In a social landscape saturated with AI generated content and formulaic executive messaging, genuine human connection has become a strategic advantage. At Oliver Wyman, our clients invite us into their most consequential decisions — trust and relatability are essential to earning that privilege. Internally, colleagues look to leadership not only for direction but for authenticity, character, and accessibility.
Our goal with this piece was to make our CEO, Nick Studer, relatable and visible in a way that reinforces Oliver Wyman’s culture, values,and leadership style. When colleagues see a leader who is candid and grounded, it strengthens psychological safety, reinforces approachability, and deepens pride in the firm’s leadership. For clients and prospects, seeing the human behind the title builds confidence, reduce perceived distance, and strengthens the emotional foundation for collaboration.
The idea — revealing what’s in Nick’s backpack — offered a universally relatable lens. What we carry reveals who we are, what we prioritize, and how we navigate the world. By opening something so personal yet so ordinary, Nick communicated humility, curiosity, and humor — traits that define how he leads and how we serve clients.
We designed the video as a singletake, unscripted moment to preserve authenticity and allow Nick’s natural personality to surface. Our objective was to break away from traditional corporate content and create something people would watch because it felt honest — and because it made them feel closer to the person leading our firm.
The concept for this video originated organically within Nick’s communications team. Over months of informal conversations, one detail kept resurfacing: Nick’s backpack — endlessly spotted in hallways, meeting rooms, airports, and client offices. It had become a quiet curiosity. What exactly was inside? That persistent question sparked the creative idea.
Once aligned on the concept, our first challenge was persuading Nick to participate. He is humble by nature and was concerned the idea might feel selffocused. But after gentle persuasion — and an appeal to his playful side — he agreed, with one clear condition: the piece had to feel genuine. No scripts, no staged beats, no overly produced framing.
We then built a plan designed to support authenticity rather than polish. The communications and design teams mapped a loose narrative arc, designed a warm, accessible visual style, and identified light touchpoints to keep the flow natural. We committed to filming in a single take to preserve spontaneity and sincerity.
Although the tone was intentionally relaxed, production required precision. Camera placement, lens selection, pacing, and framing were thoughtfully designed to make viewers feel as though they were sitting directly with Nick — not consuming a corporate video, but sharing a conversation.
Postproduction posed one of the biggest challenges: editing a 12-minute one-take video into a concise LinkedIn-ready format without losing its charm. The team worked framebyframe to build a strong narrative arc while maintaining the heart, humor, and authenticity that made the raw footage special.
This piece stands apart in the professional services world, where CEOs rarely reveal personal stories in such an unguarded way. We intentionally broke from the conventions of B2B executive communication to create something unexpected, human, and memorable.
What began as a oneoff experiment ultimately established a new narrative style for both Nick and the Oliver Wyman brand — a storytelling platform grounded in openness, curiosity, and human connection.
The video outperformed every expectation and created impact well beyond the initial post.
On LinkedIn it immediately resonated. Within days it achieved an average watch time of over one minute, an exceptional result on a platform where typical video watch time ranges between 3 and 15 seconds. Two months later the video still maintained an average watch time of 55 seconds demonstrating sustained meaningful engagement.
Overall the video generated:
- 45000+ impressions
- 262+ hours of watch time
One of Nick’s topperforming posts of the year.
The impact extended well beyond metrics. The Financial Times proactively reached out to our PR team seeking CEO travel tips and ultimately published a feature — a direct outcome of the visibility and relatability this video created.
The format proved so compelling that we produced a second cut which delivered:
- A 30second average watch time
- 36+ additional hours of watch time
The creative approach was then repurposed successfully to announce our new parentcompany branding where it again performed strongly with a 28second average watch time.
Perhaps the most unexpected indicator of cultural relevance: a major luggage brand reached out to Nick with an offer for a promotional partnership. He declined but the moment demonstrated the influence and resonance the video had unlocked.
What started as a simple authentic moment evolved into a new storytelling platform for our CEO — and a powerful expression of Oliver Wyman’s brand.
