To celebrate the impact that natural diamonds have on Botswana and its people, Fortune Brand Studio partnered with De Beers Group to create an uplifting video series highlighting athletes whose strength and resilience shine as brightly as diamonds.
Anchored in the story of Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, who won Botswana’s first-ever gold medal (200m sprint, 2024 Paris Olympics), the video series shone a spotlight on trailblazers whose success is intertwined with Botswana. We unearthed stories of how natural diamonds have played an integral role to the infrastructure investments in the 60-year-old republic, transforming the nation after colonial rule and creating opportunity—not just for athletes, but for the whole population. The series also draws parallels between a diamond’s journey and the athletes’ perseverance, dedication, and legacy.
We created three episodes of Talent Unearthed, three in-depth Q&As with each of the athletes, stunning original photography, a custom digital hub modeled after modern streaming platforms, exclusive highlights videos to enhance the series by showcasing how natural diamonds can fuel dreams, uplift communities, and create lasting impact in Botswana.
To tell this powerful story, we worked in deep partnership with De Beers Group teams in London and Botswana throughout the project, from initial concepting, all the way through the final launch to make sure our stories hit the right notes. We also partnered with ex-colleagues from Vice Media who now run the independent, Brooklyn-based film production company Duplex Deli (two weeks before the shoot they were acquired by Wavelength Productions, a company helmed by another ex-Vice Media colleague). This dream team was involved in concepting, directing, shooting, and editing the series, so we could guarantee delivery of the perfect mix of Fortune Brand Studio’s elite B2B storytelling and Vice-style documentary episodes.
Finally, we purposefully surpassed Botswana Government guidelines on the required number of local crew for video shoots, with a majority-local crew (thanks to Johnson Otlaadisa and New Look Studios, Gaborone). We ensured this series supported Botswana’s growing film production community and have stayed connected with them for future episodes and other projects.
Though the intended length of the episodes was three to four minutes per episode, per client demands, we wanted to tell rich, deep stories about the athletes, so we brought in family members, coaches, and friends to provide their perspectives. This gave us additional voices to discuss the positive impact that natural diamonds have had on Botswana over the generations (our athletes range from 14 to 29 years of age).
We filmed on location in Botswana across Gaborone and its suburbs, as well as in Maun on the Northern border where Letsile’s training camp takes place with many of the Botswana Olympic sprint teams. We wanted to show the diversity of the country, from the major capital city with bustling urban environments, to the small village of Maun. Decades of investment have transformed the country’s fortunes and while the busy urban environments thrive, we also wanted to showcase the impact of the free healthcare, schooling, and sports infrastructure across the entire country so that the world can take in modern Botswana: a proud, emerging African country that competes to win on the world’s stage.
Talent Unearthed video and written content outperformed all Fortune benchmarks for branded content, exceeding both average time spent and onsite engagement rate by between 2x to 4x. The trailer teaser launched on De Beers Group’s organic social handles was the company’s top performer ever, with an engagement rate of 18.9%.
The success of the trailer proved the deep impact these stories were going to have with both B2B & B2C audiences before the content had even launched. Since launch, individual posts across the team’s handles exceeded all expectations, with the post announcing launch reaching more than 2.8 million views.
To date, the series has been recognized by the Drum Awards, World Media Group Awards, Digiday Awards, and more.
