Client: Océ Technologies (now Canon Production Printing) develops and manufactures high-tech printing products and workflow software for the commercial printing market. The product offering includes continuous-feed and cut-sheet printers for high-volume printing and publishing, and large-format printers for display graphics and CAE/GIS (Computer Aided Engineering/Geographic Information Systems) applications. Founded in Venlo, the Netherlands, in October 1877, Océ was acquired by Canon in 2010, and continued to develop and manufacture its printing products under the Océ brand until October 2019 when its name was changed to Canon Production Printing.
Challenges: Océ was introducing new software to the printing and copying marketplace. It needed a fun and creative way to deliver complex knowledge to the sales staff so they were prepared for the rollout. Océ also needed to keep costs as low as possible. xtraBrandwidth (as Amicus Business Communications) wrote, cast and produced ten short training podcasts that riffed on well-known radio formats (quiz shows, entertainment live casts, pundit shows, etc.). To keep costs low, xtraBrandwidth approached a college drama department to provide the radio voice work. xtraBrandwidth came up with the concept, wrote the scripts, cast the sessions, oversaw the recording and supervised the edits.
Results: The podcasts elicited an enthusiastic response from the salespeople and facilitated efficient transfer of knowledge.
“The results of the first podcast were outstanding. We have had so much positive feedback, it appears that this medium will really take off, with requests from the hardware guys to also do episodes. Great job, exceptional scripts and fun for the salespeople.”
– Steve Jarvis, International Business Development at Océ Technologies B.V.