University of Georgia Scales Its Brand Storytelling, Cutting Video Production Time from Weeks to a Single Day
We are using Lumen5 to take our complex research and innovation stories and make them into a more digestible format that can be enjoyed by someone just scrolling on social media.
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University of Georgia
The University of Georgia (UGA) is on a mission to tell its full story. Beyond its celebrated athletics, the institution is a hub of groundbreaking research, student-led innovation, and immense value to the state. The Division of Marketing and Communications is responsible for bringing these powerful brand stories to life, ensuring that audiences are aware of the world-class work happening across campus.
Corey O'Quinn, the Assistant Director for Video, and his three-person team were responsible for translating these complex topics into engaging content. They specialized in creating explainer videos—short, digestible assets designed to make high-level research accessible for a social media audience. However, the rising demand for short-form content created a production challenge.
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An Agile Mission Trapped in a Multi-Week Workflow
UGA’s ambition to share its stories faced a logistical hurdle as the demand for short-form video increased across the institution. Creating explainer videos was a time-consuming, manual process, built by hand in complex programs with complex motion graphics. The media communications team desired video assets to make media pitches more appealing to national outlets, but this manual process limited the video team's capacity.
"By the time we even got around to touching it, it was sometimes too late,” explains Corey O’Quinn.
Additionally, other campus communicators faced similar challenges. Individuals in decentralized departments often lacked the tools or expertise to produce content, leaving many stories untold.
A New Capability for On-Brand Video at Scale
To increase capacity and simplify workflows, UGA adopted Lumen5, a platform designed to facilitate video creation.
The first step was to ensure every video looked and felt like it came from the University of Georgia.
"Lumen5 actually built us a custom template that aligned with our brand guidelines—design, typeface, all that good stuff," Corey says, “Giving videos a consistent look and feel."
With these brand guardrails in place, UGA collaborated with Lumen5 to create a custom template that aligns with the brand guidelines. UGA communicators who previously had no ability to produce video could now get started quickly. "For the non-technical person in media comms, they've done an hour training session with our customer success manager, and they are off to the races," Corey notes.
Video is performing better on various platforms; it captures people's attention better, especially short-form video content that's 60 seconds or less. We've definitely been seeing an uptick in demand for that in our office and university-wide as a whole.
From Weeks to a Day Without Sacrificing Quality
Following a short training session, communicators across campus were able to produce videos faster, reducing turnaround time for explainer videos from weeks to a day.
"A video that would have taken roughly one to two weeks from start to finish is now taking us maybe a workday to get done in Lumen5."
- Corey O'Quinn, Assistant Director for Video
Just as importantly, this efficiency didn't come at the cost of quality. In fact, the team was able to maintain its high standards with the new, faster workflow. "In my office, we've been able to reduce production times and maintain engagement rates and view counts across our platforms," Corey states.
UGA began working with partners across campus departments previously inactive in video creation, such as the Office of Research Communications, who became active contributors."Some communicators wouldn’t even consider producing videos before due to lack of resources,” says O’Quinn. “Now they’re empowered to do it themselves.”
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1300% FasterFrom 2 weeks to 1 day1 HourTraining Time
KEY RESULTS
- Production Time Cut from 2 Weeks to 1 Day: Explainer videos that previously took a specialized team one to two weeks to create are now produced in a single workday.
- Increased Participation: Non-technical communicators across the university were enabled to create on-brand videos after just a one-hour training session.
- Increased Content Velocity Without Sacrificing Quality: UGA increased its output of short-form video across campus while maintaining the same engagement rates and view counts as the more time-intensive, manually produced videos.
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Expanding Storytelling Capacity
With greater access to tools and a more efficient process, the University of Georgia was able to increase consistent, effective, and engaging video content. The central video team can now focus on higher-level projects while colleagues across campus create timely, on-brand content.
"As an institution, we have increased the output of short-form content across all the different divisions that are using Lumen5," Corey states. "Communicators are enabled to tell their story in an effective way and with less effort."
Lumen5 really shines in its templatization and having everything at your fingertips at one time. It's a one-stop shop when you're trying to create a video, and that really saves a lot of time and energy.