Saying the same thing, every single intake
Moving into a new residence is exciting and, honestly, a little overwhelming, and for ADOWA Living the same thing happened every single intake: staff explaining the same move-in instructions, over and over, to every new resident. Rules, routines, where things are, how things work. It is essential information, and delivering it by hand at every intake is a poor use of everyone's day. What they needed was induction video production, filmed in Johannesburg and Pretoria, that could say it once, well, and keep saying it.
- The same move-in briefing repeated by staff every intake
- Essential rules that get ignored the moment they sound like a lecture
- Two residences, in two cities, that both needed the same treatment
Rules that need saying without a lecture
The tricky part of an induction video is tone. The information is basically a list of rules, and nobody watches a list of rules. So the job was to get the essentials across, what to do on move-in day, how the residence works, what is expected, without it feeling like a lecture a student switches off. Warm, clear, and short enough to actually watch, so the message lands instead of being skipped. Get the tone wrong and the video gets skipped, which is worse than a poster nobody reads.
Real students, not actors
The decision that made it work was casting. Instead of hiring actors, ThinkStory filmed the students who actually live at the residences. A real resident explaining move-in day is believable in a way an actor never is; new students trust someone who is clearly one of them. That authenticity is the whole reason it works. It also captured the genuine atmosphere of the place, so the video doubles as an honest look at what living there is actually like.
Ellis Park and Frederick Street
We made it for both residences, in both cities: Ellis Park in Johannesburg and Frederick Street in Pretoria. Each has its own energy, so each got its own video with its own real students, rather than one generic film stretched to cover both. Same idea, two places, two sets of faces a new resident might actually recognise in the corridor. Filming both also meant the two residences got matched films, so the brand felt consistent from one city to the next.
