with attendees and immerse ourselves in the event experience to document as many planned moments as truly spontaneous ones.
So, what makes a good event video?
Standard event recap videos provide an archival and promotional asset for the brand, stakeholders, and/or clients. While this documents what happened, the goal should also be to capture how the event felt.
In experiential marketing, that feeling is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
For this project, our assignment was to capture all of that energy in a short social-first recap film. We needed to communicate the atmosphere, food, games, people, branding and scale of the activation quickly enough to work on social media while giving each stakeholder something valuable from the finished piece.
King's Hawaiian could use it as consumer-facing brand content, while Lime Media and Entertainment 360 could use the same work to showcase their experiential marketing capabilities to prospective clients and within the advertising and awards community.
When done right, event recaps drive tangible engagement and business outcomes for brands, agencies, and production teams alike. Creating genuine FOMO in an event recap video is no accident. In fact, it’s a deliberate production strategy.
Here’s ours:
1. Swap the passive B-roll for interactive storytelling
For this project, we wanted the camera to feel like another person at the tailgate. We immersed ourselves in the crowd, getting close with wide lenses and encouraging fans to interact. Attendees who are already having a great time often end up being fantastic at demonstrating that on-camera.
They looked directly into the lens, showed off jerseys, celebrated wins, cheered with friends and pushed food toward the camera. Instead of hiding the presence of the camera, we encouraged people to interact with it.
There’s one key rule of thumb for creating event recaps that give FOMO: Don't capture the event…join it.
2. Move like an attendee
During preproduction, we established that the final edit of this event activation recap would emulate the speed and visual expectations of social media, which is where having multiple shooters on set to guarantee coverage of different corners of the event simultaneously came in handy.
Our small-but-mighty crew used gimbals to travel through crowds, weave past custom displays, and capture interactions. FPV-style movement and unconventional angles create continuous forward momentum, producing footage that places the viewer inside the crowd.
This is important because experiential events are unpredictable. Some of the best moments might happen for only a few seconds. Utilizing two dedicated gimbal operators and one dedicated photographer guarantees full coverage of required marketing assets and also allows flexibility and ease for filming authentic fan interactions.
3. Weave the brand naturally into the fun
We continuously looked for King's Hawaiian branding throughout the environment and prioritized the product itself: sliders being prepared, served, picked up and eaten.
Even the color treatment supported the brand. The activation already contained King's Hawaiian's recognizable orange palette, so the grade emphasized the warmth and saturation of those colors and helped the entire piece feel connected to the visual identity of the brand.
The result was a film where the branding remained highly visible without sacrificing the spontaneity that made the event feel genuine.
Why this project was successful
The final deliverable was an energetic 60-second event recap video, optimized for social media distribution. We paired a montage editing style with intentional sound design and fully brand-aligned visuals.
We were able to provide King’s Hawaiian with a memorable social asset and Entertainment 360 and Lime Media with a portfolio asset for future client pitches and industry award submissions for their incredible work.
There are several elements of this project that communicate particularly well our team’s strengths for this kind of production:
We planned around both the experience and the marketing objectives, making sure we clearly understood the assets needed by King's Hawaiian, Entertainment 360 and Lime Media..
We staffed appropriately for a live environment. Two video operators and a photographer meant fleeting moments could be captured without sacrificing required coverage.
We knew when to direct and when to document. Some moments were intentionally created for the camera, while others were genuine reactions that our crew needed to recognize and capture immediately.
We integrated the King’s Hawaiian brand naturally throughout the visuals. Product, logos, the physical installation and King's Hawaiian's orange palette remained prominent without overwhelming the rest of the event content.
Our preproduction process allowed everyone involved to trust us. Even on a rapidly assembled project, getting everyone on the same page ahead of time meant the clients could concentrate on their own responsibilities instead of supervising our crew.
We delivered content that served multiple purposes. It worked as King's Hawaiian social content and also became a portfolio and promotional asset for the agencies that created the experience.
Ready to turn your next event into a FOMO-worthy video asset?
Creating a video that drives real business results requires strategic preproduction, crystal-clear creative direction, and a team you can trust.
Contact us today to explore how we can maximize the coverage of your next experiential activation or brand event.