5 Tips for Creating Beautiful Branded Travel Content

Tip #1: Like all great content, travel content is all about storytelling. Try to find a unique filter or angle to tell a story which hooks the audience from the get-go and provides a narrative to explore.

For example, when we created content for Visit California, our overarching theme was innovation. We looked for stories and contributors who were doing interesting and unusual things in this space and this led us to the first people in the world to grow a fully sustainable surfboard out of mushrooms. Telling their story meant we could profile beautiful locations around the Californian coast and capture great surfing action but also inspire audiences with a genuine narrative – could they pull it off? What were the pitfalls? And what inspired them to do this in the first place? We could also weave in an authentic sustainability angle, (which is often very important for clients) without ‘green washing’ or becoming overly didactic, which turns viewers off. 

In our series of films for the Egyptian Tourism Board, we wanted to breathe new life into ancient sites such as the Valley of the Kings. So we found a young, female Egyptian archaeologist to tell her personal story, about why she’s so passionate and inspired by the ancient tombs and what secrets they hold. Her narrative brings a fresh, unique perspective, particularly for younger, more diverse audiences.

Tip #2: The best travel formats invite the audience into an experience. One of our favourite travel films, ‘Dinner Parties of the Future’, has an innovation theme through the lens of food. We challenged a top-flight California chef to create a dinner party set 50 years in the future, considering things like climate change, sustainability, availability of ingredients, as well as food innovation and the element of surprise. 

The dinner party was hosted as a ‘live event’ which we captured on camera – giving us a unique narrative, as eight invited guests sampled the dishes and debated their origins. This film profiled stunning locations, as the chef went about gathering fresh ingredients from local suppliers, as well as beautiful food visuals, woven into a compelling story. 

One of our specialisms is being able to tell a story in different durations – this particular film was delivered as a longer 10-minute piece, then also in five minutes, three minutes, two minutes and one minute edits, for different platforms. However, all the films started by posing the same question, “What will we be eating in 50 years?” – giving the audience a clear and compelling reason to keep watching.

For our work on the huge global event, Expo 2020 Dubai, the challenge was to focus on specific themes to tell stories with proper depth and insight. One of the most compelling themes was architecture, so we profiled some of the most innovative buildings on site, speaking to the architects, designers and engineers to highlight what made them truly ground breaking. The brief was to deliver four stand-alone short films as well as an hour-long documentary. 

With the hour-long documentary, we also wanted to give the audience some jeopardy; so we focused on one of the most iconic and ambitious buildings on site – the Al Wasl Dome – telling the story of what happened when one of the major hydraulic jacks failed at a crucial moment in construction – and how it was remedied. This insight added some human drama into the storytelling which audiences appreciated. 

We chose to use a chronological storytelling approach to the documentary, meaning we could clearly signpost significant events – such as the pandemic hitting – and give a linear progression to how things progressed. The film took over two years to complete (mainly because of the pandemic) and it aired on Discovery Networks in the closing week of the Expo event. 

Tip #3: The images and sound must work incredibly hard. It’s impossible to encapsulate a whole country into a few minutes of film – but the aim is to try to bring a location to life from many different perspectives; epic aerial drone footage of stunning landscapes, mixed with texture and detail on the ground, as well as immersive POV shots and beautifully framed photography work well. 

The best travel films create an evocative tapestry of colour and sound, which often means capturing a lot of diverse footage. Audiences expect locations to look stunning – so we always try to shoot for the best possible lighting conditions, whether this be dawn or golden hour. Also, we never compromise on great quality sound recording – especially when recording dialogue on location in noisy or challenging environments. If the sound is poor quality, then even the best visuals in the world can’t save the film. 

Tip #4: Follow a theme. Usually, a series will follow a theme and may have a central contributor; when we created a travel series for the Korean Tourist Board, for example, the theme was photography. We followed photographer Alex Beer on a journey of discovery to capture three specific elements across three films – light, colour and people. 

For the film about light, we chose a single location – a beautiful ancient Korean temple – where the architecture had been designed to capture sunlight and shadows to create a unique visual interplay with the building. For the film about colour, we visited Gamcheon Cultural Village in Busan, where an entire slum area had been transformed by repainting all the buildings and bringing in street artists. For the film about people, we went to Jeju island, famous for elderly female free-divers, who created a compelling subject matter for portraits. In each of these locations, the back-drop was stunning travel visuals woven around a compelling central story. 

In our series for Visit California, we created a short-form strand called ‘California Dreamers’. Here, all the contributors were connected by a single theme – they were all pursuing their own personal ‘dream’ – often something outside of cultural norms. One stand-out contributor was Vera Mulyani, a Mars Architect, who uses the Californian Mojave desert as a ‘testing-ground’ for architecture on Mars.

In Abu Dhabi, we created a series of films about places that sum up the spirit of the city – none more so than the architecturally stunning Abu Dhabi Louvre. We wanted to inspire audiences by giving a voice to the people who work there, whose passion and expertise really shines through – a theme which ran through the whole series. 

Tip #5: It’s a marathon, not a race. Travel films require a lot of stamina. Not only because you’re probably shooting both very early in the morning and often late at night, but the sheer amount of footage and wealth of diverse locations means that the schedule can be really demanding. Plus, you have to be culturally aware, overcoming challenges with languages, currency, time zones, extreme heat or cold and food – as well as working with local crew members who you may have had little experience with. A lot of time you’re required to problem solve, as there are many moving elements which are beyond your control, so you have to be flexible, adaptable and make quick decisions on the ground. Filming with people in different languages is also an obvious challenge, as is filming with people for whom English isn’t their first language. 

But on the flip side, the obvious benefit is going to amazing locations and meeting inspirational people. Travel films allow you to really engage with a location in a unique way – from the inside – as you’re working with locals who have amazing local knowledge. This is such a privilege and is what makes travel films so unique and rewarding for directors and producers.