At Colectivo Creative Media, we love projects that serve a purpose and let us tell a unique story. When we had the chance to work with Little Guy’s Movers, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with a brand that is willing to take chances, use its voice to tell an interesting story, and just simply work with a cool company.

Through Swash Labs, a Denton-based ad agency, we were picked to help Little Guy’s Movers craft their latest video encouraging people to take part in their franchising program. Sounds boring on the surface, we know. What you may not know, is Little Guy’s and Swash Labs have a long history of fun, creative, and engaging video campaigns. We knew from the start that Little Guys Movers values a well-crafted and engaging video, over generic corporate video tropes.

About the Little Guys

Behind the scenes of our interview with Michael Smith, Owner of Little Guys Movers Waco. Images by Robert Guerra.

Contrary to what the name implies, there’s nothing little about Little Guys Movers. The company is in over a dozen different cities, operates on a large scale, and most importantly has the personality to back it up. The company has a strong culture that makes you feel like you could hang out and have a beer with anyone at the organization. Everyone is a joy to be around and genuinely wants the best for everyone around them. In preproduction for the project, we knew we had to capture this corporate culture in the final product. This is what separates Little Guys from everyone another franchise opportunity, you’re really going to have a good time being on the Little Guys’ team.

We planned to capture our main interview with the Little Guys Movers Waco owner, Michael Smith, and most of the b-roll in a single day. We’d conduct the interview and then follow the Little Guys around on what a typical day would look like at the Waco franchise. This included everything from folding furniture pads, driving around Waco, and most importantly, having a large team lunch at the local BBQ spot. It was evident from minute one, everyone really cares about one another here. After a full day of recording, we were on our way back to Denton to put it all together.

Images by Robert Guerra.

Every Little Guy is Unique

One aspect of our interview we didn’t plan for was the clear narrative about the freedom each franchise has about how to run its shop. Michael has a clear vision about what works for his establishment, how he likes to manage, and what really works for a Waco establishment. This was an aspect of the video we knew that we had to highlight and come back to. It needed to be clear, that if you were to open a Little Guys Movers franchise in your hometown, you’d have the ability to make your office unique to where you live and how you like to work.

For this reason, we also decided to have little nods to Waco in general, from Baylor to the unique suspension bridges. Little Guys Waco is uniquely Waco and Michael understands what it takes to run a store there. Little Guys corporate also allows the flexibility for him to do that.

Goal Achieved

Our goal was to make a video that nails a few objectives.

1. Engage the viewer to consider opening their own Little Guys Movers franchise

2. Represent the unique company culture, friendly faces, and customer-forward attitude that makes Little Guys special

3. Display the flexibility that Little Guys Movers Waco has to be uniquely Waco and uniquely their own

On all three accounts, I believe we accomplished what we aimed to do. In the end, Little Guys corporate were extremely happy with the final product. We hope to see many more franchises open up throughout Texas and the country, and hopefully, we’ll get to make a little video piece about them too.