Produce a "pilot" suite of three social videos that helps to increase Navy Federal's brand awareness with captivating, earnest, and sometimes playful content. In success, this project has the potential to become an ongoing monthly social engagement.
For over 90 years, Navy Federal Credit Union has been helping their members build financial security. Navy Federal has become the largest credit union in the United States, proudly serving the unique needs of their 13 million member-owners by always putting members first. They're still growing though, and always looking for new ways to drive brand awareness, educate their members, and bring in prospective members. With that in mind, Navy Federal is looking to partner with two social-savvy creators to produce two separate content suites, each with three different videos that tie into some key themes. These will be made for paid use on TikTok, IG Reels, and YouTube Shorts, and this project will serve as a pilot, so in success, there's potential for this to become an ongoing monthly engagement.
The goal of this project is to create short social content that increases Navy Federal's brand awareness, inspires financial wellness, informs people about basic eligibility requirements, or - every so often - simply entertains people. Navy Federal has broken out three loose themes that these videos should fall into, and you can find more information about the themes in in the Background. You'll see that the themes are not very prescriptive, so there's some openness and flexibility here, and although we'd like one video in your suite to correspond to each theme, exactly how you chose to do that is up to you.
In terms of format and execution, Navy Federal is open to live-action, animation, motion graphics, and even stop motion, and since the brand is looking for particularly savvy social content, "live-action" can include selfie-style content, testimonial content, and green-screen formats that blend some live action with other visuals. This can be lo-fi smartphone-shot content, or it can be more polished and professional. To give you a sense of how you might approach this, you might use dynamic kinetic text to share a quick financial tip, or you might cast talent and have them detail a current social media financial scam, or you might use crafty stop motion elements to bring to life their tagline - Our Members our the Mission - in an unexpected and earnest yet playful way. This is a great opportunity to use the themes provided as your prompt and then think creatively on how you can create some eye-catching videos promoting brand awareness around it visually. In the Background, you will find some inspiration in what other brands in the financial space are doing. It is not necessary for you to have a large team or extensive production capacities to execute this project.
At their heart, these videos are brand awareness pieces that will prompt some sort of emotion out of viewers - heartwarming, humorous, inspiring, motivating, enlightening etc. - and leaves them wanting to find out more about Navy Federal. They're not looking for overly elaborate "commercial" executions and while there will be paid media behind these, the brand does not want them to come off as generic, obvious advertisements. Your three concepts can all have similar approaches while the specific messaging will need to be different across themes. If casting live-action, the brand is open to reusing the same cast, locations, and even music. While VO and spoken dialogue are welcomed, they are not a mandatory. If, however, you use VO or any spoken dialogue captions will need to be burned into the final videos. Please consider how this might impact your visuals keeping the text safe zones for the respective social platforms in mind.
Should all go well in this pilot project, one team may be selected to move forward and create content on a monthly basis for a three month period. We anticipate this would be approximately 30 pieces of content (or about 10 per month) with a total budget of approximately $30,000. You can assume this would require three batched shoot windows (one for each month), and creative approaches and concepts would be developed in conjunction with your team, while still falling within one of the three themes provided. Please note that this quarterly opportunity is NOT guaranteed at this stage, but it's Navy Federal's intent is to establish an ongoing workstream for their social content moving forward.
Your pitch treatment should include at least THREE original concepts based off the themes provided and how you would execute these original concepts to fit into Navy Federal's style/voice. Navy Federal will then work with the greenlit filmmakers to hone these concepts. Feel free to include links to any existing TikTok videos (they don't have to be your own) that represent the style you'd be aiming for. Check out more information in the Background, and for any questions or other project updates, check out the Project Forum.
DELIVERABLES: There are 3 total video assets, per creator.
EXPECTED TIMELINE: HERE
RELEVANT ASSETS: HERE
EXPOSURE: We expect content will be used on the platforms below, but if casting talent, be sure they review our required Talent Release before they're cast, as it is NOT limited to these platforms. You should also review our Music providers in the Project Requirements, as well as the platform best practices.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
TONE/FEEL: Thoughtful, Earnest, Genuine, lighthearted, humorous but not overly silly, informative, inspiring.
EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES:
By participating in this project, creators acknowledge that the Sponsor is under no obligation to greenlight a submission. Though most projects do move forward, we'll notify you in the event the Sponsor decides not to fund any submissions via the Project Forum. Regardless of the result, all submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by the Sponsor and project team.
VIDEO THEMES: Below are the three overarching themes that the Navy Federal team wants these videos to focus on.
NAVY FEDERAL SOCIAL CHANNELS:
SAMMIE THE SEA OTTER:
FINANCIAL WELLNESS HUB:
HELPFUL REFERENCE VIDEOS THAT NAVY FEDERAL LIKES FOR INSPIRATION:
ABOUT NAVY FEDERAL: Navy Federal was founded during the Great Depression by seven Navy Department employees who wanted to help themselves and their co-workers reach their financial goals. They envisioned a credit union that would offer loans with affordable rates and manageable terms to its members. What started as a small group of Navy personnel with similar goals has now grown to include officers and enlisted men and women of all branches of the military, including veterans, Department of Defense employees, and their families.
In order to be considered, include the below materials in your submission. For examples of effective pitches, check out this gallery. All Pitches remain private, even after a Pitch is selected, and Tongal strives to have Pitch selections made by the end of the Evaluation period, but additional time may be required by the Sponsor, depending on any number of factors.
The most compelling pitch will be greenlit by the Sponsor, and the responsible creator will then receive an email from Tongal producers detailing next steps. All submitters will also receive an automated email notification that a selection has been announced. To ensure you’re receiving project updates, review your email settings to check that you haven’t unsubscribed.
Creators who’ve been selected will receive funding upon completing the Winner Affidavit and the IP Assignment. Payment of the pitch funds is subject to a payment schedule determined by Tongal, typically included with the project timeline.
PRE-PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS: Prior to the commencement of actual production, creators MUST receive final approval from the Sponsor on the elements below. There may be multiple rounds of feedback until an element is approved.
If you begin production before you have received final approval, you may need to reshoot or reanimate at your own expense.
For convenience, we've provided some helpful templates that you can consider using for pre-production materials, and they can all be accessed here.
BUILDING YOUR TEAM: Looking for help? Post crew and production opportunities connected to Tongal projects on Backlot. Backlot includes search tools to help you find collaborators and crew by role, skill set, location, and more, for productions of any size and type. Tongal also supports inclusivity in all productions, and strongly encourages you to hire diverse talent for your team. To find additional options for staff & crew in your area, check out these resources and partners.
REVISION REQUIREMENTS & RESOURCES: Once Content has been submitted and the initial Production Phase completed, greenlit creators will enter into Revisions. Creators will perform reasonable edits on their videos according to the Sponsor's feedback. Check out our Filmmaker Resource Portal to access helpful post-production resources like Text-Safe Guides for different platforms, Project File Organization Tutorial, Export Presets, and Captioning services.
MUSIC: If you use music from a library for your content, you MUST use one of Tongal's three music providers: Jingle Punks, Universal Production Music and Epidemic Sound. Music from these providers is available to registered Tongal members at no charge solely for their incorporation into submissions to this project, and will not require a Music Release Form. To learn more, click on any of the providers' names above.
If you choose to use original music, you must fill out and submit our Music Release Form. Please ensure your composer reviews and signs this form BEFORE beginning their work.
STOCK FOOTAGE: Tongal has partnered with the stock footage library STORYBLOCKS, which can be used to source video clips, photography, and After Effects templates for your video submission to this project. Video or photo content from Storyblocks is available at no charge, solely for incorporation into submissions on this project, and will not require a separate Release Form. If identifiable people or intellectual property appears in a video clip or photo, you may only utilize assets that are clearly marked “Model released: Yes” or “Property release: Yes” on the clip description pages. You may not use any audio.
If you intend to use Storyblocks, inform your Tongal producer, and an account will be created for you to access the library. Once assets are approved for delivery, you must provide a complete list of all Storyblocks content that you used via our template HERE.
ASSET DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS & RESOURCES: You must also provide all project files, editing sequences and a 1080p .mov master file, using a ProRes, Animation, or Uncompressed Codec in order to submit final payment. You are responsible for any costs associated with the hard drive and shipping. Tongal also reserves the right to request all raw files associated with the project.
To ensure a smoother delivery, please review the Export Presets, Specifications, and Project File Organization Tutorial in our Filmmaker Resource Portal.