“Remaining Curious”
Dyson’s brand film stories tend to echo the attributes of the cutting-edge research it conducts, and those subsequent products it delivers to market: enthralling. 40 years on from fashioning a cyclonic vacuum prototype out of tape and cardboard at the kitchen table, James Dyson stands before the 2022 graduating class of his namesake Institute of Engineering and Technology exuding the kind of measured countenance that has perhaps become his most famous trademark of all.
Sleek, fly-on-the-wall style filmmaking takes us into the tiger’s den of innovation, as images of the students at study are overlaid onto audio of Sir Dyson’s congratulatory speech. It may be a mere one-minute montage of highlights, but it’s gripping. Years of academia are boiled down to give a sense of the commitment that goes into Dyson’s fostering of expertise which, in turn, has seen the company remain at the leading edge of U.K design and innovation for so many years.
Sir James highlights the meaningful successes, but he also heralds the uncertainties of a pandemic that created an opportunity to challenge and improve, such as the herculean effort of redesigning and producing thousands of ventilators for suffering COVID patients. So how does all this speak to those working in brand film?
Dyson’s videos regularly chart amongst some of our top performers, so doing your homework and viewing them all is recommended. This piece, for example, has garnered just under 700 LinkedIn reactions in a matter of days with thousands of views, likewise on YouTube. One key mechanism here is the filmmakers’ decision to artfully compress our time. The full speech takes around 10 minutes - I would urge you to watch the unedited version available on Dyson’s YouTube platform - but we learn more about Dyson’s brand values in this condensed iteration of just over a minute than other companies could achieve in 3. In other words, the creators are economic with their message by hitting the right beats and tone. It’s a time of celebration, yes, but also of doubling down toward real challenges.
Hopefully similar to the few hundred words written here, ‘Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology 2022 Graduation Celebration’ sets an historical scene, takes you through some obstacles, and then draws to a close with a statement of hope. Learn and remain curious, like brand film, “it’s an important part of our culture, it drives creativity”.
