As COVID-19 cases mounted across the U.S., the chicken industry knew it needed to take even more measures to help keep its critical frontline workers healthy and safe. The National Chicken Council, whose member companies provide about 95% of the chicken products on America’s table, stepped in to communicate the enhanced safety protocols to American consumers, media and industry stakeholders.  

Ketchum was brought on to produce a video series that would “open the doors” to a chicken processing plant during lockdown and show the public the dramatic steps being taken to ensure the safety of industry workers and the nation’s chicken supply. 

There was just one challenge: how to capture footage safely from a distance without disrupting or compromising worker safety and production lines. Ketchum Studios solved a big problem by going small. They turned to tiny drones, outfitting them with high-resolution, waterproof cameras featuring germ-resistant covers to capture both close-ups and extreme wide-angle shots of plant employees at work.  

In the first two months, viewers watched the videos 152,000 times across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, resulting in 318,000 impressions. They’ve since been translated into Mandarin and other languages to show the safety of American chicken products.  

The case study is available on the Ketchum website.