New $2 million corporate video launched

March 13th, 2012

A new corporate video shot in multiple locations around the world to promote shipping giant Maersk’s global operations cost US$2 million (£1.28 million) to make, according to reports.

The 12-minute film, titled We Are Maersk, was narrated by award-winning British actor John Hurt and directed by Danish film director and screenwriter Christoffer Boe, whose gongs include winner of the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.

Intended as a video production for online audiences, the film has its own dedicated website and is being launched across social media channels including YouTube. It shows how high quality video production – albeit on a huge budget – can help boost a company's corporate image.

It was made in conjunction with 10 shorter films, one each for six business units and another four for separate corporate themes.

Shot in 40 cities across 20 countries, the main film gives viewers an insight into some of the work performed by the 108,000 people employed by the world's biggest container shipping line on its vessels and oil rigs, and in offices and factories in 140 countries.

In a bid to create a glossy, big screen-style update of the company's image, the production team travelled the globe, from shipping terminals in Vietnam and Nigeria to busy ports such as Shanghai and Rotterdam. The footage includes Qatar's sun-drenched oil fields and raging storms at offshore oil rigs on the North Sea.

The film also includes interviews with Maersk employees such as Vincent Clerc, a senior executive from Maersk Line, Nguyen Thi Minh, Ngoc, human resources manager at Cai Mep International Terminal in Vietnam, Ben Pomford, a senior toolpusher with Maersk Drilling, and Mariann Richterhausen, a Maersk Oil well site geologist.

“The basic principle is that people can trust us,” former group chairman Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller says to camera at the end of the film.