The North East Combined Authority needed Shine — the region’s free employer accreditation scheme — explained through practice rather than policy. Visual Punch produced five films, one per pillar of the accreditation, each fronted by a real employer talking about what that pillar meant in their business, from a small consultancy to Accenture. It ran cleaner than almost any project we’ve delivered, for one repeatable reason: the client was in the room while it was being filmed.
[Video placeholder — insert the five Shine accreditation films here]
Problem:
An accreditation scheme has a specific communication problem. The framework is written in the language of standards and criteria — fair, supportive, rewarding workplaces, assessed across five areas — and that language is accurate and completely inert. No employer reads a criteria list and thinks that’s us, we should apply. They need to hear it from someone who looks like them, in words that sound like a business rather than a policy document. The brief from the Combined Authority was precise: five videos, one per pillar, each featuring an employer talking about what that pillar meant for their business.
Solution:
Rather than five companies each vaguely praising the scheme, each film was built around a single clear argument, made by an employer with genuine standing to make it — a spread that ran from a small consultancy up to Accenture, so a business of any size could watch and see themselves in it. For each employer, Visual Punch captured the interview alongside footage of the business actually at work, because an accreditation about how people are treated day to day is better shown than described. Follow-up questions were asked on the day, off script, chasing what people actually said rather than sticking to a fixed list — and some of the strongest moments in the finished films came from exactly those unscripted answers.
Outcome:
Bringing the client to every shoot meant sign-off happened on the day, not after a cut was delivered — the usual cycle of a client discovering an interviewee didn’t say what they’d hoped, then requesting a re-edit the footage can’t support, never got the chance to start. It made this one of the smoothest projects Visual Punch has run. Five films went out, one per pillar, each fronted by a different employer, and the material that didn’t make the cut was handed back as standalone social videos rather than left unused on a drive. The films are public on the Shine website and across its social platforms, and further projects are already under discussion.
Delivered in 2026. One of the businesses featured in the series has since become a repeat Visual Punch client, with two projects booked since. Further conversations with Adele are ongoing, pending budget confirmation.
With thanks to Adele at the North East Combined Authority for her time on this project. A full quote will be added here once confirmed.
