CASE STUDY
Stump Cross Caverns:
Orchestrating a creative expedition
to humanise the balance sheet
Objective
To transform NatWest’s brand perception from an impersonal, traditional lender into a trusted partner for the UK’s most unique entrepreneurial spirits. By "unearthing" the human story behind a 250,000-year-old family legacy in the Yorkshire Dales, we aimed to reverse the trend of SMEs seeking funding outside major banks.
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My role in the team to establish the visual tone of the main narrative, and extract some somatic ressonance that reflected the clients wish shine a light on family and the local community of similar businesses
Art Directior
Creative x2
Copywriter
Still Photographer
Motion Video Director
Director of Photography
Editor
Producer
Gaffer
Role:
Art Direction, Creative
Client: NatWest Business Banking
Sector: Loans/SME’s
Deliverables:
Suite of Photography
The Challenge
NatWest faced a critical market reality: while SME lending was technically growing, repayments were outpacing new borrowing, and over 60% of SMEs were seeking funding outside major banks.
The Growth and Scale Realities: The business was not profitable five years ago on 20,000 visitors, but with NatWest's support, this has already grown footfall to 45,000, with a clear trajectory toward 70,000 annual visitors.
Interviews
We arranged a Zoom call with Stump Cross owner Oliver Bowerman to find an angle that allowed us to leverage the unique nature of the business, transmit the feeling of community and Yorkshire pride, to give the case study a distinctive tone of voice, given its great family-oriented origin story.
"The other banks didn’t understand our business. NatWest did…"
Conceptualisation:
Storyboard to Actualisation
We used text to Image AI to rapidly produce a series of storyboards, exploring potential narrative flows across all deliverables.
Once we established an agreed story arc, we retained a traditional rendering style to avoid the client being stuck or influenced by ‘detail’, allowing us to fine tune the story structure for the main video and supporting deliverables.
Visual Strategy
To give this business case study a visceral edge, my vision as Art Director was to transform the cave from a static backdrop into a lead character, employing a somatic visual narrative designed to trigger a subconscious response by leaning into its inherent drama and the primal trepidation of the unknown.
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This sensory layering allowed us to inject a raw ‘underdog spirit’ into the Bowerman family’s origin story, creating a sharp tonal contrast between the cold facts of finance and the intimate pulse of a multi-generational legacy.
COLOUR:
Opportunity to inject a thread of continuity and brand, presented itself with an existing use of purple lighting in a around the rainbow cave, in addition, we extended it where possible during both the video and still photography shoots for the carousel footage, to help tie the suit of assets even closer together.
Production Challenges
With a two day timeframe, there were a number of challenges we faced when it came to shooting in the caves, which meant that shooting the proposed scenes took longer than anticipated, which in turn had some effect on a number of creative decisions we had to make compromises with both motion and still photography.
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These constraints placed "great pressure on getting the planning phase right from the get-go," as the delicate nature of the site and its low level through-fares restricted the scope for traditional production flexibility.
Environmental fragility: The cave system is an active, 500,000-year-old environment containing delicate formations that are 20,000 to 30,000 years old. Crew size had to be strictly limited in specific areas.Environmental realities: Despite communications and online research, the reconnaissance visit revealed some practicalities that would undoubtedly affect speed in both film and static image setups during the tight 2 day schedule we had to shoot.
Technical Infrastructure: There is no electricity or natural light within the caverns. This necessitated the use of external generators and specialised lighting setup, which made decision-making critical due to finite power availability,
Scheduling and Public Access: The production had to be balanced against the site’s ongoing operations. For example, the Monday shoot coincided with the caverns being open to the public and a pre-booked school visit.
Communication Barriers: The subterranean setting meant there was no phone signal or Wi-Fi available during the shoot, complicating coordination for any crew members needing to communicate swiftly with the surface.
Outcomes
The Visionary Hero Film
2-plus minute case study film of the story of Stump Cross Caverns and the owners positive experience of securing a business loan and being in partnership wtih NatWest.
Consideration Socials
These 10-15 second reels focused on the emotional benefit of a partnership that "gets it". These assets act as a somatic bridge for the cautious entrepreneur—using the "Hook, Line, and Sinker" framework to steer the messaging with gdiverse, visuals and techniques. We did’t just show a loan; we wanted to show the key to preserving history.
Conversion Carousels
These carousels dismantle the intimidation of the loan process by framing it as a partnership. Every slide is designed to lower the barrier to entry—translating complex financial support into human-scale milestones. It’s not just a click; it’s a commitment to a legacy.
DREAM
LEGACY
CAVE MUM
Project Learnings
‘Its never too early to get to much information as possible…’
On the one hand, aligning with the SME owner during the research phase uncovered the "X-Factor"— such as the "Cave Mum" guerrilla marketing and the quirky origin story—that raw data and standard financial briefs would have missed, but to a larger extent, maybe some of the practical issues experienced on-site could have been avoided.
Be more surgical in our questioning during initial client meeting/s - ask, ask, ask…then ask again - maybe it was more on us not to ‘assume’ and to find out the more about the environment we where going to work in.
The Narrative Fulcrum: The project demonstrated that a business's most "unusual" aspects are often its greatest assets; by proving NatWest understood a 500,000-year-old legacy, we proved they could understand any business.
Be alert for serendipity - walking behind the Director of Photography and the Director of video and hearing their thoughts as we were walking through the tunnels had changed my plan approach for the days of shooting to being a more ‘hands-off’ as I saw how there thoughts enhanced the narrative seen in the storyboard.